OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 7:36 pm

hentzau wrote:Hey boardgamers...Tanga has 7 Wonders on sale for $36. Including 2 packs of premium sleeves. Great price for a great game. Only for a short time...

This was sold out almost as soon as you posted it.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 12:21 am

Got in Founding Fathers which I really enjoyed, Glory to Rome, which was meh, watched the end of Remus playing Alien Frontiers which looked really cool, and a couple of game Colosseum which I truly sucked at but still enjoyed, which is good because it was not a cheap game.

I went 0 for 4. Pretty typical. *shrug*

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 1:26 am

coopasonic wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:I'm going to the next boardgame meetup that coop introduced me to. The girl I have been dating specifically asked if I was going after our second date on Wednesday, but deliberately avoided stating that she would definitely be there.
If you're talking about the one tomorrow, I'll see you there. yay more board games

Yuppers. I've been looking at games on Amazon and trying to tell myself that I don't need to buy anything. Especially not the alien and dinosaur to liven up Ticket to Ride.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 9:19 am

Isgrimnur wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:I'm going to the next boardgame meetup that coop introduced me to. The girl I have been dating specifically asked if I was going after our second date on Wednesday, but deliberately avoided stating that she would definitely be there.
If you're talking about the one tomorrow, I'll see you there. yay more board games
Yuppers. I've been looking at games on Amazon and trying to tell myself that I don't need to buy anything. Especially not the alien and dinosaur to liven up Ticket to Ride.

I'll bring them today, they add the silly factor which is the theme for this session. I meant to bring them last time but forgot.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:28 am

Colosseum reminded me quite a bit of Princes of Florence, and I think the cumulative nature of the latter influenced play quite a bit. It's more of a jockeying for position early to make one big Push, as both games we played the guy winning in turn4 lost in turn5, and pretty handily too. The resource management is wicked, bidding for what you need, trying to hold together your pieces at best choice of loss, and getting stuck with worthless assets. The screw your neighbor came out early and often.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:50 am

I love Colosseum but every time I tried to get a friend to play it at Gencon last year, he kept pooh poohing it by telling me he didn't want to play "that J Lo party planning game."

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 2:24 pm

baelthazar wrote:
hentzau wrote:Hey boardgamers...Tanga has 7 Wonders on sale for $36. Including 2 packs of premium sleeves. Great price for a great game. Only for a short time...
This was sold out almost as soon as you posted it.

FWIW, it wasn't that hot of a deal; you can buy 7 Wonders on Amazon for about the same price if you include shipping (and help support our forum in the process), so with Tanga you basically just got the card sleeves for free. The same Mayday card sleeves for 7 Wonders are available from CoolStuffInc for the better part of $7 (including shipping).

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:18 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:I'm going to the next boardgame meetup that coop introduced me to. The girl I have been dating specifically asked if I was going after our second date on Wednesday, but deliberately avoided stating that she would definitely be there.

Games Played:

Shadow Hunters x2. The other players were nice enough to exterminate me quickly, which was my victory condition. Don't ask me why there's a board game where dying first is a victory condition.

Bohnanza. Growing beans has never been more adversarial and more fun.

And we broke in coop's copy of Last Night on Earth. I and the other human player managed to escape the zombie hordes with our four three townsfolk with the aid of some fancy shooting, one dynamite explosion, and some fancy footwork. At one point, I had my remaining human being homed in on by almost every zombie on the board like some of skirmish line while the other human player was left pretty much alone. She was able to come to my rescue and drop a few of the shamblers from range to help clear me a path to daylight.

No appearance or word from the girl.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:18 am

Got in a bit more boardgaming than usual this weekend.

Saturday night I met hepcat and Seppe and my buddy Stuart and I introduced them to the joys and heartache of Defenders of the Realm. Our first game went VERY badly. We were playing with the Ranger, Dwarf, Wizard and Rogue, and got our asses handed to us. In a nice little box. Not a lot of general movement, but TONS of spawns with overruns and tainting. We ended up losing the first game about an hour in, after having defeated only Gorgut, after we placed the last taint crystal on the board.

