OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:49 pm

Well, I wouldn't worry too much. This IS technically the release day so they're probably just filling orders today. I'm confident you'll get a shipping notice fairly soon.

My copy arrived this afternoon. The reason I order from miniaturemarket.com is because they have their depot in St. Louis so anything I order is delivered by the next day. As for why my copy arrived ON the release date, well...my guess is that they got some flack for telling folks earlier this week and last that there was a misprint on the first shipment of ST:FC and they scrambled to make sure they got their preorders out the door as quickly as humanly possible.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:53 pm

glad you got it when you needed it. So, what does it all look like? Looks like a great game?

EDIT to add:

Wow...just looked it up on funagaingames, and they are charging nearly 90 dollars.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:55 pm

I'm still at work so I'm avoiding opening up a giant Star Trek game around folks who I've fooled into thinking I'm a normal adult male.

But I'll get a chance to go over everything tonight after work and the gym. My only worry is that I've heard one story about broken minis already.

edit: and yeah, funagain doesn't seem to discount very well in comparison to other online stores.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 5:25 pm

I picked up my copy this afternoon from my FLGS...I won't have a chance to open it up until around 8 tonight, after cub scouts.

So I'm not sure what's worse, MM...not having the game, or having the game and not being able to break it out!

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 5:37 pm

you have a point.

It is not that I cannot open the game, though. It is the OTHER game I am actually more interested in.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 5:50 pm

I am hoping my Walled Village shows up before Saturday, so I can stick it in the Dominion set and cackle. Heck, maybe I will even get a chance to play... St00pid comicon.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:05 pm

Okay, word of advice for owners of Star Trek Fleet Captains: the cards are crap. I'm going out now to pick up sleeves as I don't see how these will hold together for more than a half dozen or so plays. Mayday Standard Card size (green) or FFG Standard Card Size will fit.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:25 pm

I'm not overly concerned about the cards...I may end up sleeving them, but I think the finish they put on them should be ok. I'll try them out this weekend and see what happens.

More concerning to me is that, as has been complained about on BGG, my captains decks "wrapper" burst open, and cards were somewhat scattered around the box. And I'm not sure how they plan for you to store the cards in the box, the slots that they provide won't hold the cards very well, so...I'm not sure what I should do with the cards. If they were scattered around the box when they were sealed in the wrappers...

Plus, I have three broken ships in the box. That's pretty disappointing. The ships are great looking, I wasn't expecting them to be hard plastic, but softer plastic like all of the other clix.

Now, I have to try and fix three ships...

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:16 am

Mino, I'm in the same boat, boards & bits seem to have my money but not my game. I'm on vacation now, so I'm not worried about it too much, but I want that box by Monday when I return. I pre-bought Mayday Premium sleeves to use on the cards, because standard Mayday sleeves wrinkle over time (I may have to resleeve Dominion). I also preordered Legend of Drizzt, but I was smart and went with Coolstuffinc.com.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:10 am

On the Boards & Bits site, under their "Recently Arrived" section, I don't even see Fleet Captains listed. This sucks. I wonder when they are going to be getting them in.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:28 pm

Mino, I called the B&B people to ask them about my order. He said it would ship early next week! So I cancelled right there and (within 5 minutes on my iPhone), ordered with Miniatures Market, who has them in stock. They are in St Louis, so the shipping is comparable. I actually got it a little cheaper!

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:47 pm

yeah, I sent them an email about it. They replied and told me basically the same thing.

I figure, though, if I cancelled, it would probably take awhile to get my money back from the cancellation (that kind of stuff usually takes a number of business days), and then add in the shipping and all of that, I would be better off just sticking to where I am at. At least once he does ship, it will only take a day to get to me. Sucks, none-the-less, though. I wonder why it is taking him so much longer to get it than other places?

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:34 pm

Not to burst that idea, but my refund came back to me within a few hours.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:13 am

I paid through paypal. Would that make a diffference? And how much is one day shipping at miniaturemarket? It only is taking a day to reach me from boards & bits....well, once they finally do ship it.

Also, it will be shipping via fedex (don't care much for ups).

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 1:28 pm

I used paypal as well, so it was near instant. If I were you, I would wait, given that MM probably needs time to process, they wouldn't ship till Monday anyway. Anyone play yet to see if Vasel was right?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 1:59 pm

Hep got a couple of games in, he said he's loving it. I'm planning gettting a couple of games in this weekend at Octocon. Let you know afterwards.

