OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:09 am

I assume you mean a clone of Super Dungeon Explore? It shares the chibi(?) style, but it's not really very similar in gameplay. SDE is a more complex game with an overlord against cooperating players. AQ is pretty simple and has directly competing players and no overlord. I have no interest in SDE and great interest in AQ, so they must be different.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 10:58 pm

But you can play a BEAR in SDE. At least, that's what I do every year at Origins. The poor GM must be sick of us by now. Hepcat plays the teleporting Rogue and I get the shape shifting Druid.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 9:16 pm

OK, I played...

Trains (x3)
Bang: The Dice Game (x5)
Machi Koro (x2)
Battle of Dead Man's Hand
Dead of Winter
10 Days in the USA
Tsuro
and taught games of Twilight Struggle and Dead of Winter.

Montag · Post by **Montag** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:43 am

Star Realms
Splendor
Cavernia (7 player)

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 4:02 am

Really interested in Dead of Winter, but my group doesn't like games where you have to lie a lot.

How is that game in its pure co-op scenario?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:43 am

Turtle wrote:Really interested in Dead of Winter, but my group doesn't like games where you have to lie a lot.

How is that game in its pure co-op scenario?

I think it works fine as a pure co-op. But even if you don't play it pure co-op, there's no guarantee that you'll have a betrayer in every game, unlike, say, BSG. It's more like Shadows Over Camelot in that respect.

If you play pure co-op, they recommend ratcheting up the difficulty by using the difficult sides of the scenario cards. I've played it with my kids in pure co-op fashion and they had a great time.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:39 am

I played 4 games of Arcadia Quest this weekend with X(8), which puts it in my top 5 most played games of 2014.

It works pretty well as a two player game, though the games can go VERY fast since in a 2 player game you only have to complete two quests and one of them is killing a member of the opposing guild. This is especially true in the earlier scenarios where the PvE quests can be very simple. I saw comments on the geek that the game could end up with a runaway leader and it is true, it seems to tend towards the rich get richer over the course of a campaign. I think with more than two players, the players that are behind can work together to hassle the leader to make up for it, but in a 2 player game that is going to be harder. I ended up dragging the games out a bit so the kiddo could earn some more money so he could get more upgrades to catch up a bit.

The game is fairly simple tactically, but it ended up being more interesting in that regard than I expected. The crit chain mechanic and the re-rolls make things fairly unpredictable. Sometimes you overkill by a factor of two and sometimes you just whiff... but that's playing with dice. I don't recall which characters are base set characters and which are KS exclusives, but there are some characters that are definitely better than others... I *think* we played with all base set characters but not sure.

To anyone that feels like they missed out on the KS campaign because they can't get the Nameless campaign expansion... it's the exact same freaking thing as the campaign included in the base game, you just replace the sisters and lord fang with the faceless and the Nameless and play the exact same scenarios. That was my only disappointment.

The game played in about an hour for the kid and I as two players. I would expect it to go longer with 3-4 for obvious reasons. Each players turn is pretty quick so downtime should be fairly limited. With the player to the right of the active player controlling monsters it's a bit better than one player at a time.

Now that I have played 2/3 of the way through the included campaign I know I want the Beyond the Grave expansion and can't wait for it to show up where I can order it.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:30 am

coopasonic wrote:
Blackhawk wrote:Battlelore looks great, but one of the things really appealing to me about Memoir '44 is the setting, and I think it will hook the kids as well.
Blackhawk,

I can send you my copy of Memoir.

Thanks too Coopasonic, the boys and I played Memoir '44 twice yesterday. I really like this game, and the boys thought it was the greatest thing since sliced Nazi. We ran the 'intro' scenario twice to get a solid handle on the rules, and ended up in a tie.

The cool thing about historical games is their teaching value. The intro scenario was Pegasus Bridge. We started out on Google Earth. They're already familiar with what was going on in Europe on D-Day, and I was able to pull up maps of the area the real fight took place in. We discussed why the bridge was important, and how the actual battle took place. It is one thing to point at a map of something like that and talk about it, but it is another thing to be able to drop down into Street View and 'drive' across the bridge, pointing out the gun emplacements that are still there.

So, what a great game, and a great afternoon with my kids. Thanks again!

