OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[Smoove_B]

So Legendary is good? I always overlooked it. How is it with 2-players?

I've played it with 2 and with four. I liked it because as mentioned it's semi-cooperative in nature. What I did notice was when we played the 4 player game the two people we were playing with had tournament level experience. They didn't cheat or anything but they seemed to know lots of tricks to really maximize their hands. Since I play 37 different games at any given time, I never really master a skill or winning technique for any of them so I don't know if they were good min/maxers or just had a system. Regardless, if the comic book theme is something you like I find it enjoyable. Plus, you can solo it.

[Smoove_B]

The one thing I like so much about this game compared to a lot of the other co-op games I have is that the "decision tree" is much bigger, and changes constantly due to events popping up. I have a lot of co-op games that every round is almost preordained because we all know the obvious strategy to take to succeed. While that element of luck may be frustrating to some, and definitely makes the game harder, I find it very rewarding since it forces everyone to really think about every single move vs following a rote strategy.

I think I've played four games of Robinson Crusoe, three of the first scenario (build the fire) and one dealing with the island fog. Three times it was two players, once it was three. We've won the fire building scenario every time but it's been very close. It might not look like a big thing, but my buddy (who is obsessed with the game) purchased little clay tokens for the food, wood, furs, etc... and then apparently made his own tokens for the other parts on the board:

Spoiler:

Normally I'm rather ambivalent with tokens vs cardboard chits or blocks, but these really do make a nice difference when you're playing. It really is a great game and I can't believe how many scenarios there are. I've said it before, but I feel like if the game came with only the fire-building scenario it would be a worthwhile investment. Given that there's a dozen or so? The replay value is insane.

[hentzau]

I do think the game is much better with 3 or 4 players. 2 seems too easy.

[Smoove_B]

It definitely changed things a bit with the 3rd player - in particular making sure we had enough food each night. That was absolutely easier when we had Friday.

[hentzau]

I was actually referring to Legendary, but sure.

[coopasonic]

I do think the game is much better with 3 or 4 players. 2 seems too easy.

RE: Legendary: With some of the expansions the game has been made more challenging even for lower player counts and, much like Sentinels, some combinations make the game much more difficult.

[hentzau]

I do think the game is much better with 3 or 4 players. 2 seems too easy.

RE: Legendary: With some of the expansions the game has been made more challenging even for lower player counts and, much like Sentinels, some combinations make the game much more difficult.

That's great to hear. I really like the base game, but I don't pull it out much, so I haven't gotten any of the expansions yet. Been very tempted by both the FF and Spider-Man expansions though.

[coopasonic]

Just watched the Dice Tower review of Villains. It is basically the exact same game (it comes with a play mat rather than a board, yay!) flipped on it's ear. It looks to introduce more screw your teammate to the game, sort of emphasizing the semi in semi-cooperative. I think that fits perfectly thematically. In base Legendary, if you don't buy or attack you can KO all the wounds form your hand. In Villains, you KO one Binding and give the rest to the villain to your right. There are cards that let you steal cards as well. Infighting will certainly increase the difficulty.

The best part, to me... actually screw your buddy is the best part, but the second best part to me is that it is all inter-playable. You can put stuff from both games together to give you even more variety. I have all the expansions for Legendary and it already has a lot of variety, this just takes it to the next level.

[YellowKing]

Wow, those Robinson Crusoe tokens are awesome. I think I'm going to take a crack at making my own set.

[SpaceLord]

For a similar game to Legendary, mechanically, I suggest ShadowRift. Besides the generic fantasy theme, I think SR is a better game. It's very cool how you can build up the town deck. It's also awesome how you can basically build a fighter, a rogue, or a wizard.

The game had a succesfull Kickstarter last year, which adds an expansion. I've been considering offering the designer/publisher to assist in a deluxe addition with more stuff.

[coopasonic]

you bastard

[SpaceLord]

you bastard

The BGG library has a copy. I'll show it to you then. The game's a bit rough around the edges, there's some rules ambiguities, and the art is muddy.

[Boudreaux]

So Legendary is good? I always overlooked it. How is it with 2-players?

Dissenting opinion: I find Legendary pretty forgettable. My kids have both Sentinels of the Multiverse + expansions and Legendary + expansions, so I've played both of them many times. I find Sentinels to be far more fun and satisfying. You have your deck that represents your character and their gear/abilities, and managing those within the framework of your character is really interesting.

Legendary feels like a regular deckbuilder but with a large dose of random luck thrown in. The various interactions between cards/heroes seem much more obtuse, and I'm not fond of only having 5 cards to choose from each turn. This is a lot like Ascension, which I enjoy, but in Legendary I seem to have a much larger number of turns where I can't do anything. Not enough recruit power to get a hero, not enough fight to defeat a villain, so I just waste a turn or recruit a SHIELD agent. Woo. Maybe I've just had extraordinarily bad luck, but I don't really care for it.