(Got my broken ships glued last night, except for the Sutherland...I just couldn't get the model cement to hold that large a ship on the support post. I'm going to be trying superglue this afternoon.)

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 3:04 pm

It's a great game marred only by atrocious production value. I just had my first ship fall apart, and the cards and other components just feel cheap. I highly recommend it for gamers but not at a hundred bucks. This is a 60 dollar game at best.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:46 pm

Well, $75 including shipping feels high, so I hope my ships come with no damage. Any word on getting Wizkids to send replacements? I am intrigued by their upcoming Mage Knight boardgame, but I am worried that the production values will be poor like everyone is reporting ST:FC's are. I pre-bought sleeves for the cards, since Vasel stated the cards were crap. I worried about my ships though! Hent, were all your ships damaged?

I got to play Elder Sign and liked it quite a bit. It is pretty random, but that is fine, given the fast playtime.

I also got to play Gears of War solo and found it to be a pretty great experience. I would say that I like Castle Ravenloft a little better, but the games are pretty different from one another. GoW plays a bit more like a tactical war sim than an exploration and beat-up like CR and WoA. Your actions depend on cards, which also serve as you "life," leading to some really hard tactical decision making. I need to play with more players, to get the full effect, but it looks like a winner.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 1:31 pm

My copies of Last Night On Earth (and the expansions) and Fortune & Glory arrived today. But, going through the pieces for Fortune & Glory, I noticed I had an extra Hero figure, but missing another Hero figure. Anyone else have this issue with the game? I emailed Flying Frog, and hopefully, they will get it sent out quickly to me without any hassle.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:20 am

Let me know how Fortune And Glory is! I am sorely tempted even though I know it is a press-your-luck adventure game like A Touch of Evil and Talisman.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 7:00 pm

You might hate me after this, but...

I am really LOVING Fortune & Glory. I have both Talisman (4th edition) and A Touch of Evil. And I really don't care much for niether of those (in fact, I am selling all of my talisman stuff). I don't mind A Touch of Evil too much, but, I still don't play it really at all.

But this game (Fortune & Glory), I am really liking it. It is colorful (as I am finding out most of Flying Frog's games are), but it is also very exciting. From the "creation" of the artifacts, to the dangers, to the cliffhangers....it all is very cool. Then throw the Mob, the Nazi's, and then the Zombies (!!), this game just overflows with theme. The gameboard is gorgeous, in my opinion. The game is just...."right"...if you know what I mean. I am really liking it. Going to probably have my first multiplayer game tomorrow.

Hopefully, Flying Frog will reply to me tomorrow and get the character mini that I was missing sent out tomorrow. So far, that is the only thing that was a downer. Everything else about the game is just...right.

On another note, I am also pretty excited about playing Last Night On Earth. My two boys are really interested in that one. So, I may be able to talk my wife into playing that one, also.

Chris

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 8:05 pm

But isn't Fortune & Glory just a huge dice-fest and random card draw? What I mean to say is, are there any decisions to be made when playing?

Grr... I have the money for this one... but I was saving it for either Mage Knights, or perhaps Stronghold 3 (for PC). Of course you would have to love it!

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 8:39 pm

of course there are decisions....probably in the same vein as maybe Defenders of the Realm (at least it is what it makes me think of when thinking about what decisions there are).

You have to decide when/where to attack the villains and henchmen. There are 2 villain factions (Nazis & Mob), each has 3 villains, plus each has their own henchmen. The board can get kinda over-run, so you need to sometimes go after them to clean them out a bit.

You have to decide when to attack a hidden base (be it Nazi or Mob). The more bases there are, the more likely another base will be laid out (at least as far as the Nazis go, haven't played vs. the Mob yet).

You have to decide what artifacts to go for. Different artifacts give different amounts of Fortune (the VP that wins you the game). Plus, artifacts are paired randomly (card drawn) with the "adventures", but the adventures determine how many dangers you will need to go through before you get the artifact. So, you need to choose, maybe a low reward artifact that might have a low amount of dangers to go through, or do you want to go for the big reward that may be paired with the bigger amount of dangers? Another aspect to this....soemtimes an artifact may be in a Deep Jungle. Going for that artifact, you have to try to explore and find it. You could actually get "lost" for several turns, costing valuable time (while other players and the Villains are going about their business, finding other artifacts, among other things).

