Octopus Overlords

I got that e-mail too. Be interesting to see what shows up there.

Ditto.

Tanga, you are an evil temptress....

and thanks to that link I now have a new t-shirt.

"Dear Math, I'm not a therapist. Solve your own problems."

My students should love it.

Manged to get in a few games of Dominion and Dragon Dice. After not knowing how to play, it was a nice treat to be able to show a newcomer how to play Dominion. I'm not quite sure I'm sold on playing it with two people, but maybe that's just our general inexperience and using stock scenarios to play with.

We're still learning Dragon Dice and managed to screw up some of the rules pretty badly, but we still had a good time learning. It's actually pretty easy to understand the basics but there's surprisingly deep strategy involved in creating your armies and placing them at the right territories.

I also decided to invest in some card sleeves for Dominion after noticing a bunch were starting to wear along the edges. I didn't think it was possible to engage in a hobby more expensive than computer gaming and yet here I am, spending as much money on protective sleeves as I did for the games themselves.

Remus West wrote:and thanks to that link I now have a new t-shirt.

"Dear Math, I'm not a therapist. Solve your own problems."

My students should love it.

Facebooked for the math haters in my friends list. My rejoinder was the "I Can Explain It To You T-Shirt - But I Can't Understand It for You!" as more my speed.

Also, played a round of Small World last week. I still enjoy that game - pretty fun, and easy to learn. Played with the "Tales & Legends" expansion (adds the event deck), as well as Be Not Afraid and Grand Dames (added race/powers).

I was Skeletons, Homonculi, and Giants; maybe one other than I can't remember. My big pointsi winners were the Forest Giants - grabbed a couple mountains and then would come down to adjoining forests to get lots of VPs). The Underground Homonculi earned some significant points too, especially since they had three bonus guys from being skipped over. Also got a significant bonus from an event that made forests worth +1 VP apiece for one round). The Skeletons (can't remember their power) got teamed up and wiped out pretty quickly.

Ultimately came in third, IIRC).

My niece is in town, and is going home tomorrow, and tonight she wants to try out one of my boardgames. Now, most of her boardgaming has been of the very generic type, such as Wits and Wagers, Apples to Apples, Snorta, that sort of thing. She has also played (and really enjoyed) some D&D with me. In my observations of watching her play these games, she is not the most strategically minded of souls. So I'm trying to decide what game to bust out for her to try. My short list currently is:

• Castle Ravenloft/Wrath of Ashardalon
• Defenders of the Realm
• Small World
• Dominion
• 7 Wonders
• Ticket To Ride

Based on her love of D&D, I'm leaning towards one of the D&D boardgames. But I'll present them to her and see what she wants to play.

(And I'm sacrificing an evening of hanging out with the developers of D&D over at a local gaming store...aren't I a hell of an uncle?)

hentzau wrote:
(And I'm sacrificing an evening of hanging out with the developers of D&D over at a local gaming store...

...and me, you ass.

Introduce her to Twilight Struggle. She'll be hitting your scotch by 9.

hepcat wrote:

hentzau wrote:
(And I'm sacrificing an evening of hanging out with the developers of D&D over at a local gaming store...

...and me, you ass.

Yeah, OK, and hepcat too. There, there, heppy. I'll buy you a nice shiny new D6 at GenCon.

Ghost Stories. Then she won't sleep at night. But not because of the Ghosts... because of her burning shame at not overcoming the crippling difficulty of the Cast-Iron Bitch.

I picked up the new Miskatonic Horror expansion for Arkham Horror this Saturday and downloaded the add-on for the iPhone app. The iPhone app really speeds up the game, and helps keep track of who is having the next encounter. I re-configured the cards so everything still fits in 2 1/2 boxes (the last 2 game boxes, with all the game boards and rules fitting into the Kingsburg expansion box). Once the gang gets back from GenCon, I'll be looking to get in another game.

is the Arkham Horror app worth using if only one player has it?

I think you're wasting your money to have multiple people spend the money. The iPhone app is great for the Arkham and Off-world Encounters, and worth the price of admission. It's quick and easy, and saves you from pulling out and finding the Encounter cards. Just pass around the phone to the active player.

The built-in PDF maps are nice, but it's just as easy to stand up to look over the board. Boardgamegeek has several handouts for players to check the icons on the locations.

The character tracking portion of the app isn't very useful because it only tracks the stats not the items or conditions. Most people like to have their character sheets, items, spells, allies, skills, and conditions anyway. My groups suffer from dice superstition, so the dice roller isn't used. Plus, I think it's just more fun to roll your own dice anyway.

The other thing the app doesn't handle is the Mythos cards, but I don't know how you'd easily keep track of the Enviornment effects.

Remus beat SeanMinisterofKtSP, chaosfaerie, and I at Blokus, and then at 51st State.

Sean is in town during this week for family stuff, but due to his West Coast Internal Clock, we got to play until what would have been 1 am for him.

