OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 9:07 am

Had a great game of Mansions of Madness (1st ed) last night. It all came down to Joe Diamond -- desperately rushing through the mansion, evading zombies and maniacs to reach the evil mastermind, raising his shotgun for the killing shot, and... missing. Game over.

I've played Mansions more in the past couple of months than when I originally bought the game. Now I want to pick up the expansions... which of course are ridiculously expensive on ebay. Ah well.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 5:24 pm

Did a five player Conspiracy2 draft Friday night and played Star and FreeForAll into the wee hours of the morning.

Drafted a Black White deck and won half the games we played (co win on a couple)

If you enjoy drafting MtG, I heartily recommend Conspiracy2.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Fri Sep 16, 2016 7:38 pm

Haven't had a lot of gaming time recently... but... I did get 2 of my favorite games in. The first is Imperial 2030. Fantastic game, it's a bit like any area control of the world game with major powers- India, China, Russia, EU, USA, and Brazil, all competing for area. You have ships and tanks to control territory and produce money. The trick is nobody is actually playing as any of the countries. You are all investors in Switzerland investing in the countries. Whoever has the highest number of shares is the controlling player and chooses the actions that the country takes. This means you can grab control of a country, drive it into the ground taking all the money from it, and then using another country you control to take over the territory all for your own benefit. But someone else might just be picking up your scraps by investing in the same countries as you and getting lots of points from doing so without doing the work. Honestly it is one of my all time favorite games right now.

There also is a version of the game which is just called [urlhttp://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24181/imperial]Imperial[/url] that looks great as well, though I've never tried it. Both are out of print currently, but still worth picking up, and I hear Imperial is in the process of getting a reprint.

The other game that has become one of my favorites that I got to the table yesterday was Food Chain Magnate which has become just one of my absolute favorite games. One of only very few games I would give a perfect 10 to. Last night was a 2 player game. My wife wiped the floor with me. I have never lost so bad. But wow what a great game, and I got to use my new organizer, which just might be the best organizer I have bought yet.

The final scene of absolute destruction.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 8:31 am

I really want Food Chain Magnate. Right now the prices (at least that I can find) are through the roof though.

We continued our journeys through ROBINSON CRUSOE with Scenario 3, Rescuing Jenny.

I thought this scenario looked quite a bit easier than what we had faced before, and I was (somewhat) right. The first attempt we came up one wood short of building the lifeboat and winning - it was just a combination of some bad card draws that depleted resources and some bad health management.

Second attempt we failed miserably - again, got hit with a run of bad luck that had us all almost dead before we could even get settled.

Third attempt we won easily - we focused on health management above all, and got lucky with the Bed invention which helped facilitate that. Ended up skating through with relative ease, though without the Bed it might have been much closer.

Next scenario is the one I fear - VOLCANO ISLAND. I've never actually won this one and it looks like a total bitch.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 11:10 am

Revisited an old favorite this past Thursday, Empire Builder.

Empire Builder was one of the first boardgames that we my group started with. We probably hadn't played it in over 5 years, but I had a hankering to play so we dragged it out and went at it. And it is still one of my favorite boardgames. We played this one 4 players which makes the game a bit tougher for the smaller towns, so a lot more rail renting went on. I came out dead last out of 4 players, but still had a ball. Going to need to not wait another 5 years to break this out again.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 12:37 pm

hentzau wrote:Revisited an old favorite this past Thursday, Empire Builder.

I like the Mayfair railroad games. You can play them on the pc, too - look for "ebp pronto". I believe it was made by fans. They even have maps they made up (Mars Rails, for instance).

Last night we played the original Arkham Horror. Our new friends here were excited to see it and even took pictures to post online for the board gaming meetup group. They jokingly refer to it as Candyland in Hell.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:47 pm

Drove up to a gaming store about 25 minutes from work that I'd never heard of before. Turns out they sell ALL their board games at 30 percent off so they can stay competitive with Amazon. And they have a stock of games that rivals almost any other game store I've seen in these parts...if not beating them outright.

I ended up grabbing a copy of the second edition of Mansions of Madness for almost 15 bucks cheaper than Amazon/coolstuff/miniaturemarket pricing.

...this could be dangerous.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:03 pm

hepcat wrote:Drove up to a gaming store about 25 minutes from work that I'd never heard of before. Turns out they sell ALL their board games at 30 percent off so they can stay competitive with Amazon. And they have a stock of games that rivals almost any other game store I've seen in these parts...if not beating them outright.

