Octopus Overlords

I got to demo Ascending Empires at Origins. If I had purchased it, I would have wanted to buy a sheet of plexiglass and a circle cutter to cut out holes where the planet locations go. But as I'm not that crafty, I decided to pass on it. I figure that the boards will eventually wear with the crokinole-like transport method. The guy mentioned that they were going to put up a graphic of the board on-line for DIY board construction, but I don't see it at their site at the moment.

Isgrimnur wrote:I got to demo Ascending Empires at Origins. If I had purchased it, I would have wanted to buy a sheet of plexiglass and a circle cutter to cut out holes where the planet locations go. But as I'm not that crafty, I decided to pass on it. I figure that the boards will eventually wear with the crokinole-like transport method. The guy mentioned that they were going to put up a graphic of the board on-line for DIY board construction, but I don't see it at their site at the moment.

I was just discussing the game with Zarathud tonight and I'm going to try and break it out next week at Cat and Mouse games. And if I end up really liking the game, I can totally see making at DIY solid board for play. Sounds like a fun project for my dad and me to do.

Besides Alien Frontiers, we played expansions last weekend-- Nightfall: Martial Law, 7 Wonders: Leaders, and Ascension:Return of the Fallen. A few quick colony placements can turn your score upside down in Alien Frontiers, but it's really hard to keep up if you can't roll doubles to get any additional dice. The more I play Nightfall, the more I see the possibilities in the combos and the more I realize that I need to read through the rules on my own.

We played two games of 7 Wonders: Leaders. You draw a hand of 4 Leaders, choose 1 of them and pass them around until you have chosen 3 and received 1 Leader. In theory, all that's happening is that you have an extra turn before each age to play a Leader, build part of your Wonder or discard a Leader for coins. You even start with 6 gold so you can play a Leader before Age I. However, your choice of the initial Leader reveals your meta-game and encourages you to "lock in" on that strategy too early. It's also too easy to get caught up in each age and forget to set aside the gold necessary to buy another Leader at the start of the next Age. The benefit is that an extra 3 turns adds a lot of depth and brain-burning to the game. The downside is that this takes away from the game's lightness, and there are just too many heiroglpyhic symbols introduced. If you didn't like the symbols added to the Wonders for the second printing, Leaders makes it worse. We were wrestling over the rulebook to figure out what each Leader does.

I like the new cards in the Ascension expansion, some of which have an effect on the other cards in play such as banishing the adjacent cards. But I'm most impressed by how the game still feels balanced. A military strategy can get you a similar number of points to an economic strategy, but a balanced strategy often keeps you from scoring the big cards. And that offsets the benefit of always being able to do multiple plays. Some cool heros and Machina are added along with some tough monsters.

Thanks to hentzau for showing me how to play (and win!) at Defenders of the Realm. We had 4 players, including the 2 young sons of the store owner. This is definitely a game I would have enjoyed in my youth, and the young kids were incredibly excited with every action. I now understand why this game is a Cast Iron Bitch to play.

But with great risks, come great rewards. Quests provide awesome boosts, and as the Eagle Rider with 4 movement I was able to pick up an almost unbalanced combination of artifact rewards as a result of flying all over and some lucky rolls -- +1 to dice rolls in combat, +1 Hero card each turn, and +2 Actions. Still, there are quite a few ways to lose and we faced the threat of almost placing too many monsters in several colors and an ever-increasing taint. Two of the Generals were close, but the toughest was the last one, the red Demon General. When you kill more of the Generals, more bad stuff happens. Just when we were about to initiate combat with all 4 heroes on my turn, the Demon General moved adjacent to the Capital. The other 3 players beat him down to 2 HP, and then he regenerated 1 HP. So I had to take the chance by fighting him alone. With +1 to dice rolls, there was a 50% chance to hit and 4 dice to inflict 3 damage. We took a chance re-rolling after inflicting 2 hits, and luckily picked up a 3rd hit on the re-roll. But the end of my turn would have resulted in the red Demon General breaching the Capital's walls. It's interesting not only to win, but to see how close we came several times to losing.

