Octopus Overlords

Chaz, have you ever joined any of the gaming nights in the basement of Pandemonium Games? I've been tempted to investigate sometime but I don't know how well I'd mesh with the regulars.

Chaz wrote:All this chatter about Waterdeep has me interested, but I still feel the need to wait and see. The pattern with these euro-style games always seems to be a ton of interest right off the bat, and then things rapidly cool off. A few months later, the bloom is off the rose.

That's not just a pattern. It's sort of the intent. While I would rather play games for years and years and I really would love a parlour games night, the Euro way of doing games is discover, enjoy, put away. Spiel des Jahres get a bunch of candidates every year because they want games to come into only long enough to appreciate the next flower. That's OK too, even if it's not how I prefer to do things and I do get bummed when I have possibly 50 games or possibly more that go unloved as we continue to find new shiny things.

I've taken to grabbing old games and setting them on the table until they get played again. I think Entdecker and Tigres and Euphrates and Junta are sitting there right now.

Edit: As long as I get my entertainment for a night or two that's all I care about. If I get 4 guy to be entertained with a game for 8 hours for the price of $40 to $60, I think we're doing all right.

I think there will always be a honeymoon period for those of us who love this hobby. We get a game, we rave about it, we play it to death, then we move on. Eventually, we sell the ones that didn't stand the test of time at conventions or shove them off on friends. Which gives us more room in our closets for the next big thing.

I used to struggle with that. But over the last few months I've just come to accept it. Considering the number of really harmful hobbies one could have, board gaming is positively angelic in comparison. Plus, as I've noted before, I was a pack a day smoker at one point. At 7 bucks a pack, that's about 200 bucks a month. If I even spend that whole amount on board games per month (which contrary to popular belief, I usually don't...I normally spend about a hundred a month on average), I'm still going down a safer and much healthier road...and one that gives me a social side benefit as well.

wonderpug wrote:Chaz, have you ever joined any of the gaming nights in the basement of Pandemonium Games? I've been tempted to investigate sometime but I don't know how well I'd mesh with the regulars.

I never did get down there. I vaguely remember the schedule not meshing with mine. The few times I was down there browsing during Magic night, the crowd was very much Stereotypical Gamer.

I used to be in the "buy a bunch of games as they come out" crowd. These days though, I've accepted that I very rarely get to actually play games, and I really don't want to have a boat load of them in my house. I pared my collection from over 120 games down to less than 20, and I'm happy with that. So if I get a new game, it either has to be something that's really, really interesting to me (Mage Knight, or Mansions of Madness last year), or one that will stand the test of time. Part of me wishes I could cycle through games quickly so I could play a ton, but who knows when that'll be the case again, if ever.

No no no, old games sit on the "OMG I *LOVE* THAT GAME* shelf, waiting for the newest fixation to fade, to occupy the time between OctoCons... my son and I have been playing quite a bit of the old Lost Worlds Combat Books.

I definitely want to play both Cosmic Encounter and Talisman soonish.

Baelthazar, I'm feeling the geek love for the video review you did of Space Empires 4x. Fan-fucking tastic. It's sadly an ignored game around here.

SpaceLord wrote:Baelthazar, I'm feeling the geek love for the video review you did of Space Empires 4x. Fan-fucking tastic. It's sadly an ignored game around here.

I have a copy of SE4X. Just haven't had time to play it. Looks really fun though.

Chaz wrote:Part of me wishes I could cycle through games quickly so I could play a ton, but who knows when that'll be the case again, if ever.

I think part of buying new games is an excuse to hang out and do something new with people. "Hey I got new game x. Let's get together an play!" So getting to play a ton ends up being the desired effect you get because you are cycling through games quickly.

I'm not sure if I like having a huge library or not. When I walk into my game room it's kind of cool to see I don't know how many games but then I think to myself how much beer and strippers that gaming money could have rented.

And I still want to do a regular parlour games night. That seems to be an impossible task for getting people together. Or perhaps I just don't try.

LordMortis wrote: When I walk into my game room it's kind of cool to see I don't know how many games but then I think to myself how much beer and strippers that gaming money could have rented.

