OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[hentzau]

Another poster dropped in to say he would remember that when playing his Trelane card.

I had to look that up. I don't believe that I've ever seen that episode.

[hepcat]

I cannot paint worth a spit. However, I may eventually bribe Seppe to paint mine. But from everything I've read, the minis are fantastic even unpainted.

[Isgrimnur]

Another poster dropped in to say he would remember that when playing his Trelane card.

I had to look that up. I don't believe that I've ever seen that episode.

My TOS exposure, I'm beginning to realize, was varied and piecemeal off of Saturday afternoon television as a kid. I need to remedy that forthwith.

[baelthazar]

The biggest gripe I've seen with the game is that it mixes the star trek timelines together. Picard can exist in the same game as Kirk, etc.. There are a few folks on BGG that are having a fit over it. One guy was really mad that they included Q in the game as he felt the next generation was an abomination of Star Trek because it included characters that were all powerful. Another poster dropped in to say he would remember that when playing his Trelane card.

I can't wait to play Trelane and then lose and shout "BUT I WOULD HAVE WON! I woulda... I woulda... I would..."

I'm not bothered at all by the mix of the timelines. Wizkids could have only used one timeline, but then you would have angered or alienated 1/2 of the Star Trek fans. If they had made it 100% TOS, then the TNG people would not have bought the game, and vice-versa making it all TNG. I like TNG, but the ability to have TOS stuff sealed the deal for me. If people are such nerds about it that they can't enjoy a simple game, then all they need to do is house-rule it to ONLY pick ships and decks from original series people OR from TNG people (which should be easy, the decks seem to be broken up like that already). As to encounter cards (which I assume Q and Trelane would be), who cares? Who is to say Kirk might have run into those "Darmock and Jillad at Tanaga" guys or Picard could have run into The Guardian at the Edge of Forever? Trekkies should be happy they get an awesome game with cool sculpted ships period.

I hope there is a Harry Mudd encounter. Mudd's women. And I'm going to have Kirk and Riker roll their "seduce and sleep with" skills on everything that even seems remotely female. Even the Horta, since she was a chick.



MMM... that's one sexy pile of vomit beast.

[Chaosraven]

Even the Horta, since she was a chick.MMM... that's one sexy pile of vomit beast.

Her elbows are too volcanic.

[Isgrimnur]

Her elbows are too igneous.

FTFY.

[SpaceLord]

Played a 2nd game of Space Empires Saturday. I managed to only have two planets close to my home planet, and kept putting off building more Colony ships, which caused my downfall in the end. I think the way to play is to build 2-3 Colony ships, even if you don't have any targets revealed, and spend a turn positioning them at the periphery of your explored regions. Mature colonies are key to producing enough CPs to get the higher-level techs, while still having leftover to actually build ships.

On Sunday afternoon, I played the new Civilization from FFG. This was my 2nd playthrough, and I taught my friend James to play. We had a lot of fun. I was ahead in the production of Gold(a very valuable resource, since it allows you to start at higher levels of Trade/Research each turn. I was at 13 Gold(15 needed to win), when James completed Nuclear Weapons. Since I went first that next turn, I was able to produce the 2 coins I needed to win before he could nuke my secondary cities.

[Jow]

random gaming over the last few weeks...

Have been much happier with the new Summoner Wars set since the first time we broke it out. Perfect storm of crazy stuff plus playing a card incorrectly made it seem like the new stuff was overpowered but games since have been a lot of fun. With nearly 15 different factions the diversity of the matchups is pretty incredible.

Other stuff includes classics like Settlers and Carcassone and new stuff like the Chaos in the Old World expansion. Had a crazy game of Settlers where I jumped into the lead based on gobbling up several key wood hexes and the wood port, only to lose the lead at the 11th hour when another player stole the Longest Road from me (I was a single wood away from winning - blargh!). However, when I realized I couldn't win on my second-to-last turn, I blew my wad on two improvement cards and pulled a knight and a +1 VP card. The knight was my third, and I revealed both cards on my subsequent turn for the win. Meanwhile, Mr. Longest Road played right after me and almost positively would have won the game on his turn. The gamble paid off!

