OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Tommy20 · Post by **Tommy20** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:29 pm

hentzau wrote:I really wasn't planning on buying into X-Wing...but...temptation...rising...

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:03 am

I had the same temptation until I played a demo at Fantasy Flight's GenCon booth which left me unimpressed.

My team was the Rebellion Luke Skywalker and a rookie, facing 4 TIE Fighters. The TIE Fighters all decided to rush Luke, with lots of meta about sacrificing their clone troopers to end the rebellion in one fell swoop. There's just not much your X-Wing can do when you're boxed in, no matter who is piloting. Aside from that, it was more annoying than I expected to reach over for yet another cardboard tool during movement. I remember the Wings of War system as being more elegant.

But the miniature ships do look awesome.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:31 pm

SpaceLord wrote:I just ordered a copy of Andean Abyss. malchior, did you ever get a chance to play this? I'm excited, I've heard really good things.

Let me know how the Solo-play is. I almost ordered it, but then I realized it was done by the guy that did Labyrinth and I decided against it. I really disliked Labyrinth and I can only see myself playing this solo.

I just ordered Thuderbolt: Apache Leader. I was *this* close to making it a +$100 order (for free shipping) by adding in either Hornet Leader or U-Boat Leader, but I thought that this was a crazy amount to spend without testing the system first. I had a tough time deciding between HL and Thunderbolt, but people were literally gushing over Thunderbolt and the theme appealed to me more.

I also can't wait until the Victory Point Games zombie-seige game Day of the Zeds gets its premium treatment. I'm just not willing to spend good money on a paper map, crappy cards, and chintzy chits. Should only be a few months, so I can wait!

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 9:42 pm

Dominion: Dark Ages with old friends in town for the funeral. We went to the old pub we used to go to years back for dinner and drinks, then spent the evening trying D:DA with the suggested setups for Cornucopia (both), and Hinterlands (both). Really liking the new stuff (its all new to the outoftowner).

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 9:43 pm

Bought Cosmic Encounter and the expansions. Been wanting that game for a long time, but always changed my mind at the register. But, finally bit the bullet after boards & bits finally got it back in stock. Looking forward to playing that either this weekend or next...

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Fri Sep 14, 2012 1:16 am

MythicalMino wrote:Bought Cosmic Encounter and the expansions. Been wanting that game for a long time, but always changed my mind at the register. But, finally bit the bullet after boards & bits finally got it back in stock. Looking forward to playing that either this weekend or next...

I'll be right over.

Quipp · Post by **Quipp** » Fri Sep 14, 2012 7:23 am

Broke down and ordered Descent: Journeys in the Dark (second edition) after watching some gameplay videos and reading Hepcat's lavish praise in this thread. Hopefully, will get a chance in a couple weeks to play with the wife and Hell's Taco, who I'm sure are getting just as tired as I am at continually losing at Pandemic.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Fri Sep 14, 2012 11:10 am

FFG has announced the first expansion set for Netrunner: 6 Packs, called the Genesis Cycle:

His t-shirt is exactly 3 kinds of awesome.

I highly recommend the new Netrunner for anyone who likes CCGs.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Sep 14, 2012 1:05 pm

Ran over last night to pick up Seasons at the local game store. Excited about finally playing not just watching.

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Fri Sep 14, 2012 3:40 pm

I just picked up my copy of Seasons too... looking forward to breaking it in with my son. On the superficial side, the bits are absolutely gorgeous. The standout would be the 20 dice. They must all be 1" across, deeply etched, and they came tightly wrapped up in what looked like a freaking brick of molded plastic.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:05 pm

baelthazar wrote:
SpaceLord wrote:I just ordered a copy of Andean Abyss. malchior, did you ever get a chance to play this? I'm excited, I've heard really good things.
Let me know how the Solo-play is. I almost ordered it, but then I realized it was done by the guy that did Labyrinth and I decided against it. I really disliked Labyrinth and I can only see myself playing this solo.

I've played Labyrinth, and it's unecessarily complicated, and from everything I've read, AA fixes the issues with Labyrinth. I'm considering doing a solo AAR on BGG. If I do, I'll link it here. I'm gonna try to get this going tomorrow.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 5:49 am

Zarathud wrote:I remember the Wings of War system as being more elegant.

Wings of War is not in any way more elegant than X-Wing. Instead of sturdy cardboard movement templates, you have tiny and thin cards, the same ones you used to plan your movement. So you'd just end up moving tiny little amounts every turn, and it was really easy to accidentally shift those cards around, same with the card that was your plane.

