Octopus Overlords

AWS260 wrote:Today is International Tabletop Day.

Yes it is (was?) - one of the best gaming days of my life ever! I only play games w/ friends once in a while. We did D&D for a while but don't get together frequently enough to keep doing that, so I'm usually playing Risk, Monopoly, Clue or Hero Quest (and now Dungeon Roll) w/ my daughter. We've played Munchkin a bit in my gaming group.

Today - they celebrated this at the local High School:

I finally found out what Cronikle (sp?) is! (OK, wasn't that impressed personally, but I can see the appeal).

2 games of munchkin, Pandemic (me and my friend, we won), 7 Wonders (very fun mechanic w/ the passing cards after every play), Race for the Galaxy, Midnight Mansion, Hive? (you had 11 insect tiles and had to surround the other player's queen bee first, my daughter beat me).

And learned about ROBA (Michigan - Rochester/Oakland Boardgamers Assoc http://roba.groupsite.com/main/summary) - so I can look forward to having fun the last Saturday of every month now!

I know a couple of you are from SE Michigan area, every been to ROBA session?

Zenn7 wrote:
I finally found out what Cronikle (sp?) is! (OK, wasn't that impressed personally, but I can see the appeal).

hentzau wrote:

Zenn7 wrote:
I finally found out what Cronikle (sp?) is! (OK, wasn't that impressed personally, but I can see the appeal).

Guess I shouldn't plan on being invited to any gaming days with you?

It wasn't a bad game and I enjoyed playing it well enough, but around these parts, some at least make it seem like one of the greatest games ever. For me, it was on OK way to pass the time, but I enjoyed the other games better is all.

PS: left King of Tokyo off the list of games played. 6 players. Nobody died (the winner was down to 1 health).

Played X-wing and Galaxy Defenders this weekend. Both are games I am currently loving (well I always love X-wing). WE played one of the kickstarter missions with the two red agents in galaxy defenders. It was hard, but we finally won with 2 of our 4 agents bleeding and one just barely getting enough dice to finish off the target in time. Really loving that game.
Oh played some jamaica too. I also decided I need to sell a few games... not sure what the best way to go about doing so is but I need to make room for more games in the future and I have a fair number I don't play very often, I wouldn't mind the shelf space going to games I am more likely to play.

In other news I was excited to hear Star Trek Fleet Captains has an expansion on the way- the Dominion. DS9 is my favorite series in star trek so I am very happy about this. That game never hits the table often enough (or really almost ever) but when it does it is just so Star Trek I can't help but love it.

I visited my friendly local game store with the kids on Saturday, to find everything so packed all we bought were a Star Wars book for the youngest and some stickers. Instead of gaming, I assembled the Eclipse Box Organizer from The Broken Token and was able to consolidate everything back into the main box. The fit was snug, but it fit all of the expansions -- Pulsar, Rise of the Ancients and Ship Pack One. I highly recommend.

I met up with a guy I met on the BGG forums to play some games on Saturday. He is fairly new to the hobby and we have similar interests. Isg, I may have a new guy for hunting down Jack.

Legendary: We took down Red Skull with Emma Frost, Angel, Iron Man and Daredevil and somebody else as he tried to unlesch the power of the cosmic cube. I doubled his score with a nice discard combo that gained me 2-3 bystanders per turn at the end.

Android: Netrunner: I put together Shaper and Weyland starter decks. I played the corp so I could guide his runner. Game ended 7-4 in the corp's favor. He was very hesitant to make runs despite my encouragement, especially early on.

Sentinels of the Multiverse: We took on Plague Rat with Ex-Patriette and Omnitron-X and were obliterated. It looked like we had a chance until plague rat did 5 damage to O-X in one turn and he lost all of his many attachments. Plague Rat is a beast...

Glad to hear it. Now to get him roped into the DGM weekends.

So far it is looking good for 4/19. No soccer games. Hopefully no easter egg hunts after lunch. I told him about it and he was interested. So maybe.

