Thunderstone: The Best XP Cards

This is my second look at Thunderstone cards from a utility perspective. My first look was posted as an analysis of cards that offer an Additional Buy. For this analysis I wanted to take a closer look at cards that grant more XP.

XP is one of the resources in Thunderstone we all wish we could get more of. XP translates into more powerful heroes and eventually we can convert XP into VP by leveling our heroes to 3 (in most cases). It is also the most expensive resource.

Think of it this way. There are four key resources in the game. Gold, Attack, Light, and XP. To get Light you spend Gold and a turn. To get Attack you spend Gold and a turn. To get XP you spend Gold and a turn for Attack and then Attack and a turn for XP.

As a visualization: Gold + turn --> Attack + turn --> XP. From this simple illustration you should see why spending XP to upgrade Militia to a hero is not efficient.

Since its harder to get than other resources then it would behoove us to find ways to get it quicker and cheaper within the game economy.

The following is my evaluation of the usefulness of XP granting cards in Thunderstone. The evaluation is based primarily on the ability of the card to grant XP and do so repeatedly over the course of the game.

Poor Additional XP Cards

Tavern Brawl [wote]

Cost 4.
VILLAGE: Discard one Hero and choose another player. Draw and discard cards from the chosen player's deck until a Hero is revealed. If your Hero's Strength is higher, destroy the opponent's hero and gain 1XP.
VILLAGE: Destroy this card and one Hero. All other players discard two cards from their hands

This is a terrible way to gain experience. You're betting that you have higher strength heroes than your opponent does, in a game where you are drafting from the same card pool. If an Outlands is on the table you can bet your opponent is buying them too.

Far too conditional to be a reliable source of XP.

Mediocre Additional XP Cards

Now we get into the Heroes that produce XP. I rank these as mediocre ways to attain XP mainly because you must get them to Level 3 which takes time. This means less time in the game for their XP generation to make a big impact. In addition all players are in competition for the Level 3 versions, of which most Heroes only ever have two copies available.

Veteran [ds] – (Fighter) – Cost 8

Level 1: STR 6. Attack +3
Level 2: STR 7. Attack +4.
DUNGEON: Destroy a Hero for an additional Attack +2
Level 3: STR 8. Attack +5.
DUNGEON: Destroy a Hero for an additional Attack +4.
SPOILS: Gain 1XP
Level 4: STR 10. Attack +6.
Additional Attack +10 if you reveal only level 3 or higher heroes.
SPOILS: Gain 2 XP

Veteran by himself is a pretty good card. Its nice to have a Hero that generates unmodified Attack +3 out of the gate. Even better to have one that thins out Militia and can later grant XP. I just don't consider them a fast, reliable XP source.

Feayn [ts] – (Fighter / Archer) – Cost 7

Level 1: STR 4. Attack +2. Light 1. Cannot attack Rank 1.
Level 2. STR 5. Attack +3. Light 1. Cannot attack Rank 1.
Level 3. STR 6. Attack +4. Light 2. Cannot attack Rank 1.
Gain +1 XP if you defeat a monster in Rank 3

I have a love / hate relationship with the Feayn. When Thunderstone first came out I used him quite often as a Light source and XP source. He did work really well in that regard, when my opponent wasn't busy chasing the same strategy. The Feayn's inability to attack Rank 1 is an annoyance at times. Also forcing you to attack only Rank 3 to get XP is limiting.

Thornwood [tws] – (Archer) – Cost 6

Level 1: STR 4. Attack +1.
Additional Attack +1 for each Rank of the monster being attacked
Level 2: STR 5. Attack +2.
Additional Attack +1 for each Rank of the monster being attacked. Light +1 against Rank 3 only.
Level 3: STR 6. Attack +3.
Additional Attack +2 for each Rank of the monster being attacked.
Gain 1 XP if you defeat a Monster in Rank 3.

A Feayn cousin, Thornwood suffers the same problem Feayn does. Namely you have to take out Rank 3 to get XP. It assumes you can take out whatever is in Rank 3 and that what is in Rank 3 is the best monster on the table to take.

Good Additional XP Cards

Grognard [hod]

Cost 4. Gold 2. VP 1.
Gain 2 XP when purchased.
If you are the active player and you trigger a trap, choose another player to suffer the trap's effects.

I like the design of this card. You can just buy XP in the Village at the price of 2 Gold per XP. That is a great price. Grognard adds 2 Gold to your hand so trips to the Village are not a waste. Unfortunately you want to be rid of him when you go to the Dungeon, VP and all. You can only do this by resting or finding another card that lets you discard him. I would not buy many of these without another source of card destruction on the table.

