OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu May 19, 2011 10:51 am

The only thing that sucks about discussing TS is that I now really wanna play...stupid work.

Jow · Post by **Jow** » Thu May 19, 2011 11:40 am

Mino: Cosmic Encounter: Based on 3 or 4 plays, it's okay. At its core it's filler you absolutely can't play with any seriousness due to the chaotic gameplay. The interaction of the different aliens is by far the best part of the game but since everything is based on card drawing it's all pretty random, from who you are allowed to attack each round to what you can actually do each turn. I imagine fans might argue that the meat of the game is in the diplomacy behind the mechanics, but so far I don't see it.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Thu May 19, 2011 2:32 pm

that is what I am most concerned about....but it seems that nearly everywhere I look, ppl simply rave about it as though it is the greatest game ever made. And even though I have not played it, only looked at it, I just don't see what is so great about it.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Thu May 19, 2011 5:58 pm

Cosmic encounter is a great game for four or more players that enjoy it. The rules are very basic, but everything from there is chaos. Each flare and power and artifact (etc) allow you to break a rule of the game in different ways, and the interactions can be quite challenging. The game has gone thru multiple incarnations, and each time has changed a little bit. The diplomacy aspect is really very little more than weighing which option holds better odds for you and ganging up on the leader. Most often it will be helping the other players get a base on the attack so you get one as well (a predetermined number is the winning condition), unless you are the guy being attacked.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Fri May 20, 2011 11:08 am

Played a couple of rounds of Galaxy Trucker last night.

Game is a lot of fun - you start off by having everyone grab spaceship parts from the same pile to come up with some of the ugliest looking spaceships in existence. The space ship on the cover is far too symmetrical, and you'll never see anything like it in an actual game. Spaceship parts can include guns, engines, crew pods, cargo pods, shields and power cells to activate your double guns/double engines/shields. You can even have aliens on your ship, which enhance your fire power or engine rating.

Then, spot check other people's ships (removing any parts that violate the rules), and then you're off to fly through an unnecessarily dangerous route (drawing "adventure cards") along which you can pick up cargo (good) or get shot at, fly through meteor fields and do other things that cause you to lose crew and large chunks of your ship (one of my friends literally had half his ship sheared off by a series of unlucky laser shots). Some times, you can find random derelict spaceships and sell them to your crew. You lose part of your crew but gain some instant pocket cash.

If you make it to the end of the route, you can sell any cargo you've picked up, there are prizes for arriving first and for having the "prettiest ship" (with the fewest exposed pipes). However, there are many ways of not getting to the end. To wit:

- If you lose all your human crew, you don't make it (if the last guys on board are aliens, they presumably take your ship and fly off with it)
- If you encounter an "open space" card and have no engine power. (This happened to me on the last leg of the last round, as I had the last surviving ship!)
- If you get lapped by the leader. ("Dude, you suck!")

One of the weird things about this game is that the board really only tracks the relative position of ships, so you're more likely to be sliding backwards than you are to be moving forwards. Also, I'm not sure we figured out the rules for using the timer quite right. Other than that, awesome game, very lively, fun and fast-paced.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Fri May 20, 2011 11:19 am

I need to play that. At least it found a good home.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Fri May 20, 2011 12:35 pm

Mino,

Here is my story about Cosmic Encounters. We grabbed the Avalon Hill version back in college and played the crap out of it. It was great for that off-night game when everyone had papers to write, tests to take, or couldn't start gaming until later in the evening. It was also a great gateway game (our other great gateway game was Settlers of Catan). On the nights we had more time, we played Risk 2157, History of the World, or Twilight Imperium 2nd Edition. It absolutely was everything the others said it was - simple rules, complex interaction, extreme chaos. And the Avalon Hill version was once of the least complex of any version of CE.

