Octopus Overlords

Man, that was one epic battle. Talk about "blood for the blood god" - I got ten hits out of that Greater Daemon + Warrior combo. Of course, I'm pretty sure I used up all my luck for the next four months or so on those six sixes in a row.

Jow wrote:Also lots of talk about Nurgle being even tougher to win with than the base game... good to see him in the running at least.

Yeah, I don't know about that. Nurgle would have won if I hadn't screwed him over repeatedly.

As for the expansion upgrade cards, they certainly give a lot more "flavor" than the pretty generic (and often kind of useless) base game cards. Sure, I miss having an extra mana point and "fightin' cultists", but the "Summon Greater Daemon for free once per turn to a 6+ corruption region" card is just solid gold. It's like having three free mana, and hey, why wouldn't you want to summon a guy with 4 axes? With that, Khorne has some much-needed flexibility.

Yeah, I think one of the pluses for the expansion is that the upgrades are more interesting. In the base game I think for most gods there are at least a couple upgrades that are borderline useless (or clearly inferior to the others), which means that you'd almost always pick the same upgrade progression or something close to it (in the bas game you almost always choose the cultist upgrade first for every god, except for Nurgle). I think the upgrade choices in the expansion are more interesting.

Though only two expansion games under my belt so far, so I guess it's a little early to say.

Maybe the solution with a 4 player game is to run it with Skaven but not Khorne.

I got my copy of Urban Sprawl today. It looks fantastic! The rules are quite a bit simpler than Dominant Species, which I think is a very good thing, given DS is quite the brain burner. I think US is still going to tickle the noggin, but maybe less aggressively than DS. The big thing is going to be thinking about placement and optimizing a payoff chain with vocations.

Ok, question about Eaten By Zombies...

When determining the attack/flee strength....is the value listed on the stop sign/yellow sign on the card what you use? Or do you use BOTH that number AND the +1 (or whatever number) in the text box? I am assuming it is only what is listed in the sign on the card.

Example: Heavy Stick...has the 1 in the red stop sign, but also has +1 in the text box. Is that card attack value ONLY a "1", or a "2"?

The text just supports the value supported in the card visuals, it's not an additive to the sign. Don't ignore the text completely as sometimes there is additional information regarding modifiers to scavenge above and beyond what you'd normally expect, but we just used the signs as a quick way to count up points.

Ok, that is what we were doing. Good...

Now, another question. The Zombie Threat Area after a player is turned into a zombie.

Is this area separate from the normal Zombie Horde? And if it is, does each Zombie player have their own Zombie Threat Area? And if it is each player has their own threat area, are the zombie "powers" (for lack of a better term, I guess) comulative? In other words, two zombie players, both have a lvl 1 zombie. Do the Survivors only discard 2 cards, or do they discard 4?

Chris

ah, nevermind...found the updated rules on BGG, and it explains that each zombie player has their own threat area.

Chris

baelthazar wrote:I got my copy of Urban Sprawl today. It looks fantastic! The rules are quite a bit simpler than Dominant Species, which I think is a very good thing, given DS is quite the brain burner. I think US is still going to tickle the noggin, but maybe less aggressively than DS. The big thing is going to be thinking about placement and optimizing a payoff chain with vocations.

Did you order it directly from GMT? For some reason, I ordered mine from Boards and Bits.

I played my copy of Panic Station last night...wrong. The other players were confused about trading infection cards, and one of them broke the game.

Remus West wrote:Tell you what. You buy both games and bring them to my house Saturday late morning/early afternoon (I have plans for Friday night ). Hand them to me. Go back to your car and return an hour later. That way the illusion that I bought them will remain and we can play both of them.

Well......is this plan on or not?

Remus = Sybil

p.s. you do know that there's an open invitation for the michigan crew to come to chicago for a weekend and play any time and not just for octocons, right? I have a large couch and a lot of disinfectants.

So Drakkenstrike(the most polished video reviewer around) has put up a video review of Eclipse. It looks something like a marriage of Through the Ages(awesome, awesome game), with Twilight Imperium(ditto). Looks great.

Damn him!!!!

SpaceLord wrote:So Drakkenstrike(the most polished video reviewer around) has put up a video review of Eclipse. It looks something like a marriage of Through the Ages(awesome, awesome game), with Twilight Imperium(ditto). Looks great.

