Octopus Overlords

Chaz wrote:I keep hearing fantastic stuff about Thunder Alley.

Just read an overview of the gameplay and that definitely looks interesting. Need to watch some gameplay.

Nine hours later, and I have a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse (we won), two games/one match of Memoir '44 (I won by one victory point), and four games of X-Wing (won some, lost some) under my belt.

Boy are my arms tired. That and my brain is fuzzy. Whee!

Blackhawk wrote:Nine hours later, and I have a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse (we won), two games/one match of Memoir '44 (I won by one victory point), and four games of X-Wing (won some, lost some) under my belt.

Boy are my arms tired. That and my brain is fuzzy. Whee!

Sounds like a damn good day to me.

I spent about 5 hours helping my kid create a halfway decent science project.

Got Survive: Escape from Atlantis on Saturday and immediately played a game with X(8). He liked it (he won) and I definitely see why the manual suggests each team using two players survivors in a 2 player game. We cleared off the island in no time.

Played a few more games of Robot Turtles. X(8) can lay out his cards start to finish with no trouble. I showed him how the frog/subroutine card works. Z(5) just wants to play the wrong card so he can shout BUG! all the time.

Played Hey That's My Fish! with Z(5) and annihilated him. He wasn't amused.

Yeah, it was games with kids weekend.

It's BGG month. The DGM fest starts in less than two weeks. You will get your fill before the month is out.

I wonder if I can get away for some DGM. I suspect heading into 4 days of play all day, I won't get free for DGM the weekend prior.

I have Darkest Night set up on the table...and I ordered the 3rd expansion for it...That is what I am playing lately...

I tried for the second time this weekend to teach my kids Dungeon Roll. It has dice. And dragons. And they both walked off, declaring the dice rolls "boring." Sigh.

Zarathud wrote:I tried for the second time this weekend to teach my kids Dungeon Roll. It has dice. And dragons. And they both walked off, declaring the dice rolls "boring." Sigh.

The kids are right.

Decided to revisit Robinson Crusoe last night.

Robinson Crusoe decided it wasn't in the mood for visitors.

hentzau wrote:Decided to revisit Robinson Crusoe last night.

Robinson Crusoe decided it wasn't in the mood for visitors.

Robinson would love some visitors, it's the damn island that's keeps whisper-screaming "GET OUT!"

coopasonic wrote:

Zarathud wrote:I tried for the second time this weekend to teach my kids Dungeon Roll. It has dice. And dragons. And they both walked off, declaring the dice rolls "boring." Sigh.

The kids are right.

Yup. I was disappointed with that kickstarter to say the least.

I enjoyed Dungeon Roll for what it was...a simple, 15 minute time filler.

I also got on board the Dungeon Dice kickstarter, and have a great big bag filled with dice...that I've never been able to figure out how to play.

Chrisoc13 wrote:

coopasonic wrote: The kids are right.

Yup. I was disappointed with that kickstarter to say the least.

I think the kids and I played it twice after we received it from the Kickstarter. It seems to be at its best when it is holding the shelf down.

Just played through (and won) my first game of UpFront using the updated fan decks my buddy helped finish over on BGG. I can see why it's a popular game - it's a bit overwhelming at first, but the rules make sense with how you play cards and move around. Actually made me a bit angrier over the whole KickStarter failure, but I'm glad that this fan project was updated and at least people can now order these custom decks and play the game. We played the very first scenario with just basic rules. I'm definitely looking forward to more games, though I don't know that I need to add mortar teams, tanks or flamethrowers. It can apparently get pretty ridiculous with all the rules and units, but I guess if it all flows like the basic game we played, it will all make sense eventually.

Got in a great game of of Sergeants Miniatures Game on Saturday. It was allies trying to take out a German machine gun nest. I was playing the Germans, and for the first time saw a decisive German victory. I credit the victory to the leadership of Gefreiter Hentzau and his deadly accuracy. (And yes, we actually have a character named Hentzau. Lost Battalion can create custom officers now.)

Finally played Caverna.

What a vast improvement over Agricola. About the only complaint was that you had a bit more personalized strategy in Agricola with the cards you got, but that also meant you were also a bit more limited.

