Octopus Overlords

So: Cosmic Frog.

You're an enormous frog-like being powered by the fire of a collapsing star. Your mission is to devour the shattered terrain of a dying planet and then vomit the land back up in your master's vault, somewhere in the aether between worlds. Your greatest obstacle is other cosmic frogs, who will punch you in the face, reach down your gullet to steal precious terrain, and occasionally suplex you into the sixth dimension.

This is coming to retail in the late summer/early fall, but right now is completely playable in a designer-approved, scripted Tabletop Simulator module. Which is where I played it tonight, in a game taught by the designer.

I've only played the one time, but it left a very positive impression: goofy, highly interactive, and fast-playing. Every frog has unique game-breaking abilities, which change over the course of the game.

I'll definitely be looking to pick this up when it's available to buy.

I own a couple of Jim’s other games. I’ve made it a point to schedule games he runs at conventions too as he’s just a fun guy who enjoys making and playing games. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for this one too.

Jim is a lot of fun and his games are very different. Learning or playing with him there is a treat.

Clank! has definitely clicked with the kids, and I’m pretty sure we played at least 10 games of it this weekend. I’m Clank-ed out, tbh, but we had a blast.

I am finding that with the kids, first impressions are everything. If they lose badly or are confused the first time, they never want to come back to it. If I make sure I’m solid on all the rules and maybe adjust a few things under the table to keep the first game competitive, they’re far more likely to want to come back to it.

Little B 11.1 and I also gave Keyforge another go, and enjoyed it far more the second time around. Enough that I grabbed a couple more decks off Amazon. We’re both starting to grasp the flow and mechanics a little better now.

Sounds like it's time for Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated

Isgrimnur wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2020 10:49 pm Sounds like it's time for Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated

Thought about it, but they don't quite have the attention span for a legacy game yet.

I was interested in getting Clank! but wound up buying Clank! In! Space! instead as the shop I was in only had it. It's been a popular choice in our family, and my 10 year old daughter especially enjoys it. Recently got the Apocalypse expansion as well.

My most recent purchase is Last Bastion, which is essentially a re-themed version of Ghost Stories. I liked the concept of Ghost Stories when it was first released many years ago but found it too frustrating. I think I only played it a dozen times or so (all winless) before passing it on. Last Bastion makes a number of rules changes that, for us at least, has made the game more enjoyable. We've played 8 games so far and won twice, albeit on the easiest difficulty but they've all been close, interesting games. I've played it true solo, controlling 2 and 4 heroes, and some 3 player games with my kids.

A lot of commentary on the game seems to be disappointment that they went with a generic fantasy theme for Last Bastion versus the more unique Asian-inspired theme of Ghost Stories. I'm neutral on that topic but really like the overall much improved component quality of Last Bastion.

I seem to recall Ghost Stories was a hit around here back then... here's a good comparison video describing some of the changes between the two.

https://boardgamegeek.com/video/238120/ ... -zee-garci

Has anyone played Maracaibo yet? It seems to be the current hotness and I'm wondering how good it really is

EzeKieL wrote: Fri May 01, 2020 2:08 am Has anyone played Maracaibo yet? It seems to be the current hotness and I'm wondering how good it really is

Isgrimnur and I played it at BGG.CON last year. There is a LOT going on and I didn't really get it until it was over and even then I am not sure I got it. I just realized this isn't much help. If you enjoy Great Western Trail, you'll probably enjoy this based on the guy teaching us.

My wife and I finally played our first game of Galaxy Defenders. This is a sci-fi tactical game with a campaign and leveling and equipment and skills and tactics and...lots of fiddiliness. So much stuff to initially figure out. Lots of time spent that first game going back to the rule book and checking whether we were supposed to do X or whether we had done Y right.

But once we got moving, it actually moved well and was definitely challenging. We only had a partial success in the first game (destroying 2 of the 4 alien teleporters) but we're looking forward to trying more. It's Ameritrash, so blue and red custom dice for both attack and defense.

This is made by Ares Games and I backed their Sword & Sorcery kickstarter, so I'll be interested to see what, if anything, they streamlined or changed in their system, since Galaxy Defenders is 6 years old.

I've got Sword and Sorcery, and have played probably half of the campaign (the KS is for a new campaign.) Once you have the rules down it really flows well and the complexity becomes depth. We really like it, and I plan on starting it up again soon.

