Octopus Overlords

Played Munchkin Treasure Hunt with the kids. It's an introduction to Ameritrash at its best -- Roll the dice to move, usually get to Treasure or a Monster to Fight. Grab loot if you win, run away if you lose. The game ends (what a concept!) when you run out of loot cards. Very cute cards from Kovalic that are very kid-friendly. We'll definitely play again.

My youngest ended up with a ton of treasure by fighting the dragon as often as possible, but she burned through all her good treasures doing so. That let my oldest sneak in the win by 2 gold slowly accumulating treasure in the moderately difficult fights. Best of all, it let me play to lose without looking like it -- choosing 1 free treasure instead of a fight will not let you keep up in the end.

Tragically, the church where we play our monthly game day had something going on until 3PM, so game day got a late start this month.

Got to try Dungeon Lords for the first time (I've seen people playing it there, not sure what it was). It was very fun! I lost (last in 3 player game, though I did manage to end with a positive score). Learned enough I think I could do a little better next time. Definitely hope to play this one again.

Game of Pandemic w/ a new player. We won - 2 outbreaks away from losing. Mildly intense, but the new guy felt some tension. Pandemic's OK, I enjoyed the Cure (the dice version) much better (even though I have never lost Pandemic, and have never won the Cure).

Tried Forbidden Desert: Thirst for Survival. 2 player, first time for both of us. We won, about 2 turns before we would have run out of cards and have lost. It was OK, something about that just doesn't really excite me though.

Finally, after three years of owning the game but not playing it, I got a chance to figure out and play Mansions of Madness. Unfortunately I tried it with two players and didn't have the other player use multiple investigators. So he ended up getting totally pwned. In fact, without a tremendous amount of luck, I don't know how one investigator would be able to beat it.

The good news is we both really liked the game and plan on trying it again when we can get more people.

After that we played a round of Love Letter, which I had picked up on the cheap over Christmas. We were both HIGHLY skeptical, but wound up really enjoying it. It plays super fast with two people, and I think more would have been better, so it's another one we'll probably shelve until we get a bigger group. However, we were both pleasantly surprised.

YellowKing wrote:
After that we played a round of Love Letter, which I had picked up on the cheap over Christmas. We were both HIGHLY skeptical, but wound up really enjoying it. It plays super fast with two people, and I think more would have been better, so it's another one we'll probably shelve until we get a bigger group. However, we were both pleasantly surprised.

Love Letter is pretty boring with only 2 folks, but with 4 it really shines. Quick and easy to explain. A lunchtime favorite.

YellowKing wrote:Finally, after three years of owning the game but not playing it, I got a chance to figure out and play Mansions of Madness. Unfortunately I tried it with two players and didn't have the other player use multiple investigators. So he ended up getting totally pwned. In fact, without a tremendous amount of luck, I don't know how one investigator would be able to beat it.

The good news is we both really liked the game and plan on trying it again when we can get more people.

Pretty sure the rules explicitly say that if you play with only two people that the investigator needs to use two characters. Also, your threat is supposed to scale with the number of players, so if he used only one, you should have only generated 1 threat a turn anyways.

It's a fun game though, I highly recommend it with a full group. For maximum enjoyment you may want to look up the scenarios on Board Game Geek prior to playing, some have issues. For example, if you accidentally pick a particular variant of Green Eye Boy, your investigators will hate you.

Yikes, a solo MoM experience! I was also under the impression that the cards are geared for at least 2 investigators (but I could be thinking about Descent: 2nd Ed, which I know has a minimum of 2 PCs, just like Imperial Assault).

I played the copy of Harbour that I received from the Tasty Minstrel KS. My wife and I were... well, sort of confused and mystified. Hopefully it will get more logical and easier to understand with subsequent plays but I doubt it will be a favorite on the table. Oh well, the buy in was fairly low.

hepcat wrote:Just a quick heads up that Tabletop Simulator is on sale on Bundle Star for 10 bucks until Feb. 2nd. It activates on Steam and has full workshop integration.

