Octopus Overlords

I would've gone for the usual $100 CSI order, but the only other game I actually want is Eclipse. That one's not due in for a while, and I decided I don't want to risk Mage Knight vanishing again or waiting for Eclipse to come in. I'm also not 100% sold on Eclipse.

Chaosraven wrote:Sweeet. LM, mark me down for 52 and those two bits. Now if we could only find a day to play something...

If you want I could just preorder now and wait for the whole thing to ship. Let me see if there's anything else I want.

Just let know what you need.

I'm making Saturday a gaming marathon. Looking forward to trying Core Worlds and Tales of Arabian Nights. And hopefully getting people to play novus mundus again.

Based on the GF's schedule, I am going to the Dallas Games Marathon tomorrow night after work, will go back Saturday morning, then spend the evening enduring her brother's birthday get together. (as will she. Endure it, that is.)

Finally played a versus map for Monsterpoclypse -- I had Terrasaurs and my buddy was playing the Empire of the Apes. His monster was King Kondo and I was using Rakadon. In an effort to make sure we didn't get overwhelmed, we limited ourselves to having 5 identical units each. Of course that limited our ability to secure buildings (and earn bonuses), but it did help in keeping all the skills, triggers and powers straight. Other than screwing up some basic rules early on (which we corrected), it was a lot more straight forward than I anticipated. It was also a very close match, but my giant lizard ultimately defeated big angry ape. What was interesting was the strategy. He was moving around the board and flinging units at me (sometimes his own) whereas I was consistently damaging him with ranged attacks from my units and melee brawl attacks from my monster. Between rampaging through buildings, flinging units and being able to pick him up and throw him into a skyscraper, we had a blast. He's a bit slow with the rules and even though he did exactly the same thing every turn, it still took him like 10 minutes to resolve his options. Eventually I called him on it and it went much faster, but we played for about 2.5 hours before I won. I don't know about the game ever taking 60 minutes, but maybe it does speed up when you have so many more units available to do damage and secure buddings. Regardless, it was a great game and we're definitely adding it to the mix.

We also played our first round of Lords of Waterdeep. I thought it was going to be a blowout but every time someone would pull ahead, the other person would snap back. The entire game was close and in the end it came down to the completed quests. He finished one more than I did, so he beat me by four lousy points (172 to 176). Also big fun and I can see it being another standard title.

Played Lords of Waterdeep with my kids (7 and 10) last night, and it worked pretty well for them. Took a few rounds to figure it out but by the end they were slapping Intrigue cards on me and working out some pretty nice combos. Once again the scores were amazingly tight - 101, 98, 97.

Nightfall with a couple expansions, Catan, Time's Up, and four games of Werewolf. I was the Hunter twice, died one of those times, and took a wolf with me when they ate me.

Had some friends over and we played Kakkerlakensalat, but the Dutch version. That game is really becoming a hit with colleagues and friends. Basically it's a card game about cockroaches and vegetables. You only have 4 kinds of vegetable cards and 4 kinds of cockroach cards. You have cauliflower, tomato, paprika and lettuce as vegetables and then for each vegetable you have a cockroach card as well. The rules are very basic, one per one everyone lays a card in the middle of the table and says the name. Then the next person does the same thing and so on. It gets interesting when you know that when the previous person laid a tomato and you lay a tomato as well, then you can't say tomato any more. You have to say one of the other vegetables. When cockroach cards are being played, you first have to say 'cockroach' and from then on you can't say the vegetable which was infected by the cockroach any more. Whenever someone chokes in saying the correct name or doesn't say it in time, that person loses and has to add the cards in the middle of the table to his own deck. The first to lose all his cards wins.
I'm not sure how much sense I'm making here but it's a real fun game because of all the mispronunciations and the brain freezes it often causes ^^. We played only one game tonight and I managed to win it with only one card difference. While browsing I couldn't really find an English version but it's not really necessary either, the rules are pretty straightforward anyway.

We also played 2 games of Quarriors where I managed to win 1 and ended last (of 3) at the second one. In the first game I was actually last until I managed to get a 7 point round which made me jump over the first two and surprisingly snatch the victory ^^. Has anyone played the expansion here?