EzeKieL wrote: Fri May 01, 2020 2:08 am Has anyone played Maracaibo yet? It seems to be the current hotness and I'm wondering how good it really is

I haven't, but I think they talked about it a bit on the SU&SD podcast. If I remember correctly, they weren't exactly impressed, but I don't remember the details.

In order to celebrate NOT backing Frosthaven, we played 4 scenarios in Gloomhaven this weekend (after not playing at all since last summer). I’m super sad that I am 1 xp from leveling up, but the next scenario is going to retire my character (that would be our first retirement)! I guess I could intentionally avoid the action that would complete my career goal… hmmm…

Anyone have any experience with The Hunters A.D. 2114?

I'm a sucker for post-apoc settings. It's got a pretty decent rating on BGG.

No experience, but I'm following it for the same reasons - strong, positive impressions. Seems to be a mix of Gloomhaven and the This War of Mine board game. My only hesitation is that it's apparently a ridiculous table hog (like Gloomhaven) and that's usually something that keeps me from playing. But yes, theme and art look really interesting.

I tried Air, Land, and Sea for the first time over the weekend. It's a great little game 2-player card game -- short and sharp, with a nice mix of analysis and trickery. It's just 18 cards, with only 12 in play in a given round, but those generate a surprising amount of gameplay.

I played an unofficial TTS mod, but there's also an official print-n-play version released specifically for the COVID lockdown.

I finally retired my first character in Gloomhaven and quickly realized that I can't find the Town Records book, or any of the "secret" Envelopes. I'm assuming I lost/misplaced them when I reorganized everything with the broken token insert. I found a PDF of the town records book and see it isn't particularly important yet. I'm guessing the envelopes won't be so easy to replace, and I'm fairly close to opening one of them (for donating 10g for sweet, sweet blessings).

Anyway, excited to move on from the squishy elemental mage to the class that has TWO miniatures!

coopasonic wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 10:49 am I finally retired my first character in Gloomhaven and quickly realized that I can't find the Town Records book, or any of the "secret" Envelopes. I'm assuming I lost/misplaced them when I reorganized everything with the broken token insert. I found a PDF of the town records book and see it isn't particularly important yet. I'm guessing the envelopes won't be so easy to replace, and I'm fairly close to opening one of them (for donating 10g for sweet, sweet blessings).

Anyway, excited to move on from the squishy elemental mage to the class that has TWO miniatures!

I did the same thing last summer. Forgive me if you've already looked--I found my envelopes hiding underneath one of the Broken Token boxes. One box has a slot that holds the book and envelopes, and they were totally hidden from my view.

coopasonic wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 10:49 am I finally retired my first character in Gloomhaven and quickly realized that I can't find the Town Records book, or any of the "secret" Envelopes. I'm assuming I lost/misplaced them when I reorganized everything with the broken token insert. I found a PDF of the town records book and see it isn't particularly important yet. I'm guessing the envelopes won't be so easy to replace, and I'm fairly close to opening one of them (for donating 10g for sweet, sweet blessings).

Anyway, excited to move on from the squishy elemental mage to the class that has TWO miniatures!

Town records is easy enough to replace with a printout. The envelopes are not, since they will often contain new cards for unlocked characters or for items.

Fishbelly wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 11:13 am

coopasonic wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 10:49 am I finally retired my first character in Gloomhaven and quickly realized that I can't find the Town Records book, or any of the "secret" Envelopes. I'm assuming I lost/misplaced them when I reorganized everything with the broken token insert. I found a PDF of the town records book and see it isn't particularly important yet. I'm guessing the envelopes won't be so easy to replace, and I'm fairly close to opening one of them (for donating 10g for sweet, sweet blessings).

Anyway, excited to move on from the squishy elemental mage to the class that has TWO miniatures!

I did the same thing last summer. Forgive me if you've already looked--I found my envelopes hiding underneath one of the Broken Token boxes. One box has a slot that holds the book and envelopes, and they were totally hidden from my view.

You are my new hero.

coopasonic wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 10:49 am I finally retired my first character in Gloomhaven and quickly realized that I can't find the Town Records book, or any of the "secret" Envelopes. I'm assuming I lost/misplaced them when I reorganized everything with the broken token insert. I found a PDF of the town records book and see it isn't particularly important yet. I'm guessing the envelopes won't be so easy to replace, and I'm fairly close to opening one of them (for donating 10g for sweet, sweet blessings).

Anyway, excited to move on from the squishy elemental mage to the class that has TWO miniatures!

I know the game has been out for a long time but next time please spoiler

Even though it's minor I had no idea there was one

I finally found a group so we're going through it for the first time as well, we've done 6 scenarios so far.

