Octopus Overlords

It's the same weekend as the Fuddruckers get together with actual gamers. And that date is over a month away. You should be able to swing 4 hours for an appearance on a Saturday. I'm not trying to suggest you be there for every hour that they're open.

Isgrimnur wrote:

coopasonic wrote:

baelthazar wrote:I chickened out that nobody would play MK with me.

If I used that criteria, I wouldn't own any board games.

A problem easily solved. Start working on a way to get some free time for the DGM for June 15-17th.

That's kinda cool. What do they do with the location the other 22 days a month? Is there a gaming store front or something? How late is "til ?"?

I also love how they land mark it.

We are in the strip center that faces the 7 – Eleven, Shipley’s Donuts and Chubby’s Restaurant

I wonder how much a strip mall plot costs to maintain a month... It sounds like $30 per square foot is not uncommon to start at which makes that a challenging venture.

hepcat wrote:I would kill to have something like that here in chicago (well, something that regular).

Hmm. Wonder if the west building at the church could...no, let's not go there.

So, after a long time of fighting off the temptation, I bought Thunderstone. Actually, Thunderstone Advance. I really do like the game, though. Doesn't surprise me.

Here is my question to those of you who are Thunderstone veterans: What previous expansions should I buy, if any, to use with Advance? What about the base game? Is it worth it to get any of the expansions? I will probably be playing the Epic version once I get some games under my belt. I see that there is an expansion coming out later this summer (July, I think). Should I just wait for that? My local game store has the base game and one of the expansions in stock (don't remember which expansion, though).

Any tips?

Thanks

Chris

LordMortis wrote:That's kinda cool. What do they do with the location the other 22 days a month? Is there a gaming store front or something? How late is "til ?"?

There's a $15/20 pre-reg/walk up cover charge. But that gets you free access to the sodas in the fridge and the snack bags of chips.

They run events on other weekends for different groups, at least one of which I believe is kid-oriented.

From talking with the head honcho, their yearly membership sales provide a huge influx of funds at the year start, which they then burn through throughout the year. They've apparently got good relationships with BGG and some of the bigger game companies that also make donations to help keep them in business.

Their game library is substantial.

And ? is as late as there are people there playing the games. I went Friday night for the last event, and I didn't leave until 2:30. And there were still people there when I left.

Isgrimnur wrote:

LordMortis wrote:That's kinda cool. What do they do with the location the other 22 days a month? Is there a gaming store front or something? How late is "til ?"?

There's a $15/20 pre-reg/walk up cover charge. But that gets you free access to the sodas in the fridge and the snack bags of chips.

They run events on other weekends for different groups, at least one of which I believe is kid-oriented.

From talking with the head honcho, their yearly membership sales provide a huge influx of funds at the year start, which they then burn through throughout the year. They've apparently got good relationships with BGG and some of the bigger game companies that also make donations to help keep them in business.

Their game library is substantial.

And ? is as late as there are people there playing the games. I went Friday night for the last event, and I didn't leave until 2:30. And there were still people there when I left.

Awesome. We have a building here but it seems to only be utilized by by role players and MtG players so I never got in to it. The worst part about it is that only 3 miles from my house. But without a lot of board gamers and me being not so much when it comes to meeting new people, I just never made it a home.

We have several BG groups that I've been meaning to become a part of but then I get busy and lazy and in a bad mental state and I never go.

Speaking of big Cons, I've bought my ticket for BGG Con in Dallas.

Now I need a hotel room and plane ticket.

SpaceLord wrote:Speaking of big cons, I've already bought tickets for BGG Con in November.

I think your clipboard contained contents not quite matching your intent.

coopasonic wrote:

SpaceLord wrote:Speaking of big cons, I've already bought tickets for BGG Con in November.

I think your clipboard contained contents not quite matching your intent.

Geez, 10 seconds and I get static.

Fine, then I won't meet you at BGGCon!

