Zarathud wrote: ↑Thu Mar 07, 2024 8:37 pm
I’m about to break down and subscribe to BGA.
I have a sub but you don't need one. I use it all the time, so they are worth the $30 a year or whatever it is to me. Much like I throw money at OO every time it comes up.
All a sub does is allow you start a "premium" game which is good if you have friends, so you can coordinate games.
If you join, let me know. I play sometimes with Montag, redrun, bb2112, and a few others who have never been to OO. You can play asynchronously, which I often do so I can be leisurely with playing.
Picked up the starter decks for Star Wars Unlimited, the new TCG from Fantasy Flight. Our family isn't generally big on TCG's (we've bounced off MTG several times now), but I'm a sucker for anything Star Wars
Really impressed with this one so far. Played our first couple games today with the Vader vs Luke decks, and was a blast. The base gameplay is simple enough that all of us picked it up very quickly, but you can definitely see how some of unique the strategies will start to play out. Had one game today where my Palpatine and Vader (equipped with Vader's lightsaber) came out against Luke and Han (who Wonder Twin B equipped with Luke's lightsaber). There was this MASSIVE clash of damage that resulted in all four of them wiping each other out in a blaze of glory...then his lone X-wing swooped in to finish off my base and win the game. It was pretty awesome.
It's not a game that I'm likely to spend a ton on $$ in building custom decks, but is certainly one I would recommend for a quick pick up and play. I may even grab a few booster packs along the way (once this initial run calms down), as I really dig the artwork.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
Learning Maracaibo on BGA. It looks crazy complex.
Made it out for some return to old games this past week. We played some Quarriors and Kingsburg. I also learned how to play Parks. I batted zero for 6 on the day. That was two all day sessions in a row that I've won zero games. Humbling but good to get out. And probably necessary. I found myself exhausting, overheating, and getting cranky fairly deep in to both days and not because I was the LOSER all day. I hope that's not another condition of getting old and it's a condition I can reverse. My neighbor already makes me cranky too consistently, so I'm hoping not being at home is an escape from his ever present intrusive escapades.
Skinypupy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 9:23 pm
It's not a game that I'm likely to spend a ton on $$ in building custom decks, but is certainly one I would recommend for a quick pick up and play. I may even grab a few booster packs along the way (once this initial run calms down), as I really dig the artwork.
Grabbed four booster packs last night and have tweaked the starter decks. Each pack comes with both a new leader and a new base which will significantly alter the deck build. It's been fun to make some slight adjustments and see how it plays out. The Wonder Twins have been playing it non-stop.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
It was a good weekend for gaming. Last night, a raucous 8-player game of Hellapagos. Despite the constant threat of starvation and dehydration, somehow only two people ended up dying - both by gunshot. That was followed by my first game of Pax Penning, which is quite a bit more twisty than the designer's previous game, Turncoats. I set myself up for a big final turn, but the game ended just before I could act.
Today I played Terra Nova with the fam. It's a really good weight for us - plenty thinky, but not overwhelming. My son did a great job of setting himself up for big points in the last couple of rounds and squeaked by me for the win.
Trying Pixies on BGA. Again, I'm playing these game asynchronously so quick games still take several days. Also again, playing the games slowly over days to learn them leaves me slow to figure out if I enjoy them. I'd throw caution to the wind and play these games live but I don't want to slow strangers down while I learn new games as games can seem long without F2F contact and with strangers chat is low and trash talk is offensive much less having the possibility of being fun with the right people.
Possibly next on deck is learning Memior '44 or maybe I'll do some live gaming with games that have become favorites like Space Base for light gaming or Ark Nova for longer gaming or Wingspan for in between.
I keep debating doing tourneys but I don't like to sit for too long at a stretch. They also have seasons of competitive play and the new season resets soon.
Had board game night with the work crew last night... they were going to play Agricola. I sat through the explanation then got up and left. I just couldn't see having any fun playing it. I was thinking about it this morning and realized a potential reason. My job is basically worker placement. I stress over the details, the resources, the tasks, the sequence all day long. The idea of doing pretty much the same thing for fun didn't sound particularly fun.
