Octopus Overlords

wow...there really isn't much of any good excuse for that. Especially if ppl pre-ordered. Isn't pre-ordering supposed to avoid that type of stuff?

MythicalMino wrote:wow...there really isn't much of any good excuse for that. Especially if ppl pre-ordered. Isn't pre-ordering supposed to avoid that type of stuff?

Look further up the chain at Z-Man. Not sure what the production issues were, but he didn't have nearly as many copies ready as he'd promised.

I know TimeWellSpent had 24 copies, and he sold out in 10 minutes. The owner said he'd have ordered twice as many if he'd been able to.

MythicalMino wrote:wow...there really isn't much of any good excuse for that. Especially if ppl pre-ordered. Isn't pre-ordering supposed to avoid that type of stuff?

Concurred, but it seems to happen often enough. I've had several game preorders over the last few years come in late because I didn't pre order them early enough, so I had to wait for the next batch to get made and shit Germany or China or wherever. Fortunately, I'd never had a preorder cancelled but delayed by sometimes upwards of a month has still pissed me off in the past.

The solution is preorder earlier but I'm just not that kind of guy, so my suffering is my fault. It just feels wrong to me to pay for something months before you get it. I usually do my pre orders one two weeks before street date, it seems and I suffer the consequences of my decision making.

So... is Terra Mystica a must have then?

I was told, here, that it is great but best with 4+ players and not all that good for 2. FWIW, I think you can get a better time at area control from Clash of Cultures or Eclipse.

Yeah it needs at least four. One good/bad thing about it is that it is a challenging game. You can lose the game at the start, either by poor choice of race or poor placement. Now for some that's a plus because they have a lot to delve into, for others it's a minus because they can be stuck playing a game for 2 hours with no hope of winning. Clash of Cultures is both less complex/deep and a gentler game.

If you can lose strictly from pre-game race selection, then TM sounds magnificently unbalanced!

Yeah, CoC is pretty streamlined, but also deep in its strategy. I really enjoy it!

Also, City of Remnants offers a similar take on building, area control, and resource management, without the buy-in and hardcore nature of other choices.

Nope it's exquisitely balanced. However it helps to know how the game plays out. That's why I just give newbies the Halflings as they are a decent race. They may not win but they will be competitive.

Started with a game of Smash Up (Zombie Robots vs Enchanting Tricksters) and I seriously think my buddy's head was going to explode. We randomly picked factions and he was just completely overwhelmed trying to keep track of the various ongoing effects he had laid out on all the bases. I really like the game and I told him he should just play the same two factions all the time, but that's not nearly as fun as randomly selecting them. We would seriously need to play this a few times a week (I think) for him to not spend 3 minutes figuring out each turn.

Played through one of the free Zombicide scenarios (A1: Lost!) and had a completely different experience than the Y Zone encounter included in the game manual. Lost! ramps up right out of the gate and I think we lucked out finding the equipment needed in the first building. In addition, I was playing as Doug and acquired a sub machine gun (which gave me a matched set because of my starting skill). Anyway, by round four or five, the streets had about 15 walkers and 5 runners. My two characters ran out, but ended up stuck in the streets. The other two characters managed to barely escape to the exit while I was surrounded by zombies. As great as dual-wielded sub machine guns are, after taking out around 12 zombies, I simply couldn't fight back the waves. We won, but man what a different game when you're playing the right scenario. Complete chaos!

After that I busted out Love Letter, which raised some eyebrows around the table. However, after the first round it was quickly apparent how great the game is. Highly, highly recommended and we had a lot of fun.

We finished with a four way round of DungeonQuest. I picked up a shade early on and died during my last move to exit the dungeon by rolling snake eyes. Hilarious.

Love Letter really is a sublime gaming experience in a small package with a short play time.

Chapter 4 of Mice & Mystics is complete...

hentzau wrote:Love Letter really is a sublime gaming experience in a small package with a short play time.

Yes. It reminded me of Citadels -- but a much faster, more distilled version.

Still playing Conquest of Planet Earth (w/ Apocalypse). Really loving that game, so easy to get into and play, especially solo, as the game only takes me about 20-30 minutes to play solo.