On the plus side, you have working a working liver and (probably) no STD's.

EMINENT DOMAIN
BONUS PLANETS
This mini-expansion contains 9 bonus planets for use with Eminent Domain. It includes 3 Prestige plants and 6 Utopian planets. These planets are intended to spice up the game and add an interesting twist to the Survey role, making your choice of planets, and therefore your strategy, more interesting.
Prestige Planets
There are 3 Prestige Planets, each with a different cost, representing important or famous worlds that confer a lot of Influence. However, they do not help to satisfy any research requirements, they do not provide symbols, and they do not have any resource slots.
Utopian Planets
There are 6 Utopian planets, each with the same cost, representing impressive utopias where any type of resource can be produced and any type of technology can be studied. The resource slots on Utopian planets can store any type of resource, so when producing a resource you may choose which type to produce.
When researching technology, a Utopian planet counts as any type of planet you already have for purposes of satisfying planet requirements. However, for each research role you may only count 1 Utopian planet this way. For example, if you have 1 Advanced planet and 2 Utopian planets in your Empire, then you could choose Advanced technology cards from level 1 or 2 (but not level 3). You could not choose any Metallic or Fertile technology cards unless you also have planets of those types in your Empire.


Kewl, didn't know that about the Utopians

hepcat wrote:On the plus side, you have working a working liver and (probably) no STD's.

No comment on any of that.

Chaosraven wrote: any type of technology can be studied. The resource slots on Utopian planets can store any type of resource, so when producing a resource you may choose which type to produce.
When researching technology, a Utopian planet counts as any type of planet you already have for purposes of satisfying planet requirements. However, for each research role you may only count 1 Utopian planet this way. For example, if you have 1 Advanced planet and 2 Utopian planets in your Empire, then you could choose Advanced technology cards from level 1 or 2 (but not level 3). You could not choose any Metallic or Fertile technology cards unless you also have planets of those types in your Empire.


Kewl, didn't know that about the Utopians

That's all new and it also explains why I looked for this exact rule in the basic set and didn't see it. I knew it was strange that Utopian planets looked like all three techs but provided no technology.

I'm also glad you mentioned prestige planets because I couldn't remember what the other planet type was and it was making me crazy.

Shouldn't you be sleeping? I think I will put off grocery shopping until tomorrow.

Why didn't any of you clowns mention Monsterpocalypse until a few days ago -- I thought we were all friends? Now my desk is covered with UFOs, skyscrapers and giant robot men...suddenly I am 8 again.

I've always meant to try Monsterpocolypse. I see it at conventions but didn't get into it because I was afraid it was just a reskinned Hero Clix for the Kaiju crowd. Let me know your thoughts on it after a game. Between you and Wonderpug, you're going to end up ruining me.

baelthazar wrote:

hentzau wrote:You know the mark of a good game? When you want to play it again right after you finish, even if you did get your ass royally kicked. You know the mark of a great game? When, after you can't get in a second play because it's too late, you go to bed and DREAM of playing the game. That's what happened to me last night after we got done playing Lords of Waterdeep.
...
Still coming highly, highly recommended.

I really really like LoW. It sort of washes the displeasure of Rex out of my mouth (I've got to think about trading or selling Rex, it just isn't the game for me). LoW is a deep yet streamlined Euro, something I would have thought impossible. Almost as complex as Caylus with much less book-keeping and brain-burning, the resource generation of Le Havre in 1/3rd the play time, and the accessibility of Troyes without all the dice. WotC outdid themselves here!

Hent, have you gotten to play a 2-player and juxtaposed it against the 4-5 player game? I would love to hear your thoughts. IMHO, the game changes dramatically, in the two player you have more agents, less incentive to use other people's buildings (but more competition to buy or build the best buildings) and the ability complete a bunch of quests - but the competition for the quests in the inn is high. With more players you will be more likely to use opponent's buildings, because they give you more agents (or better actions) and the interplay of the intrigue cards really changes. Quests completion takes a bit more planning with only a few agents. Both "versions" are a lot of fun!