I enjoy Agricola with a the draft. Hands without drafting is heavy heavy heavy luck based for such a long commitment to a game. The game is pretty draining mentally for me though. One round with three or four players taking upwards of two hours with the draft is like a whole gaming day mentally for me nowadays so it's not preferred. I do, however, have a blast sucking at the game asynchronously on BGA though. That's a good sign for a game for me; enjoying it when I clearly am absolutely horrible and noncompetitive with anyone but people who are still learning the game mechanics.
Le Havre replaced Agricola for me from that line of worker placement games. Very different games, but because they are both Uwe Rosenberg games I lump them together. I haven't tried Caverna, but I've heard that they fixed some of the issues with Agricola.
As far as worker placement though, Lords of Waterdeep is still my favorite.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
I've been in a big board game slump solo-wise, due to being so engrossed in various video games. But I usually don't force myself when I go through those phases; Kickstarters will start arriving soon and I'll be back in soon enough.
I'm still hitting up my weekly Frosthaven group, however. We meet every Tuesday night for 4 1/2 hours, and even with that block of time we usually only get one scenario in. At that pace, we're figuring it's likely going to take us another year to year and a half to finish.
We did do something fun a couple of weeks ago, though. We all took a day off work and played from 9am to 10pm. That was a good time and we're planning on adding more of those marathon sessions whenever we can coordinate it with our work schedules. Considering each all-day session shaves 3-4 weeks off the campaign, we could potentially save months of time by scheduling those occasionally.
coopasonic wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:47 am
Had board game night with the work crew last night... they were going to play Agricola. I sat through the explanation then got up and left. I just couldn't see having any fun playing it. I was thinking about it this morning and realized a potential reason. My job is basically worker placement. I stress over the details, the resources, the tasks, the sequence all day long. The idea of doing pretty much the same thing for fun didn't sound particularly fun.
Being a farmer is tough. I can understand you not wanting to come home from that and then just do it all over again in a game.
Trying Faraway and Memoir '44 and Barrage on BGA. Still forming an opinion on Faraway. I don't think I care for Memoir '44 but I'll keep playing until I win once . I think I'm digging on the learning curve for Mariacaibo. I'm still forming an opinion of Vale of Eternity. The Arena season starts soon, so I'll be holding off on trying new games. I like to play in the arena for a bit every time it resets where my competitive side takes over for a while before going back in to the learning and exploring side as well as the just sheer enjoyment side of games take over. Now that Terraforming Mars vanilla is out of beta, that's all people I know personally are playing. While I enjoy the game still, I'm not an all one game all the time person unless it has novelty for me.
Edit: decided I don't care for figuring out the pathing of figuring out channeling upstream in Barrage. I should still play because it forces me to think in ways that I'm not good at thinking but I'm not diligent enough to play games to make me more sharp.
We tried Dune Imperium this weekend. It's pretty durned complex with a lot to remember. After two games we were still making rules errors and going D'OH! I think it could benefit from a two round walk through and a larger player aid. I might look for one on BGG, though it looks like the host bought a game with a bit of advanced stuff built in that we didn't play with (Jessica, Chom, and some other stuff) so a larger player aid might confuse things. I'm interested in getting it to the table again. I also want to read the rules for myself.
Edit looks like we played Uprising which is an adjacent game to Imperium.
Doomed Run is the campaign mode for Set a Watch, and requires all existing content for the game to be combined. To do this they give you a nice big box storage solution that not only holds the core box and the two expansions, but also organizes all your cards and characters with dividers.
The campaign consists of 7 or 8 "runs" which are extended versions of the original game. Each run is defined in the book as to what enemies and locations you'll be using, and you'll start out being able to choose your party from the original game's core set of characters. As you complete runs, you'll unlock new characters that can be added to your party, and gain powerful mythic items.