I picked it up during the last holiday sale and have been amazed at the community support. There are hundreds of great board game conversions available in the workshop. I've been messing with Twilight Struggle this evening and am about to try to convince Seppe or Zarathud to play a game with me online.

I just grabbed this, subscribed to a bunch of games on the workshop, and noodled around with it a bit. So far, it looks good. Seems like there'll be a bit of a learning curve with all the various command options. I still haven't figured out if there's a way to change the table that the game is played on without causing havok. With the custom games, it always seems like the new table is too small, and all the pieces go everywhere.

I was also confused by the initial VP tokens on the Lords of Waterdeep I got. The stacks of 3 VP tokens for each round look like they start set up on the board, but I couldn't grab them to distribute to the available buildings. I suspect I'm missing something there. But yeah, the game itself looks like it definitely has potential.

I also grabbed it. And convinced a friend in the Twin Cities to get it also. We played a game of Castle Panic. Took a little bit longer than playing with the physical copy. But not that much longer. I started with that one because it is a lot simpler. Not very many components.

You could try changing the table at the beginning and then doing a Reset. Maybe that would help. Or it might reset the table too. Not sure.

Our biggest problem was dice rolling. I actually grabbed a simple dice tower and figured out how to import it. But it's still not ideal. Then I did the tutorial and learned that you can "shake" the dice by moving the mouse back and forth.

I dabbled with a few others, playing with the setup. I can see that for some the hardest part is going to be the initial setup. At least if you are a perfectionist. Took a while to get the boards for Last Night on Earth to line up like I wanted. Something like Shadows of Brimstone is going to be a real pain.

Still, we had a lot of fun, and managed to get a game completed. So that was pretty cool.

Just wanted to chime in and say Love Letter is great for a quick, fun game... but I'd never play with just 2. I eventually picked up a 2nd set as there's a good variant that plays with up to 6.

Personally, I think Lost Legacy does everything Love Letter does better. Especially when you get multiple sets of the LL cards.

SpaceLord wrote:Personally, I think Lost Legacy does everything Love Letter does better. Especially when you get multiple sets of the LL cards.

I'm there as well. I recently picked up Lost Legacy and while I still really enjoy Love Letter, Lost Legacy is more intriguing. If I am playing with non-gamers, I pull out Love Letter, but if I am playing with gamers, Lost Legacy is just more interesting. Lots more things to do and keep track of. I keep both current games mixed together (with one legacy of course).

But Love Letters is still great, I will play with 3 or 4 players, but rarely 2.

This weekend besides X-wing we played a bunch of oldies but goodies out of our collection.

Played Small World today with the newest expansions (Spider's web and royal bonus). It was fun as always. We put the new races at the top to make sure we played them. I like the variety they had, curious to see if they are don expanding it at this point.

Also played Carcassonne with some expansions mixed in that we have never played before. Siege, the wind rose, the new Hills, shepherds, and vineyards box expansion, and corn circles. It was fun as I always enjoy carcassonne, but as always I think sometimes the expansions take away from the simplicity of the game. The hills make battles for farms even more all-encompassing, so I think I will pass on them from now on. Farms are already a huge part of the game, no need to make it even more so.

I FINALLY played a couple full games of Cthulhu Wars. First impressions are good! I think everyone at the table had fun. Play time is really fast which means that even people who don’t really like heavy war-games were able to enjoy playing. We managed to play two games in about four hours. If you have played Chaos in the Old World, this really does have similar mechanics but it has a more relaxed feeling to it. There is no grey area over the fact that you will be fighting each other from the start and all your abilities are known, so there is never the feeling of imminent betrayal. Everything is also more streamlined with less finicky "whose action happens first" rules.

So yes, I recommend Cthulhu Wars, not that it matters though because none of you are going to spend $200 to buy it.

