Corona | Coming Attractions

Personally, I haven't played much recently because my dissertation defense is scheduled for the end of August and I need to finish my dissertation before I can defend it. Back in October of last year, though, I signed up for this browser-based soccer manager simulation that I've been devoting some time to since then. It was created by a group of German guys and you can access it at www.fussballmanager-online.com (it's not available in any other language but German, so that's kind of a shame).

It's not like a fantasy football league. Instead, you're assigned as a manager to an existing club and you're in charge of the daily practice sessions, the line-up for match days, and the financial side of things (player transfers, stadium maintenance/expansion, sponsorship). For a browser-only game, it's incredibly detailed and it's set up in real time, meaning that one season actually takes one year and you play only one league game per week (with various cup games potentially happening in between). It's a cool system that doesn't require a lot of time investment, but can be incredibly deep if you want it to be.

When I signed up, I took over one of the better clubs that were available at the time (the previous manager had transferred to a German club), in the second-tier league in France (Deuxieme Division). When I signed on, the team was ranked 8th and had as many wins as losses. We're close to the end of the season now and I'm in 5th place, but separated only three point from 3rd and four points from 2nd place, both of which are qualifying spots for promotion to the upper league. My team still has a real chance of being promoted, but with five games remaining in the season the two teams ahead of me need to slip up in at least one game each so that I can catch up to them. It's going to be an incredibly tight race to the finish.

 I used to play Soccer Manager online, but neglected to log in for a while and got sacked!

Very much looking forward to Arkham Origins.

I'm still playing Escape. I have a tendency to stick with a game until I begin to feel confident that I've mastered it. The thing about a game like Escape is that it's pretty impossible to master it.

I feel obligated to fill in for Jakester here:

I'm playing the game Bates. I will continue playing Bates until I master it.

Jakester never objected to anyone filling in.

I wish I were playing City of Remnants.

Dead Island

 Any good?

 I host board game night each Thursday, barring odd workdays and illness, I will endevor to keep everyone apprised. Unless I get bored or forget.

Last week we played the Gears of War boardgame, it's very hard. We finally beat the opening scenario, but it required abusing a few rules, or as I called it: Easy Mode.

Daltons chin dimple wrote:

 Any good?

It has taken me awhile to get into it (bought it used several months ago...may have even been a year ago), but I am finally getting to a point where interesting things are happening.

My video game playing time is about 1/8th of what it used to be. 2 kids and no booze will do that to a man.

I could do with the "No Booze".

 This thursday we busted out "Betrayal at House on the Hill"

Mostly co-op gameplay with a hidden traitor dynamic, and fifty different plots to work through. It is probably my favorite board game. This time I ended up as the traitor, controlling an alien eyeball that was trying to hypnotize the others and get them on my ship. 

I did not succeed.

Only one game left before the end of the season in the soccer manager game. The race for promotion to the top tier is still incredibly tight: my team is in fourth place and has the same number of points as the third-placed team. It's merely their better goal difference (they've scored two more goals than my team) that's keeping them ahead of us in the table.

So I have one more match that I have to win, this time with at least a three-goal margin, and I have to hope that the third-placed team doesn't score too many goals against the last-placed team in their final match of the season. This is going to be tough.

Play for the tie!

I was actually trying to figure out what would happen if both of us ended up with the same number of points at the end of the season. Usually, the goal difference is used as a tie-breaker, but if we both have the same goal difference I have no idea what the next statistic would be that determines the winner.

Of course, none of this would matter if the team in second place lost their final game because we'd move past them in the table.

 This thursday I finally got to bring out the Game of Thrones Board game. It looks to play pretty simply once you get the rules concerning movement and conflict down, but it's something of a hurdle to do so. We elected to play a short, slow game to learn the rules so later we could focus on plotting.

It's a pretty interesting game. Power is divided up, and can shift quickly, so negotiation and alliances are neccesary. Also combat is so that superior tactics can overcome a larger army placing more importance on planning and proper troop movements. 

We didn't get very far, but after the game ended a couple of the players 'Ned Starked' and told me what they were planning on doing. Next time I will use this information to finish them.

Mal Shot First wrote:

So I have one more match that I have to win, this time with at least a three-goal margin, and I have to hope that the third-placed team doesn't score too many goals against the last-placed team in their final match of the season. This is going to be tough.

In the end, I wasn't able to make the jump to third place and qualify for promotion. The team ahead of me already had a two-goal advantage going into the final match and they scored an additional four goals, meaning that I had to score six just to pull even with them in the table. That wasn't going to happen. I won my last game 1:0, but it was ultimately five goals that separated me from third place.

I'm getting a new striker for next season and I'll try to see if I can get another decent center back, and then we'll try to aim for the top three spots once again.

 We had not gamed for a couple of weeks, I forget why the first week but the second was the fourth. However my birthday follows the fourth very quickly so I dropped a nice chunk of change on some new board games. I was also gifted a pair of cthulhu based card games.

This past thursday we tried out "Bootleggers." It's kind of a worker placement, bidding game with strong bargaining and cutthroat elements. We found it pretty fun, and it's always fun to cross your friends by pretending to be a gangster. Also, it comes with a large amount of small plastic cars that you actually have to load whiskey crates into.

Good fun all around.

Next week I should be getting in "Murder of Ravens" and the "Back to the Future" card game.

jraven56 wrote:

We had not gamed for a couple of weeks, I forget why the first week but the second was the fourth.

I had to read the sentence a couple times to figure out what you meant.

 I am guilty of being purposely obtuse; I liked the confusing poetry of it but I could have just said "Concerning boardgames, nothing of note occurred until my birthday on the fifth."

Of course i'm also a person who thinks it's funny to say things like "But on the other hand, I am wearing a glove."

I feel excising bad humor while online keeps it out of my more formal writing.

I am, however, very excited about the BttF card game.

jraven56 wrote:

 I am guilty of being purposely obtuse; I liked the confusing poetry of it but I could have just said "Concerning boardgames, nothing of note occurred until my birthday on the fifth."

So now you're pleading the fifth!

Goits just made a lifelong friend.

Continuing the free Xbox Gold games, I downloaded Assassin's Creed II.

So far, it's a damn fun game. Still getting used to the free-running/jumping/climbing thing.

All you do is hold down the 'A' button.

Sounds like Street Fighter II.