OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[hentzau]

Beat Defenders of the Realm for the first time last night (2-player game). Random roles - I picked a Sorceress and my buddy was an Eagle Rider. After the first game of the evening we had learned some lessons about the futility of putting out fires with just two people, so we went very aggressive. Took out the Orc general early, then killed the Undead general before Blue (Sapphire) and Red had even moved.

Started building up forces to take on Red. My counterpart had a quest to negate Red's special ability, but he failed it. We had to gamble - go after Red now or play it safe and build up more cards. With Sapphire on the move we knew we had to go big or go home. Took on Red and with some incredible dice rolls managed to defeat him.

After that we did a little mop up and then went to town on Sapphire. It was a little touch and go but the Sorceress' die bonuses proved too much for the forces of evil and we emerged triumphant.

I'm not sure we could have played it any better than how it worked out. It was a lot of luck, an incredible amount of teamwork and strategizing, but most importantly a ton of fun!

Congratulations! For two people, those are about the best characters you can play...the sorceress for her ability to take out minions, and the eagle rider for both movement and re-rolls.

[MonkeyFinger]

Yeah, I didn't order Darkest Night because of that, but Dawn of the Zeds is really well reviewed (at least the first edition was) so I'm going to brave it. Hopefully they've refined the process a bit since Darkest Night and it's not as painful.

The rulebook is about 20 pages of small type rules and about 12 pages of fluff and character descriptions. This may rival Mage Knight for deeper solitaire gameplay.

So I see the three prices listed and I'm wondering... the "Boxed Edition" does include the mounted map that is listed separately, correct? I'm assuming you'd only pop for the extra $5.50 if you want the mounted map with the non-boxed version. It's just the "if applicable" part that confuseth me a little.

[wonderpug]

Is the X-Wing Miniatures game super amazing awesome? Please tell me no. It's in stock at my local stores, and I'm oh so tempted, but...

$40 base
$24 Millennium Falcon
$24 Slave 1
At least 5x $12 for other ships...

$148?! We could almost buy our own ship for that!

[hentzau]

It is a lot of fun. I'm not 100% sure how well balanced the game is, and I'll never play it competitively, but it's Star Wars with a modified Wings of War system. What's not to like?

[wonderpug]

You jerk!

[hentzau]

And then you'll want one of these...it's just a wee bit under scale, but great for doing a capital ship battle.

[baelthazar]

Yeah, I didn't order Darkest Night because of that, but Dawn of the Zeds is really well reviewed (at least the first edition was) so I'm going to brave it. Hopefully they've refined the process a bit since Darkest Night and it's not as painful.

The rulebook is about 20 pages of small type rules and about 12 pages of fluff and character descriptions. This may rival Mage Knight for deeper solitaire gameplay.

So I see the three prices listed and I'm wondering... the "Boxed Edition" does include the mounted map that is listed separately, correct? I'm assuming you'd only pop for the extra $5.50 if you want the mounted map with the non-boxed version. It's just the "if applicable" part that confuseth me a little.

Yes, the boxed version includes the mounted map (look carefully at the contents list).

[Zarathud]

My youngest sister fell in love with X-Wing at the last Octocon. So both sisters bought me the base set and 2 ships for Christmas. You're right, it is dangerous and I ended up doubling down on the initial gift (second base set and the 4 ships) and then get the new ships (2 A-Wings, 2 TIE Interceptors, Falcon and Slave One). I'm sure I will have to pull her away from X-Wing just like I did after getting her Battlestar Galactica.

Pretty sneaky, sis.

[hepcat]

Yeah, I didn't order Darkest Night because of that, but Dawn of the Zeds is really well reviewed (at least the first edition was) so I'm going to brave it. Hopefully they've refined the process a bit since Darkest Night and it's not as painful.

The rulebook is about 20 pages of small type rules and about 12 pages of fluff and character descriptions. This may rival Mage Knight for deeper solitaire gameplay.

So I see the three prices listed and I'm wondering... the "Boxed Edition" does include the mounted map that is listed separately, correct? I'm assuming you'd only pop for the extra $5.50 if you want the mounted map with the non-boxed version. It's just the "if applicable" part that confuseth me a little.

