Octopus Overlords

Finally made it back to ROBA (local monthly boardgame organized group)!

Didn't quite get to stay the whole night (left a couple hours early to spend time w/ the spousal unit).

But I got to play Epic Tiny Zombies - 4 player. So the guy who owned/knew the game played the zombies and the rest of us were the humans, all new players. So owner was kind enough to point out some things we might need to do early on and when he was about to wipe us out if we ignored certain things (lost my buddy meeple before we started to get that down, another player lost his buddy meeple before we got it right). Then we got a little more cooperative and doing this right. Came close to the end though. We were on our last card each and the first player had completed his objectives and was just trying to get to his exit point. I was 2 turns from victory (though at that stage, w/ him being so close, I would have gambled and tried for 1 turn - had to find out cure from 5 possibilities, I'd just about got to it, when he figured it out and reset the cures. I had one and could get 1 more this turn so 50/50 shot of right guess).

All and all, a very close and we all thought balanced game. He had little plastic weapons that clipped on our meeples, that made it more fun.

Then Terraforming Mars (never played before). A fairly blinged out version with plastic holder covered player cards (keeps the plastic cubes in tight). Some plastic cities instead of just tiles. Same 4 players as Epic Tiny Zombies, but I was the only noob here. I came in WAY last, though I could have scored 5 more points, and deprived the winner of 5 points if I had been paying more attention to the achievements (whatever the one is you just buy when you have achieved it, not the one where it's whoever has most at the end). I could have bought the 3 green tiles one, but I didn't realize it (was thinking it was the how many at the end thing or something). The winner did. Had I bought it, he would have tied with the 2nd place player, who had more money and would have one on that tie breaker.

Oops...

Still, a fun game and fun day (followed by renting/watching the Han Solo Star Wars movie w/ the wife, which we both enjoyed).

On Friday we had a board game "day" (3-5pm) at work and I played a three player game of Evolution:Climate with two new players and got *crushed* by one of them, the other one also beat me by not by quite the margin. 60 > 36 > 28. The winner had a monstrous carnivore that I just couldn't keep up with. Every move I made to bring him down he had a counter for. I also played a couple games of Looterz which is a super simple card and dice game and I don't even know how else to describe it. I won one and was close on the second.

Today at lunch we played a three player game of Splendor and again I was teaching it to two (different) new players. I managed to squeak out a win when the player before couldn't see what he needed to do to prevent my win. There was one card I needed to win. All he had to do was reserve it to prevent me from winning that turn and then he could use the gold to win the next round... it's possible another winner would have turned up for me as I was the last player and would have gotten another turn, so maybe his play wasn't that bad after all. I'll never tell him that though.

A little over 3 weeks until BGG.CON so I need to get tuned up!

Very late to the party, I have finally played Cosmic Encounter, a game almost as old as me. A 5-player game at my FLGS, taught by a guy who absolutely loves the game and is very good at easing in new players.

I was familiar with the rough outlines of CE, but I hadn't appreciated just how central diplomacy and negotiation are to the game. The table talk was just fantastic. At the end, almost everyone was a single colony away from victory, and every turn saw the rest of the table ganging up against the active player to prevent him from scoring the winning colony. By the time my turn rolled around, everyone's forces had been depleted, and I managed to squeak out a 1-point win in the final battle.

I had a great time and would happily play it again.

A weekend of trying new (to me) games.

Compounded is a chemistry-themed engine-builder, in which you collect elements to build compounds to upgrade your lab to collect more elements and build more compounds. The cogs fit together pretty well, but it's a bit fiddly -- lots of little tokens to shuffle around -- and interactivity is limited. The best mechanic is the "lab fire," which can occur randomly or be triggered by certainly "highly reactive" compounds. This causes a compound-in-progress to explode, scattering its elements to adjacent compounds. It adds a welcome bit of chaos, but is far too rare. We only had two meaningful lab fires in our game. My son really enjoyed it, so I'd gladly play Compounded again for him, but it's not something I'd seek out.

