So I will apologize another time about being so slack and where the heck the time has gone and why I haven’t posted in a long time eventually. But for now, I wanted to post the 1st in my experimental series in seeing how I do with each of the Heroes in the DC Comics Deck Building Game with a great Solo Variant from Casey Hughes over on BGG.com

So basically here is how the variant works

Choose you Hero (random or select your favorite) or 2 Heroes if you want to do a team-up.
Super Villian deck as normal
Board set up as normal, except turn the Weakness deck facedown as it will be used as the game timer. You could use a D20 or any other way to track the turns, but the deck just happened to be 20 cards so it worked out perfect.
Begin the Game

At the start of each of turn, flip over a Weakenss card. Play your turn as normal up until the point right after you draw 5 new cards. Then choose one card from the line up and destroy it. Refill the line-up. If the card is a Villian with an Attack treat it like the On Patrol variant where you suffer that Attack. Flip over a new Super Villian if needed, suffering their First Appearance – Attack like a normal game. Proceed until the entire Weakness deck has been turned over(20 turns) and total your score. Award yourself +5 points if you clear the entire Super Villian stack and +1 point for each remaining facedown Weakness (turns).

Notes about certain effects:

Any of your cards that need to reveal or discard a card from your foe’s hand or deck use the top card of the Main Deck as a substitute.

And another poster, LunarKnite, posted some good clarifications on how certain villains and super villains would work

BANE: Attack: Each foe chooses and discards a card.
Changes to Attack: Draw a card.

BIZARRO: At the end of the game, this card is worth 2 VP’s for each Weakness in your deck.
Changes to At the end of the game, this card is worth 2 VP’s for each Weakness left in the time limit.

HARLEY QUINN: Attack: Each foe puts a Punch or Vulnerability from his discard pile on top of his deck.
Changes to Attack: You may destroy a Punch or Vulnerability from your discard pile.

POISON IVY: Attack: Each foe discards the top card of his deck. If its cost is 1 or greater, that player gains a Weakness.
Changes to Attack: Reveal the top card of your deck. If its cost is 3 or greater, replace a Weakness to the time limit.*

SCARECROW: Attack: Each foe gains a Weakness.
Changes to Attack: Replace a Weakness to the time limit.*

STARRO: Attack: Each foe discards the top card of his deck. You may play each non-Location discarded this way this turn.
Changes to Attack: Reveal the top two cards of the main deck. You may play each non-Location revealed this way this turn.

SUICIDE SQUAD If you already played two other Suicide Squad cards this turn, each foe discards his hand.
Changes to If you already played two other Suicide Squad cards this turn, you may draw 5 cards. (Though it is possible to play four or more Suicide Squad cards to get the effect again, I don’t think it’s entirely likely, but you may want to put a limit on it.)

*What this would mean is you get to increase your turn limit by one, essentially.

As for certain Super-Villains, here’s what I thought of to make them fit a solo game.

CAPTAIN COLD: +2 Power, and an additional +1 Power for each foe with a Hero in his discard pile.
Changes to +2 Power, and an additonal +1 Power for each Hero in your discard pile.

THE JOKER: +2 Power and each foe chooses: He discards a random card, or you draw a card.
FIRST APPEARANCE-ATTACK: Each player puts a card from his hand into the discard pile of the player on his left. If the card you received has a cost of 1 or greater, put a Weakness on top of your deck.
Changes to +2 Power and you choose: You destroy two cards into your hand or discard pile or you draw two cards.
FIRST APPEARANCE-ATTACK: You must destroy a card in your hand. If the card you destroyed has a cost of 2 or less, put a Weakness on top of your deck.

BRAINIAC: Each foe reveals a random card from his hand. Play each revealed non-Location.
FIRST APPEARANCE-ATTACK: Each player chooses two cards from his hand and puts them on the table face down. Shuffle all of the chosen cards face down, then deal two back to each player at random.
Changes to Reveal the top card of your deck and the main deck. You may play each revealed non-Location.
FIRST APPEARANCE-ATTACK: You must choose two cards from your hand and take two cards from the Weakness pile. Shuffle the cards face down, then deal two back to yourself. The other two are destroyed.

I decided to do a few things different.

I wouldn’t take the weaknesses away from my 20 round limit. I want them all to be 20 rounds and that’s all no more no less. And b/c of this I won’t use Poison Ivy to add weaknesses back for more rounds. (I might just take her out of the deck period for the rest of the games).

And finally, I won’t job the system. Meaning if I get some unforseen wacky combo (which can happen when you get ALL the super villains in your deck) I will try and not job the whole game to get higher points.

Roll a 5 and Blue Beetle gone (that one hurt a bit really wanted him for protection)

I wanted to take a moment to extend a great big THANK YOU to Josh from Board Game Reviews by Josh. Josh is doing a monthly feature on Board Gaming Charities, and featured our charity and the 24 Hour Board Game Marathon for TSS in his October installment.

Please check out his site. He does some amazing work and I love his plethora of reviews!

As a reminder our 24 Hour Board Game Marathon to Benefit Turner Syndrome Society is set to take place on Sat Nov 10th 2012 at the Gamers Armory in Cary NC. Please check out Gamersforcures.com for all the great info on our event!

