OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[wonderpug]

Original edition of Crusoe? If so, are you using the 2nd edition rules?

Did the actual rules change significantly? I had thought it was more just an improvement in clarity/typos.

[coopasonic]

Aeon's End is a polished, fun game. It can be really tough, but that's what gives it legs. I backed the first edition and was impressed that they offered free upgrades to first edition owners when they decided to change all the art in the 2nd edition. That's fantastic customer relations.

Currently $25 as part of CSI's Pre-Black Friday sales.

...and unlike Crusoe there is very little randomness in the way you are getting your deck-built ass cooperatively kicked. Once the game is set up, the only randomness is the order of the nemesis cards, which are semi-ordered (three levels of pain, in order). You don't even shuffle your deck. This makes for a very thoughtful game. Your team needs to actually cooperate and find a cohesive strategy to have a chance. Sidenote: "Let Gravehold burn" is not a good strategy, FYI.

[Isgrimnur]

It got us out of there before the dealer room closed.

[hepcat]

Aeon's End is a polished, fun game. It can be really tough, but that's what gives it legs. I backed the first edition and was impressed that they offered free upgrades to first edition owners when they decided to change all the art in the 2nd edition. That's fantastic customer relations.

Currently $25 as part of CSI's Pre-Black Friday sales.

An absolute steal at that price. Highly recommended.

[coopasonic]

Aeon's End is a polished, fun game. It can be really tough, but that's what gives it legs. I backed the first edition and was impressed that they offered free upgrades to first edition owners when they decided to change all the art in the 2nd edition. That's fantastic customer relations.

Currently $25 as part of CSI's Pre-Black Friday sales.

...and unlike Crusoe there is very little randomness in the way you are getting your deck-built ass cooperatively kicked. Once the game is set up, the only randomness is the order of the nemesis cards, which are semi-ordered (three levels of pain, in order). You don't even shuffle your deck. This makes for a very thoughtful game. Your team needs to actually cooperate and find a cohesive strategy to have a chance. Sidenote: "Let Gravehold burn" is not a good strategy, FYI.

I can't believe (well, really I can) I forgot the main and most unexpected source of randomness... turn order. There is a turn order deck to make sure there are 2 Nemesis turns and 4 Player turns each round.

[AWS260]

Thanksgiving weekend means boardgaming with the cousins. This year, the big hits were Secrets, a Werewolf-ish hidden information game about KGB vs. CIA vs. hippies, and Inis, a Celtic-themed area-control strategy game (described in detail previously in this thread).

Inis is excellent. We played it three times over two days -- twice with 3 players, and once with 4 players. Each time we wanted to play again immediately, and were only stopped because it was well past midnight. The overarching strategies are easy to grasp, but combine to create plenty of depth. Highly recommended.

[Montag]

Played Scythe, The Thing, and Azule. The Thing was a six player game and I pegged my brother as an Imitator really early in the game. My wife became the second imitator and we started to suspect her. I used the flamethrower to confirm the ID and she did a terrible job in deflecting my accusation. Humans win!

[coopasonic]

Two player game of Aeon's End against the Carapace Queen. We won despite a complete lack of deck thinning cards. I picked the market randomly, but I may include a no-destruction mulligan rule. On the last turn I played a Spark (starter 1 damage card) for 5 damage including a +1 breach and 3 fulminates (+1 damage to other spells while prepped, two can be prepped to the same breach). I was very excited by that damage but worried how I was going to finish the Nemesis... Oh yeah, those Fulminate spells can actually be cast for 3 damage each... hey... when I cast the first one, shouldn't it benefit from the other two? 5 + 4 + 3. Hey the boss was dead after the second one! We win!

[hentzau]

Played a couple of things on Gaming Friday. First played about a six hour game of the FFG Star Wars RPG. That was fun, it was just a simple little scenario to fully try out some of the rules, etc., and just get a better feel for running the game. It was fun, everyone seemed to have a good time.