Welcome to the Dungeon is a competitive game about dungeon delving, in which you build the dungeon together before sending some poor sap (a.k.a. one of the players) to try to conquer it. Very, very clever in an itty bitty box. I liked it a lot.

Megaland is by Ryan Laukat, designer and artist of Above and Below, Eight Minute Empire, and others. Weirdly, it is a Target exclusive. It combines press-your-luck dungeon delving with Above and Below-style village-building. The art is great, but the game is pretty bland.

Took a stab at Dungeon Degenerates. It did not go well. I was running the first mission with a couple of characters. Things were actually going pretty well. I'd taken out a couple groups of 3 monsters (though I confess that one group was from the wrong zone). Then I pulled a Danger card with an epic monster. In hindsight, I should have just bailed and escaped on the first turn. I could have taken a different route to my goal (and stopped to heal along the way). Instead I tried to tackle it with just my starting gear. The epic monster had 14 health with 2 armor and did 8 damage per round. So even with perfect rolls I would still be taking 2 damage every turn (and likely to do little to no damage in return).

Otherwise it was fun. Very colorful. Lots of theme.

In a surprise move, we went back to First Martians. I didn't really want to, but they released a new scenario and the guy that owned it in our group REALLY wanted to try it out because it was supposedly the best one yet.

And.....as usual with First Martians, it utterly failed to deliver. Not only was the app scenario riddled with typos and bad translations, the difficulty levels didn't seem to scale properly. We wound up playing three times and losing all three.

I think we are going to try the Poachers scenario for Robinson Crusoe next week, then it will be on to FORBIDDEN SKY.

Side note: The Barnes and Nobles near my office has First Martians for 18 bucks on their clearance table. If anyone is interested in getting a 75 dollar game for 18 bucks, go check your nearest Barnes and Nobles. They're also selling Seafall for a similar 75 percent discount.

hepcat wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:21 am Side note: The Barnes and Nobles near my office has First Martians for 18 bucks on their clearance table. If anyone is interested in getting a 75 dollar game for 18 bucks, go check your nearest Barnes and Nobles.

$37.47 at the website, and free shipping.

The clearance pricing is in store only. That's why I suggested folks go to their nearest one to check.

hepcat wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:32 am The clearance pricing is in store only. That's why I suggested folks go to their nearest one to check.

And mine was offered as an option once they find that there aren't any there.

People would willingly pay that much for First Martians?

I'm a programmer, not a market researcher.

hepcat wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:38 am People would willingly pay that much for First Martians?

I sold my copy for $45 at BGG.CON last year. several copies have gone for $10-15 this year with more listed at $20 asking price and not moving.

I'd call the $45 a win if I hadn't paid about double that. I'm mostly sad that I sold off Robinson Crusoe in anticipation of the improvements in First Martians. Oops.

I have my Z Man edition of Robinson Crusoe but I've yet to try it with the updated rules. Supposedly it works fine. There was an upgrade kit available at one point, but it was mostly just some stickers and other cosmetic updates.

There's a good game at the core of First Martians. The mechanics are solid, and are essentially an expansion of Crusoe. Unfortunately the entire game was brought down with an unpolished app and extremely uneven balance. I'd go so far as to say there are certain missions that are downright broken.

I'd love to see a 2nd edition that fixed the rulebook, play-tested the scenarios, and ditched the app in favor of event cards like Crusoe. I doubt we'll ever see that, though, considering how poorly the game was received.

So I forgot I ordered this, but I saw it at Origins, so I ordered it:
Amazon Link to Axis and Allies and Zombies

I have no idea if it is any good, but I used to play Axis and Allies when I was in High School, so I ordered it on a whim when I got home from Origins. Just got an email that it arrived.

So let's hope it is good. Anyone actually play it? This was an impulse buy for me, and I have not done any real investigation into if it is actually a good game....

