OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[Boudreaux]

When the incarnation finally showed up we had one player dead, 5 of 9 village tiles haunted, 8 ghosts on the board, no Yin-Yangs, and 1 Chi (HP) each.

Hate to be a stickler, but you lose the game instantly when the fourth village tile is haunted. If you had 5 haunted, the game was already over. Unless they changed the rules.

[YellowKing]

Ugh.

I guess I misinterpreted the rules. We thought it meant 3 village tiles in a row, then the haunter haunts a 4th "non-existent" village tile in that row. I remember specifically reading that scenario described and I guess I didn't realize the four village locations could be anywhere on the board. I think I was also misled a bit by the video tutorial on boardgamegeek, which focuses on haunted tiles in a row (i.e. the action of a single haunter if you don't stop him). The Headless Hollow summary sheet makes that much clearer, but we didn't have it on us last night.

Oh well, thanks for pointing that out. I'd much rather suffer a little disappointment now and get the rules right than continue on completely botching them. My friends are going to be crushed though when they realize there will now be a big fat asterisk by our victory saying we cheated death by......cheating unintentionally.

Though on second thought I did find it somewhat unusual we beat the game on only our third try.

[Boudreaux]

Hey, Ghost Stories doesn't have a reputation in my group for being a cast iron bitch for nothing.

Just to be sure I checked my rules, it says one of the ways the game ends is "A 4th location in the village is haunted." I always assumed that meant a 4th location anywhere on the board.

[baelthazar]

Hey, Ghost Stories doesn't have a reputation in my group for being a cast iron bitch for nothing.

Just to be sure I checked my rules, it says one of the ways the game ends is "A 4th location in the village is haunted." I always assumed that meant a 4th location anywhere on the board.

Yeah, it's 4 total (i.e. anywhere). I love it, "Cast Iron Bitch!" That should be the name of the game. With all those pretty and colorful pieces, and the cool Anime style art, you think - "ah, this game should be casual fun." Then you play it... and realize that you might be able to ACTUALLY exorcise ghosts from a person or house easier than beating the game!

I do love it though, and don't get to play it enough. The solo game is pretty much just as fulfilling as the MP game, minus the player interaction. I don't play with one character and the power token, though - I just go ahead and play with 4 characters all by myself. More fun that way. The White Moon expansion does add some mitigating factors to the game, but then also adds townspeople and devouring ghosts (that eat townspeople) to worry about. The difficulty stays pretty much the same, unless you luck out and get a pretty awesome artifact by saving enough villagers early on.

[YellowKing]

There's still a chance we could have pulled it off, but alas, we'll never know. I told one of my buddies today and though he was disappointed that we weren't as bad-ass as we thought we were, I could tell he was secretly pleased that the door was left open to try to beat it again.

It's definitely a fun game, and out of all the ones I got for Christmas I'd say it's my favorite by a landslide. I don't think I've ever played a game that requires such careful and deliberate thought over EVERY turn by EVERY player in order to even have a chance to succeed. I thought Lord of the Rings was tough. HA!

Thanks to Boudreaux, we will be referring to the game as "Cast Iron Bitch" from here on out...or at least until we take the bitch to school.

[Boudreaux]

The thing with Ghost Stories is, you have to accept that winning the game involves not just careful planning on every single turn, but also a lot of luck. I've had lots of games that started out well, and then completely turned around by a bad series of card draws. What usually sinks us is a chain of ghosts that bring out other ghosts, all in a row. So instead of a player adding a single ghost on his turn, 3 or 4 get added. Or 2 or 3 ghosts are added, and then one of the ghosts that steals a die or prevents you from using tokens.

If you're careful about never wasting a turn, and trying to exorcise at least one ghost every turn or two, it's manageable. Then you just have to get lucky with the cards and die rolls.

At this point I actually kind of like that it's so hard, because it really keeps the longevity of the game high. The one time we won, we actually sat there for a long pause thinking "did that just happen?" Then there was a lot of whooping and hollering and dancing around.

[Daveman]

We've really fallen for 7 Wonders, mostly 3 player games with my wife and son, and a few 4 player games here and there. We've progressed now where we spend as much time considering what cards we're passing on to our neighbors as much as simply what card is best for us. At first it felt like military power decided more games than it should, but we've learned to adapt to it and have had several games where the winner wound up getting beat up militarily for much of the game. If nothing else military cards stand out now and are often discarded or put toward wonder construction if a player can't use it themselves.