I have come very close to buying Rex a number of times....maybe I won't...

hepcat wrote:I've always meant to try Monsterpocolypse. I see it at conventions but didn't get into it because I was afraid it was just a reskinned Hero Clix for the Kaiju crowd. Let me know your thoughts on it after a game. Between you and Wonderpug, you're going to end up ruining me.

When I started to look into it, I was turned off by the collectable nature of picking up random boxes of mystery creatures. But in response to that, they released a 2 player Battle Box that includes two complete random factions. And then you can buy "DMZ" box sets that contain more random figures, all from the same faction. So...

And yeah, I ordered Lords of Waterdeep. The good news is that if the wife kicks me out, at least I know I can head west with my collection of board games and hang out with all of you guys.

Smoove_B wrote:Why didn't any of you clowns mention Monsterpocalypse until a few days ago -- I thought we were all friends? Now my desk is covered with UFOs, skyscrapers and giant robot men...suddenly I am 8 again.

I've thought about this one with my 9 year old son, but I was trying to avoid a collectable game. Did I read somewhere where they are going away from the collectable game model with this one?

Rex seems to getting pretty bad word of mouth. I don't believe I've seen any glowing reviews of it. The best I've heard is that it somewhat duplicates what Dune did all those years ago...but at a cost to gameplay.

Smoove_B wrote: And yeah, I ordered Lords of Waterdeep. The good news is that if the wife kicks me out, at least I know I can head west with my collection of board games and hang out with all of you guys.

You can sleep on my gaming table in the basement.

(Once you get it out from under the piles of games and books currently on it...)

Smoove_B wrote:And yeah, I ordered Lords of Waterdeep. The good news is that if the wife kicks me out, at least I know I can head west with my collection of board games and hang out with all of you guys.

You bring games? You're always welcome at my humble camode. I promise not to shoot you.

LordMortis wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:And yeah, I ordered Lords of Waterdeep. The good news is that if the wife kicks me out, at least I know I can head west with my collection of board games and hang out with all of you guys.

You bring games? You're always welcome at my humble camode. I promise not to shoot you.

I promise to rehide his gun if he should find it before you arrive. Once that done, with his memory, he'll probably never even look for it again.

hepcat wrote:Rex seems to getting pretty bad word of mouth. I don't believe I've seen any glowing reviews of it. The best I've heard is that it somewhat duplicates what Dune did all those years ago...but at a cost to gameplay.

I played Rex with the primary playtesters a couple of weeks ago. They said that almost every major gameplay change that FFG suggested was shot down, due to balance issues. The fiddly/broken stuff that was introduced in the former expansions is gone. I found the game very clever and deep. I'd need to play it again to see if I really like it.

hentzau wrote:I've thought about this one with my 9 year old son, but I was trying to avoid a collectable game. Did I read somewhere where they are going away from the collectable game model with this one?

As I said earlier, the $37 Battle Box is everything you need to get started, though the two factions you're given will be completely random. My only impression so far is that the budget went into the figures and not the map, which I'm guessing is going to get shredded after folding it and unfolding it a dozen or so times. It's thicker stock paper (think of the style they use for giant poster-sized maps when you purchase hint books for PC games). There's also a lot of symbols on the figure bases that aren't intuitive, but thankfully some helpful folks at BGG created some reference guides. The dice are easily the smallest I've ever seen -- even smaller than Quarriors. It looks pretty overwhelming right now, but at least I can focus my attention on just learning two factions. The fact that at some point I get to pick a giant monster up, throw it into a skyscraper and knock it down is worth the price of admission for me.

I don't have any experience with Heroclix, so I have nothing at all really to compare it to. I'll try to bust out a solo game later this week. Possibly play an actual game on Friday night. HOPE

EDIT: I found this eight part Youtube tutorial that is seven shades of awesome. So much better than reading a manual and you can see how it looks.

Smoove_B wrote:The good news is that if the wife kicks me out, at least I know I can build a house with my collection of board games and hang out with all of you guys.

Or just use your collection of board games to build a small house.

Smoove_B wrote:EDIT: I found this eight part Youtube tutorial that is seven shades of awesome. So much better than reading a manual and you can see how it looks.

