Octopus Overlords

Do I need to drive up there to get this settled some weekend?

Chaosraven wrote:

LordMortis wrote:

hepcat wrote:That is probably the most common complaint about the game that I hear/see. I wonder if you couldn't just remove ships altogether and just play with missions and war events? It would effectively make diplomacy a useless skill for the most part, but there aren't that many cards that are heavily diplomacy...plus you could just search them away if they showed up in starbase.

What I think would be best is to have ships have two values. One to take over and then other to use. so for instance a 7/7/7/12 would become a 3/3/3/12 once you owned it, etc... Ships still a huge goal for moving forward but their just like having a single killer card in your hand every turn instead of being like having two to three killer cards in your hand every turn.

Hmmm, perhaps this is why you gear up towards it... the other day I won after upgrading my ship twice, first to a 333X, then to a 777x. But only after getting my ass kicked at least twice by other starships

But that's close to my point. Getting the first ship is all luck but once you do then you're sitting on say a 222X, which then queues you up for a 444x as well as prepares you for the other things and then you're off and running. It's all sort of luck of the draw and follow the flow of the river, which is fine and all but not so much for (for me) a long game, especially for one that is so otherwise interesting without that aspect.

With the impact of the ships minimized (not eliminated) there's this whole thing about choosing and balancing a build and seeing how it works out. Understanding more about the game, the game is about exploring every turn and hoping you meet the requirements and luck in to a better ship to gain big edge which will help you luck into a better ship which should allow you to run away with the game.

hepcat wrote:Do I need to drive up there to get this settled some weekend?

Aw YEA BOYZ...

I think of it like Dominion, where you attempt to collect a Combo that snatches a Province every turn.

You purchase and cull, purchase and cull. Matter of fact, in the game I was talking about I spent 3 of my early turns simply removing the Ensigns.

LordMortis wrote:But that's close to my point. Getting the first ship is all luck but once you do then you're sitting on say a 222X, which then queues you up for a 444x as well as prepares you for the other things and then you're off and running. It's all sort of luck of the draw and follow the flow of the river, which is fine and all but not so much for (for me) a long game, especially for one that is so otherwise interesting without that aspect.

With the impact of the ships minimized (not eliminated) there's this whole thing about choosing and balancing a build and seeing how it works out. Understanding more about the game, the game is about exploring every turn and hoping you meet the requirements and luck in to a better ship to gain big edge which will help you luck into a better ship which should allow you to run away with the game.

I agree with your point, the Ships are "OverPowered".

Which is exactly why you explore and take the chance of getting screwed.

There are 15 ships and 25 Mission/Event, or 30 and 50 if both sets used.

A Player who maxes out attack and shields will win nearly the same, by blowing them up.

Chaosraven wrote:I agree with your point, the Ships are "OverPowered".

Which is exactly why you explore and take the chance of getting screwed.

There are 15 ships and 25 Mission/Event, or 30 and 50 if both sets used.

A Player who maxes out attack and shields will win nearly the same, by blowing them up.

I agree and I've learned that after the first game and it dismays me when balanced against the potential it seems to have without "overpowered" aspect. I think the game would be interesting strategically and would have some depth if ships worked differently (for instance if they were just as hard to take over as they are now, but provide perhaps half their benefit when being used) as opposed to the beer and pretzely play it gives you right now. The time of a game is too long for me for it be treated beer and pretzely. But again, now that I know how to approach the game (as very very light) my opinion may change.

LordMortis wrote:

Chaosraven wrote:I agree with your point, the Ships are "OverPowered".

Which is exactly why you explore and take the chance of getting screwed.

There are 15 ships and 25 Mission/Event, or 30 and 50 if both sets used.

A Player who maxes out attack and shields will win nearly the same, by blowing them up.

I agree and I've learned that after the first game and it dismays me when balanced against the potential it seems to have without "overpowered" aspect. I think the game would be interesting strategically and would have some depth if ships worked differently (for instance if they were just as hard to take over as they are now, but provide perhaps half their benefit when being used) as opposed to the beer and pretzely play it gives you right now. The time of a game is too long for me for it be treated beer and pretzely. But again, now that I know how to approach the game (as very very light) my opinion may change.

And we have played it as a 200pt (Half) Game to shorten it, but I figured we could manage a full one for the evening.

Did you also get New Era this week?

I picked up Thunderstone Advanced on Sunday and I've been enjoying it solo the last few days. I may try to throw together an impromptu game tonight or saturday morning to see how it plays with others, but I really like the changes they've made.

hepcat wrote:Did you also get New Era this week?

