The Grasshopper (age 9.5) had a half-day of school yesterday (Friday, as I write this). It happens once a year, and I think is tied into giving the teachers some PD time. A week or so ago, I discovered that the 5th grade boy next door had postponed celebrating his birthday by a week and a half to celebrate with going to see Age of Ultron. Knowing how much the Grasshopper loves Sentinels, I made arrangements for C to come over yesterday afternoon to get introduced to the game.

Yesterday's game featured Hake (the Grasshopper), Tempest (me), and Bunker (C) against Omnitron in the Ruins of Atlantis. We made some decent progress for a while, and a pair of well-timed Ground Pounds let us take care of That Bomb when they showed up on almost-consecutive turns. Tempest fell first, Bunker fell to a Technological Singularity that did exactly enough damage to incapacitate him. Unfortunately, at that point Omnitron's Adaptive Plating Subroutine was up, and although the Grasshopper got Savage Mana to fire once, the last card in Omnitron's deck was Sedative Flechettes. At that point, we realized that, without a replacement Savage Mana in hand, the game was unwinnable thanks to the Subroutine.

About 2/3 of the way through that game, C was already asking if we could play again. Fast-forward to today -- my family returns from the U of Illinois baseball game getting rained out, and my wife and daughter have just started making cookies. The doorbell rings to reveal C. After getting some space in the Grasshopper's room cleared out so they have room to try to play, they set up against Gloomweaver. (This takes some negotiating, as the Grasshopper consistently wants to try harder heroes & villains than the other people in the game are usually ready for - he was suggesting a game against Progeny today, for example.) C takes the Wraith, the Grasshopper runs both Expatriette & Bunker, in Insula Primalis. As I'm trying to get other things done around the house, for the first time ever I leave them to try to run the game by themselves.

I'm out picking up dinner when C's mom comes to pick him up. Having been warned in advance that their time was running short, the boys grab a notebook and record everybody's HP, cards in hand, and cards in play. (They forgot about trashes, and I'm not sure how/whether they did the decks since I was gone.) My kids and I already had plans to head to the library tomorrow -- I now have instructions to text C's mom when we leave, and I think the boys are going to try to finish the game then.

The best part is that as he was leaving tonight, my wife heard C say that he likes Sentinels better than video games.