Octopus Overlords

Played a three-player game of A Study in Emerald last night, with NickAragua and another buddy. What was amusing is that Nick and I were both loyalists, and the third player was behind both of us in points. The third player assassinated an Old One, which in the process got his only other agent killed (or driven mad) in the process. So Nick and I then raced to get slightly ahead of the other in points and then assassinate his main agent.

Sadly, I lost, because I was short one coin, which would have allowed me to get to Cairo to assassinate his agent, and Nick had a Shoggoth ready, who ate the agent in question.

I'd been holding on to that bastard for like four or five turns, too.

I'm really liking the (mostly) deterministic nature of the game. Don't get me wrong, I like dice, but there's something nice about being able to rely on your guys to succeed at what they're doing as long as you've got the resources for it. Now, whether or not you get the resources is still a matter of luck...

NickAragua wrote:I'd been holding on to that bastard for like four or five turns, too.

I'm really liking the (mostly) deterministic nature of the game. Don't get me wrong, I like dice, but there's something nice about being able to rely on your guys to succeed at what they're doing as long as you've got the resources for it. Now, whether or not you get the resources is still a matter of luck...

If only I hadn't vampirized my extra agents. Then you would've used the Shoggoth on one of them, and he wouldn't have been available to win the game for you at the end. Oh well...

Damn, it sounds like I missed an interesting game. How long did it take with three and already knowing the rules?

Chaz wrote:Damn, it sounds like I missed an interesting game. How long did it take with three and already knowing the rules?

Not long. I think we started around 8:45 and finished a little after 10. The other main difference from last game is that in the first game we spent a ton of time dicking around and building our decks out, when there's no point in building your deck out beyond what you're trying to do to win the game. Like, Nick and I started claiming cities in the third turn, for example.

Basically, if you're in the vicinity of the lead, you should always be thinking about ways to suddenly end the game (bearing in mind where a teammate might be).

It also seems like there's going to be huge variability in game length, given that you could probably (in theory) end the game within a few turns.

So, is "A Study in Emerald" something you can only get if you were part of the Kickstarter? Didn't look like it could be purchased directly from Treefrog Games and Amazon only has it from 3rd party sellers who want over $200 for it.

MonkeyFinger wrote:So, is "A Study in Emerald" something you can only get if you were part of the Kickstarter? Didn't look like it could be purchased directly from Treefrog Games and Amazon only has it from 3rd party sellers who want over $200 for it.

A second edition is coming apparently through traditional channels, but no date beyond "this year":
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/129935 ... nd-edition

A board gaming friend has a couple of board gaming buddies coming into town this weekend. Last time they visited they spent the entirety of the weekend drinking and gaming. I think we're going to try to have a board game olympics this weekend: each player gets to pick one board game, the top 3 finishers get points, winner is the player with the most overall points at the end of the weekend. I haven't decided what game to pick yet; I really like Five Tribes but I'm pretty bad at it (I've won once out of about 8 games).

The other benefit of these guys coming into town is that they always manage to convince my friend to buy a new board game while they are there, so hopefully we'll get to try out something different as well.

coopasonic wrote:

MonkeyFinger wrote:So, is "A Study in Emerald" something you can only get if you were part of the Kickstarter? Didn't look like it could be purchased directly from Treefrog Games and Amazon only has it from 3rd party sellers who want over $200 for it.

A second edition is coming apparently through traditional channels, but no date beyond "this year":
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/129935 ... nd-edition

Interesting... thanks for that. 'Streamlined'.

Coolstuff was selling copies of A Study in Emerald for a while. That's how I got mine. But I had to pay almost full retail for it as they didn't discount it. I'm guessing that was a supply and demand decision.

I'm curious to see how they streamline it, as I mentioned earlier in this thread. If they dumb it down too much, they'll ruin it. But if they just make the rules clearer and clean up agent use, I'd be interested in picking up another copy. The theme really is a big thing for me when it comes to this one.

I got my copy from CoolStuff last August when rumors were circulating that available copies were almost gone. It was never really sold for much less than MSRP. I think there was some kind of deal where CSI provided some production funding in exchange for being the exclusive US outlet, so there was no incentive for them to sell at a discount anyway, but it was also a pretty small print run.

Got a game of Fallen set up on the table. Ranek the Thief (my son) vs. The Forge Master (me). We are going to be beginning The Dark Tower adventure.

Tomorrow I will get to play Cthulhu Wars (4-player)! Yippee!

