OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[wonderpug]

Also, if it will be 2 or 3 players on the game, the Nordic version is the best.

[RMC]

Thanks. I'll look at all of them.

[wonderpug]

Oh, and for the US game board, the 1910 expansion greatly improves it. It's nice having the larger cards, but the updated destination ticket routes are sort of like a balance patch to the game that makes it play out in more interesting ways.

[Anonymous Bosch]

My kids have been playing Ticket to Ride on my Ipad, so I think I am going to pick that up for a Christmas present for them, and then play it with them.

They are not really too much into games, but I will try to get them at least a little interested if I can.

Since you're getting it primarily with the kids in mind, if you can afford it, I'd recommend getting Ticket to Ride: 10th Anniversary. It includes some great upgrades to the default components that may help make it more appealing to your young 'uns (e.g. an oversized map that's 50% larger than the original with additional artwork, a great set of trains that have unique paint schemes reminiscent of old fashioned toy trains, and nifty tin storage boxes in which to hold 'em). It also includes the 1910 expansion.

[RMC]

My kids have been playing Ticket to Ride on my Ipad, so I think I am going to pick that up for a Christmas present for them, and then play it with them.

They are not really too much into games, but I will try to get them at least a little interested if I can.

Since you're getting it primarily with the kids in mind, if you can afford it, I'd recommend getting Ticket to Ride: 10th Anniversary. It includes some great upgrades to the default components that may help make it more appealing to your young 'uns (e.g. an oversized map that's 50% larger than the original with additional artwork, a great set of trains that have unique paint schemes reminiscent of old fashioned toy trains, and nifty tin storage boxes in which to hold 'em). It also includes the 1910 expansion.

Hmm... So 75..But with the expansion included that is not that bad of a deal really...

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I have the 10th Anniversary and it's a pretty nice upgrade from the base game. Everyone loves the trains with giraffes!

[YellowKing]

Played the first scenario of the Arkham Horror LCG, but since it has its own thread I'll post my impressions there.

One of our group also brought Pandemic: Iberia to show me, and I was really impressed. The game artwork and components are absolutely gorgeous. I may have to pick it up just to have my own copy.

[Punisher]

Ordered Zombicide from Amazon since it was on sale for around $45. I am coming back from vacation tomorrow, but it arrived at my house today. Gonna try to go over the manual and maybe play a game or two this weekend.

[Montag]

My kids have been playing Ticket to Ride on my Ipad, so I think I am going to pick that up for a Christmas present for them, and then play it with them.

They are not really too much into games, but I will try to get them at least a little interested if I can.

Since you're getting it primarily with the kids in mind, if you can afford it, I'd recommend getting Ticket to Ride: 10th Anniversary. It includes some great upgrades to the default components that may help make it more appealing to your young 'uns (e.g. an oversized map that's 50% larger than the original with additional artwork, a great set of trains that have unique paint schemes reminiscent of old fashioned toy trains, and nifty tin storage boxes in which to hold 'em). It also includes the 1910 expansion.

Hmm... So 75..But with the expansion included that is not that bad of a deal really...

Especially if you factor in the 1910 cost. 1910 is pretty much mandatory anyway to get full size cards.

[Harkonis]

Picked up Forbidden Stars from Amazon for $65 I think it was. Looking to get a game in this weekend. Hope it's worth it Hep!

[killbot737]

Played some Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu last night. This group is obsessed with Pandemic, so we didn't have much trouble with the rules. It's all slightly different, if anything I think it plays faster than vanilla Pandemic. It's more streamlined as well. There's a lot less fiddling around with travel, it's really easy to jump from location to location (on the local bus line! ) Your only focus is stopping cultists/shoggoths and closing gates (curing the disease of the mythos). The rules rarely get in the way.

It takes some time to set up the board, but it was a first playthrough so there were a few re-readings of some of the setup and rules.

Cthulhu won! But only by ONE move. I attribute that to our previous Pandemic knowledge. The god cards are interesting, the ones that were dealt out didn't really affect our game that much. Near the end we had a few people go insane. That puts a slight damper on your role, but doesn't change them by that much. You don't start eating other players or anything like that. You can also be cured of insanity, either by card effects or by closing a gate.