So I’ve now played Galaxy Defenders 5 times, and it’s made me glad that I sold both Wrath of Ashardalon and Castle Ravenloft. Of the 12 mission in the box, I’ve only played 2, and am excited to play more. It does feel like X-Com: The Board Game. It also sort of reminds me of Level 7:Omega Protocol, but that game feels more claustrophobic, and is a clear homage to the Aliens movies, especially the first two.

My first reason I like it better than the D&D games is that the AI is smarter. For example, there’s one alien(Xeno-Beta) that wants to be two areas away from the good guys, and if he does, he rolls 3 attack dice twice, which is easily the nastiest thing to have happen in the first few scenarios. The AI for XB tries to set him up for this. It’s a good tactic for any of the good guys to rush into the same area as the XB, which causes the alien to flee when they activate, and not fire at all.

Secondly, the combat is better. While you can get significant bonuses to hit in the D&D games, the custom d10s that come with GD are great and very fair. They’re interesting in the fact that the number of defense dice rolled is equal to the hits that landed. It’s a great mechanic, and pretty quick to resolve.

The last thing I’ll mention is the campaign system. D&D missed the boat here, and the way that GD does a campaign is brilliant, with partial successes making the next mission different, and branching missions as well.

Stop that!

coopasonic wrote:Stop that!

I haven't played it (Galaxy Defenders) yet but when it came in it had the most lovely weight to it, filled with hours of promise. When lifting the lid it made that fart-sounding sigh, familiar yet beautiful to the ears, that all hefty boardgames make when you remove the lid. Punching out the counters of which there are many I let them slip between my fingers, their weight giving them a life of their own as I imagine putting them on the hex filled map which will be my canvas.

Game night tonight. Can't figure out what to play.

Truth or Dare? 7 Minutes in Heaven?

Last chance to catch hypothermia while playing cronkinole....

Zarathud wrote:Last chance to catch hypothermia while playing cronkinole....

You know, I still haven't gotten my GeekGold prize for that picture...

So ended up going with Star Trek Catan last night.

Back in the dark ages, when we were just getting into board gaming, my buddy Tommy got a copy of Settlers of Catan. At the time, we were really still very much into miniatures gaming, playing Warhammer almost every week. He brought out Catan and we gave it a go and we found it...well, it just didn't click with us. We played it maybe twice and then Tommy sold it off or traded it or something.

But after seeing STC on TableTop, I put it on my Amazon wish list and got it for christmas last year. Decided to break it out and give it a go. And I think we had a really good time with it. I think. I haven't polled Tommy and Stuart yet to see if this needs to be back shelved or not. Tommy jumped out to an early lead, but then resources just plain dried up for him about halfway through the game and he lost all of his traction. I jumped from last place to first place in a single move when I managed to connect my two trade routes together to get the longest route VPs, but Stuart ended up winning the game on the turn that I just got the resources to place a final outpost to win the game. So Stuart claimed the victory, with an asterisk.

The asterisk? I discovered about halfway through the game that we were playing one rule wrong (we were allowing folks to play discovery cards on the turn that they got them). I just let it slide, because it didn't seem to change the game that much. However, that rule being played wrong was how I lost the game (Stuart bought a discovery card, it was a Starfleet action card which he played immediately giving him 3 of those cards down and the 2 VPs that he needed to win.) But I didn't say anything, because I know we had all played at least one discovery card the turn we drew it, and it was just a learning game.

Visiting my Mom and Dad this weekend...I always take down a game or two (my brother in law likes playing boardgames). I believe it will be Robinson Crusoe...

Star Realms is my latest obsession, designed by the same team as Ascension. The art is bright and colorful, and the game takes only 30 minutes to play. Each deck, at 15$ MSRP, includes enough cards for 2 players.

