Octopus Overlords

MythicalMino wrote:how have you guys done with the solo conquest? I get my backside handed to me badly....

I'm still learning the ropes and going through the intro scenario in solo mode. I doubt it will get much MP play as I can see it being a very, very long game with some of the folks I play with who would agonize over their turns for minutes on end. But I'm utterly in love with the solo experience. I can honestly say without reservation that it's the best single player boardgame I've ever played.

The boardgame reviewer at gameshark.com, Michael Barnes, even voted it his GOTY. I really like his reviews as they're always fair and in depth. Check out his full review here for even more info.

p.s. to quality for free shipping from miniaturemarket.com I added the new lotr lcg expansion and a copy of the recently released revised edition of Shadowhunters. So now we have a Werewolf type game that takes up to 8 players for the next Octocon.

Oh, and miniaturemarket continues to prove they're the number one choice for anyone in the chicago area at least. even during a winter storm warning, I had my order on my desk in under 24 hours. I love those guys.

coopasonic wrote:Formula D - Played the Basic game again. One day I will play the advanced game, but it took a good 90 minutes for 1 lap with 6 players. I can't even imagine the full rules game. It was more of a demolition derby than a race. 3 of 6 cars were destroyed at the end, one from a collision exiting last turn, one that took the last turn too fast and one that crossed the finish line in 6th gear to take second place and decimate his car in what must have been a fatal wreck in turn 1.

The chumps all went in to the 3 stop turn on the far end of the course too fast and limped out, while I came out flying and hit everything just right on the straight. The last two turns were dicey and I might have lost if not for that last turn collision that took out the biggest threat. I love this game, I just wish it didn't take so long to play. We didn't even have captain slow turn at our table this time and it still dragged.

As usual, I wish the boardgame meetup started earlier and ended later.

If it might be something you could work, I'll see about tracking down the Dallas De Trippers group. They run one race a month for 10 months out of the year on a circuit. The caveat is that they run it at a weekly gaming get together on Tuesday nights, IIRC. They use the old version of the game, but the advanced rules, negating that whole "damage to give" scenario.

coopasonic wrote: Formula D - Played the Basic game again. One day I will play the advanced game, but it took a good 90 minutes for 1 lap with 6 players. I can't even imagine the full rules game. It was more of a demolition derby than a race. 3 of 6 cars were destroyed at the end, one from a collision exiting last turn, one that took the last turn too fast and one that crossed the finish line in 6th gear to take second place and decimate his car in what must have been a fatal wreck in turn 1.

The chumps all went in to the 3 stop turn on the far end of the course too fast and limped out, while I came out flying and hit everything just right on the straight. The last two turns were dicey and I might have lost if not for that last turn collision that took out the biggest threat. I love this game, I just wish it didn't take so long to play. We didn't even have captain slow turn at our table this time and it still dragged.

As usual, I wish the boardgame meetup started earlier and ended later.

I've been wanting to run a 3-race team circuit at Octocon for years, but I've never wanted to tie up people playing for 6 hours while we do it. I've thought long and hard about timers, etc. but nothing felt satisfactory to me. If I were going to institute a timer, it would be, say, one minute after you roll the dice to complete your move. And the other rule I would add to speed it up would be no going back and trying to find a better route. Once you start counting out your route, you're stuck with wherever you go. Drives me nuts to watch people count out their route, go "Hmm. I bet I could do better," go back, and start counting again.

Combining a 1 minute timer with no re-counting I bet would really speed the game up.

I'm having my old roommate Chaim and his son Shmuel over for some family boardgaming on Thursday. They are Orthodox Jews, so I'm not sure how cool they might be with Memoir 44. This doesn't mean I won't ask.

Holman wrote:I'm having my old roommate Chaim and his son Shmuel over for some family boardgaming on Thursday. They are Orthodox Jews, so I'm not sure how cool they might be with Memoir 44. This doesn't mean I won't ask.

I'd suggest letting them play as the Allies.

Taught Thunderstone to Tommy and Stuart last night. Stuart was having problems getting his Engine going, until about 12 or so rounds in and then he really started to kick butt. Tommy seemed to do well early on, then stalled out midway through when we got some tough monsters in the dungeon and he couldn't chain together tough enough attacks to take them down. I was doing well overall, picking up a lot of monsters but all low point. Tipping point for me though was when I took out two Minotaurs right at the end game to give me 12 VPs. That was enough to put me way out of reach of the other two. Of course, the fact that I've played about 15 games of it helps me out quite a bit (assuming that you count the Facebook game as "plays".)

