Octopus Overlords

Tell me about this Nemo's War deal. It was one I was wanting to check out.

On the bright side, I got a full night's sleep last night. On the other hand, the bed I'm sleeping in plus the walking has my back bitching like crazy. Still, I need to finish the Exhibitor's Hall today, at least the full walkthrough.

I'm a little on edge about the improv class. I could really benefit from it, but it is about acting spontaneously in front of people I don't know. That's anxiety-bait for me. Ugh.

$75 (no tax) for 2nd Edition, expansion pack, a couple of bags (for tokens or something) and a collectible pin. I don’t really care about the pin but getting the base and expansion for no tax or shipping sealed it for me.

I have seen one place selling it for as low as $55 but that’s before tax/shipping and doesn’t have the expansion or goodies.

Wandered the dealer hall with hepcat. Picked up Star Realms expansions + card sleeves plus the Broken Token Galaxy Trucker organizer. Looked at Little Scythe, Too Many Bones and Kingdom Death.

Played an hour of Scythe (teaser demo) and a full game of Yokohama. Lost by 1 point! Very good euro but bland art. Also played True Colors -- a pretty fun party game voting about the other players.

Blackhawk wrote: Fri Aug 03, 2018 8:47 am
I'm a little on edge about the improv class. I could really benefit from it, but it is about acting spontaneously in front of people I don't know. That's anxiety-bait for me. Ugh.

Yeah, that didn't happen. Next time I want to schedule myself a super-social activity with people watching me, I need to take into account how much time I will have spent away from home surrounded by people before said activity. I just couldn't make myself do that.

But I did spend a good chunk of time in the dealer hall. I met up with Zarathud shortly after I got there, then spent a solid hour and a half wandering with him, discussing this and that. He even had a spare game that he passed on to me - thanks again! Later in the afternoon I met up with YellowKing and his friend for a bit. It's always great to meet up with OO folks, and I hope to meet up with them (or others) again before this thing is done.

I did make a few purchases. A Christmas present for my exish (which therefore comes out of the Christmas budget, not the GenCon budget), a character pack for Dragonfire, and a stack of overstock/returned items from TheWarStore. I passed by a copy of Sword & Sorcery in the CoolStuff Inc scracth-and-ding shelves that I am kicking myself for not picking up. I did, however, get a copy of Klask. It isn't a board game, but my kids have really be wanting to give it a shot.

Tomorrow I have a game from 10-2, then I will hit the consignment room to see what's left at the lowest price. After that? I will play it by ear. Sunday, my exish and kids will be showing up for the grand tour.

Great seeing you Blackhawk!

We went for a learning session of RENEGADE this morning. Really liked it and it’s going on the wish list. The Dice Tower live broadcast was a blast.

Then we hit the dealer hall again to meet up with BH and pick up (more like 2-man lift) TOO MANY BONES. Really excited to finally get my hands on it.

After that we hit the library for some Eldritch Horror since it has been on my wish list for awhile. Lots of fun but I’m going to wait and see how Arkham Horror 3rd Edition shakes out in comparison.

Tomorrow is another pretty packed day with BGG Hot Games, ONE DECK GALAXY demo, trying to swing by to meet Matt Leacock crowds permitting, and then doing some alpha test game just for grins. May or may not skip that one depending on how we feel.

We’ll be in the dealer hall much of the day Sunday if anyone wants to meet up to say hi. Just text me.

P.S. I asked my kids (6 & 9) what they wanted me to bring them back from the trip, expecting the usual impossible requests. My daughter said “a picture of a dragon” and my son said “a board game.” I Was like holy shit I CAN MAKE THAT HAPPEN.

Enjoyed meeting Blackhawk in the dealer hall and talking, even though it ended with me splurging on some Battletech mechs. You can never have too many Awesomes and Zeuses to paint. These will hopefully turn out better than my first batch.

Played Chimera Station which ended up better than I expected. It's a worker placement game where you're building a space station, accumulating resources, tech and VPs. The twist is your workers can be improved by adding arms for bonuses. The game is short and scales up quickly. Not a full price game but worth playing. Just barely lost. Winner had a great run at the end by claiming a bunch of torsos then kicking other players out of spaces (as a bonus from the pincer arms) to get the high score. Very nice.

