Lords of waterdeep has money in it as well, and those chits are annoying.
The money chits become a ton less annoying when you change the value of the crescent-shaped coins to 4 instead of 5.
Taught a co-worker Netrunner at lunch. That was a way easier teaching experience than I was expecting. Then I won as the corp when he played a card that gave him a bunch of cash but also two tags. And I had a pair of Scorched Earths in my hand (do 4 damage). And he only had two cards in his hand.
The best part was that he'd successfully accessed my hand twice previously and seen that card twice. But he forgot.
I can't imagine, even at my most inebriated, hearing a bouncer offering me an hour with a stripper for only $1,400 and thinking That sounds like a reasonable idea.-Two Sheds
hentzau wrote:
And you will get better at it. We got our asses handed to us about the first half dozen times we played, sometimes in very demoralizing fashion, yet we kept at it and now sit at about a 35% success rate in beating the game. Just needed to solidify our strategy and learn how to use the individual characters to their fullest potential.
Some of our losses were very demoralizing to say the least... but we will be giving it another go this weekend I hope.
Daveman wrote:
Then we pulled out Ticket to Ride: India which remains my favorite map to date. I thought I had a blowout win until the end where my father-in-law revealed almost 60 points worth of tickets. I just barely beat him out by 3 points due to my having the longest train and 1 "Mandala" bonus of 5 points.
I think the India map is about as good as it gets for four players, it really is fantastic. It's tight and the Mandala bonus is extremely fun and challenging. Of all the maps Marklin and India are my two favorites for 4 players.
Stopped in at a game store yesterday, and wound up walking out with the Trace Amount pack for Netrunner. Figured I may as well grab one before they disappear. Hopefully the reprint of the first one gets here soon.
I can't imagine, even at my most inebriated, hearing a bouncer offering me an hour with a stripper for only $1,400 and thinking That sounds like a reasonable idea.-Two Sheds
Got in another game of Railways of the World Monday night. Three player this time, using the Eastern US map. This game ended up being much closer at the end than my last foray. Tommy dominated the New England territories, Stuart made a go of the Midwest, and I covered the southern states. (I had a single length of track in New England that I placed on the first round to get me three quick VPs in the first turn of the game.) Tommy once again was extremely efficient in his track laying and goods delivery...he's a master at seeing those types of strategies. My southern states worked fairly well for me, I had a lot of goods combos that worked out well. Stuart kind of floundered in the midwest...there's lots of land to cover between the cities.
I grabbed two of the early VP bonuses...first good delivered (1 VP) and first to deliver 4 different kinds of goods (4 VPs). I made a tactical mistake that ultimately lost me the game...I wanted to get the VP bonus for the first person to make a 3 leg run (7 VPs). I had a good that I could deliver, but I only had a Level 2 loco at the time, and I didn't have my last link built. So I upgraded to a level 3 loco, taking out a bond to do it. Tommy furrowed his brow when he saw me do it...it didn't make sense because I didn't have a good that could be delivered 3 towns away...and then he figured out that on the next round I could build my last link and one round later claim that VP prize. So on his round, he took out 2 bonds to upgrade to a level 3 loco and beat me to the VP bonus by one turn. If I would have connected the last town before I upgraded my loco, I could have claimed those VPs...he said he was going to be upgrading to go after that prize, but he was going to wait until the next turn so he didn't have to take out more bonds to upgrade.
We were getting close to the end game, and things were still fairly close. Tommy built across the mountains from Baltimore to Toledo, giving him another 7 VPs. He and Stuart were both highly mortgaged...six bonds out each to my 3. I was about 4 VPs behind Tommy, and we had ten out of 12 towns emptied. Stuart was trailing a distant third...his first game, so it was to be expected. I had loads of cash. I still wasn't quite in striking distance of Tommy...I had loads to deilver, but none were big money loads. Then I saw it...Tommy was pushing out west, and was in striking distance (about 2 turns worth) of connecting to Kansas City, giving him the New York to Kansas City VP bonus (20 VPs!) That would absolutely destroy me, so I had no choice. I timed it carefully, and the round before he could be guaranteed to connect to Kansas City, I emptied the last town, triggering the end game. He was one round short of being able to connect to Kansas City. So we raced through the last 4 rounds, moving cargo as far as we could. Tommy continued to edge ahead of me, upgrading his loco to a 4 and making some 4 link runs to my 3's. In the end, after the dust had settled, Stuart and I were tied, and Tommy was ahead by 4 VPs. But we forgot about losing a VP at the end game for every bond you had, so Tommy ended up beating me by 1 VP, and Stuart was down by 3 from me. Stuart gained a lot at the end because he was the only one that could use his Rail Baron bonus...he gained a VP for every link he built out of Chicago.
