Octopus Overlords

Isgrimnur wrote:Next up on Hoarders: Boardgame Man

I know a lot of gamers who put me to shame but that's not too far off on the psychology for me. I refuse to get rid of music, books, or games. I have Atari Basic reference books. Though I have allowed some games that fell to extreme disrepair to be removed from my "collection" and I feel empty without them. I'll never play Eon's Cosmic or Red Empire again, I'm sure, but I want them back and I notice their absence when I sort through my games, much more so then even games I've loaned out and never got back.

If hoarder psychologists were like "You haven't played this game since 1981, surely you can let it go" I'd get all twitchy and unbearably anxious. If it weren't for games, music, and books, I could live in 400 sq foot flat pretty easily.

I figure he'll end up under a pile of DBGs and his last words are about how he found the perfect killer mashup deck between Nightfall and Star Trek.

Isgrimnur wrote:I figure he'll end up under a pile of DBGs and his last words are about how he found the perfect killer mashup deck between Nightfall and Star Trek.

I picture him pinned under a pile of minatures, unable to move not from the weight but from the fear of breaking one of his favorites.

I'm not a miniatures guy. I think Issie's obituary is probably closer to the truth. I loves me my deck builders.

hepcat wrote:I'm not a miniatures guy. I think Issie's obituary is probably closer to the truth. I loves me my deck builders.

but your minture of Chaosraven striking a muscle pose while nude will be sitting on top balanced precariously near the edge and may shatter its little.....legs..should it fall.

If by "muscle pose" you mean slumped down in his chair with a Hustler and a Slim Jim...then yes...yes, I can see that happening.

I suspect hepcat dumps all his card games into a swimming pool and swims in it like Scrooge McDuck. I just expect hepcat will buy any new card game until it's been out for 3 months.

coopasonic wrote:

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.

We can meet up. I'll be arriving around noon Wednesday, and fly out at 3 on Sunday.

Here's what I plan to play:

Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar - I'll have my copy in hand from FunAgain, sometime during the con
Antiquity
Suburbia
Terra Mystica - I'm picking up a copy of this one at the con from FunAgain
Keyflower
Andean Abyss - I'll bring my copy, since the con library doesn't have it
Chicken Caesar - I'll bring mine as well
Clash of Cultures - getting a copy from Z-Man.

I'll be at BGG Con as well. Look for a middle aged African American woman. I'll either be in the new games room or one of the quiet room 90% of the time.

I played Farmageddon with the kids and my dad on Saturday.

I picked up Mice & Mystics at the FLGS and got in a game of Seasons and Village. Seasons is just a great game for two people. Quick, easy to learn and appealing to Euro and American-style gamers.

Village had a great light Euro feel with some storytelling. Managing how quickly your people live and die is an interesting mechanic, and I ended up with all of the village's important people but did a horrible job getting goods to market. I almost caught up with the clergy, but ended up letting my last unassigned guy die so I couldn't grow any grain to advance them. I would definitely play again.

So close to achieving a victory via a US controlled Europe, but I had to spend too many ops points to keep France out of the hands of the Commies and was never able to take Poland. Had to quit just when the Late War was starting, because it was getting too late, but I think the US was in trouble. We were really close on VP's, but the Russkies had total control of Asia and I was valiantly trying to maintain a presence in Europe. Africa and Central America were hotly contested, while the US only had domination in South America. The Middle East was being widely ignored. Who knows how the fate of the free world would have ended?

City of Horror arrived this afternoon. The game does look pretty, and I am very interested in trying it out. Hopefully, tomorrow my boys and I will be able to play a game.

hentzau wrote:So close to achieving a victory via a US controlled Europe, but I had to spend too many ops points to keep France out of the hands of the Commies and was never able to take Poland. Had to quit just when the Late War was starting, because it was getting too late, but I think the US was in trouble. We were really close on VP's, but the Russkies had total control of Asia and I was valiantly trying to maintain a presence in Europe. Africa and Central America were hotly contested, while the US only had domination in South America. The Middle East was being widely ignored. Who knows how the fate of the free world would have ended?

i hate having to quit playing that game in the middle. I have a friend who's prone to analysis paralysis and out of 4 or 5 games I think we only actually finished one of them.