The new expansion that was part of the Doomed Run Kickstarter is called Forsaken Isles, and offers only a slight new mechanic called Doom. Certain monsters from Forsaken Isles can curse you with Doom tokens. Once you have three tokens and need to place a fourth, you get a new Unhallowed (super strong monster) added to your lineup and some other nasty effects. Doom can be removed by doing Bolster, Seal, or Vanquish actions, so it's really just an incentive to use those options more.
Doomed Run itself offers a couple of new mechanics aside from the campaign game play. First you'll be choosing a side quest during each run segment. These side quests are generally negative conditions you have to endure, but if you can complete the segment with them in place you win the reward. The reward could be unlocking a new character, or gaining a mythic item. The other new mechanic is the Warden feature, in which each run you'll have one character act as your Warden. Each character now has a Warden card that bestows a boon for the run. There's something about setting a character aside to act as the Warden, which grants the boon but makes them unable to participate. I'm not exactly sure how it works because it doesn't kick in until after Run 1.
So far it's been a blast and I'm definitely happy with the Kickstarter value. The Forsaken Isles expansion, like the Swords of the Coin expansion before it, adds just enough gameplay to give it something different without overwhelming you with rules. And the campaign offers a lengthy experience that is completely replayable.
As a bonus, the KS came with a miniature version of the base game called "Pocket Watch." It's an even smaller version of this already fairly small game that literally can fit in your pocket. Really cool.
YellowKing wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 12:08 pm
You guys have got me wanting to get Tales from the Red Dragon Inn back on the table.
Seppe and I just finished up chapter 1 Saturday. We're loving it. It's like Frosthaven for those times you want a legacy game with some meaty gameplay, but without all the complexity (and the ensuing confusion every time you sit down to it after a few weeks away) of FH. They do carrot on a stick just right for that context.
Also, we've adopted the saying "It's easy...until it's not" for Tales from the Red Dragon Inn. The past couple of games were going so easy that we thought we'd bump up from the middle difficulty to legend...then suddenly something would happen and we were fighting for our lives.
YellowKing wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 12:08 pm
You guys have got me wanting to get Tales from the Red Dragon Inn back on the table.
Seppe and I just finished up chapter 1 Saturday. We're loving it. It's like Frosthaven for those times you want a legacy game with some meaty gameplay, but without all the complexity (and the ensuing confusion every time you sit down to it after a few weeks away) of FH. They do carrot on a stick just right for that context.
Also, we've adopted the saying "It's easy...until it's not" for Tales from the Red Dragon Inn. The past couple of games were going so easy that we thought we'd bump up from the middle difficulty to legend...then suddenly something would happen and we were fighting for our lives.
The Wonder Twins and I finished Chapter 18 yesterday. It continues to be just an absolutely fantastic campaign experience in every way. The streamlined combat, the flexibility to drop in new characters very quickly, the entertaining (and genuinely funny) writing, the cool abilities and equipment that are easy to understand but mesh in interesting ways...it's all just a really great package that comes together to be far more than the sum of it's simple parts.
We're playing on Story mode and haven't ever been particularly challenged, but that's been perfect to keep the kids' interest. I can see it getting really challenging at the other difficulties.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
A friend hosted a long weekend of gaming at his family's cabin, so I have played an absolute crap-ton of games over the past few days. Here are extremely brief overviews, because I'm too tired to write up more:
Kites: Cooperative sand-timer-flipping. Starts at light speed and only gets faster from there. Very fun, would recommend for almost anyone. Senji: Area control, diplomacy, secret orders, set collection, back-stabbing. Verrat: Set collection, secret orders, back-stabbing. My Favorite Carrera: Trick taking, anime girls, cars. Stellar Ventures: Build an interstellar corporation, see it eaten by aliens. Rebel Princess: Not about Carrie Fisher's character. Like hearts, but instead of avoiding points you're princesses trying to avoid proposals from skank-ass princes. Imperial 2030: Area control, diplomacy, back-stabbing. Dawn of Ulos: Area control, stock manipulation, orcs, elves. Soda Smugglers: Lying, apologizing. Hellas: City-building in ancient Greece. Auf Teufel Komm Raus: Push-your-luck, betting. Don't LLAMA Dice: Push-your-luck, llamas.