I had the same concern and so I asked about it on bgg. VPG answered and told me that the boxed edition has both the paper and mounted map. So the boxed edition has everything you need.

Edit: whoops, bael answered already.

[coopasonic]

Solitaire Zombie game sounds cool.

• 123 thick, two-sided, multi-shaped, laser-cut game pieces
• One "Wipes-A-Lot" napkin



Never mind.

It isn't that bad, the soot comes off with a quick wipe. Think of all the sprue cutting and gluing you have to do for Space Hulk and stuff like that, this is totally no big deal. The payoff is that you get cardboard chits that are so thick and awesome, they seem like they are made out of wood!

I think I may be allergic to the soot. It annoyed the hell out of me not only in initial setup but in play afterwards. The smell wasn't going away.

Also, I have just over 100 games in my collection and none of them required any cutting or glue. I may be a total nancy, but VPG will have to have something confirmed awesomazing before I will buy from them again.

[hepcat]

I do have to wonder why VPG is going with laser cuts for their gold banner games. I would think the standard method of game counter production would be less costly.

[Chaz]

While I know the Xwing game is a ton of fun, I keep coming back to the whole "miniatures"/cost aspect of it. Thing is just too pricey for me to want to get into. Now, if I had kids that I'd be playing it regularly with, then hi-ho silver!

[Isgrimnur]

Look at it this way; At least it's not sold in boosters where you have to worry about rarity and random draws.

[coopasonic]

Monster Factory
Spiderman & Friends Match Game
Operation: Iron Man 2 Edition

I will say Monster Factory is a nice step up from Hiss. The art is very cute and keeps the 3 year old engaged.

[Boudreaux]

Ran my kids through the first two adventures in Descent 2e. I'm turning into a huge fan of this - it's such a simple system. When I can explain the rules to a 7 and 11-year-old and be three turns into the first game within a few minutes with everyone engaged, it's a winner.

Chances of actually playing through the entire Descent 2e campaign...rising. Assuming I can talk them out of constantly wanting to take a turn in the Overlord's seat.

[Chrisoc13]

I like xwing a lot. But you can get it quite a bit cheaper online. The models are really cool if nothing else. I went all in on it and I've enjoyed it so far, though I'm not very good at it. But yeah even with cheaper online prices it's an expensive game if you want both factions etc. Also the core set seems to be hard to come by these days online for the $25 price point.

Sent using tapa

[El Guapo]

I've been playing a lot of this game this weekend (and lately).

A couple things amuse me about this: it's listed as being for "five and up." This engages my 3.5 year old pretty well, but it's hard to imagine that a 5 year old would be entertained by this (given that there's no decision making, you just spin the wheel until someone wins).

Also, I enjoy how it's getting blasted in the BGG user reviews.

[Zarathud]

Played Kids of Carcassone and Orchard with the kids. Both are very easy and work for my 3-5 year range.

My efforts to play Animal on Animal failed as the 3 year old wants to stack like on like (but not the SCARY snake) but the 5 year old is too flighty to stack anything past the first tier.

We also played our first few games of a homebrew card game we made about rescuing princesses with "love or fight."

[LordMortis]

I've been playing a lot of this game this weekend (and lately).

A couple things amuse me about this: it's listed as being for "five and up." This engages my 3.5 year old pretty well, but it's hard to imagine that a 5 year old would be entertained by this (given that there's no decision making, you just spin the wheel until someone wins).

Also, I enjoy how it's getting blasted in the BGG user reviews.

Why would you blast it? It sounds like an excellent drinking game gate way game. Each person gets a place setting assigned to them and the Bee allows you to remove a place setting to get someone else the "opportunity" to drink again. If you don't have 7 people then excess place setting can be assigned to "everyone drinks" "girls drink" "guys drink" etc...

It's no Trouble which is the single greatest drinking game ever but it sounds passable.

[coopasonic]

My efforts to play Animal on Animal failed as the 3 year old wants to stack like on like (but not the SCARY snake) but the 5 year old is too flighty to stack anything past the first tier.