Nearly all our games are close calls and we easily knock out a game in 30 minutes or so.

[hentzau]

Love 7 Wonders. The fast play of the game really appeals to me. Our gaming nights have been shrinking to the point where we can only play for about 2 hours if we are lucky, and a game where I can get in 3 games is a winner for me. Plus the artwork is beautiful, and the gameplay is extremely varied, and you have to be constantly adjusting your strategy...it's right now in my top 5 games I want to play.

[Zarathud]

Had another fun game of 7 Wonders tonight, and I would love to see a game of 4-5 people.

The real eye-opener was playing my 2nd and 3rd games of Glen More. There's so much depth there -- it has worker placement, optimizing your tile picks (and messing up other players by choosing the tile they need), tile laying, resource gathering, manufacturing, victory points and special objectives all bundled together. Where your meeples are placed is critical to expanding in a manner that lets you activate multiple tiles. And it's often better to skip over a tile you like to get that "essential" tile, particularly if it triggers a scoring phase. Bigger isn't better, since there's a 3 point per tile penalty for each tile you have over the person with the least tiles in play. I've also learned that Loch Ness is horribly overpowered by allowing you to keep chaining combos each turn from activating any tile you choose, even if you have to sacrifice a villager to feed Nessie. Some whiskey is necessary, as are the "pom pom" Highlanders that come with castles (or you get from moving villagers out of play). Money provides valuable lubricant for the game in VPs and building/manufacturing. The key is not being the "worst" player and getting far ahead in one VP generating trick.

[El Guapo]

7 Wonders is sounding pretty good. Normally I don't go for games that are "hey, let's all build stuff" as opposed to conquering and smashing your enemies, but the 30 minute play time sounds like it could serve a good niche - either a quick playthrough after finishing another game (where we don't have time for another long game), or while waiting if someone is late. I'll keep an eye out for any good deals on it.

[YellowKing]

Yeah I'd love to play it but the prices on it right now are INSANE! $80+ for what is essentially a card game? Umm.....no.

[El Guapo]

Yeah, definitely - hence the waiting for good deals. I'm hoping that maybe Tanga will have a deal on it in six months or so.

[hentzau]

Prices are inflated on it because it is out of print. It normally retails for $50. I got it on sale at my FLGS for $35 as part of a before Christmas promotion. It's a FABULOUS game at $35, and still a damn good game at $50. I would not have felt overly cheated at $50.

[Daveman]

Compared to Dominion you don't get as many cards but you do get some heavy stock playing mats and a bunch of wooden coins, for the same base price of $50. It is a pity it's out of print at the moment but I'd say it's worth the base price. Just give it a little while...

or in the meantime you could read up on the rules online and then give it a try online here...

http://www.jeuxsurunplateau.com/fr/jeux ... ng~m7.html" target="_blank

**WARNING**

The above site and the playing cards are in French. That doesn't matter so much as the game is mostly iconic, knowing card names is only important when playing "chained" cards but there are pointers on each card... you just have to match up the French words

You need to register on the website, and the activation email I received went straight to my spam blocker... but I've gotten several games in and it's a fantastic online incarnation of the game. Unfortunately the game lobby where games are created, listed and joined is horrible and it took me awhile to figure out what to do. Look for games with "live" in the title otherwise you're likely playing with people who only check in now and then, playing a game over a long period of time.

[baelthazar]

Regarding Glen More, how is it 2-player? Any thoughts?

[hepcat]

Regarding Glen More, how is it 2-player? Any thoughts?

It's 2 to 5 players, but with 2 and 3 player games you have to use a die that simulates another player. Plus, the starting cost of resources is raised by 1 gold. We've played both 3 and 4 player so far and while the die player is a bit annoying (especially when Zarathud stops rolling it in favor of some arcane, self thought up rule that causes me to explode like a psycho and start screaming that he's personally responsible for ruining the game, making up rules and - for some strange reason that made sense at the time - the cancellation of Firefly), it is still quite fun.

