Octopus Overlords

I thought you didn't like Descent 2nd ed.?

my son and I (he is 9 years old) just finished our first game of Eclipse. Assuming I did the game right, and the scoring all correctly, I won, but by only 4 VP's. Good and fun game. He very well could have won, especially if he built a few monoliths in his back systems.

I really enjoy this game, though. TI3 will always have a special BIG place in my heart...but this game will be played much, much more, due to the fact that it is smaller and easier...

Yea! Eclipse is a phenomenal game. I am tempted to dedicate a whole day to play a few games at Origins or GenCon this year.

While I'm tempted to dedicate a whole day to laying face down in the hotel lobby and yelling for you to bring me "fresh horses and ale for my men!"

hepcat wrote:While I'm tempted to dedicate a whole day to laying face down in the hotel lobby and yelling for you to bring me "fresh men and ale for my horses!"

Fixed that for you, sweetums.

hepcat wrote:I thought you didn't like Descent 2nd ed.?

Well you see I played it with a different group that didn't have the GM, or whatever you call him, that was not so bloodthirsty. It made all the difference in the game.

The scenario's were better when we had a fighting chance.

Zarathud wrote:

hepcat wrote:While I'm tempted to dedicate a whole day to laying face down in the hotel lobby and yelling for you to bring me "fresh men and ale for my horses!"

Fixed that for you, sweetums.

I wish I was not going to be in Fl during origins this year... You two are a riot!

I will hopefully be having a 4 player game of Eclipse this Monday morning. I also want to have a 4 player game between me, my wife, and my two boys Saturday (to make sure I got the rules down). But not sure my wife will be wanting anything to do with that. The expansion looks great, too, even though I have not put anything from it in the game yet.

RMC wrote:

Zarathud wrote:

hepcat wrote:While I'm tempted to dedicate a whole day to laying face down in the hotel lobby and yelling for you to bring me "fresh men and ale for my horses!"

Fixed that for you, sweetums.

I wish I was not going to be in Fl during origins this year... You two are a riot!

There's always Gencon.

I thought about making the trip to GenCon this year, but decided to go to BGG con again instead, mainly because GenCon is more about the experience, and BGG con is about playing games until you drop. It's also the rare place when I can get several games played that I never get to play, like Andean Abyss.

Origins is like BGG in that aspect. It's more of a boardgamer's convention. The spectacle is not nearly as grand as gencon, but I always have my gaming hunger sated by the time I leave.

...that and my sauerkraut balls fix.

I know there's a common feeling that Elder Sign is too easy, but we had our collective clocks cleaned by Nyarlathotep last night. It was the first time he made an appearance in our games and now I understand why adding the masked monsters is such a big deal. They gum up the rooms (like regular monsters) but offer no trophy awards for defeat. They are simply returned back to the monster cup, continuing to dilute it. I still really enjoy the game and I think randomly picking investigators and the Elder God have worked out for us. I also finally made the transition to a plastic storage case and with the help of some printed tuck boxes from BGG, everything moves much faster. Highly recommended to go this route if you can.

We also finished two Memoir'44 maps and it's definitely turning into one of my favorite games. For something with so many elements, it plays surprisingly fast but I'm learning some of the deeper strategy elements as I have a better grip on the rules. I won the first map rather easily as my artillery cut through German elite tanks with ease. However for the second map I failed to execute a "Taking Ground" maneuver after forcing a retreat which left a victory token unprotected. During his next turn, my opponent simply ordered an advance and won the game. Lesson learned. Even though my buddy (I think) has purchased every single set and expansion available (as long as numerous campaign books), I think just having a copy of the base game around might be a worthy addition to most board gaming libraries.

Got a 4-player game set up on the kitchen table for Eclipse, with the expansion (one of the best expansions for a game I have seen, in my opinion). Going to have a 4 player game vs. my boys and wife, so that way I will be ready for the 4 player game that I have planned with some friends monday morning.

Played a 6 player game of the AH classic History of the World on Sunday which lasted 6 hours. Beginning each turn with a different Civ was interesting, but I think Vinci and Smallworld have a more streamlined way of dealing with the combat, which seemed to take forever and held few surprises. Getting stuck in Asia for the last half of the game by the last place player really put a damper on how much I could score. But I was the only player he really had a chance to catch.

We also got in a game Alien Frontiers without the expansion, which just has the cleanest game mechanics ever. We checked the rule book and learned that the alien tech cards do not get eliminated, but instead get reshuffled once you're through the deck.

played a 4-player game of Eclipse (me, my son, my other son, and my wife). Game lasted right about 3 hours. My son won (not my other son). Good game, that my wife even seemed to enjoy after a round or two. She started to understand what was going on. She had said that when she first sat down to play, she wanted to cry because there looked like so much to the game. But after after a few turns, and especially after a few rounds, she understood what it all meant.

It is a game that is very intimidating until you get to playing it, then it all makes sense. And we even played using the expansion!!

Great game!!

