Octopus Overlords

I just bought a piece of black felt from the nearest craft store and use it. Cheap, but it looks nice and the felt helps "grab" the bases so they don't accidently get moved so much.

Here is my Geeklist for the games I played at BGG con. It's all from memory, maybe I forgot something...

Coop and Isgrimnur: I had a good time with you guys. Hope to meet up again next year. Isgrimnur, I suggest you pick up Netrunner, and get a few games in with Coop.

Yes, Coop, Mage Wars is all sort of awesome. I wanna play it again soon.

SpaceLord wrote:Coop and Isgrimnur: I had a good time with you guys. Hope to meet up again next year. Isgrimnur, I suggest you pick up Netrunner, and get a few games in with Coop.

Yes, Coop, Mage Wars is all sort of awesome. I wanna play it again soon.

Thanks for your patience with the socially anxious locals. The density of games played once you joined us was much greater than what I was getting done on my own. I should have plopped down at more "Players Needed" flags than I did. Maybe next year I will do better.

I did the math, I spent 48.5 hours at the con, plus 6 hours playing Disc Golf with Con folks. That's a pretty busy 4 days.

Remus West wrote: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.

It was cool to test out our MiniBox of Games.

We loaded up a box with Phase10, Zombie Dice, Martian Dice, Circus Flohcati, Chez Geek, Chez Goth, Chrononauts, MIlle Borne, Where's Bobs Hat?, Earthquake, Great Dalmuti. Forgot the one with Bohnanza, Franks Zoo, and the chips for Three Dragon Ante.

(I have a huge black duffel that carries the 8 Dominion, and a smaller that carries a minimum of eight board games, so was trying to get more mobile gaming)

Sorry I didn't hook up with anyone. I left basically Saturday afternoon, so I missed the guys who were only there for the weekend. My name (I should have told you guys this) is Jennifer Schlickbernd. Next year I'll be clearer about this. Here's my list of post Essen gaming.

You can fit the Dominion games until the last expansion in 1 box. No need for a duffel bag.

Lorini wrote:My name (I should have told you guys this) is Jennifer Schlickbernd. Next year I'll be clearer about this.

I'm pretty sure I saw you and thought that might be you, but people scare me and as Spacelord put it, how should I approach you, "Hi, I'm Coop, I know you from the Internet!"

Don't worry about reminding us next year. We have Isgrimnur.

Zarathud wrote:You can fit the Dominion games until the last expansion in 1 box. No need for a duffel bag.

But not in their original packaging!

We went to Nerdsday Night 3rd Nerdsgiving and played edh Magic and NODWICK the Card Game. Traded wins in edh with another evil Blue deck, then spent a couple hours of chaotic Nodwick fun! (oh, and picked up the Qladiator expansion for Qwarriors).

Had dinner for thanksgiving with the kenetickid family, and played BANG!, Nodwick, Zombie Dice, and Martian Dice.

Got in a couple of games of Tsuro and Space Fluxx with my family. Tomorrow is my annual day after Thanksgiving D&D game with my gaming buddies from when I grew up and our kids.

My dad and I played two games of Merchant of Venus (Second Edition). It goes on a bit longer than I would like, but it is an excellent game!

Bael, I really, REALLY, want Merchant of Venus. I almost got it, but picked up the Star Wars X-Wing game (and one each of the expansions out so far) instead. Not regretting my purchase, but I will get Merchant of Venus probably as my next game purchase.

Merchant of Venus is on my Christmas list, and hopefully mom will pick it up. I am a sucker for Sci-Fi themed games.

MythicalMino wrote:Bael, I really, REALLY, want Merchant of Venus. I almost got it, but picked up the Star Wars X-Wing game (and one each of the expansions out so far) instead. Not regretting my purchase, but I will get Merchant of Venus probably as my next game purchase.

We had a lot of fun with it! The two player game is viable, perhaps not the most excitement or competition over resources, but certainly no slouch. I've heard that 3 players really is the sweet spot for the game and that 4 players can be a very long game. We played the new ruleset, and I think the old ruleset has some potential as well as a variant. We did not use the Demand marker variant with the new rules, and I sort of wish we had (although that would be best in the 2-player game).