Then after a couple of hour break for food, etc, I threw Fortune and Glory on the table. I was wanting to try this one out with a different group of people, see if playing with new bodies would give me a different experience.

It didn't.

Sad as it is to say, I think this one is going to finally hit the sale table sometime soon.

[YellowKing]

We embarked on our journey with Charles Darwin to tackle the Robinson Crusoe and the Cursed Island expansion Voyage of the Beagle.

Because this is essentially just a filler game until we start Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 in January, we decided to just play through the campaign on Easy. Our goal was to just experience the story and have fun, not beat our heads against the wall over multiple weeks. And truth be told, the "Easy" difficulty simply adds an extra crew member which must be drawn at random. So while in some cases it may have a significant impact, in other scenarios it may not.

The first scenario was interesting in that we were trying to amass as many specimens from the island as possible. These specimens give knowledge points (KP) that lead to bonuses for future scenarios. There was a minimum number of points to acquire to even pass the scenario, then bigger rewards the more points you collected past that threshold.

This scenario was quite fun as we were never in any real danger of dying. The weather stays fairly calm, and the game lets you focus more on the points objective than on battling nature. Our strategy was to focus on setting up a good camp and shelter first, then go all in on points towards the back half of the mission. This worked fairly well. Even with our late start, our good preparation early on set us up to be able to amass the majority of our points at the end. This gave us a small bonus for Scenario 2.

The second mission was even more fun as it did add a significant danger element. We were tasked with repairing our ship in the aftermath of a big storm, with more bad weather approaching. We started out well, then hit a bad string of event cards that reduced our weapon level to 0 and screwed us in a number of other ways. Through shrewd planning and significant use of skills, we were able to make a last ditch effort to repair the last two parts of the ship on the final round. This worked, we survived, and though we were significantly banged up, we're heading into Scenario 3 in a good position.

After coming from the campaign disasters that was FIRST MARTIANS, it's been really nice to play a GOOD campaign that does everything right: adds new gameplay elements, tells a compelling story, and properly weaves scenarios together to feel like a cohesive whole. Also big props to the component quality - The Beagle adds a fantastic spiral-bound scenario book, sturdy new cardboard tokens, a very nice full color rule book, etc. I know we're very late getting to this expension (it was released in 2013), but it's well worth the $30 if you're a Crusoe fan.

[Chrisoc13]

The imperial assault app is here! Huge news. It's out on Android and iOS today. Looks like steam in 3 days. It makes the game fully cooperative with the app running the imperial side. Once we finish pandemic legacy season 2 (in December already... Yeah we like legacy games) it's on to cooperative imperial assault! Or gloomhaven. Been itching for gloomhaven... And I almost have completed my broken token insert...

[YellowKing]

The app is fantastic so far, with a terrific tutorial that got me right back into the rules mindset after not having played in 2-3 years. Once I finished, I grabbed my minis and started painting - that's how motivated I was. It's actually better than the Mansions of Madness app, which is saying something.

I"m completely thrilled. Imperial Assault was one of those games (much like the first edition of Mansions of Madness) that I bought but never really played because my friends preferred co-op. I've finally got a compelling reason to bring this to the table (or hell, just play solo). Sure, it's going to end up costing me a fortune since I'm now going to want every figure pack, but I'll have fun going broke.

[Punisher]

Can you play the campaign with the app or just random skirmish games?

[Chrisoc13]

Can you play the campaign with the app or just random skirmish games?

The app has its own campaigns. No skirmish. Doesn't run the original campaigns. But it does take into account your collection for which enemies are available etc, which is really cool.

I have been holding onto imperial assault for the last year and a half without playing it since this was announced so I'm very excited to get it to the table again. Now I need to figure out a better storage system.

[Chaosraven]

So we picked up the 2 new Phoenixborn, and played them against each other.

WARNING: the MASTERS OF GRAVITY uses the Green and White dice, so unless you have those expansions you won't have the dice to play him.

Meanwhile, Path of Assassins uses ONLY Basic icons from Dice. So use whatever you want for them.