And even then, the person complaining liked the game by the end, after he figured out that there were actually more ways to get a food mill running.

Although, it didn't help that I got confused and didn't set out an entire board worth of placement spaces, limiting what could be done even more.

FIVE DAYS UNTIL BGG.CON!

On Wednesday, I am playing an "epic" four player game of Arcadia Quest. We are playing the entire Nameless Campaign from start to finish in one sitting (6-7 hours).
On Thursday, I have the Virtual Flea Market Meetup where I am unloading another thousand dollars worth of ill advised purchases.
On Friday, I am meeting up with a bunch of guys to play Mage Wars (sorry Izzy - we are meeting at noon, you probably won't be up yet) for at least a couple games.
On Saturday, I am attending an amateur painting workshop, so I can finally get over my fear of painting minis.

CGE will be on site with their revamped Tash-Kalar for sale along with the Everfrost expansion.

I am hoping to get a crack at Kanban, the hot new Euro from Stronghold released at Essen. I am hoping the car manufacturer theme makes it the Euro for Coop. Rahdo and Metzler both love it.

In between all of that I will be playing all the games! I don't really have anything else specific planned but lots of open gaming. Wee!

Turtle wrote:Finally played Caverna.

What a vast improvement over Agricola. About the only complaint was that you had a bit more personalized strategy in Agricola with the cards you got, but that also meant you were also a bit more limited.

And even then, the person complaining liked the game by the end, after he figured out that there were actually more ways to get a food mill running.

Although, it didn't help that I got confused and didn't set out an entire board worth of placement spaces, limiting what could be done even more.

I very much love Caverna, and feel it really "corrects" what Agricola got wrong. It is a little jarring when you realize that there is very little random about the game (since the card draws are gone) and that does lead to a little be of "pick the winning strategy and always pick that strategy" syndrome. So what I do is not only try to beat my opponent (almost always my wife), but also try to beat my previous scores. That way I vary my strategies and try new things.

Coop, have you played Arcadia Quest before? I am really loving it and my wife actually seems to enjoy it a ton (which is a bit surprising). It works well with 2, but I bet 4-player will be a riot. It is light-hearted, but still strategic enough to scratch that sort of itch. Also, the card synergy is a very cool part of the game and it almost reminds me of building winning MTG card combos. Right now I have an AQ character in my guild who has Armor, a Sword, and a Parrying blade that give him around 8 defense die and one reroll, and I have matched that with an amulet where he does damage to his attacker for every damage he nullifies! The perfect tank! I love that sort of stuff and AQ lets you become OP quite easily (and then matches your OP combos with increasingly brutal monsters).

15 hours running/playing games for International Games Day at a local library. 40+ participants. Brilliant day!

(photos here on the facebook if anyone is interested)

baelthazar wrote:Coop, have you played Arcadia Quest before?

I have played through the base campaign with my 8 year old. We had a lot of fun with it.

freelunch wrote:15 hours running/playing games for International Games Day at a local library. 40+ participants. Brilliant day!

(photos here on the facebook if anyone is interested)

Some great games there! I really need to do that at OctoCon sometime...take pictures of all of the games in progress. But I get too busy playing to document!

(Jealous of the copy of Tumblin' Dice. Really want to get that someday.)

Thanks

I spent more time teaching than actually playing, so it wasn't hard to grab snaps of games as I notoced them being played. I know I missed a few though.

Tumblin' Dice is my go-to game for public events - I like to set it up near the door so I have something quick to show people if I can't spend time with them right away.

Played a game of Machi Koro with the family last night. Highlight of the game was when my son was gloating over his large pile of money to his sister, and his sister responded with "Shut it, Scrooge McButtcheek."

Played Pandemic with the boys last night. We won by the skin of our teeth. Played another round today with them and a friend, and we got our asses kicked. Three diseases cured before we ran out of player cards.

We played a game of Legend of Drizzt before that, and won fairly handily, although we did underestimate Artemis Entreri at the end and burned a lot of big cards to make up for it.