Drill Sergeant [tws]

Cost 4.
VILLAGE: Draw 1 card (maximum 5) for each 2XP you have.
DUNGEON: Destroy a Militia to draw 2 cards and gain 1XP.

Drill Sergeant is a good card, a really good card. He helps get pesky Militia out of your deck and then turns them into cards and XP to boot. When you go to the Village you can use that XP to trigger additional card draws. This is a good card design but once you've chewed through all your Militia he is then stuck in your deck not contributing much to your Dungeon runs. Like Grognard I would not buy many of him without another source of card destruction on the table. Given the choice between the two I prefer the Drill Sergeant.

Great Additional XP Cards

These XP granting cards are the ones I feel are the best in the game. I doubt you will be too surprised by the lineup.

Bluefire [hod] – (Cleric / Wizard) – Cost 4

Level 1: STR 2. Magic Attack +1. DUNGEON: Gain 1 XP.
Level 2: STR 3. Magic Attack +2. DUNGEON: Gain 2 XP.
Level 3: STR 4. Magic Attack +3.
DUNGEON: Level up one Hero (paying all costs), add the new Hero to your hand.

Bluefire is one of the best because he offers an unconditional source of XP. You simply take him to the Dungeon and he gives it to you. No discards or other prerequisites. Get him to Level 2 as quickly as possible. At Level 2 he gets to Strength 3 allowing him to handle Hatchets and other light weapons. If you see a board with low Weight weapons or Strength augmenting cards (Runespawn) buy him because he will synergize better.

Sage [wote]

Cost 4.
VILLAGE: Destroy one card. If it is not a Hero, gain 1 XP.
VILLAGE: Destroy this card. Gain 1 Gold for each Hero revealed from hand.

I have to read this one carefully to appreciate it. It says destroy one card. You can turn any non-Hero card into XP. This means junk like Diseases, Daggers, Torches, and Iron Rations can be converted. He can get rid of Grognards and Drill Sergeants when they've outlived their use. He can also destroy himself, making room for other cards. I cannot think of a situation when you should not buy a couple Sages when they show on the board. His ability to convert anything firmly sets his position as one of the best. But the ultimate title goes to...

Trainer [ts]

Cost 4.
VILLAGE: Destroy one Militia to gain 2 XP.
VILLAGE: Destroy this card to gain 2 Gold.

No surprise here I suppose. When you do the math you see that the 6 Militia dealt at the start of the game are now 12XP you can farm out of your Deck. Trainer solves two problems for you in one action. Then when she's burned through Militia she respectfully leaves your deck so you have room for combat cards. When Trainer is on the table you need to buy her quickly, likely over any other choice on the board.

Thunderstone: The Best Buy Cards

There are great reviews of Thunderstone cards around.  One of my favorite reviews is by BlueTorch over on BoardGameGeek who does a fantastic job of outlining a core strategy for Thunderstone and provides a solid review of a large portion of available cards.  That said there are still some topics I want to explore.  I like to think in terms of "what does X best".  With that in mind I'm setting forth to analyze which cards, if any are good at providing an additional Buy.

First we need to understand if an additional Buy is even feasible.  Many cards in Thunderstone are fairly expensive considering the game's economy.  Every turn you draw 6 cards.  The most common Gold value in Thunderstone is 2, making a 12 Gold hand the most you can assume to get (without adding additional draws and such).  When it comes to buying cards, the average Weapons and Heroes tend to be in the 5+ range, while a lot of support cards tend to cost around 4.  The majority of "great" cards cost 6, 7 or more.

Is it really possible you'll buy more than one thing in a turn given the cost of the more desirable items? Yes but its going to depend upon the tableau.  If I could buy two Loriggs in a Village trip I would.  With that in mind lets assume, given the right tableau, a Gold value of 10 is in the area of interest for an additional Buy to be useful.  That's still not easy to do. If you were to get a 50/50 split in your starting hand you would have 5 Gold so you have a bit of work to do.

Ok so getting to 10 is a challenge but not insurmountable.  The first hurdle is that Heroes you buy, with the exception of Thieves, do not help in the Gold area.  This is one of the reasons why a good early buy is a Thief because they usually provide gold.  When buying early items you should also be aware of cards that provide 3 Gold like Short Bow, Short Sword, Feast, and Lightstone Gem.