Also, when going for artifacts, you also gotta keep in mind that different artifacts may have different "tags" (some have "death" as a tag, for example, or maybe "magic" as a tag). If the villains have the card, Dark Mastery in play, if they have at least one artifact that has the "Death" tag, then any time a Hero rolls a "1" for movement, Zombies attack the Hero. Another example would be the Dark Rituals card. If the villains have at least one artifact that has the "Magik" tag, at the beginning of each Villain phase, you roll a die. A result of "4, 5, or 6" moves the Villain track up by 1, bringing them closer to winning (and the players to losing). So, there you are forced to decide...do you try to stop a villain from getting a Death artifact (especially if they have the Dark Mastery card in play)? Maybe you should try to invade a hidden base and steal one of their artifacts that they already have that has that "Magik" tag? Decisions, decisions.

You have the event cards that do different things at different times. You have to decide when to use them, and on WHO to use them.

You gotta also decide when to spend your Glory on items. And not only that, on what items? Common items that you know what you are getting (that range in cost from 1 to 8 or 9 Glory). Or do you spend the set amount of 5 glory to try to get a more powerful, but random Gear or Ally?

Speaking of Glory, you have to decide if you want to move on in an adventure (trying to get an artifact), risking the glory you could have now from the dangers you have won over, or should you "make camp", take the Glory, but wait at least another turn to get that artifact. What if you are waiting one more turn, and another player jumps in that spot, and then goes the 4 dangers to get the artifact, taking it from your grasp? You were so close, yet...so far away. (In this instance...I believe there is a "race" for the artifact. Not totally sure how that works yet, as I have not experienced that part of the game).

There are decisions....but there is also dice rolls. Like I said, it reminds me, in a way, of Defenders of the Realm. To me, this game does not remind me very much of A Touch of Evil, and especially not of Talisman. A Touch of Evil, that may be that I just simply didn't care much for it (for whatever reason, I do not know for sure).

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 8:55 pm

Damn... I'll probably order tonight then. I was worried about a repeat of A Touch of Evil, which I started off liking but after two plays felt it was overly long and not at all fulfilling. Talisman is sort of the same way with me, the real meaningful decisions in Talisman are to go left or right and when to attempt to cross over to the next board.

As a sidenote MM, did you sleeve your cards? I know that Flying Frog's cards are thicker and much better stock, but I tend to want to sleeve decks that need to be shuffled a lot. I think the Mayday Standard fit them, but I wanted confirmation.

I'm a giant fan of Defenders of the Realm, so that is a big plus.

BTW, my wife prefer competitive, but with low interaction. Do the rules for competitive look pretty solid?

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:26 pm

I do not sleeve my cards...ever. I probably should, but I don't (this may very well change when I get Fleet Captains Tuesday or Wednesday).

The competitive game, is probably the way I will mostly play it. The competitive game, if you using the Vile Organizations, you will not only be playing against the other players, but against the game itself.

Don't get me wrong...a lot of the mechanics are the same from A Touch of Evil. But to me, this just seems a...better game, I guess. I was the same way with A Touch of Evil. I like the theme there, but the game itself just didn't gel with me for some reason.

Note that the game is not a copy of Defenders of the Realm. The game makes me think of Defenders, but they are two different beasts. Similarities, of course, but at the same time, very different. But, I know the different choices in Defenders, and Defenders could even be explained as a dice-fest and card draw. Dice play a very important role in both games.

I hate when someone thinks about buying a game based off of my "review". What if you buy it and hate it? I would feel very bad about that, because these things are not cheap. But I really do like this game. I think the components are very well done, and I think that the theme is great. I really like how the dangers work, turning into cliffhangers. I just really like the game. If you do buy it, hopefully you will enjoy it, and not really hate me for influencing you to buy a game that you end up not liking.

I think you would like this one, though.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:17 pm

I'm sure I'll drive to your location and beat you up if I don't like it. Of course, I'm weak and pasty, so you'll probably have to do with a stern reprimand...