Another failure of mine...I chose the wrong Rail Baron. Of the two that I was dealt, one gave 7 VPs for having the largest railroad (most links) and the other gave 6 VPs for having the most money at endgame. I chose the one that gave VPs for the most links, if I would have chosen the other, I would have one by 5 VPs.
I am really enamored of this game. Perfect mix of playability, strategy and length...this 3 player game took about 90 minutes. Fans of Railroad Tycoon should really give this game a look.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
I have Railways of the World coming (based off of Hentzau's raving about it), along with 1989: Dawn of Freedom making the shipping free.
We have really enjoyed Ticket to Ride, but I want a train game that you are BUILDING the railroad. This one looks to be the ticket (to ride). Ok, that was bad, I know.
1989? I really enjoy Twilight Struggle. This one looks like more of the same, but different.
All in all, really excited for either tomorrow or monday!!
MythicalMino wrote:I have Railways of the World coming (based off of Hentzau's raving about it), along with 1989: Dawn of Freedom making the shipping free.
We have really enjoyed Ticket to Ride, but I want a train game that you are BUILDING the railroad. This one looks to be the ticket (to ride). Ok, that was bad, I know.
1989? I really enjoy Twilight Struggle. This one looks like more of the same, but different.
All in all, really excited for either tomorrow or monday!!
I hope you like RotW. It's one of those games that I keep thinking about in between plays. And with all of the expansion maps they have out there, there's a lot of track to lay!
I've played a few rail games in my day. I'm a big fan of the Mayfair crayon games. Tried to understand Rail Baron, and it left me cold. Been interested in the 18XX games, but have always been intimidated by them. I tried Steam with hepcat one evening, and that seemed just way too fiddly for me. This game has just the right level of complexity and strategy for me.
And anyway, who doesn't like playing with trains?
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
Back when Railroad Tycoon first came out, we got a kid's conductor hat to replace the first player marker. I feel this was a vast improvement. I miss that game.
I can't imagine, even at my most inebriated, hearing a bouncer offering me an hour with a stripper for only $1,400 and thinking That sounds like a reasonable idea.-Two Sheds
Rotw sounds awesome. I'm afraid I couldn't pull my wife away from ticket to ride though to play a different railroad game. She loves ttr so much she would probably ask why we weren't playing it instead every time I tried to play rotw.
Chrisoc13 wrote:Rotw sounds awesome. I'm afraid I couldn't pull my wife away from ticket to ride though to play a different railroad game. She loves ttr so much she would probably ask why we weren't playing it instead every time I tried to play rotw.
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I'll be sure and have Tommy bring it to OctoCon so you can get a game of it under your belt and see if you think you can convince her to switch.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
Chrisoc13 wrote:Rotw sounds awesome. I'm afraid I couldn't pull my wife away from ticket to ride though to play a different railroad game. She loves ttr so much she would probably ask why we weren't playing it instead every time I tried to play rotw.
IIRC, RotW is 3-player and up. Most of those rail games really shine with more players. I have Steam, which is the *other* version of the same game (long and sordid story about game development treachery). They are pretty much equivalent, with some key differences. The game is quite fun, but I have not been able to get it on the table, due to the player numbers needed.
MythicalMino wrote:
1989? I really enjoy Twilight Struggle. This one looks like more of the same, but different.
All in all, really excited for either tomorrow or monday!!
1989 is quite good. Even my wife liked it, which says something! I'm not really into the power struggle mechanic, but it works if you understand the deeper strategy of it. One good thing about it is that a game is usually far shorter than Twilight Struggle, while still having the same feel. I was very pleased with how it turned out.
Chrisoc13 wrote:Rotw sounds awesome. I'm afraid I couldn't pull my wife away from ticket to ride though to play a different railroad game. She loves ttr so much she would probably ask why we weren't playing it instead every time I tried to play rotw.
