OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:36 am

My son is having his birthday party at our FLGS tomorrow (he's 8). He and a small group of friends will be playing a D&D adventure, DM'd by a store employee. He has never played an RPG before. I really hope it goes well!

Moat_Man · Post by **Moat_Man** » Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:20 pm

AWS260 wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:36 am My son is having his birthday party at our FLGS tomorrow (he's 8). He and a small group of friends will be playing a D&D adventure, DM'd by a store employee. He has never played an RPG before. I really hope it goes well!

You are a cool parent.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:27 pm

I'm just lucky to live in a neighborhood that has a board game store with lots of programming for kids.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:35 pm

Yeah, that's pretty cool. I think I was about 8 or 9 when one of the neighborhood kids ran me through the old D&D basic redbox tutorial adventure, and it changed everything for me. The idea that it could have been at a birthday party, in a game store and run by an employee? It's blowing my mind.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:56 am

After the disappointment of First Martians, I’ve found my Ignacy replacement. Ryan Laukat, better known as the maker of Near and Far. I just picked up Empires of the Void 2, and it’s a very imaginative, thematic 3.5x game (3.5x because you battle but you don’t really exterminate). He reminds me of Ignacy in that his strength is marrying a fantastic theme to a solid game mechanic. It has bits of a few different games, but it never feels derivative.

Each turn you choose one of about 4 actions, then everyone else can choose to do the same action, or a completely different one for two command points (i.e. action points). You pilot your worldship around a map of inhabited and uninhabited planets, placing control and/or influence, recruiting forces, building bases/cities/academies, taking part in events, and chasing off other players who try to lay claim to your hard earned locations. It’s a victory point game, but it’s not a vp salad.

I’ve only played solo as both sides so far in order to get the rules down, but I already am chomping at the bit to get this in front of a few others.

I also think I’m going to order Near and Far now. I had played Above and Beyond, but it felt a little unfinished. From what I’ve read though, Near and Far is one of his best.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 1:21 pm

Picked up a copy of Escape from 100 Million B.C. after reading about it in a board gaming mag and am trying to talk the wife into playing it this weekend. Worst case I'll go solo to get a handle on the rules first. Was curious if anyone here has played it?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 2:16 pm

Those Snake Plissken tie-ins are getting out of hand.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 6:20 pm

MonkeyFinger wrote: Sat Mar 03, 2018 1:21 pm Picked up a copy of Escape from 100 Million B.C. after reading about it in a board gaming mag and am trying to talk the wife into playing it this weekend. Worst case I'll go solo to get a handle on the rules first. Was curious if anyone here has played it?

Yup.

Xmann · Post by **Xmann** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:39 pm

YellowKing wrote:Made my second attempt at Harry Potter: Hogwart's Battle Book 7. That game is no joke. I may have coasted through the previous books, but 7 is kicking my ass.

Spoilers for those who don't want to know any details on Book 7 features:

Spoiler:
I started off really well, playing Neville and Hermione. Had a good draw of weak villains, which allowed me some time to build my deck and really lay into some Horcruxes. However, I made a miscalculation that would end up costing me the game. I focused on cards that allowed me to roll House Dice to take care of those Horcruxes, which was fantastic for the early game.

The problem is that once I destroyed all the Horcruxes, I found myself rather weak offensively. While I managed to defeat every villain, ultimately I lost control of too many locations by the time Voldemort was attackable. I couldn't put the damage down I needed to take him out before he took control of the final location. For a 2+ hour game to end that close to defeat was frustrating, but I had a blast all the same.
The more I play that game the more I love it, particularly the final Book. It's WAY fiddly with all the ongoing effects and things you have to keep up with, but I've had a lot of fun trying to master it.

[UPDATE 2/10] - Managed to beat Book 7 with a 3-man team of Harry, Neville, and Hermione. First game I was totally screwed from the beginning with a bad villain draw, so I conceded halfway through and started over. Second game went much better. While I still got beat up early, I got some fantastic luck with some very powerful Hogwarts cards out of the gate. Was able to keep the last location from flipping until Voldemort was revealed, then went full offense and put him away just in time.

can someone explain or clarify set up for me?

my wife and I are at year 5 and things are way too easy thus far. however, I think we aren't starting out correctly.