Since it was still early, we reset the board, and gave it another go. This round was MUCH more successful. We were playing with the Paladin, Cleric, Eagle Rider and Sorceress. This time around, all things fell into place, with minimal general movement, well placed spawns for us to deal with, and good card combos coming up. I have to say, that Sorceress is a bad-ass. She was clearing out minions right and left. I was also very impressed with the Eagle Rider. I had always pretty much dismissed the Eagle Rider, since it had so few actions. Hepcat playing that short little bastard changed my mind...his movement is awesome, and the re-roll ability if you are fighting from the ground make it an impressive character. We managed to win this one with very little drama...at one point we had two of the generals within striking distance but we had a good mix of cards in our hands so we were able to take down the generals pretty quickly. I am now 2 for 8 with this game, and both wins had the sorceress on the board. I now want to try out a couple of the officially published variants, like the winds of war or character development rules.

After that, hepcat taught us how to play Nightfall, a card drafting game with an undead theme. I liked this one a lot...the rules are a bit byzantine at the start, with the chains and kickers and subtle differences in how you attack, but I caught on pretty quickly. Stuart was struggling a bit more, having never played Dominion or any other card drafting game before, but in the long run he ended up winning the game. It may be because hep and Seppe and I beat on each other more, since we could see he was struggling. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Finished out the weekend with a few games of Uno Attack and Disney Apples to Apples with the family. Much shouting and yelling and laughing was had.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:32 am

Managed to finish the first scenario for Mansions of Madness this weekend. In reading the rules, they seemed rather dense, but after playing a bit everything came together nicely. I will say that without the updated cards AND the additional recommended card changes I found on Board Game Geek the first scenario would have played out totally different. I think it was a huge success and I really enjoyed playing as the keeper. Without question it was the closest thing to playing an actual Cthulhu PnP RPG in decades (and yes, I feel old for even typing that). Because it was the first game I was going easy on the investigators (I never used Uncontrollable Urge, for example), but with patient use of threat I was able to really build up the tension to sort of match the timing of the event deck. Probably the best moment occurred as a result of me trying to complete one of my conditions for winning - collecting a sample. Instead of having an ax wielding maniac simply rush and attack a player, I had him collect a sample instead and run off. Not only did it confuse both players, but they were freaked out knowing that no good would come of it. It took us about 3 hours to get through the scenario, which ultimately ended because of the event deck. I think next time we play I'm going to re-use the first scenario again and simply pick different story objectives to see how it all plays out. Against better judgment, both players opted for combat competence and neither was particularly good at solving puzzles. Their investigation stalled about 1/2 through the game as a result, so I'd probably encourage a better mix of characters for future games.

We also managed to get in another round of Castle Ravenloft as well. We decided to re-play the first scenario again and I was rather surprised at how different it all unfolded. Sure, some of it was the different mix of characters (M/F/T instead of R/C/F), but the monster draws and event cards were completely different. That was a pleasant surprise.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:33 am

hentzau wrote:
After that, hepcat taught us how to play Nightfall, a card drafting game with an undead theme. I liked this one a lot...the rules are a bit byzantine at the start, with the chains and kickers and subtle differences in how you attack, but I caught on pretty quickly. Stuart was struggling a bit more, having never played Dominion or any other card drafting game before, but in the long run he ended up winning the game. It may be because hep and Seppe and I beat on each other more, since we could see he was struggling. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I felt badly about that. At first, Stuart had an almost viscerally negative reaction to the game. He REALLY did not like it, it seemed.

I enjoy it but it's not something I'll be bringing out a lot. It's fun, but I still think I prefer Ascension.

51st State continues to be my current obsession. I love the numerous paths to victory the game offers. It's such a little gem.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:48 am

I think I'm catching the hepcat illness. I also think I'm blaming on getting a raise and I need to stop this whole buying things right now. I haven't even played all of the games from my first order. I haven't received my second order and CSI is calling my name to order Founding Fathers and Alien Frontiers... Fortunately(?), neither game is in stock but I still may be developing a problem.

