Octopus Overlords

...damn you...

My copy is out of delivery right now. I'm planning on playing tomorrow with 2 others.

Seppe piggybacked on my pledge and got the gameplay all in. So the total weight of my order arriving today is 22 pounds.

I can only imagine what that would have been had we both gone for the miniatures as well. But as I mentioned earlier, I don't find them all that necessary. I think I prefer the simplicity and ease of setup without them.

Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 10:57 am ...damn you...

Did you back it too?

hepcat wrote:Game porn is not allowed on OO after Yellowking posted those rather risque photos of his "Auztralia bath" a few months ago.

I'm often referred to as "The Not-So-Great Old One."

hepcat wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 11:19 am I can only imagine what that would have been had we both gone for the miniatures as well. But as I mentioned earlier, I don't find them all that necessary. I think I prefer the simplicity and ease of setup without them.

This might be the first time I backed for miniatures that I had no intention of using in the game. I really like the sculpts and figured I could use them elsewhere. Now I think it'll be for Stalingrad Z, but I have no shortage of WW2 themed-games that they'd work in.

Oh don't get me wrong. I will NEVER shame someone for going for the bling. That would be absolutely hypocritical of me.

hepcat wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 11:19 am

Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 10:57 am ...damn you...

Did you back it too?

No. I just bought the base game from their website.

I'm sure the other ones will go to retail soon enough. Or we can start having Octocons again and you can come play with our stuff.

So...the reprint for Chronicles of Drunagor (1st wave, reprints) is finally here in the United States (hooray!) and is at the distribution warehouse in MD. That's great news (for once) because as someone that lives in the NE, most of the crowdfunded board games are shipping from FL or CA (or the 8th circle of Hell where FunAgain resides) and for whatever reason, they always seem to focus on the NE last.

However, they just sent a message today saying that instead of waiting until October to start shipping (the earliest their MD partners could offer), they're paying to have the games sent "across the country" so they can start shipping next week. I'm not at all familiar with the company they're using for fulfillment ("Nord"); I don't think I've ever had a game ship through them. I guess we'll see how that goes.

Well...at least they're here. Hopefully they don't have a shipping incident like that truck full of dildos in OK.

I THINK I paid for 2 wave shipping on CoD. But due to all the f$%ery involved with getting their pledge manager to actually work, who knows.

I also just got news that John Company is going to start shipping soon. I've got way too many games fulfilling at once!

Yes, and I think ISS Vanguard *should* be shipping soon. I believe it's due to QML next week, but after what has been happening lately with them, who knows. Going to be a very busy few months, potentially.

And FedEx just dropped off my 22 pound box of goodies for V-Sabotage. Whoo hoo!

hepcat wrote: Fri Sep 16, 2022 3:04 pm And FedEx just dropped off my 22 pound box of goodies for V-Sabotage. Whoo hoo!

There are a lot of tiles! I probably could have been happy with what I have but a bunch of the objective tiles look really nice. Many of them fit thematically with the various operations but I'll be spending a lot of time rummaging through them until I find a way to impose some order. Decided to keep the original tiles as well since they looked good as well and there were a few unique ones that would fit in many situations.

I'm tempted someday to make my own gigantic map with a bunch of different tiles and run a Dirty Dozen scenario

I splurged for the objective tiles too. I know it's perfectly functional with the base game/expansion default tiles, but thematically I like seeing my objective on the map.

The reason i have such a heavy box is because Seppe piggybacked on my pledge and got an All In Gameplay pledge. So I effectively doubled the order.

Got my Etherfields wave 2 Saturday. Went ahead and primed the core and expansions. I think even the full count of Etherfields minis is less than the Marvel United count I have left. So I may do some alternating so I can start playing Etherfields before end of year.

Man...I understand all the V-Sabotage games need to have double language materials (cards, player aids and separate manuals in French and English) based on regulations in Montreal (I think), but I legitimately have no use for all the French materials and I feel weird just recycling it. Feels...wasteful.

I like to use the French stuff and then just surrender on the first turn. It feels more thematic.

hepcat wrote: Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:55 pm I like to use the French stuff and then just surrender on the first turn. It feels more thematic.

Boo!

I think I found *the* game for hepcat, but hurry there's only 3 days left:

A board game about your orangutan butler that has stolen your time travel trousers...and you now have to search time and space to get them back.

As long as I still have my hoverpants!

That....looks fun. But I worry about the price. 22 bucks seems REALLY low for all that. I'm also afraid of shipping these days.

And I'm just teasing about the French. We all know they're a vital part of the Jerry Lewis ecosystem.

hepcat wrote: Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:55 pm And I'm just teasing about the French. We all know they're a vital part of the Jerry Lewis ecosystem.