First thing I do after getting a new boardgame is head to BGG and look for a tutorial video. I love that I can be one lazy SOB and let someone do all the work for me. There's a series by a guy named Rodney I'm particularly fond of. He's quite good at teaching you the ins and outs of a game.

MythicalMino wrote:

baelthazar wrote:

hentzau wrote:You know the mark of a good game? When you want to play it again right after you finish, even if you did get your ass royally kicked. You know the mark of a great game? When, after you can't get in a second play because it's too late, you go to bed and DREAM of playing the game. That's what happened to me last night after we got done playing Lords of Waterdeep.
...
Still coming highly, highly recommended.

I really really like LoW. It sort of washes the displeasure of Rex out of my mouth (I've got to think about trading or selling Rex, it just isn't the game for me). LoW is a deep yet streamlined Euro, something I would have thought impossible. Almost as complex as Caylus with much less book-keeping and brain-burning, the resource generation of Le Havre in 1/3rd the play time, and the accessibility of Troyes without all the dice. WotC outdid themselves here!

Hent, have you gotten to play a 2-player and juxtaposed it against the 4-5 player game? I would love to hear your thoughts. IMHO, the game changes dramatically, in the two player you have more agents, less incentive to use other people's buildings (but more competition to buy or build the best buildings) and the ability complete a bunch of quests - but the competition for the quests in the inn is high. With more players you will be more likely to use opponent's buildings, because they give you more agents (or better actions) and the interplay of the intrigue cards really changes. Quests completion takes a bit more planning with only a few agents. Both "versions" are a lot of fun!

I have come very close to buying Rex a number of times....maybe I won't...

Well, watch my review. If you like what you see and understand the pros and cons and still want it, I could sell my copy (complete with sleeved cards) to you for a decent price. It isn't a bad game, but one that doesn't suit my gaming group very well. My review is fairly long, partially because I had such mixed feelings and the games I played vacillated between being fun and being a slog (this may have been due to the different groups I played with, the slog group was definitely a meta-gaming group). Other reviewers are really excited about Rex, so it makes me think it is mostly personal preference.

A word of warning about Lords of Waterdeep! When you go to remove the shrink wrap from the box, DO NOT flip the box over and try and slide a knife into the gap between the box lid and the box bottom like you usually would... because there is none there The box is more like a fancy lidded gift box. There's plenty of room to insert a knife along the middle edge of the box.

I had just flipped the box and was moments away from prying a knife in before I thankfully noticed this

LordMortis and I played a couple games of New Era 2 player. Not bad, turns into a Race, and the cards for lookout don't change (First from 5, second from 4, back to First from 3, then last from 2), so you know you will get 2 of the cards out there.

This was the first official evening of 51st State New Era Combined playing by the right rules

hepcat wrote: First thing I do after getting a new boardgame is head to BGG and look for a tutorial video.

Tell the truth -- the first thing you do is rub the box all over your body. Gotta make a run to the store and pick up some giant sheets of plexiglass to put over the maps. Being a board gamer is serious business.

What a fully grown man does in the privacy of his well lit living room modeled after the Millienium Falcon is his own business.

hepcat wrote:What a fully grown man does in the privacy of his well lit living room modeled after the Millienium Falcon is his own business.

Played Ninjato tonight. If you ever want a game that demonstrates going for the low-hanging fruit will get you and early lead that turns into a last place finish, this is a good game to demonstrate.

You get three turns a round. When and whether you use an action to get cards determines turn order. Want more cards? Spend an action. Want some items from the houses that function as currency, better have cards to spend to either sneak or fight your way past the guards. Want those personalities that allow you to score points when the scoring rounds hit? Better have some treasures from the houses. Want those end-game VP cards? Better have enough of those personalities to win the house during scoring or the aforementioned treasures for a direct purchase?

It just seemed like too much interdependencies to get anything done. You've got a total of 24 actions to spend through the game, and getting anything that's going to last you to the end game is likely going to take several of those to string together.

Meh.

