Octopus Overlords

My two boys (11.5 and almost-9) have some experience with X-Wing, but just recently they heard about Imperial Assault and pooled their allowance for it. I was happy about it, since I'd just seen a glowing review of how the game shapes up. Last night I read the rules, and just now we played the first scenario of the campaign.

What fun! If you don't know the game, it involves one bad guy player (who is also in a sort of dungeon master role, but bound by the scenario's programmed events) versus one or more rebels, whose characters are fleshed out with stats and gear and survivability that stormtroopers don't have. Naturally I was the baddie, and my sons ran three heroes between themselves. The first battle is small, but it was full of action and even some programmed surprises. Their eyes really lit up when the blast door sealed on them, leaving one of their characters on the other side in a room full of storm troopers.

I gather the game is modeled on Descent (which I have never played), but it is shot through with loads of Star Wars atmosphere. There are a ton of choices and (it appears) a ton of variety in the many many scenarios possible with even the base game. It feels like a much fuller and more versatile ruleset than X-Wing (or, I assume, Armada). I'm already kind of itching to get some expansions for it, although I think I'll let the boys learn something more about the value of allowance...

I, too, got to play a four player (including me) game of Imperial Assault. I did like it, but something felt a little stilted in the pacing or execution of the game. I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that, although it is something that I noticed in Descent 2nd as well. I think it has to do with how easy the baddies are to kill, in comparison to the relative invulnerability of the player characters. I somehow miss the Overlord cards of the original Descent (and the card play in Mansions of Madness) because it made the game feel more dynamic and added some variability beyond dice rolls. Also, the characters and their powers seem a little lackluster compared to Descent 2nd (although the Imperial troops are more complicated and interesting than most of the Descent creatures). Again, I like the game and want to play it more, but I just felt like the experience was a pick slower paced and one-sided than it should have been.

I do want to get a look at the Skirmish game. It might be a lot of fun in a 2-player situation.

We also played Cthulhu Wars and I very much liked it. We still need to work on our strategy (hint: build gates as your first actions) because we played the game very passively, which was not the best way to do it. Next game will be much more interesting.

baelthazar wrote:I, too, got to play a four player (including me) game of Imperial Assault. I did like it, but something felt a little stilted in the pacing or execution of the game. I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that, although it is something that I noticed in Descent 2nd as well. I think it has to do with how easy the baddies are to kill, in comparison to the relative invulnerability of the player characters. I somehow miss the Overlord cards of the original Descent (and the card play in Mansions of Madness) because it made the game feel more dynamic and added some variability beyond dice rolls. Also, the characters and their powers seem a little lackluster compared to Descent 2nd (although the Imperial troops are more complicated and interesting than most of the Descent creatures). Again, I like the game and want to play it more, but I just felt like the experience was a pick slower paced and one-sided than it should have been.

We've only played one scenario, but it came down to the wire. The rebels destroyed the last terminal (their victory condition) during the final round before an automatic loss. The wookie was badly wounded, and I had just brought a fresh squad of stormtroopers onto the board.

A lot of the appeal, of course, is the theme. The game cries out for a massive Tantive IV scenario with loads of troopers, Vader, Leia, and the droids.

Tried out Tabletop Simulator for the first time last night, along with Chaz and NickAragua. We (and a buddy) did Last Night on Earth. It was fun. For the most part (and I'm sure that this depends on the comparative mod / module), Tabletop Simulator seems more fun but less practical than Vassal for the most part. Basically it more closely simulates a, well, tabletop set up, so you're playing with (digital) pieces and board and whatnot, so it's more immersive. Though for the most part I think Vassal is generally easier to use.

Not sure if I'm your Friends list, but I do a fair bit of TTS. Mostly Sentinels of the Multiverse and Shadows of Brimstone with Tao and another friend. Mostly because I own those games, so it's a little easier to check rules. But I've also got Last Night on Earth. So I'd be in for a game.

I've got it too (as does Zarathud and Seppe), but I haven't really played around with it. Is there a decent tutorial for using it? Beyond the manual that comes with it, that is?

hepcat wrote:I've got it too (as does Zarathud and Seppe), but I haven't really played around with it. Is there a decent tutorial for using it? Beyond the manual that comes with it, that is?

I dunno - we didn't look. It was intuitive enough that we largely figured things out as we went along.

TheMix, it would be fun to get a game in sometime.

It's pretty intuitive.

I've been using it enough to have figured out a few things to make it easier. But there isn't much to it. Grab, lift, drop, rotate, flip. I use lock/unlock (to prevent things from getting bumped out of position) a lot. And copy/paste a lot.