Perhaps the best way to get a strong Gold hand is to do something we already know we need to do - rest out Militia.

Factoring in everything said so far, it looks like an additional buy is reasonable to attempt but not something you should expect to work in your favor every turn.  Most of the time you'll want Heroes and weapons.  Together these items can be expensive making that Additional Buy card a dead card in some cases.

All right so lets say we want the flexibility of an additional Buy.  What should we value most in a card that does this?  Cards that provide draw abilities would be handy as they replace themselves instead of taking up a slot that could just be another Gold card.  Cards that provide their own gold would be handy.

What we really should look for are cards that let us buy from the Dungeon and skip the Village altogether. This reduces the need to draw into 10+ Gold.

The following is my evaluation of the usefulness of Buy cards in Thunderstone.  This is an evaluation primarily based on their ability to give you an additional Buy, not necessarily how good they might be in the game due to other factors.

Poor Additional Buy Cards

Highland Officer [tws]

Cost 3.
VILLAGE: Draw 1 card. You may purchase a Militia in addition to your buy.
DUNGEON: Draw 1 card for each Militia revealed.

This is a seductive card until you think through what he makes you do. This fellow forces you to adopt a pure Militia strategy. The goal is to populate your deck with multiple Highland Officers and Militia so you can trigger additional draws and go to the Dungeon with an army of Militia. Its all or nothing with this card. Put too few in your deck and imagine the turn where you draw into a handful of Militia and this guy fails to show up. Put too many in your deck and you dilute your attack and Gold value.

Blacksmith [wote]

Cost 3.
VILLAGE: Draw one card. You may buy one additional card if you buy a Weapon.
VILLAGE: Destroy this card to gain 2 gold. Place one Hero from your hand on top of your deck.

The design of the Blacksmith follows what I would want in a Buy card, except for the restriction on buying a Weapon. If there's an Elf or Lorigg on the table I want my extra Buy to let me buy two of those fellows, not force me into a purchase of a Weapon. I need weapons, but not a deck full of them.

Situational.

Good Additional Buy Cards

Barkeep [ts]

Cost 2. Gold 1.
VILLAGE: You may purchase one additional card this turn.
VILLAGE: Destroy this card to gain 2 gold.

As extra purchase cards go this one is ok. He clutters your deck a bit but does add Gold on trips to the Village. So he helps Buy another round, so to speak. He can be destroyed for 2 Gold. This is rather thoughtful of him because he knows he's going to clutter your deck when you need to go to the Dungeon.

Chalice [ts] – (Fighter/Cleric) - Cost 7

Level 3: STR 7. Magic Attack +4.
DUNGEON: Draw one card.
SPOILS (Village)

The Chalice is a card you probably wanted anyway and offers a rare unrestricted Spoils ability. You have to get him to Level 3 however and this is why he is ranked as a good additional Buy card but no higher.

Its all about the question - can you get him to Level 3 quickly enough for the extra Buy to make a difference? If Chalice is out then other players want him. There are only two Level 3 cards available so you and your opponents are competing for them. You also have to give up his awesome Level 2 ability. I'm not sure the extra buy is worth that.

Trader [ds]

Cost 4.
VILLAGE: In addition to your buy, you may destroy 1 card to take any non-Hero card worth up to 2 cost more from the village.
DUNGEON: Draw 1 card. If it is a Monster, draw another card.

I like the Trader. His ability to trade up is unique in the game. Daggers and Torches can be converted into decent things like Flaming Swords.

He has two drawbacks. Once he’s traded off your starting items he becomes less useful because scaling into higher cost cards means you’re probably getting rid of something you wanted to keep in the first place.

His second drawback is the board. There may not be any decent items to trade your Daggers, Torches and Iron Rations for.

At least if you tire of him he can trade himself in for a Short Sword. The non-hero restriction also stinks although I understand why they did it.

Better Additional Buy Cards

Doomgate Squire [dg]

Cost 5.
VILLAGE/DUNGEON: Draw one card.
VILLAGE: You may purchase one additional card.
REPEAT DUNGEON: Discard 1XP to give one Hero Attack +1.

I've warmed up to this card after playing with it for a bit. In both the Village and Dungeon he makes sure he's not a clog by letting you draw into another card. The Dungeon effect is a bit underwhelming but hey, we were looking for an additional Buy here. He does that without complaint.

Guide [ds]

Cost 4. Gold 2. Light 2.
VILLAGE: You may buy an additional card.

With Two Gold and two Light you can think of a Guide as a replacement for that Torch you’ve been trying to dispose of.