Path of Assassins has some pretty wicked allies, so I chose the Black dice for the ability to get allies back at the cost of wounds to my phoenixborn, but since his abilities deal with healing himself it worked well.

[Chaosraven]

Also, I have decided to make Tokens for what has been rolled for the turn (Power, Class, Basic) rather than buying sixty dollars more of dice.

[hepcat]

That's a good idea. Or just buy some regular dice and color each side so that they correspond with the dice faces you need? They do charge a little high for their dice for Ashes.

[Chaosraven]

I figured making colored token for the 3 levels in each of the six colors would be lots cheaper than the sixty bucks I am looking at to have enough damned dice.

[baelthazar]

FYI to all you Chicagoans... it is official that I am moving to West Lafayette, IN. So that puts me within striking distance of you bastards!

Also, I expect you to pick me up on your way to GenCon...

[hentzau]

FYI to all you Chicagoans... it is official that I am moving to West Lafayette, IN. So that puts me within striking distance of you bastards!

Also, I expect you to pick me up on your way to GenCon...

Next OctoCon, sometime in April.

[hepcat]

How far of a drive is it? We could invite you to our non-Octocon get togethers too.

[baelthazar]

About 2 hours to downtown. But I have heard it is better to park and train in the last bit.

[YellowKing]

Played the third and fourth scenarios for Robinson Crusoe's VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE expansion.

We escaped Scenario 3 fairly handily, but 4 looks like a real doozy. We're only halfway through and I see virtually no hope of winning it. However, unlike FIRST MARTIANS, this campaign has never felt unfair. Even if we do lose this round, I'll be happy to try it again having learned lessons and coming in better prepared. Fantastic expansion so far and we're enjoying it a great deal.

I also ordered HOTSHOTS on a whim. This is a firefighter game by Fireside Games (of Castle Panic fame), in which you're tasked with putting out a wildfire rampaging out of control. It features a push-your-luck dice rolling mechanic along with a really cool wind mechanic which spreads the fire in unpredictable ways.

The reviews have been fairly positive, and while it's definitely on the lighter side, I was looking for something casual I could play with the family and introduce the kids to. Best of all it was dirt cheap - I managed to snag a copy for $22 on Amazon, but even my local game store had it on the shelves for $30. For that price I was certainly willing to give it a chance.

[YellowKing]

Ok, got a few games of HOTSHOTS in - here's my thoughts:

COMPONENTS:

For a game that retails for around $30, I don't really expect super high quality components. HOTSHOTS is a mixed bag, but thankfully comes out slightly ahead.

Negative - Fire Card deck. Utilizes a vastly undersized deck. I HATE undersized decks, as they're impossible to shuffle. I would have gladly paid $5-$10 more for a standard deck.

Neutral - The tiles and tokens are standard sturdy cardboard and do an adequate job. The tiles feature colorful artwork and look really nice when laid out. Dice are solid. The player tokens are unfortunately little cardboard standees that are hard to tell apart aside from their poses. They're sturdy and don't fall over, but I plan on replacing them with actual miniatures.

Positive - The fire tokens are the true standouts of the game, and make up for any shortcomings in other areas. They are sturdy little chunks of plastic that feel great and are highly visible and easy to move and grab.

GAMEPLAY:

GOAL: You win if you put out all the fires. You lose if 8 tiles become scorched (destroyed).

SETUP: The game starts with a randomized hexagonal grid made up of individual hexagonal tiles. The standard layout uses a symmetrical hexagonal design, but other layouts are included in the rule book for variation. Each tile represents a different location and contains a Scorch Rating from 1 to 5 (the number of fires that can be placed before the tile is destroyed), and a series of die symbols that must be matched in order to put out fires on that tile. Some tiles also have special (negative) effects when scorched.

TURN:

A turn is made up of three parts: 1. Move a firefighter up to two tiles. 2. Attempt to put out a fire. 3. Draw a Fire Card.

1. MOVE: You can move up to 2 tiles (or not at all), but cannot pass through fire. Once you hit fire, your movement stops.

