Octopus Overlords

hentzau wrote:

Remus West wrote:We need to break that out again. I like that game. Maybe this Sunday I can get some folks to play that one.

Were I closer to Detroit, I would gladly allow you to blow giant holes in my ship. Because that seems to be the way the game goes for me most times.

I seem to recall pretty regularly getting blown up myself so it might be interesting to play you and see which of us gets sunk first.

Somehow, a copy of Mice and Mystics showed up at my door today.

I have no recollection that I ordered this game.

I think I have a problem...

hentzau wrote:Somehow, a copy of Mice and Mystics showed up at my door today.

I have no recollection that I ordered this game.

I think I have a problem...

I thought you already had Merchants and Marauders?

Also, last week I got two copies of Dungeon in the mail. Somehow I ordered it twice.

Worked out OK, though. I gave one away as a gift.

Pre-orders for Mice and Mystics opened in May so it's pretty reasonable to forget, though I haven't done it myself... yet.

Small Box Games has a Kickstarter up for their 3 newest games.

This small husband and wife indie game maker created what I consider one of the best two players games in the last few years, Omen: A Reign of War.

The campaign went online two days ago. They made the funding level in the first 24 hours and they just hit their first stretch level yesterday. It's only up for a little over two weeks as John (the designer) has all the art and assets ready to go and this is just to fund the production. Games should ship by January of next year. They're very prompt so I fully expect that date to be met.

FedEx hasn't updated the tracking info on my box o' games yet. No change to estimated delivery date, but also no "out for delivery". I'm crossing my fingers that it just hasn't updated at all. Come on, baby!

Chaz wrote:FedEx hasn't updated the tracking info on my box o' games yet. No change to estimated delivery date, but also no "out for delivery". I'm crossing my fingers that it just hasn't updated at all. Come on, baby!

At 5:31am it was scanned 40 miles away, but it's still expected to deliver tomorrow. Boo!

I've been buying too many games!



Recently, I've picked up:

Two classic card games from the master, Sid Sackson:
Sleuth
Venture

Milestones - great, light, route-building game that plays in under an hour, and has a rondel mechanism.

Chicken Caesar just arrive from Kickstarter, haven't had a chance to even open the box yet.

Macao, yet another Stefan Feld game. The man's a genius.

My (21 year old) son and I like the Dungeon Command series much better than Summoner Wars. Dungeon Command has terrain for one thing and much deeper game play. The races/factions are better fleshed out as well.

Boo, no game box til tomorrow. FedEx, you're a harsh mistress.

Chaz wrote:I win, mine gets here tomorrow.

Chaz wrote:Boo, no game box til tomorrow. FedEx, you're a harsh mistress.

That's what you get!

This is the worst. Imma go watch The Omen to make myself feel better.

You made some Good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with

Played last night and got owned in the kitchen by the damn cook and cat. The roach mechanic there sucks if you have unlucky rolls.

Played this morning, kind of with my 6 year old but he didn't have the attention span for it. Ran out of pages after all minions were dead and we were heading for the exit. The page mechanic can go fast after the minions are gone. On the flip side there were 2 slices left on the cheese timer so even dragging it out with a minion left alive probably would have had the same result.

YU_Yukiko wrote:You made some Good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with http://www.octopusoverlords.com" target="_blank

Yes, but most people are bots or idiots.

hepcat wrote:Small Box Games has a Kickstarter up for their 3 newest games.

This small husband and wife indie game maker created what I consider one of the best two players games in the last few years, Omen: A Reign of War.

Great, thanks Hep. First you get me to buy their original three games when they had the %off and free shipping sale, now I'm backing three new ones. I need to stay out of this thread.

You'll be happy to hear though that you'll be getting some mini-expansions for your original three games thanks to the stretch levels on this one. I backed all three and I think Seppe did as well.

I played Omen again recently and it is just one of those games that gets better and better the more you play it. I'm still thinking about what I can do to increase my odds of winning...which, let's face it, are pretty dismal no matter what.

Also picked up the Star Trek: TOS deck builder. They dumped the ship upgrade mechanic (they didn't write it out completely, they just don't include it in the rules or give you ships that you can upgrade to...leaving it a mechanic of the first two games that you can carry over if you combine the sets) and included a new one called "handhelds". Essentially these are equipment cards that can only be used if you have a character on your bridge that you can attach them to. It really forces you to structure your deck more and I really, really like it.

Overall, the game feels very structured and focused. Much more so than the first two games. As I loved those, I'm head over heels for this one. I don't foresee combining the sets though. Thematically it just seems silly to me.

hepcat wrote: You'll be happy to hear though that you'll be getting some mini-expansions for your original three games thanks to the stretch levels on this one. I backed all three and I think Seppe did as well.

