What becoming adult means

Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Secret War Journal[17 June 2013]
First and foremost, I would like thank all those who remembered my birthday.
It is so bright outside. I am jealous.

I am so glad that I was allowed to take leave for the week which my birthday falls on.

As I had mentioned many times already, June is not a happy month for me (mostly). I am not going to say out why here. Perhaps I had mentioned it some years back but I have no intention to repeat it. Sorry.

Although it is the holiday season now, I was informed of my leave a little late. Not many people could take leave today. I would be a little bit heartless if I said I do not feel a little bit sad. Then again, it could be just me being more emotional and sensitive during this period of time. Not to mention that my anger is almost left unchecked during this period. While I try to be calm, I need a month to berserk for a while so as to maintain my sanity for the next one year.

After all, the trend had been that the world turns against me during the month of June. 

My armour is like paper, do not kill me please.
A lot of bad stuff had happened this month, not surprisingly. I am not planning to write those events down either (no point making everyone depressed over stuff to which we have no control over, huh?) and I think it is better to forget such things even occurred in the first place. :P

Best Friend's Home is Home
What better than being able to visit my best friend's house after so long? I miss the times when I could stayover for a week at Johnston's house. Come the present, I am now in army and he is University. Even if he is free, most of the time, I am too preoccupied with work to be able to set aside days to stayover. Thus, I was actually glad that I managed to get this time to do some house visit.

There, I spent the whole morning at the dining table just chatting with him. It really brings back memories of the past where we simply sat in the canteen after school, talking until the early evening.

As the saying goes, time passes when you are having fun. Before long, it is lunch time. Emelia had woken up and joined us for lunch. After lunch, we went up to the computer room, as so to not disturb Emelia who was studying at the dining table. (After a moment, she started to comment that we were avoiding her, which is of course not true. Hahas!)

As unexpected as it was, we ended up playing Dragon Nest in the computer room. One reason was because the controllers for Xbox and Wii ran out of battery so we could not play them. To make things interesting and refreshing for us, we tried each other's characters in the game.

Admittedly, it was my first time trying out the Warrior class in the game. Boy, the playing style for warrior is really different. It was contrast to my archer attacking from far away, away from enemy fire. The first few runs as a warrior was rather chaotic. I found that, as a warrior, you would spam the left mouse button quite badly. Hmm....

Another class I got to try was the Kali class. Similar to the warrior in the sense that she is also a melee class character, using her requires more hit-and-run tactics.

Tarots
Before I end off this post, I also would like to thank the following people for gifting me these presents> :)
  • Keller - Tarot Card Deck

  • Johnston - Razer Mouse (Using now! :)
  • Emelia - Shirt (Thank you! I like it!)
  • Marcus - Phone Accessory with my Korean Name and Artillery Badge
  • Lera - Notebook (Unexpected, I must say)

"Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor." - Sholom Aleichem

Bang!

Sunday, June 16, 2013
Secret War Journal[15 June 2013][Long Post][Picture-Heavy]
Author's Note:
Phew! It has been really long time since I last published a post huh? I am so glad I finally have some time to myself because for the good half of this week, I'm on leave. Hahas!

With us today at The Mind Cafe in Funan Digital IT mall are Darian, Johnston and Qi Xiang. Sadly, the rest of them was not able to make it but oh well, 4 people, just nice for almost every board game.
Mind Cafe @ FUNAN IT MALL

Today, we are trying this new game called 'Bang!'. To be honest with you, I am not sure if I should label it as a card game or a board game since it has both. Hmm...

I think I would label it as a board game since Settlers of Catan is a board game and it has both. :)

Moving on, the first time I heard from this game was from Adrian (I think?) some years back during my days as a Junior College student. (Ah, I feel old already.) Then, we never really got into playing it because I just never chanced upon it outside. Hahas! Recently, this year during my work retreat at a chalet (will be posting on that), one of my colleague, Melvin also mentioned this board game.

Clearly, that was a sign as come today, lo and behold, this board game caught our eye.
--
Bang! is a game that is based on the Wild Wild West. Basically, there are 3 types of characters in this game - Sheriff, Outlaw, Renegade. Sheriff's role is to apprehend both the Outlaws and the Renegades. Inversely, the Outlaw's objective is to work together with other Outlaws to remove the Sheriff from play. Lastly, the Renegade's job is to eradicate everyone in the game to become the last man standing.

In addition to this, there are many classes that each character can be in the game. Each classes has its own special abilities which would be constantly be in effect in the game. Such effects could include discarding 2 cards to heal for 1 hp or increasing the distance from you to other players to make it difficult for them to shoot you. The amount of health you have would be determined by the class you choose.