SpaceLord wrote:Speaking of big Cons, I've bought my ticket for BGG Con in Dallas.

Now I need a hotel room and plane ticket.

I registered for this. Now to see how the wife feels about me attending. Wayne, sign up. I figure 6 months is enough lead time for the wife. /fingerscrossed

Given that it's a preemptive strike to dealing with the nonsense of whatever Thanksgiving throws at you, I hope it's an easy sell.

Peer pressure... I'm in for BGG Con. I suppose the idea that it's cheaper if I do it before the end of the month.

Mage Knight is complicated.

I know it seems that way at first, but play the excellent walk through scenario first and you'll quickly see how much sense all the rules make within the context of the game.

Yeah, it's great that they include that walkthrough scenario.

There are some really easy things they could've done (but didn't) to make things more intuitive, though. Just splitting the main deck into its proper piles was super confusing. Aside from the little icons being hard to distinguish for someone not used to what they're looking for, it took me a while to decipher how to tell artifacts apart from spells. Since some card names make them seem like they could go in either pile, I was looking for some more surefire way to know where they should go.

Finally I noticed that the decorative border around the text was different between the two types, but there's no reason they couldn't have done something to set them apart even more clearly.

Not to be a total sourpuss: I do like what I see gameplay-wise after skimming through the rulebook and the walkthrough. I think the "puzzley" aspect to figuring out the best move each turn is going to be right up my alley.

wonderpug wrote:Yeah, it's great that they include that walkthrough scenario.

There are some really easy things they could've done (but didn't) to make things more intuitive, though. Just splitting the main deck into its proper piles was super confusing. Aside from the little icons being hard to distinguish for someone not used to what they're looking for, it took me a while to decipher how to tell artifacts apart from spells. Since some card names make them seem like they could go in either pile, I was looking for some more surefire way to know where they should go.

Finally I noticed that the decorative border around the text was different between the two types, but there's no reason they couldn't have done something to set them apart even more clearly.

Not to be a total sourpuss: I do like what I see gameplay-wise after skimming through the rulebook and the walkthrough. I think the "puzzley" aspect to figuring out the best move each turn is going to be right up my alley.

I opened my copy last night. My cards and tiles are...damp? They feel strange, I hope they don't warp too much.

For artifacts and spells, check the numbers in the corner, there's only 16 artifacts and there are 28 spells.

And for learning to play the game, I found this player aid. I already printed 4 copies, it's really good.

Isgrimnur wrote:Given that it's a preemptive strike to dealing with the nonsense of whatever Thanksgiving throws at you, I hope it's an easy sell.

Initial reaction was not terrible. I'm not sure if I'll be driving back and forth or not. For some reason she likes me to come home at night. That's valuable game time lost, but we'll see.

SpaceLord wrote: And for learning to play the game, I found this player aid. I already printed 4 copies, it's really good.

That wasn't available the last time I went looking for player aids. It's almost as good as a Universal Head aid!

edit: For those of us who have Star Trek Fleet Captains and were hoping for an expansion to round it out, it may be happening. I love STFC but it does need a new race and a little refinement. Right now it's too easy for the Federation to turtle, do science missions and win. If Romulans make it into the game, they could add a whole new dynamic of treachery. Thematically speaking, this is probably the best Star Trek game around.

Two copies of the new edition of MK at Chicagoland Games as of yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday was the first time I was able to organize a full-day of gaming in my basement. Although no buckets were used, we still had a good time.

The day started with a 1v1 Monsterpoclypse battle, scaled down to keep it simple. It still took about 2 hours, but it was much faster at the end, more of a slog at the beginning to get the rules down. My one buddy is out of his mind hooked on the game and I'm nearly certain he's purchased every figure available. I feel bad for enabling him, but it's also nice to know I'm not alone. He even printed out a couple of custom 4-player Monsterpoclypse maps that he's demanding we try immediately. If they play out like our 1v1 battles, we're going to need to stop for lunch and dinner and possibly spread it out over two days like a cricket match.