IIRC, RotW is 3-player and up. Most of those rail games really shine with more players. I have Steam, which is the *other* version of the same game (long and sordid story about game development treachery). They are pretty much equivalent, with some key differences. The game is quite fun, but I have not been able to get it on the table, due to the player numbers needed.
No, RotW is fine for 2 players. You reduce the number of starting loads based on the number of players, and if you think the Eastern US map would be too open with only 2 players, the included Mexico map will resolve that problem. Smaller and tighter with more room for conflict. But I agree, I did enjoy the three player game more than the two, but I think that was mostly because I had a better handle on strategy. All three of us pretty much built our own rail lines and didn't conflict with each other too much.
Last edited by hentzau on Sat Feb 09, 2013 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
hentzau wrote:
I'll be sure and have Tommy bring it to OctoCon so you can get a game of it under your belt and see if you think you can convince her to switch.
Fantastic! I'm looking forward to it. While I doubt I can convince her to switch perhaps I can convince her to add another rail game to our collection.
Glad to hear it works for two players as well. We tend to try and buy games that work for two players since most often it is just the two of us playing, but we do have a group that gets together from time to time so we do have the chance to play more players every other week or so since even most games that work for two players are better with 4 or so.
Later today I should be getting in a game of Clash of Cultures (for the first time since I picked it up) and perhaps Merchant of Venus when some friends come over to play. I've managed to convert one to board gaming and his collection is slowly growing to include more than party games.
Let me know what you think of Merchants of Venus. It has tempted me for a while now.
"A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on." -Terry Pratchett, The Truth "The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to those who think they've found it." -Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment
Merchants of Venus is fantastic and it plays well for 2-4 players (2 misses some of the conflict, but still manages to be competitive). It is a little long for what it is, but I had so much fun the time flew by. It is a bit rules heavy, despite being a simple game to teach and learn. The rulebook is not organized very well, but this is a perennial problem for FFG.
so what is the deal with FedEx and Saturday delivery? I used to be able to order on a Friday morning, and the package would deliver on Saturday. Now? Not a chance, as it shows a Monday delivery, and this is even with OVERNIGHT shipping. I was wanting the game(s) for Sunday afternoon when I have sme friends coming over for dinner before watching Walking Dead. Now, that is not going to happen, at least not with RotW.
Did FedEx change their policies or something? In fact, they used to not deliver on Mondays, now they do? And for some reason, my package has gone to a sort facilty that they have NEVER gone to before (Romulus, MI, but I live in Coldwater, MI...usually, my packages go to K-Zoo, or Lansing, then to Jackson, then to here....). It pisses me off that the package sat in Memphis, TN for over 6 hours last night, though...
But honestly, what is going on with their Saturday delivery now?
unless I am misunderstanding something...that makes no sense. Especially in light of me paying more for overnight, it should be delivered. I think I will ask the fedex guy when he delivers monday...
Merchants of Venus is fantastic and it plays well for 2-4 players (2 misses some of the conflict, but still manages to be competitive). It is a little long for what it is, but I had so much fun the time flew by. It is a bit rules heavy, despite being a simple game to teach and learn. The rulebook is not organized very well, but this is a perennial problem for FFG.
Seconded! Really love the game ^^. Does exactly what I want for a space trader game
Yes Merchant of Venus is a really fantastic game. If I have any complaints it is that it starts feeling a little long by the end. It can also be played solo with "challenges" which is decently fun as well, although less fun than playing with other people.
It also comes with two games, the "classic" original game from the 80's and the "standard" game. I have only played the standard game at this point but I will get around to playing the classic version too. If you do pick it up get some planos to organize it because otherwise it becomes a hot mess of cardboard.
Played my first game of dungeonquest. It was solo. The first two rooms were trap, awesome! I made it to the treasure room with 5 life left, after being as low as 3. Scored some phat loot and decided to take an alternate route back since coming in involved 2 bridges, 2 cave ins and 3 trap rooms. About 3 rooms into the return trip I rolled snake eyes on the shade, killing me... .then I realized I was in a corridor and was still on my prior move so the shade roll totally didn't count. Trap room, poisonous snakes, roll a 6 for damage. Dead anyway.
It's a much lighter game than I expected. I *think* my 6 year old could play it with me though combat could be tricky. I'm not entirely sure my wife would appreciate it.
Question: If you enter a trap room for a second time, do you draw a new trap card is that trap all played out?