Also we have gotten some of our raffles to the printer and should have them this week.

This year’s BIG 5$ raffles will be for these prizes:

–Dan

The second of my awaited spring/summer releases I was waiting on is finally less then 3 weeks away. In a beautiful PAX scoop Massively got hands on and announced that Torchlight 2 will be here September 20th. Ahh just in time as I have weaned myself of f of Diablo 3. In the trailer/release video (below thanks to Massively for the scoop) you see all the classes and some of the action. It’s straight Diablo style as before with the same cartoony look as the first Torchlight.

This is all fine to me b/c I don’t care about style and, TBH, the change up in weight is what I really like about TL. If it was heavy and dark like Diablo I don’t think we would like it as much anyway. So hopefully the skill trees are awesome, the slotting dropped spells are great (like in TL) and the loot is plentiful. I suspect it will all be the same but just BETTER, so I am fairly certain I will be playing and trying to beat this again with all the available characters in the game (Like I did with the first TL and D3).

So set your alarms for Sept. 20th and make sure you take that Thursday and Friday off from work and have a nice 4 day weekend to take it all in! I know I am excited… how about you?

So before we got to recording we got to play some games at Adam O’s amazing nerd lair. (And boy is his collection a sight to see!)

When I arrived Chris was about finished teaching Adam The Great Heartland Hauling Co. so since I already had played it (At Gen Con), I was ready to step in.

It’s a fun light intro to pickup and deliver which you can play in about 15-30 mins. As always in it I finished in last but I do really enjoy the new game and think anyone should check it out (plug plug, it’s on kickstarter now!)

Then as Gyroplay arrived we got into a 4 player game of Divinare kind of a deduction game with some great screw your neighbor to it as you pass some cards around. It’s a simple enough concept. I will dumb it down and scrape off the theme to explain it quickly. There are 36 cards with 4 colors in the game. They are not even tho, as one color has 6 cards, one 8, one 10,and 12. You will take out 12 random cards and then deal each player 6 cards. Each color has an oval mat on the table which has the number track. It starts off at a lower number just above the minimum value (for example the green as in the picture has a 3/4) and then up to the max value (green 9/10).

(Image borrowed from BGG.com)

The first thing you will do is pick three cards from your hand and pass them to the right. So now you have seen essentially 9 cards to start the game. For the first 2 rounds you will take turns placing one of your cards next to the color wheel matching the color of the card. You then must take one of your tokens and put it on the oval score track of that color. You basically are trying to deduce what number of cards of that color will be played by the end of the round. The trick is this. Each time you place a card you HAVE TO move your token to a different number and you cannot be on the same number as an opponent. SO, there is a ton of room to screw your neighbor and planning is key.

A second twist is, at 4 cards left you pass two to the right, and at 2 cards left you pass 1 to the right. So you will have seen a ton of cards and will jockey for position constantly. Scoring is where things get a little easier. When all the cards are played, you look at where everyone is. If you were right on with your “guess”, you score 3 points. One away, 1 point, 2 away no points, and if you were 3 or more minus 1 point. If you happened to guess where there is a red dot all scoring is doubled. A red dot with a hole in it, tripled! So you can go for it all and win or lose big with gutsy guesses.

Check it out if you have the opportunity, we had a great time playing and also it was a lot better then I expected. I have to say, you can pretty much take almost any game and when you put it with our group we will turn it into a heckling screw your neighbor curse fest. Which is a GOOD thing. Simply a blast to be able to laugh and have a good time with a game that I wasn’t sure I would like but we had a good time after all. And as always I finished in last. This time tho, I knew it was quite the possibility. Not b/c I suck (prolly true also), but b/c I was going quite all in with my turns and taking some huge risks, which generally never payed off. Adam walked away with the narrow victory over Chris.

Finally Red showed his mug and we got into a nice meaty 5 player game of The Pillars of the Earth with the expansion. It’s simply one of my favorite games out there. Long and meaty worker placement goodness! (I won’t go into all the rules for this one b/c it would take entirely too long)

Chris was the only one who had never played it and IIRC Gyroplay had only played it without the expansion. BUT, it was easily explained and we were off and running. As it always seems to be Red’s master workers were picked out the bag first (or 2nd) in EVERY ROUND, which seems to be quite the theme for that game. Gyroplay had a nice size lead for nearly the whole game but a 17 point last round by Adam and 16 by myself pushed us over the top, and Adam (as usual) gets the win. I managed 2nd by 2 or 3 points (I think), but it was real close by all of us, and I think everyone had a great time.

I love podcasting 100% but TBH this was a day that I liked. Long day of gaming and ALSO getting in a podcast on top of it.

What’s some of your recent plays?

As the finishing packing for my trip to Gen Con this week has gotten a little boring I decided to stop for a few mins and get up part two of my LoL NOOBS Diary. Hope you enjoy!

So as we heard in the last episode of The Geek Allstars, my mentor Josh Augustine, has chosen Singed, and Twisted Fate for me to use exclusively for the next few months. He has also given me a bunch of pointers in game play and also told me how to allocate my rune slots in the player set up.

Singed is an alchemist themed Champion (good for a pharmacist huh?). He’s a  tank-y type who does AOE poison damage per second, can slow opponents, has an ability which can toss someone over his shoulder (perfect for throwing a hurt champ back into your friends or behind a turret to be shot down), and a buff ultimate ability which pumps up everything he does (attack, run, defend etc).