I understand that you keep each hero's starting 10 cards. But, do we keep the Hogwarts, villan's, and dark art cards from each previous game?

So for year 4, do we have year 1, 2, 3, and 4 Hogwarts, Dark Arts, and Villans?

We only use the cards from the individual year, but I'm thinking that's not right.

Can someone clarify?

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YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:48 pm

Xmann wrote:But, do we keep the Hogwarts, villan's, and dark art cards from each previous game?

Yes. The years are cumulative. So by the time you hit Year 7, you're playing with all the Hogwarts, Dark Arts cards, and Villains from all previous years.

Though I will say the game is pretty easy in general up to Year 5. I don't think I ever lost a game until Year 6 or 7. Still, playing with only the current year would be WAY too easy because you're not fighting enough villains.

Xmann · Post by **Xmann** » Sun Mar 04, 2018 2:19 am

that pretty much explains it

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MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:30 am

hepcat wrote: Sat Mar 03, 2018 6:20 pm
MonkeyFinger wrote: Sat Mar 03, 2018 1:21 pm Picked up a copy of Escape from 100 Million B.C. after reading about it in a board gaming mag and am trying to talk the wife into playing it this weekend. Worst case I'll go solo to get a handle on the rules first. Was curious if anyone here has played it?
Yup.

Sweet. Thanks Hep.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:28 pm

Well, with three of us picking up the Star Wars Miniatures game this weekend, it wasn't too bad of an investment.

We had a blast doing some little dogfights and running back to the game store each day getting more models for larger battles.
Sad we talked the one guy out of buying the 100 dollar ship, but he had work Sunday evening.

Pretty sure we'll see it on the table next weekend after he gets paid Wednesday.

That being said it was an amazing amount of fun.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:22 pm

AWS260 wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:36 am My son is having his birthday party at our FLGS tomorrow (he's 8). He and a small group of friends will be playing a D&D adventure, DM'd by a store employee. He has never played an RPG before. I really hope it goes well!

I think it was success. Kids and dice:

Ringing the gong to celebrate their victory over the alien king (yes, the Big Bad was an alien).

All of the kids got a goodie bag with a one-page intro to D&D, a set of dice, and a blank character sheet. We heard later that one kid made his dad go Staples the same day to make copies of the character sheet.

My son has since found the D&D Beyond character builder online (OK, maybe I "discovered" it for him). He made a gnome wizard yesterday, and told me that we're going to make another character together tonight.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:07 pm

Thanks for the update! There are few social events for a kid that beat a good RPG session.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Wed Mar 07, 2018 2:18 pm

We played the first month of PANDEMIC LEGACY: SEASON 2 and that ended...poorly. Lost both times. So far the game seems significantly harder than Season 1. However, Season 1's early months were pretty much base normal Pandemic which we all had plenty of experience with going in. Season 2 is an entirely new beast with entirely new strategies. Will probably take us some time to get up to speed.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 8:21 am

Managed to get some good games in this last week.

First I've played John Company two times this last week. Both a 2 player game and a 4 player game. Both were interesting in their own ways. It's a game unlike anything I've played before. The general idea is that you are running the British East Indies company. Every player represents a family in the company and you want to advance through the company, pilfer the company for your own personal gain, yet still keep the company afloat. It turns into quite the prisoner's dilemma. If you pilfer the company too much it will fail, and everyone will do much worse as a result. Your family members advance in the company and you want them to advance to higher positions but... then you want them to get pushed out of the company because that is how you can choose a soft landing for that family member and hopefully get the most victory points by doing so. The game is absolutely full of negotiations and back room deals, back stabbing, and trying to avoid the appearance of nepotism all while fully doing whatever it takes to advance your family, under the guise of advancing the company. Every player needs something from the others to advance their family. You might be the chairman of the company (this turn at least) meaning you control all of the finances, but if you don't distribute funds well the company won't survive so you cannot steal money and perhaps the director of trade or the director of defense won't give you the goods or protection you need to protect your other interests.