Now, with Horus Heresy (won via a Boardgamegeek auction) and Earth Reborn (thanks, Balthazar!) en route, in addition to newly acquired Twilight Struggle and Summoner Wars still sitting around, I've got a ton of gaming in store.

[hentzau]

I cannot paint worth a spit. However, I may eventually bribe Seppe to paint mine. But from everything I've read, the minis are fantastic even unpainted.

Yeah, but they are begging to be painted. If I get the game in time, I'll give it a whirl, but I'd have to have it by Tuesday to have any chance at finishing before Friday night. And this is with the very hopeful assumption that stores have it by next Tuesday.

Holy crap, Octocon is next weekend!

[Tommy20]

Then I can spend 3 nights furiously painting the ships before Octocon.

Ahem.

[hepcat]

Then I can spend 3 nights furiously painting the ships before Octocon.

Ahem.

I'm sure he'll find time to "furiously paint" you too, little warrior.

[hentzau]

Then I can spend 3 nights furiously painting the ships before Octocon.

Ahem.

But...they...but...I...

(Why do I feel like my wife just found a strange woman's phone number in my pants pocket?)

[Tommy20]

Then I can spend 3 nights furiously painting the ships before Octocon.

Ahem.

But...they...but...I...

(Why do I feel like my wife just found a strange woman's phone number in my pants pocket?)

That's ok. It's not like I'm about to buy the entire Foundry 7th Cavalry line just to get four freaking figures to play LotOW with...

[hentzau]

Then I can spend 3 nights furiously painting the ships before Octocon.

Ahem.

But...they...but...I...

(Why do I feel like my wife just found a strange woman's phone number in my pants pocket?)

That's ok. It's not like I'm about to buy the entire Foundry 7th Cavalry line just to get four freaking figures to play LotOW with...

Consider it practice so I can start painting cowboys...

(And an F-Troop posse would be fun!)

[Tommy20]

I wonder where I can get a Wrangler Jane fig...



Pure 1960's jailbait.

[MythicalMino]

Ok...so, I have spent way too much the last couple of days. But I made my final push (at least for awhile) to buying the games I have really wanted.

1. Dominant Species
2. Ghost Stories (plus the White Moon expansion)
3. RuneWars
4. Star Trek: Fleet Captains (Pre-Ordered)
5. Mousquetaires du Roy (this game just looks VERY cool)

Like I said, lots of money spent, but I have it at the moment, and I have wanted these games for quite some time. Nothing else really out there that is really interesting to me right now (although, Kingsburg is a game I am somewhat interested in).

[Zarathud]

Kingsburg is good with the expansion, but I would recommend Alien Frontiers due to its enhanced player interaction not just in die placement but in territory control.

[baelthazar]

I got my copy of Elder Sign last night and got a solo game in. It was quite fun, but I can really see how fortune plays a HUGE role (or should that be roll) in the game. One game I crapped out nearly ever time, and my poor magician got devoured. My second game, the journalist whipped Nyarlathotep like he was a red tentacled stepchild (no relation to Hepcat). The vastly different fortunes aren't a problem, per se, and there is something distinctly similar to Ghost Stores for some reason (probably the traveling around trying to destroy cards with dice rolls). It has the same Feast or Famine feel to Ghost Stories as well. I think the game will be more fun with 2-4 players than solo, although I enjoyed myself.

My order of Elder Sign also came with Gears of War. Haven't gotten to play it yet, but the game is about as gritty as you can get. The rules are jam packed, but seem simple (particularly given they have similarity with Castle Ravenloft). The sculpts are pretty amazing, although the COGs all look about the same (of course, they look about the same in the video game too). I dig the locusts, they are nasty and scary. Everything is much more card driven that Castle Ravenloft and it looks like it might be a bit easier to set up and tear down than CR. Of course, you don't get the explosion of sculpts like you do with CR, and the counter and card count is far lower. I'm disappointed in the card stock, but sleeving fixed this (sleeves are hard to come by lately, btw). I'm excited to play it, all signs point to an awesome game.

