Octopus Overlords

Getting packages from CMON is always fun! This just arrived.

I have no idea what that is but suddenly I want it.

Did you get a shipping notice? I'm still waiting on even that.

hepcat wrote:Did you get a shipping notice? I'm still waiting on even that.

Mine showed up yesterday, and I don't remember a shipping notice.

hepcat wrote:Did you get a shipping notice? I'm still waiting on even that.

No official notice but I get notices of all inbound packages from Fedex. You can signup for a free tracking account with all the major shippers.

Unfortunately you can't do that with a work address, which is where I have everything sent of value. But if you folks never received shipping notices, I may very well see it any day now. Now I just hope early reviews are wrong and it's a great game.

hepcat wrote:Now I just hope early reviews are wrong and it's a great game.

Sorry, I know I'm coming across as a real downer on a lot of the games lately, but I've had the crappiest luck lately with new stuff. First Martians was a dud (for me), Apocrypha turned out to be a mess, and then I start reading that my biggest kickstarter of the last few years (MD) is dull and easy with a campaign game that's broken.

On the plus side, Folklore seems to be fun (so far), Too Many Bones is a joy to play, and the expansion to Aeon's End and the upgrade kits I ordered are shipping next week...a game I already know is a blast to play.

Now, if only Massive Darkness turns out to be one of those games you shouldn't trust early reviews on...

I was talking to a co-worker about MD, and he said he and his buddies had a ball playing through the first couple of scenarios. I'm going to end up shelving mine for a while because I have too many games going right now, but I'll look forward to what you think Hep.

How about some positivity? I am really looking forward to the Flashpoint expansion!

No shipping notice or package for my MD pledge. I am not seeing that many negative reviews out there. In fact, there are quite a few positive reviews from regular joes, so take that with a grain of salt. I am looking forward to it, but I have too many games and got a little too deep into Games Workshop this summer. So in some ways, I am wondering if I should just sell MD when it arrives (although I know I probably won't). The good news is that the after market for CMON KS games, even opened, is still pretty good.

coopasonic wrote:How about some positivity? I am really looking forward to the Flashpoint expansion!

Flashpoint is a proven franchise. I have zero regrets backing that one!

baelthazar wrote:and got a little too deep into Games Workshop this summer.

Oh you poor bastard. Have you sought help?

hentzau wrote:I was talking to a co-worker about MD, and he said he and his buddies had a ball playing through the first couple of scenarios. I'm going to end up shelving mine for a while because I have too many games going right now, but I'll look forward to what you think Hep.

If I can stop playing Too Many Bones long enough to get MD to the table, I'll surely do so.

hepcat wrote:(MD) is dull and easy with a campaign game that's broken.

I just saw this post in The Board Game Group and the impressions seem mostly positive if you want to read a few from a more general audience. I always got the impression they were aiming at more of a Diablo style game than a full on RPG. As long as you don't go in expecting Gloomhaven, you will probably be fine.

That said, the campaign was definitely an after thought, but that shouldn't come as a surprise considering they didn't even mention it till near the end the Kickstarter.

There seems to be a fair number of people playing the campaign without using the campaign mico xp rules too btw which are there to slow progress to keep things from being too easy too fast

Do you prefer the standalone scenarios?

Still only played two quick ones so can't really comment yet. So busy on the video side of gaming the last week or so then with pieces ending up missing from MD the first time it hit the table I haven't really jumped back into it yet.

I think sometime this week I'll start a solo campaign playing a few characters myself to test it out though. Also want to do some Undercity and compare the two.

Played solo with 2 heroes for the first campaign mission using the story rules. Had a lot of fun and it was pretty challenging overall. Only really clunky thing is that during the carryover to the next quest, you can take items but you can't equip stuff until your quest level is equal to the item level. End result is that each quest you will have to keep some lower level stuff and some good stuff since you have a small power dip at the start of each quest. Once you gain character levels though this goes away since you always start at the level equal to the highest character.

Overall had a lot of fun and it even had a bit of nail biting hiding in the shadows so the npc would walk past and continue patrolling away with no los.

Played with a Nightrunner and Pit Gladiator (or whatever) for the first one.

Played the first mission again using campaign rules with a different group of 2 heroes. This time I also got things setup to carry over to the second quest. I'm really enjoying the game so far, curious how it scales with solo hero or 4+ heroes though. My earlier concern about the level carry over in campaign doesn't seem to be as big a deal as I thought it would be due to the way the market works between quests.

Finding that stun is pretty amazing though, that and having someone with very good defense and/or healing. Final turn came down to stunning the bad guys right outside the room that checks for enemies and then sprinting to the exit. Without the stun my warrior would have been stuck in the zone with the enemies and unable to flee. There were a LOT of bad guys coming that we had avoided earlier and they were patrolling back towards us.