I played Omen again recently and it is just one of those games that gets better and better the more you play it. I'm still thinking about what I can do to increase my odds of winning...which, let's face it, are pretty dismal no matter what.

Also picked up the Star Trek: TOS deck builder. They dumped the ship upgrade mechanic (they didn't write it out completely, they just don't include it in the rules or give you ships that you can upgrade to...leaving it a mechanic of the first two games that you can carry over if you combine the sets) and included a new one called "handhelds". Essentially these are equipment cards that can only be used if you have a character on your bridge that you can attach them to. It really forces you to structure your deck more and I really, really like it.

Overall, the game feels very structured and focused. Much more so than the first two games. As I loved those, I'm head over heels for this one. I don't foresee combining the sets though. Thematically it just seems silly to me.

Thanks for the session on Saturday. Omen was great.

I confirmed that I suck at the Star Trek DBGs. I've enjoy playing but I think in the 3 or 4 games I've played, I have gotten zero victory points total.

Omen WAS great...up until the point where you kicked my ass. Building up your bank is definitely the way to go early in the game. Then you can just sit back and send in beasts and soldiers to send cities into a war torn state for quick resolves and victory points. I love having the feats too as they make you think about your placement and actions each turn beyond a simple "gotta win that city!" mentality.

I think the star trek dbg takes a few games before the mechanics behind it sink in. As almost every card in the starbase is unique, there's a lot of different possibilities and it can be a bit overwhelming.

The trick to Star Trek is to search early and often. We let hepcat do all the quests...which seems to happen all the time. I do like knowing there are 2 quests you can work towards in the Original series.

As completing missions and events is the sole way to get victory points in the game, I wouldn't exactly call it a "trick".

Haven't had a chance to play it, but I do like what I've seen with the new ST DBG. The fact that the ship acquiring was removed is a plus, IMO. That was the part that always annoyed me the most about the TNG versions. I do like the draft missions mechanic now, though. It gives you something to work toward while you are gathering your crew and equipment.

Hope I can get this on the table tomorrow night...

The only issue I have with the draft missions is that the deck of draft missions is a duplicate of the 15 missions from the space deck. I kind of wish they'd created a unique draft deck.

But that's a very minor complaint about a game that I think is just a fantastic improvement on its predecessors.

During the storm, I got to play Merchants & Marauders with my fiancee and future-mom-in-law. The first few turns were pretty ugh as they (and I) tried to wrap our heads around and remember all the different follow-on effects (yay stealing from merchants! oh shit, bounties keep you out of ports). By about halfway through, everyone started to get the hang of things.

My fiancee squeaked out an win with 11 points by sinking me to fulfill a "kill a pirate" mission. I almost managed to flee, except I realized after the roll that since I had no masts left, I couldn't have actually tried to run, and then she sank me. She was way to pleased about that.

Not entirely sure I love the stat comparison between the frigate and galleon. Galleon is vastly better except one point of maneuverability, but they cost the same. Feels like there should be some other balancing factor. Some on BGG suggest tweaking things such that frigates can move faster at sea, which would be neat. Like both "pirate" ships get an extra action that can only be used for sea movement or something. I dunno. Definitely want to play it again. When we started, it seemed like it would be a really really long game, but as we went on, we started getting glory points and stashing money a lot faster, so the second "half" of the points race went a lot faster than the first half.

We played several games of Castle Panic w/Wizard's Tower expansion. It's definitely more of a challenge with the expansion. If you're not all working together and really weighing each move, you're screwed. Still a little too much luck involved for my taste, but it's a fun filler game with at least a modicum of depth.

Zax, you get Smash Up yet?

hepcat wrote:Zax, you get Smash Up yet?

I did. You wanna play? Meet me at BGGCon.

hepcat wrote:Zax, you get Smash Up yet?

I have not. It's on my Amazon wish list with high priority, so I'm hoping Santa will deliver it.

Chaz wrote:Not entirely sure I love the stat comparison between the frigate and galleon. Galleon is vastly better except one point of maneuverability, but they cost the same. Feels like there should be some other balancing factor. Some on BGG suggest tweaking things such that frigates can move faster at sea, which would be neat. Like both "pirate" ships get an extra action that can only be used for sea movement or something. I dunno. Definitely want to play it again.

That extra point of maneuverability is huge for pirates who want to do merchant raids. With only two points of maneuverability, it's very, very difficult to succeed at a merchant raid and get enough cards for a glory point. If you take a frigate and add the sails improvement (+1 maneuverability) you now have a rating of 4, which gives you an extra die when attacking a regular galleon. Combined with a captain with (hopefully) high seamanship, this is a pretty powerful advantage over galleons.

