Legendary Encounters: Alien- Strategy and Tips for movie scenarios- Part two: Aliens Movie

For the second instalment of my movie scenario strategy guide for Legendary Encounters: Alien, I will be focusing on the scenario for Aliens. This is both my favourite and first film I watched in the franchise.

My top recommendations for avatar selection are: Mercenary, Synthetic, Medic, Executive and Scout.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: there is no way to kill off starter cards included in this scenario. Since purging your deck of low value cards is an integral part of deck builders this is really going to throw off your game. Hopefully this will get fixed in an expansion because it really throws me off.

The high value cards for this scenario are actually more avatar specific than for other ones. If at all possible get Power loader into the hands of the Mercenary player. This will vastly improve the teams damage output, especially since it stays in play if the player has played any other strength cards that turn. "Split in two" should go to the Synthetic player. Many players turn their noses up at it but it has the potential for a huge return on investment if purchased early on. It does lose value if it doesn't show up until later in the game. "Let's go Marines" is very valuable since there is no mechanic in this scenario for killing off the starter cards. Since it is vigilant that means it can be saved for when you get a hand dense in starter cards. Anyone can use this card, but it can be slightly more useful for the Executive If this player doesn't get it that's okay. The most important card is "This Ain't Happening Man!" This is another vigilant card. Why is it so important? It blocks Event or Hazard cards. Seeing as the hazard cards (and to a lesser extent the event cards) in this scenario are massively hurtful this card will really save your butts. Anybody should get it at the first opportunity. Seriously it is THE card to get.

The medic is one of the most important characters in this scenario. “Get him to medical” are nice and cheap cards. However, since you will need the med bay clear you need to make sure to buy the combat cards. I prefer “close encounters” because Hicks is a badass and you really want to bust heads in the combat zone. The “knife games” cards seem scary due to them causing a strike but that gets cancelled either if you play another med card first or if you can get the med bay clear and heal your strikes. It can also be offset with the “body armor” cards. They may not have the medic icon to go well with your deck but that does not matter, get them to protect yourself from strikes.

The Executive is going to be playing like a coach in this scenario. You won’t be doing much in the way of directly affecting the game, but you will be giving huge amounts of help to the other players. The main reason being the “stay frosty” cards. They deal some damage but the ability to get any number of other players to draw an extra card means you are fattening the hands of everyone at the table. Trust me everyone will love you for this. Just don’t give extra cards to people with chestbursters in their deck. Also remember you are one of the "any number" of players so grab more cards (which you can play right away). The “She’s here as a consultant cards” are very valuable, if you can resist the temptation to spend them too fast. These are vigilant cards, meaning you can save them for later turns and add them to your purchase pool. Saving them for a turn or two can allow you to get those high value cards instead of a fat deck of cheap cards. “Weapons training” cards are really versatile. Depending on what’s in the store or how combat is going you can decide on buying high value cards or help other players do more damage.You should be talking to all of the players and keeping things organized like a good corporate Executive drone. Since your health is low grab body armor too!

The mercenary is going to be dealing a huge amount of damage this scenario. “You want some of this” cards are nice and cheap and do better damage in combos. Get the “I will never leave you cards” and make sure to use the vigilant power to keep them for more powerful combos on later turns. You will want to combo them with the “Ripley enraged” cards for huge damage bonuses. This is the one scenario where you definitely want the high value card of your class. “Power loader” does massive damage and stays in front of you if you have played other strength cards that turn. The powerloader rules!
The main draw back to this character is the lack of purchase power on the strength cards. So be sure to buy sergeants or some of the leadership purchase power cards. Don’t worry Executive you can spare them. Oh and don't forget to nab some body armor!