Despite the heavy rule book, the game is surprisingly easy to explain and play. I think I might take some time tomorrow or Sunday to create a "how to play" video, just for fun and then do a review video (preview, it will be positive). The most confusing issues are the navigation hazards (i.e. the jump gates), remembering if you get one buy and sell action or unlimited (based on if it is a spaceport or not) and remembering what all the racial tech does. Otherwise, it is smooth shipping.

I got it over Mice and Mystics (which is not sold out, so maybe that was a bad choice). But I also have tons of the Legend of Driizt/Castle Ravenloft adventures left to play and haven't gotten Descent: Second Edition on the table. So I am glad I picked MoV.

This was expansion weekend for us!

Quest of the Qladiator - The new Quarriors expansion, only got one game in. 6 new creatures (3 of which were drawn) and 2 new spells (neither came up). They added one new rule/feature to the game... 4 of the 6 new creatures have a "lock" side to them. To use M:tG terms, a creature that comes up on a lock side acts as an enchantment, providing some effect as long as it's in play. Locked die are free to summon/ready (like spells) but they don't count as creatures and don't score glory. You can only have 1 locked die in play at any time, but are free to replace one locked die with another one you roll in the future. In addition, ANY player can pay 2 quiddity on their turn to destroy any locked die. The two locked die we had in play allowed its owner to destroy one creature per turn, while the other let the owner rotate all of his creatures up one level. Some of the lock effects have cons as well from what we saw but I didn't pour over the new cards in detail. Tricky part to these creatures is that they all have 2 quiddity sides, 2 creature sides, and a 2 lock sides... so it's kind of random what they'll show up as any given turn. But that's Quarriors for you.

King of Tokyo: Power Up! - This adds a new monster but more significantly adds a small deck of 8 "evolution" cards for each of the now 7 monsters. Evolutions come in permanent and temporary flavors. Permanent evolutions remain in play just like "Keep" power cards while temporary cards are like the "Discard" power cards. On your turn, if you roll 3 or more Hearts you get to draw the top evolution card from your deck. You can keep it secret or reveal it right away. Suffice to say you usually keep the temporay ones secret.

Each monster deck follows a theme and does a nice job of giving the monsters some character. But since it's completely random whether you'll get any into play, let alone know which, you can't really rely on them. I think the greatest benefit to the expansion is that it's made rolling Hearts more appealing. If you get stuck with Hearts while in Tokyo, or when you roll more than you have damage they often felt wasted. Now I'm tempted to try for a third if I find myself with 2 and a reroll left. Some of the discard ones look really strong.

Friday afternoon was my annual Thanksgiving D&D game with my old gaming group and our kids. Had a great time, with lots of laughs. Played for about 8 hours, and then closed off the evening with a couple of games of King of Tokyo.

Then last night, got in a few games of Tsuro, and then broke out Spartacus and had some brutal backstabbing fun with that one. It was a 3 player game, and we all had 11 Influence going into the arena bout, so whoever won that bout was going to win. I wanted to get myself into the bout, but was squeezed out because the host was afraid of my biggest gladiator (don't remember his name, but he had 5's in Attack and Defense). So, I played kingmaker, and because he annoyed me for not bringing me into the fight, I "Rigged the Fight" and sent the host's gladiator, Spartacus, back to the holding pens, and sent one of his starting generic gladiator into the arena. He actually made an interesting fight of it, but in the end just couldn't stand up to his opponent. Normally, I wouldn't play kingmaker like that, but with this game, it seems perfectly within the spirit of the game.

When I got home today, I found my copy of Pirate Dice waiting on my doorstep. Hope to get that on the table soon.

Last night I introduced my sister and her boyfriend to Lords of Waterdeep. My sister proceeded to kick the crap out of us throughout the game, sitting on top of a pile of coin Smaug would have admired and neglecting to build any buildings except for the one she needed. At the end, she racked up 44 points from completing 11 quests for her Lord -- beating the rest of us by 50+ points.