I just had a rousing game of Castle Ravenloft with my three kids and my visiting niece last night. There was much yelling and screaming and over the top role playing. Best part of the night? On my turn, the dracolich appeared, plus I drew a sliding wall trap. The Dracolich tried to hit me with his lightning breath, but that missed. Then the trap shoved me back into the room where the rest of the party was all bunched up. I pointed out to everyone the lab, which was five tiles away, and had Gravestorm's phylactery in it, and said one of us needed to run over there as quickly as possible and destroy it if we wanted to have any chance of defeating Gravestorm. Everyone was freaking out, except my 8 year old son who was just sitting there reading his cards.

My son's turn was next (the dragonborn fighter). I asked him what he was going to do (assuming that he would charge in against the dracolich and use his daily. He smiled, and said "I use my Scroll of Teleportation," the magic item he was handed at the beginning of the game. Teleported every single one of us to the laboratory, and on his turn he destroyed the phylactery, knocking Gravestorm down to 10 hp. From that point on, we just used ranged attacks and took him down without any real sweat.

I love to see my kids come up with a great tactical solution like that. If it had been my wife sitting there, she would never have thought of that!

Zarathud wrote:I picked up the new Miskatonic Horror expansion for Arkham Horror this Saturday and downloaded the add-on for the iPhone app. The iPhone app really speeds up the game, and helps keep track of who is having the next encounter. I re-configured the cards so everything still fits in 2 1/2 boxes (the last 2 game boxes, with all the game boards and rules fitting into the Kingsburg expansion box). Once the gang gets back from GenCon, I'll be looking to get in another game.

I'm game...

...see what I did there?

I picked up the miskatonic expansion for the iphone app as well. i'm not sure when (or if) i'll pick up the miskatonic box though. i'm just so burned out on all the expansions.

hepcat wrote:

Zarathud wrote:I picked up the new Miskatonic Horror expansion for Arkham Horror this Saturday and downloaded the add-on for the iPhone app. The iPhone app really speeds up the game, and helps keep track of who is having the next encounter. I re-configured the cards so everything still fits in 2 1/2 boxes (the last 2 game boxes, with all the game boards and rules fitting into the Kingsburg expansion box). Once the gang gets back from GenCon, I'll be looking to get in another game.

I'm game...

...see what I did there?

I picked up the miskatonic expansion for the iphone app as well. i'm not sure when (or if) i'll pick up the miskatonic box though. i'm just so burned out on all the expansions.

I'm so excited for Elder Sign, the casual dice game based on Arkham Horror to come out! But I do want to play AH again, so I should plan a day to get my group together. I bought the App, but for some reason my group is highly suspicious of it. They absolutely won't use the dice. I think I can get them to deal with the cards, which would be a huge improvement over pulling them all out and finding space for them. I don't mind using the Mythos cards, as that seems to be something much better done physically.

hentzau wrote:I just had a rousing game of Castle Ravenloft with my three kids and my visiting niece last night. There was much yelling and screaming and over the top role playing. Best part of the night? On my turn, the dracolich appeared, plus I drew a sliding wall trap. The Dracolich tried to hit me with his lightning breath, but that missed. Then the trap shoved me back into the room where the rest of the party was all bunched up. I pointed out to everyone the lab, which was five tiles away, and had Gravestorm's phylactery in it, and said one of us needed to run over there as quickly as possible and destroy it if we wanted to have any chance of defeating Gravestorm. Everyone was freaking out, except my 8 year old son who was just sitting there reading his cards.

My son's turn was next (the dragonborn fighter). I asked him what he was going to do (assuming that he would charge in against the dracolich and use his daily. He smiled, and said "I use my Scroll of Teleportation," the magic item he was handed at the beginning of the game. Teleported every single one of us to the laboratory, and on his turn he destroyed the phylactery, knocking Gravestorm down to 10 hp. From that point on, we just used ranged attacks and took him down without any real sweat.

I love to see my kids come up with a great tactical solution like that. If it had been my wife sitting there, she would never have thought of that!

Yet another example of why board gaming with friends/family is the best indoor activity you can do.

baelthazar wrote: I'm so excited for Elder Sign, the casual dice game based on Arkham Horror to come out!

seppe, redwarlord and i are scheduled to play a game of it friday at gencon.

hepcat wrote:

baelthazar wrote: I'm so excited for Elder Sign, the casual dice game based on Arkham Horror to come out!

seppe, redwarlord and i are scheduled to play a game of it friday at gencon.

Let me know how it goes! I expect the retail copies to be released in a few weeks, they are on the boat and the rules were just posted.

Smoove_B wrote: I also decided to invest in some card sleeves for Dominion after noticing a bunch were starting to wear along the edges. I didn't think it was possible to engage in a hobby more expensive than computer gaming and yet here I am, spending as much money on protective sleeves as I did for the games themselves.

After you add the sleeves you can no longer use the plastic inserts. I went to Home Depot and bought a fastener organizer and took out most of the little separators and now have a nice solid plastic case that all my cards from 3 games fit in easily. I have to cut some plexiglass to help make separators so the cards do not slide around. I also had to add small pieces of foam to take up space where the cards would slide around too much. After you add the sleeves you get to be creative in how you want to transport and hold them. Unless your games stay at home, which would mean storing them and you get to bypass most of the problems I had. god luck though.