I just noticed that Flying Frog's new game Fortune and Glory, set in an Indiana Jones style theme came out. Damn it. I'm going to have to pass for a while, it has a huge pricetag (same as Star Trek: Fleet Captains) and I've been bitten by Flying Frog's warping boards before. Given that I'm not overly crazy about A Touch of Evil, I'm worried about another action game by them. So far, the press has been good, but I'm waiting until Undead Viking or Tom Vasel puts up a video. Also, with Legend of Drizzt next month, I'd rather same my pennies.

[hepcat]

I believe Hentzau tried Fortune and Glory at Gencon and didn't come away terribly impressed.

[hentzau]

I believe Hentzau tried Fortune and Glory at Gencon and didn't come away terribly impressed.

I didn't actually play it, just watched a group of people play for about 10 minutes or so, and you're right, it didn't impress me enough to pick it up.

[Daveman]

Depending on the adventures you get, the special abilities of characters and items you collect... yeah, Elder Signs can depend a lot on the luck of the dice. I've started playing my "solo" games controlling 2 investigators. With just 1, you get to horde all the items and things on that one character and I think that can make for a much easier game. With 2 investigators I've had a notably harder time getting things done.

[hepcat]

Elder Signs is definitely a heavily luck based game, that's for sure. But I still enjoy it a great deal. There's nothing like having lost most of your dice during a turn and trying desperately to figure out what die to "hold" and praying feverishly that you're going to get that rare scroll.

[hentzau]

I enjoyed Elder Signs enough during the one play at GenCon to pick up a copy for myself. It truly is a fun time sitting around with buddies trying to take down Elder Gods. What more could one want?

[baelthazar]

Elder Signs is definitely a heavily luck based game, that's for sure. But I still enjoy it a great deal. There's nothing like having lost most of your dice during a turn and trying desperately to figure out what die to "hold" and praying feverishly that you're going to get that rare scroll.

That #$@&ing Bloated Woman mask of Nyarlathotep really chaps my rear. She locks 2 green die, which is pretty ridiculous. The monster rules had me scratching my head though, something about "if one or more tasks on the monster card are achieved" you get to keep the monster token, even if you failed the adventure. But monsters are all one task, so that makes little sense. Perhaps this is for the inevitable expansion with 2-task monsters? Also, you can use as many items as you want per roll, right? So I can use a common item for a yellow die and a red item for a red die concurrently?

Thanks for the heads up on Fortune and Glory. I like Flying Frog, but was a bit "meh" about Invasion and A Touch of Evil. I'm pretty much am compelled to get Legend of Drizzt, if only to have the full set of the D&D series with all the yummy yummy minis.

[baelthazar]

Elder Signs is definitely a heavily luck based game, that's for sure. But I still enjoy it a great deal. There's nothing like having lost most of your dice during a turn and trying desperately to figure out what die to "hold" and praying feverishly that you're going to get that rare scroll.

That #$@&ing Bloated Woman mask of Nyarlathotep really chaps my rear. She locks 2 green die, which is pretty ridiculous. The monster rules had me scratching my head though, something about "if one or more tasks on the monster card are achieved" you get to keep the monster token, even if you failed the adventure. But monsters are all one task, so that makes little sense. Perhaps this is for the inevitable expansion with 2-task monsters? Also, you can use as many items as you want per roll, right? So I can use a common item for a yellow die and a red item for a red die concurrently?

Thanks for the heads up on Fortune and Glory. I like Flying Frog, but was a bit "meh" about Invasion and A Touch of Evil. I'm pretty much compelled to get Legend of Drizzt, if only to have the full set of the D&D series with all the yummy yummy minis.