Edit:

7 Wonders, 51st State, and Stronghold have arrived. Who's up for gaming tonight?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:50 am

hepcat wrote:
hentzau wrote:
After that, hepcat taught us how to play Nightfall, a card drafting game with an undead theme. I liked this one a lot...the rules are a bit byzantine at the start, with the chains and kickers and subtle differences in how you attack, but I caught on pretty quickly. Stuart was struggling a bit more, having never played Dominion or any other card drafting game before, but in the long run he ended up winning the game. It may be because hep and Seppe and I beat on each other more, since we could see he was struggling. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I felt badly about that. At first, Stuart had an almost viscerally negative reaction to the game. He REALLY did not like it, it seemed.

I enjoy it but it's not something I'll be bringing out a lot. It's fun, but I still think I prefer Ascension.

51st State continues to be my current obsession. I love the numerous paths to victory the game offers. It's such a little gem.

No need to worry about it. He has a fairly low frustration point with games with rule systems he can't grasp immediately. He ended up enjoying it in the long run, I think, once he got past that learning curve.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 12:32 pm

LordMortis wrote: 7 Wonders, 51st State, and Stronghold have arrived. Who's up for gaming tonight?

Hey LM...don't know if you've seen the people over on BGG grousing about the color mismatch issues on the backs of the 3rd age cards in the second printing of 7 Wonders. I can see where it would be annoying, but I can't see that it would be a show-stopper for me...personally, I spend all my time looking at the cards in my hand and not the backs of the other cards. Anyway, folks are up at arms about it, and through some digging I found that if you find this problem you should send an e-mail to s.brunell@asmodee.com complaining about it (if in fact you have the problem...but it looks like everyone getting a second printing is having the issue...)

Original thread on BGG here.

Good luck! It's really a great game!

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 12:34 pm

hentzau wrote:Hey LM...don't know if you've seen the people over on BGG grousing about the color mismatch issues on the backs of the 3rd age cards in the second printing of 7 Wonders. I can see where it would be annoying, but I can't see that it would be a show-stopper for me...personally, I spend all my time looking at the cards in my hand and not the backs of the other cards. Anyway, folks are up at arms about it, and through some digging I found that if you find this problem you should send an e-mail to s.brunell@asmodee.com complaining about it (if in fact you have the problem...but it looks like everyone getting a second printing is having the issue...)

Original thread on BGG here.

Good luck! It's really a great game!

I haven't opened my copy yet but thank you for the warning.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 12:54 pm

Yep. Happened to my copy as well. Half in English, half in another language the backs of six of the military Age three cards are off. If they don't resolve the issue to my satisfaction then that will be the last Repos game I ever buy. $40 for three decks of cards, two sheet medium stock cardboard, and 7 pieces of thick stock cardboard, is a lot of money, but I get that I'm paying for the development of an idea. Totally borking the production of so little stuff is completely unacceptable though.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 1:43 pm

LordMortis wrote:Yep. Happened to my copy as well. Half in English, half in another language the backs of six of the military Age three cards are off. If they don't resolve the issue to my satisfaction then that will be the last Repos game I ever buy. $40 for three decks of cards, two sheet medium stock cardboard, and 7 pieces of thick stock cardboard, is a lot of money, but I get that I'm paying for the development of an idea. Totally borking the production of so little stuff is completely unacceptable though.

I would definitely bitch to Repos about that. I agree...unacceptable.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:01 pm

hepcat wrote:
LordMortis wrote:Yep. Happened to my copy as well. Half in English, half in another language the backs of six of the military Age three cards are off. If they don't resolve the issue to my satisfaction then that will be the last Repos game I ever buy. $40 for three decks of cards, two sheet medium stock cardboard, and 7 pieces of thick stock cardboard, is a lot of money, but I get that I'm paying for the development of an idea. Totally borking the production of so little stuff is completely unacceptable though.
I would definitely bitch to Repos about that. I agree...unacceptable.

The folks on BGG are saying that Repos has been completely non-communicative. The only responses have been some vague responses from Asmodee.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:25 pm

That sucks about 7 Wonders. Glad I didn't put in a pre-order for the reprint.