Jow wrote:

hentzau wrote:So close to achieving a victory via a US controlled Europe, but I had to spend too many ops points to keep France out of the hands of the Commies and was never able to take Poland. Had to quit just when the Late War was starting, because it was getting too late, but I think the US was in trouble. We were really close on VP's, but the Russkies had total control of Asia and I was valiantly trying to maintain a presence in Europe. Africa and Central America were hotly contested, while the US only had domination in South America. The Middle East was being widely ignored. Who knows how the fate of the free world would have ended?

i hate having to quit playing that game in the middle. I have a friend who's prone to analysis paralysis and out of 4 or 5 games I think we only actually finished one of them.

It was only my second game, and it was a learning game for Tommy, so we went kinda slow. But still fun.

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.

Pshhh I have about 85 games I rarely play.

SpaceLord wrote:Here's what I plan to play:

Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar - I'll have my copy in hand from FunAgain, sometime during the con
Antiquity
Suburbia
Terra Mystica - I'm picking up a copy of this one at the con from FunAgain
Keyflower
Andean Abyss - I'll bring my copy, since the con library doesn't have it
Chicken Caesar - I'll bring mine as well
Clash of Cultures - getting a copy from Z-Man.

I have not even heard of any of these games.

Still stressing out about this.

Lorini wrote:I'll be at BGG Con as well. Look for a middle aged African American woman. I'll either be in the new games room or one of the quiet room 90% of the time.

I'll keep my eyes open.

I will not be making an appearance tomorrow or Thursday, as the gf will be off during the evenings on those two days.

Friday night and Saturday afternoon are the times I am most likely to be in attendance. Sunday will most likely be a pass as well.

I hope I am not boardgamed out by then. I'll be here daily until my eyes betray me. The fun part is I get to take my kid to daycare at 7am each day.

Just found out there's what looks like a good board game store up in Manchester, NH. They've got open gaming three days a week, and a 500 game library that you can play in store, or pay $20/month to be able to sign out and take home. Sweet. There's a different store in my town that I stopped into, and while it's got lots of table space, it's one of those grungy places that seems to cater almost exclusively to the miniatures crowd and glowers at outsiders. Having an actual FLGS is a very good thing.

I remember the gaming contingent in college that looked with disdain on my unwillingness to paint my Blood Bowl miniatures. Hey, if you're willing to donate your time and money to the cause I'm all ears, buddy.

I did eventually give in to their bitching and actually bought a set of miniatures - I was perfectly happy using Legos before.

Day1 of BGGCon done. I had to cut it short because I was exhausted. Being around so many people is a massive drain on my energy levels.

Registration line took about an hour (beyond the 45 minutes early I arrived). We were given 4 games as door prizes. There were some choices, but I was flying blind. I ended up with:
New York
Puzzle Strike
jab:Realtime Boxing
Little Devils

My selection criteria was generally
1) Kid Friendly
2) Wife Friendly
3) 60 minutes or less play time

There were not a LOT of choices, but most fit some or all criteria.

I did not play a lot of games. I was mostly checking things out and watching others play and demos and such. I played:
Mage Knight - It took about 3 hours to play the opening scenario. I finished dead last, but found the game interesting.
Gauntlet of Fools - This was a demo at the Indie Boards and Cards booth. It was quick and fairly straightforward. Again I finished dead last.
Expedition Sumatra - Much more complex than it appeared at first but I think it could be kid friendly. Would you believe I finished dead last?

It was around 6pm when I decided I needed food, then I decided I may as well go home since I was exhausted and work needed me to look at something before tomorrow. Leaving the airport to head home at 6pm was not the best idea. Traffic was stupid.

Tomorrow morning I start the day off at a disc golf course. It looks to be cool enough that I won't get sweaty and spend the rest of the day stinking up the game room. Also hoping I have more stamina tomorrow. Now that I have an idea how things work maybe I will get into more games.

hepcat and I enjoyed learning Puzzle Strike at Origins this year, so thumbs up on that one.