That's all I can remember right now. Every single one was a lot of fun - not a stinker in the bunch.
Sagrada continues to be popular during weekend game nights.
"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." - Clarence Darrow
I picked up Arcadia Quest Inferno for $10 last week on Miniature Market. It's not something I would have ever considered at full price ($50) but for $10, why not? It's got a decent BGG rating (7.9/10) and looks like it could be some silly fun.
Even if the game sucks, it comes with some pretty cool minis that I could repurpose for something else.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
AWS260 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 19, 2024 11:25 am
Last night I played SpaceCorp: 2025-2300AD, the game of space exploration, exploitation, and colonization. It's played over three eras: first takes you out to Mars, the second reaches the outer Solar system, and the third goes interstellar. Essentially, each era is a separate game, with certain abilities and advantages (and all your victory points) carrying over from one to the next.
***
We made it through the first two eras, and took pictures to preserve the game state for a future play of the last era. I'm eager to see how the interstellar age shakes things up.
Four months later, we finally completed our game of SpaceCorp, picking up where we left off to play the interstellar era. The core game loop is the same as the previous eras - send out spaceships, explore regions, and establish bases - with the addition of colonies, which grant useful benefits and end-game scoring.
I lost pretty decisively, mainly because I had performed poorly in the second era, which gave my opponent a head-start when it came to exploring the stars. But I had a really good time throughout - definitely enjoy this one.
Tales from the Red Dragon Inn finally left the table today. We didn’t quite finish it (got to mission 21 of 25) but both of the Wonder Twins were done with it and i really want to play something new (it’s been on my table for 3+ months). It’s easily in my top 5 games of all time and is a truly fantastic experience. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Mrs Skinypupy doesn’t enjoy complex games but said she feels bad she can’t join your gaming sessions. So we gave her Kabuto Sumo as a Mother’s Day gift. Played several games today and It was a big hit. In short, you try to push discs onto a round platform, ultimately knocking off your opponent’s wrestler. Very simple concept that is easy to learn and is really a blast to play. Even Mrs Skinypupy loved it.
I have three games calling my name to try next. Wyrmspan, Arcadia Quest Inferno, and Roll Player Adventures. Also really want to get Dwellings of Eldervale back to the table. Leaning towards Wyrmspan for a bit before I dig into the next campaign game. Tanares Adventures Kickstarter is apparently right around the corner as well (shipments arriving from China end of the month), so my gaming cup overfloweth.
With the purchase of Kabuto Sumo and Wyrmspan yesterday, I have officially outgrown my current shelving solution. Time to either sell some games (which I should probably be doing to afford GenCon anyways) or figure out how to pack in more shelves somehow.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2024 6:25 pm
Tales from the Red Dragon Inn finally left the table today. We didn’t quite finish it (got to mission 21 of 25) but both of the Wonder Twins were done with it and i really want to play something new (it’s been on my table for 3+ months). It’s easily in my top 5 games of all time and is a truly fantastic experience. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I have three games calling my name to try next. Wyrmspan, Arcadia Quest Inferno, and Roll Player Adventures. Also really want to get Dwellings of Eldervale back to the table. Leaning towards Wyrmspan for a bit before I dig into the next campaign game. Tanares Adventures Kickstarter is apparently right around the corner as well (shipments arriving from China end of the month), so my gaming cup overfloweth.
Tales from the Red Dragon Inn sounds like a game I would really enjoy! I'll have to wait awhile also to take on another campaign game though. Oathsworn has been on my table since last October!! I am on encounter 29, with only 2 stories and 2 encounters left after that. I can see the light at the end of the Deepwood.
The Mage Knight itch has really been ... uh ... itching.
Roll Player Adventures is a lot of fun. I will have to get it back to the table sometime.
