OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[RMC]

In the mood for some Defenders of the Realm, I do believe...will get that out tomorrow and get it set up. Maybe next Monday, that will be our game...

We hadn't played it in several months. Hadn't realized how much I had missed it. I wish that Eagle would hurry up and release the new quest pack.

For some reason, I keep messing this up with Shadows over Camelot. I just figured out they are two very different games.

Has anyone ever played Shadows over Camelot, with or without the expansion?

And if I were to get Defenders of the realm, what expansion should I get..There seems to be a ton of Hero's expansions..

Thanks.

[hentzau]

In the mood for some Defenders of the Realm, I do believe...will get that out tomorrow and get it set up. Maybe next Monday, that will be our game...

We hadn't played it in several months. Hadn't realized how much I had missed it. I wish that Eagle would hurry up and release the new quest pack.

For some reason, I keep messing this up with Shadows over Camelot. I just figured out they are two very different games.

Has anyone ever played Shadows over Camelot, with or without the expansion?

And if I were to get Defenders of the realm, what expansion should I get..There seems to be a ton of Hero's expansions..

Thanks.

You can play for a LONG time with Defenders of the Realm without expansions. But I do believe that the Dragons expansion may be out of print now and I don't think they are planning on reprinting it (but that's a heavy investment for a game you haven't played. The Dragons give you new generals to play with, and a couple of optional rules (that you can get mostly off of BGG for free.)

The Hero packs are a bit more fun (IMO). Each one will give you several new heroes to play with. Some are kind of weak, but for the most part they all add variety.

There are a couple of cheap hero expansions out there that I would grab right away though. The first is the Barbarian hero. Really a great character, can be very powerful in the right circumstances. You can get it either from Eagle Games directly, or some places like Time Well Spent throw it in for free with the base game. The second one I would recommend is the Errant Paladin. He's an upgrade of the Paladin that comes in the base game, has a nice ability with his Broadsword of Might.

Finally, the Global Effects cards(for sale over on BGG) add a nice new element of long-lasting good and bad effects through the game. Unfortunately, it's completely random what you get.

Have fun!

(Oh, and I have and enjoy Shadows Over Camelot. Two completely different games, I would harken SOC to be closer to BSG than Defenders, in that there is a traitor in the game and he works against the overall goal.)

[Boudreaux]

Ton of games this weekend. Had friends over Friday night, played a five-player game of Bootleggers and came in second, about $15,000 short of the winner (but still over the $100k threshold). The winner managed control of a decent speakeasy with an iron grip, and none of the Action cards provided any way of dealing with him until it was too late. This continues to be one of my all time favorites, just because of the hilarious free-wheeling nature of all the deals that get made.

After that I taught a game of Carson City, and for some reason the fiddly income and scoring was really brought into harsh light. I have always enjoyed this game in the past, I love the idea of a worker placement game with direct player competition for spots instead of the usual passive-aggressive "who gets there first" mechanic. The concepts of buying parcels, then building buildings, and adding houses, and then figuring out the convoluted income was a hard sell for the other players. Bit of a wart on an otherwise fine game.

Over the rest of the weekend my bro-in-law was in town, so we managed a game of Innovation with expansion, Alien Frontiers, and three games of Merchants & Marauders. M&M continues to amaze me with its ability to never get old. After wrapping up our third game Sunday he had to catch a plane, and I realized I would have happily set up for a fourth game.

Oh, and for Father's Day last night I played my 7-year-old son in a couple of games of Hive. I beat him both times - but just barely.

[hepcat]

Over the rest of the weekend my bro-in-law was in town, so we managed a game of Innovation with expansion, Alien Frontiers, and three games of Merchants & Marauders.

I bought Innovation when it first came out and then promptly sold it at an auction at Origins. For some reason that game annoys the crap out of me. It just felt soulless to me.

[Boudreaux]

I bought Innovation when it first came out and then promptly sold it at an auction at Origins. For some reason that game annoys the crap out of me. It just felt soulless to me.

It definitely seems like a love it or hate it type game. I find the challenge of trying to come up with a working engine to generate points and achievements really interesting, especially given that all the cards are unique. It's almost never the same game twice. However, I'll admit that many of the games I've played were won by ridiculously lopsided amounts. Once a player finds a really effective way to score points, it can take several turns for the other players to react and figure out how to stop them, and by then it's usually too late.

[Chaosraven]

Ok that Tsuro of the Seas has my name all over it... drooly drool.

Just played 4 games of Qwarmageddon with our buddy, 3 player.