[coopasonic]

Legendary feels like a regular deckbuilder but with a large dose of random luck thrown in. The various interactions between cards/heroes seem much more obtuse, and I'm not fond of only having 5 cards to choose from each turn.

Maybe that's your problem, draw 6 next time.

[coopasonic]

Re: Shadowrift

you bastard

The BGG library has a copy. I'll show it to you then. The game's a bit rough around the edges, there's some rules ambiguities, and the art is muddy.

Just watched Rahdo's run through. Looks like it could be pretty tough, but I like the idea. Amusing (concerning) how many times he messed up the rules. I like the way the monster actions are handled and the way the monster power escalates. That's pretty cool.

[Boudreaux]

Legendary feels like a regular deckbuilder but with a large dose of random luck thrown in. The various interactions between cards/heroes seem much more obtuse, and I'm not fond of only having 5 cards to choose from each turn.

Maybe that's your problem, draw 6 next time.

Ha! 5, 6, whatever. I was going off of memory. Either way, I'm used to seeing a row of cards I can't afford or already have too many of.

[Smoove_B]

I looked for a discussion here about Golem Arcana, but apparently I'm mis-remembering a discussion or it was lost in the July 2013 OOutage? Anyway, I was able to play a demo of the game yesterday. The models are top notch and after an initial 15 minutes of getting used to the technology, the game play is real slick. My biggest issue was that we were playing on an Android tablet phone (I think) and it was nearly impossible to read. I can't even imagine what this would be like on an iPhone, but it seemed like something that would be fantastic on an iPad or something similarly sized. It also just feels weird to not roll any dice or check info on cards or with a ruler. It's almost like the computer is playing the game and we're just moving the pieces around on the board for it.

That being said, having the rules instantly tell you where you can move, where your attack will reach and whether or not you have line of sight was awesome. It really plays rather fast once you understand the system. What is interesting is that the figures are all fixed in their stats, however each has a tiny little rider and those figures can change and provide some type of variable bonus to the creature they are riding. That's how you get variety in each match - so you might be playing with the same 6 creatures but each has a pool of 10 (not sure on number) riders that you can pick before the match to best compliment your strategy. They modify movement, range and cool down for attacks (from what I saw).

The guy running the demo told us the stylus eats batteries but other than that, the software (through all his demos) seems solid. I honestly haven't been following anything about it since the Kickstarter launched but it certainly looks solid. How well it will be accepted by the community I have no idea.

[Smoove_B]

Played a game of Kingsburg and Pathfinder Munchkin yesterday. When I sat down at the table I noticed a woman was wearing a Munchkin T-shirt and while the game was being set up she commented to the guy running the game she was to be given two extra cards because of the autographed T-Shirt she was wearing. I instantly knew then we were in for a fantastic 2 hour block. I'm ok with Munchkin in small doses and the general opinion of Pathfinder Munchkin was that it's more of the same but that the character classes and factions are very powerful in comparison to other Munchkin variants.

I never played Kingsburg before, but I've seen it mentioned. I liked it enough to consider a purchase. It's not heavy and it's seemingly easy to understand. Maybe this is a good gateway game for non-gamers? Anyway, I'd definitely recommend it.

[YellowKing]

I don't have any pictures, but I wound up making my own token set for Robinson Crusoe. I modeled them after the ones for sale online - they turned out great and held up very well during our gaming session.

Also, we beat the first scenario (Castaways). It was probably the most brilliantly played session of any co-op game I've ever played. We did get lucky with some Event cards, but we were firing on all cylinders in terms of teamwork and getting things done. By Round 6 we already had a Level 3 roof and half our bonfire built. We maxed the roof and with weather no longer a concern, we easily won in Round 10. It was a thing of beauty.

We then moved on to scenario 2 (Cursed Island) and destroyed it. We got lucky and pulled a Hatchet from the Adventure deck in the first round, which gave us a guaranteed 2 wood per round. After that it was elementary to just throw up crosses at every opportunity. Another easy win.

Scenario 3 (Jenny's in Trouble!) was much more interesting. We got off to a slow start and started taking wounds right and left through a series of unfortunate events. We did manage to build a raft and save Jenny, but we were too battered and beaten to get off the island. We finally succumbed to wild animals.

Very much looking forward to the other scenarios. They COMPLETELY change the dynamic and strategy of the game, so every new scenario you're basically have to start from scratch learning the best way to play. Tons of fun.

[Chaosraven]

I instantly knew then we were in for a fantastic 2 hour block. I'm ok with Munchkin in small doses and the general opinion of Pathfinder Munchkin was that it's more of the same but that the character classes and factions are very powerful in comparison to other Munchkin variants.