I've also practiced "cleaning up" copies of the games that I've gotten from the workshop. I'm moved a lot of stuff into the Chest. That cleans up the tabletop and makes it easier to get what I need.

Sentinels is a nice one to start with. Not a lot going on, so it's easy to practice without messing stuff up. Or Castle Panic. Things like Shadows of Brimstone have a lot more pieces that you have to maneuver.

The workshop mods are generally good, but can definitely be kinda wonky. We started Last Night on Earth, and pretty quickly discovered that just about all the pieces defaulted to "locked" status, so they couldn't be picked up and moved. That's kind of okay, except I couldn't figure out how to unlock them as a group. That meant having to manually toggle each piece to unlocked one by one via the right-click menu. Maybe there's a keyboard shortcut I missed, but it was mighty annoying to have to unlock 8 individual dice and 14 zombie standups.

We also figured out pretty quick that the zombie standups were hard to see. Fortunately, we could just replace them with the included models. To keep them separate, one set of zombies was represented by ghouls, and the other was represented by bears. I'm sure they were zombie bears.

The best part is the ability to draw dicks on the board.

Chaz wrote:The workshop mods are generally good, but can definitely be kinda wonky. We started Last Night on Earth, and pretty quickly discovered that just about all the pieces defaulted to "locked" status, so they couldn't be picked up and moved. That's kind of okay, except I couldn't figure out how to unlock them as a group. That meant having to manually toggle each piece to unlocked one by one via the right-click menu. Maybe there's a keyboard shortcut I missed, but it was mighty annoying to have to unlock 8 individual dice and 14 zombie standups.

The 'L' key. Locks and unlocks. I use it all the time.

I've noticed that all the mods start fully locked down. There may be a reason behind it. Not sure. The ones I play, I go through and tweak to my satisfaction. Then I re-save as a "template" version. When I want to play, I load that version and not the downloaded one.

The other thing that I've done is to move a lot of things to my Chest. Like the map pieces for Shadows of Brimstone. They come in a bag. But you have to pull them out one at a time until you get the one you want. Then put them back. Nope. No thanks. Much easier to scroll through a list in my Chest (does that sound funny to anyone else?) and then spawn the one I need.

Not sure what I'll do if I add a bunch more games though... That will make the Chest pretty unwieldy.

Another one that I've found really useful is using -/+ to shrink/grow the size of the assets. That can be really helpful.

NickAragua wrote:The best part is the ability to draw dicks on the board.

My best friend seems to agree with you. At least with regards to drawing/writing stuff on the board. He hasn't gone the "dick" route yet, but it won't surprise me.

Last night he figured out that he could rename the pieces.... (changes what displays on mouse-over).

Thanks for all the helpful thoughts! One question though: do any of you have template files for the dicks?

hepcat wrote:Thanks for all the helpful thoughts! One question though: do any of you have template files for the dicks?

I haven't bought it yet, but I plan on picking up the Robinson Crusoe expansion, Voyage of the Beagle.

Note that there are two versions of both the base game and the expansion - the Z-Man version and the Portal version. You'll want to pick up the expansion that matches your base game version since there are some minor card back differences.

I haven't yet beat all of the original game's modules, but I've finished 4 out of the 6.

Voyage of the Beagle is a great expansion that adds a story arc, or campaign mode to the base game. The components are fantastic looking too, with the campaign book taking on the appearance of a ship's log. It can be a bit fiddly to mix with the base game, but they do outline what can work with what in the manual that comes with it.

It's on my list, primarily because I hear there are extra guys you can use to make solo play suck less.

I have the portal version of the expansion and the base z man game and they mix just fine. No real issues at all. I like it a lot, it's a really cool expansion. Even the box is cool.

It's a swanky package. I've had the Zman version of the expansion since it came out. Not that I've more than scratched the surface on the base game, but I wanted to have the expansion for if/when it went out of print.

I played Temple of Elemental Evil with my wife yesterday. I have to say, this may be my favorite of the D&D game line! Sure, Legend of Drizzt had some very interesting mechanics and enemies (so it has a bit more "character" than TOEE), but TOEE's campaign system is fantastic! It is so simple and very subtle, but it makes the game feel like there is a flow to it, rather than just a series of disconnected forays into the dungeon.

Now it isn't Shadows of Brimstone, but Shadows takes about three times as long to play and has far more minutia in the rules (making it harder to teach, IMHO). You can be off and running with TOEE in about 5 minutes (not counting shuffling time).