[MythicalMino]

Got Ghost Stories, the expansion for Ghost Stories (White Moon), and Dominant Species in the mail today.

Played a game of Ghost Stories...and my God, that game is awesome. Love the art, as it is simply incredible in my opinion. The rules wasn't too difficult to work through, or at least, they don't seem to bad. I do have a question, for those of you who may know:

When a ghost is placed, and the "ability" is to place another ghost. I place the new ghost, and THAT ghosts ability is to place another ghost....do these abilities "chain"? In other words, do more and more ghosts come out as long as the new ghost has the ability to bring out a new ghost? I am assuming the answer is "yes", but I want to make sure.

Chris

[hepcat]

Also, you can use as many items as you want per roll, right? So I can use a common item for a yellow die and a red item for a red die concurrently?

From the rules:

A player may spend 1 or more Common Items, Unique Items, or Spells before any roll while his Investigator marker is on an Adventure card. Whenever an item is spent or discarded it is placed facedown on the bottom of its corresponding deck.
Although most Common Items, Unique Items and Spells are similar to other cards of the same type, some have special abilities which are described on their individual cards.

so yeah, you can spend as many as you like prior to the roll.

[hepcat]

Got Ghost Stories, the expansion for Ghost Stories (White Moon), and Dominant Species in the mail today.

Played a game of Ghost Stories...and my God, that game is awesome. Love the art, as it is simply incredible in my opinion. The rules wasn't too difficult to work through, or at least, they don't seem to bad. I do have a question, for those of you who may know:

When a ghost is placed, and the "ability" is to place another ghost. I place the new ghost, and THAT ghosts ability is to place another ghost....do these abilities "chain"? In other words, do more and more ghosts come out as long as the new ghost has the ability to bring out a new ghost? I am assuming the answer is "yes", but I want to make sure.

Chris

yup, if the ability is triggered when it comes into play (i.e. it's the first icon on the card). otherwise it triggers during it's turn (if it's the center icon) or when it's defeated (or if it's the last icon), or never again if it's just the first icon (which simply means "when it first enters play").

You'd have to have pretty bad luck to draw multiple cards that spawn hauntings when they come into play, though.

[MythicalMino]

heh...I must have had bad luck, then. I had 3 ghosts spawn that way, unless I read the cards wrong. Great game, though.

Chris

[hepcat]

heh...I must have had bad luck, then. I had 3 ghosts spawn that way, unless I read the cards wrong. Great game, though.

Chris

Remember that if the haunting occurs because it's the first icon on the card (going left to right), it only happens during the initial draw, not subsequent turns.

[baelthazar]

heh...I must have had bad luck, then. I had 3 ghosts spawn that way, unless I read the cards wrong. Great game, though.

Chris

Yes, this is why the people here call her The Cast Iron Bitch. I love Ghost Stories as well, but rarely get to play it. I'll have to remedy that soon! With the White Moon expansion, you have to be careful for devourers. Those guys can really ruin your day quickly!

[MythicalMino]

Another Ghost Stories question:

When using the Yin-Tang symbol to un-haunt a village square....does the player have to be at that particular square?

[baelthazar]

Another Ghost Stories question:

When using the Yin-Tang symbol to un-haunt a village square....does the player have to be at that particular square?

AFAIK, no.

[Boudreaux]

yup, if the ability is triggered when it comes into play (i.e. it's the first icon on the card). otherwise it triggers during it's turn (if it's the center icon) or when it's defeated (or if it's the last icon), or never again if it's just the first icon (which simply means "when it first enters play").

You'd have to have pretty bad luck to draw multiple cards that spawn hauntings when they come into play, though.

Actually, there are enough ghosts with the "bring a new ghost into play" power that it happens fairly frequently. At least to me. I can recall several games where we had a chain of 3-4 ghosts all come into play on a single turn like that.

