Octopus Overlords

hepcat wrote:I've actually played it over a dozen times or more. I was just agreeing with Ralph that the rules were kind of confusing for someone just learning it.

I personally find it easier to play than Race because the tiles explain all that they do without relying on having to look up the icon meaning. Something later expansions for Race moved away from, thankfully.

Doh, that is what I get from reading this on the phone. Well, I meant this for Ralph then!

Once again, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective makes me look like an idiot.

We played case #3 and actually did pretty well, sussing out some important details and avoiding red herrings. In fact, just about the only thing we got wrong was, uh, the identity of the murderer. Sorry about that, person we falsely accused.

I watched a video on how to play Roll last night (an action packed Friday night!) and now it makes a lot more sense. Hopefully I'll get to try it out tomorrow.

Played a four player game of Forbidden Stars today. I still think the game is great but it takes waaay too long with four people, at least if they are new to the game. Took us about 7 hours to finish.

Yeah I can't do seven hour games often... Has to be a special game for me to play one that long.

Seppe bought a copy of Forbidden Stars and brought it over early afternoon on Saturday. We ended up playing two games in a row. The suggested "first game" setup, and then a real game.

Our first game took about 3 hours. But we were referring to rules a lot. There's quite a bit of stuff going on in the game, but none of it was what I would call unintuitive (for the most part).

One thing we did screw up initially was that we were rolling dice each execution step and using that as our combat values for that step. Once we realized that you only roll dice once during a combat, and then use the cards to change your values, the game got even better.

I liked it, I really did. The combat is usually a chore for me in games like this. I mostly dread it and spend my time turtling. But the combat in Forbidden Stars is a blast. It's like a mini game, but it doesn't feel detached at all from the main game.

The way orders were used was also fantastic. I love that you can essentially shut down an opponent's plans by waiting until they place their last order, then jumping on top of that to get in an attack or movement before they can resolve that deploy order they just placed before you. It's a bit "screw you" but it doesn't ruin the game as it's not the main focus.

All in all, two very big thumbs up for this one. I loved every game we played of it.

Then we pulled out some dice masters. The first one we played was the D&D starter set. I have to say, it lends itself to the mechanics of dice masters perfectly. I may actually start collecting that as well as the DC dice master stuff. We just had the starter set, but I could already see some great combos in that one alone.

We then played two games of DC dice masters. Seppe and I both have most of the characters and dice for that one. So our games are brutal back and forths. I really enjoy this one, but I think a play mat is almost essential for newer players as the movement of the dice in play is VERY unintuitive.

Oh, and last Thursday night I started up a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game path: Skull and Shackles with a few guys who live near me. While we had a blast, I'm not a fan of the ship mechanic. So far it feels tacked on and we usually just felt annoyed any time ships were mentioned on a card. I could do without that component in future games.

AWS260 wrote:Once again, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective makes me look like an idiot.

We played case #3 and actually did pretty well, sussing out some important details and avoiding red herrings. In fact, just about the only thing we got wrong was, uh, the identity of the murderer. Sorry about that, person we falsely accused.

I finally played the first case last weekend (solo) and managed to ID the culprit, but had none of the other details. I missed a very important location to investigate. I was flailing about quite a bit, but now I have a clue (ha!) how it works so I am more looking forward to the next case.

I played a game of Flash Point Fire Rescue with X(9) this weekend. There was a raging fire in the middle of the building causing explosion after explosion that we never got a handle on. We might have actually pulled it off if he hadn't stopped firefighting to rescue the cat with the CAFS Firefighter (slowest role in the game), but there was no way to stop him from saving that kitty. Never mind that I was playing the Paramedic (best rescue role in the game (ignoring the dog)).

Consulting Detective is the only game I've ever felt I needed to buy a whiteboard for.

Got in two games of Roll yesterday. The first was a 2 player game and I got crushed. I think I spent too much time producing/shipping and not enough time developing and settling. Plus, my friend built a bunch of 6+ VP tiles with all sorts of crazy bonuses. I also realized that rolling a whole bunch of dice often isn't worth the cost, especially in a game of 3 players where there may be only 1 or 2 phases chosen each turn.