We also finished a game of Zombicide with one of the easier missions. After almost getting a total party kill, we all lucked out by drawing awesome new weapons just in the nick of time -- a Katana, Shotgun and Chainsaw. We also missed the super-zombie by drawing it on the second turn (when we had too low of a threat to put it into play). It was hairy, but we would probably have lost if we remembered to spawn zombies in all of the rooms in the last building we entered. Then again, the building already had 20+ zombies waiting inside.

I'd almost forgotten I'd kickstarted it, but my copy of Defenders of the Realm: Battlefields was just dropped off by UPS.

Next up is Agents of SMERSH. I hope to see that one before Christmas!

I have a number of games eventually arriving via kickstarter...the most recent one I did was Storm the Castle. Very excited about that one. Hopefully, Tammany Hall will arrive sometime soon, and then Zpocalypse, I think in January or February

My current darling game is Star Wars X-Wing. That is lots of fun...and I need to pick up a few more ship expansions for it before February when Wave 2 (and the Falcon) arrive.

Chris

Got in a few games of Pirate Dice last night. It was only 2 player, so it wasn't anywhere near as chaotic as I think this game will be able to get, but it was still a lot of fun (even though I lost every single game I played.) Definitely glad I picked this one up.

hepcat wrote:I'd almost forgotten I'd kickstarted it, but my copy of Defenders of the Realm: Battlefields was just dropped off by UPS.

Next up is Agents of SMERSH. I hope to see that one before Christmas!

I had hoped to see Ground Up before too long. I am most excited for my P500 order of the Space Empires 4X expansion and the elusive Ogre Deluxe Edition. Otherwise, most of my KS load is PC related.

Last night was an evening of mostly new games. First up was Cthulhu Yahtzee, er...Elder Sign. I think it went over quite well and it really is an excellent warm up for an evening of gaming. Just enough of the Cthulhu theme mixed with the pain of rolling the wrong dice. We were actually doing great - we had 9 of the 10 Elder Signs necessary to beat Yig but RM9 went insane during a failed attempt to seal a gate to the City of the Great Race. When that happened, the final doom token was added and Yig appeared. As part of his initial appearance everyone needed to discard a number of cards or be devoured. None of the remaining three players could meet those requirements so we all died instantly - GAME OVER. Oh how we laughed because that's EXACTLY how a Cthulhu game should play out.

Next up was The Thing, a free print and play game based on the John Carpenter version of the film. It took us a bit of time to get the flow down (there are like 10 steps to each turn), but after it started coming together it was a lot of fun. The card artwork is fantastic and the game has "Werewolf"-like mechanics with one player controlling the Thing and the remaining people desperately trying to finish tasks while guessing which NPCs and players have been taken over. I'd definitely recommend it, but having four players is probably critical (and someone crazy enough to print, assemble and sleeve all the cards).

The final game was Last Night On Earth, a game that I picked up based on watching Hwill Hwheaton's tabletop from October. We played two rounds of the basic game and both times the zombie hordes proved to be too much for the humans. I don't know if it was the scenario ("Die Zombies, Die!") or bad luck, but the game seemed very difficult for the humans - as it should be during a zombie apocalypse. As a zombie player I had a blast, constantly tormenting all the player characters with relentless attacks and cards that not only set the mood but continued to pile on the pain. No grand strategy, but I think it's a great casual game that worked great with four players. Simple mechanics (unless you've had too much beer) and minimal strategy.

Saturday morning I grabbed a coffee and hit Chicagoland games for a few hours of gaming with Seppe.

First up was my kickstarter for Defenders of the Realm: Battlefields. While I ultimately enjoyed it, much of my initial fun was dampened by a really crappy set of rules that failed miserably to explain many vital rules. I do believe it's a good game, but it really needs better documentation. Thankfully it looks like the makers are aware of its shortcomings and have started posting FAQs on BGG already.

Next we got in a game of Dungeon Command. I honestly wasn't expecting much from this one as reviews have been all over the board. Also, I bought my initial faction box during a drunken night of gaming at the store without even looking into it.