As Buy cards go, this is a good one and positioned in the "better" category simply for the 2 Light. If you're not sure my ranking, think of Guide as Attack +4, just add Hero.

The Best Additional Buy Cards

Elite Militia [tws]

Cost 3. STR 4. Gold 0. Attack +2.
When purchased you may make an additional buy and may destroy 1 Militia.

I'm not keen on Militia but with this one I'll make an exception. You want to rid your deck of basic Militia anyway. If you arrive at the Dungeon with 8-9 Gold you can upgrade your Militia and get a good Hero or weapon to boot. This is an excellent card that turns an otherwise useless card into something that can wield a Short Sword and keep the early to mid-game Dungeon trips going. Also only needs 2VP to convert into a more useful Hero.

Highland [hod] – (Fighter / Thief) – Cost 7

Level 1: STR 5. Attack +2. Gold = 1.
VILLAGE: Destroy this card to take a Treasure from another player.

Level 2: STR 6. Attack +3. Gold = 1.
DUNGEON: Buy 1 Hero.

Level 3: STR 6. Attack +3. Gold = 2.
DUNGEON: Buy 1 Hero and add it to your hand.

What is the one thing you want to buy more of if you can? Heroes of course. Well the Highland lets you do it. In addition she produces Gold and has good Strength and Attack value. A fantastic card if buying Heroes is what you want to be doing more of.

Isri [hod] – (Fighter / Archer) – Cost 7

Level 1: STR 5. Attack +2.
DUNGEON: Destroy a revealed Item or Weapon to gain Attack +1.

Level 2: STR 6. Attack +3.
DUNGEON: Destroy a revealed Weapon to gain Attack equal to its Weight.
SPOILS: Buy a Weapon.

Level 3: STR 7. Attack +4.
DUNGEON: Destroy a revealed Weapon or a Weapon from the village stack to gain Attack equal to the Weapon’s Weight.

Is Isri nice or what? She lets you destroy your Daggers, Iron Rations, and Torches early. At Level 2 she lets you buy more Weapons. Level 2 is very achievable for a Hero. At Level 3 she doesn't trash your hard-earned weapons, she trashes the ones from the Village. This is a very well designed card.

Village [hod] – (Thief / Hero) – Cost 6

Level 1: STR 4. Attack +1. Gold = 1.
DUNGEON: Buy 1 Village card.

Level 2: STR 5. Attack +3. Gold = 1.
VILLAGE/DUNGEON: After buying a card this turn, take 1 village card of lower cost than the purchased card and place it in your discard pile.

This is a great Additional Buy card. At Level 1 he lets you Buy from the Dungeon while providing Gold and Attack value. His strength is enough to wield a Short Sword, a Hatchet, or other decent weapon. At level 2 he becomes amazing for a few reasons. There is the obvious Buy One Get One Free ability but he's also Attack +3 and maxed to his Victory Point value. A normal hero takes two trips to the village to convert to VP. This fellow takes a single trip making him a bit easier to convert to VP.

Honorable Mention

These are all heroes whom I did not mention above. I consider them poor choices for additional buys, assuming that is the goal here. They are poor choices because they limit what you can Buy. They are poor choices due to the Level 3 prerequisite and the time required to upgrade a hero to Level 3. Consider when Leveling up one of these Heroes you are choosing to not Level up a better Hero. Then there's the arguable point that you might not want to buy some of these to begin with.

Cabal - Level 3 - Spoils (Spell)

Clan - Level 3 - Spoils (Weapon)

Flame - Level 3 - Spoils (Light Item)

Magehunter - Level 3 - Spoils (Mercenary)

Terakian - Level 3 - Spoils (Villager)

Epic Thunderstone: Exploring the Variant

I was originally going to post this as a review.  Then I realized I really cannot get away with calling this a review.  My group has heavily modified the Village and Dungeon setup proposed by the Epic variant.  Thus the opinions given here are based upon a modified version of Epic.  We call it Epic because it sticks to the spirit of Epic but does not follow it to the letter.

For those who are not aware of it, Epic Thunderstone is a variant ruleset for the AEG game Thunderstone.  There are threads on BoardgameGeek that provide context to its pedigree as well as the rules.  Epic Thunderstone has worked its way into the Thunderstone Advance rulebook.  Kudos to the AEG team for paying attention to the player community and officially including the variant with the latest rules.  A great business practice AEG, you have my admiration.