It's like playing an RTS using cards and selecting one of 4 completely different factions with completely different powers. once you get the rules down (it DOES have a learning curve), you can knock out a full game in 45 minutes to an hour...sometimes even less. I played two games yesterday with Seppe (the game owner). First game was about 90 minutes due to constant rules referencing, but the second went about half that.
In a nutshell, you choose a side, play a single card on your turn as a rescource to build a unit, or as a building to make those units, or as a tech to enhance those units. Each side has more or less in these categories...with one of the factions actually having a giant mech you assign cards to instead.
You can create power and workers too.
When someone triggers a battle by playing a battle card, you turn those resources into units and battle it out at either the frontier (a card that a player can hold in the middle of the table for victory points) or at your base (if they play a deep strike card...the defender doesn't know until he does his construction turn and announces where he's committing his forces). The battles even simulate positioning with flanking and distance attack penalties.
The game is a fantastic board game rendition of an RTS. At the same time, it gives you the full feeling of managing resources, building up a base, and then attacking. Two thumbs way up!
Had a few 4 player rounds of King of Tokyo with the expansion. One match played out very differently than any other we've had yet... a game with no deaths and a scores of 20, 19, 18 and 15. No real reason other than claws rarely came up for everyone. A few players dropped to 5 health but that was about it. The game was a simple race for points.
The real interesting part was that I wound up getting a really strong point-making combo that I doubt I'll ever see come into play again. We randomly drew monsters and I had Cyberbunny. During the game I got 2 evolutions for him, one that reduced the energy cost of cards by 1 and another that gave me a point anytime I bought an upgrade card. On top of that, I got upgrade cards that did the exact same thing, plus I got Parasitic Tentacles that let me buy cards from other players. So by the end I was able to buy upgrade cards from the stock or other players for 2 less energy, and earn 2 points per card. On the last round I bought 4 cards for 8 points, bringing me to 19. One more turn and I'd have won, but my son rolled four 3s and hit 20.
It's like playing an RTS using cards and selecting one of 4 completely different factions with completely different powers. once you get the rules down (it DOES have a learning curve), you can knock out a full game in 45 minutes to an hour...sometimes even less. I played two games yesterday with Seppe (the game owner). First game was about 90 minutes due to constant rules referencing, but the second went about half that.
In a nutshell, you choose a side, play a single card on your turn as a rescource to build a unit, or as a building to make those units, or as a tech to enhance those units. Each side has more or less in these categories...with one of the factions actually having a giant mech you assign cards to instead.
You can create power and workers too.
When someone triggers a battle by playing a battle card, you turn those resources into units and battle it out at either the frontier (a card that a player can hold in the middle of the table for victory points) or at your base (if they play a deep strike card...the defender doesn't know until he does his construction turn and announces where he's committing his forces). The battles even simulate positioning with flanking and distance attack penalties.
The game is a fantastic board game rendition of an RTS. At the same time, it gives you the full feeling of managing resources, building up a base, and then attacking. Two thumbs way up!
I agree with everything Hepcat said. It is a really good game and makes RTS a boardgame. We only tried 2 of the 4 factions and in the second game I started to get a feel for the Kahoum (psychics, maybe the equivalent of protoss in starcraft), power supply is very important and they allow upgrading of units. In the second game we got a much better understanding of the rules and got to explore what our factions can do. There is a lot of depth to this game.
We then tried a game of the Star Wars LCG. I had only glanced at the rules, so we missed a thing or two. It does not do anything new to card games, but it is star wars.
SpaceLord wrote:
However, my game of the moment is Terra Mystica, which is not yet available in the US. It's a bit of Eclipse with the resource management, and thematically is like Small World, with 14 very different races to play. The only drawback I have with the game is that it's not nearly as good with 2 or 3 as with 4 or 5.
sounds interesting. I'll have to check into it. thanks!
And I'm hearing April for a U.S. release date, unfortunately.
I played TM again this weekend, and I like it more each time. This is *definitely* an economic Euro, though, so be aware, folks. I've seen 11 of the 14 races in play so far, and they are all cool and different.
They're going to send you back to mother in a cardboard box...