For some reason, the enemies for TOEE feel like they have more personality than previous enemies. They all do something a little different - Earth Cultists hit hard but move slow, Air cultists are ranged and "blind" characters, Fire cultists are weak but explode when they die, and Water cultists toss the PCs around when they attack. The bugbear is just too fast and the Gnoll Archer may not be much different than Orc archers in Wrath, but they look way cooler and always target the most wounded character. It could be smoke and mirrors, or the allure of the new, but these monsters are closer to the unique nature of Drizzt than the more bland monsters of Castle Ravenloft or Wrath (I rank the monsters as - LoD > TOEE > WoA > CR).

I got Robinson Crusoe in a trade for Terra Mystica (which was just not fun with 2 players). I look forward to cracking it open soon.

I'm also dumping a lot of my unplayed boardgames on eBay. If anyone is interested, my callsign is cthulhu-boy. I am selling Krosmaster, Space Empires 4X (and expansion), A Touch of Evil (2 expansions and painted minis), Duel of Ages II and some others. I hated to sell these (particularly as the ATOE minis were my first painting project) but they were taking up space and had not been played in years (or, in the case of Duel of Ages II, at all).

Oh man, I can't imagine getting Duel of Ages II and never playing it.

I was just talking to somebody yesterday about getting a game together.

I got DoAII right around when it came out, along with the Master Set. It hasn't been played either, but I'm definitely not getting rid of it, because SOME DAY.

I'd actually like to make it the game we play at the inaugural game night at our new house.

hepcat wrote:Oh man, I can't imagine getting Duel of Ages II and never playing it.

I have it but and it's sitting un-punched in my gaming closet. Why? Because I have no idea how to organize it. There are hundreds of pieces and when I looked into storage options, the best one seemed to be getting coin pouches for all of the tokens. However they were absurdly expensive -- to the point where it was prohibitive. So it sits...untouched.

Al you need are Plano boxes. No need for anything fancy. And once you start breaking it down, you'll realize it's really not that bad.

Plus, the moment you lose a game because Napoleon found a gyro copter and used it to smuggle Annie Oakley into your base...well...

Deep Realms expansion for Talisman, pretty cool.

Adds an extension between the Dungeon Board and City Board, By using it, it adds the potential that Dungeon Treasures and City Armory/Magic Emporium cards are only available in the Realms rather than simply for purchase in the City or end of the Dungeon board. Also allows for winning these cards in battle/psychic combat if one doesn't have the gold.

Makes a Bridge between the top row and a Tunnel at the next level down.

Comes with a 20 card Bridge deck and a 20 card Tunnel deck, and Realms spaces.

Smoove_B wrote:

hepcat wrote:Oh man, I can't imagine getting Duel of Ages II and never playing it.

I have it but and it's sitting un-punched in my gaming closet. Why? Because I have no idea how to organize it. There are hundreds of pieces and when I looked into storage options, the best one seemed to be getting coin pouches for all of the tokens. However they were absurdly expensive -- to the point where it was prohibitive. So it sits...untouched.

My tactic was numbered ziplocks. Put about 20 character tokens in each baggie, write the number range on the outside. When you draw characters, just go by the number on the character card. Not amazing, but at least you're only sorting through 20 tokens, and it's pretty simple to maintain.

Introduced my buddy Joe to Shadows of Brimstone over the weekend. Still love that game. We actually did pretty good with only two characters. Played the gunslinger and saloon gal. We were never really in any danger through the course of the run. He liked it a lot, and wants to pick up a copy for himself.

Played Ticket to Ride: Europe with my kids and a friend. My friend won, my 11-year-old came in second, I was third, and my 13-year-old came in last. It was our first time playing the Europe version. Everything went smoothly until my eldest noticed that one of the cities was named 'Brest', and that the symbol for it was, quite clearly, a nipple.

Saturday, Seppe and I played two games of Star Trek Attack Wing. We tried the Tholian Web scenario and a recreation of a battle from the Dominion War from DS9. They both were great. The Tholian Web saw my Tholians win...but only by a technicality as I gave Seppe's Enterprise (crewed only by TOS members, of course) a warp core breach via a critical card that he got after running through one of my energy webs. The breach required him to roll a die at the beginning of each of his turns. He was literally one move away from leaving the battlefield after rescuing his captain when he rolled badly and his ship exploded.

I lost the Dominion War scenario after his Defiant was able to outmaneuver my fleet which consisted of Cardassian and Jem'Hadar ships. If I'd been able to slow him down just a bit, I could've won as he was heavily damaged during the fight.

The game still shines for me because of the story based game play. You really feel like you're playing out a tale from the Star Trek universe with every game. It's incredibly thematic.

After ST:AW, we played a game of Legendary Encounters: Alien. I think when playing with less than 4 people, I need to increase the difficulty per the rule book's suggestion as we really didn't have THAT much of a struggle with the scenario based on the second Alien movie. I still love this game though. I really like this one because it's a deck builder that makes me forget it's a deck builder.