For the Synthetic player, if it is at all possible get the “split in two” card. I know many players turn up their nose at this card but I love it. This is mainly due to the fact the cards are gained directly into the hand. You and another player get to use them right away. It is also vigilant which means you can hang on to it until it works. Other than that focus on the technical cards. Everyone will be buying the “body armor cards” so don’t get upset about that. Everyone needs them. “Critical analysis” cards are helpful for purchase power. Also using these to discard a starter card to get two new cards in your hand is fantastic. The “they’re all around us” cards are great because of the combined coordinate and scanning abilities. The cost is more than worth it.

Only use the scout if there is a fifth player in the game. There are no cards that work directly with your ability card. Don’t buy anything to screw over the medic. Focus on sergeant cards and other coordinate cards. Think of yourself as the expendable guy who is there to help. Scan as much as possible, coordinate to help others, and kill every enemy you can.

As it was in the film the first objective can go sideways very quickly. While searching for some colonists seems like a cakewalk you can find yourself overwhelmed fast. First off the colonists are really easy to kill lulling you in to a sense of confidence, but if they are revealed when an event card is turned over then they die and a hive card is added to the complex. Err on the side of caution and kill the colonists before revealing more cards, even if it means not using some attack power. While the event cards make it so you have low visibility (more costly scans) they don't make the game too much harder because they are thankfully discarded once you complete the first objective. The hazard card is where you become screwed royally. All players discard all of their attack cards. This means you can have up to 5 players doing a turn without attacking... with 5 new cards added to the complex. Then the xenomorph swarmers come in adding more cards to the complex and next thing you know...

For the second objective you will be placing the sentry guns, because the directors cut has more Aliens so it's better. Placement of the first sentry gun should be in the med bay, for the sake of the medic needing the med bay clear. Place the other one in the weapons locker to prevent enemies from moving in to the med bay. Thankfully these remain for the rest of the game so they are fantastic. There is a good card in the Hive deck, "Newt." She's a decent addition to any players deck. If anyone hasn't got body armor yet give her to them. The main enemies in this objective are either facehuggers or acid-blood xenomorphs. Be wary of revealing cards, make sure you or the next player can kill facehuggers. The events cause a player to get two strikes. So again, body armor is everyone's friend, and keep your medic alive. The hazard fills the complex then hides all of the cards, shuffles and redistributes them. Depending on when this happens you may find yourself overwhelmed and facing endgame cards before completing the objective.

For the final objective you need to kill the queen, but she cannot be killed if there are captives in operations. The problem being there are Xenomorph snatchers who add captives to operations and the queen adds more if an event comes up while she is revealed. Top that off with the event card causing a player to become a captive in operations. This player cannot buy cards, scan, or combat. At this point spend everything on getting captives out of operations despite deck compatibility. These cards are gained like regular HQ cards. Of course Carter Burke comes into this objective like the huge jerk he is. He kills all of the characters in the HQ which doesn't refill while he is in play. Pray none of the better cards are in the HQ when he screws you over.

Such a douche

Check back soon when I go over the other films.
Until next time, remember this film has the best life advice: nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure

Legendary Encounters: Alien- Strategy and Tips for movie scenarios- Part one: Alien Movie

Originally I intended to follow up with this post after the original one for Legendary Encounters: Alien. I apologize but this ended up being a huge undertaking. For the next few posts I will be posting my strategies for the film scenarios included in the game, starting with the original alien film. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to the Alien saga so I've adhered to the Film themes and haven't done any mix and match. Hopefully this explains why I'm formatting my advice this way. As always feel free to debate/critique my post below.

An important thing to note is: each of the film scenarios is missing one of the card categories which changes the overall strategies for play.

For this scenario players will be on the Nostromo ship. The HQ cards will all have the Weyland Yutani symbol on the top left of the card. There are no "strength" cards to work directly with either the Mercenary or the Gunner characters. For this reason I would recommend playing the following: Synthetic, Medic, and Scout with the option between Commander or Executive as 4th player. A 5th player can be the other leader, Technician, or Researcher. See my post about Avatar selection for some more advice.