2. PUT OUT FIRE: Fires are put out by rolling dice to match symbols on your tile. This is done through a press-your-luck mechanic. As long as you match at least one symbol per roll, you can roll as many times as you like (locking dice Yahtzee-style). However, if you fail to match a symbol, your attempt ends in failure and you lose any progress up to that point. A good portion of the game's strategy is knowing when to press your luck and when to play it safe.

Match 3 symbols: You may place a fire break. Fire breaks can be placed along any edge of your tile, and stop (most) fires from spreading.
Match 4 symbols: You may remove 1 fire token from your tile
Match 5 symbols: You may remove 2 fire tokens from your tile, and either place a fire break or draw a random bonus token
Match 6 symbols: You may remove 3 fire tokens from your tile, place a fire break, AND draw a random bonus token

3. DRAW A FIRE CARD: Whether you succeed or not on putting out a fire, you must draw a Fire Card which tells you how the fire spreads. Some Fire Cards spark new fires on unlit tiles, while others intensify existing fires. Still others are wind cards, which either spread the fire in the current direction the wind is blowing (represented by a wind sock standee), or change the wind direction and THEN spread the fire.

Wind cards come in light and strong varieties. Light breezes simply spread fire from burning hexes to adjacent non-burning hex. Strong gusts do the same, but can jump fire breaks. Light combining breezes spread fire from burning hexes to both burning AND non-burning hexes. Strong combining does the same, but can again jump fire breaks.

SPECIAL POWERS

If you've made it this far, you're probably realizing that while every firefight has a chance at extinguishing fire, there's an even better chance that new fires are going to spring up faster than you can stop them. Fortunately there are some special things that can help even the odds.

1. CHARACTER ABILITIES: Each character has a special ability that they can use once per turn before drawing a FIre Card. One can move another player up to one tile. Another can draw 2 Fire Cards and choose which one to resolve, placing the other on top of the deck. The remaining two can each flip die symbols of one particular type to another particular type, and vice versa. If a character happens to be on a tile when it becomes scorched, they lose their special ability as a penalty.

2. VEHICLES: One tile contains three special use vehicles that can each be used once per game. The airplane can extinguish one fire on each of three consecutive hexes. The helicopter can extinguish up to 3 fires from a single hex. And the truck can place three consecutive fire breaks.

3. BONUS TOKENS: Bonus tokens can be earned by matching 5 or 6 symbols. These include a wide variety of single use features - some can be used as a symbol in place of a die, others enhance movement or give extra fire breaks, etc.

4. SUPPORT: Teamwork is crucial to real life firefighting, and the same applies here. Whenever you're on a tile with another player, they can lend "support." Support basically allows you to fail to match a symbol on a die roll without penalty - essentially a free re-roll. Fighting fires adjacent to the Lake tile also provides a support, due to your proximity to water.

IMPRESSIONS

I've really enjoyed this game. While there is a high luck element with the dice, there's enough strategy involved to offset the randomness. For instance, the bulk of the fire deck consists of cards that intensify existing fires. We lost one game badly because we were so concerned with scorching that we were running from fire to fire keeping them under the scorch limit but not actually extinguishing them. Lesson learned is that you're better off stamping a fire out completely if you can.

The game plays pretty quickly. Our 2-person games lasted just under an hour, but more importantly individual turns go very quickly. Since it's basically just Move, Extinguish, Draw Fire Card, there's not a lot of downtime while people contemplate their options. I never had any dull moments.

I also loved how thematic it was. You really do feel the exasperation of fires springing up from places you've already been, or having the wind change direction and ruin your carefully laid fire breaks. But when you start containing fires there is an excitement that goes with thinking that this time you might just be able to pull it off.

It's also surprisingly challenging, at least with two players. I'm currently 0-3, though two of those games we lost by a pretty narrow margin. There are plenty of variant rules listed in the rulebook for making the game harder or easier, so you can certainly tweak the difficulty if need be. As it stands, I've found it sufficiently tough so far without feeling impossible to win.