I recommend it. If you have a group that likes Pandemic, or Cthulhu, or both, then you'll enjoy it. There are fewer actions given to the roles, but it only ends up making the game play faster than regular Pandemic. It doesn't feel like you're missing out on anything.

[hepcat]

Picked up Forbidden Stars from Amazon for $65 I think it was. Looking to get a game in this weekend. Hope it's worth it Hep!

I don't own it, seppe does. But I really do like it. The combat is a fun mini card game that doesn't feel tacked on. You'll like it, I'm sure.

[Chrisoc13]

Down to one last game of sea fall. Honestly... This game falls incredibly flat. It could have been so incredible but it ends up just being a long slog where you literally are just trying to finish the game for the sake of finishing it. I honestly cannot recommend it which is a shame because it is a great idea, just not well executed.

[hepcat]

Thanks, you just saved me some cash. I've heard similar complaints elsewhere, so you're not alone in your opinion.

I picked up the alien legendary encounters expansion Saturday. Spent an hour sorting it out this afternoon. You'd think by now Upper Deck would have the technology to at least partially sort the cards in their games.

[Harkonis]

havent tried the expansion yet, let us know

[YellowKing]

Very interested in the LE expansion as well.

Buddy of mine got a few rounds of Pandemic: Iberia in over the weekend. They beat it both times on normal difficulty (not a surprise since they are all very experienced Pandemic players), but the whole group really loved it.

[hepcat]

I like the nine new characters you can play, but I'm not sure about the Queen Mother as a player variant. I prefer the Legendary Encounter games as coops, so I'm not sure I'll ever use that. However, besides the nine new characters, there are a bunch of new drones, strikes and other additions (flying xenomorphs!) to beef up your games...as well as a "Hard Mode" series of upgrades to scenarios from the base game.

The best part of sorting through the game was when I brought out the aforementioned base game and set it too close to the edge of the table...then knocked the goddamn thing off and spilled everything across the kitchen floor.

[hentzau]

Played a learning game of Legends of Andor last night. Enjoyed it quite a bit, even if we lost. There is very much a puzzle aspect to the game, where you have to kill just the right amount of monsters to keep them from overwhelming the keep, but not too many or else the time keeper advances too quickly and you may not be able to fulfill the ultimate goal of the "Legend."

Great art, lots of nice components, male and female versions of each one of the characters included in the box. If I have a concert it would be that the game may not be very repayable. Once you complete a legend, it won't have many surprises and you kind of have the key to how to beat it. And there are only about 5 legends to play in the base box. Several expansions add more legends, as well as some free ones on the game website.

Not ready to give it a full grade yet after only one play. Need to get through a few more legends before I give it a full recommendation or not.

[MythicalMino]

We are in the midst of a game of Millennium Blades (me and my two boys). Heading into the last Deckbuilding phase, I am in the lead by 14 points. I have been building on a Dark (with a Light card here and there) deck, ending the tournament with all my cards flipped, scoring me big points at the end of the tournament. My character is the guy that can have 2 deckboxes and 3 accessories. The last tournament I had both deckboxes score big for flipped over cards (one scores 50 points if all cards are flipped in my Tableau, the other scores 8 points per flipped card in my Tableau).

Love this game, and hopefully, the kickstarter expansion will ship soon.

I also ordered Black Orchestra. If any of you haven't heard about it, it is a co-op, where you play as one of the conspirators in the Nazi party trying to assassinate Hitler. The game looks great. Everyone is sold out, other than Game Salute. So, I ordered direct from them (I believe they will send the promo cards, too). I have not received a shipping notice yet, so I do not know how long they take to ship. Hopefully not too long.

Has anyone ordered from Game Salute before? And if yes, what was your experience?

[Xmann]

Just got Letters from Whitechapel this afternoon. Getting ready to play our first round!

[Isgrimnur]

[hepcat]

I still need to try that one someday.

[Isgrimnur]

Come on down for a visit. I'm sure we can accommodate you.

[hepcat]

Look outside. I brought zarathud, so break out the Nightfall!

[Isgrimnur]

Let's rock. Watch out for my wife.