I sat down the other day and ran a solo practice game of Sentinels of the Multiverse, too. It also looks really, really good. Due to the amount of (out loud) reading on the cards, I'm going to have to wait until my tongue heals a bit more before I can introduce the kids to it. I can talk now, but not for an hour at a time.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:23 pm

Got to try Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem over the weekend. I'm not sure what I think. There's been a lot of positive hype, and the basic game mechanics and opportunities for interaction are pretty good. There are just a couple of things that knock it down for me. For one, I don't see a lot of benefit to not keeping your entire gang together all the time. The few times I tried to spread out to control or influence more spaces, it was super easy for others to kick me out and then immediately exploit the location, which blocks it for the rest of the turn. Not only that, but once someone gets a full gang they're pretty much unstoppable. It was also very apparent that NOT fighting is the way to win. If you're involved in any throwdowns, you almost always need guns, which means you're spending money on that instead of selling guns/contraband for money. The final outcome was wildly different - the one guy who got in barely any fights won with $46. The two of us who dusted it up the most had around $10-$15.

I'll chalk some of it up to inexperience. Some of the club powers and orders seem oddly powerful, but with more plays I'd probably be able to utilize and/or counteract them better. Still, given all the praise and positive reviews I was underwhelmed.

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 9:39 am

Got the big box of geek stuff for Smash up. It comes with a new faction, the geeks. They seem to be way overpowered, but have cards like Wil Wheaton, and Felicia Day. I think there is a Table Top card as well.

The big box is cool, and really worth the money if you like to condense your games into one box. Tons of room for expansions in the future, and the dividers and foam are very high quality.

My friend after playing one game the other day, went and bought all of the expansions and the base game. If you have a child, that can read, and want to get them into a fun, easy card game, then I recommend this game.

My 10 year old loves it, and she is not too into card games, but she loves the art, and the funny abilities that you can play. I might turn her into a geeky girl yet.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 8:24 pm

I just recently (this past week) got caught up on my Smash Up purchases, including the Big Geeky Box and the Monster Mash expansion...

I also bought Abyss...what an awesome game. Such beautiful art, and the components are great all around. Fun, fun game...and a game that my wife really seems to enjoy.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:20 am

We played through the first scenario of the Descent 2.0 co-op rules, Forgotten Souls. I think we made it five or six rounds and visited two rooms before being defeated by the doom track. It seemed very difficult, though bad die rolls were not helping. I do think the co-op scenario adds more value to the game, though it's a bit pricey for what you get (essentially a few card decks). That being said, it also re-affirmed my problem with Descent (in general) and that was every time we played, we were always on the clock. It's not a true dungeon crawl in that you're not really exploring or moving through areas at your own pace. Every scenario we've completed (either in the campaign or now in co-op), there's a timer element that makes bad things happen if you're not constantly pressing towards the goal. Not a fan.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 2:34 pm

I was interviewing this week out in the inland empire area of California and I decided to check out a couple of local gaming stores while I was in the area. One of them had a big selection and as I was rummaging through things I came across a Game Trade Magazine with what appeared to be a promo for Caverna in it. I looked closer and it was! It was kind of abandoned on a shelf and I couldn't tell what the deal with the magazine was so I went to the register and asked if it was for sale and for how much. She looked at me and said, just take it, I don't need it. Score! So I ended up with this mini expansion for Caverna for free after checking out this game store. The store had a large wargaming presence but no X-wing from what I could tell... hmm. I was checking out where my new gaming store would be if we ended up out there and otherwise this place fit the bill..

I'm excited to try the mini expansion out with Caverna, maybe this weekend I will get a chance to play it.

This last week I also introduced Trains to my wife after Hentzau introduced it to me at Octocon, she really enjoyed it. I think it will be a hit with my family.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:43 pm

Got to play Galactic Emperor and coop was kind enough to bring X-Wing out on the table. His Wedge took down Boba Fett moments before my Interceptor ventilated him.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 9:59 am

After getting beat down in x-wing again, I played some Shadow Hunters, Eminent Domain, Bugs in the Kitchen and Cranium Party Playoff. Yeah, things got kind of light later in the evening.