After that we moved on to the Lords of Waterdeep and I can say without question it plays completely different with two players versus four. However, it still took about the same amount of time time play (~60 minutes). I forgot to mention the scoring of characters and money during the quick rule explanation, so there was some gnashing of teeth at the end, but I do think it was still enjoyable.

Next was a four-way free-for-all Heroscape battle using "The Killing Fog" map. To keep things fresh (and make it interesting), I decided that we were going to use the Heroscape Battleplan software to randomly generate four teams made up of 500 points. Each person then would be randomly assigned a team (via die roll) and would get random placement on the map. I thought the software did an excellent job at making the teams and it wasn't quite a blowout, though as usual a few die rolls ultimately doomed various teams sooner than later.

We then moved onto the Car Wars card game, which seems to be rated quite low. I can only guess that it's rating is reflective of people that wanted to play the actual Car Wars game and not a beer and pretzels card game. We laughed and had a good time, really getting into the theme and enjoying the mechanics. I'd recommend it as a great casual game, though if you play with anyone that takes things personally, it can get heated pretty quick as you do start ganging up on players as they get closer to a score that could win the game.

And of course, we ended the night with Quarriors. I'm really looking forward to the Quarmageddon expansion, but it still remains a solid game.

Not a bad day for 12 hours of gaming, but there's just never enough time to get to everything...

MageKnight shipped from CSI, it should be here around May 9. Of course, I won't be... naturally. So I'll have to wait until I get back to play.

One copy of MageKnight on the shelf at Cat and Mouse in Chicago. They probably have an extra copy in the back.

Yesterday was a gaming day. I started by taking my 5 year old to Cat and Mouse, letting her play with the puzzle toys while talking to the shop owner. The buzz is that GAMA has even annoyed the industry with their handling of this year's Origins. We picked up Go Fish, Animal on Animal (stacking game), the latest Cosmic Encounters expansion (8 players!) and a set of Dragon minis. The girls and I played a few rounds of Go Fish until they started making up rules (such as my sister always has to go fish), Animal upon Animal until the inevitable weeping of it being "too hard," and Dominoes (matching and knocking them over). I ended the night teaching the oldest the types of dragon breath, that the good dragons were gold and silver, and pulling out the unpainted Ravenloft/Ashbardalon minis to join the Dragons in a battle lines.

Once the kids went to bed, the adults pulled out Lords of Waterdeep and had an incredibly competitive 3-player game. Everything came down to who completed the highest point missions and the most within their own Lord's types. The player who won used a denial strategy to brutally control the money and own the most buildings. He gained resources by forcing us to use his buildings as much as placing his own figures. We ended up scoring 160+ points but everyone within 12 points of the leader.

We tried half a game of Ninjato before losing our third player. But by then we learned the key concept that each player should influence a different color of house, then attack the other color's houses to run them out of town and bring in your own color. It was an interesting and quick game, where you control ninjas who get past a series of guards by either sneaking or fighting. Only the first guard is known, and you use cards to gain attack/sneak. High cards are great for fighting, while low cards are for sneaking.

The game ended with a quick game of Wiz-War. We each scored by capturing a treasure, then faced off to fight. I fried the other player with a massive blast, which he countered by a pain link. It was a better deal for me, since I had been adding hit points for a few turns earlier. I then dispelled the pain link and tried to move him through a fire wall, which we forgot expired. At that point, I tried a last-ditch line of sight attack that was countered by a temporary wall of earth. He had just enough energy to reach home base, before I could move him across the board back towards me. Of course, there might have been a counter for that, too.

Today, we met up at a family party and taught a young kid how to play Bohnanza! It's an excellent game, and I used all the tricks Izzy taught me to make sure that the kid was winning by the time cake was announced.