I had played the tutorial of the game which uses one faction for two players (normally you each have a full faction box) and it felt gimped. But I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had with the full game. It's essentially Magic the Gathering with miniatures...and it works quite well. It's NOT collectible so you don't have to go out searching for rare minis, too.

Next up was Morels. I had no interest in playing this when Seppe told me about it. But it's received some pretty decent reviews from folks so I thought I'd give it a go. It really is quite fun. It's a trick taking game (something I'm not normally a fan of) but the theme fits the mechanic perfectly (something that I rarely find in most trick taking games).

Finally, we finished up with a favorite, The Twelve Doctors: Doctor Who Card Game. Playing as the Master, I lost...again. I love this and Omen: A Reign of War but I rarely seem to win at them. Ah well, it's the game, not the victory I enjoy most.

hepcat wrote:Next up was Morels. I had no interest in playing this when Seppe told me about it. But it's received some pretty reviews from folks so I thought I'd give it a go. It really is quite fun. It's a trick taking game (something I'm not normally a fan of) but the theme fits the mechanic perfectly (something that I rarely find in most trick taking games).

I bought it because the designer's wife demoed it for me and she is a cute redhead. How do you say no? Master stroke Mr. Povis.

redrun, bb2112, Chaosraven, and CR's son came over yesterday. We played some King of Tokyo, Stone Age, then a game of Phase 10 after redrun had to call it a day (in which the boy kicked the collective asses of Chaosraven, bb2112, and myself).

Then CR, the boy, and myself played some X-Box CODII zombies. Great fun but we suck.

That's awesome. My buddy was just telling me about this game last week and now I know I grand prize winner. By association, that makes me awesome. I think.

hentzau wrote:Woo-hoo!!!

Didn't you just BUY a copy though?

Congrats in any case!

hentzau wrote:Woo-hoo!!!

Nice. Good work. I'll look forward to learning the game from a grand champion at the next octocon.

hepcat wrote:

hentzau wrote:Woo-hoo!!!

Didn't you just BUY a copy though?

Congrats in any case!

Yeah, I did.

But who ever wins these things? Matter of fact, I think I entered the contest after I had bought my own copy.

hentzau wrote:But who ever wins these things? Matter of fact, I think I entered the contest after I had bought my own copy.

Heh. I won two contests almost back to back on BGG years ago, which netted me copies of Carcassonne and Tide of Iron. I barely enter BGG contests any more, I figure there's no way I'm THAT lucky.

At any rate, congrats!

Remus West wrote:Then CR, the boy, and myself played some X-Box CODII zombies. Great fun but we suck.

I have since tried that Tranzit by myself. I die almost as often as an Xcom Impossible team.

Chaosraven wrote:

Remus West wrote:Then CR, the boy, and myself played some X-Box CODII zombies. Great fun but we suck.

I have since tried that Tranzit by myself. I die almost as often as an Xcom Impossible team.

Played a solo game of Legendary tonight. It was a total cakewalk. Dr. Doom was the mastermind, the scheme was bank robbery (which adds a ton of bystanders to the villain deck), the Villains were the Spider-Foes, and the Henchmen were the Doombot Legion. For the Heroes, I chose Black Widow, Spider-Man, and Captain America. Thanks to a couple of the Spider-Man and Black Widow cards, I was able to keep rescuing bystanders right and left. I never had more than 2 villains on the track at a time. Didn't receive a wound the whole game.

So not sure how well this one would stand up to solo play...at least this particular combo didn't give me a challenge at all. I'm sure I could have upped the challenge level by using 2 player start instead of the solo start. Still a fun game, though.

hentzau wrote:Played a solo game of Legendary tonight. It was a total cakewalk. Dr. Doom was the mastermind, the scheme was bank robbery (which adds a ton of bystanders to the villain deck), the Villains were the Spider-Foes, and the Henchmen were the Doombot Legion. For the Heroes, I chose Black Widow, Spider-Man, and Captain America. Thanks to a couple of the Spider-Man and Black Widow cards, I was able to keep rescuing bystanders right and left. I never had more than 2 villains on the track at a time. Didn't receive a wound the whole game.