I was just eyeing it myself. This preview made it sound promising. I know we both were kind of drooling over it at Origins. Let me know what you think of it when you've had a chance to play.

My FLGS has an all-Root game night. In the video at that link, it looks like there are 6 or 7 games going simultaneously.

I've never played it. I guess it's good?

I enjoy root a lot. I think over time the shiny will wear off a little bit but I think it's really a good game.

My copy of the expansion for Talon, Talon 1000, and replacement ship tiles just shipped from GMT. For anyone who hasn't played this little gem of a game, it's essentially Starfleet Battles with a rulebook that can be read and understood within 30 minutes. For those who played Starfleet Battles back in the day, that analogy should require no explanation.

You use dry erase markers to track your power, weapons, speed, damage, etc. on the laminated ship tiles. It's a lot of fun if you enjoy pushing space ships around a table but want a little more depth than a Wings of Glory style game. The expansion adds a full solo AI, as well as...well...over 1000 scenarios. Can't wait to get this back on the table.

Played a three player game of Steampunk Rally at lunch. I did not understand how it worked very well at the beginning but my blow up every part of the machine strategy got me *really* close to the win until someone got a card that did 3 damage to me, right as I made the turn for the finish, obliterating my entire contraption.

I'd like to give it another go now that I know how it works. Perhaps I'll try to convince Isgrimnur to try it in a couple weeks. I'm not sure it is Spacelord's kind of thing at all.

Steampunk Rally is a lot of wild, chaotic fun. They claim that once everyone knows how to play the game, you have everyone take their turn at the same time, but I really enjoy watching folks build and power up their machines.

hepcat wrote: Wed Oct 31, 2018 3:17 pm My copy of the expansion for Talon, Talon 1000, and replacement ship tiles just shipped from GMT. For anyone who hasn't played this little gem of a game, it's essentially Starfleet Battles with a rulebook that can be read and understood within 30 minutes. For those who played Starfleet Battles back in the day, that analogy should require no explanation.

You use dry erase markers to track your power, weapons, speed, damage, etc. on the laminated ship tiles. It's a lot of fun if you enjoy pushing space ships around a table but want a little more depth than a Wings of Glory style game. The expansion adds a full solo AI, as well as...well...over 1000 scenarios. Can't wait to get this back on the table.

Was hoping to play this when I made it to Octocon a year or two ago, but time got away from us. I'm curious how the solo AI works out, looking forward to your feedback.

Unfortunately, two player games are tough to schedule at those events. If you're ever in the area again though, and want to play, just shoot me a PM!

Played another scenario of Deep Madness tonight. So far we have been losing more than winning but this one went pretty well. Win on our second attempt with two rounds to spare. Only three people had to make it to the safe room to win. Sorry Garry, you can't come in.

We went back to FIRST MARTIANS to beat that damned Epidemic scenario and succeeded. However, I still think the entire scenario is essentially broken since we beat it without doing any exploring or gathering. We instead used the Geologist's skill to create the samples required, and I couldn't find any rule that said we couldn't do that. The BGG forums are useless since nobody cares about this game anymore so screw it. We won, I'm done with this game, and I hope to God they never release another scenario because I'm over it.

We had a lot more fun playing the Poachers scenarion in ROBINSON CRUSOE. Unable to find a plains tile so we could build the rope, we thought we were completely doomed. However, we were quietly stockpiling wood to build cages for the animals we needed to rescue and managing to keep our health full.

In an exciting final two rounds, we managed to find a rope which allowed us to build three cages in Round 7 and capture all three animals in Round 8. It just worked out that the previous 6 rounds had put us in a position to go all in for the win at the last minute. Lots of fun.

Next week will probably be FORBIDDEN SKY and/or THUNDERBIRDS. Thunderbirds was the surprise of our GenCon trip when we played it at the game library, and I'm looking forward to trying it again.

