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[hentzau]

Well, I got my Freedom Five. Man, that's a lot of game.

And I think I have another shipment coming...

[hepcat]

Yeah, mine is arriving Monday.

Still no sign of my dungeons of infinity shipping though. Starting to think they lost mine.

[YellowKing]

I haven't gotten any shipping notifications for Freedom Five yet but I did the standee version so it might be in that second shipment that was slightly behind the first wave.

[hentzau]

[hepcat]

Im still surprised it took 4 years for it.

[AWS260]

This doesn't really look like my kind of game, but I appreciate the theme.

[YellowKing]

Ok, finally got my Freedom Five shipping notice and it will be here Wednesday. While I'm not particularly *excited* for it at this point, I've had a nice long break from solo board gaming over the past couple of months so it will be good to get something back to the table.

[hepcat]

I got mine today. That’s a lot of game for 99 bucks!

I admit I was feeling like you for a while. But in sorting the game I’m seeing something that could be a lot of fun. I’m really looking forward to playing it now. I’m seeing the influence of the Sadler brothers in a lot of the mechanics already….which is another reason I’m excited to play.

…seriously, for 99 bucks, I got a lot.

[hepcat]

Okay, first chapter of the first scenario completed, and I have thoughts.

It's...okay. It's not great. I can see snippets of quite a few other games in it, but that's true of many of Launius' games. There's Pandemic (of course), bits of Defenders of the Ream/Defenders of the Last Stand (the latter of those two is one of my all time favorite games and a seriously underrated game), Arkham Horror 2nd edition, and a few others.

With the Sadlers on the design team, you also see bits of Street Masters and THEIR superhero game based on that game franchise, Hour of Need.

To be perfectly honest, I think I prefer Hour of Need.

The biggest issue I have with the game is that it's fiddly when it shouldn't be. For example: to attack henchman, you roll a number of dice that matches the color of the henchmen. To attack villains/masterminds, you roll dice equal to the number of specifically colored cards in your hand (the game has 4...red, blue, green and yellow...and a wild card color, purple) that you discard to do so. Why not just make combat the same across the board, for cryin' out loud. Give it some more oomph in the process. I found it rather unsatisfying that my combat was based solely on the number and color of henchmen in my space, or how many cards of a specific color I had in my hand instead of some cool superpower my character wielded.

As for the heroes, they feel "samey". I guess that was a common complaint during play testing, so they came up with an upgrade system that sees you trading out cards for upgraded cards as you play. I haven't gone that far in the game yet, so hopefully that addresses my problem with this.

Granted, I'm only about two hours into the game (an hour of which was trying to decipher the rulebook which REALLY should have been formatted in a linear fashion mimicing a game session instead of scattering info across different sections), so hopefully it gets better. It's scenario based, so each game will be different based on the special rules for the chapter you're playing (3 chapters per scenario, I believe).

But right now, I'm feeling the urge to just play Hour of Need.

[YellowKing]

Looks like I jumped the gun thinking that was my Freedom Five shipment - it was actually my Townsfolk Tussle all-in.

TT is one of those rare games where I thought the theme was better than the gameplay, but I bought it anyway because I liked the theme THAT much. I'm hoping the two expansions help flesh it out, as one adds a bit more complexity to the boss battles and the other adds campaign gameplay.

I will say also that I felt good supporting Panic Roll, as they are a tiny company (3 people) that put out a stellar first Kickstarter and now a stellar second Kickstarter with this second reprint + expansion. If nothing else, they deserve kudos and my dollars just for showing much larger companies how you can run successful campaigns and not treat your customers like crap in the process. Despite all the shipping challenges and whatnot these campaigns have experienced over the last couple of years, they delivered within a month of their estimate, with no additional shipping costs, and with great communication throughout.

[Zarathud]

I’m waiting for the Townsfolk Tussle Expansion. It’s been a decent game that runs a bit long and depends on getting items. I hope the updated rules help streamline and make it more fun. But I did like it enough to paint the miniatures. Now I’ll have to paint the new stuff too.