Then I met up with my sister (cosplaying Little Witch Academia) and her husband while buying gifts for my kids. Played two games of Seasons. Great game. Won one game then almost shut out the other player (the sponsor) until the last year when he got out of the VP sucking trap I created for him. Impressive, and a hard earned win.

We then met up with Harkonis for dinner. Beer or lemonade, and some really great deserts.

My last demo ended up just a rules walkthrough for Alien Artifacts because they didn't get game copies shipped to them. Had a nice chat.

Tomorrow is packed with Long Games -- Too Many Bones, Empires of the Void and 3D Game of Thrones.

Anyone get to see the live Critical Role session?

Not me. Playing 3D Game of Thrones tonight.

Played one of the new characters (Assassin) in Too Many Bones:Undertow. The other new character is a Bard who would shine in a long game and long battles. Great game ended with a last turn attack by Boomer to kill the Tyrant before time ran out. Always a good time.

Did a little more browsing then won a game of Empires of the Void. Upgraded my parasites then ended up building an Academy to get a 5 card hand limit. Then it was a matter of locking down the ally for the permanent +1 card then rushing the galaxy for the goods bonus from discovery. By avoiding the crush of my opponents for the same territory, I was able to keep playing cards to get us to the first scoring round. That lead ended up secured when I went aggressive to conquer 3 planets and players. One started a counter attack that was thwarted as refreshes by my opponents exhausted the draw pile to end the game. A few players were about to score big -- one after buying a bunch of resources from the trade station.

As good as yesterday was, today may have been even better!

First up we hit the BGG hot games room and played Forbidden Sky. Honestly this may be my favorite of the series due to the increased challenge. Got our butts kicked twice on Novice! Still the mechanics of completing the electrical circuit was really unique and cool. Must buy for sure.

Next we played a prototype of ONE DECK GALAXY. If you were afraid this would be a simple re-skin of ONE DECK DUNGEON, you needn’t worry. While the basic mechanics of dice placement are still there, the “fight through the dungeon and beat the boss” mechanism is gone. Now it’s a points race to accumulate 50 points of “stuff” before the ever-increasingly strong boss alien race consumes 6 planets and wins the game. The strategy is a bit deeper in regards to burning through the deck (no more time mechanic) - the cards you get as rewards are now also shortening your deck, so there’s a trade-off mechanic you have to think about. Also low dice now serve more purpose, so a “bad” roll can have unexpected benefits. It’s a lot of fun and I personally enjoyed it MORE than ODD.

We then swung by the Forbidden Sky booth and met Matt Leacock and got a picture with him. Really cool to be able to tell him how his game started our gaming group that has met weekly for the past two years. Terry was particularly excited as he owns nearly every game Matt has designed.

We finished the day at the “in development” room where we got to play a semi-cooperative mech-kaiju battle game called MECH FORCE (I think). This one was a lot of fun because you had to work together to defeat monsters but you were also trying to get the highest score. In addition, when bringing along players to help you had to negotiate before battle on how rewards would be split. This led to some hilarious moments as we argued over who should get what, or groaning as the guy we paid a 50% cut to for helping defeat a monster rolled all blanks. The designer was super friendly and great with our (minor) criticisms. I really had a great time with this one and look forward to tracking its progress. He’s hoping to get a Kickstarter going by the end of the year so we’ll see. I wish him the best of luck.

We’ll be in the vendor hall until 3-ish tomorrow so look me up and say hi if you’re around!

I was in for A Killing in Cahokia this morning at 10. It was a semi-historical RPG set in 1100 in Cahokia, a Native American city near where St. Louis is now that was larger than contemporary London. The author wrote the thing sitting in the middle of the actual ruins, which is fantastic. It concerned being a watchman in the city and solving the murder of a chief and holy man, and was really, really well done. This is the third time I've been in one of the author's sessions, each a standalone RPG with rules written just for that adventure, each a historical adventure (the others were Normans returning to Norway and one set in a modern naval vessel.) The authenticity, rules, and storytelling were outstanding. If you like RPGs and history, I recommend checking out the Molten Sulfur Blog, the author's site.