Also, in the full game, flying straight at something doesn't quite work as if you set things up right, Luke has a decent chance of blowing up 1 tie fighter straight off since he shoots first, then, surviving the remaining 3 shots, and the rookie killing of severely damaging the third. R2 would then repair Luke's shields giving him some health.

I bought this when I came in at my local game store, definitely a fun game. The price may seem high initially on the extra ships. However, it's important to note that those expansion ships have not just the miniature itself, which is hard plastic pre-painted, but also multiple pilot cards, bases, tokens, maneuver dial, and often add-ons.

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 7:35 am

I agree that the movement dial/template used in X-Wing is better than the card system of Wings of War. No matter how careful you are, it can be easy to accidentally shift a card a little bit, not to mention having to sort through your maneuver cards for each plane, each turn, seems like a hassle now after using the dials. The X-Wing bases even have little tabs along the edge to help hold the movement template and make sure you're lined up properly. The only thing about the cards that was better to me was when you had planes move up close to one another and possibly overlap.

Oh, while it's true you do get some cards and cardstock along with the miniature too... I think the pricing of the expansions is a tad high, especially relative to what you get with the base set.

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:45 pm

I played two games of X-Wing with my son, using the suggested starter setup and switching sides. For the 2nd game we did give the X-Wing player (my son that game) a Proton Torpedo since we noticed it was actually a closer game point-wise that way. The X-Wing wound up winning both games but it was close each time. Most nail-biting of the two saw the poor rookie TIE take 2 of the 3 hits it could withstand on the first pass, then the TIEs sniped away the X-Wings shields and scored 2 of 3 hull hits to kill it. Then it was a comedy of errors as both sides kept trying to finish the other off and roll nothing but misses, or get a "lucky" streak of 3 hits only to see the defender negate them all, etc. My other TIE was doing well and I was feeling confident I'd win when I miscalculated, wound up in point blank range and got one-shot when he rolled 4 hits and I could only negate 1. He finished off my poor rookie TIE (still alive all this time) a couple turns later.

We loved it. We'd only played a few games of Wings of War before... so it's not like we're experts or anything, but we enjoyed it a lot more. The heavy stock movement templates are, in our opinion, a big improvement, but it's the movement dials that made the game go much faster to me. No more sorting through my deck for the right card, no more trying to remember that I did an Immelman last phase and have to do a straight slow speed move, etc. Just adjust your dial, set it down and you're done. There is a penalty for doing an Immelman (and for some ships, or those who've taken certain damage, taking other moves too) called "stress" that's very simple but can have a significant impact on the game.

In the larger gameplay sense, the fact that you're not planning two moves ahead was a small change. I really liked that aspect of WoW and thought I'd miss it here but the game works well without it. Beyond that the largest change would be the combat system, which revolves around dice rolling. We thought it was simply just more fun than pulling chits out of a bag like WoW. The attacker rolls X many dice depending on his weapons and range, the defender rolls X many dice depending on his traits and range and tries to cancel out whatever hits the attacker rolled.

I also liked how different the ships felt, even just comparing the basic X-Wing and TIE Fighters. The X-Wing has the potential to hit like a truck and can take a fair number of hits, while the TIE Fighters, fragile though they are, can just maneuver like crazy and take special actions to help them dodge hits. I know there are similar differences in planes in WoW, but in X-Wing they just stand out so much more.

Beyond adding in the Proton Torpedo (which missed BTW

) there's still a lot we've yet to play with. Special pilots with added abilities, Astromech droids, scenarios... hate to say it but I'm already thinking of picking up the Y-Wing and TIE Advanced

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:14 pm

This weekend, I played:

Fresco, which is very popular in my group. Now I know why. It's a tight, thematic worker placement game with a really neat Morning mechanic: The earlier you start your work day, the earlier you buy and use paints, and you get first dibs at the high-scoring murals. But if you keep it up, your workers will call in sick and you'll be short-staffed.

I also played Netrunner for the 5th time. Unfortunately, I've yet to play it twice with the same player, so I'll need to get my good friend James to play the game more. Netrunner has jumped to 1st place in BGG for Customizable games.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:32 pm

My 7-year-old son beat me in a game of Summoner Wars yesterday. He's finally grasping some of the subtler points of the game's strategy. I was so proud. It was a tender moment.

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:58 pm

baelthazar wrote:
SpaceLord wrote:I just ordered a copy of Andean Abyss. malchior, did you ever get a chance to play this? I'm excited, I've heard really good things.
Let me know how the Solo-play is. I almost ordered it, but then I realized it was done by the guy that did Labyrinth and I decided against it. I really disliked Labyrinth and I can only see myself playing this solo.