Another Ghost Stories question:

When using the Yin-Tang symbol to un-haunt a village square....does the player have to be at that particular square?

No, you don't. However, you cannot use your yin-yang token to unhaunt the tile that just caused you to lose the game. For example, if you have two tiles haunted, and a third becomes haunted, you can't use a yin-yang token to unhaunt that tile and save yourselves. As soon as that third tile is haunted, it's game over.

You can also use the yin-yang token to utilize the ability of any villager on the board, even if you're not on that tile. However, you cannot utilize the ability of a villager whose tile is haunted.

[baelthazar]

Also IIRC, the Yin-Yang token does not require an action to use.

[SpaceLord]

Also IIRC, the Yin-Yang token does not require an action to use.

That's what she said!

As an aside, I played Space Empires for the third time last night. I LOVE it. Last night, James and I both lost most of our initial fleet to Danger! tokens, and had to rebuild. I went for the large ship strategy, while James had smaller ships, but more stacks. His faster ships were able to swoop in, screw up a border colony, then swoop out before I could bring in defenses. I think my main mistake was falling behind on the speed tech tree. Since the upgrades allow you to move faster in the later turns, James would constantly outrace me. It was great, even though I'm 0-3.

[baelthazar]

I'm going on a Beach trip and taking Space Empires with me. I think my Dad is going to enjoy it, once he gets over the complexity of the production sheet (which looks more daunting than it is).

[Daveman]

Hoo boy did I just have a game of Elder Sign go down the crapper. I was playing against Nyarlothep(sp?) who makes you add a handful of nasty monsters to the usual assortment. I was about midway through the game and was on track with half the Elder Signs needed to banish him but did have a lot of monsters on the board.

Per the rules, if you have to place a monster on the board and there's no designated monster task slot available, you have to add that monster to the bottom of any other adventure card. Strictly speaking, there's nothing in the rules to prevent players from just designating one unattractive adventure card as the monster dumping ground and just ignoring them (NOT a good idea when fighting against Hastur though)... so many folks are playing where you have to evenly distribute the excess monsters around. I've been playing that way.

Anyway, I complete an adventure and draw a new one in its place... one of the nastier ones with 3 tasks that have to be completed in top-to-bottom order. It also happens to be midnight, and the mythos card calls for a monster to appear. I get the Mask Monster who locks out 2 green dice and lo and behold, the only eligible spot for me to put it is on the new adventure card... at the bottom... which means there's almost no way for me to take it out, especially minus the 2 green dice it's locking out.

The game sort of went downhill from there.

[El Guapo]

Played Age of Conan this evening. I enjoyed it. The main flaw was that it took substantially longer than projected - BGG says 90 minutes. By the time we were done reading the rules and started it was probably 8:30; come 11:30 we'd only finished two of the three ages of the game, and we decided to wrap it up. I never know exactly what to make of drastically overshooting BGG times. Granted, it was our first time for everyone with the game, and just going over the rules initially for most games is like ~ 30 minutes. Maybe knock an hour off total for a replay, but it's still well over.

Anywho, the game itself was a little abstract (had heard it trended towards the Euro side), but fun. I was the Turian nation, which from the cards and art seems kind of Ottoman Empire themed. Got the intrigue artifact to start, so I went mostly the intrigue route, and made a ton of gold that I cashed in for armies and emissaries.

So, some kinks that would need to be worked out for a replay. But I enjoyed it.

[Jow]

Cracked open Earth Reborn tonight and played through the very first mission after quite a bit of time to set up the board. If there's one thing I've learned about this game already it's that you really have to organize the map pieces by shape if you have any hope of setting up a scenario in a reasonable amount of time. Ultimately we were very entertained.

A little background: Earth Reborn is a tactical minis game that basically sets two post-apocalyptic factions, NORAD and the Salemites, against each other. NORAD are basically your good guys, with 3 or 4 different humanoid figures. The Salemites are known for their occult abilities, specifically the ability to reanimate corpses. Several of the primary figures in this faction are human (though demented), but several more are either zombies or some sort of reanimate.