I ended up grabbing a copy of the second edition of Mansions of Madness for almost 15 bucks cheaper than Amazon/coolstuff/miniaturemarket pricing.

...this could be dangerous.

Give, man! Give!

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:09 pm

hepcat wrote:Drove up to a gaming store about 25 minutes from work that I'd never heard of before. Turns out they sell ALL their board games at 30 percent off so they can stay competitive with Amazon. And they have a stock of games that rivals almost any other game store I've seen in these parts...if not beating them outright.

I ended up grabbing a copy of the second edition of Mansions of Madness for almost 15 bucks cheaper than Amazon/coolstuff/miniaturemarket pricing.

...this could be dangerous.

What store is this? Sounds awesome.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:12 pm

hentzau wrote: Give, man! Give!

You mean the name of the store?

It's the Gaming Goat. They have quite a few locations around Illinois, it turns out. I'll probably start making monthly trips out there now. Heck, they even stock things like Earth Reborn and Victory Point Games.

Like I said...this is dangerous.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:33 pm

Yeah, that sounds awesome. About the only thing that would be even more dangerous is if they accepted used games back for store credit.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 6:35 pm

Glad I didn't know about it when I lived in Illinois. Dangerous.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 6:40 pm

I'm jealous. My FLGS' owner is busy running shady Kickstarters and ripping off Zev Schlasinger of thousands of dollars, so now I feel guilty about shopping there. Now my only options are a dingy, dirty shop that's mostly focused on GW minis, and a nice shop that sells for MSRP, but is 30+ minutes away. Guess I'll be sticking to my order everything online plan.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 9:31 pm

Zev? Formerly of ZMan Games Zev?

Sounds like a story I want to hear. Do tell.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 12:12 am

I think this would be Myriad Games on Staten Island. You can read the lawsuit.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 5:44 am

Zarathud's got it. The defendant in that suit runs Myriad Games up here in NH, as well as Game Salute, a game publisher that mostly does kickstarter campaigns. Game Salute has become kind of notorious for either not delivering or delivering games only after a long delay. It seems like he's been using funds from the store to shore up the publishing end. There used to be about three of the stores around the state, and they were all really nice, well stocked, and well staffed. Over the last three years, they've gone down to one store, and the inventory has dwindled to hardly anything. I can't imagine they'll last much longer.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 8:56 am

Our FLGS (Cape Fear Games) is pretty nice. They must be doing well because they moved to a new, bigger location last year. They hold events all the time, and have a really good selection. They've also done well by diversifying heavily into disc golf gear, miniatures, and CCG singles - they're really the best place in town to get any of those, and I think that's helped them. A few times a year they partner with the place next door to them and hold a "Beers and Boardgames" event.

Price-wise they typically run $5-$10 more than Amazon, but I shop with them when I can just to support the business.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 11:41 am

Zarathud wrote:I think this would be Myriad Games on Staten Island. You can read the lawsuit.

Oh my, that is messy.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Thu Sep 22, 2016 11:31 pm

Another round of Robinson Crusoe tonight, this time VOLCANO ISLAND. This is the first scenario we've played that I have never won, and we were trying it with four people.

This is a stressful scenario as you must explore all eight island tiles, explore four totems, and build a boat before the island is covered in volcanic lava. This means you're constantly racing ahead of the lava as the island collapses behind you.

It was a tense session, as there was a lot of disagreement over correct strategy. One contingent took the math side (we have X rounds to do X things which means we MUST do X things per round to win). The other contingent took the more practical side (if we spend actions doing these things early, we set ourselves up to do MULTIPLE things in later rounds which still enables us to win). It got a little heated there for a bit.

First round, the practical folks got their way. We actually did quite well because we were able to hunt often and sustain our food supply. Unfortunately we neglected to understand that exploring 8 tiles meant we couldn't let ANY be destroyed before we explored them. We were in good shape, but that oversight lost us the game.

Second round we went in with a mix of the two philosophies. This time, however, we simply got screwed by the cards. No beasts to hunt means we took major damage from not eating, and bad morale eventually just wore us down.

Third round, we mathematicians got our turn. We made absolutely sure every round that we were performing the required number of actions to ensure a victory in the final round. We managed health very well early, and got lucky with some treasures found in our explorations. We won the game in the final round exactly as planned, though it was still close.

The scenario really drove home the point that these things are incredibly well balanced - they are designed so that you snatch victory from the jaws of defeat at the last possible instant, and you have to plan your actions accordingly. Spending actions willy-nilly just doesn't work. You really have to think about what maximizes both your survival and the win condition.