For all players, the high value cards (7, 8 or 9 cost) need to be purchased as soon as possible. Any character that can afford them should by them ASAP no matter the deck compatibility. The exception to this rule is any character close to being eliminated should never buy these cards. These need to remain available to those still in the game.

The Scout player will likely look at the "You have your orders" cards for purchase power. They are okay and can be picked up whenever you have purchase power to spare. Actually anyone who has some purchasing power to spare should grab them, using them to bury expensive (5 or 6 cost) cards and getting affordable cards in to play may be better for the team early on while later in the game using them to pump through the deck to get the more powerful cards out. They are cheaper than the sergeants and give the same purchase power. However the sergeant coordinate ability really helps make the powerful cards affordable. It comes down to if you have the high value cards in the store early get the sergeants so they can be purchased. "Review the Nav data" is a massively helpful card, especially in the end game. The high damage and coordinate ability are the perfect combo for this scenario. Grab the "expert navigator cards" if the others aren't available because the damage and ability to draw extra cards are going to help out in the end game.


The Medic will obviously buy as many "first aid kits" as possible. This will help keep players in the game and provide much needed purchase power. This should all be spent on the "find it and kill it" cards. The high damage and coordinate power on these cards will be vital later in the game. These are way more important than the "you are my lucky star" cards. So if you have the option between the two pick the "find it and kill it."

There should be a player focusing on buying the leadership cards, be it the executive, the commander or the synthetic: someone needs to be a leader. "Quarantine Procedure" will be your main focus here. These cards will help you thin out the starter cards from the players decks, increasing the chances of better card combinations. These are the only cards in this scenario that let you do this so make sure you do this much as possible. "Captain of the ship" is your next priority. These will really stack the damage up. While the power on "teams of three" seems powerful it won't be effective until the late game when you have thinned your deck of starter cards. There are no leadership cards with purchase power so remember to buy either the "Sergeant" cards or "you have your orders" cards.

Whoever is left over should be focusing on the intel cards, meaning the Synthetic if there is a leader in play. Pick up as many "motion detector" cards as possible. These will help with purchasing better cards and help with getting rooms scanned without sacrificing attack power. This purchase power will be well spent on the "Repair the ship" cards. If you can keep the power station clear this will help you have large hands of cards. However the "Electric Prod" cards will be very valuable when it comes to the end scenario. The main big bad at the end needs to be in a specific room and these cards will ensure you can make that happen, the sooner you can get these the better.

This scenario's first objective, "The S.O.S." seems pretty easy, just find the two parts of the S.O.S. signal. It can be easy if you plan properly. The big problem will be the alien egg cards. They don't seem to be a big threat at first, they do not strike or move, however this means the blind cards feeding in to the facility move to the next available space. This means new blind cards can enter the combat zone fast. The other HUGE threat for the eggs are when the event cards come up. Any revealed egg hatches a face-hugger. You can end up with the threat of early game chestburster(s?) in play and that will spell certain doom. Event cards also trigger the current and next player to draw strikes. The first hazard card adds two cards to the complex. Couple this with spaces blocked by eggs and you can find yourself suddenly overrun. Kill the eggs ASAP.

Or you are screwed

In the second objective "No one can hear you scream" the game can go sideways quickly. Hopefully a player will have the "Electric prod" because there are enemies that gain health in the combat zone. Pushing them back may be more effective then direct combat. Sealing the ventilation shaft will be a challenge. First the shaft controls need to be found, then you will need to clear the ventilation shaft and afford to spend purchase power all at once. The problem is the high cost of revealing what is in the room (4) followed by the damage rating of whatever is in the room, then the (2) purchase power. Most characters won't have that all together at once so coordinating will probably be the only thing to help the characters, this is why you should buy any coordinate cards as soon as possible. The event cards will really hinder you because they cause the next player to discard 2 cards. The hazard card is a bigger threat because the top card of the enemy deck goes directly in to the combat zone. You may find yourself facing end game threats very early on because of this. There is a positive card in this objective: "Jonesy" the cat. He allows a player to heal a flesh wound from any number of players. While flesh wounds aren't as bad with 1 damage, they can add up. These are also a more common strike card. I would give this card to the medic character. He can use it as the first card from his hand, triggering the first aid kits. Healing the flesh wounds with this card saves the first aid kits for the more serious strikes.