I picked up Thunderstone Advanced on Sunday and I've been enjoying it solo the last few days. I may try to throw together an impromptu game tonight or saturday morning to see how it plays with others, but I really like the changes they've made.

LM will be ordering New Era (not found at the FLGS) for me as he gets Eminent Domain, if we can figure enough games to get free shipping (though I did order the Spiel Promo cards from Ebay)

RATS (2 Conq/Incorp/Deal)
Demolition Squad
Expedition
Farm
Car Patrol
Mike Highway
Wrecked Transporter

I'll figure enough games. I just don't know what yet nor if remus wants in this round.

I'm just bummed that every game I go to order is on backorder. Bastard gamers.

The new era promo cards on BGG are actually 51st State cards. They don't have the defensive distances on them.

hepcat wrote:The new era promo cards on BGG are actually 51st State cards. They don't have the defensive distances on them.

True, I plan on doing the conversion to my 51st State stuff

I'm still really annoyed by the way they handled New Era as an "expansion". I find it much too detrimental to gameplay to have to stop and figure out the defensive location distances on 51st State cards. I know it's simple enough, but having to do it with every single card from 51st State is enough to turn me off the prospect.

How is Thunderstone Advance for solo? I have never played Thunderstone, so I have really no idea about it either way, but have always been interested.

Also, anyone ever play Cyclades? I am about to give in to that temptation and go pick it up...

I've played Thunderstone Advanced solo a few times and I really, really like it. The new "End Boss" mechanic they toss in as the "Thunderstone Bearer" that you have to defeat to end the game is fantastic.

But if you want the single best solo game released in the last 5 years or so, you need to pick up Mage Knight. It's simply amazing.

As for Cyclades, Zarathud has it and the expansion but seems unwilling to let us play. I think he's keeping it sealed as a collector's item.

Let me see:

On Saturday afternoon, I played my new copy of Dragon Rampage and had a ton of fun. We only had four players, but I think 5 is the best. I also played an old favorite, Agricola. I lost to my friend when I couldn't get enough actions to not get negatives for animals.

Played Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game on Sunday. It's a great, great game, but takes so long. I also drew a weak civilization (Chinese), and was crushed by the Germans.

On Tuesday, I finally learned Glen More and had a good time with it.

Tomorrow night, I have my first game of Rex with six players. I've heard from multiple people that the game shines brightest at six. I'm excited!

I've been thinking for my Monday night gaming group, I'm going to start making an effort to play all of the games that I've bought but haven't played yet. That's not a lot of games, but it is the more difficult learning curve games. I think I'm going to start this off with a bang next week and drop Civilization on the table. I know we won't get through a whole game, but we can at least get part of it under our belts.

I'm up for civ if you have room. If not, I'll just sit in your back yard and make up wookie calls.

We also need to address the issue of you having never played twilight struggle in the near future.

Played 3 games of ST DBG today, teaching TWO new people, Remus and my friend who owns a FLGS (sort of, mostly Comics, CCG, and Collectible toys).

Remus won all three games today.

So I have now played this game every day for the last 4, and yes, I still love it.

Chaosraven wrote:Remus won all three games today.

and how did Chaosraven do in these games?

hepcat wrote:But if you want the single best solo game released in the last 5 years or so, you need to pick up Mage Knight. It's simply amazing.

Holy jeez this is selling for a lot of money. I'm guessing it's out of production and in high demand? Is it due to have another manufacturing run soon?

wonderpug wrote:

hepcat wrote:But if you want the single best solo game released in the last 5 years or so, you need to pick up Mage Knight. It's simply amazing.

Holy jeez this is selling for a lot of money. I'm guessing it's out of production and in high demand? Is it due to have another manufacturing run soon?

Hang on until mid April. The second printing should be out by the 20th of that month. They'll also be incorporating changes to address a few card errors (there were 3 small ones in the first run) and cleaning up the manual a bit. I'm tempted to sell my old copy and get a copy of the 2nd run, I love this game so much.

MageKnight was one of the games I didn't order because it was out of stock today. Two copies of Eclipse that had been out of stock were available but the $120 price tag ($180 retail? Seriously?) scared me right off that game.

I want Mage Kinght as well. Hep, if you every get the chance to play Through the Ages, and enjoy it as much as I do, you'll also worship at the throne of Chvátil. He's also made a hilarious party game called Pictomania.

The weird thing is that I didn't enjoy Dungeon Lords at all. And Space Alert, while interesting, was just too fiddly imho. But Mage Knight? Can't stop playing. It's like a puzzle version of Runebound with a better narrative that evolves out of the game.