Twisted Fate is themed directly off of X-Men’s Gambit (He even looks like the Gambit as he looked in the first Wolverine movie. He throws cards for damage, throws random better cards for damage, has a big passive buff you can level, and his ultimate ability is a gate to any far off portion of the map. In Summoners Rift it can cross roughly 1/2 of the map or so. In some others (Dominion) he can go just about anywhere on the map.

For the first few days I hadn’t had much time to read a bunch of write ups on these champs so I was basically wining it on my own wiles. I have been slowly picking the hang of lanes up a bit and have been more effective at leveling. Yet my main problems remain that I am consistently a few levels behind everyone in the matches and also fairly clueless at what items to buy.

I figure the leveling could be some b/c of both getting killed way too much and also spending time trying to figure out what to buy in the in game shop. So I have reverted a bit more as I play to what the mentor has said, “just focus for now on buying the recommended items”. Seems like a good idea, I never really thought it was that important to listen to them but hey they are the game designers so I am sure they know what they are talking about. Now I focus a ton more on picking a couple of helpful items up early and some consumables and then focus on one BIG item to work towards after this. But more on items a bit later.

So I ventured forth on my first few games with Singed. I liked the idea of being able to throw other champs over my shoulder into my turret or more importantly my teammate to land the killing blows. I think this, paired with my play-style will mean more assists then kills, but hey I just want to see if I can get some kills and see more people on the other team die and not me. My first few games were as usual, 5v5 vs beginner bots. Getting the hang of his aoe on movement and the slow wasn’t easy at first and I admittedly died a few more times then I prolly should have, and for that I took a TON of abuse from a human player on my team. I explained that it was the 1st time I have played Singed and I was trying to get the hang of him. I didn’t get any “oh sorry” from him but he did shut up for the rest of the match so it was a win win in a way. I started to get the hang of him a bit more and soon it was time to quit for the night. More iP earned and another Level achieved in game. I was feeling like I was progressing so this is a good thing.

The next day before playing I was able to peruse some forums and guides on Singed. There wasn’t a whole lot that was novel or real new BUT I did get a bit more of purchase order and some play tips. That night I met up with a couple of the regular guys in my 10 man playgroup and a ton of progress was had. See IMO Singed can shine early and level quick with his AOE poison that he puts down as he runs (ability 1). My matches I played with strangers I was lagging behind b/c all 3 of them I ended up with strangers with me on the lane and they were kill stealing like mad. This hurt my leveling and money quite a bit. Tonight, I was on teamspeak (TS) with Alan, quite a vet LoL in our group, and was able to co-ordinate much much better. We took a lane together leveled well and I was able to utilize the toss back and slow to near perfection. We were quite the force in the land and pushed easy, taking out turret after turret. It was a very successful night and I now found out how much I am starting to love this game. Not only did I learn the value of co-ordination over TS but also how much fun teamwork is in this game.

Now it was time to hit up playing Twisted Fate vs bots, so I could get used to his abilities and strengths and weaknesses. Josh had mentioned how he’s got some great attacks and the ultimate ability to teleport  nearly 1/2 way across the map. In addition to this you reveal the location of everyone on the map. Both can come in quite handy in a tense 5v5 SR match. Another big thing to learn how to do is to time the “random” card select ability to get it to be the stun attack.

My first couple of bot matches are a disaster as always for me. Well by disaster I don’t mean I died a ton, but with TF I mean I didn’t manage to contribute much of anything. Sure I was killing some minions in the lane but I just was not able to make any headway at all vs other champs. It just felt like throwing chopsticks instead of knives in battle. I was going to need more practice with TF to be effective.

Lastly for this entry today I will talk about the next weekly meet up with my group. We had a fairly full group this night, so we were able to get in some 5v5 with it being all of our group. Alas, I am still a punching bag in the group. I am starting to realize the other team is regularly targeting me and feeding on me to get money and levels quick. My team sometimes pair me with the perfect match or best player but sometimes just use the other teams salivating to make progress elsewhere. I end up with a 2-2 record on the night but little of it is because of me. I even get moved around a bit in one match, and I can hear the frustration in the one guys voice when talking to me. He even tells me how bad Singed and TF are to play b/c neither does anything particularly well. It seems he must be tired of babysitting me and doesn’t want to try teamwork, which worked REAL well with me and Alan, and just wants the kills. I am sure my day will come tho, as I level more and as I figure out better and better strategies.

One thing I am starting to learn is that a bunch of people out there, and even to a decent degree in my group, don’t care about winning the match. Nope they care more about kills of other players in the match, and winning is secondary. Not me. I want the win first and the kill count second. Sure, I would love to see 2 and 3x the amount of kills plus assists to death ratio on my guy. But to me Ill take a 2-4-7 with a win any day of the week.

How about you? Do you want to win the match or would you take a loss every time if you got 10 kills? Send me your thoughts or comment here.

GeekJock

–Next time: I get some play time with Josh in game and start to have more success. Also, my first DOMINION matches. How will Singed do in there?