I then wandered around, hung out with friends, and just kind of took it as it came. I got a good look at Shadows of Brimstone: Forbidden Fortress, which looked fantastic. I decided I couldn't afford Conan, as much as I want it. I did find a copy of Sword and Sorcery for $43, which is a steal. I can't wait to try it out. I got a good look at the Batman: Gotham City Chronicles game and the miniatures for it, which look great. I picked up a few odds and ends, found some Knight Models DC figures for a buck each, and just generally had fun. So far I have picked up a few things, but haven't spent very much at all.

Tomorrow morning the Exish and kids arrive. I can't wait to show them GenCon, even if it is the Sunday version.

3D Game of Thrones was a blast. The Tyrell (me) and Martell armies drove the Baratheons back to their island, and I finally took King's Landing after getting messed with a few turns. Lannister threw back Greyjoy from the mainland while the Starks expanded aggressively in the north.

I lost Highgarden at the final round to the backstabbing Martell but kept King's Landing and the center of the midlands. I would have held the Iron Throne too, but the nasty Lannisters (Tyrion) caused me to lose all my influence -- and the throne. We left the Lannisters with a single footman on the board (the one led by Tyrian to defeat me), so I could have reclaimed my lost lands if there was another turn.

Since I'm telling the story, I chose to greet the Starks in the postgame by serving up the Lannisters and accepting an alliance for the peaceful transition of power and protection from Martell. I'm pretty sure that deal would have been accepted.

Ok, here's my final haul:

NEMO'S WAR + expansion pack and some GenCon bonus goodies: Has been on my wish list a long time and got a great deal on it. The guy at Victory Point games was really nice, we came back and talked to him about RENEGADE.

TOO MANY BONES - Only bonus here was a couple of collapsible dice trays but I didn't care since I finally got my hands on it! Plus no tax or shipping so that was a win.

HOPLOMACHUS: THE LOST CITIES - Two more dice trays as a bonus on this one. This one was a bit of an impulse buy, but I'd always heard great things about it and I've never been able to find it. My goal at GenCon was to get stuff I couldn't easily find locally.

THE RECKONERS (this is technically a shared copy for the group) - Split the cost of this one with the group. This was a pre-order pick up at the con.

HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: CRIME WAVE - Another impulse buy, but they had it for $20 with 3 promo packs.

EXIT - Something jungle related. I haven't tried any of the EXIT series, but my wife LOVES escape rooms so I picked this up for her. Unfortunately I probably started her on an addiction, haha.

And for the kiddos:

DIGGIN' DINOSAUR BONES - Honestly this one skewed a little young even for my youngest, but he loves dinosaurs and it was cheap.

ICE COOL 2 - Had always heard great things about ICE COOL, didn't know about the sequel. Loved the concept and I think the kids will have a blast with it.

Also bought my daughter a really nice print of a lady with this big white dragon wrapped around her. Based on a Japanese legend. Got it signed for her by the artist so she's going to love that.

I spent more money than I planned (OK, WAY more money than I planned), but damn did we have a great time. GenCon definitely met or exceeded my expectations and I'll be back. If not next year, probably in 2020.

Sorry I missed a few folks. I don't normally check facebook, OO or email that much while I'm there, so I missed a few "heys" over the course of those 4 days. It didn't help that my phone seemed to only get service in a few locations in the convention center.

It also kind of sucked that the hotel we stayed at was apparently undergoing renovation. The air conditioner kept kicking off/couldn't keep up (it was a HOT and muggy weekend), there was no fridge or microwave, the room was a mess, they ran out of towels, and had no housekeeping staff that I could see. This probably contributed to my bout of insomnia Friday night. Which made for a really tired Saturday. Word of warning: don't stay at Baymont hotels.

Now, onto the AAR.

Games I played:

Star Trek: Ascendancy - Always fun. We played a 4 hour game and while my Romulans successfully staved off the eager Klingons to my north, the pesky Feds were able to win through culture. The Cardassian player was saddled with borg after borg due to the guy running the game making a mess of the event deck. Still, it was a blast. I even one shot killed a borg cube at one point thanks to a ton of tech upgrades.