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:05 pm

Destroyed the last location in the first Pathfinder scenario last night. We seem to have poor luck when it comes to getting great loot into the location piles, but great luck when it comes to closing locations early. We had over 10 turns left this time.

Then gilraen took a break and watched Tao and I tackle Castle Panic for the first time. I still don't know how we won. It started slow, so it seemed like we were doing well. Boulders initially were doing all the damage. We lost a wall and two towers to the first three boulders. At the half-way point, we were close to breaking even. Then the fun began... I drew the Goblin King (+3 draws), followed on my first draw by Draw 3. Than Tao got Draw 4. And he proceed to draw to more bosses (think it was the Healer and Mage). We were looking at 10 monsters: 4 in the Red arc, and 2 Trolls in the same Green slice - with no wall or tower to even slow them down.

A turn before the first Green Troll would have hit the Castle zone, Tao pulled the last boulder and cleared the Green slice.

We held on ant won with one tower and it's wall.

Still amazed we pulled that out. But I do understand now why it's Castle Panic.

Moat_Man · Post by **Moat_Man** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:47 pm

With the start of the school year it can be difficult to get everyone and rested enough to want to enjoy a board game. Today was the day that I rallied the troops and we played a game of Pandemic with the In the Lab expansion. I thought we were toast as you really need to get at least one cure pretty quick to get ahead of the curve. We must have been half way through the deck when we got our first one but then bam bam, we got two more right away and we ended up curing the last one on our final turn. There was much rejoicing.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 5:56 pm

We played a 4 person game of Caverna this weekend. I thought it was interesting that we all went with very different tactics and the game still ended up very close. We had three players with final scores within 10 pts of each other and the victor was only 20pts ahead of us. Overall pretty fun but you definitely need some sort of piece sorting system to play efficiently. I picked up two tackle boxes and it still doesn’t fit all the components.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 8:05 pm

The Broken Token has an in-box Caverna organizer. Their insets for Waterdeep And Eclipse is awesome.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 10:34 pm

Zarathud wrote:The Broken Token has an in-box Caverna organizer. Their insets for Waterdeep And Eclipse is awesome.

That’s actually pretty good but costly. This is the setup I use; it fits all but one small bag of tokens and only cost me $7.

freelunch · Post by **freelunch** » Mon Oct 20, 2014 9:38 am

Cosmic Encounter
Innovation (x2)
Race for the Galaxy
Bling Bling Gemstone
Dominion

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:05 pm

I sat down with the kids and played two games of Sentinels of the Multiverse.

The first was using the lowest complexity heroes against the lowest difficulty bosses. The idea was to make things easy while we squared away the rules. We had Tempest, Ra, and Legacy up against Baron Blade in The Block. We wiped the floor with the good Baron. It made us overconfident, I fear.

We followed up by allowing complexity and difficulty 2.

We took Bunker, Tempest, and Tachyon up against Apostate in Megalopolis. We took one hell of a beating before we figured out how to fight Apostate. We kept trying to kill off the relics when they were sitting a -2 and -4 damage each, while the demons tore us to shreds. Every time we'd kill something, it would resurrect something else. And the imps. The #@(!* imps. We had two imps out at one point, which was enough to basically reset our characters back to the beginning, save that we were at half health at that point.

In the end, we won. Bunker was down, Tempest was at two health, and Tachyon was at one. Bunker let Tachyon go dumpster-diving, and she was able to play two cards. One hit every target for three damage (wiping out three demons and the last two relics) while the other hit Apostate for all the damage (I had a huge stack of Burst cards, which determine the damage - enough we didn't even bother to count.)

So, Sentinels was a hit with me and the kids. Thanks again, Coop.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:57 pm

According to Tom Vasel, the Magic: The Gathering Strategy Board Game announced at Essen is essentially Heroscape 2.0.

I’ll let that sink in a for a minute.

Ok, this is big, big news. Here is a preview from BGG. The lead designer is Craig Van Ness, who was one of the primary designers of Heroscape.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:59 pm

SpaceLord wrote:According to Tom Vasel, the Magic: The Gathering Strategy Board Game announced at Essen is essentially Heroscape 2.0.

I’ll let that sink in a for a minute.

Ok, this is big, big news. Here is a preview from BGG. The lead designer is Craig Van Ness, who was one of the primary designers of Heroscape.