There has been hype of all kinds the last few years in PC Gaming. I have embraced some of it (See SWTOR, Skyrim, Arkham City), and have avoided others (League of Legends, Minecraft, Dungeons of Dreadmore). LoL is the perfect example of one that I have not entirely avoided on purpose. Although I am not really a huge PvP gamer in arena-type matches, I do LOVE being able to play games in a team vs bots (AI controlled opponents).

Recently a buddy of mine John had mentioned that his regular online gaming group was switching from Dawn of War over to LoL for now and had invited me to join them. Since I am a gamer and love co-op stuff I figured a group of 5-10 was a decent enough way to play a new game. The group uses team speak (TS) so playing a game like this with new friends and not having to go up against “ringers” all the time was definitely the way I wanted to learn the game.

Now, when I get into a new game, especially online games such as any MMO or here, LoL, I tend to dive in head first into the game. I read all sorts of blogs, tips, hints, forums etc. after I play a bit. Then it was a time that I still knew nothing about the game so forums would do me little. The terminology would mean nothing and the myriad of Champions would be names I would have 0 idea what they meant. So I DL the game and did some of the initial tutorial type stuff. Right away I wasn’t too happy with the game play. My PvP typically is of the FPS variety or MMO variety. Out smart someone with terrain and powers and think your way with maneuvers to victory in little skirmishes. Sure LoL has quite the depth of strategy but right away in tutorials I noticed it’s WAY too much running away and trickery to stay alive for my taste. I would often have some AI bots down to a sliver only to have them run somewhere and get away, or find a way to get to a super turret before me and I would be mince meat before being able to kill anyone. It was frustrating as all hell, and I hadn’t even gotten out of the tutorial. I grew tired of the voice from above saying “STAY BEHIND YOUR MINIONS!”. Well the extra time i had to learn was over, and it was now time to play against the living on my 1st night.

So I met the guys and they were all real nice guys, and all knew each other for years and were ALL way ahead of me in the game already. The game uses both a leveling outside of it from 1-30 and an in match leveling which is all part of the game play. I have NEVER really been a huge fan of any game where a leveled up player has a huge advantage in game play. Sure I have no problem with them having an advantage of putting in the extra time, but in some games (Call of Duty I think is another in online matches) it just equals being able to stay alive after 5 shots to the head and then one shotting the lesser guy easy. Not my cup of tea. I would rather see a way to up level a player in matches to the avg levels and then have a way that the other players could have their slight advantage but not an overpowering one. BUT alas I am playing LoL and so I will have to just deal with it.

Right away when playing the guys I was getting just slaughtered all over the place. It was still my not knowing the different heroes I was playing and also not knowing the tactics. I picked things up gradually over the first night but a player kill by me was few and far between. As with the bots the most mind-numbingly frustrating thing was having a player on the ropes with less then 100 HPs and chasing him (being at full myself) and having no way to finish him off. Then he turns around and somehow manages to take out my WHOLE life pool before I could even get that last kill. And thus I was to the edge of my rope and I had had it with this damn game. Luckily that was the last full 5v5 match we had with all players of the night. I had played 3 or 4 with them and I was just tired of getting 2 kills (if any) 16 deaths and 4 assists in each. Win or lose on the match it’s frustrating. Luckily as well, we had 4 other guys willing to play more so we got in some 5v5 vs beginner bots matches in. Those 2 games playing with a consistent champion was MUCH better. I felt a sense of teamwork and teaching and the wins meant more to me. I CONTRIBUTED to the greater good.

Over the next few days I thought about my experiences playing LoL and I wasn’t so discouraged by it all as I had been the 1st night. SO I went back on by myself and played some 5v5 vs bots with other players. This went well some matches and not so well others. I had used Heimerdinger with some good success the last few games the previous night so I thought support would be decent for me, but alas it was a new week so some NEW champions were free instead of the previous week’s roster of freebies. This night I tried out another support champ, LuLu. While I liked her as a whole, playing in a random PuG (Pick up Group) of 5v5 was hard. Normally with friends on TS you can co-ordinate and I could have a regular partner stay with me to buff up with her abilities. In this match it just wasn’t happening. People had their own things going on and sticking with one guy was impossible. My next match I would finally find a champion for me. Malphite. I took the big stone brute b/c the previous match I was tired of the bot killing me a ton with a Malphite/Annie combo in my lane. I also figured even if people left me alone I could hold my own vs beginner bots.

In those last 2 matches of my solo night playing I did just that. I was actually holding my own! I was 2nd on the kill list once and even had a very small (<2) number of deaths. While I honestly didn’t feel “confident” I felt like I was making progress in learning the gorilla warfare tactics of the game and coming to terms with them.

But Like I mentioned, there was still SOMETHING missing. I figured I needed someone to point me in the right direction. One big thing that was missing in my game was knowing what gear to buy in game and then also buying runes for these empty slots. I know enough about mastery trees from my MMO days but I needed some help with picking them as well. I decided to see if a buddy of mine was up to the task of mentoring me, and helping me pick out one or two Champions I will stick with on a real consistent basis when I play for the next 2 months or so. This buddy was former PC Gamer Associate Editor Josh Augustine. I had been reading about LoL in PCG for the time it’s been out and Josh was a LoL vet. Ever since we had him on our show, The Geek Allstars, on episode 6 (where he also gave us some tips to play LoL) I had kept in touch and spoke a bunch on twitter. So I hit him up and asked him if he was up for the challenge of turning the GeekJock from noob LoL player into a boneafied threat on the battlefield.