Smoove_B wrote: Gotta make a run to the store and pick up some giant sheets of plexiglass to put over the maps. Being a board gamer is serious business.

What factions did you get in your starter set? I put in an order for the battle box yesterday evening and it should be here by tomorrow. It's a cheap way to check out the game and I figure at worst, if I don't like it, I can unload them for a small loss at Origins or something.

You punks really should go to Origins or Gencon and meet up with those of us that go. I promise a good time would be had by all.

I really might plant the seed for next year...we have tons of airline miles that are going unused, so who knows.

The factions in my box were G.U.A.R.D. (tanks, helicopters, giant robot men) and the Martian Meance. And because I'm a lunatic I actually ordered two DMZ boxes - one for the Lords of Cthul and the other is Terrasaurs. Between aliens, the Cthulhu Mythos and giant dinosaurs, I have to figure fun will be had. Oh, and pack of 6 more maps. If you don't like it and figure out soon, I'd probably buy it off you. I NEED HELP.

I was hoping to get the Cthul and the Martian Menace myself. But I guess I'll just have to wait and see tomorrow. I'm going to try and watch the tutorial videos tonight as I'd love to get it on the table this weekend at Redwarlords. But I've already said that with about 12 different games already so it depends on he and his wife's tolerance level with my gaming obsession.

Smoove_B wrote:I really might plant the seed for next year...we have tons of airline miles that are going unused, so who knows.

The factions in my box were G.U.A.R.D. (tanks, helicopters, giant robot men) and the Martian Meance. And because I'm a lunatic I actually ordered two DMZ boxes - one for the Lords of Cthul and the other is Terrasaurs. Between aliens, the Cthulhu Mythos and giant dinosaurs, I have to figure fun will be had. Oh, and pack of 6 more maps. If you don't like it and figure out soon, I'd probably buy it off you. I NEED HELP.

Considering my Heroscape collection currently in storage, I will consider this a Warning to keep away from this game...

The video is really great at explaining the basics and the 2 player battle box comes with a 2 sided "Quick Start" rule set that seems to follow what the video was featuring. In addition, the way they have you set things up it's a much shorter game.

Considering my Heroscape collection currently in storage, I will consider this a Warning to keep away from this game...

Well...because there aren't tiles, the figures take up considerably less space than my Heroscape stuff. How can you resist this?

Smoove_B wrote:The video is really great at explaining the basics and the 2 player battle box comes with a 2 sided "Quick Start" rule set that seems to follow what the video was featuring. In addition, the way they have you set things up it's a much shorter game.

Considering my Heroscape collection currently in storage, I will consider this a Warning to keep away from this game...

Well...because there aren't tiles, the figures take up considerably less space than my Heroscape stuff. How can you resist this?

LALALALALALALALA I'M NOT LISTENING

Chaosraven wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:I really might plant the seed for next year...we have tons of airline miles that are going unused, so who knows.

The factions in my box were G.U.A.R.D. (tanks, helicopters, giant robot men) and the Martian Meance. And because I'm a lunatic I actually ordered two DMZ boxes - one for the Lords of Cthul and the other is Terrasaurs. Between aliens, the Cthulhu Mythos and giant dinosaurs, I have to figure fun will be had. Oh, and pack of 6 more maps. If you don't like it and figure out soon, I'd probably buy it off you. I NEED HELP.

Considering my Heroscape collection currently in storage, I will consider this a Warning to keep away from this game...

Considering the money I spent on MageKnight and the tackleboxes full of MK figures... and considering my obsessive involvement in just about every other collectable game I've played, I'm out.

'Ravens ebay addiction sez:

1,064 results found for monsterpocalypse

LordMortis wrote:Considering the money I spent on MageKnight and the tackleboxes full of MK figures... and considering my obsessive involvement in just about every other collectable game I've played, I'm out.

The collectable aspect of the game has been mitigated a bit. As I said, all you need to play is that single battle box. After that, you're on your own. I'm actually considering selling some of my unopened Heroscape figures at Ebay or something as a way to make some space and/or recover costs....to then feed new addictions. Or something.

Also:



Did I mention the part where you get to pick up monsters and throw them into buildings?