To be honest, the fact that you get to fight pulp-style Nazis was enough to really get me interested. Cults, artifacts, and crazy heroes are just gravy. Also... the Zeppelin.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:10 am

At a MeetUp Sunday, I played the new game Pantheon. It's pretty simple once you get going, it only takes a couple of hours, and it was fun. Definitely something I want to play again. Somehow, I also fell into a game of The Order of the Stick board game. It's cute, but it drags a bit. Supposedly the release of "The Shortening" solves the issue.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:17 am

After a few games of Star Trek FC, I can safely say that while the components are decidedly lackluster (the tiles used for the game board are especially maddening in that beer coasters in a dive bar are actually of a better quality), the game itself is a great deal of fun...IF you go into it expecting a game that attempts to first and foremost capture the feel of a star trek episode through the use of cards and some light strategy.

The game is a Victory Point game in that you need to gain a number of predetermined VP's to win (usually 10 for a standard two player game). VP's are acquired through numerous game mechanics: mission cards that award VP's upon completion, combat (each destroyed enemy ship is worth 1 VP), building starbases (each one is worth 1 VP) and sometimes through events that are drawn when exploring a new sector.

Each turn you can do as many of the "free" actions as you like (usually once per ship though). Adjust the power levels of your ships using the clix dials, move, scan adjacent tiles, explore a tile you move into, etc.. You also get 3 action points (in a standard 2 player game) that you can use once per ship to attack, complete missions that require an action, cloak, drop influence to place a control marker in an explored area you're occupying, etc..

I was surprised to find out that area control is as big a part of the game that it is. You can use one of your 3 action points allotted to each player per turn to lay down control markers on a currently occupied and explored space area (tile). Many of the missions play off these controlled tiles as part of their completion prerequisites. You also have to have a certain number of influence (or control) markers on a tile to build (in the following order) an outpost (1 marker), a colony (2 markers) and finally a starbase (3 markers).

While the game has a bit more strategic depth than I was expecting (which was a pleasant surprise), I had bought this game on the strength of Tom Vassal's glowing review...in which he does repeat often that it's a thematic game primarily. And that's where it excels. You build your "command deck" prior to each game using 4 of the 10 subdecks that concentrate on one of the three themes in the missions: diplomacy (influence), combat and science. These decks are usually organized around someone from the shows/movies. There's a Captain Kirk deck, for example. That's the deck building part of the game. You then use these cards as both actions (a one time boost to combat, for example) or if they say "crew" on the side, you assign them to a ship for a constant bonus (although they can usually be expended and discarded for a bigger boost on a one time basis...sacrificing themselves, so to speak).

I love the game and I can't wait to get it onto the table. I just wanted to make sure that folks that buy it do so knowing that it has it warts (the cheap components being the biggest, the slightly fiddly rules and the rather large part that luck plays into it being another). I don't mind the luck part of the game as much as some players do, to be honest. As long as a game makes me feel like I'm playing in the universe that I'm supposed to be occupying and does it well, I can overlook that and accept it as a game mechanic. And Star Trek FC has the theme down pat, imho.

Another word of warning: they're advertising this as a two to four player game out of the box. While technically you CAN play this as four player game with the base set, it's really just making you split into two teams. I don't like that myself. However, when they release new races (and I'm sure they will) I can easily see this being a great 3 to 4 player game.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:23 am

Agree with everything Hep says about STFC, except I'm not nearly so worried/concerned as most folks about the tiles and cards for the game. The linen finish on them I'm hoping will keep wear to an acceptable level.

One correction, Hep...you do have to use a Scan action to scan adjacent sectors. It's not a freebie like you said. And I just looked it up when you said this above to make sure I wasn't playing it wrong.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:29 am

ah, i stand corrected.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:42 am

A couple of my complaints about the game...the font they used on the click dials is atrocious. I cannot for the life of me tell the difference between the 8,9,0 and 6. I found myself having to use the grid on the card to see what my power settings were at, which kind of takes away from the whole concept of using the clix dial.

The rule book is, indeed, a mess, and needed another edit or two before release. The info is scattered all over the book, and was pretty hard to find the answers to some questions without flipping through multiple times.

The ship quality has been mentioned several times, and i was a victim of the snapped off ship syndrome. However, WizKids had replacement ships sent out the next day after I opened up a complaint with them, so that does make it a bit better. Plus, now with broken off ships, I have a couple to practice painting with.