My problem is that I have multiple campaigns going in games at any one time, which means I never finish any of them. We're on the third story in chapter 2 of Tales from the Red Dragon Inn and still loving it, but now I want to pull out Chronicles of Drunagor and get back into it. Plus, the new Sword & Sorcery is shipping soon, so I want to get started on the 2nd expansion for that (I"m going to forego the first box as I've heard a lot of great fixes are in the second one).
At this rate, I'll NEVER finish any of these damn things!
I've been in a colossal board game slump for the past couple of months or so. Even the Set a Watch KS couldn't break me out of it, and I ended up packing that back up last night after having it sit on the table for weeks untouched.
Our gaming group is still going strong with Frosthaven, so it's not like I don't get any gaming in. I've just found I have too many other things stealing my time away these days.
I'll get back to it eventually. I've been through these slumps many times before, and I've learned the best way to deal with them is to not try to force my way out of it. At least it's saving me money!
YellowKing wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 1:26 pm
I've been in a colossal board game slump for the past couple of months or so. Even the Set a Watch KS couldn't break me out of it, and I ended up packing that back up last night after having it sit on the table for weeks untouched.
Well, at least I know I'm not the ONLY one that does that at times.
hepcat wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 12:27 pm
My problem is that I have multiple campaigns going in games at any one time, which means I never finish any of them. We're on the third story in chapter 2 of Tales from the Red Dragon Inn and still loving it, but now I want to pull out Chronicles of Drunagor and get back into it. Plus, the new Sword & Sorcery is shipping soon, so I want to get started on the 2nd expansion for that (I"m going to forego the first box as I've heard a lot of great fixes are in the second one).
At this rate, I'll NEVER finish any of these damn things!
That's why I have refused to put Oathsworn back on the shelf until it's finished. (Only 5 play sessions left out of 43.) I was afraid it would never be back on the table. I played the first campaign of Sword & Sorcery: Ancient Chronicles but after putting it away, I've never gotten it back out to play the expansion. Gloomhaven made it to the table for several long sessions, but that was before I owned several other games competing for my time. Don't know if it will ever come out again.
Fardaza wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 5:46 pm
That's why I have refused to put Oathsworn back on the shelf until it's finished. (Only 5 play sessions left out of 43.) I was afraid it would never be back on the table. I played the first campaign of Sword & Sorcery: Ancient Chronicles but after putting it away, I've never gotten it back out to play the expansion. Gloomhaven made it to the table for several long sessions, but that was before I owned several other games competing for my time. Don't know if it will ever come out again.
I have found that once a campaign game leaves my table, the chances of it coming back out are probably somewhere around 10%, regardless of how much I like it. There have only been a few campaigns I've actually finished (Imperial Assault, Sword & Sorcery, Aeon's End Legacy, Legacy of Dragonholt) and my shelf is littered with others that are collecting dust but that I simply can't muster up the gumption to start over again (looks guiltily at Middara, two different versions of Gloomhaven, Folklore: The Affliction, and others)
I try to run through as much of a campaign as I can before calling it quits. I'm really excited about Roll Player Adventures, but I know I just don't have the mental energy for it right now...so it's still in shrink wrap from Christmas.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
Recently our gaming group has been taking a day off of work to do a 12+ hour Frosthaven session. Yesterday we had our second such get-together so far this year, and it was a blast.
If you ever wanted an idea of how complex Frosthaven is compared to Gloomhaven, consider this. When we went through the GH campaign, we met weekly from 6:00 to 10:00, and typically got 2 scenarios in. With Frosthaven, I don't believe we've ever gotten more than 1 scenario in during the same time period. Yesterday we started at 10am, finished at 11pm, and still only got 3 scenarios in (we did stop for an hour lunch break).
We started the all-day marathons in part as a way to essentially condense 3-4 weeks of game meetups into one day to help us get through the campaign faster.
At this point we estimate we're about 2/3s of the way through. We still have around 50 scenarios locked, though we won't necessarily see every one of those depending on campaign choices. Currently we're hoping to finish up before the end of the year, providing we can continue to hold some all day sessions every now and again. We've been playing since January 2023. Crazy!