After probably 8-10 games of M&M, I've found that playing a pirate is a lot more subtle than playing a merchant. Merchants are kind of easy, especially if other pirate players leave you alone. You're really vulnerable at the beginning of the game, but it's not too hard to get a pretty good trade engine going and start bringing in decent income. Pirates have to play a little smarter and much more aggressively, but the potential rewards ramp up much more quickly. It can also help to be willing to go after merchant players at the very start of the game. With a few successful raids and the income that gives you, you can grab a ship upgrade and a few mods fairly quickly and be a danger to everyone else on the board.

coopasonic wrote:

hepcat wrote:Zax, you get Smash Up yet?

I did. You wanna play? Meet me at BGGCon.

I JUST found out this past weekend that one of my oldest friends is moving to Dallas next week for work, and his family is following in December. I now have a place to stay if I visit that area, so I'm a tentative yes for next year.

Yeah, I definitely see the advantage for raiding. Of course, if you can get a galleon with the sail upgrade, you're just as good, plus have tons o' guns. It does make it so that a pirate in a frigate basically has to avoid merchants in galleons, which is kinda sad. I guess it's also thematic, what with the pirate in the smaller ship takes on the hulking galleon, and has to rely on skill (captain card), equipment (woo long guns!), and dirty tricks (glory cards) to take the prize. The down side is if the merchant in the galleon decides to go after the pirates. At that point, the pirates basically have to run.

I'll need to play more to come to a decision. I know I enjoyed playing a pirate. It was a cool challenge to be restricted on what ports I could land in, trying to stay away from the naval ships that were hunting me down, and still trying to turn a profit. It didn't help that my home port was way in the south western corner, and there were two naval ships in the area most of the game. Free repairs there, on the other hand, were VERY helpful.

hepcat wrote:

coopasonic wrote:

hepcat wrote:Zax, you get Smash Up yet?

I did. You wanna play? Meet me at BGGCon.

I JUST found out this past weekend that one of my oldest friends is moving to Dallas next week for work, and his family is following in December. I now have a place to stay if I visit that area, so I'm a tentative yes for next year.

I'd be happy to have you stay with Isgrimnur.

Issie kept trying to lure Zarathud and I up to his hotel room at Origins the year he went. He kept telling us that he wanted us to see his "collection of off color etchings".

For those of you going to BoardGameGeek Con, here's a helpful link:

BGG Library User. My buddy Jeff Anderson of BGG has several storage units full of games that he pulls out every year for the big con. At last count, the Con plans to provide over 4500 games to be checked out and played during the Con.

There's a few not on the BGG list that I plan to bring:

Chicken Caesar: Political game of electing Roosters to a Roman-style senate.
Antiquity
Milestones
Android:Netrunner(I'm bringing this one to play in the BGG event on Friday)

And possibly a few others.

I've played one game of Smash Up so far, a two-player with my son. It's only one game I know, but so far I'm not impressed. Seemed to take a lot longer to play than I thought it would, and there was an awful lot of back-and-forth with abilities activating, extra actions, extra actions leading to more extra actions, etc. Wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Chaz wrote:Yeah, I definitely see the advantage for raiding. Of course, if you can get a galleon with the sail upgrade, you're just as good, plus have tons o' guns. It does make it so that a pirate in a frigate basically has to avoid merchants in galleons, which is kinda sad. I guess it's also thematic, what with the pirate in the smaller ship takes on the hulking galleon, and has to rely on skill (captain card), equipment (woo long guns!), and dirty tricks (glory cards) to take the prize. The down side is if the merchant in the galleon decides to go after the pirates. At that point, the pirates basically have to run.

In my experience, the captains who have ratings that are great for piracy (high seamanship/spotting) don't tend to make great merchants, and vice versa. In a straight up fight, you'd hope the captain in the frigate has a higher seamanship than the captain in the galleon, and the combination of that plus better maneuverability is the pirate's edge.

Of course there are always going to be situations where a galleon is going to end up a beast, or a pirate captain is going to go on a tear with a souped up frigate. I've seen pirates grab a galleon and just start attacking everyone with pretty good success. That range of options is what makes the game interesting.

Or the pirate can manage to roll 0 successes on something like nine dice over a few shoot actions. Which generally works out badly for me the pirate.

Daveman wrote:I've played one game of Smash Up so far, a two-player with my son. It's only one game I know, but so far I'm not impressed. Seemed to take a lot longer to play than I thought it would, and there was an awful lot of back-and-forth with abilities activating, extra actions, extra actions leading to more extra actions, etc. Wasn't quite what I was expecting.

The game's very text heavy and I was a little disappointed in it for the first few games. Then it suddenly clicked for me and I think it's much better than I originally thought it would be. Once you get a handle on how the different factions work, it becomes a lot more fun.

Chaz wrote:Or the pirate can manage to roll 0 successes on something like nine dice over a few shoot actions. Which generally works out badly for me the pirate.

I have this same problem playing the Tundra Orcs deck in Summoner Wars. You live by the dice, and you die by the dice.