I've struck a deal to sell my heroscape collection for $600. That's going to buy a LOT of games... basically my entire CSI wish list. Now how the hell do I pack this up to ship it. I'm mostly concerned about the large figures. I'm thinking of seeing how they fit in the smaller cardboard deck boxes. The wings on the dragons are the main point of concern.
coopasonic wrote:My kid (6) beat me at Morels last night.
I've struck a deal to sell my heroscape collection for $600. That's going to buy a LOT of games... basically my entire CSI wish list. Now how the hell do I pack this up to ship it. I'm mostly concerned about the large figures. I'm thinking of seeing how they fit in the smaller cardboard deck boxes. The wings on the dragons are the main point of concern.
Damn. I have about 3X as much heroscape stuff as you had there! I should think about selling it, it hasn't hit the table in about 6 years.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
Makes me wonder where the large batch of Heroscape I gave away about two years ago went. If I was an enterprising individual, I probably could've sold that for a decent amount now.
I can't imagine, even at my most inebriated, hearing a bouncer offering me an hour with a stripper for only $1,400 and thinking That sounds like a reasonable idea.-Two Sheds
To be clear, I am only get that little because I am lazy. Between the PMs and the responses in the valuation thread on BGG if I parted it out I could have done quite a bit better. Selling it as a bundle was far more attractive to me.
I actually just discovered a bunch of heroscape stuff. Not much more than the original box set, But I forgot I even had it, let alone play it. I put it in a different tub.
Maybe I will sell mine, to make room on the shelf it took up. I thought it was my wife's stuff, until I opened it up this past weekend.
Difficulties mastered are opportunities won. - Winston Churchill
Sheesh, this is one small box. Thankfully, everything's packed in nicely this time. Not too tight nor too loose (someone's sig in 3, 2, ...). - Hepcat
But the other part of me says that this would be a great game to get my Lego-loving son into. I think he would have more fun just setting up the terrain than anything.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
my two boys and I have played about 3 or 4 games now of Railways of the World...and though we really enjoy the game, I feel as though we are doing something wrong, but I cannot figure out what.
The problem is...none of us are really taking out any bonds. The game we played yesterday, I ended up with 3 bonds, and my two boys ended up with 2 each. With 3 players, is that normal? Perhaps more bonds will be taken with more players?
MythicalMino wrote:my two boys and I have played about 3 or 4 games now of Railways of the World...and though we really enjoy the game, I feel as though we are doing something wrong, but I cannot figure out what.
The problem is...none of us are really taking out any bonds. The game we played yesterday, I ended up with 3 bonds, and my two boys ended up with 2 each. With 3 players, is that normal? Perhaps more bonds will be taken with more players?
In the 2 games I've played, I've taken out 4 and 3 bonds, respectively. In that second game, both of my opponents took out six bonds each. I think a lot will depend on the map you are playing and what the load distribution is. For instance, in playing on the Mexico map (which we haven't done yet, we're still enjoying the Eastern US map too much) there is a lot of mountain spaces between the cities. I can see taking out a lot of bonds for that one.
Can't comment on over 3 players though. Seems like it might be the case as the close cities are linked in a hurry and you need to make longer runs to connect the more remote cities.
Over on BGG, I've seen some comment about folks being able to play the game with no bonds, if you get lucky and a card that allows for free building of track shows up on the first turn.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
Hentzau, perhaps we are doing things correctly then. I know that the only time that we spend any money is when the winner of the First Player bid pays up, and anytime we lay track, and when we urbanize. Other than that, is there any other times when we need to be spending money?
It seems I read (either in this thread, or on BGG) that the average amount of bonds is 7-8 bonds per player. We have not even come close to that.
MythicalMino wrote:Hentzau, perhaps we are doing things correctly then. I know that the only time that we spend any money is when the winner of the First Player bid pays up, and anytime we lay track, and when we urbanize. Other than that, is there any other times when we need to be spending money?
It seems I read (either in this thread, or on BGG) that the average amount of bonds is 7-8 bonds per player. We have not even come close to that.
You should also be paying when you upgrade your engine.
That's all that I'm aware of. I'm not aware of any other cards and the like that will require cash.
However, I'm pretty sure that if you start playing with the even deck there can be events that cost you money. For instance:
That big city tax would be painful in the early game if you had New England tied up.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
Now how the hell do I pack this up to ship it. I'm mostly concerned about the large figures. I'm thinking of seeing how they fit in the smaller cardboard deck boxes. The wings on the dragons are the main point of concern.