Right now I am faced with the dilemma of - do I want to take advantage of the 50% GMT code to get the reprint of Dominant Species, but to fund it I have to cancel my pre-order for the same designer's upcoming game Urban Sprawl (which may not be coming out till late fall)? I hate to pass up Dominant Species at such a low price, given how people RAVED about it. But I also realize DS is a pretty long game and not particularly 2 player friends, while Urban Sprawl looks more compact.

And also, for those that didn't know, the new GMT game Space Empires 4X (which you should not shorten to SE4X) is going to have a mounted board and should ship next month. Rock on!

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:35 pm

Good and bad response. I'm glad it came quickly.

Hello,
For the cards, we are aware of the situation and working on it. At the moment we can't send replacement, we have the same print in the warehouse. As soon as I get more details I will send a mail. Sorry for any inconvenience.

For the boards, it doesn't affect gameplay so we will concentrate on the cards.
Please send me your complete address.

Looks like I will get new cards as quickly as they can get them and they look like they are trying to get them quickly. It also looks like they care about the fact that they sent us the wrong language for half of the game boards.

Assuming they get the cards resolved quickly I won't bad mouth and I will admire their wanting to set things right.
Assuming they replace the game boards at all, all really be happy with their desire to make things right.
If they don't care about game boards and let me play the game as is becuase it doesn't affect gameplay, I won't bad mouth them but it will be the last game I buy from them.

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 5:29 pm

The other day when I got my copy of Ghost Stories, minus some components, I sent emails to both Amazon and Asmodee. Amazon, like I said before, sent out a replacement the next day and didn't want the defective copy back. I didn't get a reply from Asmodee at all... until today. I had a package in the mail with the missing components

Now I have 2 complete copies, guess it's off to Ebay for one of them!

Glad to hear they're working on the 7 Wonders problem, but I'm sure that will take more time. For what it's worth, the off-color cards are all Age III Military cards. From my play experience, I don't think there'd be that big a problem playing with them as-is. Playing military cards in 7 Wonders is sort of like an arms race... you can play it and hope you come out on top and earn some points, or you can disregard it and still wind up winning with points from other categories. In our games, by Age III, players who "go for" military have usually done so by now, or other players are actively trying to discard them so others don't put them into play. I wouldn't worry about being able to see the cards coming or not.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:41 pm

hepcat wrote:I would definitely bitch to Repos about that. I agree...unacceptable.

I can confirm the problem with the Age III cards in 7 Wonders. It's going to be annoying because one of the Elk Grove crew is a notorious card counter from his Magic the Gathering days.

Asmodee is taking names at least, so maybe they'll come through with a solution eventually. The card quality isn't much better than hepcat's first edition, so they're going to have a tendency to wear anyway. I'll try using a card sleeve and maybe that will help with both problems.

The Rocketman · Post by **The Rocketman** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:49 am

LordMortis wrote:Good and bad response. I'm glad it came quickly.
Assuming they get the cards resolved quickly I won't bad mouth and I will admire their wanting to set things right.
Assuming they replace the game boards at all, all really be happy with their desire to make things right.
If they don't care about game boards and let me play the game as is becuase it doesn't affect gameplay, I won't bad mouth them but it will be the last game I buy from them.

What if they care about the game boards, replace them really quick and are very communicative about the whole thing, but then kill your dog?

To stay on topic, why is everyone so excited about Space Empires 4X? Not much info is out yet, right? And the pictures don't say much either. Is it just the general theme that's appealing? A bit like the new expansion for TI3, it's also got people raving about it, while I don't yet see anything awesome about it.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:01 am

The Rocketman wrote:
LordMortis wrote:Good and bad response. I'm glad it came quickly.
Assuming they get the cards resolved quickly I won't bad mouth and I will admire their wanting to set things right.
Assuming they replace the game boards at all, all really be happy with their desire to make things right.
If they don't care about game boards and let me play the game as is becuase it doesn't affect gameplay, I won't bad mouth them but it will be the last game I buy from them.
What if they care about the game boards, replace them really quick and are very communicative about the whole thing, but then kill your dog?

