29th February 2020

Not only is it Saturday night at Matakishi's, it's the 29th February - and that doesn't happen too often (OK yes - it happens once every 4 years, but still...).

​Regardless of the date, it's time to continue Matakishi's Clockwork & Chivalry campaign.

Location: Hutingdonshire & Cambridgeshire; Cromwellian country!

We have arrived at Cambridge.
Unfortunately, we have to pay to enter the city. Once inside it is easy to find an inn.

Then we set off to the 'East Association'. We found it without any incident or mishap. Then find the fellow 'Crenshaw' and present him with the letter we were asked to deliver.
When the letter is handed over, a furtive look crossed Crenshaw's face and we were quickly ushered out.

This of course, immediately  made us suspicious! We decided to clandestinely watch the East Association.
Throughout the day, we watched people come and go, but there was no sign of Crenshaw. In the afternoon a note was delivered by a boy, 'Peter the urchin'.

The note read: 'Meet me at 8pm at the garden behind Claire Hall, near the Old Bridge'.

We asked Peter who gave him the note, but Peter said it was a man and that was all he knew.​
We continued watching the East Association.
At five o'clock everyone leaves for church - including Crenshaw.

We followed.

Services concluded at seven-fifteen. Once again we followed. Crenshaw led us to a roomy looking house. Crenshaw's home?

We still had time, so we raced to meet the mysterious author of the note. When we arrived, we found a group of soldiers gathered round a body. It was 'Harry Spikes', a junior clerk from the East Association.

We realised that it was likely that Harry Spikes was being watched and whoever saw him give the note to Peter was responsible to Harry's death.

Then we realised it was likely that we were being followed too. We may have led them straight to Crenshaw's home.
We raced back to Crenshaw's house to find a figure dressed in black scaling the outside of the building!
Ursula uses her magic to blast the climber who crashes down to the ground.

We unmask the figure and identify her as Catherine Perkinson - daughter if Sir Reginald Perkinson.
We learn that Lady Silver can be found at the Sydney Sussex College, she had been working with someone there.

The next morning we went to the Sydney Sussex College.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a loud and raucous noise. 
There was a confrontation underway between the college students and apprentices who were yelling at one another. There was meant to be a talk between the two conflicting groups - but it looked like matters were about to escalate.

As we were watching this confrontation and considering what action to pursue next; when a 'mech-suit' burst through the walls of the college in a shower of rubble.

Within the mech-suit we could see a dead body hanging limply! As the suit lumbered around, we realised that it had been seriously damaged in some way or another. We could see the suit twisting and turning in a most unnatural way possible. It tore the body within apart in the most horrifying and grisly manner imaginable before grinding to a halt.

We pushed our ways through the now screaming crowds and after some effort we reached the gory remains. We saw that still gripped in one bloody hand, was a book!

Without anyone noticing we took it and then later read it. We learnt it was a journal and within, we discovered the following:

The man in the mech-suit had been 'Richard Mincehold'. He had been working with 'Lady Silver', also known as 'Lady Arebella Blackwood'.

Mincehole had been working on a 'clockwork mole drill'! He was having trouble generating the power required to drive such a contraption. Lady Blackwood had suggesting marrying the power of alchemy with the science of clockwork machinery! Mincehole considered this an aberration.

Finally, the journal talked about Mincehole visiting a secret installation operated by Lady Blackwood. It was located at Wandleburg Ring in the Gogmagoghills. When Mincehole was there, he had seen that they were packing up to leave.

In his last entry, Mincehole talks about how much of a threat that Lady Blackwood was...

Richard Mincehole's last entry had been grimly prescient. We had no doubt that Lady Blackwood was responsible for his demise.

Nevertheless, we now knew where the next part of our hunt for Lady Cecilia would lead us - and we had scant time to spare.

Our journey to the Gogmagog hills was without incident and after we some searching we found Wandleburg Ring.
It was a snowy clearing surrounded by trees, with an ancient old hill fort at it's centre. There was also a windmill and a warehouse in the clearing. They both seemed in good working condition. No doubt the windmill was used to 'wind-up' clockwork machines and we saw that the warehouse was guarded by two soldiers. This was the facility that Mincehole had written of.