In the first scenario Vasquez, one of the NORAD characters (who specializes in ranged combat and scouting), has been captured and is being held in a mansion awaiting her gruesome fate. The mansion belongs to a character by the name of Jeff Deeler, perhaps the person most familiar with the zombie creation technology. He's a brainy if demented sort. Outside the mansion, two zombies start the scenario just milling around aimlessly. Jack Saw, a special reanimate whose arm was converted to a giant saw blade, starts off outside the mansion cutting wood (a task he's very good at). Inside one of several bedrooms inside the mansion is Franck Einstein, another special reanimate who has been the Salemites favorite test subject for hundreds of years. Over those years they've managed to improve the technology enough that Einstein has all the benefits of being undead PLUS extremely high intelligence.

When the scenario begins, Franck has been locked in one of the bedrooms because Vasquez's presence has begun to make him behave oddly. Jeff Deeler is in the shitter when he hears Franck howl loudly and start slamming himself into the bedroom door in an effort to break free so he can be with Vasquez, who Franck is apparently falling for. The NORAD player controls only Franck Einstein at the start and his objective is to figure out which of three rooms Vasquez is being held in (two holding decoys, the other the real deal), get inside, and free Vasquez. Once Vasquez is free, the NORAD player has to get her out of the house and have her escape off the south portion of the map. The Salemite player, on the other hand, only needs to bring Vasquez down to win. In this game, I played the NORAD side.

Outnumbered four to one you'd think it would be over, but Francky boy is a badass, particularly in close combat. I was able to break down the bedroom door on my first try and set up my orders so that I was able to move quickly across the ground floor in prep to try to break down one of the three doors that Vasquez was possibly behind. My buddy responded by shambling his zombies into the front door and running Jeff Deeler out of the bathroom. I then bashed door #1 down, only to discover a decoy token.

I then did an about face and ran back into the front foyer, where Franck met Jeff coming out of the bathroom hallway. The two zombies were closing. One of the keys to this scenario is that many of the doors were locked and only allowed access via a magnetic card which Jeff Deeler began the mission carrying. This was my buddy's first mistake: instead of taking Jeff and running him off to hide somewhere, he tried to go toe-to-toe with Franck in close combat. I mentioned that Jeff is not a close combat type of guy: most of his crucial stats, like combat strength and armor, were barely half of Franck's. 2 or 3 rounds of close combat later Jeff was dead and Franck had the magnetic card (and 2 or 3 wounds from critical hits).

From there, I was able to just walk right through door #2 without having to spend extra time bashing it in thanks to my newfound card key.... but it was another decoy. It looked like I was probably going to have to pound my way through the two zombies to get to where I had access to the third and final door, but my buddy made another mistake and moved what was a blocking zombie into Franck's weak spot trying to do some serious damage in close combat. I was lucky and he rolled badly, inflicting no damage at all, and I then moved right into the other hallway and opened the third door, releasing Vasquez and taking control of her.

By this time, Franck had suffered four wounds. One more wound would mean he flipped over onto his wounded side, which resulted in lower stats all the way around. I figured I was again going to have to use Franck as a battering ram to make room for Vasquez (who is very quick but extremely weak in close combat), but my buddy made one more mistake which ended the game for him, moving a zombie who was blocking my only route out of the house to roll another attack against Franck (which missed). I then took a really high movement order card I'd been saving for the occasion and dumped it all on Vasquez, allowing her to basically sprint right around all the action, out the front door, and 3/4 down the map toward the exit line. Jack Saw was still outside, but was too slow to catch Vasquez. She would have escaped the following round, so we called it a game.

Another cool thing about the game: the scenarios build on each other in chronological order, introducing new mechanics each time. The first scenario only introduced movement and close combat, while scenario #2 introduces line of sight and duels (which allow you to interrupt actions, steal the initiative, and other things). Can't wait to play it.