PM me your address and I'll send you some promo munchkin stuff to use.

[Chaosraven]

Got TALISMAN on Steam and have become readdicted to this game. (I sold the Dragons expansion from the original, but kept the City and Timescape to use with the FFG version). My son loves to go out and play the Tabletop with friends, if we have the whole day.

WARNING: the Expansions and stuff to addon are piecemeal purchases.

[Smoove_B]

Played Terra Mystica yesterday and I need to ask - are you Eurogamers out of your minds? I felt like I should have been given AP credits after we finished. Took 3rd (out of 5) and I have no idea how or why. Not a single random event in the ~3 hour game. I think that was my first true Eurogame and I can say without question that's not at all what I like. Elements from it? Sure. But 100% strategy? No way.

[Chaz]

Welcome, my Ameritrash brother!

I haven't played Terra Mystica, but it's definitely in the realm of euros I don't enjoy a bunch. They're not all like that though. Thebes, for example, walks the line, and is about archaeologists digging for artifacts. It combines the euro bits of "careful planning" with some luck elements that are hilarious. You might plan really carefully for a giant expedition to dig up a ton of stuff at a particular site, only to pull a whole bunch of blank tokens from the bag and come up totally empty. Your wife, meanwhile, always manages to pull two tokens and get the two highest values ones in there, every single time.

[hentzau]

Played another game of Concept last night with the family. Wasn't nearly as fun as the first time. My 11 year old was delighting in choosing the hardest clue he could find and then taking great glee when none of us could figure it out.

[Smoove_B]

I haven't played Terra Mystica, but it's definitely in the realm of euros I don't enjoy a bunch. They're not all like that though. Thebes, for example, walks the line, and is about archaeologists digging for artifacts. It combines the euro bits of "careful planning" with some luck elements that are hilarious. You might plan really carefully for a giant expedition to dig up a ton of stuff at a particular site, only to pull a whole bunch of blank tokens from the bag and come up totally empty. Your wife, meanwhile, always manages to pull two tokens and get the two highest values ones in there, every single time.

We had a GM and it took him a good 30 minutes to explain the basics, and then another 10 minutes to get us all set up for the first turn. I don't even know how you design a game with that many options much less play test it for balance. It's absurdly complicated. Clearly there's a market for it, but I'm definitely not in it. At this point, I am at least thankful I have a way to gauge future unknown games. Thebes sounds like it could be a nice mix. Kingsburg (which we played again with the expansion) is about as much as my brain can handle (I think).

[Smoove_B]

I forgot to mention, we also met with the designers and watched a demo of Secrets of the Lost Tomb, a game I remember hearing about here but can't seem to find anymore. Thematically, it's off the charts - it really seems to flow like a dungeon crawl with the cards playing the role of the DM. I don't have any playing experience with the games, but people were saying it's a combination of Betrayal at House on the Hill and Arkham Horror. I could see elements (the cards in particular) of Eldritch Horror in this game, so perhaps that's a bit of a reference point for me.

What was strange is that the game (I thought) was originally due out in May, but at some point slipped to the end of August. They were taking pre-orders on their website after a successful Kickstarter. What's weird is that yesterday they were playing with a mock copy - not even something like a print proof or something that looked like it was a unit submitted to them for approval. It was just a plain white box with all the tiles and pieces - a very high quality mockup, but absolutely not a production copy. The pictures on the BGG site are exactly what they were playing. Anyway, while we were there they told us that there's another Kickstarter launching on 7/19 for miniatures related to the game. It just seemed strange given the base game wasn't out yet. It definitely looked good, I'm just getting a weird vibe. Or maybe I'm just trying to talk myself out of buying it.

[Zarathud]

Kingsburg is good and becomes a great game with the expansion. IMO Alien Frontiers is similar but a more elegant and bit tighter in its play. If you like Kingsburg, definitely try Alien Frontiers.

Terra Mystica is beautifully crunchy eurogame. There is balance in its how its lack of symmetry almost forces players to dance around each other.

You should be able to explain in 15 minutes, then jump in for a quick game. After you get a feel for the dynamics, you play again to actually get into the strategy. For a Eurogame, it plays rather quickly once you get the hang of turns. I have only put this on the table 3 times but players usually want more.

[TheMix]

On Friday Tao came over and we tackled a couple of the scenarios from the first Pathfinder adventure. No issues. Sailed through. Three characters - sorceress, bard, warrior.

Then we ran a 2 person Mage Knight. Just the intro so that Tao could get a feel for it. Pretty easy win. First turn of the Night round. So we had lots of time to go.

Yesterday ran the wife through Mage Knight's tutorial as well. Again, easy win. We could have wrapped it up during the night, but we kept playing to get some more feel for the game.

Next up will be to tackle the harder scenarios. (And attempting to keep the table cleared for gaming - which is probably the most difficult game.)