From our hidden vantage point, we decided to wait and see what happened.
At noon, the two soldiers went into the warehouse. No replacement guards or anyone emerged.

We headed to the warehouse, inside we found it entirely empty - except for a lever? We threw the lever and the floor began to descend!

The floor descended to a gloomy  underground cave. There were two here, Ursula used her magic to disable them. Examining our new surroundings, we heard two women arguing close by from one of the tunnels.

We then realised that there were people approaching from that tunnel, it was a woman being marched by two more soldiers. It had to be Lady Cecilia!
We waited for them to enter the cave and took them by surprise. We managed to take the two guards prisoner with no resistance. We had found our quarry - Lady Cecilia.

We were now faced with a decision. Now that we had fulfilled over objective, should we leave with her, or investigate further.
It was decided that we should investigate further and explore the tunnel from which the three had emerged into this cave.

The tunnel led to another cave. As we were arriving we saw Lady Blackwood on the far side. As she hastily fled into yet another tunnel, the ground beneath us split open!

What could only be described as 'mud zombie-things' emerged and menacingly advanced on us.
Between Ursula's magic and the pistols of Abraham and I, we managed to dispatch the ungodly things. (We would later learn that they were resurrected ancient Celtic warriors and this network of caves was a burial site!)

We tried to follow Lady Blackwood, but she had made good her escape. Another time perhaps?

We returned to the mechanical floor and ascended to the surface. Upon exiting the warehouse, we came across Parliamentarian forces advancing on Wandlebury Ring. They were led by Sir Reginald.

We exchanged greetings, Lady Cecilia was returned to her family and we were thanked for our efforts.

It was time for some well earned relaxation. Our task had been completed.

25th February 2020

It's Tuesday, it's 'The Sovereign', it's Woking and it's with the gaming club.

The final game of the night was 'Iunu'.
Read my blog about it here.

25th February 2020

Tuesday night gaming a 'The Sovereigns' in Woking continues.

The next game of the evening was 'Noctiluca'.
Read my thoughts about it here.

25th February 2020

Tuesday evening is gaming time with the Woking Gaming Club at 'The Sovereigns'.

We began the evening with Tiny Towns.
Read my blog about it here.

23rd February 2020

Sunday afternoon has arrived and we're at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking.

This week we are continuing 50 Fathoms.

Location: Paltos.

Even though Paltos is a very small settlement, it has two interesting establishments; 'The Jailor's Den' and 'The Coconut Grove'.

The Coconut Grove was a bit of a strange place. There are posters nailed up that talk about a 'monkape' call 'Deadeye'?
It turned out that The Coconut Grove hosts a 'coconut throwing competition, in which participants compete against Deadeye in coconut throwing.

Rufus felt up for it and entered the competition. It seems that Rufus has a talent for coconut throwing. He managed a massive throw and won the competition!

The rest of us entered The Jailor's Den, a watering hole frequented by jailers and staff from the prison. We also noticed a number of typically drunken sailors.

We spoke with the sailors and discovered that most of them are the former crew of 'The Valiant'! They were kicked off when the governor took possession of the ship. We even managed to speak to the captain.
We asked them about Tomas and they confirmed what we knew. The captain went on to explain that governor intents to prosecute Tomas at court. The captain also explained he expects Tomas to be found guilty and holds the opinion that it will be 'kangaroo court'. The captain had also heard mention of 'Torquemada' coming to Paltos for this hearing!
Overall, the former crew of The Valiant are unhappy at the situation. 

After some discussion, we came to an agreement.

Rackham would use his earth magic to cause an earthquake on one side near to the front of the prison wall. Then the former crew of The Valiant (Whom Shia had recruited to our cause - and to some degree their own cause.) would storm the front of the prison.
While the guards are distracted by this assault, the rest of us would sneak into the prison from the rear.

We were ready to go!

18th February 2020

It was a Tuesday evening in Woking at 'The Sovereigns' with the gaming club.

We played Puerto Rico.
You can read my blog about it here.

16th February 2020

It's Sunday at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking and we're here to play 50 Fathoms.

Location: At sea.

As we were passing the port at Kiera, we noticed a docked ship there flying a Spanish flag and the name of the ship was blacked out.
This was definitely worth investigating.