It's really easy to just watch and explore the floor of a game convention. It energizes hepcat while it makes me tired. I like to make sure I have a bunch of games every day, but 3-6 events will probably fill up the day. Find a balance that works for you.

hentzau really ought to see the custom painted crokinole boards they have for the occasion.

Maybe I can convince my wife to cut me loose for a weekend to do BGGcon. Been wanting to do it for a few years now.

Love, love, love Puzzle Strike. Seppe just picked up the third edition the weekend before last.

Disc Golf was excellent. I spent much of the day with a couple of Canadians I met playing disc golf.

Back at the on I played ( I might linkify these later... maybe):
Zombicide - This is the first time I ever won a scenario. We lost one guy because the guy driving the police car around ran me over... twice.
Infiltration - We all lost this one, but I was closest to the exit. Somsone else *could* have played a card enabling me to escape and win, but he didn't like that idea. Something about me pushing him back deeper into the building when we were close to getting caught.
Escape: The Curse of the Temple - co-op, time limited dice-rolling game. chaotic, light, fun.
Love Letter (demo) - Quick, light, cheap.
Suburbia - This one I liked pretty well and I didn't even finish in last place (3rd of 4). Some interesting planning, resource management, tile placement and the winner was the guy that was in last place the entire game... and not just due to the come from behind mechanic built in.

Hmm, was that really all I played? I made it until 10:30 tonight. Maybe I can go the distance tomorrow. I have a sample of 5 hour energy, but didn't take it. I haven't had any caffeinated drink in more than 10 years. I am afraid what would happen to me.

Met up with Spacelord tonight and played Suburbia. Talked with him for a bit and it seems he knows every game ever published. It's a bit frightening.

Hoping to see Isgrimnur tomorrow. Had our eyes out for Lorini, her description narrows the number of people significantly, but I think having her BGG board name or real name would help. I'm a bit anti-social so just asking is right out.

Hoping to kick tomorrow off with more disc golf and then games, games and more games.

Yup, going to head that way tomorrow after work. Given current distances and traffic vagaries, I hope to be in the building before 6:30. But I have no idea what traffic is like headed in that direction during rush hour. I know that I should probably stay off of 635.

coop, I've still got your number, so I will ping you at least when I'm headed that way.

coopasonic wrote:Zombicide - This is the first time I ever won a scenario. We lost one guy because the guy driving the police car around ran me over... twice.

DOUBLE TAP!

hepcat wrote: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.

Just got my copy of Legendary, looking forward to trying it out soon

Let me know what you think. So far, playing two games solo, I've yet to feel that I was even remotely capable of losing. I'm worried the game is too easy. I'm going to play multiplayer later today and hopefully I'll have a different experience.

Thankfully, they have rules for upping the difficulty in the manual, but if I'm getting the feeling it's way too easy only after two games that makes me a bit nervous.

P.S. check bgg for info on card timing for superpowers. It's easy to fudge some very important cards if you don't catch the little blurb in the manual that superpowers only fire off ONCE and not multiple times (unless the card says otherwise).

I need to wait for izzy to post before I can cover yesterday's action. I can't find huge name of the coop card game/ logic puzzle you play with your hand facing your opponents. That was a very cool game

I will say that Mage wars is probably my must have game of the con. I need to play pirate dice to see if it works as well as I think it would. Robo Rally lite seems an apt description.

Netrunner is cool but I think I prefer the Mage wars mechanics.

Lancaster was interesting but not my type of game.

Sheep land looks like a good kids game. A step up from more kiddie focused games.

Speaking of games that would work for kids, I think Castellan will be perfect and should come out early-ish next year.

Last day and I am stating to drag quite a bit. The 5 hour energy got me to 12:30 last night.
I demoed and picked up Morels as I think it would work for the wife.

I'm waiting for my copy of Pirate Dice to show up from Kickstarter. And (if you didn't know this and just pulled the description out of your ass) it WAS based on a game called RoboDerby Express. Guy who created RoboDerby Express didn't think he could get the rights for RoboRally, and so re-themed it to Pirates.

coopasonic wrote:I need to wait for izzy to post before I can cover yesterday's action. I can't find huge name of the coop card game/ logic puzzle you play with your hand facing your opponents. That was a very cool game

Hanabi

Lancaster and Netrunner were fun. I guess I need to look at Mage Wars first before I purchase anything, though.

yay the con is over, I can sleep now. Got home around 3:00 this morning. Then the smoke detectors went off (dirty CO2 sensor I assume) around 5:30. I'm tired.

