The Bulwark

Amy will be hosting an informational meeting for the Dying Kingdoms LARP. This game will have a lot of activity and isn’t just sitting around playing Ro-Sham-Bo. If you have ever wanted to leap from your D&D table, and smack the rogue with a sword because you are tired of her stealing your stuff, now is the time to do it! Just make sure the sword is foam.

Live Action Role Playing in this context can be a lot of fun if not taken too seriously. Take the “Get together, roll some dice, have fun” mentality reserved for D&D and replace it with “Get together, beat each other with pieces of foam, have fun”.  If you have any questions post them in the comment field, and for more information check out the Dying Kingdoms website.

Release day can always be tense. You have studied the lists and spoilers; you have an almost celestial knowledge of the combinations, tricks, you just hope the spoilers were correct. You gird your facial expressions as you draft, and scowl across the table like a hawk leering at a mouse in a field, he has no idea what is coming, now the next decision is crucial to making the best deck that will win you the day.

In all regards, that situation will not play out this weekend. On March 6^th, the cunning and confused will collide as each player saddles up to make the worst deck possible!  The object of this tournament is to win, of course, but you will never play with your deck.

Since you won’t ever play with your own deck want to design it to lose no matter what.
Deck design constraints will ensure that every deck can win, but you get points for your deck losing.  The format is constructed of course, with the following constraints and restrictions.

So come by the Bulwark for this special event March 6^th at 3:00PM.  Bring your own deck, Invite friends, anyone who has ever played Magic has a stack of crummy cards, and anyone can be a winner.  Winners will get a special prize, and some sort of awkward bragging rights.

Design Constraints for the WMD Tournament Decks
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1. All cards from all expansions (except Unglued & Unhinged) may be used.

2. Deck must contain exactly 75 cards – no sideboard.

3. Deck must contain exactly 30 mana-producing lands.

4. Deck must contain at least 20 Summon Creature spells.
a. 75% of the creatures in the deck may not have the champion ability, require a sacrifice to remain in play for at least one phase, have the defender ability, or be a wall.

5. The sum of the basic power of all the creatures must be at least 40.
(*=1, X=1)

6. No duplicate spells – only one of each. No duplicate lands other than basic lands. Snow-covered lands are considered basic lands.

7. Deck must contain at least 5 non-creature cards capable of dealing unconditional* direct damage to your opponent.

8. Deck must contain at least 5 non-creature cards capable of destroying a
creature. These can overlap the previous requirement.

9. Must be able to play every spell card using only basic lands – i.e. must include minimum number of each type of basic land to be able to play the most expensive (in that color) spell.

10. For each color, count the number of spell cards that use that color. You must have at least half that number (rounded up) of basic lands that produce that color.

11. Must be able to play every card in the deck.

12. No Ante cards.

*unconditional = can be conditional as long as you can be assured that the condition will always be possible in every game. For instance, a spell or ability that depends on your opponent having a particular land type will not count, but if it depends on *any* player having a particular land type, and you are playing with that land type, the card would be OK. A card that does damage based on the number of cards in the opponent’s hand would be OK because it is always possible for any opponent to meet the condition. Of course, direct damage spells (like Fireball) will always be OK.

“An epic board game of galactic conquest, politics, and trade” these are the words that greet you as you pull up Twilight Imperium on Fantasy Flight Games’ website.  Arguably this game made Fantasy Flight the company it is, and it has a sort of unflinching quality to it. It’s a massive game with 200+ pieces, 400 cards, and details of every race you will find in the game. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being Diplomacy like simplicity, 10 being the ostentatiously discursive complex systems like ant hives, the US military, and War! Age of Imperialism, Twilight Imperium is an 11.

Even though it’s complex, it has a flow to it that seems to fit. The most recent edition refined the rules, and made the process more natural.  This game is constantly hailed for its depth, and some have called it a new standard in adult board games. The Bulwark is proud to let you be the judge.

Andrew Flicker will be running a game of Twilight Imperium this weekend. He recently acquired it from the mad genius behind Alien Overlords, and acquired it with a challenge.  He was challenged to not only learn the game himself, but teach others to do play; like some sort of esoteric alien race Dave Zumerwalt, who sold the game to Drew, threw down the gauntlet.  He will return at some unspecified moment in time to measure us, to see if we had been not only enlightened but honed and to meet him on the intergalactic field of battle.

This is a fantastic game Drew will be running this weekend.  The game starts at 1:00 and should end by 6:00 at the latest.  If you are interested in playing please contact myself or Drew at drewflicker@gmail.com.

The Bulwark is proud to welcome Dave Zumwalt, designer of the game Alien Overlords. Dave will be traveling to Chico in order to help us play test his nearly realized system. Dave has been so kind as to save me the hassle of writing about the event, and has summarized his brainchild thus:

“Alien Overlords™ is a board game that allows two to four players to take control of futuristic empires and fight for control of a section of the galaxy. Players will customize their empires by selecting various technologies, control the resources of worlds, and command fleets of starships in strategic space battles. The game is designed to be played with a minimum of record-keeping. The game is played with numerous spaceship playing pieces and with dice.”

Dave has worked hard to design a system which addresses some of the resource management issues players have in other games. He has also designed a unique set of “Situation Cards” that create interesting challenges and conditions as play unfolds. We are hoping to have a full count for Dave on February 6th at 5:30. Dave is traveling from Redding, so this start time is traffic permitting. Slots are open, and if we wind up with an over flow other board games will be ran throughout the night. The Bulwark Library will be open to anyone, check this list to see the possibilities. If you would like to sign up for the game, have any questions for me or the designer comment below!

This Saturday a pick up game of World of Warcraft the Boardgame is forming at the Bulwark.  We have several committed players already, but a few slots are open.  Come by around 5:00 if you are interested in learning how to play this great game from Fantasy Flight Games. If you are a fan of the video game, you will love this incarnation of the franchise.