Finished up the evening with a quick game of Forbidden Island. And got ourselves soaked.

Holman wrote:I'm having my old roommate Chaim and his son Shmuel over for some family boardgaming on Thursday. They are Orthodox Jews, so I'm not sure how cool they might be with Memoir 44. This doesn't mean I won't ask.

The oddest thing, I know a lot of Jewish wargamers and they love playing WWII related games. Even more odd, they tend to prefer Eastern Front theater as a focus.

hentzau wrote:Combining a 1 minute timer with no re-counting I bet would really speed the game up.

You must play with some slow players. A minute is a LONG time to take to make one move in Formula D. It's rare you are moving more than a dozen spaces in a turn. Giving some time for hemming and hawing about what gear to use and then track down the right die, I guess 30 seconds might be reasonable.

Remind me next time and I can bring the dice from my set to cut down on dice search times.

coopasonic wrote:

hentzau wrote:Combining a 1 minute timer with no re-counting I bet would really speed the game up.

You must play with some slow players. A minute is a LONG time to take to make one move in Formula D. It's rare you are moving more than a dozen spaces in a turn. Giving some time for hemming and hawing about what gear to use and then track down the right die, I guess 30 seconds might be reasonable.

Like I said, the problem we run into is the recounting. "OK, lets see...1,2,3,4,5,6...no, that takes me too far out of the corner. Let me go back. 1,2,3,4,5,6...still outside of the curve, but better. I bet if I count it one more time, I can squeeze one more space out of it. 1, 2..."

Repeat countless times through the game.

baelthazar wrote:

Holman wrote:I'm having my old roommate Chaim and his son Shmuel over for some family boardgaming on Thursday. They are Orthodox Jews, so I'm not sure how cool they might be with Memoir 44. This doesn't mean I won't ask.

The oddest thing, I know a lot of Jewish wargamers and they love playing WWII related games. Even more odd, they tend to prefer Eastern Front theater as a focus.

Jewish people are just like any other people. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of jewish wargamers who don't bat an eye at games set in WWII.

You can buy an extra set of Formula D dice and that would speed things along, same as Runebound. People less familiar with the game board will always take more time than those who know it.

Taught Tobago to a few friends, and they loved it.

Chaosraven wrote:Taught Tobago to a few friends, and they loved it.

You know, if you would buy games before me. I'd never have to actually buy them.

Chaosraven wrote:Taught Tobago to a few friends, and they loved it.

Thanks for the invite. Sure, I'd love to come play. Oh. Wait. There was no invite.

Don't forget Nerdsday Night this evening for edh and casual magic...

Remus West wrote:

Chaosraven wrote:Taught Tobago to a few friends, and they loved it.

Thanks for the invite. Sure, I'd love to come play. Oh. Wait. There was no invite.

Spoiler:

I was coaching anyway ya big meanie head.

You? Who bought Tobago in the first place? He comes out once every six months to figure out if he wants to buy games to play with other friends. We're his beta testing group and I am the financier.

Wow, this place got passive aggressive all the sudden.

For those that shop miniaturemarket, do you ship with UPS or USPS Priority? I've been using Priority but wonder if UPS would be fast as I am only about 6 hours from Saint Louis.

Passive?

LordMortis wrote:

Remus West wrote:

Chaosraven wrote:Taught Tobago to a few friends, and they loved it.

Thanks for the invite. Sure, I'd love to come play. Oh. Wait. There was no invite.

Spoiler:

I was coaching anyway ya big meanie head.

You? Who bought Tobago in the first place? He comes out once every six months to figure out if he wants to buy games to play with other friends. We're his beta testing group and I am the financier.

Didn't think you'd figure that out so fast.
On an entirely different subject, did you see the game Hepcat linked in the Octocon thread? That would be a fun game to try. Someone in our group should pick up a copy.

baelthazar wrote:Wow, this place got passive aggressive all the sudden.

For those that shop miniaturemarket, do you ship with UPS or USPS Priority? I've been using Priority but wonder if UPS would be fast as I am only about 6 hours from Saint Louis.

I have ordered from them about 4 times and used UPS Ground only. Each order has arrived on my desk at the office in less than 24 hours without fail...even during snow storms. If you live that close, and USPS priority costs you more than UPS ground, I would try the latter.