[YellowKing]

I just ran across this the other day and thought it was worth linking. It's one of the boardgamegeek member's list of his most anticipated games of 2011. Obviously it's just one guy's opinion but it has some links to pictures, comments from him and other forum members about the games, etc. I found it to be a nice read just to see what all is coming out and what he likes/doesn't like about various games. Note that there are a couple in the list that have already been released; he is just updating as he goes.

Ravenhoe's Most Anticipated 2011 Releases

Was also pleased to note that Mansions of Madness was #1 on his list.

[Zarathud]

Regarding Glen More, how is it 2-player? Any thoughts?

While it would work, the round scoring mechanic would be different. Round scoring is based a sliding scale of how many items (whiskey, deeds or highlanders) you have more than the player with the least of that item. If hepcat has 4 whiskey, seppe has 2 whiskey and I have 0 whiskey, seppe scores 2 VP and hepcat scores 5 VP (I think). But if hepcat has 1 deed, seppe has 3 deeds and I have 6 deeds, seppe scores 2 VP and I score 6 VP (I think). If we all have 1 highlander, nobody scores VP. That system breaks down a little when you only have 2 players, but the rest of the game would work. It would take longer to play and you'd have a LOT more tiles placed than in a 4-5 player game.

Zarathud stops rolling it in favor of some arcane, self thought up rule that causes me to explode like a psycho and start screaming that he's personally responsible for ruining the game, making up rules

The point of the die is to deny tiles to a player. If the die is behind a player, I don't see the point of rolling it 3 times until it gets placed to deny tiles to a player. Roll once, and count from the last player in line. This is why I am not a programmer.

[baelthazar]

Dammit Zarathud, Firefly was a GOOD SHOW!

Thanks for the feedback regarding 2-player Glen More. Too bad, I liked the idea, but it sounds like the Kingsburg solution to fewer players.

I think I'll save up for the March release of Cargo Noir, which is shaping up to look very interesting!

[YellowKing]

Took another shot at the cast iron bitch last night (Ghost Stories). We have skipped initiate level and are going straight for Normal. Lost twice but we are getting better. Got to the incarnation both times. The first game we were basically one turn short of winning, but got overwhelmed. Second game we had to base winning or losing on a single die roll and failed to make it.

I'm pretty confident the bitch will go down in the next couple of games.

[MonkeyFinger]

Dammit Zarathud, Firefly was a GOOD SHOW!

Thanks for the feedback regarding 2-player Glen More. Too bad, I liked the idea, but it sounds like the Kingsburg solution to fewer players.

I think I'll save up for the March release of Cargo Noir, which is shaping up to look very interesting!

There's a very nice look at Glen More at BGG here and buried down in the comments is someone asking how it plays as a 2 player game:

It plays wonderfully with two. The majority of my playing sessions of this game have been with two players. I do feel though that with 4 players, the game becomes much more strategic as players are more limited with their options....which is good and bad depending upon your own viewpoints.

Either way, the game scales perfectly.

My copy came this week, hope to talk the wife into playing this sometime this weekend.

[Zarathud]

I didn't mention that it's possible to score VP from tile laying and manufacturing. In a 2 player game, your scores will be based more off those mechanics than the "beat the worst player" mechanics. I think you Glen More would work with 2 players, but the strategies will be a little different. You have a lot less control in a 4 player game, and that adds a really strategic depth to what looks like a simple game until you digest it.

[coopasonic]

I... uhhh... played Scrabble. The good news is I overcame the social anxiety and went to the boardgame meetup. Sadly I have a hard time asking to join a group so I have to take what was offered. I ended playing Scrabble with 3 newcomers to the group. They were asking about all the games being played and I was telling them about a lot of them. I told them if they come back next month I would show them the world's #1 gateway game, Ticket to Ride and also told them about California. How could 3 women resist a game about shopping to furnish a mansion?

Now I have to wait a month for the next one and hope i have the courage to walk in the door again.

[hepcat]

FFG - Dust Tactics. I'm a nut for weird war stuff so this looks fun. However, the 100 dollar price tag will probably prevent me from picking it up at the con. I do hope to get a demo game in.

Speaking of Weird War games, have you ever gotten your brain wrapped around the Tannhäuser rules? I tried a game once and couldn't even figure out where to start. I'd like to try it, but am too lazy to try and figure out the rules again.

