Was there someone in this thread from the North East who was looking for games?
I seem to recall that there was but also I’m too lazy, stupid and ugly to go back and check.
I think that was me 
(I was meaning to message you at some point but hadn’t got around to it.) I’ve still not managed to play yet - I’d like to try PBF at some point but would like to at least get a few f2f games first. @APALM has kindly put me in touch with some people he knows in Durham, of which one seems interested, but we haven’t managed to arrange a date yet.
But yeah, if you’re interested in a game against a complete beginner, then I’d love to (subject to arranging a suitable time and place, given that I have 2 young children and my wife seems to like to be out most weeknights at the moment…)
Tekopo, I live in north London, and might be free to play on Saturday afternoons. Let me know if you are keen.
I’m way into west London. Busy this saturday, might make the next though! Might be easier to find a place in the middle of London to play as well.
I don’t know if there are any suitable places in Durham but there’re a few locations in Newcastle that cater to board and card games. A few of them are open late on weeknights or are usually not too busy on a Sunday (though I wouldn’t suggest going into Geek Retreat on a Saturday).
If you know of a place in Durham and you’ve got time I’d be happy to come and meet you for some games. Or we could grab a table in a cafe in Newcastle if’n you prefer.
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Yes you guys should totally organise more.
I have nothing to do with it though, since I’m in Australia or something.
I think Apalm would be a good organiser. Everyone bug him to do it.
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Everyone should still bug Bomber anyway for fun 
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Big thanks to @robinz for the games in Durham today. I had a lot of fun. You’ll get me next time!
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Thanks to you, @Fenrir - especially for putting up with my slow play and many times getting confused as to silly details. (I think I know the rules pretty well, but it’s a different matter getting everything straight when you’re playing with physical cards and tokens for the first time.) At least I was surviving more turns by the end - just need to learn to make better tech choices and attack more efficiently (oh and remember that levelling up heroes with gold is something to consider doing) and I may yet be able to call myself mediocre
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Did my friend Chris Wood turn up to the Codex day in Durham?
I haven’t heard back from him for a couple of weeks (I know he said he was going on holiday, but I think he’s back by now). I’ve been meaning to give him a prod, and will do so tonight or tomorrow - but I wasn’t sure 3 would work so well, particularly when I don’t think he’s too familiar with the game (although he has declared himself interested). Rest assured that I’ve not forgotten about him and would love to convert him into a Codex fan!
(EDIT: In hindsight though - yeah, I really should have mentioned to him that I was playing today in case he could make it. God I feel dumb!)
I wish I’d kept some kind of records of what happened in our games. They all felt like pretty interesting/occasionally slightly weird games at the time but the details are pretty fuzzy.
I feel like there’re many lessons to take away from those games about what I can do better when playing (mostly being more aware of cycling and more aggressive with techs). Also I feel like I never build tech 2 at the first opportunity and that seems to be considered an error?
Details are on the sketchy side with me too, but here are my vague recollections:
Game 1 - I played green, you played red, and I got my base destroyed in like 4 turns. I don’t actually remember much else (other than I did bother to build Tech 2 Balance, but had basically lost the game by then anyway).
Game 2 - I stuck with Green (and went tech 2 Growth this time), while you played blue. You annoyed me early on with both Jail and Newsman, the latter of which locked me out of all my juicy 2-cost spells for pretty much the whole game because I somehow NEVER MANAGED TO KILL HIM until like ridiculously late. Meanwhile I teched Nature Reclaims to deal with the Jail, but ended up using it to get rid of your Censorship Council that you built the turn before I drew it. I got some good Tech 2 stuff out, but it mainly seemed to get killed before I could do anything good with it - and then when you brought out your Tech 3 Gryphon and a Quince mirror to copy it that was all over. Oh yes, Onimaru beat me up a few times in the midgame too…
Game 3 - I switched to Red, and you took Green. I remember I went Blood for Tech 2, but remember little else except that you eventually beat me down before I’d even done a single damage to your base, which is kind of embarassing when playing with Red.
Game 4 - I stuck with Red while you switched to White. This definitely felt like the most competitive game - you did seem to really delay getting Tech 2 stuff, while I went with Tech 2 fire, getting a couple of Lizzos down, as well as Doubleshot archer. But I couldn’t make real inroads because you stuck the Boulder in my way, as well as Rook who quickly got to max level. I took one life off him relatively early, but by then he was hiding behind Colossus in squad leader, as well as a Whitestar Grappler who kept killing my stuff without taking any damage. Then when you got your Ninjutsu spells going, with Earthquake too for good measure, things went downhill fast for me. But this was definitely the game where I felt I had most chance - Doubleshot archer was surprisingly not as good as I thought, I really needed to tech the Firebird (ironically the only Fire Tech 2 option I didn’t bother to tech that game) which could have given you some problems. I also think I should have teched some Fire spells to try to kill your non-patrollers (I eventually did, but I never saw them because I had a huge deck and was really hurting for cards that game - which contributed to the problem because I stopped playing workers when I got to 10 in order to actually be able to draw more than 3 cards occasionally - so was not seeing new stuff for many many turns).
There’s definitely a steeper learning curve to this game than I thought (and I certainly didn’t expect it to be easy). I’d love to meet for some games again whenever we can arrange it. And who knows I might actually give you a challenge after another 4 or 5 (particularly if I can get some PBF practice in).
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Game two I thought was pretty interesting with me going down on cards really hard on turn three. I’m not sure how you capitalise on an opponent going down on cards against you. I feel like you’re almost obligated to go down by a similar amount just to keep up on the board.
If anyone else is in the North East near Newcastle or Durham I think I’d quite like to make face to face Codex a regular thing. There’re a few quiet and relatively nice geek friendly cafes that encourage board gaming around the Northeast and DarkMatter comics in Durham seemed well suited.
They actually have a decent size space downstairs that I though would be appropriate for a larger event if more people could be found.
Yeah, I’d love to have some regular Codex meetups in the North East. But I guess there’s no-one else in the area reading this forum, or someone would know about them. (But if anyone reads this later who’s in the area, please let us know!)
I’ve been in touch with @APalm’s friend Chris - he is still keen to learn the game (it sounds like Andy has been helping out there ), but says that it’s probably not going to happen now until next year. I’m looking forward to introducing him to Codex, but in any case 3 is not really a great number for a regular Codex group, so more players would be very welcome!
It kind of forces a similar response as an aggressive opening in an RTS, I think. You can either start producing more units to defend yourself (i.e. go down on cards as well), or you can try to defend the push on the back of superior positioning/army composition (i.e. beat them on value alone).
Each response has its own risks, which also map well to RTS games. If you go low hand and defend successfully, then whoever can best (1) recover from a low hand position, or (2) loses the least by slowing their access to their teched cards, will have the advantage. If you don’t go low hand, you risk losing outright, but assuming you can stabilize, you should have an advantage in the late game, as you will more easily/rapidly be able to execute on your gameplan.
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I’ve managed to get a co-worker to play Codex with but I’d like a more regular opponent. Anyone around London interested in meeting up and playing a few games? Last game I had with my coworker was Necromancy spec mono-black vs my Feral spec mono-green, and we basically swamped the game with tokens, although my big creatures won out by the end.
OK, guys, so the last UK Fantasy Strike meet up was a success. Who’s interested in having another one in 2017?
Yeah, I’m in.
Hampstead again? That way, my wife and I can tag in for childcare and both get to play!
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I’ll keep Rincy informed for you.
Or just tell him to sign up here if I get sick of it.