Played:
The Duke - demoed this and brought home a print and play copy. It's chess++. I liked it quite a bit. No idea who I would play it with.
Isgrimnur taught me Nightfall. It was my first play of a deckbuilder. I like the concept, but had issues with execution in the two games we played. (In the second game where we drafted, I ended up with cards in my archive that basically had no use. Oops.
Izzy and I then played Redshirts. I thought it was utter crap. It was more fun to watch than play... apparently because I could walk away whenever I wanted.
Izzy taught me and some random con attendee Memoir '44. That's about my level of wargame. I would prefer a bit less randomness in results and more options on my turn. When my left flank was wiped out in one scenario I spent a lot of time throwing useless order cards while I waited for something I could use and the other played repositioned. Amazingly I had (barely) more patience and he gave me too many opportunities.
Then Spacelord took over and taught me:
Seasons - An interesting (combat-less) magic-esque game with a built in mana-screw mechanism.
Roll Through the Ages - quick Yahtzee-esque game. Entertaining and the only game all weekend where I beat Spacelord.
Le Havre: The Inland Port - Very cool mechanics in a... uhhh... no idea what you call this. we played the german version with a photocopy of the English rules, but words weren't really critical.

I think I am forgetting something I played with Spacelord. I called it a night at a little after 2am, since the library had closed. It was a lot in 16 hours and overall the convention has left me utterly exhausted and wanting to hide from society for a few weeks.

Stuff added to the buy someday list after the convention:
Mage Wars (summoner wars has been removed from my list in favor of this)
The Duke
Suburbia
Memoir '44
King of Tokyo
Castellan
Pirate Dice
Netrunner

I only bought these at the con:
Why?
Nox
Morels

The first two are for my 6 year old, the last for my wife.

I forgot the lap of pitch car I played on a track made from 2 bas sets and a pile of expansion. That was ridiculous.

Went to a birthday party for John Kovalic this weekend, and towards the end of the evening the games came out. We got in a game of Castle Panic before the night was through, and then Tommy and I went back to our hotel and played a few games of Lost Cities. And no, that isn't an euphamism.

Then, once back in Chicago, took my wife and son to the Chicago Toy and Game Fair. For the most part I was bored through it, what with the only "real" game companies in attendance being Mayfair and Rio Grande Games. However, when we wandered by the Rio Grande Games booth, they were working on clearing out merchandise. So, I picked up:

Puerto Rico and San Juan - $15 for the set
Medici - $5
La Citta - $5
Hacienda - $5

I really wasn't shopping for any of those games, but those prices for new in shrink games? I would have stuck around to see what else they were getting rid of, but I was running on fumes by that point and just wanted to go home.

You missed the booth for Smirk & Dagger games at the Chicago Toy & Game Fair (CHITAG) -- they had Cutthroat Caverns, Run for your Life Candyman and SUTAKKU out. My wife took a picture, like most of the other people wandering by.

And who at CHITAG thought it was a good idea to have a "Pony Party" where you have to give up your kid to listen to a lady push the product for 10 minutes and the kids can't play with the merchandise at all? Seriously WTF.

The girls did find fabulous Brobo doll/night lights. When the kids swipe the doll's arms across its center, the thing lights up for 5 minutes. The idea is that the repetition puts the kid to sleep and the night light turns off once they're asleep.



There was also a guy doing amazing things with bubbles. But $5 for Hacienda and La Cittia? Wow.

Saw Smirk and Dagger, but didn't stop. I've played Candyman, and have CC, so nothing to really draw me in there.

The game that I'm currently regretting not grabbing was Wallenstein for $25.

Had a good time playing dice games and card games with Chaosraven and his son yesterday. Really liked "Phase 10" although the boy crushed us both.

very excited because today my copy of Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game arrives, along with one of each of the expansions. Next I need to buy a playmat that has stars, I guess. I want at least one more core set, too...