I just ordered Thuderbolt: Apache Leader. I was *this* close to making it a +$100 order (for free shipping) by adding in either Hornet Leader or U-Boat Leader, but I thought that this was a crazy amount to spend without testing the system first. I had a tough time deciding between HL and Thunderbolt, but people were literally gushing over Thunderbolt and the theme appealed to me more.

I also can't wait until the Victory Point Games zombie-seige game Day of the Zeds gets its premium treatment. I'm just not willing to spend good money on a paper map, crappy cards, and chintzy chits. Should only be a few months, so I can wait!

Being the owner of Hornet Leader I'd be curious about your impressions of Thunderbolt Apache Leader when it comes in. I had set out to buy Hornet Leader then Thunderbolt was just released at that time and I did like the more "tactical" setting and love games that have A-10s and attack helicopters. I was put off by the negative impressions of some people (which turned out to be nitpicky after some more review reading) and bought Hornet Leader. But after watching some gameplay videos and reading more reviews I probably would have been very happy with Thunderbolt Apache Leader. Both games are a bit pricey but Hornet Leader has very well made game components and I suspect that Thunderbolt will have the same high quality. And you're getting some cool things like terrain tiles with individual counters to target as opposed to just an abstract target card! The way the game models terrain and its effects on your attack runs is pretty clever and I like the aircraft damage system. I'm sure I'll be buying this game in the future once my wallet recovers from my recent D-Day dice purchase, and Airborne In Your Pocket kickstarter purchase! Both share some rulesets yet I think are different enough where I'd be playing both.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:59 pm

I engineered a game of Mansions of Madness with my 8- and 6-year-olds. As the Keeper, I toned down the horror and played it campy, and it went rather well.

We also ran through War of the Ring, which actually may been the darker narrative: Gondor fell early, Aragorn and Boromir both died, and Frodo succumbed to corruption.

But mostly my oldest kid is getting good at chess.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:26 am

Got in a game of Tobago last night with Stuart and Tommy. Man, that is a fun game that was never even on my radar. Tommy had played it a couple of Octocons ago, and he liked it so much that he bought it for my birthday. Well, I'm in complete agreement with him...it's a great game. For those ignorant of the ways of the game (as I was) you are exploring an island in search of buried treasure. Each player has a hand of cards that will help you to piece together a complete treasure map for one of the treasures on the island. On your turn, you can lay down one of these map pieces, which are added to the overall treasure map for that treasure, or you can drive your SUV to a location on the island to dig up the treasure. Putting together the maps is a process of elimination sort of affair, where each card added will say something like "Next to the largest jungle" or "Not on a mountain" or "One or two spaces from a hut". By putting these clues together, you can eventulally come up with the location of one of the treasure caches. Once it is dug up, then everyboy who contributed to the map will get a share of the treasure. Getting your share of the treasure in and of itself is a bit of a blind strategy game, because as the treasure cards are turned over, you can choose to take the treasure or pass on it and the next person can choose to take it. Really fun game, highly recommended for folks looking for a light Euro that can be played in about an hour.

We also got in a learning game of X-Wing...Tommy in the X-Wing, and Stuart with 2 TIEs. It was a short, brutal affair, with Tommy getting destroyed within about 4 turns. I'm planning on fielding this at Octocon in a week and a half...need to find myself a starfield mat though.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:57 am

Tobago is fantastic, and like you I had never even heard of it. My sister got it for me for Christmas a couple years ago, and I was shocked at how good it was. Still a family favorite. There's quite a bit of subtle strategy to be discovered with a few games under your belt.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 12:01 pm

Boudreaux wrote:Tobago is fantastic, and like you I had never even heard of it. My sister got it for me for Christmas a couple years ago, and I was shocked at how good it was. Still a family favorite. There's quite a bit of subtle strategy to be discovered with a few games under your belt.

We saw it a few Octocons ago (I think thatsteveguy brought it) and then played it at the one after we had seen it. Then LM bought it. We don't play it enough. Of course, we don't play anything enough these days.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:09 am

Played the suggested Dark Ages/Seaside setups with some friends last night, still digging the new mechanics of Dark Ages, and with cards that trash it really hums. Figure a last round of Dark Ages/Alchemy and they will be ready for choosing the piles again.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:41 pm

Need to get my group together for our initiation game of Cosmic Encounter.