I won twice, my son won twice. Our buddy got the sham.

[RMC]

Played BattleStar Galactica, 6 player game. Used the Pegasus expansion. No Exodus expansions used, but we will next time.

The first half of the game went fine for the humans. I was playing Baltar, and never got a chance to scan anyone..
The list of players was: Kat(I think, the person who can shoot someone as thier ability), Apollo, Helena, Baltar, Chief, and one other pilot I can't remember who.

I was the President and Helena was the Admiral.

One of the players who had only played a few times, looked at his loyalty card a little too long, so a few pegged him as a Cylon.

But we got to over 4 jumps on the same turn we burned fuel into the red, so the sympathetic Cylon was void.

The loyalty cards were passed out, and Kat noticed that the admiral was acting funny. So right after Chief came out as a Cylon, Kat shot Helena, and reveled our other Cylon. This then moved the admiralty to Apollo. Apollo was a fan of launching nukes just as fast as he could get his hand on the red button.

Both the players playing the Cylons, really had never been Cylons, and stayed away from, as they called it,"Wasting a turn getting a super crisis". I would have taken turns getting one while the other played one. But even with a ton of Cylon attacks from the crisis deck, the Humans still won.

We lost 25% of the Pegasus, and 50% of the galactica, but Kat and Baltar quickly used Engineering cards and fixed up the ships and stayed ahead of the cylons.

This game really showed me that to make it fair, you need to use the Cylon Pursuit board. We had long stretches where no new cylon ships came out, and a line of just decisions to make. I even had to discard skill cards, and my quorum cards saved our but a few times, but I still had almost 10 at the end of the game.

A very fun game overall, and I think my gaming group is playing again this Friday.

We usually play pathfinder, but our DM has been having 'issues' and he likes to kill 1/2 our party before two hours goes by. So we play board games afterwards. And tend to play board games on Fridays until his 'funk' passes.

I am dying to play Game of Thrones 2nd edition, but the group may or may not want to learn the rules this week. I am hosting a big after 4th party for board gaming, so I am hoping to get in a game then.

[Trent Steel]

We also managed another 4 way random Heroscape army battle, where all armies are generated ahead of time by Battleplan and then randomly assigned to players. The program does a much better job at linking up synergies than we ever did and it certainly makes for battles and teams we've never seen.

Except for my army, which had exactly ZERO synergies available to me from the characters I had. But at least I survived to eek out a 2nd place finish. I feel like the Chicago Cubs of Heroscape.

Although, I do like the random army aspect. It lessens the pressure, so to speak, and introduces me to characters I might not have otherwise used.

[Remus West]

Battleplan? I missed something. I enjoy Heroscape but the time commit to setting up, choosing armies, etc. killed it for me. A game shouldn't take over an hour to set up. Random armies sounds intriguing.

[El Guapo]

We also managed another 4 way random Heroscape army battle, where all armies are generated ahead of time by Battleplan and then randomly assigned to players. The program does a much better job at linking up synergies than we ever did and it certainly makes for battles and teams we've never seen.

Except for my army, which had exactly ZERO synergies available to me from the characters I had. But at least I survived to eek out a 2nd place finish. I feel like the Chicago Cubs of Heroscape.

Except for the part where you finished second.

[Chaosraven]

My daughter (who was mortally offended that I had taken apart "her" Oros edh deck) pulled off a Kill all the other players win with my newly built Momir Vig edh deck last night against Krond the DawnClad, Hanna Ships Navigator, and Kresh the Bloodbraided.

A second game saw Olivia Voldarren, Momir Vig, and Hanna Ships Navigator fall to my Ghave deck.

We then stayed up too late playing EPIC SPELL WARS OF THE BATTLE WIZARDS DUEL AT MT. SKULLZFYRE.
And it was hilarious to hear our buddy and my daughter bickering back and forth in EPIC WIZARD VOICE.
My son won again.

[Chaosraven]

Battleplan? I missed something. I enjoy Heroscape but the time commit to setting up, choosing armies, etc. killed it for me. A game shouldn't take over an hour to set up. Random armies sounds intriguing.

And the dice killed it for LM.

[LordMortis]

Battleplan? I missed something. I enjoy Heroscape but the time commit to setting up, choosing armies, etc. killed it for me. A game shouldn't take over an hour to set up. Random armies sounds intriguing.

And the dice killed it for LM.

???

