oh baby i’m gonna give you the sexiest zenithal priming

It’s dark, the weather is cold, and the coffee is hot. Welcome to another Tuesday in Saskatchewan.

We made some adjustments to the bed yesterday. Shawshank swapped the fleecy sheets for some regular sheets in hopes that I might sleep through the night. His biggest fear is that I won’t be warm enough at night. I’m happy to report that I was warm enough. While I still woke up at about 5:30, it was because Pippin was cuddling me.

We set up and tried to play Godtear yesterday. I love the details in the minis of the Eternal Glade starter set. I can’t wait to paint them once we get some primer. Each set comes with two large “champions”, who in turn lead several smaller units, and a “banner”. The other expansion pack units you can buy are just as highly detailed.

Note to self: buy primer.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after the game came in that I read a few negative reviews. Aside from a few complaining this starter set wasn’t the best to play on its own, the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. The starter sets each come with two champions and their associated units. However, this is less “board game” than it looks at first glance. The champions supplied should be thought of as a start to a single player’s army rather than split between two opponents. Unless players really know what they’re doing with their single champions, I can see how games could be discouraging. Consequently, the second starter set – The Borderlands – should be arriving sometime this week.

The rules seem pretty straightforward, if you find some good videos. My biggest complaint is that the rule book sucks. They mentioned the same thing over at The Giant Brain, the way the rule book would definitely benefit from a better editor. I felt like things were either missing, or weren’t in a natural order. For example, there’s plenty of information on the plot phase and the clash phase, and the unit/champion cards. Some basic things, like how many actions a unit can take, aren’t explained until later in the book.

I’m usually the one in charge of figuring out the rules and breaking them down, and I was completely stumped. Shawshank and I got as far as setting things up before I insisted on finding a video to follow along with. When the second box arrives, I might take its rule book and rearrange it into something resembling logic.

Shawshank has an extra day off this week. I’ve spent two out of the last three days in my rammy-jammies, and I could do the same today. Our temps have gone above freezing for the first time since around Halloween, and he says the drifts look smaller. I can spend the day without worrying quite as much about Zeppelin (or his new friend, the tuxedo cat) spending his time outside. There are rumors of freezing rain in the forecast, but the sun is out right now. Unfortunately, I think we’re expecting more snow overnight. Shawshank is outside shoveling a spot for me in hopes I can manage some spin time. We’ll see what happens.