I, too, have Tabago...and yes, very fun game. My kids really like it. I have 3 games now that my kids really enjoy: Survive, Castle Panic, and Tobago

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:18 am

We were going to play a warm up game of Sergeants Miniatures Game to get a replay of it before we possibly break it out at Octocon this weekend, but the time gods weren't on our side because Tommy got there late (that game takes a bit of time to set up!) So instead we grabbed Fortune and Glory and played a 3 player competitive game. We played until it got late and called it, with Tommy and I both really close to each other (I had 11 Fortune, he had an artifact in hand that would have brought him to 11 fortune) and Stuart way down the totem pole with 4 Fortune (he jumped to an early lead with 4 Fortune, then after that every single artifact he went after was stolen out from under his nose by either a Nazi or Mob villain.)

I do still think this is a fun game, but it does suffer from rules sprawl. The fact that folks on BGG have created flow charts to help you figure out what to do in different situations of the game is a prime indicator of this (on an adventure do this, UNLESS it's a deep jungle adventure, then you do this too, oh, and if it's a temple adventure, you don't do the adventure in a different way, oh, and if there's a villain there, you now need to do this as well.) Plus, this game really needs an add-on to it, with some new villains and heroes and dangers.

Tommy20 · Post by **Tommy20** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 11:04 am

hentzau wrote:I do still think this is a fun game, but it does suffer from rules sprawl. The fact that folks on BGG have created flow charts to help you figure out what to do in different situations of the game is a prime indicator of this (on an adventure do this, UNLESS it's a deep jungle adventure, then you do this too, oh, and if it's a temple adventure, you don't do the adventure in a different way, oh, and if there's a villain there, you now need to do this as well.)

This. The theme & basic mechanics are fine, but they tacked on too many bells & whistles that just weigh down the gameplay.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:28 pm

A really cool session report for X-Wing over on BGG.
Go on, check it out! Seriously.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:32 pm

I have the feeling playing X-Wing at Octocon may be entirely different experience than playing at GenCon. But I do expect someone to blow up with a critical failure.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:19 pm

Zarathud wrote:I have the feeling playing X-Wing at Octocon may be entirely different experience than playing at GenCon. But I do expect someone to blow up with a critical failure.

lawbeef?

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:39 pm

Or whoever Lawbeef curses with his bad luck.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 12:30 am

Played Dominion with Remus and a couple friends, finally back to dealing and choosing. Won by a single point. After Remus split, we played on more and took a commanding lead thanks to EXPAND (Prosperity) and COUNTERFEIT, gaining a province five turns in a row (to go with my early province).

Started the evening with edh, when Remus showed up he teased me about my 0 power commander with "How do you expect to beat them?" I explained my opponents would scoop when I hit any of the nasty combos (I pulled the Pay 5 Mana and bounce 2 permanents of each opponents choice, plus a target of mine per players turn... when they got down to only a few lands left in play they did indeed concede the game).

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 8:29 am

Managed to squeeze in two rounds of Elder Sign last night, and I still feel that as a quasi-casual Cthulhu game, it's big fun. The first game I was introducing someone else so I selected Yig as the great evil as I felt he was probably the easiest to beat and he doesn't have any lingering game conditions to remember. It took us a bit of time, but eventually we collected enough Elder Signs to send him home. The second game was against Hastur. We spent the entire game on defense, running around desperately trying to collect items and spells while more and more monsters were added to the museum. When we had 10 of the 13 Elder Signs needed, Hastur filled his final doom token and the battle began. My companion made it two rounds before going insane, but with the assistance of a healing stone, I managed to beat Hastur with two die rolls left before I went insane myself.

We took our sweet time and had fun reading the cards and getting into the Cthulhu "feel" so it took us a while to finish each game, but I'd still recommend it - particularly if D-Day Dice is something you also enjoy. It really is very similar in scope, but with more tentacles.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:06 am

I really enjoyed the one Elder Sign game I've played, although it has so many dice rolls that we took to calling it "Cthulhu Yahtzee."

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:14 am

The Octocon experience:

Neuroshima Hex (to show off my newly acquired Doomsday Machine army)
Stone Age with expansion
FFG Cosmic Encounter (6 player, 3 player, 4 player)
Qwarriors
King of Tokyo (AWESOME!)
BANG! with Gold Rush expansion
Kingsburg with expansion
RISK dice game

--------------------------------
Having played all but 2 of the above before, I fell in love with the 2 "filler" Games.

That RISK dice game is excellent, with that Thrill of Victory, Agony of Defeat as you attempt to get combinations of dice to control the world, piece by piece. To steal pieces from other players before they lock down a Continent. Already working on my lil own Bootleg version, trying to decide between Star Wars or Fantasy... may just make 'em both.