[hepcat]

It's a great game. I do agree it can run long though. It feels like they're fitting 4 games into one session in lieu of a campaign mode. I'm hoping the streamlined rules/expansion allow for a quicker game that still gives you the chance to blow up an outhouse.

[YellowKing]

They do now have official rules for a 3-boss session. The other big rule change I saw was that you can now spend Moxie to perform a re-roll. It's not a lot of mitigation, but at least it's something. I think they also changed the market refresh so that you don't get stuck as often with a bum lot of items to choose from.

The reviews I've seen of the expansions are very positive, with every review I watched saying the expansions improved upon the base game. Not drastically, but in key areas that players complained about. Odd Jobs got high marks for giving players a purpose/goal in collecting item sets.

I'm really looking forward to painting the miniatures - I'd be lying if I said they weren't a huge part of what persuaded me to buy the game in the first place. I've already ordered some more spray primer to I can get started on them next week.

[hepcat]

And outhouses? They're still in the game? Because no outhouses, no hepcat.

[Enough]

This doesn't really look like my kind of game, but I appreciate the theme.

I ended up backing it, great price too.

[Fardaza]

Hepcat ... Have you received a shipping notice for Dungeons of Infinity yet? I think I saw a couple of your comments on Gamefound in the last week or so. If I'm understanding their latest update correctly, we here in the US should be receiving our games in the next week or so. Fingers crossed here.

[hepcat]

I got mine finally yesterday. So ignore their pleas of "please wait, they all are going out on 10/25!" that became "please wait, they all are going out on 10/28!". They're going out now.

Should be here on Monday for me. However, I've got WAY too many games recently to play.

[Fardaza]

I've heard nothing from them. I've got no new games interesting me right now. I hope mine comes soon!

I ... I ... I ... sheesh

[hepcat]

I'm betting you get the notification by Monday.

[Fardaza]

Sure hope so!

[Blackhawk]

I'm down to two outstanding: Conan and Tales from the Red Dragon Inn.

[Fardaza]

I just got my shipping notice for Dungeons of Infinity! Yeah! Finally!

All it says right now is label created, but that's at least something.

[hepcat]

I AM NOSTRADAMUS!

Give it until this evening and you should see movement on it. They create the labels and then offload them to Fedex at the end of the day, where they then receive shipping estimates.

Mine arrived at lunch today at the office. I'm not a huge fan of shipments with giant lettering on the side. I feel a little self conscious taking a box with the words "Dungeons of Infinity" written all over it out to my car.

They did the same thing with Isofarian Guard last month too. Thankfully, I caught the Fedex guy in the parking lot before he could bring it into the office.

[Zarathud]

Townsfolk Tussle Foul Neighbors arrived. I'll have a little more to paint, but not too much. Looking forward to it.

[Fardaza]

I just got my shipping notice for Dungeons of Infinity! Yeah! Finally!

All it says right now is label created, but that's at least something.

About 30 minutes ago, it changed to "arrived at FedEx location in GA".

Estimated delivery is Thursday!!!

[hepcat]

I've been setting up a tutorial game and reading through the rules. Just now I realized that I recognized a few game mechanics in Dungeons of Infinity. So I started reading some of the posts from the designer. In one of his posts he listed Mistfall as an inspiration. I freakin' loved Mistfall (still own it, as a matter of fact). Now I'm even more excited to try it.

[Fardaza]

I'm about a third of the way through the rulebook myself. Jack Spoerner has several 10-20 minute instructional videos on BGG. He's not the most amazing videographer, but they are very helpful.

[hepcat]

Yeah, I get the feeling he's a mathematician that decided to make a version of D&D for himself after playing Mistfall years ago. He kind of admits that much a few times.

But I do like the wide variety of things you can do with the system. Coop, competitive, short one off scenarios, longer mini campaigns, an epic 30 hour campaign. It certainly has a lot.

In other news, a smaller expansion for Dungeon Universalis just started yesterday. It's for the random dungeon generator he's been promising for a while. I backed it as I love DU.

[EzeKieL]

I have DU but haven't checked it out yet. Is it difficult to get into?

[hepcat]

It’s got a learning curve, that’s for sure. But it delivers a very deep experience. It’s akin to a full on miniature’s combat game with extensive rpg bling. The use of six sided dice keeps the “swinginess” low too.

