OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[paulbaxter]

I got my copy of Arcs about a week ago but finally was able to try it out with the boys today. We did a quick run through of the rules last night and played a single round just to test the waters, then a full game this afternoon. We all really enjoyed it. Lots of interesting elements to it, lots of decision spaces. I love the combat system where only the attacking player rolls the dice which result in either good, bad, or mixed results.

[Fardaza]

I really wish I had some regular gamers to meet up with. I like playing solo, but it's lonely in here sometimes!

[Isgrimnur]

I hear there's a convention or two around where people here might attend on occasion.

[LordMortis]

I really wish I had some regular gamers to meet up with. I like playing solo, but it's lonely in here sometimes!

Yeah, I need to get back in to some of the localish meetup groups. I've been away from people forever and specifically away from gaming groups outside of rare a very tight and tiny group since the before times. I did hit a very small Ann Arbor gaming group meetup once this year. It had been so long that even as I knew the host, I felt terrible anxiety.

[Fardaza]

Being in a large group of people and not knowing anyone is getting harder to do. In my past life I'd just get drunk and have a great time. (Although I was told that some of the people around me weren't having such a great time because of me.) Now the anxiety just takes over sometimes, and I can't do it.

[LordMortis]

+1 I'm trying to force myself there because the isolation I've put myself in especially in the environment around me is just not healthy. I need to reintegrate even in tiny doses. Like, exactly once this year, in a small group of people I didn't know, for the first time since the before times. I hope to do it twice. Maybe even push to three times if I can really force myself, but that's pushing it, as it's already halfway through November.

[Holman]

I just got back from Madmarcus' house, where we (him, me, his brother, and his adult daughter) played two games of ARCS.

It's a great game with lots of possible strategies and very little downtime. The game suggests that it will last 30 minutes per player when players know the rules, and that estimate was spot-on.

Then we had some *delicious* ribs smoked by Madmarcus while we were playing. A great time! This was the first time we've played together since they moved to Philadelphia (just a few blocks from my house), but it won't be the last.

[tylertoo]

This was the first time we've played together since they moved to Philadelphia (just a few blocks from my house), but it won't be the last.

I live in Philly, too (Mt. Airy). Where are you?

[Holman]

This was the first time we've played together since they moved to Philadelphia (just a few blocks from my house), but it won't be the last.

I live in Philly, too (Mt. Airy). Where are you?

Hello!

I'm in Roxborough, just over the Wissashickon from Mt. Airy.

[Blackhawk]

C'mon, you two are just making up words now.

[tylertoo]

I'm in Roxborough, just over the Wissashickon from Mt. Airy.

Hey neighbor!

By the way, Anthony, co-host of the long-running podcast Board Gamers Anonymous, also lives in Roxborough. Maybe you know him? I've met up with him a couple of times for some gaming though not recently.

[Skinypupy]

Things tend to slow down at work over the holidays, so I figured it’d be a good time to get a chonky campaign game back to the table. Spent a few days with Tanares Ultimate Adventures and decided…I just don’t like it very much.

It has all the things I should like - lots of characters to choose from, a beefy campaign with branching paths, cool minis, etc - but it just never really comes together to be a cohesive or interesting whole. Combat is either really dull (the “Comrades” that make up the bots in your party have a very limited set of skills) or completely overwhelming (managing multiple characters) when playing solo. The quests are fiddly as hell, often with a ton of small details to remember. The enemies look neat, but feel pretty overpowered (one early game brawler mob could take out my tank in just a couple hits). It reminds me a lot of Folklore the Affliction. A bunch of cool ideas that just never really gel into anything very fun.

Put it up for sale tonight, along with a bunch of other stuff that’s gathering dust. Maybe I can actually afford one or two of the Lego sets the kids want for Christmas.

[Smoove_B]

I think a lot of your complaints are the things they're trying to fix with the new pirate-themed Tanares Gamefound project. The base box (all standees) is cheap enough and it looks like they've converted it to be something more like Jaws of the Lion (spiral bound map books) instead of a giant board. I still don't see any reason to pre-order it via crowdfunding and I'll just wait to hear reviews once it's released and look for it retail, but I figured I'd mention it.