And I cannot praise the amazing fun of KING of TOKYO enough. Every time I was between games, KoT is what I turned to... 3 player, 4 player, 5 player, 6 player.
Another Dice Game, with two win conditions: Accumulate 20 Victory Points or be the Last Monster Standing.
You gather Energy, Deal Damge, Heal, or Score Points. You have 3 rolls and get what you get when done. The "accidental" Damage that sucks you into Tokyo, the players decisions to hold fast in Tokyo gambling on surviving, the Powers that you purchase with energy that modify your Monster... I love this game.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:38 am

Got in about 3 games of Tooth and Nail yesterday at Octon. Absolutely loved it. It's one of those rare two player games that actually plays as good as, if not better, with the 4 player variant (3 player I'm a little iffy on due to a wonky end game mechanic for the first person eliminated).

Small Box Games is a little husband and wife game developer down in Atlanta that makes some damn fine games. During a recent sale, they offered all three of their current games (Hemloch, Omen and Tooth and Nail) for 10 bucks off and free shipping. Being the sucker I am, I ordered them all. They came in Friday afternoon and I left Octocon about an hour early on Friday night to pick them up at the office where I had shipped them. I brought them in the next day for Octocon and had a chance to play Tooth and Nail...but kept drooling over Omen: A Reign of War. I can't wait to play this. John (the developer for Small Box Games) has a great way of making a very simple mechanic for resource management and conflict with a lot of meat on its bones. They have a fan now, that's for sure.

Other than that, I got in quite a few games of some really fun stuff. It just reminded me that I need to get a bit more proactive in getting players together here in Chicago for game nights.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:20 am

I'm not sure I can remember all I played but this is at least a partial list:

Bang!
Eclipse
Smallworld
Khet
Dominion with Seafarer Expansion
A bunch of King of Tokyo
A card game about making a B-movie - can't remember the name. It was light and fast even though my movie didn't do very well in the end.

Smallworld was pretty fun. I had since it played on Tabletop, but learned a bit more about strategy having played it. I think I'd like to play a few more times to really get the hang of it.

King of Tokyo was fun and quick.

Bang was interesting. I think I was lucky to have gotten so many props - not sure I would have done as well without them.

Dominion is always fun - more so when you end up in a 3-way tie for first.

Eclipse was very interesting. There were a lot of rules, but it seems pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it. I'd like to play one or two more times and see if I can end the galactic scourge known as bb2112.

Khet was the most interesting - it was kind of like a game of chess with lasers! This website looks mostly broken, but the video works to give you an idea of how it is played. I'm really thinking about buying this one.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:51 am

stessier wrote:Khet was the most interesting - it was kind of like a game of chess with lasers! This website looks mostly broken, but the video works to give you an idea of how it is played. I'm really thinking about buying this one.

It's funny you mention this today. I pulled it (original version - which I think I prefer) out to play with my 6 year old yesterday. First time I have played it in years. He wasn't really able to grasp the strategy, hell I'm not really able to grasp the strategy, it's hard to wrap your mind around it in my opinion. Chess is easy compared to Khet.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 11:04 am

coopasonic wrote:
stessier wrote:Khet was the most interesting - it was kind of like a game of chess with lasers! This website looks mostly broken, but the video works to give you an idea of how it is played. I'm really thinking about buying this one.
It's funny you mention this today. I pulled it (original version - which I think I prefer) out to play with my 6 year old yesterday. First time I have played it in years. He wasn't really able to grasp the strategy, hell I'm not really able to grasp the strategy, it's hard to wrap your mind around it in my opinion. Chess is easy compared to Khet.

We were playing the original and that was the consensus in the 4 games I saw played as well. It's hard to think where your laser is going as well as factoring in where the opponent's is headed.

I wanted to take some time to try and think up some strategies, but other games beckoned. I suspect there is an advantage to going first as it is very difficult to put things in place that work well on offense and defense. Very cool game.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 11:13 am

I love the idea of Khet, and I used to own the original release. I eventually got rid of it because I was certifiably terrible at it. I never even came close to winning a single game of it, ever. Lasers are awesome though.

In other news, I accidentally ordered a copy of Libertalia. I have a CSI order waiting on Mice & Mystics to come in, and I emailed them inquiring about the possibility of adding Libertalia to the order as well. Apparently they read that as "add Libertalia to my order". So I guess I have that coming now too.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 11:35 am

I played Libertalia at Gencon. Here's my review:

Tommy20 · Post by **Tommy20** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:49 pm

My OctoCon list (I'm sure I'm going to leave something out):

Risk Express
Alien Frontiers
X-Wing
Tsuro
Star Trek DBG
Sergeant's Miniatures Game
Kingsburg
D-Day Dice

Yup. I'm definitely forgetting something...