Lastly we also played Elder Sign. We had the evil goat being (forgot its name) and it really kicked our asses ^^. We kept getting extra monsters summoned and it was a real pain. Thankfully it finished us off quick and we could move on to more positive games ^^

EzeKieL wrote:We also played 2 games of Quarriors where I managed to win 1 and ended last (of 3) at the second one. In the first game I was actually last until I managed to get a 7 point round which made me jump over the first two and surprisingly snatch the victory ^^. Has anyone played the expansion here?

I love the Quarrions expansion... the new creature, spell and Corrupted Quiddity die are all neat, but the real strength to the expansion are the "corrupted" versions of the existing creatures. They're generally more interesting than the base game versions, especially if you wind up getting a lot of Corrupted Quiddity into play. I especially like the Corrupted Devotee of the Holy Query, a creature I never liked in the base game. The Corrupted version gets a powerful deck cycling mechanic (and the ability to cull extra die) anytime he scores.

You can choose to just randomly mix up the base game and the expansion when dealing out the Wilds, guarantee X many expansion cards, or play with just the expansion creatures. We generally favor playing an all-expansion game since it all but guarantees that Corrupted Quiddity and some of the other new mechanics introduced will come into play.

I typically only get to play board games once or twice a year when I visit my brother, and this was one of those weekends. Spent Saturday night with 7 Wonders, and yesterday with Dominion. Both were a blast, I just wish I had anyone locally to game with.

Saturday we started at around 3pm and played until almost 1am. It was a full day of gaming.

Started off with two games of Core Worlds. The first game I screwed up a couple of rules so we played a second time correctly. I lost both games...badly. But I really like the game. It's a deck builder (like 90 percent of all games being released these days) but it doesn't feel like a deck builder. Between managing your ground and fleet forces, drafting new units and conquering worlds, it gave me more of a full strategy game feel than Dominion or Thunderstone. I hope to get this on the table again soon.

Then it was onto the planned game of Tales of Arabian Nights. I had a blast with it. It's much easier and much faster than I thought it would be. The only downtime in the game we encountered was when trying to find a required status card when it was called for. Other than that, it moves much faster than I thought it would. Of course, we had 4 players, so it might be a much different experience with 6 players. Also, we were laughing so hard at some of the turn of events that arose during each player's stories that I don't think we felt like we were just awaiting our next turn. Winning actually became secondary to playing, imho. Fun game.

Finally, we ended with the old standby, Star Trek DBG. We only played to 300 points and it still took almost a full 2 hours to play. I hope the stand alone TOS expansion tightens gameplay through missions so games move a little faster. But I still love this one and always welcome a chance to play.

Played Zooloretto with my wife and newly upgraded Son 7.0 yesterday. The upgrades are clearly working, as he pulled off some pretty nice logistical moves and came away with 38 points and the win.

Afterwards my wife and I played a 2-player game of Reef Encounter, the Richard Breese euro about coral reefs, polyps, alga and parrotfish. I really like the intertwined mechanics and the almost glacial pace that your reefs grow in the game - it seems very evocative of the theme - but holy hell is that game hard to explain to someone. My wife ended up winning by about 4 points, but she was clearly confused for much of the game. Seems like you need at least a few games to really understand what's going on and develop any sort of strategy, but getting someone to stick it out through those first few games can be a real challenge. Despite my fondness for it, not sure I'll end up hanging on to this one.

I recently went to teach Reef Encounter to my gf. I re-read and quickly ran through the rules. Halfway through, I remembered that when I last was teaching that one, I decided the best way to go is just play a few turns with open hands. There's way too many intertwined mechanics to be able to grasp them all without seeing how everything works together.

We played Twilight Imperium and mangled the rules (it had been six months and there is a lot of minutiae to remember). Notably, we allowed people to build and have more than 2 PDS per planet. Let me say that having 6 PDS with Deep Space cannon and Magen Defense Grid (they hit 50% of the time) was overpowered. My Dad won the game because of points when the game ended, but was almost wiped out. It was a weird game and not overly satisfying. I think we may skip TI when we have 5 players, because the board is too imbalanced.

