Octopus Overlords

Boudreaux wrote:

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.

Wait. Wait. You can LIVE by the dice? I gotta get me some of these livin' dices.

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.

Have you considered becoming a Storm Trooper? You'd fit right in.

I would be an excellent storm trooper. For the 1.4 seconds that I'm alive after putting my little plastic self on the board.

Chaz wrote:I would be an excellent storm trooper. For the 1.4 seconds that I'm alive after putting my little plastic self on the board.

You only do poorly because you keep going up against plot-important characters. Try fighting against loser no-name dudes.

NickAragua wrote:

Chaz wrote:I would be an excellent storm trooper. For the 1.4 seconds that I'm alive after putting my little plastic self on the board.

You only do poorly because you keep going up against plot-important characters. Try fighting against loser no-name dudes.

Huh, last night fiancee asked if I'd finished reading rules to the games I just got in. I said I was through all of them except Netrunner. She said "Aw, that one looks interesting. You should read those."

Chaz wrote:Huh, last night fiancee asked if I'd finished reading rules to the games I just got in. I said I was through all of them except Netrunner. She said "Aw, that one looks interesting. You should read those."

I played the original version when it came out, and remembered liking it, but was addicted to Magic at the time, and dropped it. Now, I remember something: It's the best 2-player card game ever made. Fucking awesome.

Got in a good 3 player game of Star Trek: TOS DBG last night with Hepcat and Stuart. I'm really enjoying the modifications to the base rules, and the new abilities. Very streamlined, just a big old hunk of fun.

And while I'm a big fan of TNG, this version just clicked for me. While I watched every single episode of TNG, I couldn't identify with a majority of the cards in the set. But with TOS, I knew every single character and episode.

Plus, I like the removal of the "ship capturing" aspect. Seemed like it was the sole focus of the TNG game, the constant upgrade of ships. This focuses more on building out your strengths based on the characters in your decks.

Plus plus, the fact that the explore deck is tied directly back to specific episodes...great flavor. I think this is going to get a lot more play than the TNG version around my house.

Whoo hoo! My copy of the Cutthroat Caverns expansion, Fresh Meat just arrived! I had a blast with this at Gencon.

I have recently purchased Power Grid and Caylus. I like both games a lot.

I have also been playing Quarriors for quick fun.

Got to play Libertalia last night. For a game with pretty simple rules, I'm not crazy about the rulebook. There are some ambiguous wordings, and it would be nice to have a section of more detailed explanations for each card's ability. For example, we had a round where the Topman was in play, and we wound up with two players with living Topmen in their dens, and the same number of characters alive. We made a ruling that both got the 5 doubloon reward, which turns out was right, but it'd be nice to have that spelled out.

I did manage to miss a really major rule. I thought that night abilities only fired off when a character transferred from the ship to the den, and then never again. Turns out that all the night abilities for all living characters in the den fire every time. That's big.

Also seems like it'd lead to really high scores. We played four players, and only had one player top 100 points after the last round. I suspect that if we played with the correct rules, points totals would be much higher. So how do you track after 100, or does it usually only happen at the final scoring, when it doesn't matter so much?

I've only played Libertalia once (at Gencon) but I really liked what I saw. Let us know if the issues you mention make or break it for you.

I got in another game of Omen Saturday...which I lost. I am getting better though and it wasn't an embarrassing defeat.

Next up was Puzzle Strike. I adore that game. It's just a cut throat good time.

Finally, I played a store copy of 3012. While interesting and featuring great art, it's just a little too much like Thunderstone to merit adding it to my gaming closet.

I liked Libertalia, for sure. I just suspect that it's definitely one of those games that need a play or two for people to really wrap their heads around. There are so many different potential interactions between the cards and everything that it'll take a bit before you really start being able to think out a strategy. Even on the first play, though, I was seeing some interesting things and tough decisions. I got beat pretty badly, and my future-mom-in-law who wasn't really catching on the fastest won by quite a bit, so who knows? We did let her collect at least two sets of treasure maps though, so that helps.

Nothing new on the table, but with family in town we did get in some solid classics over the weekend. Full 6-player game of Flash Point Fire Rescue with an Urban Structures map, which we lost fairly quickly with 4 casualties. Also managed to play games of Bohnanza (man I suck at that game), Incan Gold and a 4-player game of Ticket to Ride with the 1910 expansion. Ran away with that last one with over 175 points and 9 tickets completed including 3 or 4 that were 15+ points for cross-country routes. I managed to connect San Francisco to Atlanta and a ton of long routes keyed off that.

Sometimes it's nice to kick back on a cold Sunday afternoon and go back to some classics that nobody needs to learn for the first time.

redrun, LordMortis, and myself played Eclypse this weekend. I ended up winning because LM went after redrun on the final turn and I was able to build 4 monoliths with one action (using the Aliens and I had the one that starts with 3 builds per action then had the nanobots to get the 4th build). I've sort of decided that 3 player is always going to end something like that with a "King maker" situation. Had LM targetted me he probably would have simply allowed redrun to win rather than me. Had he attacked neither of us then he is settling for third with no shot at winning himself. As it was he needed to get lucky to grab a couple more points from me and over take me in spite of the monoliths.