My friend and I followed those two up with a match (two games) of Memoir '44, scenario 2 (Sainte-Mère-Église.) I lost both matches. Ick.

Finally we ran a match of Star Wars: X-Wing. This was our second time playing it (but our fifth match.) This time we picked our squads on the spot and mixed in some of the other ships - the Firespray, B-Wing, A-Wing, and an Interceptor. The B-Wing didn't do much of anything except absorb damage. I think it only got one shot off the entire game. In any case, a lucky maneuver early on game me a decided advantage, and I ended up taking out his fleet without losing a ship.

Got to play Thunder Alley, which might serve as a Formula D replacement for coop, then my first game of Smash Up. My Steampunk Zombies were no match for the Bear/gorilla (?) army.

Isgrimnur wrote:Got to play Thunder Alley, which might serve as a Formula D replacement for coop

Thoughts on Thunder Alley? I haven't played it yet, but I like the look of it, though I think the mechanics may be rough on the kiddo.

The mechanics are a bit crunchy to start, and might take a bit to get down, but the team mechanic joined with the pack movement would help eliminate some of the frustration of being stuck way in the back.

There's all of four types of movement cards. Solo, push what's in front of you, pull what's behind you, or move everything in your line. Lane changes and pushing up through a line add a bit of complexity, and you can certainly take away the event deck and damage tokens to get an easier start to the game.

Picked up a bunch of new games on Friday, and played some over the weekend:

Sheriff of Nottingham - I can't remember why I wanted this one, but it's been on my list for months and the preorders finally came in on Friday. Tried a game Saturday with my whole family, and it was pretty fun. Even my 5-year-old was able to play and put one over on us a few times, which was pretty hilarious. The cloth bags for holding cards are nice but I give it maybe 2-3 more plays before one of them rips.

Black Fleet - very pleasantly surprised by this one, it's a perfect hour-long family game with a great mix of card play, take-that actions, interesting decisions, and variable player powers. Only downside was that the coins are real metal, which my kids can't stop playing with. Game ended extremely tightly - the object is to buy all five development cards that are face down in front of you. My son and I both bought our 5th card to end the game, I had one single coin left to his empty bank. My wife was 1 coin short of buying her 5th card, so really we were all essentially one coin apart. Looking forward to playing this one again soon.

Firefly: Blue Sun - we have a game set up in the basement with all of the expansions so far - Breakin Atmo, Pirates/Hunters, and now Blue Sun. It has the most obvious changes, a new board, several new decks and new rules for the Reavers. I like that last change the most - there are now 3 Reaver cutters on the board, they're much more active and (it appears) much more dangerous. Hopefully that doesn't translate into longer games as people lose/replace crew, but it's definitely more interesting. Up to now, I thought the Reavers were kind of throwaway, now they're huge. We're only a few turns in, so final verdict is up in the air.

Also picked up the Clash of Cultures: Civilizations expansion, but haven't cracked the shrink on that one yet.

Played another game of Zombicide with X(8). The deck we play with (the basic setup) has 4 spawn cards that can spawn an abomination. 1 at each threat level. We get one on blue or yellow every... damn... time. The worst thing is the abomination isn't even particularly dangerous. He just gets in the way. I really need to check if there is any gasoline in the search deck.

Played some Shadow of Brimstone with OOers as detailed here.

Like the game a heck of a lot.

Managed to pull the wife away from WoW on Saturday night for a bit. Had a friend come over for the evening.

Started with a game of Castle Very-Non-Chalant-Oh-Would-You-Like-Sugar-In-Your-Tea. Followed that with a game of Castle Oh-Dear-The-Neighborhood-Seems-To-Be-Declining-Don't-You-Think.

I think in the first game we finished with only one wall missing. The second one we did lose two towers, but that was just due to my wife and friend both mistaking the boulder rolling for bowling...