Finally, we played a quick game of Steam Torpedo. I cannot win this game. It's one of those things I'm just absolutely horrible at. But I enjoy it all the same.

Sunday morning I played a game of "Let's register for Gencon events" with Zarathud.

Forced myself out of the house this weekend, to the detriment of my yard.

I played Roll for the Galaxy which was interesting, not card draw but rather dice rolling version of Race for the Galaxy. I enjoyed it enough.

We then moved on to my first live game of 1830. It lasted way way way too long. This wouldn't have been a problem but either the rules are quite a bit different than they computer game (which I hadn't played in years anyway) or they understood the differently than the computer game. While I love the concept and love stock trading railroad games, I'm not likely to be play again.

I was burnt out on gaming after a five hour session of 1830 so I left early... So what did I do? I went home and broke out the old Avalon Hill version... after about a few hours of Internet based learning how to to make it work with Dosbox on Windows 7.

Was Roll for the Galaxy just 'ok' for you? I've seen a number of rave reviews for it and was starting to get tempted to get a copy.

wonderpug wrote:Was Roll for the Galaxy just 'ok' for you? I've seen a number of rave reviews for it and was starting to get tempted to get a copy.

The people I played with all love the game and they were all 'meh' to Race. They love it for all ages, as it is a sort of a Yahtzee colonization game, where you build a strategy for collecting more dice around the tiles you draw concurrent with try to collect the most points toward a victory. They tell me the rules are easier than Race. I'm not so sure about that but the pace is faster.

I enjoyed it enough and I think there is a reasonable chance that the few people I know who hate Race would enjoy Roll enough. I wasn't all like "I need to play this again and again and again" but I'd be happy enough to sit down and play it again if someone broke it out.

As far as dice collection games go, I think I enjoyed Qwarriors more but that's not a knock on Roll

wonderpug wrote:Was Roll for the Galaxy just 'ok' for you? I've seen a number of rave reviews for it and was starting to get tempted to get a copy.

I absolutely love it. It's easier to teach than Race, has just as much decision making and it plays faster. For me, it improves on almost everything from Race. I've played it about a half dozen times since I got it, and I continue to want to play.

So yeah, I can whole heartedly recommend it.

Combos and dice rolling make for a compelling game. Roll is very good.

Blackhawk wrote:Played Ticket to Ride: Europe with my kids and a friend. My friend won, my 11-year-old came in second, I was third, and my 13-year-old came in last. It was our first time playing the Europe version. Everything went smoothly until my eldest noticed that one of the cities was named 'Brest', and that the symbol for it was, quite clearly, a nipple.

All of the stations look like nipples! Just remember, if you travel in France, motorboating is the favorite pastime in Brest.

It does, indeed, hurt to sell Duel of Ages II because I had such high hopes for playing it. But it is too complicated for my rare gaming session and my wife would never go for it.

You do realize that the game has multiple official variants, right? There's a really simple one in the basic rules that just has you pepper the playing board with tokens that act as objectives and/or rewards, instead of playing with full blown labyrinths. I suggest using that one for teaching the game.

But honestly, I never even thought the more advanced game variant was all that hard either.

Chaz wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:

hepcat wrote:Oh man, I can't imagine getting Duel of Ages II and never playing it.

I have it but and it's sitting un-punched in my gaming closet. Why? Because I have no idea how to organize it. There are hundreds of pieces and when I looked into storage options, the best one seemed to be getting coin pouches for all of the tokens. However they were absurdly expensive -- to the point where it was prohibitive. So it sits...untouched.

My tactic was numbered ziplocks. Put about 20 character tokens in each baggie, write the number range on the outside. When you draw characters, just go by the number on the character card. Not amazing, but at least you're only sorting through 20 tokens, and it's pretty simple to maintain.

I generally purchase either TackleBox compartments or Joanns/Micheals craft baggies.

For stuff like Small World (all those ability tokens) I usually put smaller craftbaggies into a ziplock size with them.

Chaosraven wrote:I generally purchase either TackleBox

I do this game with an unruly amount of figures. Chits and meeples just get a billion baggies.

Just Baggied the cards for the Talisman expansion(s), the Cards/cubes/tokens for King of New York, organized the tokens for Small World into the compartments, haven't opened XCom to see what I need yet.

The thing with Duel of Ages is all the damn characters. Normally I'm all about plano containers and divided bins but you can't just toss the 150+ character chits into a case and hope to set up a game quickly. I might need to go the Chaz route with bags, but I was also considering sorting them (somehow) by age.

I'm still amazed that 2+ years later there isn't a solid home brew solution. Gaming setup and cleanup are killers for me. Anything that speeds them along is critical.