It really looks like Heroscape 0.75 to me. I haven't watched the in-depth stuff, but it looks like less. I guess if that makes it sustainable that's good, but coming from WOTC I can't imagine it will be cheap to keep up with.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:24 pm

Yeah, I fell for that once. I have enough Heroscape pieces to fund my retirement, thanks.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:20 am

Chrisoc13 wrote:
coopasonic wrote:I watched some video of Tom Vasel playing D&D Attack Wing and dammit, I want the game now. After I just decided to keep going with X-wing. I suppose it's possible to come up with a X-Wing vs Dragons hybrid game to use all those bits. How does a dragon compare to a B-wing? How many hobgoblins does it take to bring down the Tantive IV?
A word of caution about the Wiz Kids versions of X-wing. I love X-wing and love Star Trek every bit as much as Star Wars so naturally I wanted to get into Attack Wing to add to the action I was having with X-wing. But it didn't take long for me to decide that I simply couldn't do it, Wiz Kids just manages to do so many things wrong. There was no balance between factions in Attack Wing, not even an attempt to balance the factions. Instead you can just take whatever you want on any ship regardless of faction and pay a 1 point penalty. That way they don't have to worry about balancing the game. It also means everyone has Picard on their fleet etc.

On top of that there is no attempt to balance the point value of the ships. They simply add up the numbers (agility, attack, shields and hull or whatever they are called) and multiply them times a number (2 I believe?) and that is the cost. No taking into account the dial for the ships, the firing arc, the powers, or pilot skill. It's a bit crazy really. Odd that there is no balance. Lastly it is wiz kids, so the components are of poor quality when compared to X-wing, the waves come out waaaaaay too quick (every month a new wave of ships for attack wing), and there are loads of rare but extremely powerful promos. I finally decided after dabbling in it for a while that I had to move on from it. I sold off my collection. I had a decent collection by the time I did but if it ever came between playing it or X-wing X-wing always won, so it was time to let it go.

That being said I know little about the D&D version, but after being involved in the Star Trek Attack Wing version all I can say is going from X-wing to attack wing was impossible, X-wing is just too good by direct comparison. But I'm also not into D&D and the theme does nothing for me so I haven't really looked into the Dragon Wing game.

D&D Attack Wing is finally back up for pre-order at CSI and I am having a hard time resisting. I am thinking it is something I can just get a few pieces of... right? I can resist going crazy overboard... I think. Dragons!

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 11:14 pm

Last Saturday of the month - ROBA - board game day!

Colosseum - never even heard of it before, but I got lots of gladiators and horses off the bat (enough to get the +4 bonus for each that I kept through the whole game), and played events every round that used both, finishing out with the largest event and only one asset show of getting full value for it. Think I had 78-79 points. Ended up winning. Good, but not great game.

Shadows over Camelot - never played, I was a traitor. There was another traitor (7 players total). The other player got exposed, I never did. 3 people died, and I had the Lancelot armor so I was drawing two cards so I could make sure we got the "best" of the 2. Other than my kid (who ALWAYS thinks I'm a traitor for some reason in any game where that's possible), the other traitor was the only one who ever remotely suspected me. Good guys weren't doing too bad until a lose 1 health killed 2. Then I got the last card for the dragons, 2 more swords (5 black swords) and I had not accused yet, and someone had played an event that made false accusations flip 2 white swords to black. So I did that for my turn after the dragon, so the traitors won. Awesome game, well played. Would definitely play this again.

We tried a very weird game called Loopers. The guy running it hadn't played much, but was the only one who had a clue, so he was the mastermind. The rest of tried to figure out who the people were and what the plot was so we could survive it. We used more table talk than is allowed since we had no idea how to play, still lost. Though we did get close, had it all figured out, just couldn't outguess the mastermind to prevent us from dying on the last loop. Very different, might play it again, but would like some paper for notes instead of trying to remember it all. Probably take a few times to really get the hang of it.

3 games of 1 night werewolf, 5 players is not really enough. First game was bleh, 3 of the players were able to back each other up and me and my kid were the werewolves and I knew it, couldn't possibly get us out of that. Second game was best, the were some real indecision there. 2 people died (1 wolf, 1 villager), declared a villager win. 3rd round, there end up not being a wolf. 4 of us were pretty solidly ID's as villagers, last person was the insomniac, no one could vouch for her. She kept saying she didn't want to die! She did anyway - villagers one. We made a note to put "WINNER" on her tombstone.