After gencon let's get together for this. They just released a completely revamped set of rules for Tannhauser (the complaints about the previous rules were loud and many) and they seem to have really fixed it. It incorporates all the stuff i thought was missing: an overwatch mechanic, better melee rules, etc.. Of course, they charged me 10 bucks to buy these rules (5 bucks for the download) but they did include the rules for every expansion in it as well.

just wanted to mention that FFG is really throwing their support behind Tannhauser since the revised rules were released. The new Daedalus expansion is coming soon and they've also announced some nifty equipment cards to make equipping characters easy...both before a game and on the fly. Add in the numerous troop and hero packs they've been releasing steadily, and this is shaping up to be the weird war game I wanted but wasn't given originally.

I'm hoping they eventually add a campaign mechanic to the game and flesh out the story driven and RPG side. The fact that you can play it almost as if it were an RPG with a miniatures aspect has always been of interest to me.

[hentzau]

FFG - Dust Tactics. I'm a nut for weird war stuff so this looks fun. However, the 100 dollar price tag will probably prevent me from picking it up at the con. I do hope to get a demo game in.

Speaking of Weird War games, have you ever gotten your brain wrapped around the Tannhäuser rules? I tried a game once and couldn't even figure out where to start. I'd like to try it, but am too lazy to try and figure out the rules again.

After gencon let's get together for this. They just released a completely revamped set of rules for Tannhauser (the complaints about the previous rules were loud and many) and they seem to have really fixed it. It incorporates all the stuff i thought was missing: an overwatch mechanic, better melee rules, etc.. Of course, they charged me 10 bucks to buy these rules (5 bucks for the download) but they did include the rules for every expansion in it as well.

just wanted to mention that FFG is really throwing their support behind Tannhauser since the revised rules were released. The new Daedalus expansion is coming soon and they've also announced some nifty equipment cards to make equipping characters easy...both before a game and on the fly. Add in the numerous troop and hero packs they've been releasing steadily, and this is shaping up to be the weird war game I wanted but wasn't given originally.

I'm hoping they eventually add a campaign mechanic to the game and flesh out the story driven and RPG side. The fact that you can play it almost as if it were an RPG with a miniatures aspect has always been of interest to me.

I was out at Games Plus this weekend and saw that they just released the Daedelus maps, as well as the minotaur fig. I ALMOST sold my copy at the RockCon auction but I stayed my hand. I really want to like this game, if I can get through the rules. Some Monday evening you'll have to come by and try and teach me and Tommy and Stuart how to play.

[hepcat]

I was out at Games Plus this weekend and saw that they just released the Daedelus maps, as well as the minotaur fig. I ALMOST sold my copy at the RockCon auction but I stayed my hand. I really want to like this game, if I can get through the rules. Some Monday evening you'll have to come by and try and teach me and Tommy and Stuart how to play.

The only problem with that is that this really is a two player miniatures game (three if you throw in the russian faction from the Novgorod expansion I would imagine). But if you're free in the near future, give me a call and I'll set up a game using one of the story missions (the stories add a lot more depth than the deathmatch games, obviously).

p.s. looks like the Daedalus expansion adds a small campaign. I didn't realize that. I'll have to get it now.

[Isgrimnur]

I... uhhh... played Scrabble. The good news is I overcame the social anxiety and went to the boardgame meetup. Sadly I have a hard time asking to join a group so I have to take what was offered. I ended playing Scrabble with 3 newcomers to the group. They were asking about all the games being played and I was telling them about a lot of them. I told them if they come back next month I would show them the world's #1 gateway game, Ticket to Ride and also told them about California. How could 3 women resist a game about shopping to furnish a mansion?

Now I have to wait a month for the next one and hope i have the courage to walk in the door again.

Whigh group was it, coop? I'm needing to get myself out of the house more and wouldn't mind having at least one person I've met be there to help with social anxiety.

[coopasonic]

I'll need to find the link at home, I can't get to meetup.com from work. It's a DFW boardgame meetup group that meets once a month at Fuddrucker's off the Tollway and Frankford in Dallas. That should be enough to find it on the meetup site.

[freelunch]

over the weekend and today (which was a public holiday in *.au) we played a lot of Puzzle Strike and Yomi (both from Sirlin Games)

Puzzle Strike owes a lot to Dominion but is played with round cardboard "chips" in place of cards and is much more confrontational than any other "deck building" game I've tried. It takes its theme from an (unreleased) videogame similar to Puzzle Fighter, players select from ten different characters (each with unique actions) and compete to crush gems accumulating in their "gem pile", sending them into opposing players' piles. If a player has more than ten gems in their pile and is unable to clear them during their next turn they are eliminated and play continues 'til all but one are out.