It being hard to get just makes me want it more. How much did it sell for originally?

wonderpug wrote:It being hard to get just makes me want it more. How much did it sell for originally?

Hang on for 5 weeks tops and you can get it online for about 55 bucks. That's how much I paid for it through miniaturemarket.com. Don't give in to the folks who buy up copies of anything popular and then sell them for outrageous prices at online auction sites.

LordMortis wrote:MageKnight was one of the games I didn't order because it was out of stock today. Two copies of Eclipse that had been out of stock were available but the $120 price tag ($180 retail? Seriously?) scared me right off that game.

I *will* get Eclipse on the table for you next Octocon. Or earlier if you can make it to Origins or GenCon.

I already have Mage Knight. Awesome game, but tough as all get out. I lose, and not just lose, but disgustingly lose in the solo game.

I have Last Night On Earth set up for tomorrow. A friend who is REALLY into zombies is coming over to game some tomorrow evening.

I went ahead and bought Cyclades and the expansion through funagaingames. Really looking forward to that one. Love Greek Mythology, and this one looks incredible.

Miniature Market's retail store has a few nearly-new copies of the Ghost Stories: Black Secret expansion for about $22, I'm so tempted. Even though I have White Moon, which has been played exactly once. They also have a bunch of Red November copies for $15, the Cyclades expansion for $22, and a new game called Ventura that I've never heard of for half off. I really need to stop going in there...

LordMortis and I tried the Star Trek DBG versus the Borg (just the two of us) and got stomped 3x in a row before we pulled a win.

Then went 0 and 4 against the Borg 2 scenario. Holy crap is that a nightmare.

I'm going to try like heck to buy MageKnight after the rerelease. It will be right by my birthday, so it might work out. Glad I waited for the card fixes and such!

Got in a game of Thunderstone Advance this afternoon as well as some New Era. Won at thunderstone but got horribly beaten in New Era. But I'm just glad any time I get to play it. It really is one of my favorite game series.

Played edh and 60card MtG with my son and a friend, then spent some time playing xbox Fruit Ninja until Remus West showed up so we could play ST DBG, which my son won.

This last week, I picked up Colonial: Europe's Empires Overseas, a game I've had my eye on since I watched a video review in October by Ryan Metzler. It's sort of a combination of Risk and Puerto Rico, but on a similar complexity level to PR. It's focused on resource management, exploration, and war. I know I like it quite a bit, but I need a few more plays to figure out how much. It seems very expandable and easily modified. The designer has already released v2 of the rules, and it's improved.

Oooh, that looks great. I need to look into that one.

I've had my eye on 1812: The Invasion of Canada after my favorite game reviewer called it innovative.

hepcat wrote:Oooh, that looks great. I need to look into that one.

There's a problem. It's out of print. Supposedly, this summer, GMT will be reprinting it. It has easily the best-looking board I've ever seen.

I also got in on the Kickstarter for Chicken Caesar - where you elect roosters to various Senate offices, Roman-style.

SpaceLord wrote:I also got in on the Kickstarter for Chicken Caesar - where you elect roosters to various Senate offices, Roman-style.

I saw that on BGG. It's interesting (and confusing) that it's ranked so high if the game is still going through kickstarter. Maybe their hotness ranking (not player ranking) has to do with recent clicks or something.

My copies of Cyclades and the Hades expansion arrived today...and wow...what a gorgeous game. Looks incredible. The pieces all look great, the board is colorful...and each side has their own models for their soldiers/ships. The art is just incredible...great, great looking game. Looking forward to playing it next Monday with my group!!

I played an interesting 2-player game of Quarriors with my son that ended with a first for us... a 12-10 score because we'd managed to buy up 4 different types of creatures. Suffice to say the game was pretty much a stalemate. My son rolled lots of quiddity early on and was able to buy up several expensive creatures (notably Corrupted Questing Wizards), but wasn't able to summon them very often because he rolled lv2-3 versions and rarely had enough quiddity to summon them all. I didn't roll as much quiddity early on, but did get a few cheap creatures into play for some points and I did wind up eventually buying all of the Death spells (the version that simply destroys a single creature).

The few points I was able to score he whittled away with the Corrupted Wizards special ability, while I basically picked off whatever creatures he could summon with my Death spells. Occasionally he got a lv3 creature into play when I didn't have double burst-sided Death spells able to destroy them and that eventually won him the game. Not only did we have 4 creatures bought out, but 2 spell dice were sold out as well.