Just bought Gloomhaven this week and getting ready to start the campaign Sunday with my wife and a couple of our friends.

May god have mercy on my soul.

hepcat wrote: Thu Nov 01, 2018 10:28 am Unfortunately, two player games are tough to schedule at those events. If you're ever in the area again though, and want to play, just shoot me a PM!

Yeah, true at most gaming events unless you are both committed to the idea (monthly gaming group rarely see 2 player games except a couple older gents who usually play some sort of wargame together; everyone else is usually inviting more people to join whatever til they max out).

Chicago? Thought you lived in Ohio somewhere (which might have been a manageable day trip depending on where).

Zenn7 wrote: Sat Nov 03, 2018 1:40 am

hepcat wrote: Thu Nov 01, 2018 10:28 am Unfortunately, two player games are tough to schedule at those events. If you're ever in the area again though, and want to play, just shoot me a PM!

Yeah, true at most gaming events unless you are both committed to the idea (monthly gaming group rarely see 2 player games except a couple older gents who usually play some sort of wargame together; everyone else is usually inviting more people to join whatever til they max out).

Chicago? Thought you lived in Ohio somewhere (which might have been a manageable day trip depending on where).

I live in Ohio, Hep lives in Chicago, but he comes to Ohio every Christmas to see his family. So he grew up in Ohio. We game every Christmas down at Hep's Dad's house. Most likely where you got the impression he lives in Ohio.

And not only gaming, but a chance to find such gems as the gas pump museum!

hepcat wrote: Sat Nov 03, 2018 7:42 am And not only gaming, but a chance to find such gems as the gas pump museum!

I still have to make a trip down there and spend some quality time exploring that one room museum.

Sepiche wrote: Fri Nov 02, 2018 11:37 pm Just bought Gloomhaven this week and getting ready to start the campaign Sunday with my wife and a couple of our friends.

May god have mercy on my soul.

Congrats. I highly recommend using the Gloomhaven Helper app if you have a handy tablet. We use a Chromecast to display it on the nearest tv. Helps everyone to see what's going on. And makes keeping track of things a lot easier during combat.

TheMix wrote: Sat Nov 03, 2018 11:38 am

Sepiche wrote: Fri Nov 02, 2018 11:37 pm Just bought Gloomhaven this week and getting ready to start the campaign Sunday with my wife and a couple of our friends.

May god have mercy on my soul.

Congrats. I highly recommend using the Gloomhaven Helper app if you have a handy tablet. We use a Chromecast to display it on the nearest tv. Helps everyone to see what's going on. And makes keeping track of things a lot easier during combat.

Cool, thanks, I'll look for it. I didn't even think about looking for an app companion to it.

It saves a lot of table space, trust me. And cuts down on set up time quite a bit too.

Bohnanza and Azul.

Fuze and Love Letter.

Pillars of the Earth -- A worker-placement game about... building a cathedral in early medieval England? The theme is a bit tenuous, but the gameplay moves along nicely. In each turn, you place two waves of workers: first you send your serfs into the forest/quarry to gather resources, and then you assign your master builders to a variety of tasks that can generate victory points or make you more efficient at generating victory points in the future. It's not something that I would look to buy myself, but I wouldn't kick it out of bed.

The Captain Is Dead -- Another entry in the surprisingly robust genre of crewing-a-spaceship-in-serious-trouble. The board is a map of your spaceship, and you spend actions running around to repair critical systems, repel alien boarders, fire space torpedoes, etc. The goal is to repair the jump drive and warp to safety before your ship blows up or is overrun by aliens. Despite the theme, the gameplay is closer to Pandemic than Space Alert -- more puzzle-y and less frantic.

9 days until BGG.CON. I don't have a list of anything specific I want to play. What do I want to play?

Generally I end up teaching a few people Tash-Kalar and hopefully I can get a game of Letters from Whitechapel in... hmm maybe find someone that knows Star Trek: Frontiers better than I do to help me "get" the game better. What else?