To stay on topic, why is everyone so excited about Space Empires 4X? Not much info is out yet, right? And the pictures don't say much either. Is it just the general theme that's appealing? A bit like the new expansion for TI3, it's also got people raving about it, while I don't yet see anything awesome about it.

I think Space Empires 4X is appealing because:
1. It is GMT games and they have a record for producing excellent games with great depth. Look at Dominant Species, Twilight Struggle, Here I Stand - all brain burners for serious gamers. GMT has the reputation now of being the "gaming man's game publisher."
2. It looks like it will be a good 4X space game, with a large tech tree, a warfare focus, but a bit less complex (and shorter) to play that TI:3rd. I love TI:3rd, but 6-7 hours for a 4 player game is relatively insane. Now I love every minute of those hours, but you rarely find the time to invest. SE is supposedly a 1-3 hour game. No alternative victory conditions here either - it's war or nothing. The game seems heavily ship focused, and has a pretty good streamlined economy (but the tech tree is supposed to be gigantic).
3. While there are a lot of space theme games out now, there are few that challenge TI:3rd as a Space wargame. So, IMHO, having more options is better!

As to the new TI:3rd expansion - it has new races (always good), new giant flagships, new powerful ground forces, and a slew of variant rules. Given that TI:3rd has a cult following, buzz is bound to be instantly high (I know I'm buzzing). But, I tend to feel TI:3rd is complex enough without variant rules, so I probably won't get it immediately. We only use Shattered Empires (the first expansion) for the Imperial II card and the new races.

I'm still kicking around Dominant Species. I was looking at 7 Wonders though, as the hype is strong with that one.

The Rocketman · Post by **The Rocketman** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:16 am

baelthazar wrote: As to the new TI:3rd expansion - it has new races (always good), new giant flagships, new powerful ground forces, and a slew of variant rules. Given that TI:3rd has a cult following, buzz is bound to be instantly high (I know I'm buzzing). But, I tend to feel TI:3rd is complex enough without variant rules, so I probably won't get it immediately. We only use Shattered Empires (the first expansion) for the Imperial II card and the new races.

Yes, I like TI3 a lot too, and yes, it doesn't see much action because it takes very long to play AND has a lot of options already. I will certainly be following this new expansion, but I don't think our games would benefit from MORE options

Instead, I've been thinking about simplifying it so it'll be played more often. Next time I'm setting up the game we'll play with the TI2 victory track (based purely on number of systems under your control), and scrap the strategy cards. But I do want to add the Trade, Diplomacy (and perhaps Technology) card effects in the game. Oh, and I'd also like to try to set up the game board randomly, and flip the tiles until a fleet moves into them to 'discover' it.

I think the players in my group (all simple guys like me who like to see things go Boom) would enjoy this more.

freelunch · Post by **freelunch** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:56 am

lots of boardgaming time with my kids this past weekend..

on Saturday we played:
Pastiche: first play. really nice components. it seemed very difficult to get the paint colours we needed but that was probably inexperience on our part. Iooking forward to playing this one with my gaming group.
Thunderstone: first play using the new Dragonspire expansion. we didn't see many new cards and I avoided reading them while opening the box so I don't know yet what goodness it has added.
Birds On A Wire: family/"filler" game, purchased mostly to bump a recent order over its free shipping point. we've played it a couple of times now and it has gone down well with my kids.
Railways Through Time: first play. two-player with my seven-year-old (who handles regular Railways Of The World pretty well). neat concept but the huge number of timelink options can get disorienting. as is always the case with two-player RoTW I felt we had too much $$$ so it was relatively easy to build long tracks to pick up bonuses in the endgame. looking forward to trying it with more players.