I played two solo games of Legendary Marvel and I am wondering if the solo game is just that easy or if I lucked out on heroes both times? The first game was against red skull and that was pretty easy, but he is supposed to be the easy one. The second game was against dr doom and the skrull invasion which I thought was supposed to be harder but after a rocky start, I crushed him. My last round I had 39 attack (!!!) which would be good enough to defeat him from scratch. I had Iron Man, Wolverine and Gambit and with all the card draw effects and damage adding, it was ridiculous. I think I plays around 19 cards on the last round.

coopasonic wrote:I played two solo games of Legendary Marvel and I am wondering if the solo game is just that easy or if I lucked out on heroes both times? The first game was against red skull and that was pretty easy, but he is supposed to be the easy one. The second game was against dr doom and the skrull invasion which I thought was supposed to be harder but after a rocky start, I crushed him. My last round I had 39 attack (!!!) which would be good enough to defeat him from scratch. I had Iron Man, Wolverine and Gambit and with all the card draw effects and damage adding, it was ridiculous. I think I plays around 19 cards on the last round.

This game does not scale well for solo play. The problem with it is that every round that you play you are adding more cards to your deck directly, instead of them being diluted amongst multiple players all trying to get the best heroes. From what I've seen, the game gets harder the more people you have playing.

hentzau wrote:From what I've seen, the game gets harder the more people you have playing.

That was my thought as I was playing. Solo you can build up a strong deck pretty quickly relative to the buildup of villains/henchmen in the city. I was thinking having specific setup for solo they might account for that in some way, but it really seems that it doesn't. I guess that's why the solo rules suggest setting up a high score board to see just how badly you can beat the game.

Either way, I like the game and i think it will be pretty easy to explain to the kids at work. Yes, that's right, I finally have a lunch time game group started... we don't get together very often but it's a start. I am pretty sure I am at least 10 years older than all the other participants. That's OK, emotionally I am like half their age.

Got my butt handed to me in a game of Malifaux Saturday. I'm still playing even though they've announced a big revamp of the rules for Gencon this year. I'm hoping that the 2.0 rules updates will help refocus games on finishing encounters and schemes. I like that aspect of the game a great deal but I feel that lately all my games turn into "rush to center and get killed". I'm sure I'm more to blame though.

Then I got in another game of Pax Porfiriana. I realized afterwards that I had one rule wrong still: you get an income (or prestige) cube for each loyalty point during a Pax regime. But it was a minor mistake. I'm still diggin' the game a great deal.

Watched some x-wing mini game videos over the weekend. Never should have watched them, now it's a must have. Anyone want to recap the prior discussions on what I really need to buy? I am guessing an x-wing and 2 ties makes for a lean gaming experience.

Couldn't tell you, but I did see they're releasing the HWK-290 "Moldy Crow" from Dark Forces as part of Wave 3. Good luck.

Don't take advice from Zarathud is all I'm going to suggest. You'll own 7 base sets and 3 copies of each expansion piece by 8pm tonight otherwise.

coopasonic wrote:Watched some x-wing mini game videos over the weekend. Never should have watched them, now it's a must have. Anyone want to recap the prior discussions on what I really need to buy? I am guessing an x-wing and 2 ties makes for a lean gaming experience.

Actually, I would suggest you start with a base set and try a couple of games with just that. I don't think adding expansions makes the game fundamentally different, so playing a couple of quick skirmishes will give you a better idea of whether you really like the game or not, and want to put more money into it.

I've only bought the "Wave 1" expansions, the TIE Advanced (Vader's TIE fighter) and the Y-Wing. I'm not terribly interested in playing a) in tournaments or b) 3-hour games of X-Wing, so putting together larger 100-pt squads is not what I'm after. The expansions (for me) add some nice variety. I play with my son, and we have perfectly enjoyable 60-90 minute games with just a couple of Rebel ships and a few TIEs on the other side.

Do they have / are they planning on adding capital ships to the mini-game? What would be awesome (and no doubt expensive) would be to have matches that are like X-Wing computer game missions - i.e. five X-wings and three Y-Wings against a Nebulon B Frigate and accompanying TIE Fighters and Interceptors, where the rebels have the objective of taking out the frigate and getting away.

El Guapo wrote:Do they have / are they planning on adding capital ships to the mini-game? What would be awesome (and no doubt expensive) would be to have matches that are like X-Wing computer game missions - i.e. five X-wings and three Y-Wings against a Nebulon B Frigate and accompanying TIE Fighters and Interceptors, where the rebels have the objective of taking out the frigate and getting away.

Yeah...okay...they do that and I'm all in.

El Guapo wrote:Do they have / are they planning on adding capital ships to the mini-game? What would be awesome (and no doubt expensive) would be to have matches that are like X-Wing computer game missions - i.e. five X-wings and three Y-Wings against a Nebulon B Frigate and accompanying TIE Fighters and Interceptors, where the rebels have the objective of taking out the frigate and getting away.