[Xmann]

Just finished our first round of Letters from Whitechapel... Awesome!!!

[Isgrimnur]

If it's taking 21 hours to play, you might be playing it wrong. Or someone's analysis paralysis is really bad.

[Xmann]

If it's taking 21 hours to play, you might be playing it wrong. Or someone's analysis paralysis is really bad.

Our first legit game after learning the rules, that is

[Isgrimnur]

Ah.

The more important question is, did Jack win?

[Xmann]

Ah.

The more important question is, did Jack win?

Yes I did and it was fun as hell.

[Isgrimnur]

I'm very glad to hear that.

[YellowKing]

Gave Arkham Horror LCG another spin. This time we won the first scenario fairly handily, thanks to experience giving us an advantage. Because I was teaching it to a new player, however, I still haven't started my "official" campaign.

We also unboxed Mechs vs Minions and stared lovingly at the components. We're waiting until game night with the full group before we tackle that one though.

[Isgrimnur]

Flick 'em Up: Dead of Winter

[hentzau]

Flick 'em Up: Dead of Winter

Fun!

[Chrisoc13]

Finally finished Seafall. Glad that is over.

My final thoughts... SOME SPOILERS-
It is a very ambitous game with a mildly interesting story that never develops due to the nature of the story book. The sites you explore have the same chances of something interesting at the end of the game as at the beginning. Same with finding new islands. You get more powerful but was once cool to find (a spice field, a mine, a port etc) at the beginning of the game are excessively boring at the end of the game. At the beginning you think Wow! Another spice field! Good now I can get enough to make some real money. At the end you think "who cares, another spice field, another pointless field to stock every winter that I will completely ignore."

The new islands are initially very fun to find but then you realize they are just full of more spice fields and wood sources etc. Blech. Boring. You want to buy treasures? Great they only add victory points and are otherwise pointless.

Then you run into the problem we hit, if you happen to not hit just the right sections in the book early enough you find yourself with nothing to do and unsure how to push the game forward. That was really annoying as it cost us a couple of games with absolutely nothing going on. Then the final game it throws everything out the window and you play a completely separate game. Silly. And sure the story kind of builds up to this final game but honestly... it's disappointing that the whole game changes. At the end of the game it basically says you don't have to throw the game away, no worries, you can keep playing the last boring mission over and over again! Awesome! Wait no... that mission is bullcrap. We threw the game away instead.

The game is punishing in random ways. It pushes you to get colonies early on, but then punishes those who succeed in devastating fashion. Awesome. Sure the same mechanism was used in Pandemic Legacy, but the difference is that is a cooperative game so when you all get screwed by the new information you stop and think "Ok, lets fix this together." In this game you get slammed and someone else doesn't, instead of thinking how do we fix this you think "well I just got screwed and now am fighting out of an incredibly deep hole to try and climb up." It's not well done.

The game is swingy with dice beyond reason, it is swingy with the luck of the legacy aspects and what the game will punish next, your ship upgrades are boring and uninspiring, the advisers can be cool but rarely are, and the mechanics of the game are far from interesting. It rests on it's legacy aspect alone, which is simply not enough.

So in summary- the legacy aspects are still cool, and I still want more legacy games. But they can't survive on being legacy alone. We finished the game, but I have to say I only enjoyed the first 1/2. And I never enjoyed the actual game, but rather the legacy aspect of what might come next. It's a slog not an adventure. Do yourself a favor and skip it. Or play pandemic legacy again, you'll get more out of it.

[hentzau]

Tried another game of Legends of Andor this past Tuesday and got completely destroyed. Tried the second legend and got hammered early on by some really bad combat rolls and we never came even close to succeeding. Didn't even get the first part of the first goal done.

Yeah, this one is tough. I want to try it with 3 players now. With two it doesn't seem like you have enough time to get anything done.

[$iljanus]

My wife and daughter gave me for Christmas Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, a nice co-op deck builder a la the Legendary system but simplified and I think a perfect gateway for people wanting to try out this particular genre of boardgaming. I've never read the Harry Potter books but I love me a good co-op game. The wife and daughter are reading the series together so the theme is the hook for them.