Sunday, three of us played Risk Legacy. I can't talk about all the fun stuff, because of spoilers, but I continue to believe that Risk Legacy is a brilliant design that is pure fun for little fuss.

baelthazar wrote:Sunday, three of us played Risk Legacy. I can't talk about all the fun stuff, because of spoilers, but I continue to believe that Risk Legacy is a brilliant design that is pure fun for little fuss.

Is Risk Legacy something that could be enjoyed in a single weekend, or do you really need 10-15 play sessions over a few weeks to get the most out of it? I have some friends coming in to visit in a couple of weeks, and I'm tempted to pick this up. But we'd only have a couple of days to play.

Boudreaux wrote:

baelthazar wrote:Sunday, three of us played Risk Legacy. I can't talk about all the fun stuff, because of spoilers, but I continue to believe that Risk Legacy is a brilliant design that is pure fun for little fuss.

Is Risk Legacy something that could be enjoyed in a single weekend, or do you really need 10-15 play sessions over a few weeks to get the most out of it? I have some friends coming in to visit in a couple of weeks, and I'm tempted to pick this up. But we'd only have a couple of days to play.

It really depends. We played 3 games from 11:00am to 3:30, taking a brief stop for making sandwiches. That was with 3 players. With 5, you will have longer games. Our first game seriously lasted 15 minutes. The game will get longer as new "stuff" gets added.

We find it addicting to see what will happen next, so we play several games in a row. If your friends are like this, then I would say you could get a good 6-7 games in over the course of two days and still play other games. You would also have opened up several new things. The big problem is that wondering what is in the other packs and chambers will haunt you until you get that group back together.

I am thinking about pulling out Fortune & Glory again and maybe playing a game or two with my two boys. Either that or A Touch of Evil.

I have been playing quite a bit of Onirim ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/71836/onirim" target="_blank ). I really enjoy that game. Been playing with the Book of Doors Lost and Found expansion (variant).

Lots of gaming goodness this weekend.

On Friday, I played Ground Floor, the current Kickstarter project from Tasty Minstrel. There's a FREE print-and-play version available on the Kickstarter page here.

GF is a business sim worker-placement game, sort of like a cross between Caylus and Agricola. Our first attempt was a 5-player game, and we sorta figured out what we were doing about 3 hours in. I played with just two yesterday, and that was still fun, but I think it's probably much better with 3 or more.

I also played Founding Fathers for the first time. I had fun, but I'm still trying to sort it out in my head.

The big event of the weekend was my favorite game, Through the Ages. It was the most brutal game I've ever played. There are several events that can cause players with low military to suffer. I got hit by every one. The other two players both played nasty events against me, and I was crippled. I rebuild, and by the end, I was only 20 points behind. I'm really experienced at the game, so the other players just decided to smack me around. It was really frustrating.

I hope someone brings Through the Ages to the next Octocon. I've been wanting to play it for ages.

Lords of Waterdeep continues to be a hit with the wife.

Yet another rule question, though.

I had a plot quest that gives me a rogue any time I "do an action that gives me gold," and another plot quest that gives me gold any time I get a rogue. Now, I'm assuming I can't use the pair to get an infinite loop of rogue & gold acquisition until the bank runs out, but how exactly is it supposed to work? The two options that seemed likely were:

A) An action on the board can trigger one card, which triggers the other, and there it ends. (each card just gets used once at most in a turn)
or
B) An action on the board can trigger one card, which cannot trigger the other. (the first card's rewards don't count as an action)

I would say A. Are you sure the rogue gettin' plot quest doesn't say "when you perform an action" to get the rogue?

wonderpug wrote:Lords of Waterdeep continues to be a hit with the wife.

Yet another rule question, though.

I had a plot quest that gives me a rogue any time I "do an action that gives me gold," and another plot quest that gives me gold any time I get a rogue. Now, I'm assuming I can't use the pair to get an infinite loop of rogue & gold acquisition until the bank runs out, but how exactly is it supposed to work? The two options that seemed likely were:

A) An action on the board can trigger one card, which triggers the other, and there it ends. (each card just gets used once at most in a turn)
or
B) An action on the board can trigger one card, which cannot trigger the other. (the first card's rewards don't count as an action)

From the description you gave it sounds like:

From the "Do an action that gives gold" a triggered isn't an Action, no?
But from what you put in, doing an Action that gives you gold, then gives you a Rogue. A quest that triggers to give you Gold would then trigger as you got a Rogue.