It would also be a bit expensive and real estate difficult to put in a Star Destroyer.

Man do I miss X Wing and Tie Fighter. I won big (for me and my pocketbook) at the ponies over the weekend. I really need to go to Best Buy and pick up a flight stick and game pad. (and then figure out how to make them work on Windows 7 home... and for that matter try Evochron) Dammit. I do not have time to play more games.

Lots of folks have written up scenarios like that using stand-in models.

I picked up a Kenner Blockade Runner off of Ebay for about $20 with the express purpose of using it for an escape scenario like that.

Heres a link to the scenario and rules I was planning on using.

hentzau wrote:Lots of folks have written up scenarios like that using stand-in models.

I picked up a Kenner Blockade Runner off of Ebay for about $20 with the express purpose of using it for an escape scenario like that.

Heres a link to the scenario and rules I was planning on using.

Seems like they would make money if they made and sold the models, then.

Though it's mostly academic for me, as I don't think I'll be investing the time and money that would be required for that until I am independently wealthy and retired.

coopasonic wrote:Watched some x-wing mini game videos over the weekend. Never should have watched them, now it's a must have. Anyone want to recap the prior discussions on what I really need to buy? I am guessing an x-wing and 2 ties makes for a lean gaming experience.

Start with the core set and see how you like it. If you really like it I think a second core set is the next best option to give you enough for 100 point games and then you have enough dice for all of the rolls.

With all the ships out now (and Wave 3 was just announced) after having a couple of core sets it kind of becomes get what you want. I can't help myself so I have multiples of almost everything (except only one falcon and one slave 1). Not sure there is much of a consensus about what to add at this point other than getting what you want.

Also know that the X-wing and tie fighter expansion sets come with unique cards so they are worth picking up too if (or rather... when) you decide to expand more.

As a side note I cannot wait for wave 3, I think it looks like it is really going to add to the game. I like having lots of options and the addition of more support ships is really going to make things more strategic.

Had a good weekend of gaming after not being able to play at all for a few weeks. Played some Zombicide with my new proxy figures. Had lots of fun, did my usual thing of getting far too cocky and getting wiped out as a result. Still I really enjoyed it. Then we played a game of Clash of Cultures. First time it has hit the table in a few months. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy that game. I was down early with barbarians taking one of my two cities. With only a couple of rounds left I saw little chance of pulling off a victory. My opponent already had a wonder and had completed several objectives. Somehow things turned around quickly for me. A few lucky draws of action cards and I managed to expand rapidly and set up some good trade routes with currency bringing in enough gold to turn things around and then I managed to collect enough resources to build a wonder. I squeaked out a 1 point victory with an extremely strong last round. Great game, can't wait to play it again.

Thanks for the input on the X-Wing stuff... but it's like you guys don't even know me after all these years? Try it out first? Are you kidding?!

I'd start with 2 starter boxes. Middling investment and will give you a great taste of the game. Then add on some of the expansion ships.

coopasonic wrote:Thanks for the input on the X-Wing stuff... but it's like you guys don't even know me after all these years? Try it out first? Are you kidding?!

I know how that is... I pretty much bought it all without fully trying it, I told myself I would love it. Good thing I was right! Then I pre-ordered all of wave 2 almost immediately. Now I will pre-order wave 3. The game just keeps getting better. And it's Star Wars...

If you want to go all in, then get two base sets and one of every expansion ship (including the TIE and X-Wing). That give you the typical 5 TIE Fighter and 3 X-Wing swarm options, with the ability to add in modifications. You can then add in extras like 2 Y-Wings and 2 Tie Advanced -- both excellent ships.

So, still playing lots of Conquest of Planet Earth...and still loving every minute of it.

I have decided to try playing a series. I have 15 alien races...so I am going to play each alien once, to see what type of won/loss record I could end with. So far, I have won 2, and lost 2. All the games have been very close, for the most part. The two games I won, I could see how very easily things could have slipped away from me, and in fact, by the end of the game, with me winning, one more turn would have most likely been over for me.

The winning aliens so far: The Martian Confederacy and the Fishmen of Atlorak

The aliens so far: Selenian Sirens and the Fome Guild Mages

My last game, just a few moments ago, was the Fishmen of Atlorak (winning). What a nail-biter of a game!! I won, but with barely the 8 terror points needed. And if I would have lost that last battle, I would have lost the game, because the Humans only needed one more turn to reach "10" on their tech track to build their Super Cannon. Close one!!

Edit: Forgot to mention...my next game is set and ready. The aliens up for the fight this time are the Setaris Kitewings, the flying dinosaur-looking aliens...