Played a couple games with X(8), first was Robinson Crusoe. I was setting up for a solo play, he saw it and wanted in as soon as I told him it was co-op. He is all in on co-op games. We played Castaways, of course, because his first experience should be punishing defeat. We went with both Friday and Dog just to have a chance. We never built a roof the entire game. That's what happens when you don't play for a long time. As anyone that has played the game knows, no roof = no survival.

Later we played Planes, which I don't think I have seen anyone mention here. It's themed mancala. I didn't know what that meant before I played it at BGGCON, but now that I have I wonder where it has been all my gaming life. I messed up one rule (if you have no cards at the end of your turn you draw a card). He might have beaten me if I had given him cards after he ran out.

The next day he asked to play that cursed island game again. We actually managed to pull out a day 11 victory. We had a LOT of things go wrong on us, we didn't keep our morale up in the early days, and I swear I have never seen so many build failures, but this time we had a roof when the weather came. Friday didn't make it to the end, but he went out in style, killed while (successfully) building bricks.

You obviously never played Quest for Glory III: Wages of War. There was a mancala-like subgame in that one.

I did play QFG3, but I might not have gotten very far. I don't recall seeing the mancala piece (thanks youtube).

Was it the video of the guy bitching that the variant they were playing that he wasn't used to constituted cheating?

Interesting about planes, I had assumed it was essentially Trains with a planes retheme (I assume they intentionally made it look extremely similar so people would think that). I may have to try it at some point. But I don't know if it will be a buy for me. I enjoy an occasional game of mancala but not enough to justify buying a retheme of it.

Yesterday, I started working through the tutorial for Fire in the Lake. There be some stuff going on in that game, yo.

Chrisoc13 wrote:Interesting about planes, I had assumed it was essentially Trains with a planes retheme (I assume they intentionally made it look extremely similar so people would think that). I may have to try it at some point.

Yeah, I made the same assumption until I saw it at BGGCON. I demoed it there and enjoyed it. It's a light game that can make you think, which differentiates it from the mostly brainless lighter games I have.

Another game, another loss (for me) in Fallen vs my son, Jacob. Rivern the Huntress (me) invaded the Spider Queen's (Jacob) dark castle, and was eaten for her troubles. Another good game. This makes me 1-4 against that little brat

Still loving this game, though...

Isgrimnur wrote:You obviously never played Quest for Glory III: Wages of War. There was a mancala-like subgame in that one.

Ugh... I hated that minigame. Largely because the basically didn't explain the rules before dropping you into it!

Any enablement/disenablement on the XCOM game yet? It sounds like it has potential, but it could just as easily be crap. I'm picking up a game at the FLGS tonight, and I'm feeling saucy, so I might grab a second one while I'm there.

Chaz wrote:Any enablement/disenablement on the XCOM game yet? It sounds like it has potential, but it could just as easily be crap. I'm picking up a game at the FLGS tonight, and I'm feeling saucy, so I might grab a second one while I'm there.

I have read some reviews and decided it isn't for me. Unlike most co-ops, which are easy to teach, learn, and open to non-gamers, I have read that XCOM is more hardcore. Also, it sounds like one of those tense "on-the-clock" games, which is not really for me and certainly not for the people I game with (my Dad, who like to game, ponders his actions a bit too much and would hate the ticking clock). Rab over at RPS was discussing the solo game and made it sound like a nail-biting amount of tension. I need less tension in my life, not more!

Speaking of tense situations, my replacement order of Cthulhu Wars now has shipping information identical to the lost order (says it is at the local USPS office, but USPS tracking has not updated to state they have it). I'm hoping to actually get it tomorrow and that I won't see a repeat of what happened last time. I'm not sure exactly what went on (or is going on) but their shipping was certainly not stellar. If it happens again, I am going to offer to pay for UPS shipping for the third replacement. Keep fingers crossed!