The final objective "A perfect organism" will be very hard. Since the previous objective blocked the ventilation shaft it means there is one less space in the complex and enemies are always one space closer to the combat zone. Threats will be coming faster and they are stronger now. Especially since event cards cause the leftmost enemy or hidden card to jump directly into the combat zone. Hopefully you will have thinned your decks of starters and bought some stronger cards by now. Almost all of the enemies in this objective have double strikes or unavoidable strikes. The one thing you absolutely need in this scenario will be the airlock controls, with this card in play you can use purchase power to move an enemy to the airlock. This is the only way to kill the big bad Perfect Organism, but it could also help pull enemies out of the combat zone to prevent strikes. Scan as much as possible and coordinate to eliminate threats. A special threat is the enemy Ash. This synthetic from the movie has 8 damage but cannot be killed without a player coordinating. Yet another reason to buy up all the coordinate cards. The final hazard is a self destruct. When revealed it moves toward the combat zone as an enemy. Think of this as your timer. Once it arrives in the combat zone every player draws 3 strikes. Pretty much a potential total party kill moment. This can be prevented by spending 8 purchase power so hopefully someone will be able to coordinate with sergeant cards to make this happen.

For most Alien movie buffs this kind of doesn't really fit with the first film. It helps to think of the enemy cards more as one of a number of attacks from the main enemy rather than individual enemies.

Come back soon for the Aliens scenario post.

Until next time: on the internet no-one will read your blog.

Exploding Kittens game review

My wife is a cat lover. I grew up with a cat despising parent. I never knew what it was like to have cats until my wife and I got into a house where we could have pets. We got in to a debate where I wanted a dog, she wanted a cat. “We” compromised and got a cat. This has nothing to do with my review but it may explain why we got the game Exploding Kittens.

Exploding Kittens is a player elimination card drawing game. Hidden somewhere in the draw pile are Exploding Kittens cards. When a player draws one the player is eliminated, unless they have a defuse card which allows the player to place the exploding kitten back in to the deck anywhere they feel like.

I enjoy the simplicity of the rules for the game. They can be picked up quickly in just a couple of minutes and have players in to the fun right away. On each turn players play as many cards as they like (even none) then they draw a card. The artwork and humorous writing on the cards brings as much fun as the actual play.

I’m not usually a fan of player elimination games but the game is very quick to play (under 15 minutes.) Each round features just enough exploding kittens in order to eliminate players quickly and efficiently ensuring eliminated players don’t get bored. There will never be a need to shuffle the discard pile back into the draw pile so there is a defined limit to the game. Even if the last card in the draw pile is an exploding kitten, if a player then plays the defuse card only that last exploding kitten is replaced into the draw pile. Making the game end in a Russian roulette style playoff on who has the most defuse cards.

To sum up I think Exploding Kittens is a fun, easy to learn game that should be a lot of fun for anyone who gets cat jokes. Now that I have 2 cats who wake me up by smelling my eyeballs, claw up my furniture, or just insist on watching me shower I can understand why Exploding Kittens is such a relatable idea.

Until next time, I think Exploding Kittens is a blast.

Star Wars Edge of the Empire character creation and dice advice

Those who know me know I can get obsessive, so of course I looked up the probability of the die rolls for Star Wars Edge of the Empire.

It seems adding more ability dice can increase the probability of positive results faster than converting them to proficiency dice. Of course you will never have a triumph until you convert to proficiency dice but triumphs are few and far between so far.