Sorry. There is 1 more mini box than there are classes in the game including two with the same symbol and 1 of 2, 2 of 2 markings. I thought that a was a pretty well understood and safe thing to say. Of course now I probably made it even worse. I suppose there is no reason to really look at the boxes until you are unlocking a new class. I can't stop digging!

We picked up both of the xpacs for Clank! Mummy's Curse and Temple of the Ape Lords. Mummy was fun, but Ape Lords was a huge hit. I'm gonna probably have to order Clank! In Space pretty soon as well.

Clank! is quickly becoming one of my favorite games. It's simple enough for the kids to understand while allows for a ton of strategic play. Wonder Twin 6.11a holds our score record at 134 when he loaded up on Secret Tomes on his way out of the dungeon, and had a Wizard.

Someone in the BGG FB group recommended Dungeon Mayhem as a similarly fun game for kids their age, with the added bonus that they're fascinated by D&D (even if they don't really enjoy playing). I've got the base game and the Monster Madness set on the way, both should be here next week.

Skinypupy wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 7:37 pm We picked up both of the xpacs for Clank! Mummy's Curse and Temple of the Ape Lords. Mummy was fun, but Ape Lords was a huge hit. I'm gonna probably have to order Clank! In Space pretty soon as well.

Clank! is quickly becoming one of my favorite games. It's simple enough for the kids to understand while allows for a ton of strategic play. Wonder Twin 6.11a holds our score record at 134 when he loaded up on Secret Tomes on his way out of the dungeon, and had a Wizard.

Someone in the BGG FB group recommended Dungeon Mayhem as a similarly fun game for kids their age, with the added bonus that they're fascinated by D&D (even if they don't really enjoy playing). I've got the base game and the Monster Madness set on the way, both should be here next week.

Apparently the Legacy version of Clank is amazing as well!

coopasonic wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 12:44 pm Sorry. There is 1 more mini box than there are classes in the game including two with the same symbol and 1 of 2, 2 of 2 markings. I thought that a was a pretty well understood and safe thing to say. Of course now I probably made it even worse. I suppose there is no reason to really look at the boxes until you are unlocking a new class. I can't stop digging!

I agree it's not that bad, I've been posting more on my Instagram board game page (https://www.instagram.com/somanygamessolittletime/) and as a a result of that I've been spoiled numerous times as well. I guess that's the danger of social media and playing an older game.

Skinypupy wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 7:37 pm We picked up both of the xpacs for Clank! Mummy's Curse and Temple of the Ape Lords. Mummy was fun, but Ape Lords was a huge hit. I'm gonna probably have to order Clank! In Space pretty soon as well.

Clank! is quickly becoming one of my favorite games. It's simple enough for the kids to understand while allows for a ton of strategic play. Wonder Twin 6.11a holds our score record at 134 when he loaded up on Secret Tomes on his way out of the dungeon, and had a Wizard.

Someone in the BGG FB group recommended Dungeon Mayhem as a similarly fun game for kids their age, with the added bonus that they're fascinated by D&D (even if they don't really enjoy playing). I've got the base game and the Monster Madness set on the way, both should be here next week.

Dungeon Mayhem is a lot of fun for brief slugfests. My scouts really like it.

For what it's worth, our group looked at all of the unlockable classes in Gloomhaven before we ever began. It didn't impact our enjoyment of the game in the slightest. To be honest, I've always been kind of puzzled why they are considered spoilers at all.

Thoughts on Hero Realms? I enjoyed Star Realms, but like fantasy settings more than sci-fi. Little B 11.2 loves deck builders so I think it would be a hit with her, and all the reviews I’ve read have been very positive.

Thinking about ordering the base set, the five character packs (fighter, wizard, rogue, etc), and the xpac (since it includes co-op and solo variants). I see a few other character packs floating around...is there anything else considered a “must have” out there?

Skinypupy wrote: Sat May 09, 2020 10:27 am Thoughts on Hero Realms? I enjoyed Star Realms, but like fantasy settings more than sci-fi. Little B 11.2 loves deck builders so I think it would be a hit with her, and all the reviews I’ve read have been very positive.

Thinking about ordering the base set, the five character packs (fighter, wizard, rogue, etc), and the xpac (since it includes co-op and solo variants). I see a few other character packs floating around...is there anything else considered a “must have” out there?