The first thing I want to point out is Thunderstone is a system that responds well to house rules.  Epic Thunderstone was a great starting point in a journey to configure a game that suits the tastes of my gaming group.  The flavor we play follows the groundwork laid by Launius, includes suggestions from Vasel, adds a couple keen ideas by Yokiboy, and includes final adjustments made by my group.  I'll summarize the tweaks we made at the end of this thread.

What is Epic Thunderstone anyway?  

It is a variant that keeps the basic mechanics intact but adjusts the way you set up the Dungeon and Village.  The core idea is to use every card you own.  The Dungeon is organized by monster difficulty with the most difficult (highest XP) monsters at the bottom of the Dungeon Deck and the lowest XP monsters at the top.  The Village is organized in piles based on card type.  There are separate piles for Heroes, Food, Light, Spells, Villagers, Weapons, etc…  Several types of items are arranged in more than one pile for greater access, for example Weapons are randomly cut into 3 piles.  When it comes to Heroes you can only purchase Level 1.  If you want to get Levels 2 and higher you have to level them up the old-fashioned way, by earning and spending XP.

Image of my Epic Thunderstone Mat

The resulting Village is an arrangement of cards that reminds me loosely of Ascension.  You've got all the cards available, which means lots of combos to select from if you can uncover the cards you need.  When organized in the Epic fashion the game mimics a party of adventurers heading into the dungeon to slay monsters, encounter traps, and gain treasure.  During the journey the party gets stronger, heroes gain experience, and the monsters get tougher.

Its a great way to play the game.

Reasons I like this variant

Players have direct access to the class types they need to combat the perils of the dungeon (I organize the hero piles by class type - more on this later).  The ultra-randomized Dungeon Deck means you will encounter monsters that are immune to Magic Attack, ignore Edged Weapons, are immune to physical Attacks, eat fighters, eat militia, etc…  This Dungeon configuration provides incentive to create a mixed party.  Grab some Fighters, get yourself a Wizard or two, better get a couple Thieves just in case those traps show up, and season with a Cleric to cure pesky diseases.  This differs from the feel you get in base Thunderstone which can yield games where one Hero class dominates.  I appreciate the way the Epic Thunderstone monster lineup enforces the Dungeon party adventure theme.

Many of the fun combos are accessible.  In the base game you can have cases where a particular Hero / Weapon combo dominate and everyone competes to get that one combo.  In Epic those combos show but the random nature of the village limits the ability to spam the combo while unearthing other competitive combos.  "I see you just picked up that Selurin Magician, well that's OK I just grabbed a Flaming Sword to aid my Flame Guard"

Buying cards in the village requires thought as you might uncover something valuable for your opponents to grab.  On the other hand if you do not purchase that item you risk someone else grabbing it.  You get some interesting decisions "should I rest out a Militia this turn or grab that Short Sword while its available?"  This is similar in feel to buying cards in Ascension where the same risk is tangible.  This adds tension and an element of fun.  You're not sure if picking up those Glowberries will expose a Feast beneath.  Or perhaps you buy a Veteran from the Fighter pile, uncovering an Outlands for your friends opponents to pick up.  Curses!

Comparisons to Dominion disappear.  In this format the game ceases to feel like a Dominion cousin and more like its own game.  In defense of the core game I say the multiple expansions and the hard work AEG has put into improving Thunderstone has already differentiated it.  Epic shows you another way the game is not a Dominion clone.  I can't imagine ever trying Epic Dominion...

The linear progression of monster difficulty helps smooth out the game.  No longer do you need to worry about a starting dungeon chock full of tough 3+XP monsters in Ranks 1-3.  You instead start fighting the weaker monsters and work your way up to the tough ones.  Just like you'd expect to do in an adventure game.

Epic Thunderstone opens your eyes to the game system underneath.  There is a game system here and if you're not happy with the way your games are going then take control and alter the game to suit you.

So who would like Epic Thunderstone?

If you like the base game, try Epic.

If you like the theme of Thunderstone and its promise but feel the base rules fall short, try Epic.

If you enjoy a good dungeon romp and have no fear of house rules, try Epic.

Are there cons?

Games of Epic Thunderstone still take a while.  The goal of my gaming group is to tune the game so we can play in less than two hours.  I believe we've achieved this with our latest round of tuning.

The possibility of a stall is still there but I would say is diminished.

If you're looking to build a Dominion-style game engine then Epic Thunderstone is not the variant for you.