Many players emphasize increasing characteristics over skills or talents in the creation phase. It does seem like a solid plan. During character creation you cannot bring a skill above level 2 nor can you bring a characteristic above level 5. Skills cost 5x the level you are going to, so 15 exp total to move up to level 2 (from 0). Each ability affects a different set of skills, and every player is assumed to have a level 0 in each skill. So any player can try any skill at their base characteristic level.

This chart shows how many skills are affected.

Characteristic	# skills affected	Cost to rank all skills to level 2 (career skills)
Brawn	4	60
Agility	6	90
Presence	4	60
Intelligence	5	75
Cunning	5	75
Willpower	3	45

Since each race has different stats it would cost 90 exp to up a level 3 stat to it’s max of 5, or 150 for a 1 stat.

With that in mind a Wookiee who increased their brawn to level 5 could have 5 ability dice on 4 brawn skills right away giving a 90% success rate on a basic threat. But if they upped those skills to level 2 it would cost 60 giving them 2 proficiency dice and one ability dice giving an 83% probability of success on a basic threat action. It really is a significant difference.

Of course there are downsides to just increasing the stat. In my example it uses all the Wookiee’s starting experience. While increasing the specific skills leaves the player another 30 experience to upgrade with. Also the player may not care about all 4 of those skills and don’t forget the free starting skill upgrades. I also found talents look to be an even bigger benefit. Pumping into a given attribute tends to make a character a one trick pony and can leave you out of certain chapters of the game. A brawling Wookiee really doesn’t advance the story line much.

The deciding factor could be that you can only increase characteristics at creation or with special skill tree purchases. During the game it is quicker and easier to increase skills and special abilities.

Personally if I get a chance to re-roll my character I think I will try to focus on characteristics. I also think I will go with an agility based pilot character as this is something our group is missing. I'm still happy with my Wookiee Hired gun, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't obsessively second guess my decisions.

Until next time, keep those game nights rolling.

Ca$h and Gun$ board game review

A while ago the wife and I went in to the board game store on a mission. We cased the joint, trying to loot the perfect board game for a decent sized group of people, something easy to pick up and get some adrenaline rushing. That’s when a feisty redhead pointed us to Ca$h and Gun$. Everything she said sold us on the fact that this was the take. We grabbed the game, hit the cash register (to pay) then sped off in our getaway car to game night.

The theme of Ca$h and Gun$ is that you are a group of gangsters after the big heist. You are back at the warehouse getting ready to divvy up the loot when the double cross happens. No honour among thieves!

The game plays out in eight rounds. The loot is laid out on the table for all to see. As the players all stare each other down they secretly select either a click or a bang from their hand of cards, then the Godfather counts down 3…2…1… and everyone aims their guns at another player. Now players must decide whether to risk being shot (or is it just a click?) and go for the wealth they deserve, or lay down their gun and give up their share of the loot. The Godfather then counts down again 3…2…1 Bonzai!!! Those that lay their guns down are out of the round, those that are in reveal their cards. Anyone who gets shot is wounded and is knocked out of the loot sharing for the round. 3 wounds eliminate a player.

In the loot selection players choose from the pile going clockwise from the Godfather. They can select from various values of cash, diamonds (whoever has the biggest collection gets the $60000 diamond) artwork which goes up in value as your collection grows, cards that reload bangs, or cards that heal you, or the Godfather Token.

The Godfather role has two distinct advantages, they get first pick in the loot phase and after players have aimed their guns they can tell one player to aim their gun elsewhere (the player gets to choose where to aim.) These advantages can help but can also make you a target.

There are optional rules for role cards but I really don’t recommend playing with them. These rules actually make the game needlessly complicated and can take away from the fast paced-sleek action. (also bringing down the fun)

This game is amazing for so many reasons. The rules are very easy to pick up and set up is quick. This is a fantastic game to bring out for new gamers. The fast pace keeps all players in the game keeping everyone interested and invested. But the biggest draw is the fact that you point silly foam guns at your friends. The mechanic of play is so thematic and goofy fun that it’s easy to get immersed into the atmosphere of the Ca$h and Gun$.