on Sunday we played:
Ra: first play. took me forever to get the rules right, after several restarts it was a lot of fun. I think this'll be a regular family game for us over the coming weeks.
Tower Of Babel: has an interesting mechanism which rewards players for offering help to others, even if the offer is declined. after a couple of plays I'm not sure whether this game is 'neat' or just 'OK'..
For Sale: a great before-lunch filler.
Celtica: had it for years, finally broke the seal last week. if I'd played it before buying I doubt I'd have bothered with this one but, but it's a decent family game I'll probably use as a 'gateway game' for younger players.
Sixis: dice-rolling, and more dice-rolling. may get old quickly but we're enjoying it for now.
Mamma Mia!: first play. we've had this forever. I opened it and read the rules years ago, decided it would suck and we never played it. I've since enjoyed several games from the same designer (chiefly Agricola and Bohnanza) so I thought it was worth another go. it isn't bad, a bit too memory-reliant for my taste but it'll be good to play with kids since they'll always have a huge advantage over me :)

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:43 am

The Rocketman wrote:What if they care about the game boards, replace them really quick and are very communicative about the whole thing, but then kill your dog?

Tucker? As long as it's not traceable back to me, I'm good with that.

To stay on topic, why is everyone so excited about Space Empires 4X? Not much info is out yet, right? And the pictures don't say much either. Is it just the general theme that's appealing? A bit like the new expansion for TI3, it's also got people raving about it, while I don't yet see anything awesome about it.

Don't know but I do like theme/premise.

baelthazar wrote: I was looking at 7 Wonders though, as the hype is strong with that one.

7 Wonders is solid game, done very well (from a perspective of the four games I've played of it). The two problems are that it's really not a lot of physical game for $40. (And having opened up 51st State but not played, I have the same feeling) And that you are getting a game that has been way less than half assed in QA for that $40. If you're dieing to play I would say go ahead and drop the $40. Otherwise I'd wait until the dust settles on how they are going to deal with all of the problems.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:19 am

LordMortis wrote: (And having opened up 51st State but not played, I have the same feeling)

yup...i noted that earlier. that they don't even include a victory track inside the box and instead make you use the back of the box was especially annoying. However, the game itself is fantastic so i chalk it up to paying for the brains that went into it.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:29 am

Played a great game of Descent: Journeys in the Dark last night. We've decided the game can't be played (and enjoyed) with more than three heroes, and really two is even better. Too many heroes leads to too much downtime, and the game just drags on way longer than it ought to. Both of our heroes last night were melee juggernauts, so the Overlord tried to spawn in ranged skeletons and spiders. We breezed through the opening room in the dungeon without taking a scratch, and then made the tactical error of splitting up and opening two different doors. Whoops. Our early success made us a little overconfident and cocky, and that's when the Overlord dropped a world of hurt on our faces. We still ended up having to quit before the game end, but things were not looking good for us. We had probably a dozen monsters on the board, both of us were beat up, and we still hadn't even made it to the final room yet. Still, with the right players that game's a blast.

freelunch wrote:Tower Of Babel: has an interesting mechanism which rewards players for offering help to others, even if the offer is declined. after a couple of plays I'm not sure whether this game is 'neat' or just 'OK'..

I thought it was neat for the first few plays, then it's just OK. I bought it years ago when I first started getting into board games, then traded it away awhile later. A couple of years ago I picked it up again off Amazon for about $5, and it's still sitting on my shelf in the shrink.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:46 pm

The Rocketman wrote:
Instead, I've been thinking about simplifying it so it'll be played more often. Next time I'm setting up the game we'll play with the TI2 victory track (based purely on number of systems under your control), and scrap the strategy cards. But I do want to add the Trade, Diplomacy (and perhaps Technology) card effects in the game. Oh, and I'd also like to try to set up the game board randomly, and flip the tiles until a fleet moves into them to 'discover' it.

I think the players in my group (all simple guys like me who like to see things go Boom) would enjoy this more.

It sounds to me that you need to follow the release of Space Empires very closely then. From what I have read, it seems like it will be closer to the old TI2 style "victory through conquest" model than TI:3rd is. I'm on the P500 preorder (or should I now say P-over-1000), so I'll be in the first round to get it. Impressions will indeed follow. But I suspect, like most GMT games, it will be difficult to find not long after release - and with the preorder price break... you should be tempted. Yes, the art is a bit... retro (but does follow the theme of Space Empires IV the PC game), yes the rules haven't been posted, yes the only major thing we do know is that it will have a mounted board... But if you are a TI cultist and love anything space, I can't imagine this going overly wrong, given GMT's track record.