I'm still waiting on my copy, but thanks for the heartening news on gameplay.

I think I may try out some variant rules on BGG that fans have come up with to address the common complaints about the games rapidly declining difficulty level. This may be another Myth where the community steps in and takes care of any issues they perceive to be in existence in a game.

But I'll try it vanilla first and see if the fixes are even needed.

Once I run a couple more I should know more because I have a feeling they are talking about when heroes are higher level from the start of a quest. Honestly though I'm not sure how they would be there already since the micro-xp tones down your xp gain by 1/5 so they should be slower.

I did see a lot of people complaining that once you are higher level you no longer use the Level 1 Guards or Treasures and that's 'such a waste' but honestly in any RPG you no longer need to kill tiny rats once you level up. Seemed like an odd complaint to me, especially since the actual mob types in all the level decks are the same, just the numbers change.

Got my MD box (huge) last night. Not shipping notice and no notice from FedEx manager (may have come USPS). It all looks like a giant toy box and I am excited to try it out.

That said, my summer of Games Workshop has spoiled my enjoyment of minis. In comparison these CMON minis, which I still think are high quality, look muddy.

Doomtown Reloaded There Comes a Reckoning KS is up and running. Lots of stuff to get and a low point of entry if you already own things.

Still no sign of my copy of MD, but i'm glad to hear it's still in the process of shipping.

There is a kickstarter running for a video game version of the Evolution board game.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... video-game

It looks interesting and with beta access for the steam version as soon as the kickstarter ends.

coopasonic wrote:There is a kickstarter running for a video game version of the Evolution board game.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... video-game

It looks interesting and with beta access for the steam version as soon as the kickstarter ends.

I played Evolution: Climate for the first time a couple weeks ago. Pretty fun little game.

Evolution: Climate? To the Internet!!!!

It's a nice addition to the base game. You have a climate track that fluctuates over the course of the game. When it gets warm it is better for smaller species and the bigger ones lose population. When it gets cold, it goes the other way. There are also weather related events that add a little more variety.

baelthazar wrote:Got my MD box (huge) last night. Not shipping notice and no notice from FedEx manager (may have come USPS). It all looks like a giant toy box and I am excited to try it out.

That said, my summer of Games Workshop has spoiled my enjoyment of minis. In comparison these CMON minis, which I still think are high quality, look muddy.

and i just received my shipping notice. it was picked up in georgia yesterday at noon. it appears it's arriving via USPS. no arrival date on the tracker though yet.

...and they just dropped it off. Big box, but not as big as a I feared from the images that Hark kept sending me in texts.

I think I'll keep it for now. I'll try the tutorial and a few quests with the game's official rules, then if I feel they need fixin', I'll try the variants. If that still doesn't address any glaring issues I may come across, I can always unload it at Gencon next year.

My reprint (2nd edition) copy of Too Many Bones just arrived and I think it's easily the highest quality board game I own (in terms of the components). I'm actually stunned with the level of quality - and that it came with it's own set of storage solutions (dice trays, deck boxes). I'm speechless.

Whoa, you bought into my hype?

But seriously, this is one of the good ones. I just got the last of the 3 expansion characters, the deluxe world map and the chip tray a few hours ago in the mail. Now I'm all anxious to play. Hopefully this Saturday though.

I'd been eyeing it for a while, I just needed justification to indulge. Plus, it fills my requirement now to focus on reprints and second editions - when issues are corrected and updates are provided. That's been my tactic for the last year and it's been really working out great.

I might look into the additional fluff you can purchase. It thrills me to no end to have a game arrive with all storage included - saves me so much time.

One of the brothers behind Chip Theory Games releases videos of them playing their games underwater whenever a new one releases. You can spill drinks on your copy until the cows come home and it won't ruin it.

I'm STILL playing the same character...a half dozen or so games later. There's just so much variety to each of the 7 that are available.

p.s. if you like films about gladiators, Joey...(sorry, couldn't resist)...and you enjoyed Heroscape at any point, you'd love their Hoplomachus series. Same high quality, same attention to detail and a hoot to play.

hepcat wrote:Whoa, you bought into my hype?

As did I. Should arrive Friday, I believe.

So...on the personal Kickstarter front I think we've made an improvement.

Excellent! It still has the tech/industrial elements in the background, and the rain still lends a certain 'dark' feel to it, but it is clearly about dinosaurs, and the picture is both dynamic and detailed enough for cover art.

Well done!

Awesome.

that is one sexy game.

Looks Great!
Sorry I didn't have time to get the cartoon shades thing for you.