Played 7 player BSG with Pegasus, but not Caprica (mostly new players). Kenetickid took the Cylon leader. His wife and son ended up as the cylons (him before halfway, her second half). Led the humans to victory at 2 fuel, 2 morale, 3 food, willing to burn population at the 3 for the final jump to win (we had 9). Need to get Exodus for sure as the kids loved it.

Zarathud wrote:Thanks to hentzau for showing me how to play (and win!) at Defenders of the Realm. We had 4 players, including the 2 young sons of the store owner. This is definitely a game I would have enjoyed in my youth, and the young kids were incredibly excited with every action. I now understand why this game is a Cast Iron Bitch to play.

But with great risks, come great rewards. Quests provide awesome boosts, and as the Eagle Rider with 4 movement I was able to pick up an almost unbalanced combination of artifact rewards as a result of flying all over and some lucky rolls -- +1 to dice rolls in combat, +1 Hero card each turn, and +2 Actions. Still, there are quite a few ways to lose and we faced the threat of almost placing too many monsters in several colors and an ever-increasing taint. Two of the Generals were close, but the toughest was the last one, the red Demon General. When you kill more of the Generals, more bad stuff happens. Just when we were about to initiate combat with all 4 heroes on my turn, the Demon General moved adjacent to the Capital. The other 3 players beat him down to 2 HP, and then he regenerated 1 HP. So I had to take the chance by fighting him alone. With +1 to dice rolls, there was a 50% chance to hit and 4 dice to inflict 3 damage. We took a chance re-rolling after inflicting 2 hits, and luckily picked up a 3rd hit on the re-roll. But the end of my turn would have resulted in the red Demon General breaching the Capital's walls. It's interesting not only to win, but to see how close we came several times to losing.

You taking the re-roll with the Eagle Rider there was a guts move, but after having this game screw me over RIGHT at the very end SO many times, I knew it was the right move to make. And yes, your Eagle Rider ended up being uber-powerful, but just think how different that game would have turned out if you hadn't gotten a couple of those rewards on your quests. And I'm pretty sure we used all of the quests we completed at one time or another to good effect.

And yes, at several points in the game we were thisclose to losing it, down to 3 orc minions, only 2 taint crystals left at one point with tons of prime overrun spots on the board...in my opinion you and the Wizard were the MVPs of the game. If we wouldn't have had the Wizard there to mitigate the darkness spreads cards with his wisdom, I think we would have been screwed a couple of times.

Still one of my all time favorite games. I never get tired of playing it. Thanks for helping me rack up another win!

Played 3 more games of Through the Ages - wow, amazing. I think it's in the top 5 on BGG for a reason, it's very clever.

SpaceLord wrote:Played 3 more games of Through the Ages - wow, amazing. I think it's in the top 5 on BGG for a reason, it's very clever.

Interesting. That type of game is right up my alley. I don't suppose you've also played the new FFG Civilization game, by any chance? Those would be the games I'd choose between for a Civ board game.

El Guapo wrote:

SpaceLord wrote:Played 3 more games of Through the Ages - wow, amazing. I think it's in the top 5 on BGG for a reason, it's very clever.

Interesting. That type of game is right up my alley. I don't suppose you've also played the new FFG Civilization game, by any chance? Those would be the games I'd choose between for a Civ board game.

No, not yet.

TTA is essentially Civ(the PC game) in a box: Leaders, Happiness, Corruption, Events, Ages, Wars. There's two major issues some have with the game: it's fiddly, lots of parts and bits, and it has no map. That's a major issue for some, but it lets you focus on building your Civilization. I'm busy enough during the game planning things out that I don't especially miss a map.

El Guapo wrote:I don't suppose you've also played the new FFG Civilization game, by any chance? Those would be the games I'd choose between for a Civ board game.

I played it at a recent con, it's very similar to the PC game, with a few twists to make the board game work. I'm not sure what to think about it after one play - it was really, really long, we were maybe 1/3 of the way into the game after almost 3 hours. Granted, it was a learning game. There also seemed to be a lot of success that was dependent on your Civ combined with where you ended up on the map, but maybe it was just me.