Then we played a game of Last Night on Earth. It was my friend's first time playing, but we decided to finally tackle a different scenario (we've played the beginning one several times). So we tried the one to get the gas and keys and skeedaddle. My friend played the zombies. And proceeded to brutalize us. He had 10+ zombies on the board almost the entire game (I think one turn he started with only about 8 zombies). And then he proceeded to roll 5s and 6s on almost every fight. We had one brief window when I got the gas and keys on one turn. We made a break for the truck, but there were simply too many zombies. When gilraen lost both her heroes on the same turn (after losing one a couple turns earlier), we through in the towel... Both my heroes were at max wounds, there were three zombies in the square, we realized that one of her heroes was actually going to have to come back as a zombie hero (making 4 zombies in the square), and since the only heroes that she could spawn would be females - allowing him to use the Last Night on Earth card to cause 2 characters to lose turns, we conceded...

It was definitely humbling.

Die Zombies, Die! is anti-thematic, imo. The zombie player gets down about 2/3rds of the way and starts seeing themselves as prey rather than the attacker.

Isgrimnur wrote:Die Zombies, Die! is anti-thematic, imo. The zombie player gets down about 2/3rds of the way and starts seeing themselves as prey rather than the attacker.

I haven't tried that one. But one thing that I like about Last Night on Earth is the infinite zombie spawning (well, obviously not with the first scenario where it can actually be beneficial to not spawn zombies).

I’ve been working a lot lately, but I am taking precious vacation days for BGG.CON.

Coop, do you wanna play a game of Mage Wars, like last year?

The games I’m looking forward to are:

Kanban
Alchemists
Deus
Terra Mystica expansion
Zhanguo
Arkwright
Temporum
Aquasphere

Coop, if you want, I can teach you my favorite solo board game: Mage Knight. I’m 80% sure you’ll really like it. It’s the best solo game I’ve ever played, by a long shot.

I’d also like to get together with you and Isg(are you going?) for:

Kemet
Impulse
Netrunner(although I’m several sets behind in my deck-building)

I’m stoked!

I will be there Thursday - Saturday.

I still have the base NetRunner set. I'm sure you can convince either coop or myself to oppose you with your decks. He's selling off his stock, apparently. Also, we can introduce you to Stern, a local DGM attendee who is heavily into NetRunner.

SpaceLord wrote:I’ve been working a lot lately, but I am taking precious vacation days for BGG.CON.

Coop, do you wanna play a game of Mage Wars, like last year?

The games I’m looking forward to are:

Kanban
Alchemists
Deus
Terra Mystica expansion
Zhanguo
Arkwright
Temporum
Aquasphere

Coop, if you want, I can teach you my favorite solo board game: Mage Knight. I’m 80% sure you’ll really like it. It’s the best solo game I’ve ever played, by a long shot.

I’d also like to get together with you and Isg(are you going?) for:

Kemet
Impulse
Netrunner(although I’m several sets behind in my deck-building)

I’m stoked!

I am in for Mage Wars. I will have my set with me, so just bring a spell book. There is a small group meeting up to play Mage Wars Friday at Noon, probably near the Arcane Wonders area in demoland if we can find space.

This may be hard to believe, but I am actually interested in playing both Kanban and Alchemists. Kanban's theme seems like it might work for me and the deduction element of alchemists has me curious.

As Isgrimnur said, I've sold all my Netrunner stuff in the VFM. I am not really equipped for that anymore. Mage Wars is way better anyway. On a kind of similar note have you tried any Dice Masters?

Other things I would like to play, off the top of my head:
Thunder Alley
Jamaica
Tash-Kalar (planning on getting the new edition and expansion from CGE at the con)

Mage Knight was the first game I played at my first BGG.CON. I hated it. I think that is because I didn't understand it. Knowing what I know now, I think I am ready to give it another try. I have watched some of Ricky Royal's videos.

Wednesday I am playing a full Arcadia Quest campaign with 4 players, 6 games, 6 -7 hours. Other than that and the Mage Wars thing for a bit Friday, I am wide open.

Doesn't look like Thunder Alley is in the BGG library as of yet. I see CSI has it.

Isgrimnur wrote:Doesn't look like Thunder Alley is in the BGG library as of yet. I see CSI has it.

You are looking at the old Library user. They finally changed it so you can find it without inside knowledge.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection ... %20Library

Sweet. It's there. Since I've played it to a 2nd place finish, I can take the onus to actually read the rules and host a game.