Damn him!!!!

Yeah, seems like a game I'd like. Though at the same time, even a 12 minute summary of the rules there gave me a headache. Seems like one of those games where the initial rules explanation would take almost an hour.

Whoa. Eclipse looks awesome.

SpaceLord wrote:So Drakkenstrike(the most polished video reviewer around) has put up a video review of Eclipse. It looks something like a marriage of Through the Ages(awesome, awesome game), with Twilight Imperium(ditto). Looks great.

Damn him!!!!

Yes, I ordered Urban Sprawl from GMT. The price was not all that different.

I like the look of Eclipse, but the price is very high ($66 at my favorite retailers) and the boards look overly fiddly. Having seen pics of the game in action, it's a ton of cubes, tokens, and ships. That just seems overly cumbersome. Of course, the say it plays far quicker than Twilight Imperium, so that automatically interests me.

I'm more interested in the re-boot of Wiz-War and the adaptation of Dune into the Twilight Imperium universe called Rex.

I might make Eclipse a Christmas gift though, I could see some potential here.

baelthazar wrote: Yes, I ordered Urban Sprawl from GMT. The price was not all that different.

Boards and Bit has now updated the Urban Sprawl page with October 2nd. I really, really want it for the big game day next weekend.

Edit: B&B now says will be shipped to me Tuesday.

Anybody in the Ft. Wayne, Indiana area going to Pentacon over the weekend of Nov. 4th? I'm heading down from Chicago as Redwarlord lives nearby.

At work, I spent like 30 minutes filling out a survey for Adobe, and they gave me a 25$ Amazon giftcard. So I picked up The Resistance, a Werewolf/Mafia-like traitor game. Everyone raves about it, and I plan to break it out at the next big gameday.

I picked up Resistance after GenCon. It's a fun little timewaster between games. I meant to break it out at OctoCon, but...I was never really between games.

hepcat wrote:Anybody in the Ft. Wayne, Indiana area going to Pentacon over the weekend of Nov. 4th? I'm heading down from Chicago as Redwarlord lives nearby.

I live about 50 north (Coldwater, MI). But not going to be able to go to this Pentacon.

Just a heads up since I know we have a few GMT fans here. They just announced on their Facebook page that their annual sale starts tomorrow and runs for two weeks.

hepcat wrote:Just a heads up since I know we have a few GMT fans here. They just announced on their Facebook page that their annual sale starts tomorrow and runs for two weeks.

Of course I own everything I want from them... grrr... Still waiting to get a chance to play Urban Sprawl.

I would buy Here I Stand, but I just can't imagine a playtime where even the BOX says it takes nine hours!

baelthazar wrote:

hepcat wrote:Just a heads up since I know we have a few GMT fans here. They just announced on their Facebook page that their annual sale starts tomorrow and runs for two weeks.

Of course I own everything I want from them... grrr... Still waiting to get a chance to play Urban Sprawl.

I would buy Here I Stand, but I just can't imagine a playtime where even the BOX says it takes nine hours!

I played it once. It made me realize that I really have no interest in playing games that have to be ended early by player agreement because it's taking too long. To me, that's the very definition of unfullfilling.

edit: I'm going to post the GMT sales email I just got in the Bargain Bin forum. It's got some VERY nice deals.

hepcat wrote:

baelthazar wrote:

hepcat wrote:Just a heads up since I know we have a few GMT fans here. They just announced on their Facebook page that their annual sale starts tomorrow and runs for two weeks.

Of course I own everything I want from them... grrr... Still waiting to get a chance to play Urban Sprawl.

I would buy Here I Stand, but I just can't imagine a playtime where even the BOX says it takes nine hours!

I played it once. It made me realize that I really have no interest in playing games that have to be ended early by player agreement because it's taking too long. To me, that's the very definition of unfullfilling.

edit: I'm going to post the GMT sales email I just got in the Bargain Bin forum. It's got some VERY nice deals.

The 50% P500 deal is stellar. I just don't have anything in particular to P500. Maybe Dominant Species the card game.

Unfortunately, the 50 percent off P500 games only applies if you purchased any P500 games in 2010/11. I thought I had, but I guess not. I was all set to order 1989 too.

hepcat wrote:Unfortunately, the 50 percent off P500 games only applies if you purchased any P500 games in 2010/11. I thought I had, but I guess not. I was all set to order 1989 too.