The main draw back of the game is the player elimination aspect. Thankfully since Ca$h and Gun$ plays so quickly this usually doesn’t last long. Also the fact that the player could have chosen to lay down their gun at any time but opted for the risk also makes it the players own fault. It’s all part of taking risks.

I’d recommend getting this game for introducing new players into the hobby of board gaming. It’s simply mechanic and fast pace keep players invested. The theme and mechanics work so well together in a way that anyone who has ever seen a heist movie can relate to.

This is one game you won’t need to keep people at gunpoint to play.

Master of Orion is coming back

Master of Orion is coming back! I am so excited. I know it’s a computer game not a board game, as this blog is intended to review. But I want to talk about it so I will.

I started in to the Master of Orion series in junior high. A friend handed me some bootleg disks and told me to give it a try. I know, bootleg is wrong and I did buy all of the versions later on. But MOO1 was my introduction to 4x gaming and I’ve loved it ever since. Oh yeah, we called it MOO. Acronyms are cool, and calling a space game MOO is freaking funny.

The series was a big part of my teen years. Nostalgia has me excited for this next installment.

I’m excited because some of the original development team is back including the original lead designer, composer, and art director. This promises that the heart and soul of the series remains intact. Moreover the company that took over the title has announced that this will not be a free to play style game like their World of Tanks game. The microtransaction model would never fit this style of game, it would just kill it. So happy news that we have a proper retail game.

I am a little wary of the game though. Can this fill my expectations?

Psylons are my default race.

I was originally glad when I heard the team would be completely ignoring MOO3. The third installment in the series had a user interface that even the most masochistic of accountants would hate. The AI was terrible and the game was just riddled with bugs. In short MOO3 was not a good game. But by ignoring this installment I think the designers of the new Master of Orion game are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There is something that MOO3 did so amazingly right: Character development. The alien races are beautifully designed and detailed. They had rich back stories. More importantly they weren’t childishly cartoonish. I’m a little tired of simplistic racial designs of animal-person hybrid aliens. The bird-man Alkari, the Cat-Alien Mrrshans and so on are too simplistic. I want a rich back story. The original two games came up with bland racist alien archetypes. Russians/Bulrathi, Gnolam/Jews, humans/Caucasians. MOO3 actually moved away from “all people of a certain race are this way because sci-fi racism.” Instead each race acted a certain way because of histories of wars, slavery, genetic engineering, or even religion. The AI had storied reasons for hating each other not just "birds and cats don't get along eh!" This is creativity the genre desperately needs.

Arrr space pirates!

Another thing I liked from MOO 3: terraforming. It was looked at differently. Each race had different biological needs so therefore each race had a specific ideal environment. Planets with little value to you could be a perfect place for your neighbour for a farm colony. Another race could sweep in to take a planet of strategic significance and begin terraforming it into their ideal but your inhospitable wasteland. The first and second installments ignored this about alien life. Ground combat modifiers could apply to each races environmental needs. It added to the costs of taking over alien worlds. It's thematic and a factor I felt brought more to the game.

Are those star lanes? NOOOOO!!!

The other thing I worry about is star lanes. For those who don’t play 4x games star lanes are essentially highways in space. The game either forces you to travel along star lanes or as in MOO3, travel outside of star lanes is obscenely slow. It’s just not how space works. It doesn’t make sense in the medium of a space game. The sole reason star lanes exist is they essentially make programming a game’s AI easier. I hate them. The only way I could see star lanes as being something thematic is if they were some kind of tech players could research and build, something reminiscent of the trade lanes in the old Freelancer game. A series of gates players could build to make travel between two systems faster. Essentially this could eliminate FTL (faster than light) engine requirements within your empire space. Great for defensive ships and for freighters (freeing up internal space) but then you would need a separate class of attack ships for moving outside of your space. This could be an early tech that would later be replaced by wormhole technology or efficient FTL drives. It could have an upkeep cost, and could create bonuses in trade if you constructed them to another race’s planets. What I’m getting at is I don’t want star lanes unless they are made more thematic.