It’s similar in many ways, but instead of fighting monsters from the center deck, players attack each other until one player remains, which makes it more like Magic. It also has 4 “factions”, and abilities trigger when you have more than one card of a type, much like the green faction in Ascension. The best part of the new core mechanics, in my opinion, is bases. These work similar to artifacts in Ascension, but some of them are “Outposts” which prevent opponents from damaging you while they’re in play.

There’s several very cool multiplayer game modes as well:

Free-for-All: All players can attack anyone. It’s chaotic.

Hunter: Each player can only attack to their left, but can attack bases on either side of them.

Hydra: Up to three teams of 2 share a hit-point pool, and can pool their money to buy cards for each of their respective decks. I *love* this mode so far.

Emperor: Similar to Magic, there are 6 players and 2 teams, and the central players are emperors, who may attack anyone.

Raid: One player plays the “Boss”, with more HP and a larger hand size.

There’s an iOS app coming up, and I can’t wait!

Coop got to teach the fiancee how to play Mage Wars, Flashpoint kicked out tails with a quickness, myself being the only one to actually evacuate anyone by dint of my extra move points, I tied for first in Viva Java, Jack finally won a game of Letters from Whitechapel, and we finished off the night with Glory to Rome.

How is Viva Java? I always end up lingering for a while by their booth at the conventions, but never got in a demo. The year I had an event slot reserved, hepcat dragged me out to the pub.

The fiancée didn't like it much, but I thought it was decent. The changing coop factor could make for some interesting dynamics, as you might have to work with someone that you were working against. Table talk with your partners can have a negative effect, as the others throw an investment chit on your next round to reap the same reward that you get from your hard work.


There's definitely some good strategery that can go into a match.

I hate Euros and I didn't totally hate VivaJava. Is that a compliment?

Note, if you are searching for it on the geek, there's no space.

Isgrimnur wrote:Jack finally won a game of Letters from Whitechapel

Regarding the game this weekend, from the rulebook:

note: on the second and subsequent nights of the game, Jack cannot place woman tokens on the red numbered circles occupied by red crime scene markers

So you were right.

coopasonic wrote:you were right.

My three favorite words.

Something we've been playing wrong:

note: Because the second crime scene of the third night counts as Jack’s first move that night, the detectives act first, with play starting from hunting phase 2, “police: hunting the monster.” the hunting then proceeds as normal.

Night 3 just got harder for Jack.

That makes things a bit harder.

Last night finished the last scenario in the Burnt Offerings adventure path for Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. It was almost anticlimactic, in that we had absolutely 0 problems in taking down this adventure. After a couple of thorough shuffles, we ended up turning over Henchmen in two locations on the first turn. We were able to handily defeat them, and then close the locations immediately. So after only 3 blessings burned, we had 2 out of the five locations closed. We pretty much cakewalked from there. Only downside from closing those locations so quickly was that we didn't get much in the way of good loot.

After that played a quick game of Eight Minute Empires, and I won pretty decisively thanks to the shuffle giving us only troop add cards for the last 3 turns of the game. Meant that the other guys weren't able to expand from their initial positions, and I ran away with it because I had expanded early.

Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs Xmen, basically a collectible Quarriors with a layer of Marvel painted on, was released yesterday except nobody can get it. WizKids may have underestimated demand.

I've been following the whole Marvel Dice Masters thing for a while now and plan on looking for it at retail -- allegedly you can find it in places like Target. Someone on Amazon is selling the booster boxes at cost $59.99 for a pack of 60, shipped.

Booster boxes are not in short supply, it's the starters that are the problem. The initial shipment apparently ended up only allocating 1-2 startes per target store and target decided to aggregate them to put more in the better performing Target stores, so good luck! OLGS and FLGS apparently got between 10 and 25% of their requested numbers. Target may not see more until about June as they appear to be sending the next run to game shops.

I ordered a starter set of of the Hastings website this morning. I wasn't going to get it, but it's probably something I can play with my son that he would enjoy. He likes dice rolling games.

coopasonic wrote:Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs Xmen, basically a collectible Quarriors with a layer of Marvel painted on, was released yesterday except nobody can get it. WizKids may have underestimated demand.