Trying out Bang!
For the first game, I was the Sheriff. At this point, you must be wondering 'How do you decide who plays as who?' Well, you are not allowed to choose. Thus, at the start of each game, the character cards would be shuffled and randomly assigned to players. Only the Sheriff would place his character card face-up, announcing to everyone who is the Sheriff. (Obviously, the outlaws and the renegades do not play fair.)

My action cards
Moving on, there are many different kinds of action cards that can be played during your turn in Bang! Firstly, there is a 'bang' card where you shoot at someone. Who you can shoot depends on the distance between you and the target as well as the range of your weapon. To summarise, the longer the range of your weapon and the closer you are to your target, the better. The distance between you and the target is determined by the seating arrangement of the players. The distance between me and those beside me is 1 and so on. Unless specified otherwise, each player can only shoot once each turn.

Secondly, there is a counter card called 'miss'. This card can only be played when you are being shot. This card is useful in saving yourself from losing health.

Thirdly, there is a card named 'beer' that heals you for one health.

For other special action cards, feel free to read up on them when you play the boardgame! (I cannot list them all down, there are so many different kinds!)

Johnston has got to stop using Beer! He is almost immortal in this game!
The Sheriff got taken down! Outlaws win!
Second game! Johnston's the Sheriff this time round. Renegade wins.
Things get more interesting when the Sheriff manage to take out the outlaws. Left with the renegade, it is now a deathmatch between the two. The objectives are now very clear cut, be the last man standing to win. That said, it is not that easy for the Sheriff to win in this game.

After a few rounds of Bang!, we decided to change the game. By popular demand, we chose Munchkin.

Players (from top left, clockwise): Darian, Qi Xiang, Myself, Johnston

Level 3 at the start? That fast?
The thing about playing with veterans is that the game gets heated up quickly. Already, everyone is trying to prevent each other from becoming too powerful in the game.

Who needs levels when you have good equipments?
Most notable was the time when Qi Xiang decided to gamble on his levels to steal some items from us. At the cost of 2 levels, apparently he saw great potential in that item. Was it worth it? Time will tell.

Darian overtook Johnston!
As everyone approaches level 10, the number of action cards being thrown just intensifies. Within a round, Johnston reached level 9, reclaiming the spot as the highest level.

Will Johnston win next turn?
Nope, not going to happen.
Responding to this, Qi Xiang and I eliminated the threat of Johnston winning by making him lose 4 levels during his battle with his monster. Taking advantage of this chaos, Darian gained a level to level 9. Now, he is on track to winning next turn. But, would he?

Reaching end-game setting soon
Unfortunately for Darian, he could not find a monster to fight while the rest of us gained levels during our turns. Despite my initial lack of equipments, I managed to salvage some items to catch up with the rest. Phew, who is going to win? It is anyone's guess now.

Just how many items can Qi Xiang equip?!
With the latest addition of the kneecaps of allure, I am on track to winning! However, notice how well-equipped is Qi Xiang right now.

Out of the blue, Qi Xiang turned level 9 and we had to throw everything we had at him as he was really too well-equipped.


Qi Xiang's equipments the round before






















Some of the cards used during the final battle
In the end, we failed in our attempt to prevent Qi Xiang from defeating that army of monsters. I guess good equipments bring you a long way in Munchkin. :)

Darian is not happy to hear that. He was supposed to win (since he was level 9 for so long). Hahas!
Stay silent and strike at the last moment.
Other cards used during the game (which I cannot fit anywhere)
You are not making this easy for me to escape right?
When in danger, run!
One painful hammer, that one.
What's this? Designed by Darian
With that, we moved on to Blokus!

For those unfamiliar with this game, the objective is to be the last man standing in the game. Somewhat similar to Tetris, you need to place as many pieces on the board game as you can. There is one condition - all your pieces must be connected via the edges of the pieces and they cannot be in contact with each other, i.e. side by side.

The start of the four great continents. Who will conquer this new world?

Blue: Darian Ng (America)
Red: Lim Qi Xiang (Russia)
Yellow: LeRoy Lim (India / Thailand / Ukraine)
Green: Johnston Tang Gin Xiang (Pakistan)
--

After playing these games, Johnston went for Violin lessons while we walked around the shop to kill time.

Hmm, where is Johnston?
Why are you taking pictures of us?!
Photo-bomb!
As it turned out, Johnston was already downstairs. Hahas! We had dinner at Pastamania and shortly left for home. :)

What a blast I had today! Wohoo!
See you guys next time! :)

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." - William Shakespeare

Credits: Darian (Photos)