How is Eclipse with two? I keep being tempted by it, but realistically, most of my game time is either with my fiancee or her and her mom. Her mom totally won't be into Eclipse, but I could probably get my fiancee interested, especially if I tell her she gets to shoot me with lasers. I'm just always a bit leery of 4x games with small numbers of players.

Eclipse with two will have no diplomacy and lose the back stabbiness in the last three turns when everyone's out of room to expand. The base game mechanic won't change, but getting overrun by two players at the same time is part of the fun.

So probably not worth it, huh? That's okay, I can't really afford to pick up a $60 board game anyway. Maybe the ipad app will finally come out and I can have it that way.

Won 70 bucks in the office pool for the superbowl. what should I buy? I'm tempted by Mage Wars thanks to this thread. But i have so many damn 2 player games as it is.

Played two games of Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery over the weekend. I had heard a lot of great things about it from GenCon last year, and I'm a big fan of the show so I had to give it a try.

If you like a really competitive, highly interactive and often fairly nasty game, Spartacus is fantastic. Each player is a Dominus running a stable of gladiators and slaves, competing to both host fights and send your own gladiators into the arena for fame and glory. There is a ton of interaction - intrigue cards let you gain money and influence, sabotage your opponents, counter other players' schemes, and often you'll have to convince another player to help you with a scheme. Everyone gets to wager on the fights, and there are cards that let you rig the fights, or cause a spared gladiator to be executed instead, or a bunch of other nasty plots.

It can suffer somewhat from extended playtimes, but it's very easy to shorten or lengthen the game to your preference. We played an intro short game, and immediately set up to play again. Highly recommended. As a bonus, it's super cheap - only $40 retail which means most online shops sell it for around $25. At that price it's a steal.

hepcat wrote:Won 70 bucks in the office pool for the superbowl. what should I buy? I'm tempted by Mage Wars thanks to this thread. But i have so many damn 2 player games as it is.

Batman Monopoly.

I love Spartacus and plan on getting a game or three in at next month's Octocon. The only cons for me is that the arena combats can dissolve into lengthy sessions of "Get on your bike, Daffy!" style fights in which the weaker player spends his turns trying to outrun the other. The board is designed so that this can't go on forever, but it can drag the game down. The other issue is that I think house special abilities should be a once per turn power as one of the houses can sell assets for influence and win the game rather quickly in the short game.

We played a 3 player game the weekend before last and I had to laugh after I convinced the other player that an undeclared scheme that Seppe was trying to get him to go in against me with was going to turn out badly for him. When he passed, Seppe offered it to me and I jumped on it...and won some influence in the process.

The beauty of the game is that it really does capture the political treachery of its namesake while still being a turn based combat game at its heart.

p.s. the expansion, which takes the game to 6 players and introduces team fights, is set to come out in March/April. I'm really looking forward to it!

Just finished another game of Eclipse, this time with only 3 players (the 4th never showed up). Good game, the score at the end was 33 - 28 - 24 (I scored 24). Looking back, if I would have used a couple of actions a little bit differently, I may have been able to do better. I know I always forget to build monoliths, and I should.

I am really enjoying the game, though.

hepcat wrote:Won 70 bucks in the office pool for the superbowl. what should I buy? I'm tempted by Mage Wars thanks to this thread. But i have so many damn 2 player games as it is.

What kind of game do you want? 3-5 players? Euros? Thematics?

I've been really enjoying Tzolk'in The Mayan Calendar recently. It's the single worker placement game I've played so far that doesn't necessitate getting more workers to win the game.

My favorite worker-placement, however, is Lancaster. It's by the same designer as Glen More, and it's a great game, with a really neat light voting element.

However, my game of the moment is Terra Mystica, which is not yet available in the US. It's a bit of Eclipse with the resource management, and thematically is like Small World, with 14 very different races to play. The only drawback I have with the game is that it's not nearly as good with 2 or 3 as with 4 or 5.

hepcat wrote:The other issue is that I think house special abilities should be a once per turn power as one of the houses can sell assets for influence and win the game rather quickly in the short game.

That was exactly what happened with us. The player who was Solonius (discard a gladiator, slave, and guard to gain 1 influence) had two of each, and used his power twice to go from 10 to 12 and win the game. This was the first game, so it caught us all by surprise. It was only about the 3rd or 4th turn in the game, too.

So we played again, and he did it again. $#%^!!!

I think house Solonius' ability is lessened considerably in a longer game, but when he enters play in a shorter game, other houses REALLY need to actively stop him from growing his stable. Not sure if that will result in some lop sided gaming though for everyone. I'll have to see what others say on BGG about this.

SpaceLord wrote: However, my game of the moment is Terra Mystica, which is not yet available in the US. It's a bit of Eclipse with the resource management, and thematically is like Small World, with 14 very different races to play. The only drawback I have with the game is that it's not nearly as good with 2 or 3 as with 4 or 5.

sounds interesting. I'll have to check into it. thanks!

hepcat wrote:

SpaceLord wrote: However, my game of the moment is Terra Mystica, which is not yet available in the US. It's a bit of Eclipse with the resource management, and thematically is like Small World, with 14 very different races to play. The only drawback I have with the game is that it's not nearly as good with 2 or 3 as with 4 or 5.

sounds interesting. I'll have to check into it. thanks!