[Holman]

I'm in Roxborough, just over the Wissashickon from Mt. Airy.

Hey neighbor!

By the way, Anthony, co-host of the long-running podcast Board Gamers Anonymous, also lives in Roxborough. Maybe you know him? I've met up with him a couple of times for some gaming though not recently.

I don't think I've met him. Thanks!

Maybe we can get a Philly gaming session together.

[Skinypupy]

I think a lot of your complaints are the things they're trying to fix with the new pirate-themed Tanares Gamefound project. The base box (all standees) is cheap enough and it looks like they've converted it to be something more like Jaws of the Lion (spiral bound map books) instead of a giant board. I still don't see any reason to pre-order it via crowdfunding and I'll just wait to hear reviews once it's released and look for it retail, but I figured I'd mention it.

Not sure I like the game fundamentals enough to spend any more on it. Doubly so when it’s based around pirates, my second least favorite theme behind zombies.

Silver lining is that I now know I can safely skip the big campaign games moving forward without feeling FOMO. The last few have all just completely clunked for me, so I don’t really feel any need to drop a couple hundred bucks on a game that I’ll likely play 2-3 times.

I love the idea of a huge campaign that I can dig into for weeks and months, but the successful execution of it rarely happens for me.

I do have the new Elder Scrolls Chip Theory game on the way, but that will probably be my last big one for the foreseeable future.

[YellowKing]

I splurged and ordered Pericle as Amazon had it for $130 in their Black Friday sale. I know Smoove talked very highly of it, and I've continuously read great things. I've been really enjoying online D&D sessions and recently started a Call of Cthulhu online campaign, so I'm very much in "tabletop gaming" mode and this seems like it would be a fun solo fill-in.

Normally I wouldn't have grabbed it even at that price, but I got a couple of Amazon gift cards for my birthday that effectively reduced the cost down to $30, so it was hard to resist. Probably the only chance I'd have to get it on the cheap.

[Skinypupy]

Playing Star Wars Outlaws on PS5 gave me the itch to bust out Outer Rim for some more scoundrel-y SW goodness. It’s not my favorite solo game, so I taught the Wonder Twins 11.6 how to play. They did a really good job and picked up on both the mechanics and strategy right away. Wonder Twin A was working to make and break shady deals whenever possible, which was fun.

We had a good time, but man that game can get looooooong. Between the teach and the game, it took around 3 hours before I took home the win. That’s a bit long, especially when there isn’t much for others to do during each players’ turn.

[AWS260]

Thanksgiving with my cousins is always good for board gaming. This year's batch:

One cousin bought Arcs recently and was itching to get it played, so we did. Fun as usual.

I played Ticket to Ride for the first time. It's kind of boring.

The kids played a lot of No Thanks! and giant Jenga.

The most popular games with the whole family were 7 Wonders, Big Boggle, and Quiddler. Great for almost all ages.

I got to teach a few people Innovation. I don't think they liked it as much as I do. Might leave it at home next year.

For the first time in recent memory, we didn't play Inis.

[LordMortis]

Just tried Darwin's Journey. It will take a I don't know how many plays to figure out if I like it. (This is not usually the case for me. I usually have a sense for if I like the dynamics or not) It's about the most dense worker placement game I think I've ever played. They question is once I learn the game is the density actually enjoyable or not. It may end up a case of more is not always better but I can't tell after one play through.

[Zarathud]

For the first time in recent memory, we didn't play Inis.

If you ever make Octocon, I would play again. The combos are so insane if you can pull them off.

[YellowKing]

A buddy of mine and I had another marathon game day yesterday.

First up was Invincibles: The Hero-Building Game. We finished off the last two scenarios of the campaign and even did the digital bonus scenario in the Dire Wolf app. The digital scenario was actually better than some of the included scenarios, as it added dialogue and story in response to some of the actions we thwarted or objectives we achieved. Great game but now that we've run through all the content it will likely be shelved until a (hopeful) future expansion.

