OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:35 pm

Fantasy Flight Battlelore Scenario Builder Beta

The Scenario Builder’s custom editor allows you to easily create any scenario you can imagine. The Scenario Builder makes it a simple matter to manipulate any terrain hex or token tile from BattleLore Second Edition!. Whether you’re arranging battlefield terrain or positioning the forces of two rival armies, you’ll be able to engage in battles of your own making!

With the Scenario Builder’s database, you can publish your scenarios and battle maps for other players to experience. Published content can be downloaded and enjoyed by players around the world, and players can also vote on favorite user-generated battlefields. The BattleLore Scenario Builder invites you to enjoy a new world of strategy and battlefield tactics!

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:40 pm

Battlelore 2nd edition has won the coveted "Dad can we play that game again" award from my son. We've played around 10 games since we got it and continue to enjoy it. I'm pleased to see the scenario creator come out as I can only hope that means FFG will continue to support the product. The presence of 3 new colors for showing deployment zones in the editor implies there might be at least 3 new factions in the works!

I really like the victory point and semi-random scenario creation systems, but we've found that sometimes you wind up with an imbalanced setup. Nothing terrible, but it's affected a couple of our games. Basically, the scenario setup usually gives players easy access to 2vp per turn. It could be an easy to accomplish objective, an objective hex conveniently located by your deployment zone, etc. That simply creates a stalemate and the drive of the game becomes how to upset that balance... can you manage to get 3vp on one turn or prevent the other player from earning some of his points for a turn or two.

Sometimes, we each reveal our scenarios and find that the map is laid out such that one players objectives are more easily held thanks to the terrain, or a player has to spread out to cover his while the other players goals are more concentrated. Most of our games have been very tense, close games ending 16-15 or 14... but we've had a few 16-8 blowouts that just haven't felt as satisfying.

This is Battlelore, so dice rolls and card draws sometimes play a part as well. The command cards we've found to be more forgiving. There are more generally useful ones than in Battlelore (and Memoir 44) so you're rarely stuck with nothing good. The Lore cards are generally pretty balanced too, but they can really play a big part in resolving key fights.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:46 pm

Can I ask how old your son is?

Mine is 7 and I am pretty sure his mom wouldn't be cool with him playing Memoir 44, but I might be able to get away with Battlelore. Look at those pretty colors!

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 7:14 pm

He's 11.5. He's played Memoir 44 with me off and on since he was 9, maybe 8.

As for being age-appropriate, some of the demon-possessed Uthuk units are pretty freaky looking (Obscenes and Chaos Lord) and a couple of their Lore cards have artwork that's a little scary too (Blood Sacrifice shows a woman magically draining life out of someone, Bone Spurs shows someone unknowingly impaling himself on... bone spurs, etc.) But if modern looking soldiers and tanks would raise a red flag in your house this might be a bit better.

Oh, I should point out that now, when we see a possibly lopsided scenario combo come up, we've both just rolled up our sleeves and looked at it as a challenge. Best example of a great comeback (fueled by good die rolls and a very well timed Lore card) had me sitting at a 10-4 advantage when my son just shut me out of all my objectives, so I earned 0 points for several turns, enough for him to finally win 16-12.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 2:09 am

Came so close in the Castaways scenario for Robinson Crusoe, playing solo...I was on turn 10, only needed 3 more pieces of wood for the wood pile...but then I was attacked by a wild dog in the event phase, ending my life. The snow and rain from the turn before gave me 3 wounds, taking me down to just one more hit point left...the wild dog bit into me and it was quite a bit of overkill (5 wounds because I did not have the cure). So so close...

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 3:24 am

Castaways is a cursed mission. Gilligan never made it off the island.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:53 am

true...but...I think it is attainable...especially after I got so close to getting off the island last night.

I think this is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, and I haven't even played beyond Castaways.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 10:22 am

Castaways is definitely winnable, but I think you have to have a healthy dose of luck. Good shelter is also critical, or the weather in the second half will destroy your wood supply.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sat Feb 08, 2014 1:40 pm

Playing War of the Ring (plus Lords of Middle-earth) with my oldest. He's beating me and possibly going for a military win (!) as the Free Peoples.

edit: Yep, he won. I am so proud.