Next up, the incredibly complicated looking CANNIBAL ISLAND!

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 11:41 pm

FINALLY! Got to go to my monthly gaming day - last 3 months, couldn't go (family reunion, family visiting, and a funeral).

Manila - 2nd time playing, fun game with mechanics I rather enjoy, but I lost badly (kept putting peeps on the boats and they did not do well at making it; pirates fared better than I recall them doing before).

Enter the Dungeon - this was interesting and enjoyable, I won. First time playing (never heard of it even before).

5 tribes (xpac was there, we did not use it, not enough time given 2 of us had only played once, and third knew how to play but not 100% completely memorized). 2nd place. This was more fun this time than I vaguely recall the first time being.

King of NY. Played King of Tokyo once about 1 1/2-2 years ago. This is a fun game, but I never do even remotely well at it. In part, my own fault. Got the superstar card early but neglected to try and really capitalize on it (duh).

Hanabi - co-op fireworks. Played this once before as a card game. This was a deluxe version with thick tiles. Very nice looking we all agreed. One person had never played before. We played twice, got 19 points both times. Ran out of tiles, never ran the fuse down (we were too cautious to let that happen).

All and all, a great day! Though I wouldn't have minded trying out ROLL-Playing. And someone had an Ogre card game (only know Ogre from playing on my C64 I think years ago).

Some folks talked about a Small World super-mega-thon next time. Never played before, but the other 3 people talking about it are apparently all big fans. One girl has most of the xpacs, one guy has some deluxe edition with wooden stuff (super-heavy I guess) and the other guy has a configurable map set. Might have to get in on that as I've always wanted to play.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:38 am

Great weekend of gaming.

Cosmic encounter: This one has been on my must play list for a long time. And I finally got it to the table. Four player game. We were all new to it and learning the ropes but really it was a great time. I didn't do great at negotiating and my wife worked out a combined victory after only a couple of turns to grab the win. I need to get this to the table again soon.

Mexica- My first time playing this one as well. Part of the mask collection. I really enjoy these games and this one is no exception. It's a fantastic abstract game. You block off separate areas with moats and then build pyramids within the areas and whoever has the most pyramids wins each area. It's a really great game that I had a fantastic time playing. I managed to squeak out a one point victory. I would highly recommend this game.

Lastly we played a game of through the desert which is just a great quick abstract and one of my favorites- Carson City.

Good gaming all around!

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Tue Sep 27, 2016 12:54 pm

Last night we played Camp Grizzly, a game based on teen-age summer camp slasher movies. We felt there was some looseness in the rules but otherwise it was fun. I liked that the players could cooperate to get all/many to safety or desert the others and flee alone. And it was great that one player tried that - to flee to safety regardless of what would happen to the rest of us.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 11:21 pm

We've been on a Marvel Legendary kick this week. Picked it up on "hey, we're in the neighborhood" trip to the Compleat Strategist in Manhattan.

After 5 games in as many days, I'm already looking at expansions.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sat Oct 01, 2016 9:27 am

I don't think I've ever ever played a game of Mansions of Madness (either edition) in which Zarathud has NOT started a fire at some point.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Sat Oct 01, 2016 11:47 pm

Four player draft (Conspiracy2) with my younger son and a pair of friends today.

Got in 7 freeforall Games, won 2 with White Blue, won 1 with Monoblue. Son won 2 with a bizarre conspiracy where his deck had no land.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sat Oct 01, 2016 11:47 pm

THIS time I had the fire extinguisher ready, so I was the only one harmed. I wouldn't have picked up those damn candles if you hadn't dropped them in fear!

I had a great time with Mansions. The new app makes the puzzles workable (my least favorite part), keeps things moving, and helps keep the ending secret.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Sun Oct 02, 2016 9:07 pm

The adventures on the Cursed Island continued, with our three-man attempt on Scenario 5: Cannibal Island!

I was nervous about this one going in not only because it's one of the most complex out-of-the-box scenarios, but because everyone talks about what a bitch it is. In the scenario, you are tasked with destroying the cannibal city. To accomplish this, you'll need to build a path to the Cannibal City while destroying cannibal villages (which will attack you every time a book card is turned up). There's a lot of math involved, but it boils down to the idea that unless you've burned down four villages, your chances of defeating the actual city are slim to none. So you'll need to do a ton of exploring while trying to stay alive and take those villages out as quickly as possible (as the more villages there are left unburned, the more damage you take when they attack).