In other news: local nerd writes blog post!

I am happy so see random events will be coming back with the Galactic News network. It was always fun to see a space creature moving to attack another player, or having to reevaluate a plan of moving ships when a creature begins eating ships in hyperspace. I found this factor highly thematic and the challenges they presented made the game more interesting for me. It was also satisfying to have GNN announce that you had colonized a number of star systems far outreaching anyone other empire. It was a fun and quirky way of delivering some random challenges to the game.

I like the look of this cleaner tech tree design

The best part of the MOO series was the optional nature of play. A player could chose from several races or customize one of their own. A player could customize their ships, and could chose which technologies to research. The player had a myriad of options on how they wanted to play the game. Trade, alliances, treaties, diplomacy and a galactic council all added flavour to the game in such fun and diverse ways. This created a highly replayable game you could battle in time and again against either your friends or the computer.

One thing that I'm eagerly awaiting is news of the Guardian of Orion. Will it still be there? What will it look like? How powerful will it be? Will there still be a derelict ship to claim? Oh and will there be Antarans? I liked the random attacks, and the techs to be gained from boarding their vessels. I would love for them to return but I don't want beating them to be a win condition. Make it a hard to claim/hard to return from planet. When your ships come back they appear randomly on the map, and anyone with the right tech can attack it from anywhere they have the gate. 

For those who want a taste of the original Master of Orion it is available for free play on archive.org. Also for those who wish to follow along with the release of the new game the official website is here.

Until next time you know I’m just going to get more excited as that release date just keeps MOOving closer.

Edmonton Expo 2015

Another Edmonton Expo came and went. Of course the wife and I had to go. We love nerding it up.

One day I will have a Lego room.

This year we drove friends of ours who had a table in artist alley. These were the folks at Perfectly Chaotic. We got to use their parking pass so that was a big plus. The downside was having to walk all the way around the outside of the building to be let in. I guess I could use the exercise so it's all good.

I find the Edmonton Expo center is well designed for a comic expo. Multiple halls with multiple access points allow for more routes of traffic. My only problem with moving around was in the hallway between halls C and E, it smelled like a sewer backup all weekend.

As usual I was disappointed in the timing of guest announcements. Tickets went on sale before we knew who was coming. Meanwhile Calgary expo had a guest announcement in the program for this years Edmonton Expo. (Lucy Lawless… now I have to go to Calgary) It feels like the organizers don't put forth the effort they should. I hope they work on that for next year.

The food was all located in the central corridor or outside in food trucks. I wondered why the food trucks were left outside when I’ve been to other events at that center with the trucks indoors. There were tables set up in hall B which would have been a perfect location for the trucks. It was a little of a pain to try to exit through the entryway just to get to the food trucks. Because of that we just avoided them.

As for the show itself my wife was excited to meet Cary Elwes. She’s got the hots for him. I like Princess Bride, Men in Tights and his Saw appearances so we went to the panel and got a photo with him. He’s hilarious. His panel was mostly about Princess bride but there was a smattering of questions about his other roles. For some reason everyone kept saying Prince of Thieves by mistake when it came to talking about Men in Tights. It got to the point where even he started saying it in error. At the photo op he took the time to shake our hands, ask our names and how the show was going. Much to the photographers chagrin. I really like it when the guests don’t follow along with rushing people through like the con tries to enforce; being nice to fans while sticking it to the man makes me smile.

Billy Boyd was great at his panel although he seemed a little fixated on peeing. He was hilarious and it was nice to hear he took part in the local culture by going to the art museum. I’m regretting missing out on the Beecake concert now. At the very end of the show we came over to the signing area and noticed he was just getting ready to leave. We raced over for a signature. While the money was changing hands with his crew he started a drawing game with us. He made a scribble on the signing table and we were supposed to finish the drawing. My wife made an Ogopogo and I made a poorly drawn Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. I decided since it was the end of the show I could be a little audacious and ask for a photo. He said he really shouldn’t but what the hell. He grabbed my phone and proceeded to take several selfies with us. It was great.