We dropped anchor and Rackham swum out underwater to investigate. He confirmed it was 'The Valiant.
​We decided to go into Kiera to investigate.

We pursued some leads in Kiera and discovered the following.

Tomas is a fire-mage.
The Valiant was last at the Port of Paltos.
The Valiant had gone to Paltos to 'get brigands' and get refit.
When The Valiant returned from Paltos, it had a different crew?
The Valiant returned to Kiera just one day ago.

We realised that Tomas would not be among The Valiant's new crew. Tomas' last known location was now Paltos. We had to go Paltos.

During our time in Keira we also do some trading.

Win went looking for the Kieran officer that she got drunk and robbed a while ago, but was unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Baxter and Rackham in their infinite wisdom decideed to find someone to mug and pump for information. By sheer chance they came across the very man that Win was looking for!
Without realising who he was, Baxter and Rackham attempted to accost him. Win then stumbled into the situation, she only just realized who he was as he looked so different. When the officer saw Win and recognised her, he became apoplectic! Win returned the documents she stole from him, he was not placated!

It turned out that after having the documents and other items stolen from him by Win, he lost his commission in the army, slid into poverty and has been on a downwards spiral ever since. After explaining his predicament, he stormed off.

Later on, when Shia learned of this, she decided to try and recruit the man. It would give him a new opportunity, going some way to compensating him for what happened and it would also give Shia an experienced officer. Shia discovered his name - Norrington and found him. Shia convinced him to join our fleet.
Shia and Win went ashore with Norrington to buy him a new uniform for his new position. Norrington took the opportunity to purchase the most extravagant (And expensive!) uniform he could find.

The next morning we departed Kieran and set sail for Paltos. The journey to Paltos should only be six hours or so as it is close.
The trip was 'a bit rough' as we encountered some bad weather, but we arrived without any incident. 

Paltos is a small town with only 4 streets. Paltos mainly serves the prison located that is situated locally.

Baxter went ashore to investigate and gather some information.

He discovered that the governor of Paltos had accused Tomas of sorcery and imprisoned him. The governor had also stated that 'The Valiant' had been owned by Tomas (A dubious statement by the governor.) and therefore should be seized and claimed by the governor.
The governor then sold 'The Valiant'.

This meant that we had to break Tomas out of the Prison.
Yet another breakout!

15th February 2020

Saturday night is here and we're at Matakishi's for Saturday night RPGs.

Tonight we will be continuing Clockwork & Chivalry as ran by Matakishi.

Location: Whittlewood Forest.

We left the forest behind.

We journeyed northwards and on to 'Guilesburgh', said to be the last settlement before the 'Tainted Lands' that surround Naseby.

Upon reaching Guilesburgh we entered an establishment charmingly named 'The Strangled Kitten Inn'. The inn is managed by one Theo Bobbs​.
As we were relaxing, we couldn't help but notice several 'ladies of the night' around the inn. We learned their 'madame' is named Verity! We chose not to engage in their 'services'.

A little later there was a commotion and half a dozen boisterous Parliamentarians entered the inn. Without any delay they were taken upstairs to make use of the aforementioned 'services'. 
Soon an officer entered, no doubt looking for his men. As he is gathering them, we hear a scream! A girl's scream to be precise. A girl comes out on to the landing and claims. "They killed my father, she stole my things.". The girl points at Verity.
Abraham moved to investigate the situation, but was blocked by Carlos the bouncer.

Although we were stymied, we were not deterred and decided to investigate further. We spoke with Theo about the situation and he confided to us that he believes that the girl's father was murdered by one of the prostitutes.

Morning came and we examined the body. The man had been stabbed, from the front no less.
But beyond that we discovered black fibres of cloth under his fingernails. It may well have been that the killer was wearing black - such as a black cloak.
We also saw bloody footprints in the room. They were the footprints of a small person, possibly a woman?

Next, we spoke with the daughter, Christabel aged 12.
We asked her what she knew, her answers were peculiar to say the least. She spoke of being in a dream-like state and of a woman whispering to her father.
This not prove to be of much use.

Our investigation had borne little fruit and best part of the day had been spent, we saw little advantage of taking to the road today and would spend a second evening at The Strangled Kitten.