Next up was the Turbulence expansion for Sky Team. Turbulence adds 20 new airports and a few new modules. Low visibility forces you to roll only 2 of your 4 dice at a time, so you only have 2 to choose from each turn. Turbulence forces you to re-roll all of your remaining dice after each die placement. We found this one to actually be beneficial at times, since you were getting so many re-rolls. The remaining module was perhaps the most fun - Alarms! Random alarms would lock out certain actions (such as radio), leaving you unable to perform that action until you placed an exact die of the correct value and color on it. We wound up playing through maybe 7 or 8 scenarios in order of increasing difficulty and had a great time with them. Highly recommended expansion to an already fantastic game.

[hepcat]

I picked up Star Trek: Into the Unknown from Wizkids this week. It's a mix of Star Wars Armada scale fleet combat and Star Trek: Fleet Captains (which was a VERY cool-albeit unbalanced-narrative driven game with some combat). The 3x3 play area isn't just one system you fly through, it's broken down into multiple systems you have to warp between. Which means that combat can take a while to happen...if it even does.

The game is designed primarily for campaign mode, which plays out like a season of Star Trek on TV. Complications arise while you're on your mission that can drastically alter what you're doing. You'll come across anomalies and other events. And yes, you'll eventually fight if it comes to that.

The game is pretty deep. The dashboards for the ships have no less than 4 different dials on each of them that control power, alert status, etc.. You assign crew members to stations to do things. And the number of things you can do is well over a dozen and counting.

The primary selling point for some will be the HUGE ships. They're to scale, so a Galaxy class ship dwarfs a Constellation class ship in physical size. It's actually pretty cool to see on the table. Also, two words: detachable saucer! Another selling point is that they'll be releasing new ships as time goes by. The next ship pack is the Enterprise D, it seems. That's coming in Q1 2025.

My downsides with the game so far though are:

1) Price. This is a 150 dollar game and I'm not seeing 150 dollars worth of components. This should have been a hundred dollar game at most. You can get it online for cheaper, of course.

2) Tiny icons on a lot of things that are hard to make out if you're older or just have poor eyesight to begin with.

3) The rulebooks are shit. They include two books in the core set. A learn to play book and the campaign guide. You want SOME of the more advanced rules? You'll have to go online to find the Additional Rules. But there's more stupidity. The learn to play rules refer you to an online Living Rules document....which does not freakin' exist yet. So good luck trying to play with any rules found there. This is completely unacceptable to me.

Anyway, I can't really recommend this game to any but the most fervent of Star Trek fans right now. It may get better as they friggin' finish the damn rules and release more components for more variety in the game. But for now, it's just too expensive for what you get and the state the rules are in. It looks so far like it will be fun, so if you know someone who has it, go play THEIR copy.

[coopasonic]

We've played Space Base about 6 times since my older son has been home for winter break. I'm 4-2 with the wife and son each claiming one victory. I deem this acceptable.

On the other hand, I found out this morning that there is an expansion for Heat: Pedal to the Metal and nobody told me. I spent the fall telling people I didn't want anything for Christmas only to find out about something I must have on freaking Christmas day.

[Skinypupy]

Mrs. Skinypupy ended up getting me Maladum: Dungeons of Enveron, LOTR: Duel for Middle earth, Shadows of Kilforth, and Quacks of Quedlinberg for Christmas. She also ordered the HOMM 3 core game, but it's backordered until mid-January. She's pretty awesome.

A couple quick thoughts after spending most of yesterday and this morning at the table:

1. Although the games are very similar, I vastly prefer LOTR: Duel for Middle Earth to 7 Wonders Duel. Removing the victory points, simplifying the resource purchasing, and adding the territory map are all fantastic changes to an already excellent game. Highly recommended.
2. After spending about 4 hours yesterday assembling the Maladum stuff, I have come to the sad realization that I have neither the manual dexterity or the eyesight needed to assemble very tiny cardboard pieces together effectively. I eventually got everything together, but it's...not great. Haven't even looked at the rule book yet.
3. Not sure what I think about Shadows of Kilforth. I've read the manual and watched a playthrough, but some of the rules are still a little unclear to me. Jury is still out.
4. Quacks of Quedlinberg is one of the very few board games that Mrs. Skinypupy will play. Not sure I hadn't added it to the collection before now.