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Sat Feb 08, 2014 2:19 pm

It wasn't this weekend--it was Thursday--but I got to play Betrayal At House On The Hill and had a blast with it. I guess I'm part of a coalescing gaming group of sorts, and last Thursday we played Eldritch Horror and had started talking about horror themes in tabletop games. After the usual C'thulhu slow jams, I mentioned that Ricky Royal had put A Touch Of Evil at 10 on his list of top 30 solo games of all time, and that I'd seen Wheaton and his crew play Betrayal on Tabletop. No one had played or had experience with ATOE, but 3 of the folks had played Betrayal, and one guy had the game.

So we gave that a spin. I gather the scenarios make the game pretty hit-or-miss with some folks, but we had a really good one where the outcome was in doubt until the end of the game.

This weekend: I learn and play Crusoe.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sun Feb 09, 2014 12:15 pm

triggercut wrote:It wasn't this weekend--it was Thursday--but I got to play Betrayal At House On The Hill and had a blast with it. I guess I'm part of a coalescing gaming group of sorts, and last Thursday we played Eldritch Horror and had started talking about horror themes in tabletop games. After the usual C'thulhu slow jams, I mentioned that Ricky Royal had put A Touch Of Evil at 10 on his list of top 30 solo games of all time, and that I'd seen Wheaton and his crew play Betrayal on Tabletop. No one had played or had experience with ATOE, but 3 of the folks had played Betrayal, and one guy had the game.

So we gave that a spin. I gather the scenarios make the game pretty hit-or-miss with some folks, but we had a really good one where the outcome was in doubt until the end of the game.

This weekend: I learn and play Crusoe.

A Touch of Evil is an interesting game, with some interesting flaws. It is also the first game I managed to paint all the miniatures for, including the two big-box expansions. So, despite not considering it a top-tier game, it holds a special place in my heart. The rules can be a bit cumbersome, but I think it has a nice feel for Gothic adventure and certainly is highly entertaining (if not incredibly difficult at times). I would not bother with the competitive game, which plays a bit to much like Talisman than I care for, but rather go for the co-op game, which is closer to Eldritch Horror. One of the reasons I found Pathfinder: The Card Game to be a bit "meh" was that it shared the "feel" of ATOE without the cool minis and boards.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Feb 09, 2014 4:16 pm

The kids and I just finished our first run at Mice & Mystics. We got our butts handed to us and lost, but it gave us a chance to learn the game, figure out some strategies, and decide how to tackle it the next time we try Chapter 1.

Everyone did love the game, though.

EzeKieL · Post by **EzeKieL** » Mon Feb 10, 2014 4:14 am

We played 2 games of Mafe Knight over the weekend and we played it wrong twice ^^.

Meaning that every time we noticed things that we thought meant A, but ended up meaning B.

It's okay though, we're fully convinced that we'll play it correctly next time ^^.

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Mon Feb 10, 2014 2:54 pm

Played Rune wars this past weekend. Not often that we have only 4 people, so we pulled this out. For some reason two people decided that my pretty blue human units were evil, so they kept attacking me, and left the other guy all alone.

But I kicked both their butts, with a nice use of a hero quest that let me grab all the indy's on a province. I ended up with 4 indy's including a dragon. Then a set of really bad rolls by the bad guys, and a season card that let me pick up my activation allowed me to almost take out one guy, and hold the other to a few provinces. Then the other guy who had not been attacked rolled over these two guys to my front door, and I did not have enough troops to hold out and win, since I had fought off the other two. <sigh>

But fun game, and I know there is a V 2.0 rule set, but we used the 1.0 set as that is what I had. Guess I will have to print them out in case we play again.

Also played a few games of Legendary, we won one, lost one. And played King of Tokyo 3 or 4 times and included my 9 year old, she loves to roll the dice, and almost one once. But my crappy friend pulled a combo and killed her one turn before she would win.

But she was all grins, and loved playing with me and my friends.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 9:48 am

Got in some retro gaming last night. Tommy broke out the Avalon Hill boardgame Midway. Basically battleship on steroids. Pretty dry, but enjoyable.

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:18 am

Played a 5 player game of Spartacus, a 9 player game of Werewolf and a 7 player 7 Wonders.

I've lucked into a really good group of people to play with - it is one of the highlights of my monthly calendar.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 11:27 am

Last night I lost a game of Star Munchkin and one of Dungeon Roll.

Friday night the Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords campaign came to a close as the GM handed us a TPK. He'd warned us early on that he was running a 'lazy' campaign, running it from the book with minimal prep. Our party was half dead, multiple stats drained, and out of spells when finishing a certain activity, and encounter with undead swarms was essentially unwinnable in our condition.