Be it pity, the challenge, or just being a total nice guy, Josh was excited and raring to go! I told him a bit of my experiences and how I liked playing and he went to the drawing board thinking of what one or two champions I would be working on for the next few months.

To hear how the first installment of our audio segment goes, you will have to listen in to the next episode of The Geek Allstars, which will be posted late Sunday early Monday on itunes. It will have the full 20-25 min conversation where Josh gives me some pointers and also picks the Champion(s).

Then that next day I will post the next installment of my noob diary right here!

Thanks for reading and if you have any tips please feel free to comment. If you would like to play with me add me as a friend on LoL my name on there is: CanesRx

–GeekJock

This week is vacation week for the GeekJock and also the first time I have been back home to Long Island in prob. 3 years. As I am sure most people are tired of hearing about, the whole working overnight thing had gotten in the way a bit and I wasn’t able to get back home as much as I had wanted to. However, new job or not I had planned a trip to LI this year and was going to come home hell or high water.

Now that I am back here, I thought well, since I have some time why not see what Friendly Local Game Stores (FLGS) have opened or been established since I was a kid. Now that in the last 4 years or so I have gotten much more heavily invested in playing board and card games, it has made me want to check out what all is out there store wise pretty much anywhere I travel. So I did a quick google search to see what was out there and it seemed like 4 stores fit what I was looking for. Yet from some research and talking to friends it seemed that one was primarily a comic shop with very little tabletop gaming to speak of so I crossed it off my list.

So I got 3 stores I was deciding to check out on my tour of Suffolk county. Ravenblood Games, The Brothers Grim, and the old-time Long Island staple Man at Arms Games ans Hobbies.

Off we go!!!

Ravenblood Games

I first headed a little bit west to Plainview to check out Ravenblood Games Store. They have a decent yet simple web site with hours and some of the inventory listed on there. It doesn’t seem to have been updated much, and there is no calendar to find on there so I wasn’t sure what I was in for.

Upon entering the store I was absolutely floored at how nice it was. The whole place was clean, the nice floors, and very organized. It smelled good (never to be underestimated) and it just looked very inviting in there. One thing I noticed right off the bat is that in the back on either side were these two closed in rooms for gaming. They still had a window so you could see in there but it was very cool to see a huge table in a secluded quiet room so that you could not disturb anyone else while you played an RPG or even a louder table top game. The main store only had a few tables to it tho and didn’t seem to have all that much room for gaming.

I walked around a bit and checked out the inventory. There was a TON of RPG books and mini’s and plenty of Warhammer and other miniature gaming accessories. There was also the usual assortment of MTG packs, deck holders, sleeves etc for the MTG enthusiast out there. The BIG BIG BIG letdown? Well of course there was very very little board games to be found. There was a main table which had some supply of things from Race for the Galaxy and Quarmageddon!, but the board game supply was a let down for sure. Not very many popular titles from recent years, just a bit of a smattering to be able to say “yes, we have board games”.

I then struck up a convo with the man behind the counter. He was a nice guy and friendly to talk to. He didn’t seem that I was bothering him at all. I asked him about what night was usually board game night, and he mentioned they really didn’t have one. He said they had a real “open calendar” for that sort of stuff. Well, I guess it’s as good of an answer as any. Coming from a pretty heavy board game area in central NC, where every store has a devoted night to Board Gaming, this was kinda a surprise. But after asking him some Q’s about BG’s he carried or sold I realized he knew ZERO about the current state of the board game market, not having heard of Kingdom Builder, Carnival, or even that there was a new Dominion expansion on the horizon. In fact he wasn’t even familiar with Kick Starter in general and that it had been being used for board games at all…. But I digress a little.

Verdict—> Ravenblood games store is an amazing store to look at, and one in which I think I would love to play at, if it was local to me. However, the lack of selection of board games makes it one I doubt I would go to again. If you are local however, and looking for a comfortable place to play I would urge you to check it out.

The Brothers Grim

Their web site is updated monthly it seems and has directions and a calendar on it. It doesn’t take long to see that this is a store devoted to CCGs (particularly MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh), plenty of miniature/Warhammer gaming, and some RPG/D&D. It had one night listed  on Thursdays as “Open game night” but no where listed as Board Game night.

Located just east of Nichols road on Middle Country rd. in Selden, TBG is an easy place to get to. It’s located in a pretty beat up shopping center on the north side of the road and encompasses 2 or 3 store fronts. Upon going in I was amazed at how enormous it was. I also was amazed at how dirty it was. It smelled of dust and I could just feel ten thousand sneezes coming on as I walked about. It had a TON of gaming tables with numbers all around, looking as if they must have hundreds of people playing in MTG or other CCG tourneys quite regularly. I was greeted by the guy behind the counter with a big smile and friendly voice. There was a few people in there also painting at a different, large set of tables, which seemed to be for gaming and or painting, who also greeted me quite nicely and recognized my shirt as being from “The Greatest American Hero”, TV show. Some good geek cred for sure, not many people are able to spot and recall the symbol. So immediately I felt a little bit more at ease despite the dirty store front.