Along with these offices there are trade areas that have individual presidents to open trade with different regions of India, AND you can also conquer these regions as well or invest in them to make them more prosperous. In our 4 player game I spent lots of energy investing into a region to make myself (and the company of course) tons of money, only to not make a good enough deal for enough army forces to defend against revolt, and sure enough the people revolted and I lost my presidency and really struggled to recover.

Every game is different too because of event cards that are drawn. Now while the event cards do add some randomness, the majority of game changing events are laws that the players vote on to pass or not pass. You vote based on positions your family are in and sometimes you have to make a deal to pass laws. It's a really cool mechanic. Entire offices in the company may be eliminated in the process.

The overlook look the the game is really clean and just overall very good looking. Metal coins are not included though. But they sure fit with the game.

Surprisingly it worked pretty well at 2 players. There was a little less room for negotiation but it was still present. At 4 players though the game really shined. It's not a short game, it took us 3 hours for the truncated version learning game, but a good hour of that was the first round (of 6 rounds) just trying to get everyone to understand the mechanics since they are nothing like anything else we have played. Looking forward to playing this game more down the road. The game can be brutally not forgiving, but it is one of those games I just cannot stop thinking about it after playing it. Cole Wehrle is certainly a designer I am going to keep a closer eye on going forward. I'm even more glad now that I backed Root since he is the designer and I am really looking forward to it now and due to how much we enjoyed John Company I placed an order for a game of his which is very highly regarded by some (though not very widely distributed) An Infamous Traffice about the Opium trade in China in the 19th century.

Next up was Railways of Nippon. A pleasant surprise to get this kickstarter in the mail. We didn't waste much time getting to the table. It is Railways of the World set in Japan. Like most in this series it doesn't really add much in terms of rules but it is always nice to have new maps to explore, with new rail barons and objectives. Plus all of the kickstarter bonuses were nice to get. I'm really interested to see what people come up with for the extra board of Antarctica included. It is incredibly small and looks like it will be tight for 2 players. Nippon is a little too big for 2 players, but feels about right for 3 or 4 players.

Lastly we took another shot at Antiquity, the splotter spellen game about city building and surviving the middle ages. This was my third play of the game, and I am finally getting the hang of how to survive. Like most splotter games it is relatively unforgiving but this time it is not just the other players but also the game itself that is not forgiving. It is constantly trying to beat the crap out of you. I chose santa maria as my patron saint and managed to stay ahead of both the famine and pollution and for the first time I felt as though I had things under control enough to not be hemorrhaging the entire time. In fact I managed to thrive. It was a two player game and we both chose Santa Maria so it was down to a race. I managed to build my four cities and every building in the game and build every house in the game for the win, one turn before my wife was about to. We both really enjoyed it this time much more than previously, mostly because of figuring out how to not die from famine or pollution. The game is going to have some real legs with us I can tell.

The end of the game with all 4 cities build and the map really filling up.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 1:08 pm

I have played Antiquity and agree it's a puzzle on waste management and tile placement.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:48 am

Managed to get a game of Rifles in the Ardennes in yesterday and I rather enjoyed it. For those unaware, it's a solo wargame that uses die rolling and tables to control AI behavior. It sets up and plays rather quick and there's a decent amount of randomness to how things will unfold. If that becomes too boring, you do have variety in the armies you can use - American, German and Soviet forces are all included with the kit. I went for the retail version, but if you're motivated to do a print and play, it's substantially cheaper. Anyway, after setup and the first round, this is what it looks like:

You select and log your units either based on historical examples (provided) or a point system. The "?" tiles are random events that spawn when you step into that area. So when I revealed that 8, I checked the scenario table and it indicated a German Rifle unit was there, hiding behind a tree. Thankfully my unit of 4 (they're in a stack) had actions left, so I ran them into the building and then opened fire. One out of my three units scored a hit, so the German unit was suppressed, reducing his effectiveness.