I would debate with you about the French role in WWII, but you seem partisan about it. I don't want any Resistance here.

<Are warfare puns allowed here?>

You also know we can lose V Commandos on the first turn anyway. And on the second turn….

Christ, that was brutal. It's the fact that they appear on the board AND then move that was killing us. We really need to keep the alarms silent until the last possible minute. That means watching movement patterns (you can see them at the start of every turn) and acting appropriately. Sometimes though, you just don't have any other options and you just have to go guns blazing.

I did make a couple of small set up mistakes. When playing with an expansion, you have to separate out the equipment for that expansion and remove any that are from expansions not being used.

You also have to put gas cans and/or Goliath nests on some tiles, depending on the expansion being used. That would have given us another tactic in that we could have shot out gas cans, which could leak poisonous gas onto tiles. Or taken control of Goliath nests and driven 6mph bomb drones up their nazi keesters.

Now I wanna play again. I think I'll tackle the game again this weekend solo.

...or I may continue my DUN campaign.

Hell, I'll do both. I still have a freakin' case of Goose Island Lemon Shandy. If anyone wants to stop by for a beer and some games, just let me know.

baelthazar wrote: Wed Sep 21, 2022 2:21 pm I would debate with you about the French role in WWII, but you seem partisan about it. I don't want any Resistance here.

Oh, I'm fully aware there were numerous great French heroes during WWII. No argument there.

But I also am fully aware that they love Jerry Lewis. So I'm torn.

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:32 pm

Monkey butler? Orangutans aren't monkeys.

Anonymous Bosch wrote: Wed Sep 21, 2022 4:31 pm Monkey butler? Orangutans aren't monkeys.

APE is even in the name of the game! How could they get that wrong.

Speaking of guerillas....

Hep, I was just making French Resistance puns. But I might have Maquis'ed them too subtle.

Also, how can an orangutan perform the duties of a butler? Like they’d know what suits to put out for formal dinner parties vs. casual ones? Please.

Butler school. It isn't like it's instinctive in humans.

Have you ever gone down to a zoo with a fabric sampler and tried to teach a group of monkeys how to accessorize by color, texture and season?

I have.

It ended with feces everywhere. Granted, I started first, but they happily ended the fight.

Orangutans aren't monkeys.

Nor are they butlers.

Nor are humans.

Until they attend butler school.

I’m beginning to suspect you think Planet of the Apes is a documentary.

I also feel like the joke horse we’ve beaten for the last hour really needs to be given morphine.

Anonymous Bosch wrote: Wed Sep 21, 2022 4:31 pm Monkey butler? Orangutans aren't monkeys.

I think you're forgetting this particular Hominid took your time traveling pants and brachiated his way into the past. Who knows what kind of crazy changes to the phylogenetic tree might have happened!

One of my favorite older board games is Conquest of Planet Earth from Flying Frog Games. It is a hilariously tongue in cheek sci-fi 50’s movie themed area control game with tons of cards. One of which is teleportation pants.

I really need to dig up my copy of that gem.

I'm partial to U.S. Patent No. 1.

Oh that’s great.

And it predates Conquest by about 10 years to boot.

Hoplomachus: Victorum just got pushed from next month to next year, February most likely. What's particularly frustrating is that it wasn't shipping woes, but a manufacturing error.

A bit disappointing since I've largely quit gaming in the past month because I was sort of holding out for it. Guess it's back to the backlog for me!

I have a feeling there are going to be quite a few more. I keep updating my spreadsheet and I can't help but think if they don't arrive in the next month or so, it'll likely be February (or later) for some of them. I have random pre-orders (not crowdfunded things, just regular preorders) that were supposed to ship in July or early August that still haven't been delivered. "Delays in the system" is all they keep repeating.

Yeah, the Hoplomachus news sucks. I was hoping to be playing it by Halloween.

Oh well, Chronicles of Drunagor 1st wave shipping has started. Quite a few folks have already received shipping notices. Hopefully I have 2 wave shipping. I think I do, but that pledge manager setup was so borked who knows.

I've just gone in to collecting P500 GMT games.

Skies Above Britain - At The Printer
Red Storm: Baltic Approaches - Shipping
Skies Above the Reich, 2nd Printing - In Art and Final Development
Next War: Taiwan, 2nd Edition - Made the Cut
Next War: Supplement #3 - At The Printer
Next War: Poland, 2nd Edition - At The Printer

Meanwhile, I have Storm Above the Reich sitting 1/10 assembled on the dining room table.