Moat_Man wrote:I'll let you know what I think of Pandemic: The Cure when we play it. I really like Pandemic so I am hoping it is MOTS with dice and maybe a bit quicker.

We played Pandemic: The Cure last weekend and I was pretty impressed. So much so that I am worried it might displace the original game simply because it plays faster. One downside is because of the dice rolling it appears to have more luck involved. We had pretty poor luck on our cure disease rolls but I think we were not collecting enough samples. The number distribution on the dice are not the same so I am pretty sure that some diseases need and extra sample or two to make that 13 threshold more easily attainable. Even so we had a lot of fun dying and we all knew what we did wrong so we can correct it next time. I give it four moats out of five.

Played more 7 Wonders and a game called Shadow Hunters over the weekend. I wasn't too impressed with Shadow Hunters; too much randomness involved and you usually don't get enough information about the other players until the game is close to finishing. I also thought the win conditions were fairly arbitrary and not very well balanced.

My game store was all out of copies of XCOM that weren't reserved, so I didn't get that. I did pick up their last copy of the Robinson Crusoe expansion, so that was cool. And the used copy of Chaos in the Old World they shipped in for me was the first edition with the subdued brown cover, instead of the new version with giant Nurgle on it, so that's also cool.

I think I still want XCOM, but I should probably wait a few months to let opinions settle out, just in case the current hype is just New Game Syndrome.

I've complied my top 10 games of 2014:

1. Panamax – an interactive, thematic euro. What more can you ask for?
2. Impulse – Carl Chudyk strikes again. He’s a game design genius.
3. Zhan Guo – Tableau-building for euro gamers. Great.
4. Castles of Mad King Ludwig – If I could avoid analysis paralysis players with this one, I’d play it constantly
5. Aquasphere – Stefan Feld does programming
6. Trekking the National Parks – the base game is a better version of Ticket to Ride. Fantastic. Too bad you can’t buy the game in stores.
7. Roll for the Galaxy – base game is better than Race, which is in my top 20 games of all time.
8. Dead of Winter – Battlestar Galactica, only more interesting, more story-driven, and shorter. Wee!
9. Imperial Settlers – tableau-building madness from the Polish machine, Ignacy
10. Port Royal – a great push-your-luck game with engine-building

Honorable mention: Star Realms. This would be in my top 10 mid-year, but I'm kinda burned out on it after 200+ plays on my phone. With more cards, this could replace Ascension, which I've played 500+ times.

I estimate that I've played 50 games from 2014.

SpaceLord wrote:I've complied my top 10 games of 2014:

1. Panamax – an interactive, thematic euro. What more can you ask for?
2. Impulse – Carl Chudyk strikes again. He’s a game design genius.
3. Zhan Guo – Tableau-building for euro gamers. Great.
4. Castles of Mad King Ludwig – If I could avoid analysis paralysis players with this one, I’d play it constantly
5. Aquasphere – Stefan Feld does programming
6. Trekking the National Parks – the base game is a better version of Ticket to Ride. Fantastic. Too bad you can’t buy the game in stores.
7. Roll for the Galaxy – base game is better than Race, which is in my top 20 games of all time.
8. Dead of Winter – Battlestar Galactica, only more interesting, more story-driven, and shorter. Wee!
9. Imperial Settlers – tableau-building madness from the Polish machine, Ignacy
10. Port Royal – a great push-your-luck game with engine-building

I estimate that I've played 50 games from 2014.

Hey I played two of those... both with you. Roll for the Galaxy has been on my list. I forgot about Port Royal, but I guess that's OK since it doesn't seem to have a US distributor yet.

On the other hand there are 4 games on your list that I have never seen, 3 I am pretty sure I never heard of.

SpaceLord wrote:I've complied my top 10 games of 2014:

5. Aquasphere – Stefan Feld does programming

I’ve only gotten one game of Aquasphere in so far but I was a little underwhelmed. Did it click with you from the start?