That's the game I forgot. I also played Animal Upon Animal with the 3 year old and he did pretty well. The only trouble was playing on the hardwood floor where he would roll the die clear across the room every time.

[hepcat]

I've been playing a lot of this game this weekend (and lately).

A couple things amuse me about this: it's listed as being for "five and up." This engages my 3.5 year old pretty well, but it's hard to imagine that a 5 year old would be entertained by this (given that there's no decision making, you just spin the wheel until someone wins).

Also, I enjoy how it's getting blasted in the BGG user reviews.

I picked up Evil Baby Orphanage after seeing it at Gencon and then playing zarathud's copy a while back. The reviews on BGG are generally unfavorable, but last week when I broke it out at RedWarlords, he and his wife demanded we play it a total of three times over the weekend. They really enjoyed it.

Moral of the story? If you like it, that's all that matters.

[El Guapo]

I've been playing a lot of this game this weekend (and lately).

A couple things amuse me about this: it's listed as being for "five and up." This engages my 3.5 year old pretty well, but it's hard to imagine that a 5 year old would be entertained by this (given that there's no decision making, you just spin the wheel until someone wins).

Also, I enjoy how it's getting blasted in the BGG user reviews.

Why would you blast it? It sounds like an excellent drinking game gate way game. Each person gets a place setting assigned to them and the Bee allows you to remove a place setting to get someone else the "opportunity" to drink again. If you don't have 7 people then excess place setting can be assigned to "everyone drinks" "girls drink" "guys drink" etc...

It's no Trouble which is the single greatest drinking game ever but it sounds passable.

That sounds like a great idea. But I think my wife might object to me playing a drinking game with our toddler.

[hepcat]

I've been playing a lot of this game this weekend (and lately).

A couple things amuse me about this: it's listed as being for "five and up." This engages my 3.5 year old pretty well, but it's hard to imagine that a 5 year old would be entertained by this (given that there's no decision making, you just spin the wheel until someone wins).

Also, I enjoy how it's getting blasted in the BGG user reviews.

Why would you blast it? It sounds like an excellent drinking game gate way game. Each person gets a place setting assigned to them and the Bee allows you to remove a place setting to get someone else the "opportunity" to drink again. If you don't have 7 people then excess place setting can be assigned to "everyone drinks" "girls drink" "guys drink" etc...

It's no Trouble which is the single greatest drinking game ever but it sounds passable.

That sounds like a great idea. But I think my wife might object to me playing a drinking game with our toddler.

Worried the kid will take your wallet when you pass it?

[YellowKing]

I pulled the trigger and ordered Castle Panic today. The base game may be a bit easy for my regular gaming buddies, but I bought it as a casual supplement for game nights and as a gateway game for some newbs we're trying to rope in. I also think my daughter will get a kick out of watching it and participating (i.e. drawing monsters), even if she's too young to play it yet. I plan on picking up the expansion at some point in the near future.

[Chrisoc13]

Inspired by YKs victory I convinced myself I too could beat Defenders of the Realm. So I played it twice yesterday. I had intended to only play it once, but we were defeated so thoroughly in our first game (within 5 minutes) that it was no big deal to play twice! The first game we just had abysmal luck. Two bad orcs on the move cards in a row. The first for all empty green locations (which was the majority of them). The second for any green location with only one orc on the location. Back to back. That pretty much exhausted every orc in the bag. We intended to start clearing it the very next round but all 4 of us were at the undead general in order to finish him off so we took care of him first. On the very next turn the darkness spreads card was for a green location which already had 3 minions on it. It was overrun, and alas, we were out of orcs to place on the board. Game over. We were so fixated on finishing off the undead general that we lost within minutes of starting.