The store also had, in the back, a bunch of computers set up I guess for LAN type gaming. It was a real nice set up and you could tell by looking they were good rigs and the area got a decent amount of use as well. I looked around a bit more and headed to the other area/store part which was more where the non mini/CCG games were stored.

The board game section was bigger then Ravenblood but still seemed quite haphazard, like the rest of the store. Most of the boxes seems dented, unkept and most of the games themselves had half opened plastic wrap, if they were even wrapped at all. Like I mentioned the selection was decent but I didn’t want to take any chances with any games I might buy in here in case pieces were damaged or missing. The rest of this room, up front, had a bunch of tables which looked to be the main RPG or BG area. Along the wall they had an impressive collection of OLD OLD D&D items. From red box, to Gazateers to rare manuals, I got a nice smile seeing that other people cared for, or displayed some things that I still have in my collection to this day. I couldn’t tell if it was a museum for this stuff or for sale. Some of the items had component lists to them but not any prices. As if it was a weird pawn shop for old games. They also had a few boxes of old Dragon and Dungeon magazines, many of them in decent condition and most for 2$. The whole wall had a bunch of older books and even some older rare RPGs so if there is something out of print or rare that you are looking to find, it’s very possible that they might have it here.

I wandered around a bit more and struck up a conversation with the store clerk. He was nice as mentioned before but didn’t seem very chatty. I asked if they had a copy of base Gloom, to which he thought a second to himself and said no. It took me all of sixty seconds to find where they had the smaller card games and found two copies of base Gloom sitting right there. So if you want something here you might want to find it yourself. Looking at the counter area they had an impressive assortment of rare CCG cards for individual purchase, and no doubt this was their bread and butter. The display cases took up in the area of 1/2 to 2/3 of one side of their store and it was filled with various MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh cards.I picked up my copy of Gloom and was on my way.

Verdict—> If you are a CCG player on Long Island this is certainly the place for you. If you want a rare or hard to find RPG this could also be the place to find it. I don’t think I would do more as a board gamer here then possibly find some dice or a card game or two. Just being in here felt dirty and I wanted to get out quick. Not a place I would want my kids to play at, I think I might even take the extra time to go to Ravenblood if I was going to play some CCGs.

Man At Arms Games and Hobbies

Ahh Man at Arms Games. This is a blast from the past. A store which has been open since 1978, it’s the one store I remember most from my childhood. It’s where I bought my 1st copy of Blood Bowl in the 80s! It’s quite a ways out east in Middle Island on Middle Country road but I was glad I went out there.

MAG is a smaller store in a small strip mall and doesn’t have any real area for gaming. It’s got one small area which I think could be used for some mini’s war gaming, but no BG tables. The store itself is thirty years or more, old and it’s not that it’s dirty as it’s just old. But the owner greeted me as I walked through the door and was as nice as I remember as a kid. I walked around a bit and was pleasantly surprised at the board game selection. They had a ton of good games and I even got a copy of ECLIPSE! It by far had the best and largest selection of board games of the three stores I went to, which is quite a surprise since MAG games has, of late, turned into a specialty model/mini’s and war gaming supplier. He’s one hell of a mini painter and has all the tools and paints of the trade to keep any enthusiast happy.

Naturally I struck up a conversation with the owner, who gladly stopped painting some mini’s for some chit chat. He’s a grizzled old store owner who I think has felt the sting of the economy and of The Brothers Grim being open, but he’s more then happy to chat and to cater to the different game and hobby lover then the CCG crowd (He only had a box or two of CCG stuff and I think it’s how he likes it). I have to say I 100% enjoyed talking to him for 30 to 40 mins not only b/c he was passionate about being in the industry, but because he liked to talk about it and didn’t seem like I was bothering him at all. I was more then happy to pick up Eclipse and take it home with me (It was only 80$ compared to the $97+ it’s been going for on Amazon as of this posting), as I felt that every dollar I spent at MAG was going to keep a store I remember and love from my child hood stay open. I wish him the best of luck and hope that the next time I come home to visit I can get out there and he will still be open for business.

Verdict–> Man at Arms Games and Hobbies is IMO a Long Island treat/treasure. If you are looking for models or mini’s or even some tips or tools to pain them please check this shop out. It’s worth the trip. And even if you are a board gamer, give him a try you might find something you have been looking for, for a while! The only thing I think he would benefit from the most (other then a new location) would be some web presence. A simple web site would go a long way to helping him keep the word out for business.

Final Thoughts….

Well I have to admit I was a little surprised at the lack of board game presence on Long Island. Granted I don’t live here, so I didn’t go looking for any “meet up” or facebook groups for the area, but judging by the FLGS here it seems to be lacking. It does seem to be a good area for RPGs and CCGs tho, so if you are into those then you might have a few good places to play at.

I did find one decent reference you could check out for LI gaming here. It’s got a decent list of stores and some other LI gaming sites to check out, but it seems that both listings of BG meets are dead.

I was happy to have checked out these three stores tho, b/c I do love to browse and check out how other stores do it different then the ways we are used to. Hopefully I can check out some stores out in Nassau the next time I am in town.

Until then happy gaming all!!!!