I love Impulse and Roll for the Galaxy; and while I think Imperial Settlers is a good intro game to Ignacy's interesting take on tableau card games, I always walk away from it wanting to play his much more thematic and deeper (but far more fiddly) 51st State series.

Dead of Winter is just plain fun and I can't wait to play it some more at the next Octocon!

I think my replacement shipment of Cthulhu Wars is also lost. This is starting to get ridiculous. GIVE ME THE DAMN GAME!

baelthazar wrote:I think my replacement shipment of Cthulhu Wars is also lost. This is starting to get ridiculous. GIVE ME THE DAMN GAME!

Somewhere, two postmen are very happy.

Have you had trouble with shipments before? If not, I'd be calling the carrier and complaining very, very loudly.

Just got a very late Christmas present from a friend back in Ohio. Roll for the Galaxy. Whoo hoo!

hepcat wrote:Have you had trouble with shipments before? If not, I'd be calling the carrier and complaining very, very loudly.

Just got a very late Christmas present from a friend back in Ohio. Roll for the Galaxy. Whoo hoo!

I have never had a problem before. This is really mystifying. I keep having the reoccurring fear that the Petersens are not going to believe me and not actually succeed in sending me a copy. I wouldn't care so much, but I put way too much into the KS. Now... I sort of regret the whole thing.

Have you called and yelled at the carrier yet? If Peterson is sending them, they're obviously losing them. Twice means it's time to get management involved on their end, I would imagine.

hepcat wrote:Have you called and yelled at the carrier yet? If Peterson is sending them, they're obviously losing them. Twice means it's time to get management involved on their end, I would imagine.

Oh, I went in person to the USPS and talked to the manager. The problem is, the USPS claims to have never received them in the first place. I also called the logistics/fulfillment company that the Petersens are using, Newgistics, but they basically said "it looks like we gave them to the USPS, if it is missing, the client (i.e. Petersen/GE Games) needs to contact us." So I am basically at the whim of Petersen/GE games and how much they want to resolve this.

I'm not sure where the true fault lies - in my local USPS or Newgistics - but there is only so much calling and yelling I can do before they basically say "we don't know, you need a replacement."

At this point I have been waiting almost a month for the first shipment to arrive. I'm pissed, because I was "all in" with this pledge.

On topic, I hope to play a game of Hyperborea with the wife today. Maybe also a round of Imperial Assault. If I can get some support, I hope to at least get a three player game of Fief 1429 in tomorrow.

I'd certainly be pissed off in that situation. That's inexcusable. Fingers crossed things turn for the better for you though!

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to some Omen (the new edition), Warhammer Invasion, some Kingsport Festival and maybe some Roll for the Galaxy, which I just got.

One of my friends just turned 40, so his wife is letting us play board games on Saturday all day at his place(we are watching his kids and mine as well.) and then he is coming over to mine on Sunday for Pathfinder all day.

There are a bunch of us playing board games. I think we are going to play Firefly, Pathfinder card game , Lords of Waterdeep, and whatever else strikes our fancy. I will most likely bring Smash-up as a quick game for us to play, and maybe Spartacus, just because it is a great back stabby game.

I seem to recall some love here for Castle Panic (which I haven't played) - today I saw there's a zombie variant of it called Dead Panic although they do specifically say "Remember, Dead Panic is NOT just "Castle Panic with zombies". Have any of you played it?

MonkeyFinger wrote:I seem to recall some love here for Castle Panic (which I haven't played) - today I saw there's a zombie variant of it called Dead Panic although they do specifically say "Remember, Dead Panic is NOT just "Castle Panic with zombies". Have any of you played it?

I played it once solo and then sold it. Perhaps I am not the right person to give impressions. It took away the simplicity of Castle Panic, of course I didn't like that either. There's also Munchkin Panic if you really like variety in your Panic.