Goodbye, Vorn, dwarf wizard. I'll be rolling a Paladin soon. Or maybe a fighter. Something clanky.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 3:29 pm

Played a game of Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends and feel like we barely scratched the surface. It's another two-player game by Vlaada Chvatil, with a heavy dose of having a riddle mixed into the game. You place tokens and can upgrade/move them once you have a particular placement that matches a card in your hand. Some of the combos are pretty interesting. The goal is to score at least 6 points. We ended up with the last turn triggered as both of us moved past 6 points in a pretty nice race for points.

I also played another game of Mage Wars. The games are much longer than the 90 minute playing time, but they're great fun as we keep figuring out new combos and missed opportunities. I played the Wizard, while hepcat played the Necromancer. I spent the first few turns gearing up, while Hepcat started on his zombie hordes. By the time the enemy was close, I summoned my regenerating creatures with range attacks. Hepcat had equipped an obscuring cloak, so I couldn't target him further than 1 space away. So I dropped down a Mana Siphon that reduced hepcat's magic, then teleported into his face. He escaped into the opposing corner then threw up a Wall of Bones. Hepcat summoned his strongest undead, while I summoned a hydra and marched the rest of my troops towards his corner. His zombies pounded on me, but I was able to hit him squarely a few times with the lightning bolt to even the tables. The last turn would have ended with my death to the zombie horde, but I had initiative and quick-cast a lightning bolt that squarely hit him for the win. A very close game.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:54 pm

Well I played a couple more games of Robinson Crusoe among other things. I tried the Swiss Family Robinson scenario. I was doing great until I started having kids (on my own somehow... the theme for that one doesn't really work solo as well...) and those little buggers cost me my life due to all the food I needed to feed them! It was too much work to try and get that much food! So then I was doing some rule reading (because I am an exciting person like that) and I realized that I have been playing a rule wrong which makes it significantly easier. I was playing that when you explore you get the resources for the tile you overturn. So most of my food was from exploring. I rarely gathered resources. I have no idea where I got this wrong idea from. I blame Rahdo for his incorrect use of that in his run through. I still read the rules myself but I must have skimmed over that part. Wow so I tried the cursed island now knowing the rules better and it was rough. Not so much because of that rule but because of a hunting fail. For some reason I decided to try hunting with only a level 2 weapon. What do I find? A bear. Yeah he pretty much destroyed me, so my health was down low within two or three turns into the game. I lost within 6 rounds of that game simply due to poor health, and you know actually having to find food myself instead of just exploring. It was a brutal awakening.

Following the game I took a look through the hunting deck to see how hard some of the animals in there actually were. I have actually not really looked through it much, just shuffled before each game and started. I thought not knowing would be part of the fun. Well in terms of theme that made sense, but in terms of strategy it made no sense. In looking through the deck it appears that I was getting lucky every other time hunting with a weapon level 2 or 3. I should have been hunting with much higher weapons! 5 and 6 are rather the norm. So now I know that I will keep it in mind when choosing to go hunting. Probably should have been obvious but I thought thematically it was ok to have no idea. It cost me big time.

I am however enjoying this game quite a bit. I have played 4 times total I think now, 2 solo and 2 with other people. It plays well solo but as with all games I enjoy playing it with others much more.

I also played a few games of X-wing this weekend. Starting to get back into that with some friends after taking a bit of a break for the last few months. The announcement of wave 4 made me want to play again badly so it has been cycled to the top of my play list again and has been lots of fun. Now I'm in the boat of simply waiting for all the cool new ships which have been announced that we are waiting for now. Imperial aces, rebel transport, alternative x-wing, tantive IV, and now 4 more wave 4 ships. This game always has something I am waiting for and anticipating. I can't get enough of it.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:23 pm

I'm getting a little tempted by Triumph and Tragedy by GMT Games. It's a 3-player grand strategy game where the West, the Axis, and the Soviets are competing for global domination via economic, technological, and military means.

I don't really need another board game, but I don't really have a good three player game, and this is right in my wheelhouse...

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:58 pm

I played a lot of games of Uno Attack with my son while he was waiting for his appendectomy. I asked him if he wanted to play afterwards, and he said no way, Uno Attack makes him laugh too much.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 10:22 am

Got in a game of Star Wars: The Card Game last night. Finally. I've had this freaking game since it was released, but other than playing one learning round, never had a chance to get in a complete game.