Since I’m a fan of the Walking Dead I had to meet Michael Rooker. We went to the Guardians of the Galaxy panel featuring him and Sean Gunn. The two of them really riffed with comedy together. My wife loved it since she is big into Gilmore Girls and Guardians. Michael Rooker is like a big goofy kid in real life. He kept laughing and really engaged with the fans; Pretty much the complete opposite of his Merle character. I would totally hang out with that guy. Which we were told we could at the ATB booth. Well, suckers we were because ATB just pushed another run through thing. The funny thing was he brought Sean Gunn along so my wife went all Gilmore Girls girly fangirl. She ran to Sean Gunn when Michael Rooker tried to meet and greet us. When I told him why we lost her he just bellowed “Hey Gilmore Girl Turn AROUND!” Sean Gunn beamed at having a fan and pulled her in for a photo.

We also went to the Buffy panel with Amber Benson, Eliza Dushku and James Marsters. Marsters seemed the most comfortable on stage while Eliza Dushku seemed a little unsure of how to do the con thing. She was still fantastic and I enjoyed the panel. It was a little weird when Spike sang country music: Especially since I hate country.

The only other panel we went to was with Jenna Coleman. I am glad we hit that one up since it was her first time speaking in public about the departure from Doctor Who. She’s just as cute and bubbly in person as she is on the show. Everyone around me got a little irritated with the moderator who didn’t understand his role. He treated it more as a personal interview than a Q&A panel. I personally felt he should have reigned in with his attempt at Diane Sawyer questions and let the fans have their experience. When the panel ended there were a good 40 fans still lined up at the mics. When Jenna finally got the opportunity to answer questions she was amazing and she gave some fantastic insight into her character portrayal.

I had to miss the first few minutes of the panel as my wife had bought me a photo op with Ivy Doomkitty. She knows I have a little crush on this cosplayer because well, smart, funny, curvy, and cosplay. Pretty much everything I’m attracted to. My wife got some Cary Elwes time so she got me Ivy Doomkitty time. Mrs. Doomkitty was supposed to be dressed as Velma, and I love that character so I'm a little disappointed timing made her unable to wear the planned costume. I’m sure there’s always next year. She was still all cuddles, happiness, and cuteness so I totally forgive. I didn’t get any talk time as I had to race to the Jenna Colman panel where my wife was saving a seat. Ivy, if you read this my favourite cosplay of yours is Dr. Doom... Someday I will cosplay him too and maybe get a photo together?

For show swag my wife and I got the show shirts, she got a scarf and I got the limited edition TMNT print. I even got Kevin Eastman to sign it which was really cool. My wife got a Tardis Toque, a Vader purse, a bookmark, and some lightsaber earrings. We also bought a print of Death Jr on Pale Horse. It’s cute and dark. I finally picked up a copy of ’68 as I’ve been meaning to read it forever. Luckily local artist Nat Jones was there to sell me a signed copy. But most importantly I finally got my functional bearded axe, which I’ve been walking around the house with since then. I have to chop something with it soon. The wife’s all “Not the furniture” and “Not the hardwood floors.” She didn't even let me drive around waving it out my driver side window. Seriously no fun at all.

And of course we spent quite a bit of time admiring cosplay. We still haven’t attempted it but I’ve got together everything for a Krieger outfit (I even have a piggly) and my wife is working on a Pam outfit so maybe next year. We went to the costume contest and it was great. My wife’s favourite was the Sanderson Sisters, mine was the Valkyrie costume. I love Thor comics so it was cool to see the character.

Can I pull off Krieger?

Thus ended another fun year of comics, entertainment and geekery. I hope to see you again next year.

Cowabunga this was COOL!