Then I plan to round out the weekend with Imperial Assault and Temple of Elemental Evil. It's my birthday extravaganza!

I haven't been able to play many board games in the past few months. I normally play with the kids and two friends on alternating Sundays when the kids are with me, but we swapped that out for our D&D 5E campaign (to no regret.) Now that summer is here, though, we're going to have a lot more gaming time. The only new item on our list is the Temple of Elemental Evil, the new game in the D&D Adventures line (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardofham, etc.), which the kids are dying to try.

I noticed that PC verison of The Witcher board game is 50% off on Steam. Anyone played it yet? Any thoughts on whether it's worth grabbing? I figured if nothing else it might give me an idea of whether I'd ever want the physical version.

It is the one Ignacy game that I cannot recommend.

Thanks. I was reading a BGG review. That guy liked it, mostly. But some of the things that he didn't like seemed like they might be more a factor for me. Specifically the fact that it's really more of a single player game with a race to get the necessary VPs. I tend to shy away from games like that. They just don't appeal to me.

Although, that might make it more viable on the PC than as a physical copy.

When even I cannot find anything nice to say about an Ignacy game, you know it's mediocre at best.

Easy choice then. Besides, it was only 50% off anyway...

Does anyone out there have D&D Attack Wing? I've never seen a copy, and I have a question about the troop packs. Specifically, I need to know whether the scale of the troop figures is comparable to a gaming miniature.

The troop miniatures are the same as the Tyranny of Dragons D&D miniatures. The only difference is that the miniatures clip into a larger plastic base to show the arcs/stats. Even the dragons are the same, but with different pegs/bases.

Awesome, thanks. I won't play WotC's game of random packs for RPG miniatures, so I normally substitute other companies' stuff (lots of Bones!) for my tabletop RPGs. The problem comes with D&D specific stuff, and I need a handful of aarakocra miniatures. There is a pack of six I can get for $18 for Attack Wing.

Of course, some part of my brain will tell me that, since I've got Attack Wing supplies, I will eventually need Attack Wing. Is it any good? How does it handle more than two players?

I bought a few sets into Tyranny when I realized the old prepainted Treant I gave my daughter to "play Groot" was worth $16. I expected my old miniatures to become worthless, not more valuable.

The best deal was the old Dungeon Command miniature sets when the skirmish game was discontinued.

Do you have a starter for d&d attack wing? I've wanted to try that for a while.

Also, I miss dungeon command. That was a surprisingly fun game.

I didn't pick up the Attack Wing starter, but instead bought an 8-pack of Tyranny of Dragons miniatures to open with my oldest daughter. Somehow we ended up with 4 or 5 dragons in the set which made her pretty happy.

So, how does it play with three players? I've played X-Wing, which is similar, but for two players only (which is why I rarely get to play.) Attack Wing says it is for 2+, which would be nice.

Does it require a double crapload of sets to have a decent game, or can you start having fun with just a few pieces?

Blackhawk wrote:So, how does it play with three players? I've played X-Wing, which is similar, but for two players only (which is why I rarely get to play.) Attack Wing says it is for 2+, which would be nice.

Does it require a double crapload of sets to have a decent game, or can you start having fun with just a few pieces?

As an aside, BGG has some suggestions for a 3 player variant for X-Wing if you wanted to get some table time in. I believe it's called Escalation?

I thought the Scum & Villainy faction filled in the third role nicely.

I finally gained my revenge against my son in Fallen. The Forge Master is using Ranek's broken body for spare parts.

I won the Final Battle 3 - 1. Sad thing is, I couldn't even gloat of my victory because he hurt his knee when getting up from the table (he somehow banged it pretty hard).

But, the fact still stands...I won. Finally.

Zarathud wrote:I thought the Scum & Villainy faction filled in the third role nicely.

Yeah now with a third faction it's pretty easy to play x wing three players.

Talisman again this weekend, trying out a Woodland ending (which didn't survive to the end of the game, sadly)

We have been debating throwing in the Games Workshop version TIMESCAPE board as well, but we are out of table space.

I've got a board game order that's waiting on Specter Ops to come in before it can ship. It just got a street date of May 27. Wish I'd known it was going to be so long when I placed the order.

Took 2 of 3 from the wife in Splendor, one of her birthday gifts to me.

Tao dropped by on Saturday.