The second game went much better. We were extremely aggressive and managed to eliminate 3 generals quickly. All that was left was sapphire, who was one location outside of monarch city. All 4 of us again convened at the location (knowing we would need all of our die to finish sapphire off) and just one turn before the wizard could make it there Sapphire marched into Monarch City with nothing we could do to stop it. So of course we said we lost, then discarded that card and drew a new one to see "what could have happened." The very next turn in our alternate reality we defeated sapphire and won the game. But alas, in the real world we were but one card shy of victory. Knowing that we couldn't even celebrate after our fabricated victory. So close, yet all the same, we lost just as much as if we had lost in five minutes again.

[MythicalMino]

Castle Panic is a favorite of my boys. We have the Wizards Tower, also, which really adds so much more to the game.

The game we have been playing lots of (a 3-player game nearly every day between me and my two boys) is Battlestar Galactica. Had a few ppl over last night, and had a 6-player game of it. Great fun every time we play it. In fact, it has stayed set up on the table since I got it!!

I also have the Western US Map for Railways of the World. Want to play that one, but we are so stuck on BSG...

[hepcat]

Legendary is getting an expansion in June.. I'm still a big fan of the game and I'm looking forward to this one.

[hentzau]

Really enjoying all of the Defenders love around here these days.

[Chrisoc13]

Really enjoying all of the Defenders love around here these days.

It's a great game. I had played Pandemic a few times before trying Defenders of the Realm but every time I played the game was taken over by the dominant person in the game and half of the players ended up just sitting there. Defenders does a good job of alleviating that. A strong personality could still take over but the individual quests and larger variety of abilities improves that situation a lot in my experience. I also like the uncertainty. You can't plan several turns ahead as well because when you are trying to clear minions there is the issue of the dice, are you going to roll high enough to eliminate them? But it is a challenging game.

[MythicalMino]

my God...we just finished a 3 player game of Battlestar Galactica...me and my two boys. This was absolutely the closest game we have had yet. I was Admiral Adama, Christian was Lee Adama (Apollo), and Jacob was Dr. Baltar.

Christian ended up with the Cylon card at the very beginning, and, for some reason, on his first turn, he revealed himself. The game was then Jake and I against Christian. The last turn, we only had one jump to go to win, we were going to be auto-jumping on the next jump icon (which was on the Crisis Card I drew), but were were down to 1 Fuel, 1 Morale, and 1 Population (Food was 4). We passed the Skill Challenge...the card had an icon, but the turn (Jacob) right before the last turn (mine) of the game, we had a Battle Crisis Card, which filled the board with Cylon ships. The Cylon ship activation was Raiders, and with that, our last population AND morale was destroyed when the Cylons blew up one of the colony ships.

Even though there was no longer the paranoia of not knowing who the Cylon was, the game was still tense, as we were at 2 population for quite a long time. There was twice that the Cylon ships destroyed civilian ships and SHOULD have ended the game, but the ships that were there on the board and targeted were basically the "nothing".

We ended up losing, but wow... The final resource tally: 1 Fuel, 4 Food, 0 Morale, 0 Poplulation. We had only 2 Raptors available, and 3 Vipers destroyed, and the rest had been damaged. Scar did show up, but I blasted him out of the sky with the Weapons Control. There were 5 Cylon Raiders, 1 Heavy Raider, 2 Basestars on the board. We could not destroy any of the Basestars, though, becuase we would lose that last morale (one of the Battle Crisis Cards stayed on the board until we would jump, and if we killed a Basestar, we would lose a Raptor and a Morale, losing us the game due to morale loss).

Just a very awesome game...Christian, as the Cylon, won. But man, so, so close. For us, the Humans have yet to win, but this one was the absolute closest game we have had so far.

[Zarathud]

A revealed Cylon can put constant pressure on the Colonials, but a hidden Cylon can make the Colonials lose quickly. Revealing at just the right point can be devastating, especially with many players.

[MythicalMino]

yeah, both my boys are really picking up the game pretty good, even though Christian is only 11 and Jake is 9. This was the first time that either one revealed that quickly...

[hepcat]

My Small Box Games kickstarter games arrived today. Three VERY small boxes hide three fun looking games. Can't wait to give them a go.

[Smoove_B]

Played a three man game of Forbidden Island with my soon to be 7 year old. She's not quite at the level where I think she fully understood everything but the coop nature of the game works out in "helping" her to see the various options and strategies. I didn't quite understand how it would be so interesting, but the flooding mechanics are pretty nifty. For $15 it's a great family game, IMHO.