It seemed like a pretty well-designed game, but I had no desire to rush out and buy a copy.

El Guapo wrote:

SpaceLord wrote:Played 3 more games of Through the Ages - wow, amazing. I think it's in the top 5 on BGG for a reason, it's very clever.

Interesting. That type of game is right up my alley. I don't suppose you've also played the new FFG Civilization game, by any chance? Those would be the games I'd choose between for a Civ board game.

I wrote a review for FFG's Sid Meier's Civilization for Armchair General.com - http://www.armchairgeneral.com/sid-meie ... review.htm. Hopefully you will find it helpful.

It is a great game, but like Boudreaux said, a tad long. It doesn't hit the table like I want it to, but it has to compete with games like Twilight Imperium and Runewars for table space. That being said, it plays 2-player, which Twilight Imperium does not and has ways to win not involving war, which will appeal to some.

Finally playing the game *right*, kenetikid and his wife joined me in losing to Remus West at 51st State. I blame kk for my loss (by 2 points), between snagging the gear production I needed (which he didn't, stating he couldn't let me have it) and passing before I could put a worker on his heavy gear to incorporate a 1 distance pawn that would have netted me FIVE points. Ok, so I should have sent the worker as an earlier action, but grrrrrr. Love this game!

Chaosraven wrote:Finally playing the game *right*, kenetikid and his wife joined me in losing to Remus West at 51st State. I blame kk for my loss (by 2 points), between snagging the gear production I needed (which he didn't, stating he couldn't let me have it) and passing before I could put a worker on his heavy gear to incorporate a 1 distance pawn that would have netted me FIVE points. Ok, so I should have sent the worker as an earlier action, but grrrrrr. Love this game!

In addition to sending the worker to his heavy gear earlier you could have discarded two cards earlier as I did that before you and drew a viaduct - distance 1 incorporate card. So many ways you could have won. None that you did.
and I shall bask in this rare glory for as long as possible before returning to my usual state of "if only I had done action X I would have beaten Chaosraven".

Remus West wrote:

Chaosraven wrote:Finally playing the game *right*, kenetikid and his wife joined me in losing to Remus West at 51st State. I blame kk for my loss (by 2 points), between snagging the gear production I needed (which he didn't, stating he couldn't let me have it) and passing before I could put a worker on his heavy gear to incorporate a 1 distance pawn that would have netted me FIVE points. Ok, so I should have sent the worker as an earlier action, but grrrrrr. Love this game!

In addition to sending the worker to his heavy gear earlier you could have discarded two cards earlier as I did that before you and drew a viaduct - distance 1 incorporate card. So many ways you could have won. None that you did.
and I shall bask in this rare glory for as long as possible before returning to my usual state of "if only I had done action X I would have beaten Chaosraven".

oh you will RUE THE DAY

Who talks like that?

Played a game of Arkham Horror with my sister's friends last night. They were new, so we used just the basic Arkham board for locations but allowed all of the items to be available with a house rule of drawing x2 cards before making any choices. Everyone felt like they had the items they needed to make their characters effective. We also tried out the Arkham Horror Toolkit app to handle the Encounters, and it did a great job of keeping the game flowing. We only had to break out the Mythos cards, the items and the conditions to keep playing.

He won, and had a great success finishing in 3 hours. One new person had such a good time fighting monsters and closing gates that she was convinced to ditch a poetry slam to come play Paranoia RPG tomorrow. I was very tempted to make them guard the "stealth train" for the evening, but I think they'll instead guard the fierce and mighty Experimental Prototype Warbot Model 425 Mark IV. "Markie" just LOVES being protected by Troubleshooters, being a nearly invincible bot on the scale of OGRE.

Went to my first actual gaming convention yesterday to test the waters. It wasn't exactly what I expected, specifically there weren't that many vendors, but it was interesting enough that I'll be going back next year and look to actually play games with random strangers.

One of the designers from Warparty was kind enough to spend about 10 minutes showcasing their game. It reminded me of something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Regardless, it didn't look too complex given the number of pieces involved and seemed pretty interesting.