Zarathud wrote:Today, we met up at a family party and taught a young kid how to play Bohnanza! It's an excellent game, and I used all the tricks Izzy taught me to make sure that the kid was winning by the time cake was announced.

I wish I remembered what tricks I taught you guys. I haven't touched the game since then.

baelthazar wrote:MageKnight shipped from CSI, it should be here around May 9.

Ditto. It's shipped from FLA but hasn't made it to Toledo yet, much less Livonia, much less my greedy hands. So the 9th is probably an accurate estimate.

FedEx thinks I'll have my copy of Mage Knight tomorrow.

Got two plays of Mage Knight in this weekend, both were intro scenarios, and both were 4 players.

In the first, two of the players leveled up as their first action. The runaway leader scenario could be a problem, because the XP and VP tracks are the same thing...

In the 2nd game, it was much closer, and I lost by a smidge when I couldn't figure out a way to take the last keep to get a majority in sites, and thus was denied the points.

Still, the game is fantastic. Who knew that an adventure game could have interesting combat with essentially no randomness?

I'm interested to see more monster tiles, more map tiles(underground? Other planes of reality?), more cards, more cities. Of course, there's already a lot of stuff to do.

This game solidifies my belief that Chvatil is the most multi-talented designer around.

FedEx says it's no the truck for delivery... Estimated May 9th... I'm still thinking I'm getting it today.

Mine's supposedly on the truck for deliver today too, but the origin listing says it's coming from a town 20 miles away, which I've never seen them do before. Hopefully they know what they're doing. If so, I might be able to read the rules and play part of a learning game tonight.

Chaz wrote:Mine's supposedly on the truck for deliver today too, but the origin listing says it's coming from a town 20 miles away, which I've never seen them do before. Hopefully they know what they're doing. If so, I might be able to read the rules and play part of a learning game tonight.

Why, that would be in time to play it on Saturday.

El Guapo wrote:

Chaz wrote:Mine's supposedly on the truck for deliver today too, but the origin listing says it's coming from a town 20 miles away, which I've never seen them do before. Hopefully they know what they're doing. If so, I might be able to read the rules and play part of a learning game tonight.

Why, that would be in time to play it on Saturday.

If only I was going on Saturday...

Also, it's supposed to be eleventy billion hours long with four players, especially on a first play.

It's here. I have toys!

Glanced at the MK rules at lunch. It's looking pretty dense. I need to have the game out in front of me. It looks like my kind of game if the mechanics are right. Dungeon on Meth and Coke and Steriods... With a solo variant. Doesn't look like it's going to be bad at all for a blind buy.

Play the tutorial walkthrough first. Trust me.

The actual basic actions are easy.

You move:
You play cards from your hand to get movement points. You then spend those points to move between hexes, and the cost is listed on the day/night board.

You play an action: Which is generally Attack or Influence.

That's it! The different hexes are where the complications lie.

As an update, my soggy components are a bit happier, though I do have some bubbling along the edge of some hexes.

hepcat wrote:Play the tutorial walkthrough first. Trust me.

I will have to look for the tutorial walkthrough. I didn't see it in the rules but I just opened the box up and grabbed the rules to peruse at lunch.

It's a whole separate booklet, about the same size as the instructions.

Got my copy too, but yeah, that's a whole mess of rules. I don't think I can brain well enough tonight to make much headway.

FFG just announced that they're resurrecting Netrunner as an LCG and retrofitting it to their Android universe. Since Android is basically just Cyberpunk Setting 258, that should be fine. There's some unspecified mechanical tweaks as well, but it sounds like they're not really mucking with it too much.

This is awesome. I've been wanting to give Netrunner another shot for a while now. Q3 2012 is the projected release date.

Did anyone mention (play test? preview?) the Second Edition of Descent that is due out sometime soon-ish?

I know a bunch of you have played the original and that apparently it can be a real slog at times, but I'm keeping a watch out to see if the experience is improved for the updated edition