International Tabletop Day 2017 Miskolc (2017.04.30)

Author: Kadmon
Translation: Kadmon
Translation based on: Nemzetközi Társasjáték Nap 2017 Miskolc - Esemény beszámoló (2017.09.12)

The Nexus Club took part in the International Tabletop Day 2017 gaming event on Miskolc, at 2017.04.30. On the convention, organised by the Gémeskút community, the visitors could try several board games all day long. From the CoolMiniOrNot there was Zombicide and Arcadia Quest, from Mantic Games the Deadzone, from Petersen Games the Cthulhu Wars, beside Adrenaline, Carcassone, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Lost Cities, Escape, Goa, Kemet, Saltlands, and some others I did not recognise.

image © Puskás Tibor

The International Tabletop Day event was founded a few years ago by Geek & Sundry, and since then groups from all around the world joined it. The Gémeskút from Miskolc, lead by Puskás Tibor was well prepared for the boardgaming marathon. The day started with the games pictured above, but the arriving visitors also brought new games with them.

During the day these were the games the visitors could try, at least the ones I've recognised:

7 Wonders: Duel, A Kis Herceg: Az én kis bolygóm, Adrenaline, Arcadia Quest, Burgle Bros, Carcassone, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Critters Below, Cthulhu Wars, Deadzone, Dixit, Elveszett Városok (Lost Cities), Escape, Evolúció (Evolution), Exploding Kittens, Fedőnevek (Codenames), Galaxy Trucker, Goa, Kemet, Last Letter, Love Letter - Adventure Time, Nagyfeszültség (Power Grid), New Angeles, Pandemic, Pandemic: Pengeélen (Pandemic: On the Brink), Saltlands, Tokio Királya (King of Tokio), Zombicide.

These were the ones I've seen played:

Adrenaline, Arcadia Quest, Carcassone, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Critters Below, Cthulhu Wars, Deadzone, Elveszett Városok (Lost Cities), Escape, Exploding Kittens, Goa, Kemet, Love Letter - Adventure Time, Saltlands, Zombicide.


Adrenaline	Carcassone	Castles of Mad King Ludwig

Critters Below	Exploding Kittens	Goa
		image © Puskás Tibor
Kemet	Lost Cities (Elveszett Városok)	Love Letter - Adventure Time

	Saltlands

* * *

In addition to the ongoing games there was an Escape competition. Due to the rapid pace of the gameplay, players were constantly changing as the tense background music played.

image © Puskás Tibor

After half a day of competing, the first place have been won by the "Kincsvadászok és a végzet kacsái" (Treasure Hunters and Ducks of Doom), which composed of Városi Éva, Gregor Ottó, and Rácskai Milán.

image © Puskás Tibor

The leaders of the teams of the first three places (from left to right): Puskás Kamilla, Fazekas Gábor, and Városi Éva.

* * *

Nexus Club

kép © Puskás Tibor

From the Nexus Club, it was Takács György (Kadmon)) appeared with his set of games, which were typically board games played with miniature figures. During the event he walked from one table to the next, explaining the rules for the interested visitors.

* * *

During the Deadzone games, Enforcers, Plague forces and Rebs teams fought against each other. The scenery, admired by many people, was not part of the Deadzone set, but the DreadBall Extrame space football game, but they are perfect for this game as well.

In one of the games, the Enforcers have been continually shrinking the Plague troops, but despite this they managed to outrun the strategic points, and even though they did not fell a single Enforcer, they still gathered enough victory points to win. There was one Enforcer victim though, as the soldier stepped on a well-hidden booby trap, and was blown by the explosion from the top of the building.

In another game, the Enforcers were able to take revenge, and demonstrated that against the proper use of their firepower, the unarmoured forces of the Plague's armored have no chance. During the game, another Enforcer managed to set off a booby trap, and even though he had fallen from the building, he survived due to his armor.

In one of the next games, Rebel troops fought against Plague mutants. Although the Plague was extremely successful in the beginning, in the last round it turned out that the Rebel player used his tactics well, and although the Plague had only one point left to win, after the Rebels were in the right position, they dropped so many mutants one after the other, that they have achieved victory.