I managed to sneak in on Urban Sprawl. I think that gives me 2 P500 50% orders. You want me to charge you via Paypal and order a copy of 1989 for you? That was the one game I thought about getting, i could get two and you could reimburse me. LMK, I'm perfectly willing to help you out.

I'm not 100% sure how to activate the 50% off P500 order though.

Nah, don't worry about it. Thanks though!

Sunday, I got to play: Belfort, from Tasty Minstel Games.

Belfort is a fantasy-themed, worker-placement, light euro game. Each player goes through seven turns, placing Elves, Dwarves, and occasionally gnomes around the board, building businesses, collecting resources, and claiming areas of the city.

The art is incredible:



It was a lot of fun, I hope to play it again tonight!

I got to play Seekrieg 5 over the weekend, recreating the Battle of Vella Gulf.

I got flipped to the Japanese force, facing two split 3-boat groups from two other players, one who was teaching the game and the other is a former Marine who was learning the game, but has a lot more mini wargame experience.

The Marine led his force out too far from the island and directly into visual range, allowing me to bloody his nose a bit as a I headed inland. I managed to outrun a torpedo salvo that was fired directly back in toward me and the inside force, screwing up their maneuvers. After a knife fight with the screening force where I took out one of his to two of mine, I managed to get a 6% chance hit with my torpedoes, completely destroying a second destroyer that hadn't been scratched.

My other two destroyers turned tail and headed back out to sea, runnign smack dab into the outside force coming back in. I split my destroyers to bracket the 3-ship element front and back, trying to get one ship out while screening his middle ship from firing. I managed to inflict some serious damage, but not enough to get any kills. Unfortunately my plan failed, and one ship lost all propulsion and the other lost enough that I couldn't outrun the ships still in the fight.

So while I lost more ships than historically accurate, I sure as hell did better than the Japanese did historically.

Next stop for Issie: GMT games fanboy. Join us....jooooiiiinnnnn usssssss.

If I had a dedicated boardgaming group that was capable of some heavier stuff, I'd be doing that. But as I don't have a group like you guys, I can't see loading money into the hobby. And I wish it wasn't the case.

And command and Colors: Ancients was more fun than I thought it would be.

We seriously need to get El Guapo to run a training session on playing Twilight Struggle and other heavier games via Vassal so we can get our fix from time to time.

Isgrimnur wrote:If I had a dedicated boardgaming group that was capable of some heavier stuff, I'd be doing that. But as I don't have a group like you guys, I can't see loading money into the hobby. And I wish it wasn't the case.

And command and Colors: Ancients was more fun than I thought it would be.

I love Richard Borg games. His rules set is just so much fun. It strikes just the right mix of strategy and beer and pretzles gaming that I love. Although I haven't played any of his C&C games, I will gladly play Battle Cry, Memoir '44, or Battle Lore anytime anyone wants to.

hepcat wrote:We seriously need to get El Guapo to run a training session on playing Twilight Struggle and other heavier games via Vassal so we can get our fix from time to time.

Hey, I'd be happy to play you or someone else via Vassal sometime, and then you could show others (and/or you can have spectators in the Vassal games). It's pretty easy to use and the interface is pretty straightforward.

I haven't played anything other than Twilight Struggle via Vassal, though. I know there were some BSG games via Vassal around here, but I could never make any of those, but if you dug up those threads you could probably find someone to show you that (and possibly run a new Vassal BSG game).

When I get back from the con, I'm going to take you up on that offer! I know zarathud wanted to learn too, so I could show him afterwards.

hepcat wrote:When I get back from the con, I'm going to take you up on that offer! I know zarathud wanted to learn too, so I could show him afterwards.

Sure thing. Do you know when you're getting back from the con?

I'll be back Sunday night so I'll shoot you a PM next week to see what's good for you. It's entirely at your convenience.

Hey, Hep...you coming through Coldwater on your way back home, by any chance?

And conveniently OO Teamspeak and Ventrillo servers were just rolled out. I'm in after 8pm CST.

Zarathud wrote:And conveniently OO Teamspeak and Ventrillo servers were just rolled out. I'm in after 8pm CST.

What are these servers you speak of?

Mostly I've just used Steam chat for this kind of thing.