Flash forward a decade. Being a huge fan of CE and having my college gaming group nearly reassembled due to people moving back to our hometown area, I decided to grab the new FFG version of CE. It has about 25 more aliens than the AH version, they put back in flare cards (which adds to the complexity and chaos), and they expanded the game to include more room for up to 6 players (IIRC the AH version maxed out at 4). I re-introduced to to those familiar (with a decade of not playing it) and to my father who has become an avid gamer with us these days (and does quite well, even with the very complex games). First game through, those who had played it before took some time to acclimate to the added confusion and chaos of the FFG version. My father, who loves formulating plans and strategies and who is very good at goal-oriented thinking, hated it. But I got him to play it again, and told him to just let go and have fun. After repeated plays he now very much enjoys it. He has a great quote for this process, "Embrace the Chaos."

So if your group can throw away planning, throw away the notion of control, and think creatively about how they can use their race's powers to the best advantage (the racial powers are one of two avenues for guiding the outcome of the game, the other avenue is in who one asks to ally when attacking or defending), then they will like the game. 3-player games are entertaining, but not fulfilling. You really need to consistently have 4-6 players for the best results. And these people need to be fun-loving and able to play the game for the game's sake and not for the uber-competitive mentality of "winning."

CE is filler, but it's filler that can easily become the main event of a beer and pretzels night. Particularly since CE games with 6 people can take upwards of an hour to play (if not a little longer, depending on the racial powers and how much they screw with the game mechanics). It is one of my favorite "party" games, but it isn't exactly "light" gaming (expect to spend far more time explaining the way the rules are BROKEN by the game than you did in explaining the rules initially).

No gaming for me yet. I'm hoping to cajole my wife into playing Descent with me for the first time, if it rains. We have really been enjoying Troyes (she likes it more than Alien Frontiers).

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri May 20, 2011 12:53 pm

I saw AF in two different stores on Wednesday and was about >< this close to buying it but I was on a mission to buy $120 worth Descent stuff I didn't own in preparation of starting a campaign this weekend. Descent so far has managed to cost me an impressing *counts on fingers and toes* $120 + $40 + $40 + $40 + $80 + $60 is umm... $400 I think. How the heck did that happen and I think all but this last $120 was buying stuff over the Internet at discount pricing. I'm glad FFG put out such a high quality set of games or I'd be annoyed at myself for this kind of spending on a single game.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Fri May 20, 2011 1:50 pm

LordMortis wrote:I saw AF

AF?

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri May 20, 2011 2:09 pm

Alien Frontiers. Sorry. I tend to short hand after following someone else.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Fri May 20, 2011 7:17 pm

Make sure you are getting the edition with Mind Control Helmet and the rockets for scoring. I forgot to.

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Fri May 20, 2011 9:47 pm

As I posted above a few posts ago, you can get rocket scoring pieces and the Mind Control Helmet officially from Clever Mojo Games via:

http://shop.gamesalute.com/SearchResult ... ver%20Mojo" target="_blank

They were given out as pre-order bonuses for the 2nd edition of Alien Frontiers... unless your FLGS has some on hand I don't think you can just get them over the counter any more.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri May 20, 2011 10:13 pm

RedWarlord was certain the rocket scoring pieces from Alien Frontiers were repurposed from another game and thought he could get the parts cheap from the store he works at Origins. I expect the Alien Artifact cards will be in print as an expansion.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sat May 21, 2011 4:56 pm

Given current events, I almost wanted to play Last Night on Earth but I figured... you know..

Other candidates might be Earth Reborn or Ascension. But with the way I am, the better bet for me would be Descent.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Sun May 22, 2011 2:55 am

I bought Nightfall (love this game, btw). My boys and I played it today. I had to kinda play their hands, but by the end of the game, they were really starting to "get it".

The boys are also asking to play Descent. So, I think I might pull that out and set it up tomorrow for a game. Hopefully, they will like it. We have tried it several times in the past, but they just didn't understand the game or something.

I am interested in that Galaxy Truckers. I think it sounds like a game that my oldest boy would love.

I know that they both really like The Adventurers.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Sun May 22, 2011 7:05 pm

Tried out Alien Frontiers 2 players with RevHempus this weekend, and it was ok. Much better with 4. Having played it 2, 3, and 4 players, I can't wait for expansion with 5th player!

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sun May 22, 2011 8:07 pm

MythicalMino wrote:I am interested in that Galaxy Truckers. I think it sounds like a game that my oldest boy would love.