Remus West wrote:I ended up winning because LM went after redrun

I can't count the number of times I've been able to win a game solely because two of the players were dead set on one upping the other, thereby completely ignoring my doings in the process. I've come to rely on that as my only chance of winning a game and invite players to the table accordingly.

hepcat wrote:

Remus West wrote:I ended up winning because LM went after redrun

I can't count the number of times I've been able to win a game solely because two of the players were dead set on one upping the other, thereby completely ignoring my doings in the process. I've come to rely on that as my only chance of winning a game and invite players to the table accordingly.

Oh, that isn't what happened. redrun was clearly in the lead, imo. The turn before I had gone after him and taken one of his worlds. I might have continued to go after him but I didn't have the firepower to attack him and defend myself so when LM attacked the world I had taken from redrun (it was the only path into redrun's territory) I simply moved what I could out to attempt to defend myself. I think redrun likely had a substantial lead showing on the board at that point as building the monoliths and their 12 victory points was not done until one of my very last moves.

Sorry about my inability to place names with faces, but was redrun the person at Octocon you were about to physically attack with a chair after turn 3 or 4 of Olympos?

hepcat wrote:Sorry about my inability to place names with faces, but was redrun the person at Octocon you were about to physically attack with a chair after turn 3 or 4 of Olympos?

No. That was bb2112. redrun didn't make the trip this last time.

Lest anyone think I'm serious, it was just a friendly disagreement over aggressive gaming.

That must've been a sweet turn. Did you already have the Monolith tech? It would have been sweet if you dropped down 4 monoliths as a suprise last move after just getting the tech. You could probably have also built a fleet and attacked, too. They were probably afraid of that so left you alone. Next time, they'll swipe your monolith tech as a defensive move like I did.

Eclipse is best at 4 and 6 players, or 3 very stabby players to crank up the paranoia.

MonkeyFinger wrote: 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.

Did you see that they're offering the Forgotten Oath mini-expansion from the second edition kickstarter for Omens as an option for those backing their latest kickstarter? 24 champion cards (new units) and alternate art city (reward) cards. 10 bucks and includes shipping. I put in my order today and within an hour received a shipping notice. They have pretty amazing turnaround times.

hepcat wrote:Lest anyone think I'm serious, it was just a friendly disagreement over aggressive gaming.

You may have been kiddingbut are you certain I was?

does anyone have any "insider info" on when the kickstarter Tammany Hall will be shipping? One of the games I have been waiting for...

Expensive day yesterday. I stopped by my FLGS on the way home from work, hoping that the Star Trek Fleet Captains Romulan Empire expansion would be out.

Not only was it out, but also the Roots of Corruption expansion for Thunderstone Advanced and the Quladiators expansion for Quarriors were sitting on the counter with it, fresh from the shipping boxes.

Since I've had a crappy week so far, and the store in question has given me tons of free crap and hosted my sorry behind on numerous game nights/days, I bought all of them.

Now I'm a pauper. I'll be moving to Michigan to live in Chaos' basement by the end of the month.

hepcat wrote:Expensive day yesterday. I stopped by my FLGS on the way home from work, hoping that the Star Trek Fleet Captains Romulan Empire expansion would be out.

Not only was it out, but also the Roots of Corruption expansion for Thunderstone Advanced and the Quladiators expansion for Quarriors were sitting on the counter with it, fresh from the shipping boxes.

Since I've had a crappy week so far, and the store in question has given me tons of free crap and hosted my sorry behind on numerous game nights/days, I bought all of them.

Now I'm a pauper. I'll be moving to Michigan to live in Chaos' basement by the end of the month.

He doesn't have a basement but there is a nice steam vent on his street I'm sure he'd let you sleep on. I'll try to drive by and steal your games......er bring you food a few times a week.

Remus West wrote: I'll try to drive by and steal your games......er bring you food a few times a week.

I'm not falling for that old "hole in the bottom of the popcorn bag" trick again. 7 times is enough!

The new expansion for War of the Ring just came out. It adds some neat stuff like new action dice for adding named characters. That's awesome, and WotR is one of my favorites.

Only problem is that getting this will require that I buy the 2nd edition upgrade kit in addition to the expansion, putting the total at over $40. Ugg...

I picked up the XWing Miniatures base game along with the Y-Wing and Tie Advanced expansions to play with my sons last night. Big hit. This was after playing Wings of War with them a few days ago - enjoyed it, but man using cards for planes and movement was awkward. Using the minis, movement wheel and move templates is SO much easier. Was curious to see how they'd take to it since their exposure to Star Wars skews much more toward the prequels/Clone War stuff that's come out lately. Going back to original trilogy starships is stuff they're not as familiar with, but they had a blast.