I bought this one for $22 shipped on Amazon. I don't know if you'll always be able to get it at that price, but anything under $30 is a steal for this one. If you're looking for a little light filler or something to play with the family, it's a great addition to the collection.

[coopasonic]

Ok, got a few games of HOTSHOTS in - here's my thoughts:

Thanks for that. Now I know I can stick with Flash Point.

X(11) and I played a game of Aeon's End. I gave him some pointers but mostly let him run his own game and he put together a good strategy and did the bulk of the work defeating the boss. I played against the bug queen again because I wanted to know what was going on while helping him through his first game. It wasn't even terribly close. I was down to the 3 health at one point, but my special healed me back up. X has already looked through the bosses and picked our next opponent. It's nice to see him excited about a tabletop game. That hasn't happened in a while.

[YellowKing]

Thanks for that. Now I know I can stick with Flash Point.

I've actually never played Flash Point (thought it may be too close to PANDEMIC), so I can't compare. Some folks on BGG say they play different enough that it's worth having both, but I'm pretty confident HOTSHOTS is the lighter, more casual of the two so I don't blame you.

I finally managed to snag a copy of SPIRIT ISLAND which should be here in a day or two. Really looking forward to that one, though I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to play before Christmas.

[coopasonic]

Speaking of Flash Point, I played a four player game at lunch with some co-workers with the new Tragic Events expansion. That was... brutal. We managed to rescue 5 people before the building fell down, playing on veteran level. The event cards were a fun addition. We only saw about 15 in the game, so it will take us a while to see them all and it should provide some interesting variation in gameplay, not that I ever felt it needed variation. I've never even bothered to learn or play any of the other expansions I have for the game (all of them) because I haven't gotten tired of the basic game.

[hepcat]

Ok, got a few games of HOTSHOTS in - here's my thoughts:

Thanks for that. Now I know I can stick with Flash Point.

X(11) and I played a game of Aeon's End. I gave him some pointers but mostly let him run his own game and he put together a good strategy and did the bulk of the work defeating the boss. I played against the bug queen again because I wanted to know what was going on while helping him through his first game. It wasn't even terribly close. I was down to the 3 health at one point, but my special healed me back up. X has already looked through the bosses and picked our next opponent. It's nice to see him excited about a tabletop game. That hasn't happened in a while.

I was a backer for both the base game and the last expansion on kickstarter, but hadn't actually played it since I received the last one along with all the upgrades for my 1st edition base set. Sunday afternoon I gave it a go...and remembered why I love the game so much. I lost 3 games in a row to the Umbra Titan, but had a blast while doing it.

[YellowKing]

We finished up the VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE expansion for Crusoe tonight, and had a grand old time. The best thing about this expansion/campaign is that it really softens the hard edges of the base game. It turns a brutal, nearly impossible struggle for survival into a more relaxing adventure where danger still lurks but is not the overriding focus. Most of the scenarios focus on collecting and protecting your precious cargo (specimens) to maximize your score at the end. After the utter brutality of Mars, it was definitely nice to experience the familiar Ignacy game mechanics without feeling like we were being punched in the nuts every five minutes.

I also broke out HOTSHOTS so the group could see it. 3-player game, and the starting (randomized) layout was among the worst I'd ever seen. I warned everybody that we were about to lose terribly, and that we would just use it as a short teaching session. Well, through a combination of solid strategy, incredibly lucky dice rolling, and the wind being forever in our favor, we managed to win quite handily.

It just goes to show that the game can be volatile and "swingy" which turns some people off. My group, despite the easy victory, absolutely LOVED it. They want me to bring it back next week to see if the additional player does really make that big a difference, or if tonight was just a fluke.

Next week is a real wildcard. We managed to finish up BEAGLE earlier than expected, so we've found ourselves potentially with two "free" weeks before starting PANDEMIC LEGACY SEASON 2 in January. Right now it's looking like possibly some combination of SPIRIT ISLAND, HOTSHOTS, and maybe even LEGENDARY PREDATOR which Terry bought and never played.