The first game we got utterly annihilated right off the bat, because you can take an enormous amount of damage right up front if you're not careful. Managing health is absolutely crucial in this scenario, and we got smoked pretty quickly. The second round went slightly better, but the third round we came the closest. In this round we were able to build the Bed invention which heals 2 hearts and grants a token on a Rest action. After losing again, we fudged things slightly.

We didn't cheat per se, but instead we would set up the game, deal our five invention cards, and if one of them wasn't the Bed, we'd forfeit and set up again. The feeling was that without the Bed it would be incredibly difficult to win, and our options were to stack the deck a bit as it were, or suffer through weeks of banging our heads against the wall with this scenario. As it stands, the Bed was the only invention we insisted on, and held to making all the rest of them random.

The last match was one for the ages. We carefully managed exploration and defeating villages and were relatively stable. The problem was time. We were on Round 8 of 9, and had two villages left to burn and the city to defeat. We pored over the board, trying to figure out every option in which we could win on the last round. At last we figured out we could just barely do it barring any unforeseen circumstances. All we had to do was survive an Event card.

In one of the clearest examples yet that this game KNOWS exactly what card will screw you over the most, the card comes up and tells us we lose 2 WEAPON LEVEL. This basically means we'll take too much damage to fight off the last village and the city. Game over. One of the group moved to pack up, and then I said WAIT! I had not yet used my Soldier's special skill to bump weapon level up, which I did - offsetting 1 level lost. We then used the Rum to raise one of our group's health level up just enough to cover the loss of the other level, and made sure he fought the city. We wound up winning the game with all of us 1-2 HP from death. But we WON.

I'm taking a week off of the gaming group for a trip, but we'll be back to Scenario 6 when I get back. The group has also expressed some desire in learning Legendary Encounters: ALIEN as a break from Crusoe, so I'm very much looking forward to teaching that.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:23 am

Friday night, as mentioned earlier, was Mansions of Madness 2nd edition with Zarathud. I'd played with Seppe the Saturday before that, so the (decidedly light) rules were still fresh in my head. Which made it go fairly smooth. However, even their 60 to 90 minute suggested time length is off by about an hour for folks like me. I think we took about 3 hours.

Scenario components are randomized each time you play it again, but it's still essentially the same story. So I think I'm done with that first one now. I've got 5 more waiting in the wings, but I hope they plan steady releases of in app scenario purchases.

Sunday I started a solo Descent 2nd edition campaign after going hog wild with purchases of two more expansions for the game. I really love the FFG apps that replace the overlord/game master. It's just so much fun. I honestly didn't think I would like the intrusion of digital in my analog gaming, but it's not as invasive as I feared. They give you the setup, manage the rounds and then get out of the way.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 11:11 am

hepcat wrote:Friday night, as mentioned earlier, was Mansions of Madness 2nd edition with Zarathud. I'd played with Seppe the Saturday before that, so the (decidedly light) rules were still fresh in my head. Which made it go fairly smooth. However, even their 60 to 90 minute suggested time length is off by about an hour for folks like me. I think we took about 3 hours.

Scenario components are randomized each time you play it again, but it's still essentially the same story. So I think I'm done with that first one now. I've got 5 more waiting in the wings, but I hope they plan steady releases of in app scenario purchases.

Sunday I started a solo Descent 2nd edition campaign after going hog wild with purchases of two more expansions for the game. I really love the FFG apps that replace the overlord/game master. It's just so much fun. I honestly didn't think I would like the intrusion of digital in my analog gaming, but it's not as invasive as I feared. They give you the setup, manage the rounds and then get out of the way.

Really want to try out the Imperial Assault app when they release it.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 11:34 am

I was wondering when they were going to release something similar considering that Imperial Assault is essentially a reskinned Descent 2nd edition. When is it being released?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 12:29 pm

coopasonic wrote:Apparently they had limited pre-release copies and they sold out. It's supposed to ship in September. I just changed my open CSI order to include it (in place of the Ashes expansions )

So I missed out on the Ashes expansion pre-order for nothing. Last Friday just got pushed back to November. I've pulled it from my order so I can finally get my hands on the horrific art of Legendary Firefly.

I'm still hoping Last Friday hits in time for BGG.CON, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I haven't played a damn game in weeks. I just put up 17 games for sale at the BGG.CON virtual flea market. That will bring my collection down to about 30 games... from over 200 at one point. On the plus side, I have a lot more space now.

Anyone want a big pile of MERCS: Recon?