I'm not sure what "killed" it for me. If there was dice related problems for me, it probably would have whatever the berzerking skill was called but I think I had a larger "issue" with mounting and dismounting movements. I don't remember for sure though. Maybe it was the commitment to build maps. My memory is that prep time to build a map was pretty big and then if you didn't like the map and wanted to play again you'd have to rebuild it. It's been a while, so my memory could be off.

I don't remember picking armies being a problem, though I do remember some of the units seemed unfairly low priced and therefore they always seemed to make be unit centerpieces. Wheres, I liked to try (and fail) to come up with nice unexpected ability combinations.

[Smoove_B]

Battleplan? I missed something. I enjoy Heroscape but the time commit to setting up, choosing armies, etc. killed it for me. A game shouldn't take over an hour to set up. Random armies sounds intriguing.

I need to check with my buddy. I thought he was using free software called "Battleplan" to make the armies, but apparently it's something else. We maintain a standard battlefield for four players and the week of gaming this guy adjusts some sliders on [to be named application] and it auto drafts armies based on total points for us to randomly assign at game time. Then we randomly assign starting position on the map as there are some runes that mix things up a bit. It takes no time at all and we get about 5 minutes to review our draft when it happens. If I was being 100% honest, I was burning out on Heroscape. This new method for play has really worked out. In addition, it's picking armies from a collection of 200+ figures - creatures we'd normally never use or think to use are finally being selected. Highly recommended.

[Chaosraven]

Battleplan? I missed something. I enjoy Heroscape but the time commit to setting up, choosing armies, etc. killed it for me. A game shouldn't take over an hour to set up. Random armies sounds intriguing.

And the dice killed it for LM.

???

I'm not sure what "killed" it for me. If there was dice related problems for me, it probably would have whatever the berzerking skill was called but I think I had a larger "issue" with mounting and dismounting movements. I don't remember for sure though. Maybe it was the commitment to build maps. My memory is that prep time to build a map was pretty big and then if you didn't like the map and wanted to play again you'd have to rebuild it. It's been a while, so my memory could be off.

I don't remember picking armies being a problem, though I do remember some of the units seemed unfairly low priced and therefore they always seemed to make be unit centerpieces. Wheres, I liked to try (and fail) to come up with nice unexpected ability combinations.

I could swear you complained that a Bad Roll versus an Awesome Roll ended the game for you.

[Smoove_B]

If it makes you feel any better, I don't think we play Heroscape now as much as we laugh at the ridiculous die rolls. The last time we did this random event, I needed to roll a 1 on a D20 to completely vaporize (i.e. insta-kill) an enemy. It was the first attack of the game and I went after Jotun -- the meat of my buddy's random army. Clackity-clack -- and I rolled a 1. Zzzap. Gone. But yeah, we laugh at the blanks and shake fists at how ridiculous it all is. Well, except for Trent. He just gets more irritated.

[LordMortis]

I could swear you complained that a Bad Roll versus an Awesome Roll ended the game for you.

You may be right. But after a few years that is not what I remember about the game and not what would keep me from coming back. Bad dice can frustrate me in a lot of games. However, I could see crazy dice in a long game with a long set up and tear down time being a problem for me in a game. large time commitments to single thing tend to be a bit more "serious" for me than just beer and pretzling along.

[Trent Steel]

If it makes you feel any better, I don't think we play Heroscape now as much as we laugh at the ridiculous die rolls. The last time we did this random event, I needed to roll a 1 on a D20 to completely vaporize (i.e. insta-kill) an enemy. It was the first attack of the game and I went after Jotun -- the meat of my buddy's random army. Clackity-clack -- and I rolled a 1. Zzzap. Gone. But yeah, we laugh at the blanks and shake fists at how ridiculous it all is. Well, except for Trent. He just gets more irritated.

I don't think I've won a Heroscape match since I used Tul-Bak-Ra to take the castle. That had to have been over a year ago. I wouldn't mind rolling blanks 8 times in a row on a particular night if I had a win thrown in here or there. How about a little something, you know, for the effort.

[Smoove_B]

[LordMortis]

Dice don't hate me personally, so much as they disapprove of me and then choose to love people I am around. This is perhaps why I like Craps. Go ahead! Roll Great! That'll learn me. Although, I fear now that I've revealed my plan, there could be trouble.

Also that's part of what I loved about the rise of "eurogame" where random elements were kept small. I've mentioned before about my love for Puerto Rico, where an entire game is premised on a minor random dynamic of the distribution of 5 types of resources, made slowly available through out the game.

[Trent Steel]

Dice don't hate me personally, so much as they disapprove of me and then choose to love people I am around. This is perhaps why I like Craps. Go ahead! Roll Great! That'll learn me. Although, I fear now that I've revealed my plan, there could be trouble.