The guys from Stronghold Games gave a quick look at Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, which I completely didn't recognize as a remake from the 1982 version of the game. It was only after looking it up on BGG that I saw the original cover and remembered it. From his demo it looked like a perfect casual game to bust out and torment your friends with. They were also showcasing Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War, which I couldn't even get my mind around. You start out not knowing what each of your pieces do or how to move them and somehow you have to figure it out using deductive reasoning.

The last game we saw was Dragon Dice. I had heard of it, but never actually saw it up close before yesterday. We sat down for a quick demo and 45 minutes later we were still playing. Apparently the game license was sold by TSR (and then WotC) to another company SFR. For the first 10 minutes or so, it completely went over my head but soon enough I was picking up the basic strategies and it started to make a lot more sense. Of course after we won, the guy told us were really playing the basic version of the game and that the advanced rules actually add even more options and strategies. Anyway, we enjoyed it so much we picked up a bunch of sets. I'm not usually into such abstract games but this had me. I also like that it takes up very little space.

The guys from Smirk and Dagger were there but their table didn't have anyone when we were there so sadly I didn't get to find out what was going on with the Cutthroat Caverns expansions they had scattered all over the table. They did have Shootin' Ladders set up at the display and it looked hilarious.

Sadly, I did try to get a game of Micro Mutants in with my 5 year old. It was the first time we were going to play and I figured we should just play and let her get used to the idea of shooting the bugs back and forth at one another, using the dice to control which ones we would move. I wasn't going to use special abilities or bases - just shooting and trying to hit the enemy. She was all excited (particularly at the bug theme), and even spent about 10 minutes doing practice shots. Then she just stood up and said, "Nah, I don't want to play" and left.

Kids.

Played a game of summoner wars. Tried 2 new races. The Benders, (sadly not our trusty robot friend from futurama) but mindbenders, controller types. And the Mountain Var****, i cant tell the name it is covered by the character picture on every card. They are goat people, rams, etc. More hitpoints and movement. They have low hitpoints and are all range but their common troops have some pretty cool abilities. I was able to use and


I played the benders and tried to get a champion out right away, since i had one in my starting hand. I used the Deceiver ability stun (enemy units adjacent cant attack or move) to lock down units. The Breaker can force the enemy to discard a card or pay to keep it from being discarded. Plus taking their magic; I was able to empty their draw pile and keep then from only one champion out. But i still lost.

The ram guys, like the orcs are not as subtle. The leader ram grants +1 attack to his units close to him. My opponent kept marching him forward and using the spell to bring his common units next him. He trapped me in a corner havign only 5 hitpoints i didnt last.

Finally cracked the plastic on my Nightfall set and got it sorted and a round played.

Seppe wrote:And the Mountain Var****, i cant tell the name it is covered by the character picture on every card. They are goat people, rams, etc.

Vargath

Isgrimnur wrote:Finally cracked the plastic on my Nightfall set and got it sorted and a round played.

How many players? As we noted at origins, I don't believe Nightfall is all that much fun with less than 3 players...and 4 to 5 is optimal.

Played EDH magic last night, and for those who have wondered about it, they have now put out PreConstructed 'Commander' decks. Nifty. My three opponents ended up conceding both games to my Sen Triplets deck, calling it 'three times as evil as Teferi', my former deck. Played Munchkin Zombies with kenetickid and our sons, eking out the last level before kk could.

For some reason, the LotR living card game (which is hella fun, by the way) has given me the itch to play the Call of Cthulhu lcg again. I broke out my core set last night and perused the updated rules on ffg's site. they seem to have cleaned it up quite a bit, if i'm not mistaken.

hepcat wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote:Finally cracked the plastic on my Nightfall set and got it sorted and a round played.

How many players? As we noted at origins, I don't believe Nightfall is all that much fun with less than 3 players...and 4 to 5 is optimal.

It was a "remember the rules, teach it" two-player affair. With an opposing player that doesn't care for card games. I need to get more into the gaming community. Looks like there's a meetup this Saturday. I may take it up there.

Isgrimnur wrote:

hepcat wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote:Finally cracked the plastic on my Nightfall set and got it sorted and a round played.