I ended up ordering Dominant Species as an early b-day gift for myself. With the 50% code and the fact that EVERYONE on BGG was saying it might be the game of the decade, I had to bite. Yes, Hepcat and I need to start a support group. What pushed me over the edge (and not into buying 7 Wonders) was the QA problem and the review a week video by UndeadViking on BGG, where he very helpfully said "I love 7 Wonders, but I still think Dominant Species is my favorite of 2010." It was as if he was speaking to me!

I'm going to push for a game of Wrath of Ashardalon with the wife today. Really want to play this and haven't had the time. So I better get to work so I have more "wife points" to employ!

The Rocketman · Post by **The Rocketman** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:36 pm

baelthazar wrote:
The Rocketman wrote:
Instead, I've been thinking about simplifying it so it'll be played more often. Next time I'm setting up the game we'll play with the TI2 victory track (based purely on number of systems under your control), and scrap the strategy cards. But I do want to add the Trade, Diplomacy (and perhaps Technology) card effects in the game. Oh, and I'd also like to try to set up the game board randomly, and flip the tiles until a fleet moves into them to 'discover' it.

I think the players in my group (all simple guys like me who like to see things go Boom) would enjoy this more.
It sounds to me that you need to follow the release of Space Empires very closely then. From what I have read, it seems like it will be closer to the old TI2 style "victory through conquest" model than TI:3rd is. I'm on the P500 preorder (or should I now say P-over-1000), so I'll be in the first round to get it. Impressions will indeed follow. But I suspect, like most GMT games, it will be difficult to find not long after release - and with the preorder price break... you should be tempted. Yes, the art is a bit... retro (but does follow the theme of Space Empires IV the PC game), yes the rules haven't been posted, yes the only major thing we do know is that it will have a mounted board... But if you are a TI cultist and love anything space, I can't imagine this going overly wrong, given GMT's track record.

Oh, I'm following it allright!

It just strikes me as odd that a game of which so little is known, gets so much buzz on the Geek. But I'm in the same boat as a lot of you: too many games, not enough time to play them all. So I'm trying to hold off on buying lots more. As it is, I'm anxiously awaiting Lord of the Rings: the card game, and I hope I'll be done with new games after that one for a while.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:02 pm

Why's Dominant Species so great? I have the 50% coupon as well, which (IIRC) expires on April 25th I think. Considering Dominant Species, though theme-wise I'd prefer Labyrinth, 1989, or possibly Space Empires. But I can't use it on those because they're either out-of-stock at the moment or still in pre-order mode, and given my backlog of games I can't really justify buying more than one out of that group.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:12 pm

The Rocketman wrote:
Oh, I'm following it allright! It just strikes me as odd that a game of which so little is known, gets so much buzz on the Geek.

welcome to the wonderful world of board gaming. you must be new here?

but all teasin' aside, GMT games have a pretty rabid following (myself included) and TI3 has a pretty long history, so the promise of those two forces coming together to create an explosion of fun has a lot of folks giddy with joy.

El Guapo wrote: though theme-wise I'd prefer Labyrinth, 1989, or possibly Space Empires.

I own Labyrinth and I have to issue a word of warning. It's VERY asymmetrical gameplay. That makes for an inordinately high learning curve, imho. I've yet to get a game going because of my well known gaming ADD, but it's very low on my totem because of the difficulty and non-intuitive rules.

edit: hmmm...that being said, I just noticed that a user on BGG put together a 7 part series on how to play Labyrinth over on boardgamegeek. That it's comprised of 7 videos of around 10 to 15 minutes each should give you an idea of its complexity, though.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:10 pm

I did a review of Labyrinth over at Armchair General and I have to say, I did not particularly care for it. The theory is great, the theme is rich, and the components top notch. But the rules and mechanics are cumbersome. And as hepcat said, the learning curve is more like a learning mountain. So many things to remember to do and your opponent will not help keep you on your toes, because they have an almost completely different set of things to remember to do. And I tried to solo play and it was an exercise in keeping my sanity.