I need to play against LM in Heroscape and then we'll see what's what.

[LordMortis]

I need to play against LM in Heroscape and then we'll see what's what.

Unstoppable object versus irresistible force?

[Smoove_B]

Battleplan? I missed something.

Ok, even better -- it's a free app called HS-aholic. Battleplan is just how we keep track of our collections.

[baelthazar]

Because you people feed my addiction, I had to pick up Flash Point: Fire Rescue. Boy is that game fun! I played several games solo and a couple of games with my wife and I still got my butt burned on the RECRUIT level. But there is something about the mechanics here that make the game superior to Pandemic (which sort of bored us). In many ways, the game is a nice mix of Defenders and Pandemic, the randomness of the die rolls, the battle on a map, but the simplicity of dealing with zones. Also, rushing to the POI to save them before a Hazmat explodes is really a neat rush. The first game my wife played, we didn't lose a single person and triumphed. The second game, we lost three off the bat and then lost the game when the house collapsed. I thought she was going to cry - the theme is a little intense.

I also picked up Vinhos (women of the evening, paid in Cabernet?). It looks to be a nice complex Euro, something like a cross between Le Havre and Puerto Rico. I'm excited to play it and I think the game will flow smoothly now that I have read the rules about 4 times. Explaining the importance and mechanics of the wine fair might be a bit of a pain, but after seeing it in action it should get better.

[Boudreaux]

But there is something about the mechanics here that make the game superior to Pandemic (which sort of bored us).

I had the exact same reaction. One of my favorite games of this year.

Think I'm finally getting the hang of Ghost Stories. After two games with my son this week using the White Moon expansion - and two wins! - it's feeling a little more manageable. They key for us has been to be very careful about fighting ghosts, and being willing to take some losses and let tiles be haunted or villagers die on order to prepare properly for a fight. Liberal usage of yin/yang tokens, combined with restoring them with rewards has also helped. I thought we were finished last night when we triggered a chain of successive "ghosts spawning ghosts" that put four new ghosts on the board in a single turn, and ending with a four-resistance black ghost. Nasty. However, shortly thereafter we were able to activate the Mystic Barrier which gave us all a free turn to either fight or save villagers. Both games came down to a critical turning point - one roll against Wu Feng for the game, losing the roll would have meant losing the game.

[SpaceLord]

Last night I played Sentinels of the Multiverse for the 2nd time. It was awesome.

5 players:

Sentinels with Rook City expansion

Villain: The Chairman(with Operative henchman)

vs.

Expatriate(died)
Legacy(died)
Tachyon(Defeated the Chairman)
Tempest(died) - played by me
Mister Fixer(died)

On the last turn, an Underboss killed all but Tachyon, who used a special card to dodge the bullet and redirect damage from himself to The Chairman, defeating him. This left Tachyon with less than 5 health, and everyone else at -1 or less.

A special thanks goes to Legacy, who selflessly sacrificed himself for the good of the team, and probably ended the game at negative 70 points. Rest in peace, Chief.

[hepcat]

I'm planning on picking up a copy of the revised core edition at Gencon.

oh...and i just put in an order for Flash Point from Amazon.

[hentzau]

Last night I played Sentinels of the Multiverse for the 2nd time. It was awesome.

5 players:

Sentinels with Rook City expansion

Villain: The Chairman(with Operative henchman)

vs.

Expatriate(died)
Legacy(died)
Tachyon(Defeated the Chairman)
Tempest(died) - played by me
Mister Fixer(died)

On the last turn, an Underboss killed all but Tachyon, who used a special card to dodge the bullet and redirect damage from himself to The Chairman, defeating him. This left Tachyon with less than 5 health, and everyone else at -1 or less.

A special thanks goes to Legacy, who selflessly sacrificed himself for the good of the team, and probably ended the game at negative 70 points. Rest in peace, Chief.

I've only played this one once, and I'm not sure I really got the game. Admittedly, it was the last game of the night on the first night of Octocon, so I was a bit fuzzy and starting to fade, but the fun was not tremendously apparent. I was told that we had picked out one of the hardest supervillains to beat, but still, it didn't quite click with me and has sat in its box ever since.

[hepcat]

It doesn't really work well with only two players, so if you were playing it head to head with someone I can understand why you didn't have fun.

The game does have a few issues that the makers are well aware of, hence the revised edition coming out at Gencon. They're also releasing an upgrade kit for owners of the first edition, thankfully.