Evening came and 2 men entered the premises. One announced himself as Justice Cameron and stated he was here to investigate the murder.
A little later the same officer and six soldiers returned. Under order from Justice Cameron, they took verity into custody and left.

We had never been convinced of the guilt of Verity and found this turn of events not to our satisfaction. We decided to follow them.

Outside, Ursula cast a spell of subtle witchcraft upon them, but the Justice realised what occurred and ordered the soldiers to attack.

We drove them off, once again Ursula's magic did the trick! Next we questioned Justice Cameron. He told us that his orders had come from an mysterious individual in black.
This was at least the third time that this person had interfered with us.

Morning came and we embarked on the final leg of our journey to Naseby.
We had decided to take Christabel with us. Her father was dead, we knew nothing of her mother and we refused to leave the child in the care of Verity. We had no doubt the fate that would await the girl if left under the supervision of Verity.

Soon we found ourselves in 'The Tainted Lands'. The full savagery of the civil war had taken it's toll here. The aftermath of magic and alchemy had twisted this place. Seemingly Uninhabited, unsettling and bleak, the plant life was strange and the environment even more so. When it rained, the precipitation fizzled and irritated the skin.
​
Later we saw people, there were perhaps ten of them. We saw they were deformed. Missing limbs, some even had gills. We could see that they were rotting away. Such was the price this place took from the flesh. Who knows why they were here, but then who knows what would befall them elsewhere.
Taking pity, we gave them whatever food we could spare.

We pressed onwards and late in the day arrived at a settlement called Thurnsby. It looked deserted and ruined, yet another casualty of this war.
It was at this time we began to hear many bestial, wolfish howls, we had no doubt that whatever was voicing that howling was coming straight at us.

A quick assessment of Thurnsby told us that the inn, whilst half ruined would provide us with a defensible room or two.
We retreated into these areas and lit torches, waiting in the dark.
In the dimness of the failing daylight we saw wolves approach.

This was however, not to be our chief threat. We; in our preoccupation with the wolves, had neglected to secure the inn's cellar.
It was from there, in the now darkening day that strange man-like creatures burst forth, surprising us. 
Before we could react, they were among us, but we fought back! Abraham and I held our ground in the melee and Ursula blasted them with witchcraft, setting them ablaze.
The fire did for them and had the good fortune of driving the wolves away. At least for now anyway.

Even though it was dark and cold, we made the decision to push on through the night to reach Naseby and leave this dismal and cursed land behind us.

It was past dawn, a pale sun had risen into a dull and wintry sky as we arrived at Naseby.
We were not surprised to find that Naseby looked deserted. Whilst pondering our next move we heard the ringing of church bells. 

Making our way to the village church, we found and introduced ourselves to 'Reverend John Possitt', something about the reverend was unsettling. The reverend invited us in for his service. He seemed entirely untroubled by the abandoned village around him, perhaps he was slightly mad. As we spoke to him he seemed to become agitated, we gave him some food and he calmed down.

We proceeded to ask the reverend if he knew anything about Lady Cecilia Perkinson. He told us that Lady Cecilia had been here and during that time a message was delivered by a messenger cloaked in black and wearing a silver mask, the reverend believed the messenger was a woman.
The messenger told Lady Cecilia, that 'she must go and see to her sons'? This was strange, we had been told that her sons were dead?

There was precious little more to be learned from the reverend. We departed and headed north west to the battlefield It was a desolate and depressing sight.

We spied two riders approaching across the bleak, cold landscape. They were young men garbed as dragoon captains. They introduced themselves as Henry and William Perkinson; they were the sons of Sir Reginald and Lady Cecilia!

We were instantly suspicious of them. We looked closely at them and even in the weak sunlight, we saw that they cast no shadows. They could only be ghosts!
The pair of them told us that we must head for 'Clypston'.  Then after they were out of our sight for a moment, vanished. We were now alone on the battlefield.

We journeyed on and Solby, another empty settlement. There were however tents here and soldiers - and a captain.
The captain agreed to buy the alchemist's caravan and cogs that we had salvaged and acquired during our journey.
The captain then introduced us to Ashton and Hilary Hewitt.

We spent some time speaking with the Hewitts and eventually the conversation came to the woman in black with a silver mask. As luck would have it, they said that they had been at a dinner she had also attended.