Thanks for reading this far.  If I had any purpose in writing this it is to illustrate that Thunderstone is a great game to fiddle with and hopefully encourage you to try it.  I also welcome healthy discussion on what cards are good in Epic and which are not.  If you ever feel like setting it up and want to talk card culling feel free to send me a message.

My Epic setup.

Use this Dungeon setup (6 level 3, 9 level 2, and 15 level 1 monsters).  Season with Dungeon Features to taste.

Use Yokiboy's Hero sorting.  Make a pile of each of the 5 base classes (mixed class characters go in the class pile they best represent)

Use Launius' Village card sorting and stack quantities.

Use Vasel's Market Variety rule

That's our core influence.  Here's what we do that's different.  

- When it comes to Monster pools we statistically adjusted the ratios to provide the effects we felt would help move the game along.

- When it comes to Heroes and Village cards we only include 3 of each type.

- When it comes to Heroes and Village cards we exclude cards that don't fit the Epic Format or are just plain underpowered.  That's right - we don't play with all of them.  We play with those that work well in the format and those that help build competitive hands.

- We added a Village rule that allows a player to spend 10 Gold to buy 1XP in lieu of their normal buy.

- We use the Prepare rule from Thunderstone Advance.

This was originally posted by me as an article at BoardGameGeek

Blogging Vs Communities

I guess I have a bit to say before I get on to what I created this blog for...

One thing I don't like much about Blogs is they force focus to the individual at the expense of community.  I much prefer sites like BoardGameGeek which provide a Community around the Boardgaming hobby.

Lately on BoardGameGeek I've noticed something that bugs me.  More and more posts are created with one sentence: "I wrote up a review about SomeNewHotGame over on my blog.  You can check it out here".  I personally do not like this because it pulls the reader out of the Community and into a terminal endpoint of a website.  When readers follow this path they then end up commenting on the person's blog site and not within the framework of the community.  This means as a member of the BoardGameGeek community I may not find the well-written comments left by a fellow game enthusiast because he/she left them on another site.  I also cannot use the Community search feature to find contents of an article that might otherwise interest me.  Ultimately this dilutes the content within that Community, which is something I don't like to see.

So here is my solemn pledge to members of the Hobby.  I will not attempt to make this very content-anemic blog an endpoint for you.  If I feel what I post here has enough substance to warrant being read by the gaming community then I will post the material on BoardGameGeek.com or appropriate site.

I will also not write an article here and then go post a link on a forum site just to drive traffic back to my backwater gaming blog.

To those of you who link your blogs from a Community forum site.  I'll follow your links and I'll read your articles.  Several of you posted very well-written and interesting articles that I enjoyed reading.  Several of you created micro-communities of your own, which I think is healthy.  You have every right to do what you do.  I would much rather have you write lots of content and post it on individual Blog endpoints than not write at all.  So please, keep writing, but maybe include a searchable portion of the content in your forum post with a link to the blog for more detail.

-Verm

Blogging is this really for me?

Alright so I finally got around to feeling like I have something to contribute.  The contribution though is not necessarily designed for anyone but me actually.  There is some sort of perception when one creates a blog that you suddenly have to do it for "the community".  Along with that comes the perception that you have to create something that no one else is doing.  Then there's the perception that once you create it you have to keep it up.

I'm going to debunk these three perceptions because frankly I don't want to be controlled by them.

In the case of the first and second I think blogging is about the individual.  Its about what you want to write and in my case its about writing articles about games that I myself want to keep available to me.  To me.  Because I find the topic interesting.  It may have been duplicated elsewhere, it may not have much value, but its what I want to put down so I'll put it down.

As for the third well I tend to latch on to gaming topics in an infrequent and unpredictable manner.  I play a lot of games each week but many times I'm not that stimulated to actually create a written manifest about them.  What this means is, if you're stopping here on a frequent basis hoping for something new, well then you might be disappointed.  I'll add stuff here as I see fit when I see fit.

I am hopeful that some will find what I post to be useful but largely its for me.

So why do this?  In 2012 information technology has reached a point where access to data is important.  I write a lot of articles and musings about games I play.  A lot.  Most of the time its meant as a distraction and a way for me to think about deeper gaming concepts.  However these articles are usually stashed on a laptop somewhere, in a directory somewhere, and just not that well organized.

This blog will get me organized, provide the access I desire, and provide a way over time, to chronicle notes on my gaming experiences.

Anyway, if you're reading this you can't get those last few minutes of your life back but I do hope, since you dropped in, that there is something here of use to you.

Finally I am always interested in discussion on the topics I post.  Feel free to comment.

Cheers,

- Verm