Oh... wow... that is a BRILLIANT idea! If I did not already have Quarriors and if I was still in high school, this might have replaced my MTG addiction.

Was Dragon Dice not around at that point?

Isgrimnur wrote:Was Dragon Dice not around at that point?

It likely was, but that was before shopping on "teh internets" and the only game/RPG store was around 2 hours away. You could at least get MTG cards in a wider variety of places.

Played Battle Lore 2.0 last night and thought it was pretty cool. I have no experience with the original so I can't comment as to how it compares, but this seemed pretty straight-forward. Oddly enough the first game ended in a complete tie when we both earned the same exact number of victory points. It happened because of the multiple ways to earn VPs and I'm guessing if I had a stronger army, I could have been more aggressive and earned an army-defeat victory instead. However, that's what was kind of cool - we both selected scenario cards that encouraged defensive positioning to earn VPs so it really wasn't in either of our best interest to play aggressively. It seems like there's good variability on the box set - not only for the army setups but the map generation as well. It's very clearly inspired by Memoir'44 so on that alone I'd recommend it.

Battlelore 2.0 still remains a favorite here. One small point though... it can't end in a tie. From page 7, at the start of the first players turn, you look to see if either player has at least 16 points AND more points than the other.

If both players are tied at 16+ points when you check for victory, you keep playing until someone has more points, but only at the start of the first players turn so each player has had an equal number of turns. My son and I have had a couple games where we've been tied at 16+ and had to play a few more turns until someone either jumped ahead or fell behind.

Alternatively you can win by eliminating all of the opposing team, which we've almost had a couple times. I suppose, with certain units/cards, it's possible you could have the sole remaining units in the game kill each other off in the same combat... that might be a tie.

Ahhh...it was our first time playing, so that explains the confusion. We knew about the "first player" rule - because after my buddy earned 16 points he wanted to stop immediately. At which point I reminded him he was the first player and I still had my turn. I then tied it up and we called it a tie when it was then his turn again. Still a pretty cool game and I can see it hitting the table rather frequently.

This evening, the wife and I played a lengthy game of Conquest of the Planet Earth. It took a while to resolve, primarily because we both played multiple cards that turned the opponent's most valuable locations into worthless smoking ruins. I pulled out the win in the end, and now have the planet firmly under my scaly thumb.

These were all played with 5 and all new to me.

Zombie Dice - Yup, it's a push your luck game.
Incan Gold - Hey, another push your luck game. At least this one has some more interesting mechanics.
Coup - Bluffing. I liked this one. I think I own it. I should see about playing it more. We played this one 3 times. First game I went late but fizzled. Second game I destroyed everyone with coups financed by Captain steals nobody ever called me on. Third game most of the others were after me with a vengeance. I managed 5 kills before they took me down. Hilariously started the game with 2 Contessas knowing everyone was gunning for me.

I really need to learn how to bluff. I am just not good at it.

Last night had friends over for Last Night on Earth. Four humans against the zombie horde. Humans started slow, but picked up steam. We were able to pull out the win with a few hours still to go. It helped that the zombies started off really slow. So by the time there were a significant number on the board, we had acquired some weapons.

Tonight the wife and I played a couple games of Ticket to Ride. It was a mostly one-sided contest. I believe she will hit me if I gloat, so I'll leave it at that.

coopasonic wrote:Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs Xmen, basically a collectible Quarriors with a layer of Marvel painted on, was released yesterday except nobody can get it. WizKids may have underestimated demand.

After 16 visits spread across 6 different Target stores over the past 5 days, I gave in and bought a copy off ebay (at a $23 premium). Sometimes I amuse myself by pretending I have self control. I probably spent close to $23 in gas driving to Targets over the past week. No, my car is not what you would call fuel efficient.