I gotta say, I really enjoyed this game. Lots of difficult meaningful choices in play. The rules seem a bit convoluted, but after by the end of the game we had a good handle on the flow, and were starting to get a good grasp on strategy. I'm not sure how often this will hit the table, but I'll hang onto it just for the chance.

(Also, I really like the simplified deck building mechanic in it. Instead of having to pore through 50 cards to make up your deck, you just grab 10 objective sets and away you go.)

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 10:31 am

hentzau wrote:Got in a game of Star Wars: The Card Game last night. Finally. I've had this freaking game since it was released, but other than playing one learning round, never had a chance to get in a complete game.

I gotta say, I really enjoyed this game. Lots of difficult meaningful choices in play. The rules seem a bit convoluted, but after by the end of the game we had a good handle on the flow, and were starting to get a good grasp on strategy. I'm not sure how often this will hit the table, but I'll hang onto it just for the chance.

(Also, I really like the simplified deck building mechanic in it. Instead of having to pore through 50 cards to make up your deck, you just grab 10 objective sets and away you go.)

Funny, I bought the game right around when it came out and I haven't played it at all yet. I keep thinking "I should learn the rules to this game and give it a try" because it's Star Wars but for some reason I just have not gotten around to it yet...

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 5:43 pm

So far, it's been Yinsh and Suburbia.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:23 pm

Add in Letters from Whitechapel and LotR The Card Game.

We managed to stumble onto Jack late into night 2, and were in a position to dog him to his lair, so he turned himself in.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:33 pm

Chrisoc13 wrote:
hentzau wrote:Got in a game of Star Wars: The Card Game last night. Finally. I've had this freaking game since it was released, but other than playing one learning round, never had a chance to get in a complete game.

I gotta say, I really enjoyed this game. Lots of difficult meaningful choices in play. The rules seem a bit convoluted, but after by the end of the game we had a good handle on the flow, and were starting to get a good grasp on strategy. I'm not sure how often this will hit the table, but I'll hang onto it just for the chance.

(Also, I really like the simplified deck building mechanic in it. Instead of having to pore through 50 cards to make up your deck, you just grab 10 objective sets and away you go.)
Funny, I bought the game right around when it came out and I haven't played it at all yet. I keep thinking "I should learn the rules to this game and give it a try" because it's Star Wars but for some reason I just have not gotten around to it yet...

If you make it to Octocon, I'll teach ya!

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:24 am

Isgrimnur wrote:So far, it's been Yinsh and Suburbia.

Isgrimnur wrote:Add in Letters from Whitechapel and LotR The Card Game.

We managed to stumble onto Jack late into night 2, and were in a position to dog him to his lair, so he turned himself in.

What he said, but he left Khet: The Laser Game off the list.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 2:33 am

Oops.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:59 pm

Unpacked Ship Pack One for Eclipse. There was really no NEED for the Alien species to have their own ships, but they look awesome. They also make it IMPOSSIBLE to keep everything in just the one big box, no matter how hard I tried.

paulbaxter · Post by **paulbaxter** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:05 pm

We bought King of Tokyo on Friday as an early birthday present for my middle son. Much fun ensued, although sadly he's the one who has enjoyed it the least. He's not quite as good at strategic thinking as his older brother, and has less tolerance for losing than his younger brother. Great game for boys though.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:20 pm

Yinsh - It was nice to play against someone who isn't a 7 year old.
Suburbia - Only my 3rd play. Still not a game I will go out of my way to play, but a way to pass the time.
Letters from Whitechapel - My first play on the investigator team. Gives you more perspective on how to play Jack.
LotR Living Card Game - A lot drier than I would have imagined. Still I have few soloable games with deckbuilding components so it's a keeper.
Khet: The Laser Game - It's an interesting game and Isg won with the most obvious play possible and I totally missed it while working on my own obvious play.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:01 pm

I played Ra for the first time yesterday. Was a fun game that was easy to pick up and play with a number of other people who hadn't played before. Will play again!

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:11 pm

Had a good game day with friends on Saturday. Played a full game of Lords of Waterdeep with the Skullport expansion, using both modules combined. I love that the expansion takes all of 15 seconds to explain once you know the base game, but adds a ton of great content. It was only my second time playing it, and while I seem to remember LoW games being fairly close, this was all over the place score-wise. I think the difference between first and last place was around 60 points. Still fun.

After that we started into the Pathfinder ACG intro adventure, I got to teach it to them as I've played a ton. A few hiccups here and there, but in the end we managed to defeat the villian near the end of the game. We're planning to use this as our recurring game every time we get together, so we're not constantly learning new games. We'll see how long it lasts.