I'm only guessing, as I don't know the game, but the triggered instance of receiving Gold is a result of the Quest (directly) rather than from the original Action (as an Indirect chain).

If it had said "Recieve a Gold when you receive a Rogue" under any circumstances (or undefined) and vice-versa, then I would advocate infinite loop (and a broken aspect discovery).

hepcat wrote:I would say A. Are you sure the rogue gettin' plot quest doesn't say "when you perform an action" to get the rogue?

Both cards use the same "perform an action" wording.

wonderpug wrote:

hepcat wrote:I would say A. Are you sure the rogue gettin' plot quest doesn't say "when you perform an action" to get the rogue?

Both cards use the same "perform an action" wording.

My guess would now be (B), since the Receiving of X is the result of Triggered (direct) instead of Action (indirect chain)

Is there an FAQ site for the game?

Lords of Waterdeep FAQ wrote: If a Plot Quest gives me resources for having taken an action, did I gain those resources as a part of taking the action?

No. You gained the extra resources from the effect of the Plot Quest, not from the action itself. The benefits of Plot Quests, and the rewards for completing a Quest, never count as being a part of an action.

FAQ here.

So, you would only get the rogue, and not the gold.

Thanks so much!

Ugh. I broke down and preordered Mage Knight: The Board Game 2nd Edition, yesterday and I done runnoft to to BGG to see if they have a release date and I read this:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/795306/ ... t-of-print" target="_blank

Greetings All,

Our webb of informants at Alliance Games (the sole source distributor for Wizkids) tells us that they are now completely sold out of Mage Knight, as is the publisher. Translation -- whatever copies retailers are receiving this week is all that they will get until the 3rd printing which should be available Q3 2012.


Respectfully,

Robert S. Solow
CLS Games
Atlanta's Board Game Warehouse

I have no idea if I'm going to get a copy or not. From the sound of it, the print run was very small, so there's going to be a lot of pre order not being filled.

Imma be pissed if my preorder doesn't get filled. However, if it does, imma be pretty damn happy that I preordered.

Board games whose print runs are drastically smaller than the demand make me very sad, Especially given how long it is between print runs. Facing a similar dilemma with Eclipse. I know it's going to be sold out almost immediately after the reprint hits. I might want it, but I'd like to try it first. Unfortunately, if I wait to try it, I won't be able to buy it.

Yikes, that sucks. When they say "copies retailers are receiving this week", what day this week do you think they mean?

I think the word was that copies shipped out from the distributors yesterday, so retailers should be getting theirs sometime this week?

If I was a bigger jerk than I already am, I'd put my copy of MK up on ebay in light of this latest news.

or just buy two copies and put one up .

I ordered mine a couple of hours ago from bol.com (holland).

I really shouldn't have but the urge was too strong

Not too many folks speak Hollandaise so you're going to be hard pressed to find a buyer.

Haha, games always have an English and Dutch manual + the game itself is always completely in English

I wouldn't want it any other way either, translated games in Dutch always lose loads of charm.

Wow, the Ogre 6th edition hit the $300,000 level today... and it seems they're on the verge of working out some way to ship the game internationally, which will presumably get still more people behind it. I knew of the game back then but never played it. Not sure it would be a hit here and it would likely be a great big box gathering dust.

I so wish they'd reprint the regular version of OGRE in addition to the deluxe one. I'd really like to play it, but nowhere near enough to justify that monster.

Come to Octocon, I'll bring my copy of OGRE Collector's edition if it arrived.

There has been some discussion on Kickstarter that the interest should result in additional OGRE product releases. Not sure if that means there will be a non-collector edition.

Man, makes me want to spend the night playing Saga, Revolt on Antares, Ogre, Car Wars, Melee/Wizard/FantasyTrip, geez any number of silly little Plastic Box paper map cardboard counter games. What was that one with the Insects harvesting the corpses from battle?

Spotted a copy of Mage Knight at my FLGS this afternoon. So it's out there, boys. Just need to get to your local store to pick it up.

Or wait for my preorder to ship out.