The two Realms games are essentially identical other than the theme. If you know how Star Realms plays, you know how Hero Realms plays. That said, there's a lot of great stuff for Hero Realms. There's a full two-part cooperative campaign, solo options, and boss decks (a cooperative match against a deck AI.) I feel like the class decks are a real plus for it. They replace the basic starter cards (your eight scouts and two vipers) with more specialized cards, and they give you a couple of special cards (one is super powerful, but is trashed on use, while the other gives some benefit for a couple of gold each turn- something to do with all that money in your deck when you're done buying.) Since each class is different and thematic it really adds some variety and options to play.

There are also race decks (orc, dwarf, etc), but i"m not sure if those are available commercially yet.

Thanks BH.

Just ordered everything: base set, xpac, and character decks. Looking forward to jumping into it next week.

Holy crap, how did I not know Hero Realms was a thing?

YellowKing wrote: Sat May 09, 2020 5:01 pm Holy crap, how did I not know Hero Realms was a thing?

I had never heard of it until yesterday either.

They just finished shipping the Kickstarter for part two of their campaign, so a whole new wave of Hero Realms stuff should be hitting the shelves soon.

Dungeon Mayhem arrived yesterday and has been a huge hit with the kids. We must have played 20 games in the past 24 hours (games are short, usually 10 minutes or less). It’s a really light game, but the cards are funny and the gameplay and strategic decisions keep things fun and hectic. I think it’ll be a good alternative to Love Letter, when we’re looking for something short and sweet.

They’re gonna flip out if the “Monster Madness” set shows up today too (Amazon shows it’s out for delivery, but it said that yesterday too and it didn’t show up). I’m just looking forward to playing as a gelatinous cube, for once.

I also finally got the last remnants of the drum set and other assorted junk out of my office to make room for the dedicated gaming space. Using a large fold-out table for now, and have a couple “extension tables” I can add as needed. Really nice to have a spot where I don’t have to disassemble everything at the end of each session.

Started up the Return to Hoth xpac for Imperial Assault again, and got through the first two scenarios.

I learned Troyes last night. Love the dice selection mechanic, don't love the graphic design.

I can see why it's so well-regarded, as there's a lot to dig into. Despite a very good teach, I was still fumbling in the dark for much of the game. I think this is one that will start to shine after two or three plays.

AWS260 wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 9:14 am I learned Troyes last night. Love the dice selection mechanic, don't love the graphic design.

I can see why it's so well-regarded, as there's a lot to dig into. Despite a very good teach, I was still fumbling in the dark for much of the game. I think this is one that will start to shine after two or three plays.

I played a couple of games of Troyes with some friends on BGA. It was fine, but I agree that the graphics/art leave a lot to be desired. Presumably it would look better in person. In general, though, after playing a number of different games on BGA, I've found that games using a dice mechanic don't work as well online for me. I just miss the tactical feel of rolling the dice. The game I've played the most by far is Terra Mystica. The implementation on BGA is pretty good and it, more than about any other game I've played online, doesn't feel that different than when playing in person.

Oh man, Hero Realms is an absolute blast. Little B 11.2 loves it, and we've played multiple games the last two nights. She's really good too, winning about half the games. It's a bit too complex for the Wonder Twins 6.11, much to their dismay. We haven't started the campaign yet, but I'm eager to dig in and see how that works. The only downside I can see is that it looks like you build your deck by adding cards throughout the campaign, which means we wouldn't be able to use those characters in our one-on-one battles. Might wait until her kicking my butt wanes before we jump into the campaign.

We also busted out X-Wing for only the second time, and quite enjoyed it. The base set is a bit too generic (two TIE Fighters vs one X-Wing), but I'm going to see if she stays interested before investing any more into it.

Fair warning - I've heard the campaign can be tough. I know that the boss decks are.

I think Hero Realms will be my next purchase. So you just need the base game and The Ruin of Thandar set for campaign play, correct?

YellowKing wrote: Fri May 15, 2020 8:42 am I think Hero Realms will be my next purchase. So you just need the base game and The Ruin of Thandar set for campaign play, correct?

You need the character decks as well. This is the base game + character decks, then you can buy the Ruin of Thandar xpac separately. It's absolutely worth the $$, game is very fun.

Blackhawk wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 11:35 pm Fair warning - I've heard the campaign can be tough. I know that the boss decks are.

Yeah, I chuckled a bit at all the dire warnings about the difficulty in the instruction manual. We'll definitely be playing on the "beginner" difficulty to start (which delays when you put in the Mastery cards that can level up the boss) and will see how things go.