BGG con is only 5 days away!

I've got to decide what games to pack, although most everyone's needs should be met by the 5000+ collection that the con owns.



My offer for crash space in my hotel room still stands, folks.

SpaceLord wrote:BGG con is only 5 days away!

My social anxiety has been in overdrive for days now in anticipation.

SpaceLord wrote:My offer for crash space in my hotel room still stands, folks.

It sounds like I am going to need to go home most evenings to help with the kids in the morning. I might be looking for space Friday and/or Saturday evenings. I'll be available to drive to dinner or whatever if you need.

It's not very board-game-ish but I plan on joining the disc golf outing Thursday morning. I've never gone with people that knew what they were doing.

Got to play Mice & Mystics on Sat night. The fiancee and her mom were both a little tired, so mom was having a hard time getting a handle on things, and fiancee wasn't crazy about running two mice. We wound up losing right when we got to the last tile in the first chapter. We had a hard time getting out of the water in the sewer tile, which was a combination of bad rolls and me not remembering that diagonal movement is allowed in this one. We rolled really badly overall, and got a bunch of surges, especially when a spider showed up and kept rolling cheese.

I like how narrative it feels. I was originally treating the special stuff on tiles, like searching in the water spits out the fish hook and thread, as DM kind of info that shouldn't be shared until it comes up, but now I'm thinking that stuff like that needs to be made public when the tile is revealed.

I'm also pretty glad that it's not a cakewalk. Dungeon crawls like this can sometimes ramp up the difficulty over the whole range of scenarios, so that the first few are too easy. Always feels like I got gypped with those, so having it be tough from the outset is good. We might be able to give it another whack tonight.

I got an email request from Amazon to review the Eclipse expansion. I have not gotten the explansion yet nor have I received notice that it is on the way.

I got in a play of Mice and Mystics with my family on Friday night. Played with my wife, my 13 year old daughter (Thing 2), and my 9 year old son (Thing 3).

It was not a pleasant experience.

For starters, Thing 2 was VERY put out that I asked her to leave her precious Internet and come play a dopey old boardgame. So she was presenting a bit of attitude. She played Tilda, and she chose the Cure Poison spell (whatever it's called) and that didn't turn out to be overly useful, so she was grumbling about that. Thing 3 was, in typical 9 year old fashion, crowing every time something good happened to him and something bad happened to his sister (which led to more grumbling and complaining on her part.) My wife, God love her, has the attention span of a magpie in a room filled with disco balls when it comes to playing any boardgame more complex than Monopoly, and seemingly could not grasp either the basic strategic tenets of the game nor could remember rules from turn to turn (she could not remember from turn to turn that the bow and arrow symbol means that you can cast the spell from range.)

Anyway, it took us 3 hours to get through the first scenario, and I was glad once it was over. However, my kids, when talking afterwards, wanted to know when we could play again and if they could use the same characters. Needless to say, I'm not tremendously motivated to try it out again, but we may try Chapter 2 this weekend.

I love the rules amnesia effect. I had to explain several times to the mom-in-law why she was rolling the number of dice she was for fighting, and what symbols meant when they came up. I think it's an effect of tiredness/alcohol, because usually she does okay with rules.

It's frustrating as hell trying to be the one to keep patient and a positive attitude when everyone else at the table is, well, not. I wanted to just pack it in halfway through on Saturday. Thankfully, halfway through her mom decided she was too tired to keep going, and gave her mouse to me to finish the chapter with.

We played Dixit with another couple. I suck at it, but I like it a lot. Anyone have any insights to replayability? I'm worried that once I know the cards pretty well, it will change the feel of the game significantly, and for the worse.

After seeing Tom Vasel's gushing review for Upper Deck's Legendary Marvel Deck Building Game, I promptly ordered a copy from miniaturemarket.com. Supposedly it comes out tomorrow. I've recently been enjoying the hell out of Thunderstone Advance solo games on late nights when no one's available to play and this one appears to be somewhat similar to that experience.

With this, the Star Trek TOS DBG, Star Trek Fleet Captains - Romulan expansion, Thunderstone: Roots of Corruption and the Quarriors expansion, it's been an expensive few weeks.

Next up on Hoarders: Boardgame Man

Hey, I resemble that remark!

I need to have an ebay auction one of these days. I've got about a two dozen games I rarely play anymore.

Ah well, the amount I spend on boardgames is still offset by the amount I'm saving by quitting smoking all those years ago....and it's healthier.

hepcat wrote:Hey, I resemble that remark!

I need to have an ebay auction one of these days. I've got about a two dozen games I rarely play anymore.

Ah well, the amount I spend on boardgames is still offset by the amount I'm saving by quitting smoking all those years ago....and it's healthier.

Presuming a huge stack of boardgames doesn't fall on you as you try to navigate your house. You may find yourself pinned under the games and unable to reach a phone to call for help. Only found when the neighbors complain about the smell.