Played my second game of Fallen. His first. He chose the Goblin King and I tried out the Sorceress. Started out pretty disastrous for me. Just couldn't make things work. And initially he got some great rolls. His "random" story card also netted him a lot of Omens. Moving into the Final Battle, he definitely had the advantage. He'd breached my armor 4 times. I was running with less Fortune. And I'd only scored one decent item upgrade and one mediocre upgrade. He took the first Final Battle easily. Then the cards and dice broke my way a bit. I was able to eke out a win.

Still feels like the game is balanced a bit heavy for the hero. Also feels weird that one person can be dominating through the Story cards, but then lose in the Final Battle.

Though it really just came down to some bad rolls. He had the dice numbers to beat me, but he didn't get the needed swords.

Will need to play more to really get a feel.

Then gilraen joined us for a round of Sentinels of the Multiverse. Bunker, Nightmist, and Legacy against Akash'Bhuta. Started out bleak. We dropped pretty quickly. Lots of bleeding. Very little happening on our side. But then we got some traction and were able to stabilize. Once we didn't have to worry about dying, we were able to crank up the damage. Put her in her place pretty easily.

This Shut Up & Sit Down review of Witness just makes it sound completely irresistible. I highly highly recommend watching this video highly highly recommending buying the game.

TheMix wrote:Also feels weird that one person can be dominating through the Story cards, but then lose in the Final Battle.

I struggle with that sentiment as well whenever I play. I hope expansions can address this in some way as I think there's a great game in there. It just has some rough edges that I would like to see smoothed over.

Chaz wrote:I've got a board game order that's waiting on Specter Ops to come in before it can ship. It just got a street date of May 27. Wish I'd known it was going to be so long when I placed the order.

So do I, but that street date sounds perfect. A day before my birthday. I can tell my wife it's a gift from my dad. (or not, because he generally sends $5)

wonderpug wrote:This Shut Up & Sit Down review of Witness just makes it sound completely irresistible.

I've started adding a salt lick to my viewings of SUSD videos. They make every game (they like) seem like a must have and often it doesn't work out for me.

TheMix wrote:He took the first Final Battle easily.

Boudreaux wrote:Played a game of Euphoria last night, the "Build a Better Dystopia" worker placement game. It's an interesting concept - all players work to sort of collectively build up the buildings and areas on the board using dice that represent workers. Your dice are rolled into your pool and then placed on the board - higher values get you more benefits, but those workers are "smarter" and can potentially lead to penalties or problems if you're not careful. There are a variety of commodities and resources you're collecting while trying to get your prestige markers on the board.

I was really enjoying the game until I was shut out of a building project. When this happens, a penalty is applied to everyone who did not participate in the building project. In this case, the penalty completely shut down my entire strategy for the game, and because we were close to the end it essentially knocked me out of the game entirely. I would have been able to overcome eventually, but at the cost of 7-8 turns which in this game is an eternity. Soured me on the experience quite a bit (that particular penalty seemed way unbalanced compared to others) since as far as I can tell, there was no way to anticipate or mitigate that particular penalty. But, I'll give it another shot.

I played this last week. I think it was about a third of the way through that I finally "got" the game (and even then I had missed one or two things that would have helped me), and by then I was already way behind (managed to pull to 7 of the 10 victory points for victory. Still got last place, though.). Now that I understand the game, though, it doesn't seem quite so complex.

I didn't realize at the start that you should generally concentrate on your 2 card colors and the associated actions are usually the only worthwhile ones (there are a few things that may require other colors, but for the most part you just want to concentrate on your colors). Given that green seems significntly different from the other colors (no tunnel) and also that different colors may be unbalanced in terms of how many people have each color (eg, everyone might have one card color, with only one has another), so I do agree there can be some imbalanced. Also, some of the powers seemed far better than others.

You can remove the penalty by placing a star on the tile of the one you didnt participate in building, though (I think it costs 3 cards)

Blackhawk wrote:I haven't been able to play many board games in the past few months. I normally play with the kids and two friends on alternating Sundays when the kids are with me, but we swapped that out for our D&D 5E campaign (to no regret.) Now that summer is here, though, we're going to have a lot more gaming time. The only new item on our list is the Temple of Elemental Evil, the new game in the D&D Adventures line (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardofham, etc.), which the kids are dying to try.

One thing that I enjoy about reading OO on tapatalk is how it turns every mention of "D&D" into "D& "

D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D D&D


Happy Monday!!!

(Sorry. Obviously couldn't resist...)