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 12:44 pm

In a moment of weakness I picked up Mansions of Madness. My family isn't exactly well versed in more complicated games so I was a bit worried. The app does help, but we certainly fumbled our way through the first scenario. Considering it's an app they could add more tips for idiots like me.

Aside from fumbling with the rules (and inserting all the f'n monster cards) we had a blast. Once we get everything down pat I could see us playing this a lot. And I'm hoping it will be a good push to play some other games.

Also on Friday we played Escape the Room. It's a fun little game that you really can only play through once. (So if anybody wants my copy hit me up.) You open up an envelope that you have to solve to get to the next once etc... It was really fun and we did beat it in the time limit. Something to play with kids as it's really not all that hard once you understand how it works.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 1:12 pm

The nice thing about MoM 2nd edition is that after a couple of turns, you get comfortable with the rules and then you just let the app narrate the story while you play. It's a fantastic marriage of RPG and board game. The only downside is that it's expensive for what you get thanks to the relatively low replayability.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 1:20 pm

hepcat wrote:I was wondering when they were going to release something similar considering that Imperial Assault is essentially a reskinned Descent 2nd edition. When is it being released?

Latest news is 2017. I can't wait. It will really change how often that game hits the table for me.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 1:28 pm

FFG just announced a new random dungeon crawl for the Road to Legend app. The Delve is supposed to be a 2 hour-ish dungeon crawl for up to 4. And the more expansions with map tiles you have, the more variety there is in the randomization.

Each delve consists of six stages—four normal stages and two boss fights, one in the middle of the game and one at the end. Each stage sets up a new series of tiles, giving you a distinct objective, unique rules, and monsters that will oppose your goals. You’ll also find a portal on every stage, though this may be closed when you first encounter it. Once you’ve completed your objective, all of the heroes can escape through this portal at the end of a round, progressing to a new stage and getting closer to escape.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 1:42 pm

Last night my gaming group got a four player game of Food Chain Magnate to the table. Easily my number two game right now. The game was close all the way with some real cut throat games. I went the guru route and trained up find of staff. It was a slow moving machine but once the ball started rolling I was raking in the dough.

One opponent took the same route as me and ended up besting me just slightly by getting the CFO a single turn before me and pulling in huge income.

My wife went heavy on waitresses and ran a lean machine that was slow but steady. It worked really well except... She had one turn where due to pricing she lost her sales and had to fire all of her senior staff. It was rough sailing for her from the on out. She stayed in the game though. The fourth player tried going heavy on building new locations eventually having three locations open and developing rich neighborhoods around her locations. This actually went pretty well except... I had to fight to stay in it and finally took the discount manager to undercut her prices and bring all those rich families to my location.

The game was a blast as always. There was no run away winner this time. I lost by about $100 but it was so fun seeing all the different strategies. Can't wait to get it to the table again.

Seafall arrived today. My excitement for it has waned since I read some less than hugely positive reviews for it. But it is a legacy game so I'll still be looking forward to getting it to the table. Anyone else have it?

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 7:00 pm

Hello, my name is Bael, and I am an addict.

<waits for crowd>

It has been two days since I last ordered a board game. The buzz was just too strong for Cry Havoc, so I had to get it. Now I am waiting for it to come at the end of the week. If only I could order players to play it as well.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 8:24 am

baelthazar wrote:Hello, my name is Bael, and I am an addict.

<waits for crowd>

It has been two days since I last ordered a board game. The buzz was just too strong for Cry Havoc, so I had to get it. Now I am waiting for it to come at the end of the week. If only I could order players to play it as well.

Oh you are not alone. I'm Chris, and I too am an addict.

In the last week I have bought or received the following:
Cosmic encounter and every expansion for it
X-wing wave 9
Ticket to ride: rails and sails
Seafall
Harry Potter: Hogwarts battle

It's problematic to say the least... I just had to stop myself from buying more games because my list of unplayed games is rather long.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:00 am

In the three weeks since discovering the 30 percent off game store a half hour from my office, I've spent almost 250 bucks on games. I picked up Mansions of Madness 2nd edition, all its expansions, a big box expansion for Descent 2nd edition and Grimslingers.

Two weeks ago I bought a two player starter box for Infinity from an online store.

Yesterday, I received Karmaka and Akua from kickstarters I backed.

I'm officially spilling off my gaming shelves. It's time to do some unloading.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:30 am

I've been doing relatively well lately. I bought my first game yesterday (Blood Rage on sale for $45) since the summer B&N sale (June?). Considering that prior to that I was buying a game or two a month, that's pretty good!