Gaming & Guinness XIV Day 3

Only a select few will successfully ABANDON PLANET to survive the destruction of their homeworld.

I was not one of the few.

Then, a trip to Chez Pierre as our annual "get-out-of-the-house" outing...no, not really. I just had Pete take this shot of me in the parking lot to tease Sylvia. In truth, we walked next door to GTFO for a competitive escape room experience.

Mike P, Pete, Mike T, and Jeff successfully escaped Europa. I did not, nor did Rob or Steve or Scott.

The guys did well though, finishing over 16 minutes before the deadline.

Then it was on to Captain Sonar, which Steve artfully describes as "multi-player Battleship." Except with submarines. You have to listen to the other team carefully in this game, or you'll be completely lost.

Eight players, four roles (Captain, First Officer, Engineer, Navigator), two submarines hell-bent on sinking each other.

This was shot before play actually started. Otherwise, seeing both sides of the screen is strictly prohibited.

In the end, Team Scott, Rob, Earl and Steve triumphed over team Mike, Mike, Pete and Jeff. But it was a close thing.

Once more, Jeff prepared his delicious Maui ribs, accompanied by Island Mike's succulent potatoes.

On to that fine game of paranoiac terror, The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31.

"I swear I'm not the Thing!"

As it turns out, there were three Things: me, Rob, and Scott. The humans managed to escape to the helicopter and correctly elected to leave me and Rob behind, but also abandoned poor Pete, who turned out to be human, and Scott, who turned out to be a Thing. And thus, the fate of humanity was decided...

Friday night is a good night for Rock Band, so that's how we concluded Day 3. 

Gaming & Guinness XIV Day 2

Day 2 of Gaming & Guinness XIV began with Pete's Death Star pancakes, a truly Imperial treat.

Scott handily won two rounds of Wits & Wagers; I was the question-master this year.

Last year, I came up with the bright idea of trying out one of the Death Star trench run scenarios created by fans of the X-Wing Miniatures game. Knowing Scott had a talent for building terrain, I asked if he could create a trench for us. I imagined something pretty simple, but as you can see, Scott went above and beyond to create a visually spectacular playfield.

Steve, Scott, Mike T and Pete played the Rebel side.

Jeff, Island Mike, Rob and I took control of the Empire.

With up to 20 ships on the table, six in the trench and the rest on the surface, with some flying over the trench, the logistics of moving all those fighters around got a little hectic, with a few little accidents here and there. But the battle was tremendously fun, and just like in the movies, Luke Skywalker used the Force to fire a proton torpedo right down the exhaust port. Aside from that, it was a strangely bloodless game, with only Biggs Darklighter and an anonymous Black Squadron Pilot being blown up.

Not so bloodless was the violent and depraved Vintage Miniature Deathmatch, a no-holds-barred battle to the death with medieval weapons and armor.

I believe Scott's mini walked away with this victory. It certainly wasn't me; my miniature was killed with one mighty blow.