Did you get the beastiary cards? They’re almost essential, imho.

[hepcat]

After my first few turns, I have to say that Dungeons of Infinity is oddly frustrating.

There's something fun there. And the number of different ways you can play it is fantastic. But it just seems like the designer tried to balance it with some arbitrary rules that are just not intuitive. That's something that bugs me in games.

For example: When taking damage, you take the power of the attack and subtract the defense of the target. The end result is the damage. However, if you get -1 to 0, it's still 1 damage.

Another example: The rulebook clearly states "A Hero with a weapon equipped may perform a Standard Attack at the cost of 1 Action Point." That's fine, but there are numerous abilities and player powers that seem to say the opposite. After reading through the designer's posts on BGG, I find one in which he states "that's wrong, you can make a standard attack without an equipped weapon". Then why is it still in the rules in the 2nd edition, for cryin' out loud. I suspect he intended it that way, but then realized it was problematic.

So...yeah...I like the exploration, I like the character choices, I like the various ways to play the game, but I'm not sold yet on the basic mechanics of the game. It just feels half baked at this point.

[EzeKieL]

It’s got a learning curve, that’s for sure. But it delivers a very deep experience. It’s akin to a full on miniature’s combat game with extensive rpg bling. The use of six sided dice keeps the “swinginess” low too.

Did you get the beastiary cards? They’re almost essential, imho.

I have this:

Dungeon Universalis (1.3, Books&Cards, core set)
Tiles Set I
Standees Bestiary Box I
Encounters exp. (Bestiary II, Bestiary cards I, Campaign Book II)
Miniatures of DUN + Quest Book for heroes + Background cards

and backing the expansion on GF since I love randomised dungeons.

[EzeKieL]

Tales of the Arabian Nights 40th Anniversary Edition!

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/play- ... ry-edition

I loved playing the original so I hope this one will turn out ok.

[hepcat]

It’s got a learning curve, that’s for sure. But it delivers a very deep experience. It’s akin to a full on miniature’s combat game with extensive rpg bling. The use of six sided dice keeps the “swinginess” low too.

Did you get the beastiary cards? They’re almost essential, imho.

I have this:

Dungeon Universalis (1.3, Books&Cards, core set)
Tiles Set I
Standees Bestiary Box I
Encounters exp. (Bestiary II, Bestiary cards I, Campaign Book II)
Miniatures of DUN + Quest Book for heroes + Background cards

and backing the expansion on GF since I love randomised dungeons.

Good, you got the beastiary cards. Looks like you have all you need. Don’t forget to check out the online app for the game. It’s great if you want to play coop or solo as it allows you to reveal the dungeon as you explore.

[AWS260]

Tales of the Arabian Nights 40th Anniversary Edition!

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/play- ... ry-edition

I loved playing the original so I hope this one will turn out ok.

Odd timing, with the spiritual successor (Tales of the Arthurian Knights) about to hit retail.

[Fardaza]

Dungeons of Infinity arrived today!!
That's a lot of stuff to sort through. 800 cards!
I hope to be playing it on Sunday when I have some free time.

[hepcat]

800? I could have sworn it was about half that. I got the deluxe edition, the Stonebound saga characters and the kingdom cost expansion.

In any case, keep in mind you CAN use your standard attack WITHOUT a weapon equipped, in spite of what the rulebook says.

[Fardaza]

Don't remember if I got the Stonebound Saga characters or not, but I did get the rest of what you listed.

Thanks for tip about standard attack!

[YellowKing]

Got my shipping notice for Vagrantsong expansion and Freedom Five. Vagrantsong will probably go on the shelf for now - I still haven't even played Townsfolk Tussle and there is some interest from my gaming group to play it at some point. I'll probably get a Freedom Five session or two in over the holidays though since it's not a huge campaign and I can one shot it.

[hepcat]

Freedom Five is a rather long game, I’ve found. You essentially play about 4 chapters in a comic per game. Once one section is completed, you add more stuff and continue until you get to the boss. I was surprised that my very first game took almost 4 hours to finish.