Yomi uses the same ten characters as Puzzle Strike but it is a two-player duel simulating a Street Fighter-style game. Each playable character has a unique deck and the game is based on a series of "paper-rock-scissors" simultaneous action selections (incorporating a bunch of modifiers for speed and unique actions available to each character) with the winner able to roll their successful attacks into combos if the appropriate cards are present.

neither of my descriptions really do the games justice but I've clocked up nine plays of each over three days of game-time and I expect to be hooked on both for ages..

[YellowKing]

The Cast Iron Bitch (Ghost Stories) has been defeated on Normal difficulty!

Took us only two tries Saturday night. We were fortunate in that we had a really excellent village layout, a good mix of powers, and wound up dealing with the bulk of our haunters early. Our incarnation could not be killed with tokens but fortunately we had yellow to debuff her and a village tile to debuff her again. My buddy rolled two blacks and she was done.

Final score we had no tiles haunted. About as clean a victory as we could have asked for.

[baelthazar]

Grats YellowKing!

Freelunch, I was interested in Yomi, but that $70-90 price tag is daunting for the whole set. And buying the two packs seems to be relatively inefficient if you like the game. I've played the online version (although the beta is very laggy) and I can't tell if my wife (my second player) would like this at all or if the gameplay is too simple to have long term replay value. I mean it is basically a juiced up version of War.

Have you all seen the new Arkham Horror toolkit for the iPhone or iPad? It is FANTASTIC, and will mean that you no longer have to pull out the location cards to play the game (or the dice for that matter, but I somehow think the dice will still get pulled out). If everyone at the table had the app, it would streamline play amazingly, but I think one person using it as a location card draw deck will work just fine. You still have to have the Mythos cards out and the item/spell cards, but those are things I can't see you wanting on the app anyway.

My copy of Conquest of the Planet Earth shipped and I am anxious to get it. I am selling my copy of the 1999 Avalon Hill's Acquire to bank roll some future boardgame purchases. I'm certainly getting Wrath of Ashardalon (partially for the D&D minis) but I was considering getting Merchants of the Middle Ages (the remake by Z-man games of Die Handler) as well. Anyone played either version and can comment on how it plays 2-player? I realize it is an auction game, so that might be problematic, but I am a medievalist who studies merchants and the game looks like me all over. Otherwise I had my eye on several other games: Grand Cru, but it is getting mixed reviews; Luna, but it seems to be a standard worker placement like Macao without the awesome special ability cards; Earth Reborn, but it might be hard to convince the wife to play such a heavy tactical combat sim; Glen More, but the dummy player might not be fun; or the Dragon expansion of Defenders of the realm, but it seems high priced for what you get.

Anyone play any of these (outside of Glen More)?

[hepcat]

Zarathud has actually tried to have sex with the Arkham Horror toolkit....

...seriously, i caught him climbing onto the table with his iTouch (making it even more inappropriately named) and there was some Barry White playing in the background. I shudder to think what would've happened had I not thrown cold water on him.

[baelthazar]

Zarathud has actually tried to have sex with the Arkham Horror toolkit....

...seriously, i caught him climbing onto the table with his iTouch (making it even more inappropriately named) and there was some Barry White playing in the background. I shudder to think what would've happened had I not thrown cold water on him.

Remind me that we have GOT to get together for next Octocon or if you all come down to Indy for GenCon this year.

[hentzau]

Zarathud has actually tried to have sex with the Arkham Horror toolkit....

...seriously, i caught him climbing onto the table with his iTouch (making it even more inappropriately named) and there was some Barry White playing in the background. I shudder to think what would've happened had I not thrown cold water on him.

Remind me that we have GOT to get together for next Octocon or if you all come down to Indy for GenCon this year.

May 6th and 7th. Be here...

[Jow]

mention of this toolkit reminds me of something I pulled with the AH toolkit for the PC a year or two ago. I went through and made unique monster tiles representing a buddy's two nephews (including strength and all stats, plus flavor text), printed them on a color laser, and then sandwiched the sides together on thick cardboard stock. They were awesome. We sprung them on them by putting them into the monster bag with the rest of the baddies. As luck would have it, one of them drew their own monster tile. Classic moment.