How many players? As we noted at origins, I don't believe Nightfall is all that much fun with less than 3 players...and 4 to 5 is optimal.

It was a "remember the rules, teach it" two-player affair. With an opposing player that doesn't care for card games. I need to get more into the gaming community. Looks like there's a meetup this Saturday. I may take it up there.

Cool, I hope you get into a good group. If they ever release an online (Vassal or whatever) version, we should start playing.

Seppe wrote:Played a game of summoner wars. Tried 2 new races. The Benders, (sadly not our trusty robot friend from futurama) but mindbenders, controller types. And the Mountain Var****, i cant tell the name it is covered by the character picture on every card. They are goat people, rams, etc. More hitpoints and movement. They have low hitpoints and are all range but their common troops have some pretty cool abilities.

Hey Seppe, is this from the Master Set with 6 new factions or something else? I'm not familiar with either of those.

hepcat wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote:

hepcat wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote:Finally cracked the plastic on my Nightfall set and got it sorted and a round played.

How many players? As we noted at origins, I don't believe Nightfall is all that much fun with less than 3 players...and 4 to 5 is optimal.

It was a "remember the rules, teach it" two-player affair. With an opposing player that doesn't care for card games. I need to get more into the gaming community. Looks like there's a meetup this Saturday. I may take it up there.

Cool, I hope you get into a good group.

If I can make it out, I'll make sure he doesn't.

Jow wrote:

Seppe wrote:Played a game of summoner wars. Tried 2 new races. The Benders, (sadly not our trusty robot friend from futurama) but mindbenders, controller types. And the Mountain Var****, i cant tell the name it is covered by the character picture on every card. They are goat people, rams, etc. More hitpoints and movement. They have low hitpoints and are all range but their common troops have some pretty cool abilities.

Hey Seppe, is this from the Master Set with 6 new factions or something else? I'm not familiar with either of those.

Since Seppe only posts (or checks his emails) once every 17 years, I'll answer for him on this one.

I picked up a copy of the Master's Set for Summoner Wars for both myself and Seppe at Origins last month. And yes, it does have 6 fantastic new factions...plus, a huge ass box that can fit all the previous stuff (with a little imagination and some rubber bands) and a slightly better deluxe board that's both shinier AND lays a bit flatter.

I had a blast introducing some college graduates to Paranoia. The League of Calamitous Intent ended up guarding Warbot Mark IV: Monarch-R-THE, Girlfriend-R-DOC, Twenty-R-FOR, Under-R-BIT, and Molotov-R-TES. Monarch had way too much fun as Team Leader, calling out his name and ordering around everyone else as his minions. Girlfriend (played by a new RPGer) was strangely competent with tying up others using rope. Under-R-BIT spent too much time playing with the gernades. Molotov was a Commie, of course, and lived up to her name in the first 15 minutes. Knowing the joke, Molotov made a big show of greasing herself up in unknown jelly which was promptly followed up with Girlfriend announcing that she was lighting up a cigarette while having a chat with her new "girlfriend."

I bought and played Settlers of Catan with Arcanis and a few other mutual friends. We played 4 games and really liked it. While reading the rule book and talking to Zaxxon today I realized I should have read the rules than taking another guy's word for it. There were a number of things we were doing totally wrong. We had a lot of fun never the less. I can;t wait for next weekend to play some more.

Also, I enjoyed the game so much I actually had a dream about playing, which just aggravated me because I can;t remember who won or who I was playing against.

miltonite wrote:I bought and played Settlers of Catan with Arcanis and a few other mutual friends. We played 4 games and really liked it. While reading the rule book and talking to Zaxxon today I realized I should have read the rules than taking another guy's word for it. There were a number of things we were doing totally wrong. We had a lot of fun never the less. I can;t wait for next weekend to play some more.

Also, I enjoyed the game so much I actually had a dream about playing, which just aggravated me because I can;t remember who won or who I was playing against.

Pick up the mini-expansions The River and The Fishermen. You can get them very cheap and they are LOTS of added fun.

Settlers is relatively simple rule-wise.