–GeekJock

We got a huge boost as fans of the Carolina Hurricanes a couple of weeks ago, when GM Jim Rutherford (JR) made the huge deal and got Jordan Staal from the Pens. Then last week it was backed up by signing Staal to the same exact contract extension that the Pens had offered him. Ten years for a total of 60 million is a great deal for a young up and coming forward. He’s got a home here and with any luck in due time Marc, the only Staal we don’t have in Carolina, will be here as well.

So for the last few months and of course after the big deal, JR has been promising fans that big things were to come. We were promised another high profile forward and a D-man signing or two, depending on what happens with some of our pending free agent D-Men.

So July 1st came and the flurry of activity followed. We waited a bit for some good Canes news, and then we got a tease. The Canes resigned a couple of RFA’s in G Justin Peters and F Brett Sutter. Then the head scratch-er of the day for the Canes came. They bring back D Joe Corvo to Carolina. Huh? Really? This makes the 3rd time #77 will grace us with his presence. The 1st time I loved him. The second time was meh and it was just time for him to go. The only problem is the 2nd time when he left JR got diddly poo for him coming off of a 82 game 11 goal, 40 point season. He was a solid D-man that year and all they could muster for him was a 4th round pick. Disgusting trade by JR. Boston was of course stacked last year still and he didn’t see a whole lot of quality time and his numbers suffered a bit from it. Don’t let the plus 10 fool you, he wasn’t good in his limited role last year either. The only saving grace is he came cheap at 2 million for one year, and he’s still quite the upgrade over Derek Joslin whom the Canes bought out the same day.So I still say this was one step forward (Staal) and two steps back (Corvo) but that is likely more the fan who wants to see some action done NOW, overreacting then anything else. (Yup, I am trying to stay positive).

However, to add to the 2 steps back, Bryan Allen signed a very affordable deal (3 years 3.5mil per) with the Anaheim Ducks this week. Thus completing ANOTHER bonehead no trade bungle for JR. This is possibly even worse then the Ray Whitney affair. This past trade deadline, Allen was the belle of the ball. Everyone wanted him. He’s among the best PURE defensive D-men in the league and he was going to be a rental. The Canes were a huge (IMO) long shot to make the playoffs and JR should have dealt him. Instead the GM made his usual speech about how he was going to re-sign him and we were going to make a big push for the playoffs. Well, NO AND NO JR. So instead of dealing a large chip we had for a 1st round pick or a nice young player or two, we get diddly poo for him. And why couldn’t you just offer him 4 million a year to stay to one up the Ducks? Sure we would have 3, 4 million dollar men on the blue line, but we all know you could have given Joni Pitkanen away for a bag of pucks and been happy with it. So now we are stuck with a gaping defensive D specialist hole on the blue line. One, which Joe Corvo certainly isn’t going to fill.

So the latest from JR is that there is still time left in FA and he is seeing how the prices come down and things shake out (we hear this crap from him every year, and continue to watch all the FA go elsewhere). He also promised us a big deal is still to come to get us a top 6 forward, likely in a trade. Well, I don’t buy it. Tune back in a month and a half when JR gives his yearly “we tried” speech. Bottom line is the Canes still need a top 6 (scoring type) forward for this team. We made strides in being considered legit by players with the Staal trade. Now just follow through and land us someone.

The whole “us in the mix” for Suter and Parise, was smoke and mirrors. We were NEVER in the run for those two. The quicker you get that out of your head the better you will feel. I doubt JR made any REAL offer to either of them anyway. He prolly called their agents offered them 4-5 mil each and knew he would get blown off, just to be able to tell us “Hey, I tried”. But despite what the frenzy in the media says, these two CERTAINLY don’t assure the Wild of anything at all. A couple of more wins this year I bet, and a playoff workhorse in Parise but that’s it. No one seems to remember that Parise wasn’t all that great this regular season. He was decent to above avg and that’s about it. (He was tied for 23rd or so , in goal scoring) The ONLY reason he got such hype in the FA market was b/c he was AMAZING in the post season. Ask guys like Joel Pavelski and Claude Lemieux how good it is to be a PO player and not have to do much in the reg season. Playoff dramatics won’t do squat when the wild are still sitting 9-10th in the standings come next April. Suter, I will admit is a monster on the blue line. He’s easily a 1-2 on most teams but STILL is not a 7.5 mil a year monster. So be happy that we aren’t spending 15 million a year on two players for the next 13 years.

So who’s left? I won’t go deep into D men b/c the Canes more or less, have their top 6 already signed. I would love for them to have 1 more starting one on the roster so we can deal Pitkanen or also just to have one for when Pitkanen misses 40-50 games this year. And reminder all of the decent D-men left are defensive types. Sure a few of em have put up good offensive numbers at some point in the past but right now look at them only as d-first options.

1. Brett Clark — Older avg sized D-man who “generally” is good in his own end.

2. Carlo Colaiacovo– Not much of a physical presence and injury prone as hell

3. Matt Gilroy– Still young enough and good enough skater that could excel for Canes as a 5-6 type. Likely very cheap.

4. J. Spacek– Only if hes REAL cheap. Good locker room guy, but old and not a whole lot in the tank.

5.  Scott Hannan– Older good locker room guy and excellent shot blocker.

As I said not a whole lot left on D. Canes likely would invite one to camp see how he does, and worst case we might see Ryan Murphy (last years 1st round pick) get some PT on the blue line.