Galaxy Trucker is fun and gets a bit crazy when your space ship gets removed due to an illegal placement during setup (it happens) or from getting a laser or meteor hitting a weak or exposed spot.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:58 am

Zarathud wrote:
MythicalMino wrote:I am interested in that Galaxy Truckers. I think it sounds like a game that my oldest boy would love.
Galaxy Trucker is fun and gets a bit crazy when your space ship gets removed due to an illegal placement during setup (it happens) or from getting a laser or meteor hitting a weak or exposed spot.

Could Galaxy trucker reasonably be dumbed down for a 5 year old? I like the concept but it looks like it could be pretty fiddly.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon May 23, 2011 10:24 am

Chaosraven wrote:Tried out Alien Frontiers 2 players with RevHempus this weekend, and it was ok. Much better with 4. Having played it 2, 3, and 4 players, I can't wait for expansion with 5th player!

I'd sarcastically thank you for the call but as it turns out I still didn't get nearly enough done around the house.

We started the Sea of Blood campaign for Descent this weekend. Quite a bit has changed and their FAQ stinks. BGG's forums are better the FFG's and neither are that great.

Current questions for Descent players:

Which cannons use which traits for their firing?
Why were there no ToI creature cards included in the SoB campaign?
Can players purchase more than one of the same cannon?

Note to my players, I found that even though I have more placards, you are limited to 4 +4 wound upgrades and 4 +1 fatigue upgrades for the entire party but you may parse them out in any way you see fit. There are other aspects of the game where you should be limited by tokens that I'll need to sort tokens out for.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Mon May 23, 2011 10:54 am

Awesome four days of gaming at Geekway to the West 2011. It's always hard to imagine that I could actually get gamed out, but it happens. No prize winnings this year (

) but the good times were non-stop from Thursday to Sunday.

I'm not sure if I can even elaborate on the games played, except for a couple of standouts. Here's the total list:

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer
Fury of Dracula
Chaos in the Old World + Horned Rat expansion
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
Cargo Noir
Innovation (2 plays)
Death Angel
Cyclades (2 plays)
Tikal II
Blue Moon City
Ra the Dice Game (about 4 plays)
Fist of Dragonstones
Mare Nostrum w/Mythology expansion
A Game of Thrones

The two standouts were Chaos in the Old World and Game of Thrones. For the first, we had a FFG rep onsite who brought several copies of the Horned Rat expansion (which he helped design) and was running and teaching it all weekend. It was my first play of CITOW entirely, so adding in that fifth player and all the new cards almost made it a first play for everyone. I was a little overwhelmed with the variability until I realized that, as Khorne, I just needed to go kill everyone. Easy! Well, not so much, but the game was a blast.

For Game of Thrones we had a full 5-player game with several elements of the Clash of Kings expansion (ports, siege engines, new House cards, etc.) and if ever a board game session could qualify for the overused moniker of EPIC, this was it. The whole game lasted 5+ hours (with some interim interruptions) and saw nearly every player make a run for the Iron Throne. I was doing well as the Tyrells until the Baratheon player made a stunning push around the south tip of Westeros and invaded Highgarden. Lannister very nearly won the game, but overreached a bit early and saw their fortunes come crashing down. In the end, Greyjoy played the waiting game, building up their supply and armies and rolled over the center of Westeros in the final turn to take 6 cities and the game. Awesome, awesome game.

During the con it was announced that the goal is to push 800 attendees by Geekway 10 (in 2014?) and make Geekway a nationally-recognized convention. All you midwestern boardgamers are on notice! Prizes given away included about 25-30 board games (Mansions of Madness, Civilization, Wrath of Ashardalon, 7 Wonders, and more), a handmade crokinole board, several $50 shopping sprees at Game Nite (a local St. Louis game store) and a grand prize $250 Game Nite shopping spree. It just keeps getting better and better.

Jow · Post by **Jow** » Mon May 23, 2011 1:04 pm

CITOW is still my favorite boardgame so I'm pretty jazzed about Horned Rat. Been wanting to play Game of Thrones for a while now but just never got around to it. I suspect we'll be looking for that one at Gencon this year. Whereabouts does Geekway take place? St. Louis?