There was a game in which the Rebels fought head to head with the Enforcers. The Enforcer player, with the first shot of the game, took off the Rebs commander, positioned in the wrong place, sealing the fate of the Rebels. Though a Rebs Teraton immediately teleported to take vengeance for him, and scattered the soldiers with his grenade and then slashed them with his blades, that was not enough to prevent the Enforcer victory.

Enforcer victory: 2 (1 against Plague, 1 against Rebs), Enforcer loss: 1 (against Plague)

Plague victory: 1 (against Enforcer), Plague loss: 2 (1 against Enforcers, 1 against Rebs)

Rebs victory: 1 (against Plague), Rebs loss: 1 (against Enforcers)

* * *

Among the CoolMiniOrNot games, the dungeon crawl of the Arcadia Quest board game was exciting for the visitors. The Arcadia Quest Inferno impressed them even with its accessories. The players, playing Cthulhu Wars at the next table, were joking that the demons of Inferno looks so good, and fitting in size with the Cthulhu Wars figures, they could be also used in that game.

The Zombicide game - as usual - was a great success and after playing warm-up games with the players, they played alone for hours. On the picture above, they bravely start a scenario I designed for beginners, to refresh their shrinking stocks from an uncleared part of town.

This photo was taken a while later. As the number of zombies have grown on the streets, the number of wrinkles have grown on the players' forehead. Luckily, in the end everyone made out alive, and they have even succeeded in completing their mission.

* * *

The places fpr the Cthulhu Wars game have been seized a week before, to secure their chance to destroy the world. The ancient gods competed until the end of the event, and then Cthulhu came out victorious.

During the game, Cthulhu played aggressively, constantly obstructing his opponents, striving to deprive them of victory points. For this purpose, he frequently corrupted the cultists of others, so he could put his own cultist in a hostile portal. This prevents them from achieving a victory point at the gate, and as they usually took the bait, spending magic points on kidnapping or attacking Cthulhu's cultists to get rid of him, most of the time they didn't have enough points to recruit an own cultists. Because of the active game, the number of his units was always low, and due to the small number of living cultists, his magic points were always low, the other players did not take him seriously enough, that they would attack him with larger forces. Outside his starting region in Oceania, he practically did not conquer areas, but he still took the largerst share from the destruction of mankind.

image © Puskás Tibor

With the help of his flying units, Nyarhothotep was constantly expanding, practically controlling the whole playground. He also joined forces with the Yellow King, who could cross the territories without hurt. He filled the northern continents of the Earth with his gates and flooded the planet with his monsters. It became a habit of the creatures to kill their own cultists, after they became traitors after the dreams from Cthulhu corrupted their minds. Due to the many gates, he was just 1 point away from Cthulhu at the end of the game.

The cult of the Yellow Sign started with summoning the Yellow King, who had crossed the Earth with his zombie buddies, and desecrated every areas he could reach, so his desecrate tokens run out by the end. During this game, this action was often a source of delight, as the gamers imagined him breaking the yellow seal, and letting loose of a yellow sign in the area. Besides the desecration, he did not do much else, so in the end it didn't matter his sign was everywhere, he only got one victory point for every round, so he finished last.

The Black Goat of the Forest, Shub-Niggurath's bustling hordes just kept spawning, slowly flooding the southern half of the planet. This caused her forces to become fragmented, and when she fought the forces of the Yellow Sign, or with the frogs of Cthulhu, she did not achieve significant victories. Shub-Niggurath itself, after being summoned just stood there near the coast of Africa and didn't do anything, much to the relief of the rest of the players. Because the summoning of the creatures and the battles have drawned away her strength, she reached only the third place.

* * *

The Cthulhu Wars Core Set for the games was provided by the donation of Petersen Games.

The Zombicide Season 1 board game for the games was provided by the donation of CoolMiniOrNot.

* * *

Did you like to game, and want to get one?

Buy the Arcadia Quest board game from CoolMiniOrNot from Amazon