I have some type of mega-pimp version of Dominion, procured from Amazon that includes the base game and two expansions in a giant unwieldy box. Unless I was misreading the BGG forums, it holds most of the sleeved cards. I think the silver or copper coins are the biggest problem.

miltonite wrote:

Smoove_B wrote: I also decided to invest in some card sleeves for Dominion after noticing a bunch were starting to wear along the edges. I didn't think it was possible to engage in a hobby more expensive than computer gaming and yet here I am, spending as much money on protective sleeves as I did for the games themselves.

After you add the sleeves you can no longer use the plastic inserts. I went to Home Depot and bought a fastener organizer and took out most of the little separators and now have a nice solid plastic case that all my cards from 3 games fit in easily. I have to cut some plexiglass to help make separators so the cards do not slide around. I also had to add small pieces of foam to take up space where the cards would slide around too much. After you add the sleeves you get to be creative in how you want to transport and hold them. Unless your games stay at home, which would mean storing them and you get to bypass most of the problems I had. god luck though.

That's odd. My cards still fit in after I sleeved them. I used the cheaper Mayday sleeves.

Played in another local Meetup.com boardgame group last night.
First up was Automobile, by Martin Wallace seemed OK, only lasts four turns. You build cars, factories, take on the roles of the early auto industry, etc. Typical Euro. The paper money sucks ass.

Finally, taught another player Pandemic. Good times.

SpaceLord wrote:Typical Euro. The paper money sucks ass.

$3.50 gets you a stack of Monopoly money.

Isgrimnur wrote:

SpaceLord wrote:Typical Euro. The paper money sucks ass.

$3.50 gets you a stack of Monopoly money.

I prefer poker chips. We use those when we play Imperial 2020

Isgrimnur wrote:

SpaceLord wrote:Typical Euro. The paper money sucks ass.

$3.50 gets you a stack of Monopoly money.

I'd never buy Automobile, I don't think. Martin Wallace's game that interests me is Steam.

Picked up Treasure Chest, with expansions for Puerto Rico, San Juan, Princes of Florence, and a couple other games I don't own (yet). Going to try out the 2 Puerto Rico expansions tonight.

Chaosraven wrote:Picked up Treasure Chest, with expansions for Puerto Rico, San Juan, Princes of Florence, and a couple other games I don't own (yet). Going to try out the 2 Puerto Rico expansions tonight.

Puerto Rico has expansion!?!

Yes indeedy, and we are playing with both right now! OMG these are amazing. Expansion 1: the new buildings. These are 'replacements'. As the game begins, players take turns choosing buildings (if you choose the 7 cost, the other 7 cost is not used). Expansion 2: the nobles. 20 nobles (like colonists), each worth a VP. Plus new buildings that either work off having nobles, or work depending whether it has a colonist/noble for different abilities. Each time the Colony Ship is filled (including the setup) one Colonist is replaced by one Noble. Using Nobles, the game does not end when all Colonists are out of Supply.

It also seems that people are breaking up the Chest and selling it on ebay. The expansions for San Juan and Puerto Rico were there.

Does the Mayor get the Noble (I'd assume so)?

Remus West wrote:Does the Mayor get the Noble (I'd assume so)?

His choice, of course (so unless you have some bizarre reason you don't want the VP...)

I finally got my copy of Castle Ravenloft a few days ago, and the boys and I have had two games already. They (ages 7 and 9) had no trouble grasping the rules, and we all had an amazing time. I love that I've grown a couple of clones to game with.

I am in the (stressful) phase of organizing all of my Arkham Horror stuff. It has been a few years since I really played, and there is sooooooooo much. I have brought it all out several times, only to put it all away not too long after.

Really, what I want to do is just play the base game first (well...the base game with the cards that go with the base game from the expansions). But even that is too much work....any tips? How do you guys all keep all the expansions separate? I know there are expansion symbols, but there is still stuff that can be used with the base game and/or other expansions....just a lot of work that seems to stress me out.

I'm not sure what I would do if it was all mixed together. Right now I separate the sets when done playing every game. Keeping the sets separate keeps me sane(ish).

I would keep them sectioned within the same box. I bought a container for my Carcassonne and have each expansion in Baggies (sandwich or craft). That way we can decide which to use. I do the same for most games (Settlers, BSG) unless the expansions have become part of the norm (Small World, Neuroshima Hex, Talisman) such that we don't ever leave them out.

I ordered one of the Tanga "mystery boxes" (three unknown games) for $8. I'm sure I'm going to get three sets of Clue in mandarin, but the mystery is fun.

I've ordered the "mystery box" from them before a couple of times. I've never been lucky enough to received anything worthwhile, but yeah, it's fun (until you open the box ).

Yeah, I'm guessing this is going to be the one and only time I order a "mystery box" from a website. But heck, fun to do it once.