Hand of Fate: Ordeals - While I enjoyed this one, I doubt I'll buy it. It really doesn't bring anything to the table that I don't already get in other games. Plus, it seems like healing and good equipment are almost impossible to acquire. But I enjoyed my time with it nonetheless, as I said.

Scythe plus expansions - I like this one. RMC taught it to me at Origins and I'm always looking for a chance to play again. It was just a demo, so we never finished it. Which sucked. I would've loved to play a complete game again.

Fate of the Elder Gods - I was hesitant about this one. It looked a little gimmicky. But it's a solid game with a lot of great choices. You play a cult leader trying to lead your cultists to victory over the others. You have a round board with locations on the edges and an "abyss" in the center where your cultists start off. You move them to your play mat over time, play spells to screw over people, and try to avoid investigators who appear whenever you visit a location. It didn't hurt that the kid who was initially teaching the game was relieved by the ubiquitous designer of the game himself, Richard Launius. He took us through the game while also giving us insight into the game making process for the whole thing. It was a highlight of the convention for me. I've met him before, but I often forget just what an amazingly nice guy Richard is. Humble, self effacing and always jovial, but whip smart when it comes to games.

I also played a demo of Warsaw: City of Ruins which was a fun tile placement game. However, it's not a buy for me as it really was rather simplistic. I demoed a few other games too, but nothing really noteworthy.

Games I left the convention with:

Detective: A Modern Crime board game - Yellowking sold me on this one. They had 3 copies left when I stopped by their booth, so I grabbed one on a lark.

Gasket (a new character for Too Many Bones). I've got my kickstarter for Undertow shipping soon, so I grabbed the one character I didn't have yet.

Shadows Over Normandie: Desert Wrath expansion. This is almost impossible to find, so when I saw a lone copy on the ding and dent shelf at coolstuff, I nabbed it immediately for 39 bucks. The box literally fell apart when I took the shrink wrap off, but the components were fine. I was feeling pretty great about the find until the next day I showed up at coolstuff to do some more browsing and they had 3 more copies at 25 bucks each.

Carson City the Card Game. I really like this one...however, the end game scoring is friggin' annoying as hell. It just takes forever. I'm hoping that I'm just missing some trick that would allow me to quickly count up the scores in this tile placement city builder.

Dark Legacy - Upper Deck's new head to head card game is a cheaply made but fun little game. I doubt I'll play it much, but it was an impulse buy. Ashes and Aventuria do the same things Dark Legacy does, but much better.

Playmats for One Deck Dungeon and Roll Player

And finally, a big box expansion for Sword and Sorcery, as well as a new character I realized I didn't have.

I danced around The Reckoners, but I didn't know enough about it at the time. Still don't really. I'll just wait and see what the reviews are like. I also hovered around the Kingdom Death booth, bemoaning the 350 dollar entry point for the game.

Oh, and I convinced Seppe to go all in on Fallen Lands. Really looking forward to playing this one.

hepcat wrote: I also hovered around the Kingdom Death booth, bemoaning the 350 dollar entry point for the game.

I'd be happy with owning some of those big minis (largies?) for Kingdom Death, but that "boutique game" is way too boutique for me. It was fun walking through their booth pretending I could actually afford it though.

hepcat wrote:He took us through the game while also giving us insight into the game making process for the whole thing. It was a highlight of the convention for me.

Meeting industry folks was the highlight for me as well. As I mentioned in the what did you play this weekend thread, I talked to one of the guys from Victory Point games (not sure if he was the President or what, but he was on up there), the One Deck Dungeon guys, Ryan Soehmer and Lar deSouza from Least I Could Do and Looking for Group web comics, Eric Summerer from the Dice Tower, and the big one:

MATT LEACOCK!



Meeting Matt was a huge thrill, as Pandemic is the game that started my board game obsession. Getting to tell him that his games were directly responsible for our weekly gaming group which has been going for 2 years straight was awesome. Super nice guy.

I also saw Isaac Childres at the Dice Tower Live show and Ignacy at the Portal Games booth but didn't get a chance to speak to them. They probably get mobbed at these things.