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon May 23, 2011 1:10 pm

Yeah, I'm pretty psyched about Horned Rat too. Boudreaux's post got me to check, and apparently it comes out next week. Woot!

Jow · Post by **Jow** » Mon May 23, 2011 1:13 pm

next week?! Wooot!

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon May 23, 2011 1:27 pm

That's what Amazon says:

http://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Old-World-H ... 620&sr=8-1" target="_blank

And $25 isn't bad.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Mon May 23, 2011 1:40 pm

If you like Chaos in the Old World, the Horned Rat seems like a must-buy. Not only does it add the Skaven, which have a completely different win mechanic in the game, but it also replaces the Chaos cards, upgrades, and Old World cards. Since even the experienced players were new to the expansion, there were a lot of surprises. The upgrade for Khorne's Greater Daemon allowed me to summon the Daemon to any region with six or more corruption for free. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth at that one. With die explosions I was able to hop in and kill an entire cluster of 5 cultists in one region. Mwahahahaaaa...

Jow · Post by **Jow** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:08 pm

hey, outta curiosity re: horned rat.... I know this supports a fifth player, but is that the only scenario in which the Horned Rat can be used? In other words, with four players can you replace one of the original gods with the Horned Rat or is the Rat only to be used as the fifth player?

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:35 pm

Also - do the Skaven have a "completely different" winning mechanic? I thought they used the same dial & VP victory-based conditions as the other gods.

Lastly, the game uses the same map, right? I'm wondering whether the game will be too crowded on the existing map with five gods. In particular I'd think this would be great for Khorne - another god's worth of targets would make for some happy hunting.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:40 pm

That's a good question, and unfortunately I have no idea. As I understand it, the original four gods were designed (in the game) to relate in a rock-paper-scissors way to each other, to keep each player in check. The Skaven player seems to fit amongst the other four, but kind of outside that relationship. My gut is that the game is best with the original four gods, or else the original four plus the Skaven, but I am not certain.

Jow · Post by **Jow** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:43 pm

i can answer these - check this out:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c ... -sheet.png" target="_blank

Same winning conditions as the others, except it gets dial advancement counters/ruined region VPs in different ways than the others... DACs for dominating regions with one or more Skaven tokens present, ruined region VPs by counting the number of figures they have present rather than corruption.

Edit: Checked out the rules sheet, found here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c ... sh_web.pdf" target="_blank

Says that the Horned Rat is "always an option, even in games with fewer than five players". Nice!

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:47 pm

El Guapo wrote:Also - do the Skaven have a "completely different" winning mechanic? I thought they used the same dial & VP victory-based conditions as the other gods.

Same VP and dial mechanics. However, the Skaven never place corruption. Instead, their units count toward total corruption whenever a region is ruined. That means that the Skaven player is constantly dumping hordes of units in heavily-corrupted areas, hoping that the region will be ruined, and then they get all the scoring points. They also have cards that allow them to move units en masse from region to region, to chain this effect. It's tricky, but doing that even once is huge. Our Skaven player very nearly won the game by
scoring first place for two adjacent ruined regions right at the end of the game.

Lastly, the game uses the same map, right? I'm wondering whether the game will be too crowded on the existing map with five gods. In particular I'd think this would be great for Khorne - another god's worth of targets would make for some happy hunting.

Same map, and no it does not get crowded at all. In fact, the Skaven player's unit feel so mobile that I had a hard time targeting them as Khorne. They kept popping up like rats (

) at the most opportune time, then scurrying away. It's a really well-done counterpoint to the other gods and their units.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:48 pm

Jow wrote:i can answer these - check this out:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c ... -sheet.png" target="_blank

Same winning conditions as the others, except it gets dial advancement counters/ruined region VPs in different ways than the others... DACs for dominating regions with one or more Skaven tokens present, ruined region VPs by counting the number of figures they have present rather than corruption.