Lorini wrote:Yep PaxP is the real deal!! Really enjoy that game. We played yesterday and lost to a stupid loyalist because we were too busy trying to make money (which is NOT how to win the game, who knew?) and didn't pay enough attention. Can't wait to play again.

Oh dear lord...Phil Eklund just mentioned on BGG that he's working on another game called Pax Renaissance. If this game engine is just ported through different time periods and keeps the exhausting attention to detail that Pax Porfiriana has, I'll be one happy camper.

My birthday is in a few weeks and my in-laws were asking what I wanted. I sent them a long email detailing the best ways and places to buy X-Wing miniatures core and expansions. It's complicated by the fact the hobby store has most of the expansions, but the core game and big ships are significantly more expensive so those should come from CSI or amazon, though they can get the core locally at target for a decent price, but the hobby shop guys should be very helpful and CSI doesn't have most of the smaller expansions in stock. I'm kind of scared (and excited) to see what I will end up with.

Were invited to a BBQ + boardgame evening today!

After the BBQ we (my girlfriend and I) introduced our friends to Love Letter and Seasons.

Love Letter was, as usual, great fun and they loved it. One of our friends even told her boyfriend that he should buy it for her birthday ^^.

Seasons was also a big hit. During the game it was never clear who was going to win it all. A lot of tactic changing went on the whole time.
In the end I managed to snatch the win in my last turn, winning by only 12 points!

Love Letter and Seasons are by far my favorite games at the moment.

Still have to try Le Havre, Smash Up, Carson City and Guards, Guards! though. Does anyone have any experience with those? How do you like them?

I also really need to play some more Game Of Thrones: The Card Game. It does seem a bit to me that it's kind of unbalanced, or is that just me?

If you're like me, Smash Up won't really start to shine until after you've played a few games. Once you get past the cheesy (but fun) humor behind the game, you'll start to see something more akin to a deck builder crossed with magic the gathering. It's still a light game but it does have some depth when assigning cards to locations and utilizing your combos.

I like Smash Up, but it "clicks" with me -- I understand it's not a game you should really over-think, though strategies are definitely possible. As I mentioned before, I've played it three times -- twice with three players, once with two. Each time my buddy manages to randomly pick INSANE combinations that require hand and discard management, ongoing effect management and extra actions or minions to be played. It literally takes him 3 minutes to resolve a turn because he finds it all to overwhelming. I play my turn in 30 seconds, and then back to him for 3 minutes. I really like it, but if he doesn't start picking up the rules I'm guessing it's going to start gathering dust.

Played Talisman last night, trying out another alternate ending... played into the wee hours of the morning (so long that my teens fell asleep... eked out a win over Chaosfaerie - her first time with the new version).

Domain of Dragons

Ending Rules
At the start of the game, draw one Draconic Lord Card at random and place it faceup on the Crown of Command; this is the Dragon King for the game.
Whenever a character draws an Enemy with Strength, immediately take the top card from the Varthrax deck and place it on top of the Adventure deck of the character’s Region.
Whenever a character draws an Object, immediately take the top card from the Cadorus deck and place it on top of the Adventure deck of the character’s Region.
Whenever a character draws an Enemy with Craft, immediately take the top card from the Grilipus deck and place it on top of the Adventure deck of the character’s Region.
Whenever a character kills an Enemy from a Dragon Card, he may claim a matching dragon scale from the pool of dragon tokens.
Whenever a character is instructed to draw a dragon token, he suffers the Dragon Rage of the Dragon King instead.
A character on the Crown of Command must confront the Dragon King. If a character removes the Dragon King’s last life, he wins the game!

So yeah, those freaking Dragon deck cards ended up ALL OVER the place, as we all scattered to the Dungeon, Highlands, and City trying to avoid them.

Chaosfaerie would like me to mention her Evil Sprite with the Runesword a Strength of 7 and a Craft of 12 galloping everywhere and slaughtering the Draconic minions... I snuck through the Dungeon and used a spell to double my strength until the end of the turn to whack the Overlord and pop straight to crown of Command to defeat Grilipus for the win. She set aside the pieces and plans on taking a picture for her Tumblr she was having such a blast. Which makes me happy, as the old 2nd ed was one of our favorite games together when we were dating oh those many years ago.

I played Fluxx with in-laws last night. My BIL was drunk and won every game. We decided that Fluxx is a game so stupid that you get better at playing it the drinker you get.

Played a game of King of Tokyo with my wife and son last night. Wife was not impressed.