On the plus side, this game just OOZES theme. It's a real Star Trek game through and through. The two games I participated in were great fun, and we just scratched the surface in the game. I would love to play again tonight, but unfortunately I am going to be busy tonight with my parents coming into town.

Hmmm...wonder if the rules would make my dad's head explode...

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:54 am

Yeah, forgot about the font on the dials. We had to do the same thing and refer to the ship cards.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:01 pm

I really do hope that all of these issues don't impact the sales of the game too badly, and cause WizKids to re-think the expansions. It would be a crying shame if that got shelved because of poor sales, because it really is an outstanding game.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:06 pm

Just finished our first multiplayer game of Fortune & Glory. What a fun game!!

We played as 3 players Co-op vs. the Nazis...and we lost. The game was pretty close, though, and it looked like we might just take the win.

The highlight of the game, though, was when Cheddar (one of the players, NOT a character!!) tried to sneak onto the Zepplin. He ended up having to fight 2 enemies. The first was easy enough....Nazi soldiers. But the 2nd enemy was....a PANZER TANK (!!!???). The question was: "How is there a panzer tank on a zepplin?? Well, Cheddar lost that fight....which really cost us the game in the end.

Fun game, though. Lots of theme in it. Just a lot of fun bashing Nazi's (and the occassional Mob boss).

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:21 pm

Er... Just guessing MM but the rulebook does mention something about the zeppelin being a place with "infantry only" in terms of fighting. I don't have my copy yet, but I wonder if you were suppose to redraw non-infantry units in the zeppelin? Might check that rule.

So I ordered FanG last night and it sounds fairly similar to ST:FC, in a way. I know my gamin group us going to love he theme of both.

Hent, I've trained my 64 year old dad to play complex games now. He is one of the group and routinely does very well with Twilight Imperium and Chaos in the Old World. So it is very doable if interest is there. In fact, I think Dad likes TI:3rd almost as much as I do!

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 1:19 pm

ah....now that you mention it, you are right. Oh well...when it happened, someone said, "Like the A-Team movie!!", and it all made sense....

But, yes, you are right. That is something I need to remember. The rulebook sucks, though. No index, so it is tough tracking down rules that I know I had read somewhere....

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:46 pm

Finally.

My copy of Fleet Captains shipped. Will have it either tomorrow...or Wednesday.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:37 pm

MythicalMino wrote:ah....now that you mention it, you are right. Oh well...when it happened, someone said, "Like the A-Team movie!!", and it all made sense....

But, yes, you are right. That is something I need to remember. The rulebook sucks, though. No index, so it is tough tracking down rules that I know I had read somewhere....

Confusing rulebooks are par for the course with Flying Frog. I probably will make a reference sheet for easy to forget rules in FanG.

I have to say, Miniature Market really impresses me. I ordered and paid $10.40 for the Three-Day Select of UPS. They made a mistake and shipped it on UPS Ground, which was $5 cheaper. Still, the game will get to me tomorrow, within three days of shipping. I sent them a message regarding the mistake and they didn't just refund the difference... they refunded the entire $10.40. That's class act customer service IMHO! And their new redesigned site is very nice.

The only problem is... I get a 3% loyalty discount for Coolstuffinc.com. Still, for quick and cheaper shipping, MM is going to be hard to beat!

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:03 pm

well...I took a chance when I ordered FanG, and went with Boards & Bits. I got it the very next day, and it only cost me 4 bucks in shipping. With Fleet Captains just shipping, I will most likely get that tomorrow, and again, only for 4 dollars shipping.

I just know not to pre order anything through them. But as far as ordering what they already have in stock, they are fast, fast, and fast.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:28 pm

baelthazar wrote:I have to say, Miniature Market really impresses me. I ordered and paid $10.40 for the Three-Day Select of UPS. They made a mistake and shipped it on UPS Ground, which was $5 cheaper. Still, the game will get to me tomorrow, within three days of shipping. I sent them a message regarding the mistake and they didn't just refund the difference... they refunded the entire $10.40. That's class act customer service IMHO! And their new redesigned site is very nice.

Miniature Market just opened up a new storefront here in St. Louis, so anything locals order from them can be picked up at the shop, usually the next day. And you pay no shipping. So it's like having a local game store, but with online prices. My wallet is not happy. AT ALL.