Edit: Checked out the rules sheet, found here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c ... -sheet.png" target="_blank

Says that the Horned Rat is "always an option, even in games with fewer than five players". Nice!

Thanks. Was the second link supposed to be a different link than the first? They both go to the Skaven God sheet.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:50 pm

Jow wrote:Same winning conditions as the others, except it gets dial advancement counters/ruined region VPs in different ways than the others... DACs for dominating regions with one or more Skaven tokens present, ruined region VPs by counting the number of figures they have present rather than corruption.

It's actually the power cost of their units, not the number of units themselves. Which makes their warrier and demon units more useful, since our Skaven player hardly ever employed them for combat.

Jow · Post by **Jow** » Mon May 23, 2011 4:06 pm

El Guapo wrote:Thanks. Was the second link supposed to be a different link than the first? They both go to the Skaven God sheet.

Oops, yeah. Fixed in that post, also relinking here.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c ... sh_web.pdf" target="_blank

Boudreaux wrote:It's actually the power cost of their units, not the number of units themselves. Which makes their warrier and demon units more useful, since our Skaven player hardly ever employed them for combat.

Double oops - didn't read the entire text. Thanks for the correction.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Mon May 23, 2011 4:53 pm

CitOW is badass. Too bad you pretty much need 4 "real" gamers to play.

Jow · Post by **Jow** » Mon May 23, 2011 5:40 pm

I've done the vast majority of my play with at least one new player in the mix. It helps a lot to provide them a little direction (i.e, run from khorne, don't let Nurgle sit because he can build up points in a hurry, etc) so they're not floundering around figuring everything out the first half of the game. Even with that, it's sometimes tough to get all of them on the right page so someone doesn't run away with the game.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:09 pm

Jow wrote:I've done the vast majority of my play with at least one new player in the mix. It helps a lot to provide them a little direction (i.e, run from khorne, don't let Nurgle sit because he can build up points in a hurry, etc) so they're not floundering around figuring everything out the first half of the game. Even with that, it's sometimes tough to get all of them on the right page so someone doesn't run away with the game.

It's one of those games that gets incrementally better the more people learn their role. I played 4 games in less than a week earlier this year with the same four players, and the third and forth game were incredible.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:16 pm

Played two, three hour rounds of Wrath of Ashardalon on Friday night. The scenarios we selected were very difficult and for one of them we had to use 4 surges to escape. About the only thing I can say for sure is that when you're playing a two-player dungeon crawl, the Wizard is probably not a good choice. Great for clearing rooms, but way too squishy to deal with wave after wave of enemies.

It still is a ridiculously fun game and we had a good time really trying to figure out a strategy to try and get through each scenario. I'm actually pretty curious about Legend of Drizzt board game coming out in the Fall.

We also have a mini-gaming convention of sorts coming up in July which I'm hoping to check out.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue May 24, 2011 12:56 am

Great... it looks like both Shadow of the Horned Rat and Twilight Imperium 3rd: Shards of the Throne are shipping out. Unfortunately, Shard of the Throne is $50 on Amazon and $39.99 on Coolstuffinc.com! Yikes, that's as much as a full-priced game! The 4-player limitation pushes me away from Horned Rat, but I know I will want it eventually. And I can't justify paying so much for Shards when I haven't even really used the additions from Shattered Empire expansion. Really, I would be spending that money just for the race sheets, which seems over-the-top. Maybe, if Descent is a big hit, I'll invest in a Descent expansion instead.

I'm curious about the Drizzt game as well. I really like CR and WoA, and my friends really enjoy them as well. Even my wife very much likes WoA, which is pretty cool! I do wonder what people will think once I introduce Descent, but really the games are extremely different.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue May 24, 2011 9:00 am

coopasonic wrote: Could Galaxy trucker reasonably be dumbed down for a 5 year old? I like the concept but it looks like it could be pretty fiddly.

Anyone?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue May 24, 2011 9:03 am

I've only played it once, but I don't see why not. It's essentially a puzzle game with a little bit of foresight enforced on piece placement thanks to the end round attacks from enemy ships/meteors. It may not be challenging for you, but I'm sure a 5 year old would have a blast.