Last edited by YellowKing on Wed May 29, 2024 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
YellowKing wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 11:16 am
Yesterday we started at 10am, finished at 11am, and still only got 3 scenarios in (we did stop for an hour lunch break).
Black Lives Matter
Isgrimnur - Facebook makes you hate your friends and family. LinkedIn makes you hate you co-workers. NextDoor makes you hate your neighbors.
We went from 10:30-5:30 and finished two scenarios. That’s pretty typical as we play once a month (at best). I’m expecting we would finish faster if we played more — figuring out the combos with Meteor is still work for me.
"A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on." -Terry Pratchett, The Truth "The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to those who think they've found it." -Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment
On Memorial Day I played a 2v2 scenario of Burning Banners, a new fantasy wargame. A friend described it as a "beer-and-pretzels" wargame, which sounds about right. Lots of dice-chucking and balance-shattering spells, so can never count on succeeding in an attack.
The most impressive aspect, beyond the hand-drawn Tolkien-esque map, is the asymmetric factions. The Empire starts with enormous resources, but is constantly draining its treasury to suppress internal revolts. The Orcs pay a penalty for controlling settlements, which forces them to constantly expand, leaving razed cities in their wake. Etcetera.
It's a lengthy game - our six-round session took about 6 hours, including a lunch break - but really dynamic and fun.
Yeah. It's a magnificent production - the components top quality. The designer is also the artist - it really is an awesome production. Not technically solo though (unfortunately), but they are releasing a solo scenario in an upcoming Paper Wars issue. I had to pre-order just to support the creation but I'm sad to think I'm probably not ever going to play it.
Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2024 6:25 pm
Tales from the Red Dragon Inn finally left the table today. We didn’t quite finish it (got to mission 21 of 25) but both of the Wonder Twins were done with it and i really want to play something new (it’s been on my table for 3+ months). It’s easily in my top 5 games of all time and is a truly fantastic experience. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Agree. I love it. Received it from Santa, and it spent three months on my table. I only got through 10 missions, but several I played more than once just to try different characters and approaches. I never tired of it, but I had left it set up for three months on our dining room table, and then we had company and my wife for some reason thought we should actually use the dining room table for, uh, dining.
So I packed it up, determined to resume, and to finish the remaining 15 scenarios. I haven't yet, but your post reminds me that I must.
tylertoo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 9:23 pm
So I packed it up, determined to resume, and to finish the remaining 15 scenarios. I haven't yet, but your post reminds me that I must.
I would say you weren't a true boardgamer if it was otherwise.
Some first impressions of Arcs, the new four-letter game from the company that brought you Root, Oath, Ahoy, Boob, Fort, and Vast (one of those may be made up):
The action selection, which is loosely based on trick-taking, does a nice job of offering flexibility while constantly requiring compromise. I like it a lot.
How you feel about the area control element will very much depend on whether you like area control and dice-driven combat. I found it pretty fun and exciting, with a lot above-the-board politicking to encourage other players to go beat up someone else. Another player in our game does not like this stuff and did not like Arcs
It's a long game. It took us 3.5 hours, not including the teach. I think that can come down a lot with experience, but it's never going to be short. Playing the three-game campaign would be a real commitment.
I definitely want to play more, to wrap my head around it further and form more concrete opinions. The campaign looks like a lot of fun, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to commit a full day it any time soon.
I signed up to play it at Gencon. Can't wait. I'm still fascinated by the concept of John Company even if I'm not sold on the execution yet. But I had the same initial reaction to Pax Pamir, and now I can't get enough of it.
. I think I'm digging on the learning curve for Mariacaibo. I'm still forming an opinion of Vale of Eternity. The Arena season starts soon, so I'll be holding off on trying new games. I like to play in the arena for a bit every time it resets where my competitive side takes over for a while before going back in to the learning and exploring side as well as the just sheer enjoyment side of games take over. Now that Terraforming Mars vanilla is out of beta, that's all people I know personally are playing. While I enjoy the game still, I'm not an all one game all the time person unless it has novelty for me.