[hentzau]

I got in a couple of games of 7 Wonders this weekend, I still am really enamored with this game. Also got in a game of Munchkin Chtulhu...first Munchkin game I've ever played, didn't really figure out what was going on until it was too late to do anything worthwhile. I'll have to try the game out again with the base set.

[LordMortis]

I got in a couple of games of 7 Wonders this weekend,

So did I. I wasn't too thrilled. I did like the pace and the dynamic though. It's a nice quick game. I may like it better if I play it again.

We also played a game where you bet on Lemming not getting cement shoes before they jump off a peer.

Gaming ended up being way too light for a weekend that was originally going to be dedicated to gaming.

I also played another game whose name I don't remember that was kinda cool. Each player is out there gathering resources and money to commission the great artists. The game seemed really really really complex. But it turned out to be just about right.

I saw a number of games I hadn't seen before, including two new Settler's variants. I guess I've been out of touch for a long time. One was a purple set that incorporates in to Settlers. And the other was Settler's meets a railroad game where you are colonizing the US.

[hepcat]

Zarathud has actually tried to have sex with the Arkham Horror toolkit....

...seriously, i caught him climbing onto the table with his iTouch (making it even more inappropriately named) and there was some Barry White playing in the background. I shudder to think what would've happened had I not thrown cold water on him.

Remind me that we have GOT to get together for next Octocon or if you all come down to Indy for GenCon this year.

I'm sure we'll be at Gencon this year again. I have a few friends join me so we'll be around.

[Chaz]

I also played another game whose name I don't remember that was kinda cool. Each player is out there gathering resources and money to commission the great artists. The game seemed really really really complex. But it turned out to be just about right.

Sounds like maybe Princes of Florence? If so, that's one of my faves.

[freelunch]

I was interested in Yomi, but that $70-90 price tag is daunting for the whole set. And buying the two packs seems to be relatively inefficient if you like the game. I've played the online version (although the beta is very laggy) and I can't tell if my wife (my second player) would like this at all or if the gameplay is too simple to have long term replay value. I mean it is basically a juiced up version of War.

"fortunately" for me it isn't unreasonably priced compared to the average price of boardgames in *.au :/ I haven't played it with my wife yet but my two older kids like it well enough and we've already got more use out of it than many of the games I've bought recently..

My copy of Conquest of the Planet Earth shipped and I am anxious to get it. I am selling my copy of the 1999 Avalon Hill's Acquire to bank roll some future boardgame purchases. I'm certainly getting Wrath of Ashardalon (partially for the D&D minis) but I was considering getting Merchants of the Middle Ages (the remake by Z-man games of Die Handler) as well. Anyone played either version and can comment on how it plays 2-player? I realize it is an auction game, so that might be problematic, but I am a medievalist who studies merchants and the game looks like me all over. Otherwise I had my eye on several other games: Grand Cru, but it is getting mixed reviews; Luna, but it seems to be a standard worker placement like Macao without the awesome special ability cards; Earth Reborn, but it might be hard to convince the wife to play such a heavy tactical combat sim; Glen More, but the dummy player might not be fun; or the Dragon expansion of Defenders of the realm, but it seems high priced for what you get.

Anyone play any of these (outside of Glen More)?

we've played Conquest of Planet Earth three times - it is basically Last Night On Earth reskinned with a couple of new mechanisms, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I wish there's been an option for the Martian figures to come with their cool helmets factory-attached since I'm never gonna paint mine and they don't fit together well enough for me to feel happy gluing them.

and I was totally psyched for Earth Reborn but my copy has component issues - one of the sheets of tiles is so poorly cut that I irreparably damaged half the tiles I pressed from it before quitting (and I'm pretty good at safely pressing tiles) - I can't get replacements from the local retailer I purchased it from and I'm currently waiting on a response from Zev at Z-Man, but I expect any replacement sheets (another of my sheets has minor problems and I've asked for it to be replaced also) to take months to get here and to be severely battered when they arrive - individual cardboard sheets don't travel well by international post I fear ER is going to be a $100+ write-off for me, much too expensive to buy a second box for spare parts.