So not sure how well this one would stand up to solo play...at least this particular combo didn't give me a challenge at all. I'm sure I could have upped the challenge level by using 2 player start instead of the solo start. Still a fun game, though.

Congrats on the contest win. Hepcat, i am sure will speak to this. He found it easy at first also, but then a little tougher.

It only gets difficult if you select the right scheme/villain/mastermind combo, unfortunately. But they do include ways to up the difficulty level (increased mastermind HP, more villains/schemes, etc.) if you want to go that route.

Out of the box, I feel solo play is not up to snuff. But with expansions they could easily add solo centric schemes that would rectify that issue.

Having two Friday night board gaming events in a row is a rare treAt - but I'll take it.

First was a round of the free print and play game, Aliens: This time it's war. I was a bit skeptical, but it's incredibly well balanced and very well designed. Essentially you're recreating the Aliens film, battling your way through various areas as either the Aliens or Marines. It plays rather fast and there's a surprising amount of strategy - particularly for the Aliens as you need to figure out when to play cards or when it's best to hold them back. We played two rounds, the first I won as the Marines with a complete blowout. The second round went a bit longer and actually ended up unfolding pretty close to the movie with only Ripley, Newt and Hicks surviving (sorry Bishop). Regardless, it's easy to pick up and the mechanics for playing aren't complex at all. I'd recommend it if you have access to a color printer or a friend with OCD for print and play games. The cards are also loaded with quotes and pictures from Aliens, which also adds to the fun.

After that it was a quick round of Survive: Escape from Atlantis. There were only two of us playing, but I have to believe after a few beers, playing this with four people might actually lead to fist-fights. We had a blast because it's so hard to take seriously. Mindless fun.

To close out the evening we played two rounds of Memoir'44. I won both games with some seriously epic die rolls but my buddy was happy to finally bust out his set and the various expansions he picked up a while ago. We did a traditional Americans versus German map and a lucky air drop on my part scored me 3 extra squads of infantry. The second game was a desert battle, heavy on German tanks trying to escape past the British forces. If it was just a straight die-rolling mechanic, I don't know that it would be nearly as fun - having the strategic cards adds a whole new layer that really makes you think. Based on the gear my friend arrived with, I'm nearly certain we could play a scenario a week for the next three years and never see the same map twice. I'm still getting my brains around mechanized armor and he's already talking about having planes added to our next game.

I really wish there was an easy way to scale this up to 3 or 4 players, but it's just not possible without additional sets or changing the mechanics a bit. It really does work great as a two player game (the last time we did this it was 4 players on two teams) and I can see it being a staple game on evenings when we only have two people.

hepcat wrote:It only gets difficult if you select the right scheme/villain/mastermind combo, unfortunately. But they do include ways to up the difficulty level (increased mastermind HP, more villains/schemes, etc.) if you want to go that route.

Out of the box, I feel solo play is not up to snuff. But with expansions they could easily add solo centric schemes that would rectify that issue.

Look at the BGG reviews, three is recommended for this game. Off the cuff, do folks think it works with two ok?

redrun wrote:

hepcat wrote:It only gets difficult if you select the right scheme/villain/mastermind combo, unfortunately. But they do include ways to up the difficulty level (increased mastermind HP, more villains/schemes, etc.) if you want to go that route.

Out of the box, I feel solo play is not up to snuff. But with expansions they could easily add solo centric schemes that would rectify that issue.

Look at the BGG reviews, three is recommended for this game. Off the cuff, do folks think it works with two ok?

When playing with other people, the competitive aspect of the game comes into play and the dynamic changes for the better. I've played a few two player games and one three player game. They were all fun, but the 3 player game can be more difficult due to the increased villain advancement rate across the city.

It's the perfect family game, imho. Not hard to teach, can be played with an eye towards the coop aspect for the younger crowd that might not like losing to mommy and daddy, has a theme that's universally recognizable, and is (most importantly) fun. Tom Vassel made it one of his christmas gift suggestion on Dice Tower recently.