As for forwards. There are a bunch left but I won’t mention guys like Selanne who either will sign with the Ducks or likely retire.

A few guys and my thoughts.

1. Alex Semin– I only mention him b/c he’s been getting a lot of talk here in Carolina of late. If he comes cheap (3 mil or less) I say sure the risk is worth it. He could hide here without having to be “the man” and could shine. However, rumor has it a Russian, KHL, club has offered him 3 years 30 million to play there. He said he wants to stay here for “similar money”. Yeah good luck with that Alex.

2. Shane Doan– He’s kind of in the Selanne avenue, but he’s a guy I could actually see going somewhere else. Gritty hard-nosed and can still put up 50-60 points. Would love to see him on our third line.

3. A. Kostitsyn– Another guy in need of escaping the headlines. He was chastised in Nash for not caring about anyone. Carolina could be a good place for him to keep his nose clean and show he’s a good player and teammate (Samsonov anyone?)

4. Kyle Wellwood– A guy I never liked much b/c he ALWAYS was an underachiever. Yet, he had a good year with the Jets and I could see him and Tim Brent being a fast skating force on that 3rd line.

5. W. Wolski– He’s my sleeper on this list. By no means is a top 6 but he’s due for a pay cut b/c of lack of production. Give him a 1 year deal and see if he can earn himself a longer term spot.

I do agree with people that it’s not a banner year for FAs. But there are some guys to be had. But remember JR promised us a deal, and we all know a Nash deal isn’t happening. So work those phones JR see if you can get us some talent in here! Who knows maybe someone in the league still thinks Pitkanen is good and we can package him with something for a real forward.

My bottom line?—-> I doubt we will see anything else tho out of the Canes this summer, which would ultimately make GeekJock a very annoyed fan.

Every time I get to where I have completely given up faith in Jim Rutherford (Canes GM), he does something akin to walking on water and he brings me right back to his corner. Friday night was no different.

I was sitting at a local bar with some friends Friday night, celebrating getting a new job and getting off the nights routine, watching the NHL draft with no sound. The guys I was with weren’t big hockey fans so I had to explain why I only really cared about the first 8 picks and why it’s better to see the commish go to the podium instead of a GM. If the Commish goes there, it’s to announce a trade, if it’s the GM then it’s to make a pick.

So it came to the Isles pick and I knew they would go D-man. To my surprise it wasn’t Dumba, but rather Griffin Reinhart. It’s not a big deal to me, the Isles could use him just as well as any of the other big D men so it’s a good pick.

Then came pick 8. The Canes were on the clock. They kept showing the table and JR and the boys sitting there. Then…. Bettman came to the podium and started to make the announcement of a deal. I was already happy that the Canes were trading the pick. Alas, there was no sound and I had to try and read lips, waiting for them to put up the graphic of who was in said deal. Then…it… CAME…. JORDAN STAAL TO THE CANES! I screamed out “YEAH BABY!” in the dining room of the Ale House. It’s basically a Canes fan’s bar and grill. There are jersies from various players on the wall including 3 or more from Aaron Ward’s various teams (Canes/Rangers/Bruins). So I was kinda shocked that the place went pretty silent after my scream, and everyone was looking at me. Then a couple of guys came up one after another asking who we got. Once I said we got Jordan Staal, each guy got a big smile and pumped their fist.

It went down as the Canes #1 pick, Brandon Sutter and B. Dumoulin (BIG solid young minor league D man) to the Pens for Jordan Staal. A great deal with good value going both ways. Obviously I am happy with the Canes not having to give up too much to get him. Sutter, while one of my favorites, is a good guy to deal here. He’s not quite as good on either side of the puck as Staal so it’s an upgrade. He’s a leader tho and will be missed.

The problem we have here with local fans of the Canes, isn’t their lack of knowledge. They generally have come a long way in the 10+ years the team has been in Raleigh. They know well enough about the rules and about the teams and players. The problem is the local fans are entirely too loyal to a fault. Whenever trade deadlines or free agency is upon us they want to get back each and every player who has ever worn a Canes jersey whether they were (or are still) good or not. Such was the case last night. The overly loyal ones were all up in arms… “how could we trade Sutter???”. Ugh, it’s an uphill battle trying to explain that no matter how much you like Sutter, he’s just not Jordan Staal. On any other team in the league Staal is a 1st line center. But on the Pens he’s stuck behind two guys who have won MVP trophies. That’s a hard thing to do. Play 3rd fiddle when you are a top centerman. So it will take a few games or some time to sink in but I think even the loyal nay-sayers will come on board and be ok with this deal.

So on this day we say Congrats on getting married yesterday Jordan. I hope that the reception was a wild one as word spread that you will now be on a team with your older brother, and in the same organization as your younger brother.

Who knows… it’s only 3 more years until Marc Staal is a UFA for the Rangers. Maybe in 2 the Canes can pick up the big D-man at the deadline for a cup push.

Make no mistake about it Canes fans, this was a HUGE deal for us. This trade alone makes us a contender for the division title. Now do me a favor JR, sign 1 or 2 more fowards we can use and the PNC center will be packed and rocking most of the year!

WELL DONE!!