Condolences…

“Attention crew of the ISS Vanguard. This is your Captain speaking.” Deep bracing sigh. “This is not an announcement that I want to make, ever.” Long pause.

“As you all know, we were attacked by the Arrogators. I know it was confusing, and we were caught off guard, which is my fault. Believe me, more drills will be in our futures now. We all knew the risks of coming here. Still, to lose even one person…” another long pause and audible swallow. “…to lose even one person, let alone 20 of our precious crewmembers…honestly, I’m still trying to come to terms with it. I’d like to acknowledge each person who we had to sadly put on our Memorial Wall.”

The Captain names each person, with a special fact or quick anecdote that he knew about them.

Samantha Block

Juan Rameriz

Abdul Shalif

Emily Kirk

Zoe Chung

Isaiah Feldstein

Bernard Windsor

Bettina Becker

Ivan Petrov

Liam Blake

Arthur Cillian

Orisia Melnyk

Javier Aguero

Keith Wood

Jaromir Golubov

Benjamin Goldmen

Nour Shendi

Maria Torres

James Barton

Ebe Loman

“These brave souls came from all departments. They fought for us, they saved research, they saved other shipmates, they protected the bridge, and some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I want to let you all know, that Ebe Loman, an orphan, a bubblegum snapping funny woman who made the Vanguard her home and family…she volunteered for what we all knew was a suicide mission. She knew it was a suicide mission. Yet she still stepped up. She flew one of our shuttles right into the enemy’s ship that was pounding us with bombs. Because of that incredible sacrifice, we survived. The Vanguard survived. Her last words to us on the bridge as she approached the enemy ship were “Vanguard, don’t forget.” We won’t forget Ebe, we won’t forget any of you. I promise. Let’s have a moment of silence for our fallen comrades.”

Hello Readers! What you just read actually happened in a board game that I am playing called Vanguard. This is not a review. However, if you like board games, battles, science fiction, adventure, minis, and a campaign style kind of game, this one is awesome. I am having a lot of fun with it. I finished the main campaign, and will one day soon get into the expansions. (I’m working on painting up the minis that go with the game.) But Robin, you ask, does this mean you are giving up on TTRPGs? HELL NO!!!

One of the reasons that I got into solo RPGs is because as most of you know, it’s hard to get people to play an RPG with you. It’s hard to get people together to play board games too! (For the upcoming Mother’s Day in the USA, I asked my daughters just to come over and no presents, that I wanted to play games all day. So Girl’s day with Mom!) I have always played board games since I was a child. Recently though, I started wondering about board games that I can play solo, and wow, there are so many cool games of every genre. Right now, Vanguard and Zombicide are my two game obsessions.

The above short eulogy of some of the crew members of the ISS Vanguard, a deep space colony ship, really happened. The ship really was attacked, which caught me so off guard, that I really felt under siege myself! The anxiety was real! And one of my main characters, Ebe Loman, really did fly a shuttle into the enemy ship! I had to sacrifice her and a shuttle to save the Vanguard, and I’m telling you, for a second, it felt real. That is a sign (to me) of a good game. So Ebe, I’m going to toast your sacrifice with a glass of wine, and thank you for saving the Vanguard, and my game! Another note: the Captain mentioned a Memorial Wall. There is a ship’s binder that actually has slots for fallen comrades where you can slot their cards. I think that adds a pretty cool touch.

Upcoming articles: an interview with @sarahblount, and an article about the board game Zombicide with some pictures of the minis and zombies! (Really fun to paint) Have a great week, be well, be kind. Thank you for reading!