This from a person able to play Twilight Imperium (or Twilight Struggle, for that matter) with ease. A lot of Labyrinth's issue come from what I consider some of the poorest laid out rules I have seen. It isn't that they are poorly written or don't explain what to do, it is that they are confusing in all their exceptions and sections.

Re: Dominant Species - I think the buzz comes from the fact that the game is a Euro that plays like a wargame. People who hate the less interactive Euros, like Agricola or Le Havre, like DS because player interaction is the name of the game. You still work on "farming" your species across the board and preparing them for hardship through limited action points, but you can also take actions that will be directly aggressive against your opponent or make his species die out or less effective on certain squares. Unlike Agricola, where - if you enemy is adept at building up a complex economic mechanism but you can do nothing to throw a wrench in the works - you can certainly work on damaging your opponents plans.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:24 pm

hepcat wrote:[
El Guapo wrote: though theme-wise I'd prefer Labyrinth, 1989, or possibly Space Empires.
I own Labyrinth and I have to issue a word of warning. It's VERY asymmetrical gameplay. That makes for an inordinately high learning curve, imho. I've yet to get a game going because of my well known gaming ADD, but it's very low on my totem because of the difficulty and non-intuitive rules.

edit: hmmm...that being said, I just noticed that a user on BGG put together a 7 part series on how to play Labyrinth over on boardgamegeek. That it's comprised of 7 videos of around 10 to 15 minutes each should give you an idea of its complexity, though.

I do have that concern. I did try to play a game of Labyrinth via Vassal with a friend to playtest it essentially, and soon gave up and switched back to our regular Twilight Struggle. Now, my other thought is that even if the learning curve is huge I would eventually get through it, and if the game is stellar (and I have seen some very positive reviews), then it might be worthwhile.

Maybe 1989 is the better bet on that regard then (and the theme seems pretty cool), though I don't know when they're planning on releasing that.

Ack, but then I'm also going to get the Horned Rat expansion to Chaos in the Old World. And I should really play some of the games I have burning a hole in my closet.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:34 pm

Guapo, I fully support your "buy Dominant Species so Chaz doesn't have to" plan. Capital idea! Glad you thought of it! Good show, chum!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:32 pm

El Guapo wrote:, and if the game is stellar (and I have seen some very positive reviews), then it might be worthwhile.

Maybe 1989 is the better bet on that regard then (and the theme seems pretty cool), though I don't know when they're planning on releasing that.

I think I'm going to sit down and watch those tutorial videos. I own the game so I should probably give it a little more of a chance.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:08 pm

Chaz wrote:Guapo, I fully support your "buy Dominant Species so Chaz doesn't have to" plan. Capital idea! Glad you thought of it! Good show, chum!

To be fair, it's more of a "buy Dominant Species or 1989 or Labyrinth" plan.

I am somewhat concerned by the "long" and "Euro" qualities of the game, though the reviews really are glowing.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:21 am

El Guapo wrote:Maybe 1989 is the better bet on that regard then (and the theme seems pretty cool), though I don't know when they're planning on releasing that.

It's currently scheduled for a July release.

Jow · Post by **Jow** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:55 am

not doing much in-person gaming lately due to incompatible schedules and/or being busy, but a friend and I have been playing an absolute ton of Neuroshima Hex using an online java app. This app includes all the original factions plus the two from Babel 13, using all the original art for the tiles and board. It's actually really solid and plays well. My only real complaint is that out of the nearly 40 or so games we've played, we've lost 7 or 8 of them due to one of us being disconnected from the server. Unfortunately, there's no savegame feature and when one player is disconnected, it unceremoniously dumps the other player back to the main lobby. For a game that involves a lot of jockeying and can result in some really close games, getting dumped with 2 or 3 turns left in an undecided game is really, really frustrating.