Yay! One of buddies from the very beginning of the days of M:tG has joined us for edh! (though he is sad that his Black Lotus is banned)

Going to be demoing the new Lords of Waterdeep board game from WotC in a few minutes. Will report back soon.

I played Ora et Labora twice so far this week. It's the latest in the series by Rosenberg. Fantastic. The resource wheel is a terrific mechanic. I might like this one better than Agricola, and I love Agricola.

I find that Uwe Boll has made me naturally biased against all work produced by Uwes.

El Guapo wrote:I find that Uwe Boll has made me naturally biased against all work produced by Uwes.

LMAO!

I find myself unable to get excited about a game called "Prayer and Work".

Boudreaux wrote:I find myself unable to get excited about a game called "Prayer and Work".

Or a game about farming(Settlers/Agricola)? Or spelling(Scrabble)? Or investments? (Monopoly)?

The interesting thing about OeL is that there's no randomness. At all. There's two variants, one set in Ireland(with beer and whiskey), and one in France(with bread and wine.)

SpaceLord wrote:

Boudreaux wrote:I find myself unable to get excited about a game called "Prayer and Work".

Or a game about farming(Settlers/Agricola)? Or spelling(Scrabble)? Or investments? (Monopoly)?

The interesting thing about OeL is that there's no randomness. At all. There's two variants, one set in Ireland(with beer and whiskey), and one in France(with bread and wine.)

Does it take 3 hours to play like Le Havre?

Got to play a couple 4-player games of Betrayal at House on the Hill last night. It's a quick little game, what with the rolling for haunting trigger.

The first game, my buddy, the game owner and power gamer extraordinaire became the betrayer and tried to drown us all. Luckily, we were all close to the location we needed to be, got the needed item, and got to wave goodbye to the whackjob as we sailed away.

In the second game, I was the betrayer, and managed to get one square away from where I needed to go to open the portal to hell before the statue they activated sucked away the last of my speed.

It's interesting, once the haunting flips, it goes from general exploration game to frantic group consolidation.

I bought Betrayal at House on the Hill when it was remade. We played twice I believe and then I sold it at the auction at Origins. My problem with the game is that the exploration phase seems pointless as you rarely find anything, and when you do it's almost useless anyway. I think it would be a much better game if they released an expansion that fleshed out the exploration phase.

I got to use the pickpocket gloves on the first game to earn a turn of insurance that we didn't need and the idol I had helped me win a combat against the betrayer.

As the betrayer, the weapon I got and the charm I'd picked up earlier came in handy.

OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Fallen Enchantress.



Remus and Redrun called but my phone freaked out and somehow turned itself off and I was just plugged into that game for the whole weekend. That same combo of phone freak out and video games caused me to not only blow off most of responsibilities but also be late to my viewing Sherlock, so I only got to watch two of three episodes.

The good news is that it's the first board gamers video game I've played and enjoyed since Solum Infernum.

Saturday I unboxed Eclipse and sat down to learn it with my eight-year-old son. It took us two hours to set the game up and sort out what we were doing well enough to complete our first round but after that it went smoothly, he grasped it soon after that first round and fun was had.

Sunday I played a bunch of games with the kids of a visiting friend (The Magic Labyrinth, Duck, Duck, Bruce, The Kids of Carcassonne and Botswana) in the morning then in the afternoon my son and I played Eclipse with a friend followed by a quick game of Venture Forth.

If your 8 year old grasped the nuances of Eclipse after the first turn, I feel fairly down on myself...

BTW, I have a new video component review of the FFG version of Nexus Ops posted on YouTube. Search for Electronic Eremite Reviews.

he's been boardgaming since he was three and is pretty exceptional - he beat both adult players by a respectable margin in Eclipse on Sunday.

I'm trying to convince myself I don't need the new Nexus Ops..

I just unboxed Kids of Carcassone. It remains to be seen who will enjoy it more: hepcat after a few umbrella drinks or my 4 year old.

And another old MtG friend has joined the edh club, ecstatic that she has a place to use those old cards.

(and I now have Monday evenings set up for regular edh play)

Zarathud wrote:I just unboxed Kids of Carcassone. It remains to be seen who will enjoy it more: hepcat after a few umbrella drinks or my 4 year old.

Your 4 year old can drink me under the table so booze shouldn't be a factot to be fair.

hepcat wrote: a factot to be fair.