[coopasonic]

I don't even know how you design a game with that many options much less play test it for balance.

That's the beauty of no randomness. You can balance it with a spreadsheet!

[Isgrimnur]

I lost a couple games of Nightfall to the fiancée over the weekend.

[coopasonic]

Finally played a couple games of Friday.

Do people actually win that game? On my second game I was about 6 hazards shy of getting through Red and would have had no chance with the pirates. That was a huge improvement over losing on my first hazard in yellow in the first game.

[Zarathud]

I lost a couple games of Nightfall to the fiancée over the weekend.

Wow, that's some woman! Were you by any chance inebriated or otherwise impaired?

[Chaz]

I finally got my wife and mother in law on board with Flash Point. About a year ago, I tried the family rules with them, and they didn't seem to like it for some reason. Yesterday, we tried it again, and this time it clicked. We played two games in a row, winning both. I definitely want to get the full version of the rules going for next game.

[Isgrimnur]

I lost a couple games of Nightfall to the fiancée over the weekend.

Wow, that's some woman! Were you by any chance inebriated or otherwise impaired?

I was not. I definitely have a losing record against her.

[Boudreaux]

I haven't played Terra Mystica, but it's definitely in the realm of euros I don't enjoy a bunch. They're not all like that though. Thebes, for example, walks the line, and is about archaeologists digging for artifacts. It combines the euro bits of "careful planning" with some luck elements that are hilarious. You might plan really carefully for a giant expedition to dig up a ton of stuff at a particular site, only to pull a whole bunch of blank tokens from the bag and come up totally empty. Your wife, meanwhile, always manages to pull two tokens and get the two highest values ones in there, every single time.

Yes, my wife does exactly that. It's uncanny.

I love Thebes, but I have horrible luck drawing tiles from the bags. Horrible.

[paulbaxter]

Taught some new folks to play King of Tokyo on the 4th. The grown up I taught had a blast. The two kids (ten and eleven) just wanted to show each other crap on their phones the whole time. My own boys loved it at least. And I finally broke the curse and won a game as Cyber Bunny.

Also played a game of Pandemic with my boys yesterday. We lost, but really had a good time trying to work together on it.

[hentzau]

Got in a great game of Robinson Crusoe last night. It was my 3rd game, my first with 3 people, and we went after the Castaways scenario again.

The first time I played Castaways, I played it solo and lost on the very last turn where a really bad weather roll wiped out my remaining wood reserve and I didn't have enough wood to put in my bonfire. That was discouraging.

The second time I played Castaways, I played it with two players and we got our asses handed to us. We couldn't get a good food engine built, we were struggling with injuries and morale, and we lost one of the characters to injuries by the 7th turn. It was so bad, it was comical.

Last night, we kicked the game's ass. I think we just had a great set of inventions to get us through the rough spots. We got the Pit by turn 4, and that was really helpful in reducing our need to gather food, so we could concentrate on building out the other things we needed to survive. Sure, we had a few other setbacks, but nothing we couldn't recover from pretty handily. We managed to build the mast on turn 10, so that on turn 11 we could put the last of the wood on the woodpile and get the hell off of that island.

We all had a great time with the game, I think it's time to try the next scenario.

[Chaz]

I gave my wife my birthday list, and told her I'm most interested in either Crusoe or Fire in the Lake. I'm really torn about which one I want most. Crusoe would probably get played now, but I'm more likely to be able to convince myself to buy it (I usually like getting things as gifts that I wouldn't necessarily buy myself). Fire in the Lake would get played a lot less, but the solo and Vassal options are interesting, and it's more likely to be out of print for a while (like A Distant Plain is right now).

I'm so torn, I want them both for different reasons!

[Chaosraven]

Played Tabletop TALISMAN yesterday, with the Firelands expansion (one of a pair we have had but haven't tried).

Firelands is pretty neat, with the possibility of changing the Terrain spaces (Ha ha, I turned your Chapel into a second Graveyard), Fireland tokens (lose a life at the end of the turn... Ha ha your Chapel is on fire, so it you heal for free, you lose a life for being there afterwards), four new characters (my son loves the Dervish), and lots of nifty new cards.

The hidden ending had us setting the board on fire, as at the start of your turn you place a Fireland token on your space. In that ending it isn't limited to ONE, either so many spaces became deathtraps with three fire on them. It also limited us to the Outer and Middle regions, removing the Dungeon, City, and Highlands. Last man standing wins.

My son pulled the win off after the event turned it to Day and he cast a spell he had been saving that Gained him 2 life, with an ADDED 2 in Daytime. Putting him to six lives while we were down to two apiece.

[Chaz]

The hidden ending had us setting the board on fire,

Man, Talisman: Legacy is not kidding around about making permanent changes to the game.