The game is divided into 7 individual games which are played in order. The first game starts off easy and is perfect for those who haven't played a Legendary-like deck builder before. Once you beat the first game you combine it with the next game and so on, with each game adding more cards, villains, abilities, etc. until the final battle for the fate of Hogwarts in game 7. My 9.5 year old and I are currently playing this and I was so proud of how fast she caught onto the rules and was formulating all sorts of strategies with her card play. I see a future with her playing Legendary Aliens and Firefly with me. Or maybe just Firefly for now since I don't want to give her nightmares.

[YellowKing]

I received FRIDAY this week and got a few games in. Fun, simple mechanics, but very difficult. I'm slowly figuring out the strategy, but it's definitely going to take several more games for it to really click. For the price, though (< $15), it's a nice addition to the collection.

[YellowKing]

And just for fun, I'm going to post some kid game reviews:

THE GAME OF LIFE: I'm sure everyone remembers this old chestnut. This actually used to be my absolute favorite game when I was younger, thanks to the board with 3D terrain, that cool spinner, and the little peg people you could put in the car tokens. I was simultaneously looking forward to and dreading the new version, as it seemed it had been dumbed down streamlined for kids as Hasbro is wont to do from time to time.

Well the spinner is still intact (and like the old one, still doesn't work very well), but unfortunately it detaches from the game board meaning you kind of have to hold it down with one hand or it just shakes loose. I was happy to note the peg people are still there as well as the cars, but gone is the cool 3D terrain in favor of a simpler, more cartoon 2D art style.

The gameplay has never been particularly exciting, but this version makes it even more boring. You can still choose a college or career path, but going the college route with the higher salaries almost always guarantees a win just like it did in the old game. Unfortunately gone are the days when you could laugh with glee as your opponent pulled a crappy salary and you made bank as a lawyer. The salaries within a job path don't vary much at all, so if you go career expect to be pulling in 50K and if you go college expect 100K.

Of the new features I had not seen (keep in mind I haven't played this game in 25-30 years, so some of this may not actually be "new") were grabbing an action card every time you landed on an empty space, and those cards each being worth 100K at the end. This actually rewards slower players who land on more spaces, which doesn't really make sense since the bonus for finishing first is a paltry 100K over the second place finisher.

In the end, this is just a pure luck-based slog, and the addition of a bunch of cards doesn't heighten the excitement since they all basically do the same thing. Total bore. Unfortunately my daughter absolutely LOVES it (I think the idea of getting married and having babies is funny to her), so I've played this more than any other game they got this Christmas.

GIGGLY WIGGLY: This dexterity game has you trying to be the first to put all your colored marbles in the hands of a Giggly Wiggly caterpillar who dances to music. The music pauses are predictable, so if you have decent timing you can just put your marbles down during the pauses. Even while the caterpillar is moving, placing marbles isn't particularly hard as an adult, meaning this one is best suited to really young kids with absolutely no dexterity. I think even my kids got bored with this one - it may skew a little too young for them.

YETI IN MY SPAGHETTI: This has been the winner for me so far - it's sort of a cross between Pick Up Stix and Jenga. The game is just a bowl with a little Yeti figure that sits in the middle on tops of strands of spaghetti you place across it randomly. The spaghetti strands are nice wiggly stems of plastic, and there are a ton of them. This means you can create a nice little platform for your yeti and have plenty of gameplay before he comes close to falling.

The simple premise is that each player takes turns pulling out a strand of spaghetti until one player causes the Yeti to fall to the bottom of the bowl. One important rule - if you touch a strand of spaghetti, you HAVE to take that one. So you have to think really carefully before you go grabbing.

What's so fun about this game is that "no takeback" rule. Many times I'd find myself screwing up and touching a piece, then doing everything in my power to slowly slide it out from under that damn Yeti without making him fall. The game is only over if the Yeti falls completely into the bowl, so there are numerous times when you'll have a close call and the Yeti will shift. This led to shrieks of delight from my kids. The market is full of these silly little dexterity games, but this one's a winner thanks to really nice components, a funny theme, and a challenge level that puts parents and kids on more of an even playing field.

[Harkonis]

Flick 'em Up: Dead of Winter

I keep reading it as 'Fuck em up'