Anyway, the goal for this first mission, was simply to get to Area 1 - it was a patrol scenario. Everything is a bit abstract but still quite effective in creating a narrative. All you need to supply are a bunch of six sided dice. The footprint is very small and it comes in a plastic bag. I sorted the chits into separate smaller bags, but you could probably just chuck them all back inside to keep it as flat as possible (if storage is a concern). I'd definitely recommend it, simply because it's so quick and easy to set up and start playing.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:34 am

Thanks Smooth. That kind of thing is typically right up my alley and will definitely check it out.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:51 am

Awesome. Glad to hear it. I'd recommend using the living rules if you get the retail (printed) copy. I didn't check them first, and completely missed the play example that was included with that update. I didn't have any problems with the game or figuring things out, but the rules at that link definitely do a better job of clarifying things. It looks like it's still a work in progress (based on the comments provided), but they definitely expanded things a bit.

I'm slowly working my way through backlog (solo in particular) so I'll be sure to add them as I get to them. Maybe I'll start a solo gamers thread if there's enough interest.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 11:08 am

I for one would be interested. Most things I've been picking up lately are either solo only or have a single player option. That doesn't mean I still don't have a backlog of unplayed games, just that I only have myself to blame.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 11:52 am

Ok, the pressure is on then! I need some extra motivation, so that'll work.

I also have been purchasing a ton of solo and two-player titles that can be played solo over the last few years, mainly to round out my collection. My buddy made me updated copies of Barbarian Prince and Magic Realm, so maybe this will finally get me motivated to really dig deeper into them. I know those might not be easy to get a hold of or craft, but I have plenty of more current games I need to get to the table...

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:20 am

I hauled out Mansions of Madness 2nd edition for the family on Sunday.

For the sake of fun, we house-ruled investigator elimination -- instead of triggering a loss, the death of one investigator caused a brand-new investigator to show up at the front door. I ended up needing to use this house rule twice, because I am not very good at keeping my investigator alive.

In the end, we eked out a win, closing an eldritch portal as a cthonian and star spawn were about to devour us. Well, we didn't all win -- my son's investigator had gone insane just beforehand, and as a result he had an additional victory condition that we didn't meet. He was quite upset about this, despite having saved the world from being sucked into an otherdimensional void. Such is the price of madness.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:29 pm

Was supposed to play games this weekend, but then it snowed and everyone got freaked out. However, I did visit Miniature Market's new retail store for the first time. They have a whole wall of ding and dented games that are between 50 - 80% off. I ended up getting Champions of Midgard for $28. I foresee spending a lot of money at that store...

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:27 pm

Champions of Midgard is a great game, made greater by its two expansions. Both highly recommended.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Tue Mar 13, 2018 11:55 pm

No spoilers, but we played a couple of games of Pandemic Legacy Season 2 tonight.

First game we won, second game went as follows:

Made it to a point where we would win on the next player's turn. Not only win, but accomplish an objective we had failed to do on two previous tries, thus netting us potential big bonuses that could impact the rest of the campaign.

There was only one possible way for us to lose, and not accomplish this goal.

1. Current player would have to draw an Epidemic.
2. Epidemic would have to hit two vulnerable cities out of only 2 on the board.

We had just recently drawn an Epidemic so chances were slim for #1, and almost astronomical for #2 given that we had protected the cities with the most cards in the infection deck.

So of course he drew an Epidemic and both cards we could not have him draw. Lost by one *(&#@()&$(#& card.

I can't tell you the number of times I've lost Pandemic - ANY FLAVOR OF PANDEMIC - by one turn, and more often than not, by one card. This game is evil and it knows. It KNOWS. It is pure, sadistic evil.

Season 2 is kicking our collective asses. Currently 1-4.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:01 pm

Finally got a copy of Steampunk Rally and got a couple games in (but of course we picked up more X-Wing ships...)

Just as much fun as I remembered from OctoCon.

But the card I played that won me a game doesn't seem to be it... were there Promo cards or an expansion?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 8:41 pm

Played solo games of Dungeon Alliance and Hexplore It over the weekend.

Dungeon Alliance is a keeper. I had a blast with it. I dove straight in and played the full game with quests and it’s surprisingly intuitive for a Mage Knight player. That’s because this is pretty much a streamlined version of that game.