The Hewitts told us she was known as 'Lady Silver' or 'Lady Blackwood' and that she served Prince Rupert.

Before continuing our journey, we are given a note to deliver to a man named 'Crenshaw' who works at The East Association.
With that, we set out for Cambridge.

11th February 2020

Tuesday night with the gaming club at 'The Sovereigns'  in Woking continues.

The final game of the night was 'Glory to Rome'.

Glory to Rome is a game about the glory of Rome, well sort of. It's a game about rebuilding Rome after the 'great fire of 64 A.D.'.
Become a leader of Rome by building fountains, villas and statues, even the Basilica! Of course, players also get to build a latrine... glory to Rome indeed. Well... I guess someone has to!

Glory to Rome is an engine building card game which has an interesting central premise; which is that the function of cards change in the context of how they're used. This isn't something new or unique to Glory to Rome, however I've not seen it used as extensively as in this game.

What's in a game
Glory to Rome has a lot of cards and some of these cards serve multiple functions.

Order cards
By far the biggest stack of cards in the game, order cards have multiple uses:

• Building: Each card can be used to represent a building that can be constructed. There are a lot of different buildings and each has a cost (In materials.) and a different function.
• ​Client role: Each card can be used to fulfil the role of a client. There are 6 types of client; patron, labourer, craftsman, architect, merchant & legionary. Client roles are explained below.
• Material: Buildings require materials to be built. Cards are used to represent the materials that must be used. There are 6 types of material; marble, rubble, wood, concrete, stone & brick.

Site cards
When constructing a building, it needs a site to lay the 'foundation' on. There are site cards for each of the 6 different types of material. Site cards are covered in stripes
Jacks
These cards are 'jack-of-all-trades'. They are wildcards.
Rome demands card
This oversized card goes in the centre of the playing area and is a discard pile/pool for order cards. 
Bonus cards
There are 6 bonus cards, one for each type of material. When scoring at the end, the player who has the highest amount of a material in their Vault acquires it's bonus card. Each bonus card is worth 3 victory points.
Leader card
Used to represent the first player in a round.

That's it for cards.

Player board
Player boards (Or camp board.) serve 2 functions. They are a player aid and they also track certain cards and actions the players have played. The boards track influence, clientele, stockpile & vault.

The quality of the components is pretty standard, nothing standout, but by no means nothing bad either.
The art on the cards is minimal, almost simplistic and feels a little bit amateurish. It does however, give the cards a distinct look, is uncluttered and clean looking. I guess it's down to taste.

How's it play?
Setup is pretty simple.

• Place the Rome demands card in the centre of the playing area, deal a number of face-up order cards into the 'pool' equal to the number of players.
• Place the jack cards next to the Rome demands card.
• Create 6 stacks for each of the 6 types of site card, the number of cards in each stack should be equal to the number of players. Excess sites should be placed in 'upside-down stacks', these excess cards become 'out-of-town' site cards. Out-of-town cards require extra foundation cards to be used.
• Deal 5 order cards to each player.
• Determine the starting player and give them the leader card.

​Now we're ready to go.

Whoever is the first player decides to either 'lead'... or think!

• Leading: If the starting player elects to lead, then they play a card from their hand. The role on that card is role that all players can perform in this round. If the starting player plays more than one card of the that roll at a time, then they can perform the action multiple actions. If the starting player doesn't have a card that matches a role they want to play, they can play a Jack as any role or 2 identical role cards as any role.
• Thinking: If a player chooses to think, they are essentially passing and can perform 1 of 3 actions. Take a Jack from the supply, refill their hand back up to 5 order cards, or if their hand is at 5+ cards they take a single order card.

Once the starting player has chosen their action, in turn order the other players decide whether they want to 'follow' or 'think'.

• Follow: To follow the leaders action, a player has to play a card with the same role as that played by the starting player, all the same rules for using Jacks and 'two-of-a-kind' apply.
• Thinking: As above.

Once all the players have chosen their actions, they are then carried out in turn order, starting with the first player.
When all players have completed their actions, all cards that were played as role cards are placed in the pool. Any Jacks played are returned to their stack.
Play proceeds to the next turn and the Leader card moves to the player to the left.

That's the basics out of the way, now on to what the role cards actually do.