On Your Turn:
Use Soldier to move Robber, Steal from One Player on that Hex
Roll Dice
Generate resources to all players on those numbers.
On a 7, place Robber on a hex, steal from One Player on that Hex.
On a 7, every player with more than seven cards must discard half.

(in any order)
Trade 4 of same resource to bank for one of your choice.
Trade 3 of same if you have a 3:1 Port
Trade 2 of (type shown) on 2:1 Port
Trade with other players
Build
Cards purchased may Not Be Played That Turn
Victory Point Cards purchased MUST be immediately revealed
You may only play One Card per turn (exception-reveal victory points)

On any other players turn:
Trade with Current Player
(if 5+ Players, may Build with cards in hand at end of Current Players turn)

Played 51st State with kenetickid and his wife. He pulled out a TIE win with 3 cards in his hand to my 1 card at 37 points. Argh! I hate the DISCARD of the Appalachian incorporate. If I had ONE more card I could have put in the other for 2 more points. ARGH!!

Man, I love this game.

Planning on EDH Magic, Carcassonne (now with PHANTOM meeple), 51st State, and Settlers of Catan with FISH today with my sons and a friend. After a Morning of Talisman with kids! As my only day off this week, it counts as my weekend

Chaosraven wrote:Victory Point Cards purchased MUST be immediately revealed

I believe this is wrong. From my understanding you never have to play a card at a certain time. The best time for victory cards is as soon as you get enough other points for a win.

Yeah, victory point cards do not have to be revealed until you have enough to win the game.

hepcat wrote:I picked up a copy of the Master's Set for Summoner Wars for both myself and Seppe at Origins last month. And yes, it does have 6 fantastic new factions...plus, a huge ass box that can fit all the previous stuff (with a little imagination and some rubber bands) and a slightly better deluxe board that's both shinier AND lays a bit flatter.

my Master Set box arrived today (along with expansions for Age Of Industry and Innovation), looking forward to checking out the new factions soon - also my online-retailer-of-choice says Battleship Galaxies is now in stock, so with a little luck I'll have it in time for this weekend

my kids have just gone back to school after a couple of weeks mid-year break. we managed to play a whole mess'o'games while they were off, my favourites among them being Airlines Europe and K2.

My memory was with Raven but it's been many many many years since I played a basic version of Settlers.

So now it's off to check the actual rules...

http://www.catan.com/gamerules.html" target="_blank

http://www.catan.com/en/download/?SoC_r ... 091907.pdf" target="_blank

You must keep Victory Point Cards hidden. You may only
reveal them during your turn and when you are sure that you
have 10 victory points—that is, to win the game. Of course,
you can reveal them after the end of the game when someone
else wins. You may play any number of Victory Point Cards
during your turn, even during the turn you purchase them.

This is as opposed to C&K

http://www.catan.com/en/download/?CaK_r ... 091907.pdf" target="_blank

• Victory Point Cards must be played immediately when
drawn. The spy may not steal them, and they cannot be
hidden in your hand. These cards do not count against
your hand limit of 4 cards.

Yeah, I was referring to the original.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/ ... ryptmaster" target="_blank

anyone play Tomb (or Tomb: Cryptmaster)? I just picked it up yesterday, and I really like it so far....

miltonite wrote:

Chaosraven wrote:Victory Point Cards purchased MUST be immediately revealed

I believe this is wrong. From my understanding you never have to play a card at a certain time. The best time for victory cards is as soon as you get enough other points for a win.

Hey, straight out of the rulebook in my set.

No, they have it right.

"You may play one-and only one-development card at any time during your turn (even before your production roll).
Exception: You may play any number of victory point cards in any given turn.
You may not play a development card on the turn you purchase it. Victory point cards are an exception to this rule for they can be played immediately."

It was the CAN versus MUST.

In Cities and Knights:

"Victory Point cards must be played immediately when drawn.
Progress cards may be played on the same turn that they are drawn."

SETTLERS is Hidden VP, may be played when purchased, NonVP cards have to wait, one one nonVP card on your turn.
CITIES is Revealed VP, ANY cards may be played, as many as you want, only after die roll except Alchemist.