I was a little worried going in because most of the cards are just +1 this or +2 that, without much intricacy to them. But like Mage Knight, it’s less about the card you play as it is about managing what you have. Even disacarding is an agonizing choice as you may not need a card this round, but you can’t stop thinking about how great it would be for the next one.

Everything just works in this one. I will say that for solo play, the quests are a necessity. Otherwise it’s just a beat your high score game, and I’m not a fan of that.

Hexplore It I’m still not sure about. It has some great ideas, and there’s plenty of depth to be had. But it also seems kind of simplistic at the same time. Power ups just give you generic bonuses and gear is non existent in many ways (you just get to increase the value of your various stats without any associated real world reasoning to it).

Still, there’s a ton of content so I may need to just give it more time. I will say that it reminds me of Shadows of Malice in many ways. I kind of wanted to break that out after an hour with Hexplore It.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 9:18 pm

Holy crap - I got Hexplore It as well and pretty much lost my mind with everything. I was going to do a whole write up thinking I was the only one that was following it or even knew about it. Granted, all I did was pull it all apart, read the rules, watch a few videos and go through some of the motions to make sure I understood it all, but I love everything about what I've seen so far. The component quality is fantastic and the included storage system is quite impressive. It feels like there's a ridiculous amount of game play in the box, though I understand so much is random and ultimately tied to the cards and how often they get recycled.

There sequel KS starts next week and I'm all over it. That's so funny about Shadows of Malice -- it's another one I've been looking for and I was hoping maybe it would come back into print, but at late as the Fall of last year the creator didn't think it was financially worth it.

Anyway, I had a bit of a crazy week and was gearing up to start a whole new board gaming thread devoted to solo board gaming. I'm not sure if I'll have time this week, but Hexplore it is one I want to feature because it's ticking so many boxes for me.

I also keep hearing good things about Dungeon Alliance too - but the 1st print run has apparently sold out. There are copies at retail but I think the designer was considering another run.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 9:42 pm

I was surprised I could get a Kickstarter copy of HI off the game maker’s site for the same price as the original backing level for the game. It included all the stretch rewards, and I just saw it on miniature market as a preorder for about 10 bucks more.

I need to play a full game of it as I only played a few rounds to get the mechanics down. It does a lot of neat things that I appreciate (masteries, fortifications, etc.), but it also abstracts gear in a way I found a bit unsatisfying. However that might just fade into the background once I get heavily into the questing and boss fights.

I am disappointed by the ridiculous warping that the boards and cards are showing already though. Time to press everything under my copy of Gloomhaven.

Oh, if you’re still looking for a copy of Shadows of Malice come Gencon, let me know. The designer (Jim Felli) has had a booth at the convention the last few years and has had copies of his games for sale at each showing, If I saw a copy, I could snag you one if you wanted.

I’m a fan of Jim’s offbeat designs and even have a copy of Zimby Mojo, his follow up game. Although I need to get him to teach me how to play it if he shows up this year at Gencon. He’s an incredibly nice guy and usually runs games late into the night at conventions just for the heck of it.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:42 pm

Hmmm...none of my Hexplore It components have warped, though they are only out of the box a few days and in a really low-humidity basement. Hopefully that doesn't change as we move into Spring and Summer but maybe I'll toss some silica packets in the box as a preventative.

I'm not exactly sure what it is about the game that I like - it's not exactly unique in execution. I love the marker-board finish on the character cards and the battle board - not needing another piece of scratch paper handy is a small feature (for me, anyway), but I appreciate the design.

I also like that it supports true solo play (1 character) with slight modifications - nothing crazy. I didn't look though the variant where you can play as the Dead King vs a group of players, but that also seems cool. However, for me a game like this is one you just set up and play for a bit at a time. The footprint isn't too crazy either, another bonus. I've played Mage Knight and I like it - but it's a bit too abstract. This seems to have enough "RPG" material in the cards (granted, as you point out not in the gear) that I can fill in the blanks.