And I'm hearing April for a U.S. release date, unfortunately.

hepcat wrote:I love Spartacus and plan on getting a game or three in at next month's Octocon. The only cons for me is that the arena combats can dissolve into lengthy sessions of "Get on your bike, Daffy!" style fights in which the weaker player spends his turns trying to outrun the other. The board is designed so that this can't go on forever, but it can drag the game down. The other issue is that I think house special abilities should be a once per turn power as one of the houses can sell assets for influence and win the game rather quickly in the short game.

We played a 3 player game the weekend before last and I had to laugh after I convinced the other player that an undeclared scheme that Seppe was trying to get him to go in against me with was going to turn out badly for him. When he passed, Seppe offered it to me and I jumped on it...and won some influence in the process.

The beauty of the game is that it really does capture the political treachery of its namesake while still being a turn based combat game at its heart.

p.s. the expansion, which takes the game to 6 players and introduces team fights, is set to come out in March/April. I'm really looking forward to it!

This is my next 'to buy' game. The expansion allowing 6 players is what is the sell for me. I have a weird gaming group, I either get one person, or 5 people to show up. So my 2-4 player games rarely get played, as we have too many people.

Played Eclipse again this weekend, and in a 5 player game, I came in second. This was the first time using the expansion, and it adds a lot to the game without a ton of extra overhead. Just more of the same goodness as before, but with some new techs to unsettle people.

Played some Defenders of the Realm with my wife this weekend. Actually we tried 4 times, and not once could we succeed. We played it the first three times with one hero apiece, and the 4th time with two hero's apiece. It is a fun game though, I like it better than pandemic. While I enjoyed pandemic the few times I played it I didn't enjoy it enough to want to buy it. Defenders of the Realm I am happy to have in my collection, now I just need to get better at it.

Chrisoc13 wrote:Played some Defenders of the Realm with my wife this weekend. Actually we tried 4 times, and not once could we succeed. We played it the first three times with one hero apiece, and the 4th time with two hero's apiece. It is a fun game though, I like it better than pandemic. While I enjoyed pandemic the few times I played it I didn't enjoy it enough to want to buy it. Defenders of the Realm I am happy to have in my collection, now I just need to get better at it.

And you will get better at it. We got our asses handed to us about the first half dozen times we played, sometimes in very demoralizing fashion, yet we kept at it and now sit at about a 35% success rate in beating the game. Just needed to solidify our strategy and learn how to use the individual characters to their fullest potential.

Played our closest loss yet of Pandemic with my son. He drew the last 2 player cards, but on my turn I was able to get to him (in Miami), get the last card we needed off him, and move to Atlanta. No action left to actually find the cure Was a great game, but one action short? Come on! We then introduced my in-laws to it and had a good time. A bad starting draw of infections plus an early epidemic put us at 3 outbreaks on turn 3 and we ultimately lost due to outbreaks. Considering we had 2 new players we did pretty well and I was happy they figured out how to best use their abilities and tried to come up with ideas on what to do instead of my having to direct the game.

Then we pulled out Ticket to Ride: India which remains my favorite map to date. I thought I had a blowout win until the end where my father-in-law revealed almost 60 points worth of tickets. I just barely beat him out by 3 points due to my having the longest train and 1 "Mandala" bonus of 5 points.

Just noticed that Relic, aka Talisman: 40k, is at the printers. I will need to get this thing.

Chaz wrote:Just noticed that Relic, aka Talisman: 40k, is at the printers. I will need to get this thing.

I have Talisman with all but the City and Dragon expansions. I am not sure that I want to start collecting the game all over again with a new theme. They are going to have to convince me on that one...

RMC wrote:

Chaz wrote:Just noticed that Relic, aka Talisman: 40k, is at the printers. I will need to get this thing.

I have Talisman with all but the City and Dragon expansions. I am not sure that I want to start collecting the game all over again with a new theme. They are going to have to convince me on that one...

I have no Talisman, and love the 40k universe, so I'm good. I also like that they're introducing different game objectives.

City was my favorite Talisman expansion. The FFG City expansion makes so much cardboard it no longer all fits into just 1 box. Luckily I had the Smallworld 1/2 size box set aside for this purpose.

Freaking AWESOME: 300-piece Mini Poker chip set for 10 bucks! Includes case



As pointed out in this BGG thread.

I've ordered two already to replace paper/annoying money in some of my games. The site says the case may be dinged, but I might just toss the case and put the chips directly into the games.

What games would you use these for?

hepcat wrote:What games would you use these for?

Monopoly

Lords of waterdeep has money in it as well, and those chits are annoying.

hepcat wrote:What games would you use these for?

Urban Sprawl
Most Martin Wallace games(Automobile, Brass)
The City - a great, 15 minute mini-Race for the Galaxy - which includes no scoring method.
Colonial
Edo

Basically, any game that has tiny little cardboard pieces for money, or paper money.