Then we played Escape from the temple. Ended up making it to the exit as time ran out, but no one got out. Wasn't so thrilled with this one. It had some interesting mechanics, just didn't really grab me though (not just because we didn't win).

Once again - I love board game day!

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 8:35 am

Zenn7 wrote:We tried a very weird game called Loopers. The guy running it hadn't played much, but was the only one who had a clue, so he was the mastermind. The rest of tried to figure out who the people were and what the plot was so we could survive it. We used more table talk than is allowed since we had no idea how to play, still lost. Though we did get close, had it all figured out, just couldn't outguess the mastermind to prevent us from dying on the last loop. Very different, might play it again, but would like some paper for notes instead of trying to remember it all. Probably take a few times to really get the hang of it.

Tragedy Looper?

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 2:16 pm

We played Eldritch Horror (we lost) and then a game of Robinson Crusoe (we lost). Right now, I have Tales of the Arabian Nights set up on my table. Really want to play that one, and I have been wanting to play Omen: Reign of War.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 6:56 pm

coopasonic wrote:
Zenn7 wrote:We tried a very weird game called Loopers. The guy running it hadn't played much, but was the only one who had a clue, so he was the mastermind. The rest of tried to figure out who the people were and what the plot was so we could survive it. We used more table talk than is allowed since we had no idea how to play, still lost. Though we did get close, had it all figured out, just couldn't outguess the mastermind to prevent us from dying on the last loop. Very different, might play it again, but would like some paper for notes instead of trying to remember it all. Probably take a few times to really get the hang of it.
Tragedy Looper?

Yes - that was it. It was a very odd game. Took til we were nearly down to fully grasp the basics of what we were trying to do.

freelunch · Post by **freelunch** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:30 pm

Xia: Legends of a Drift System, first play for me - had a great time, can't wait to play some more.
HeroScape, first time out-of-the-box in 5+ years - king-of-the-hill with a group of new players - it was a huge hit.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:48 pm

I've looked at Heroscape a few times, but good lord - the prices!

freelunch · Post by **freelunch** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:39 pm

it's horrendous now, it wasn't quite as bad back-in-the-day when I bought it all as new releases (though much worse here in Australia than it was in your neck of the woods, I imagine)

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:44 pm

I have a metric shit-ton of the stuff I should think about selling, but I can never bring myself to do it.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 8:22 am

I used to have a giant Rubbermaid tote full of about 5 master sets and a ton of expansions. I still regret deciding to give it away. I really hope it's in a good home, because man, I'd like to have it back.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:19 am

Yeah, one does not simply get into HeroScape now.

Though as mentioned earlier in this thread, it really looks like the new M:TG boardgame is HeroScape with a re-skin.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:26 am

Got in a game of D-Day Dice last night. Forgot how much I liked this game. Two player game, pretty much just waltzed up to Merville Battery and blew the place to bits.

Probably one of my favorite dice chuckers.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:39 am

Smoove_B wrote:Yeah, one does not simply get into HeroScape now.

Right. One sells a Heroscape collection to fund a year worth of board game purchases.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 10:27 am

I've been looking for a racing game to replace Formula D. I want something with a little more player input as the decision making in Formula D is rarely interesting. Maybe 4-5 real decisions per race.

Snow Tails/Mush Mush was on my list because you are making decisions regularly, but I finally got to play it and it just feels kind of clunky.

Jamaica is the next thing on my list and I really like the looks of it. I haven't had a chance to play it, maybe next month at BGG.CON.

I just saw Rahdo's run through of Steampunk Rally and that might be a contender. It looks like lots of interesting decisions, with a repeating drafting mechanic and sort of puzzle element building and rebuilding your car in a manner somewhat like Factory Fun and then you roll lots of dice. Also, the action all pretty much takes place simultaneously so downtime is minimized. Of course that also means the game is sort of solitaire-ish to allow the simultaneous action.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:41 pm

I keep hearing fantastic stuff about Thunder Alley.