I'll definitely take your offer in mind. He's not selling them on the site, but the expansion is readily available in various locations. I remember hearing about it when it first came out, but the idea of playing hexcrawl solo games back in 2014 when I was really just getting reacquainted with the hobby was the furthest thing from my mind. I guess I'll be paying for it now, but I'm also aggressively culling my collection and trying to make room.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 11:30 pm

Chaosraven wrote:Finally got a copy of Steampunk Rally and got a couple games in (but of course we picked up more X-Wing ships...)

Just as much fun as I remembered from OctoCon.

But the card I played that won me a game doesn't seem to be it... were there Promo cards or an expansion?

There were quite a few cards that were listed as stretch goals, but I don’t know if they were kickstarter exclusives. I honestly can’t remember.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:25 am

I did send away for the Promo Inventors.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:31 am

Checking the old KS that Boost Card may indeed be the one.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:36 am

You can email orders@roxley.com for replacement cards + promos. We charge a small amount for shipping.

Hmmm

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 9:14 am

Smoove_B wrote: Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:42 pmI'm not exactly sure what it is about the game that I like - it's not exactly unique in execution. I love the marker-board finish on the character cards and the battle board - not needing another piece of scratch paper handy is a small feature (for me, anyway), but I appreciate the design.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I may sound like I'm being too negative, but I think this is one of those games I'll need to devote some real time to before I see all the possibilities it offers. The abstraction of gear and leveling up just took me a little by surprise. I mean, I knew it was there after reading reviews, but I didn't realize it would distract me as much as it did while setting up my game yesterday and taking a few turns. But once I get into the questing and the exploring, I'm betting it will be less so.

Smoove_B wrote: Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:42 pm However, for me a game like this is one you just set up and play for a bit at a time.

I would be careful with the dry erase stuff. I play Talon and that also uses dry erase markers on the ship tokens. If I leave the ink on the boards overnight, it leaves a noticeable shadow. What I'm planning on doing if I intend to play over the course of days is take a cell phone photo of each board, clean them, then when I want to play again, just fill them out after referencing the photos I took. Shouldn't take more than 5 extra minutes each session...if that.

I also need to pick up some whiteboard cleaner. According to folks on BGG, one bottle should last years for this game. And it does a better job than the erasers on the markers that came with the game.

Smoove_B wrote: Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:42 pm but I'm also aggressively culling my collection and trying to make room.

I just sold my copy of Massive Darkness on ebay and I was surprised at how easy it's become to sell stuff through them. They calculated the shipping for me on the user's end (according to their location), and they allowed me to print out a prepaid USPS label (at a discount to boot). They also automatically provided tracking notices to me and the buyer after sending the package using that label. That last time I tried to sell something through ebay, it almost ended up costing me more to ship it than I made from selling it (probably because I'm clueless about shipping and did it wrong). But now it seems like an actual alternative to dragging my games to Gencon each year and making poor Zarathud and Seppe help me lug them to the auction room. Time for a spring cleaning, methinks.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 9:14 am

That's cool that they will send you promos, rather than making you spend through the nose on the secondary market.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 9:26 am

This weekend we learned Santorini, a clever abstract strategy game with a theme that I'd describe as "Greek chibi." Apparently it's been around for quite a while, although the current edition is the result of a recent Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter page has a good description. You're moving around a 5x5 grid, gradually building and then climbing on top of what you've built. When your piece stands atop a three-story tower, you win. Every move, then, you're either building yourself a path to the top or building to block your opponent's path. By the end of the game, you'll maneuvering through a cramped, tiny city of your own creation.

The two-player game is very straightforward and strategic. The three-player game introduces asymmetric "god powers" that allow each player to bend the rules in a specific way. For example, Artemis can move two spaces instead of one, and Atlas can build twice on his turn. These powers, plus the addition of a third character, make the game more chaotic and unpredictable -- very fun, but not as strategic.

If this were 2-3 years ago, I probably would buy Santorini. It's clever, fun, beautifully designed, easy to learn, and quick to play. Unfortunately, it's 2018 and my board game shelf is overflowing with great games (with a prime spot reserved for Dinogenics). Still, I would happily play it again.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 10:05 am

My 11yo has been begging me to play more Stuffed Fables. Sunday morning I set up Story 2 and after the first page he totally lost interest.