• Patron: This allows the active player recruit patrons, this is done by taking an order card from the 'pool' on the Rome demands card and place it on the 'Clientele' side of their player board. What does this do? It'll be explained below.
• Labourer: This action allows the active player to acquire building materials. This is also done my taking an order card from the pool and placing it on the 'Stockpile' side of their player board.
• Craftsman: This role has a choice of actions. It allows the player to 'create a foundation'. The active player takes an order card of a building they want to construct from their hand and plays it in their playing area as the foundation. Out-of-town site cards require 2 foundation cards. Then the active player takes a site card from the matching site deck and places it beneath the foundation with the 'stripes' showing. OR, it allows the active player to build on an existing foundation by playing a card from their hand on to the site as a material (Provided it is the correct material of course.). If this completes a building, the site card is removed from the building and placed on the influence side of the active player's player board. Once a building is completed, it's ability becomes available to the player
• Architect: The Architect roll is identical to the Craftsmen role EXCEPT in one way, when choosing to add a material to a building, it is taken from the active player's Stockpile instead of their hand.
• Merchant: This allows the active player to move a card from their Stockpile to their Vault.
• Legionary: This allows the active player to send out soldiers to get stuff that they need. The active player decides what material they need (For example - marble.) and says, "Rome demands marble". The active player can take a marble card from the pool and place it in their Stockpile, the neighbouring players directly to the left and right of the active player must give them 1 marble card each (Which also goes into the active player's stockpile.), if the neighbouring player(s) do not have the material demanded, they reply with. "Glory to Rome!". Which I guess is board game speak for 'screw you'!

​Next is the player board.
The player board has 4 sides and each side has a function.

• Influence: All players start with 2 influence. Finishing buildings gives a player more influence. The more influence a player has, the more cards they can store in their Vault and Clientele sides of their game boards. Influence also counts as victory points at the end of the game
• Clientele: Patrons are stored in the Clientele side of their game board. Patrons stored here give the player extra or free actions. If a role is chosen by any player and a player has a client with that role in their Clientele, then when it's their turn they can perform that action without playing a card, they can also perform that action even if their chosen action is to think. Or if they play that role card, they get an extra action of that type.
• Stockpile: Cards are stored here as material, from here they can be moved to buildings, or to the Vault.
• Vault: Cards stored (Actually hidden.) here count towards victory points at the game end. The number of cards (Not the value.) that can be stored in the Vault is limited by a player's Influence score.

There are 44 different types of building, all of them have some sort of special ability that can influence the game.
I think that is more or less it for most rules.

Endgame
There are several criteria that trigger the end of the game.
Play continues until all site cards for all materials have been used, out-of-town site cards do not count towards this.
The deck of order cards is depleted.
The catacomb building is completed.
The Forum Romanum is built and the player who built it has at least one of each type client in Clientele and one of each material type in their Stockpile. If this occurs, then that player wins an outright victory! Victory points are not tallied!

When any of these conditions are met the game immediately ends and points are tallied (Except in the case of a Forum Romanum victory.).

Players score 1 point for each Influence point.
​Players score the cards hidden in their Vault.
Players score bonus cards for the materials in their Vault.

All victory points are tallied, highest score wins.

Overall
Glory to Rome is pretty straightforward to learn once you get your head around the central premise that your hand represents, people, buildings, materials and more.
Like other games that use similar mechanics, it forces players to make difficult decisions on what cards to use for what.

Glory to Rome is an engine building game on 2 tiers.
How cards are placed on the player board on the Clientele side is essentially building an engine. Giving players extra or bonus actions.
Placing buildings is the other way of building an engine.
Together they give players quite a few options to explore.

The game's owner stated that certain cards can break the game, but that wasn't my experience when we played it. Upon looking at some cards after the game ended, I could see what he meant though.

Glory to Rome also asks players to watch each other and see what they do and in particular, what they put in to the pool. The pool is the best source of cards - provided it has what you need and you have the cards to get them.
​
Glory to Rome  is perhaps a little too long to play for what it is, but otherwise it's a fun game.

11th February 2020

Tuesday is here, 'The Sovereigns' in Woking and the gaming club beckon.

We begun the evening with Splendor.
Read my blog about it here.