[Montag]

I think the proper thing to do is to have baelthazar host gaming in Lafayette so I wouldn't have to drive to Chicago. I keep watching for Octocon, but dates haven't worked yet. I live on the south side of Indy.

[YellowKing]

Coop will be happy to know that Terry enjoyed Hotshots so much, he ordered......Flash Point.

I guess the firefighting thing really appeals to our group. They're going all in on the theme.

[coopasonic]

Coop will be happy to know that Terry enjoyed Hotshots so much, he ordered......Flash Point.

[baelthazar]

I think the proper thing to do is to have baelthazar host gaming in Lafayette so I wouldn't have to drive to Chicago. I keep watching for Octocon, but dates haven't worked yet. I live on the south side of Indy.

I could do that! Apparently there are two game stores (one in Lafayette and one in West Lafayette) and both have large play areas. We are looking for where we will be living tomorrow. I am not sure the wife will let me have a "gaming cave" in the new place though...

[Chaosraven]

Introduced a new player to Magic the Gathering this weekend, by playing 7 players against a Horde deck using Archenemy while players had Vanguard heroes.

Of the other six, three had never played against a Horde or Archenemy and four had never used Vanguard heroes.

After the first game all new to any of the above demanded we play again, and then again. And then again.

We played right up to midnight.

So apparently it was a hit.

[hepcat]

Seppe stopped by yesterday with a copy of Codex, an “rts” card game. After the first game I realized it was a contender for one of the best times I’ve had with a card game. It rivaled Ashes after only a few games. And since I love Ashes quite a lot, that’s saying something.

It’s a deep but non fiddly combat card game. You have 3 heroes you can hire with their own set of units, spells and upgrade cards. At the same time you have to level up your base in order to take advantage of higher level spells, and hire more than one master at a time. You also have workers that provide you with the gold you need to pay for all this. While it sounds like it could be fiddly, it is surprisingly easy to grasp and manage. I wanted Twilight of the Gods to be this deep, and it is in many ways...but it’s also hard to teach and fiddly to extremes at times.

So...yeah...if you like card games with a lot of strategic depth, this one is for you.

[MonkeyFinger]

So...yeah...if you like card games with a lot of strategic depth, this one is for you.

... and have a spare $225.

[Chrisoc13]

So...yeah...if you like card games with a lot of strategic depth, this one is for you.

... and have a spare $225.

It's like $30. That Amazon listing is some ridiculous listing. Miniature market has it for $30.

[hepcat]

Yeah, that's the ultimate deluxe version with 5 player boards, 2 neoprene playmats, all the expansions, etc..

The core set is a lot of game for around 35 bucks online. I'm debating getting a core set just so we can play 4 player free for all (my set plus Seppe's set) with the two player boards the core comes with. Unlike most games like this, the player boards are essential. Although I guess you could print off one if BGG has them in their files section or something.

[YellowKing]

Played our first game of SPIRIT ISLAND last night and whoa yeah we suck.

Got our asses handed to us even playing the "tutorial" mode, but from what I've read that's to be expected until you get a few games under your belt.

Our group was divided on it. Half of us (including me) really liked it and are looking forward to figuring it all out. The other half deemed it "impossible," right off the bat and seemed disinterested in pursuing it any further. They only came around a little bit when I told them I had watched a nearly 2 hour playthrough video which they did win, so I knew for a fact the game was not impossible.

The learning curve is high on this one, so I'm not sure where it's going to eventually land. I think it would be a hit if we had several weeks to spend on it perfecting our techniques, but trying to sandwich it into the holidays as filler before Pandemic Legacy S2 was probably not a great idea.

[GreenGoo]

Son had a game day at school where they played Settlers of Catan and monopoly. Came home giddy about Catan, so I bought him the base game for Christmas. Hadn't been in a gaming store in years, so I let the guy upsell me on Carcasonne. I'm thinking Carcasonne is more likely to be played because you can play it with 2 players and it's easier to understand, is my understanding.

I'm not a board gamer but I am sort of excited to try this out with the kids.