Also: Who wants to sell me their dusty copy of Battlelore? Good lord, the internet vendors are merciless.

[Daveman]

Also: Who wants to sell me their dusty copy of Battlelore? Good lord, the internet vendors are merciless.

YMMV, but I started with Battlelore, tried out Memoir 44... and wound up selling my Battlelore collection. Strictly speaking I'd say I have a preference for the fantasy setting, but I came to like the gameplay of Memoir 44 better. On paper, Battlelore seems to have more to offer, but more doesn't always mean better. There's a greater variety of unit types, and 3 different ranks (green, blue, red) for each on top of that... but it all just meant I was constantly reminding myself of things like cavalry can ignore the first sword icon rolled against it, unless it's from a pikeman, or the red guys get to roll 1 more die than a blue but move one less space and so on. Just a lot of little things that seemingly make sense and offer more, but are just more bits to remember as you're playing. I much prefer the seemingly simple trio of infantry/tank/artillery in Memoir 44. Not to mention setting up Battlelore is a lot more hassle, having to sort out your swordsmen from pikemen, putting the right color unit flag per unit, etc.

Beyond that, Battlelore winds up playing much differently as it's a melee-oriented game. It's more about keeping groups of units in formation for morale bonuses and such, and much less emphasis on ranged attacks. The two things I did like about the Battlelore system that Memoir 44 doesn't have is the Command tent or whatever they call it, letting you customize what special abilities you have to call on in the battle, and the Call to Arms expansion, which was a sort of random army creator for the game. I've always meant to see if someone came up with something similar for Memoir 44...

[Smoove_B]

Cool, thanks for the feedback. My buddy is all of a sudden obsessing over it (I think) because it's OOP. We really like M'44, but I didn't think about how the system would translate to a melee-heavy combat game. Did you ever try Battles of Westeros?

[coopasonic]

I was bored at work, watched some Legendary Marvel on Watch it Played... crap, never should have watched it.

[Isgrimnur]

You got clearance for St. Patrick's Day weekend yet?

[Chrisoc13]

Cool, thanks for the feedback. My buddy is all of a sudden obsessing over it (I think) because it's OOP. We really like M'44, but I didn't think about how the system would translate to a melee-heavy combat game. Did you ever try Battles of Westeros?

My friend has Battles of Westeros so I played it with him last week. It is ok, but I think memoir '44 is still quite a bit better. For one FFG can't seem to write a reasonable rule book to save their lives. I have no idea how they manage to make a rule book so full of information and so pretty seem so... obtuse. I feel like with their rules I am constantly flipping back and forth between pages. Somehow even though the terrain seems to have almost the same effect as it does in Memoir (for example units starting on a road can move one hex further) it is so hard to find what I need in the FFG rule book. Why are there no reference cards? Why does it have to be so hard to find what I need? And when I do find it why is it written in such an odd manner?

I am not into Game of Thrones though and I like the real world setting of M'44 a lot better so perhaps that is tainting my view. That and Days of Wonder seems to know how to put together a rule book. Westeros was a lot like M'44 but there are leaders, morale, etc. Also it is a bit heavier on the dice (you even roll die to determine which units you can move) which gets a little bit annoying. It makes it much more difficult to plan several turns ahead and feel like you are really putting together a strategy. I felt totally at the mercy of the die roll. When attacking in Memoir this certainly can be the case, at least I can string together several turns with a bigger strategy by seeing what cards I have available. With Westeros I felt like I would say "next turn this unit will attack." But then the next turn I didn't roll any green guys so shoot, they now have to sit there for an entire turn at least. Good thing I got them into position.

My friend is a big Game of Thrones fan so for him I can see the allure, but for me the whole time I kept wishing we were playing M'44 instead. Just my opinion though.

[hentzau]

I was bored at work, watched some Legendary Marvel on Watch it Played... crap, never should have watched it.

Love this game. Play it with my 10 year old quite often.