I just want a decent superhero game, damn it!

[hentzau]

It doesn't really work well with only two players, so if you were playing it head to head with someone I can understand why you didn't have fun.

The game does have a few issues that the makers are well aware of, hence the revised edition coming out at Gencon. They're also releasing an upgrade kit for owners of the first edition, thankfully.

I just want a decent superhero game, damn it!

We had at least 3 or 4 people playing...I know Tommy was one of them. I can't remember who the other two were, but none of us had played before. I had read the rules, and so I was the teacher. It seemed like there was a glimmer of a fun game in there, but I couldn't quite suss it out.

Also, the fact that they didn't give you counters or something to keep track of wounds irked me. But I'm willing to give it another play before I throw it on the RockCon auction pile.

[hepcat]

Speaking of Rock-Con, let me know if you've got room for one more. That or I'll drive if you guys want to go.

[hentzau]

Speaking of Rock-Con, let me know if you've got room for one more. That or I'll drive if you guys want to go.

Absolutely. We may end up running a couple of games, now that Tommy is enamored of Sergeants Miniatures Game and Hour of Glory. But you're more than welcome.

[Zarathud]

I also picked up Vinhos (women of the evening, paid in Cabernet?). It looks to be a nice complex Euro, something like a cross between Le Havre and Puerto Rico. I'm excited to play it and I think the game will flow smoothly now that I have read the rules about 4 times. Explaining the importance and mechanics of the wine fair might be a bit of a pain, but after seeing it in action it should get better.

Learning the rules to Vinhos was a challenge, but it's best to think about it as several mini-games combined through a common theme. Lots of moving pieces which will lead to plenty of moments when you mess up one choice but come out ahead in your others. Tell your players that they want a few good wines, a few moderate wines and some cheap wines. At the end of the game, you start cashing in the cheap wines for bonuses, submit a moderate or fine wine to the fair (depending on strategic position) and then trade the rest of the moderate or fine wines to the fair. You can take a moderate wine in the early/mid game and age it into a fine wine.

[Chaosraven]

Pulled an allnighter of multiplayer Magic the Gathering. Forgot how much fun it was to trade cards (we had a chaotic eight player where people were trying to trade at the same time... "griselbrand" "what???" "to trade, not in play" "oh")

[hepcat]

PC game version or live? That's a lot of folks willing to stay up all night if the latter!

[Chaosraven]

PC game version or live? That's a lot of folks willing to stay up all night if the latter!

live. There's around a dozen of us that show up wednesday nights and play into the wee hours. Games are pretty aggressive and quick, a player may not be the last man standing but garners bragging rights by performing the killing blow on another player

[hentzau]

Got in another game of A Few Acres of Snow with Tommy last night, and it was a pleasure to finally get in a game with someone that could grasp the rules and nuances of the game.

I was playing as the French, and he was the British. I got a streak of great cards early on in the game, and began to settle very rapidly, while the British became bogged down looking for a viable combo to play. I also came up with a couple of early trapping streaks, getting me a bunch of money earlier in the game to build up my forces.

I attempted two separate sieges at Halifax, but in both cases, I was completely outclassed by the British military despite me thinking I had plenty of military. There are just too many British settlements that can provide either ships or straight military might and I ran out of forces early on. I used indian raids to destroy a couple of settlements, and Tommy eventually took Port Royale in a siege right at game end.

In the end, the French beat the British 45-37. I have no clue if that is a lopsided victory or not, but I do know that it was a heck of a lot of fun.

[Tommy20]

Got in another game of A Few Acres of Snow with Tommy last night, and it was a pleasure to finally get in a game with someone that could grasp the rules and nuances of the game.

What, did you play another game after I left?

Now that we both have a better understanding of the game, I'm looking forward to playing again. Too bad it's going to be MONTHS before we can! Stoopid families.

[hentzau]

Got in another game of A Few Acres of Snow with Tommy last night, and it was a pleasure to finally get in a game with someone that could grasp the rules and nuances of the game.

What, did you play another game after I left?

Now that we both have a better understanding of the game, I'm looking forward to playing again. Too bad it's going to be MONTHS before we can! Stoopid families.

Dude, you were freaking Kasparov compared to my brother...

[Smoove_B]

...and we're going to head back to the local annual gaming convention here in NJ in a few weeks. Apparently there's going to be a My Little Pony costume contest. Is there a code word I should give to let some of you know I'm a friend from OO?

There's a 4 hour Monsterpoclypse tournament on Friday night. I'll try to get some pictures as I expect it to be EPIC.