Wrapping up I taught them Suburbia, which I think is pretty great. My first game of this had a few pretty big rules errors in the way we handled tile interactions, this time I think we got them all right. Changed the gameplay a bit in really good ways. I'm liking this one quite a bit, am tempted to get the expansion as well.

Hopefully now that the Olympics are over we'll get back to gaming regularly at home. I don't think there's been a game played there in two weeks.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 7:02 pm

Played some more X-wing this weekend. I never seem to get tired of that game. Almost played in a tournament randomly (we were at the game store and they were going to start one) but then it was delayed an hour and I didn't feel like waiting around for it. After our first game Saturday where I ran a tie swarm against wedge with R2, ten numb, and a y-wing companion we decided to shake things up and fly some less used ships. We played one game were we decided to try less powerful or traditional squads. My brother ran 5 A-wings, I ran 4 tie bombers loaded to the brim. The first 2 or 3 turns were awesome. His A wings were going in and out of asteroids, my bombers were launching their huge armaments (each was loaded with a missile of various types and proton torpedoes). Then he was down to just a couple of ships, and I was out of armaments. Wow that got tedious. Neither of us could land a good hit. I would shoot but with the A-wing's high agility I would rarely hit, and due to how fast A-wings are I struggled to get into range 1. He would successfully land hits on my bombers every now and then but with their massive hulls it just took too long to eat through them. So while he landed more hits I ended up winning when the game ended unceremoniously as he collided with an asteroid. Left a bit of a shallow victory... but hey I'll take it. Lesson learned, take some firepower for when you are out of secondary weapons or the game can really draw out.

Also got a chance to play the game Jamaica. I've heard a lot about it recently, and it lived up to the hype I have heard. It is really light, but really it is a fun racing game with lots of interaction between players. I hope to be able to play it again soon. We tried it with two players and even though I had heard it did not work well with two players I found that it actually did. There is a third ship, the "ghost ship" in play with two players and it worked really well as a result. It is light, but it is beautiful, has great components, and was surprisingly fun to the end.

hentzau wrote:
If you make it to Octocon, I'll teach ya!

I look forward to it, really hoping I can make it, but I won't know my schedule that weekend for a couple more weeks. Thankfully since I already own this game this would be the first game you would teach me that I don't end up buying...

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:37 pm

This isn't a game I played, but it's boardgaming-related and it happened over the weekend.

One of the backer rewards for last year's Shut Up and Sit Down pledge drive was a one-minute personalized audio file recorded by the hosts. I received mine on Sunday. It was utterly bizarre to hear Quinns and Paul, my two favorite board game commentators, address me by name, ramble about their need for tea, and conclude with a reference to my thumb up Paul's bum.

Funny stuff. Would play (the MP3 file) again. Two thumbs up (Paul's bum).

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 12:42 pm

Played a 3-player game of Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery with my wife and son over the weekend. This is one of those that sits on my shelf and doesn't get played much, but every time I do pull it out I really enjoy it. So much going on, but everything works together pretty well. My son decided to try for the colonization/warfare strategy, so he and my wife beat up on each other while I quietly built an economic empire. Was able to grab a couple of really good Age III buildings that gave me the win. On the one hand, it was the first game ever for both of them, so I had a leg up to start. On the other hand, it's always nice to win a game against my wife, as that's not usually the case.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 9:29 pm

LordMortis and I tried out the 2 player Game of Thrones a couple times, it was kind of cool.

Then Remus West showed up and we played the Star Trek DBG (Original Series) and LM pulled his amazing 5 Card deck trick.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:58 pm

I restarted on my OGRE Designer's edition this weekend -- punching and sorting a seemingly infinite number of counters. I'm on the last 1/4 of the sheets, then I have to finish sorting through the counters.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:47 pm

AWS260 wrote:This isn't a game I played, but it's boardgaming-related and it happened over the weekend.

One of the backer rewards for last year's Shut Up and Sit Down pledge drive was a one-minute personalized audio file recorded by the hosts. I received mine on Sunday. It was utterly bizarre to hear Quinns and Paul, my two favorite board game commentators, address me by name, ramble about their need for tea, and conclude with a reference to my thumb up Paul's bum.

Funny stuff. Would play (the MP3 file) again. Two thumbs up (Paul's bum).

That sounds really great! (The audio, I mean, although I assume the bum is at least adequate.)

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:36 pm

The Economist gets in on the Volko Ruhnke lovefest.