The second game was with 4 players and I had a better idea of how to manage my workers. Built up a good stable of technologies and worlds, didn't spend too much time producing and shipping, and ended up winning fairly handily. I really liked it; it'll be interesting to see if it has the staying power of some of my other favorites (currently Five Tribes and still 7 Wonders).

hepcat wrote:Seppe bought a copy of Forbidden Stars and brought it over early afternoon on Saturday. We ended up playing two games in a row. The suggested "first game" setup, and then a real game.

Our first game took about 3 hours. But we were referring to rules a lot. There's quite a bit of stuff going on in the game, but none of it was what I would call unintuitive (for the most part).

I'm curious how many people you had playing. The first game we played we had three and used the tutorial set-up which resulted in a much more bearable 3-4 hour game.

The custom setup alone seemed to tack on a good half hour.

The 6+ VP techs are game changers. If an opponent in Roll/Race gets one out, you need to think about how to end the game before they get the combo rolling.

The produce/trade strategy is an infinitely scalable, reliable dynamic but you need to have a way to end the game if someone can settle/research a better combo. The steady VPs come at the cost of predictability and a longer game -- which other players can capitalize on.

Lordnine wrote:
I'm curious how many people you had playing.

Two. Our second game went much quicker due to some really, really bad unit/structure placement on my part during setup. In my defense, I was already 3 beers into the game.

Whoo hoo, the first expansion for Shadows of Malice just arrived.

Finally took the daughter to the FLGS and learned how to play Pokemon thanks to helpful staff. I think I understand it now and I'm laughing because it's slightly more complex than games like Ascension, Star Realms, Dominion and Smash Up -- all games I understand. She told me, however, that no one she knows is playing Pokemon -- all the kids at camp are now playing some game called "Magic". So I guess that's in my future too. Kids these days with their crazy games.

What age is your daughter? My 8 year old has caught the Pokemon obsession, and I needed someone at Origins to teach me the basics. I will be seeking out more training at GenCon.

Girl has some natural talent once she figured out how to evolve her bench, but she needs to be willing to accept losses. Even if the Pokemon are cute. She cried because my dragon was beating her early on in her first real game, but I realized the goon was about to trounce me when she rage quitted.

She's 9 and the boys at school have refused to teach her how to play (they apparently bring decks outside to the playground) so I finally made the time to go local and learn. We picked up a pair of pre-constructed battle arena decks (XERNEAS VS YVELTAL) which I think was my biggest problem - thinking I had to somehow help her create playable decks from scratch. Now that I know we can just buy them ready to go, I feel better. She seemed to understand the fundamentals but I can see how learning the game is the first step and understanding the deeper strategy (what cards to bench, what energy to play, etc...) is going to come later. But at least we can play each other now...and then I can teach her something easier like Ascension.

My kids will hold out for a cute theme, like Munchkin.

My 15 year old Origins trainer said the key is to add extra energy to a pre-constructed deck as she felt they were competitive with skill but unreliable without extra energy replacing a few of the weaker cards. If you want to take that advice or start to branch out from pre-constructed decks, the Pokemon Masters Box sets have a collection of Energy (the key), a bunch of card packs, a collectible coin, card sleeves for a playing deck, and a box to store all the cards.

Awesome. Yeah, the kit we have included card boxes and coins so we're good there. We also have random energy and some older cards. Once we get a handle on these two decks then I can at least understand modifying them, but I'm also just as likely to continue down the greatness that is pre-constructed. What's awkward now is that apparently the kids at school aren't actually playing Pokemon - they're just battling random cards against one another. So the goal of teaching her so she can play with the other kids didn't really work. But at least we can play...until it's no longer cool to hang out with the old man.

She can become the Pokemon Master and teach the kids how to REALLY play.

FYI: apparently Barnes & Noble is in the middle of their summer board game sale. It started in June, so there may not be much left but now the games they still have are on sale by 75%. I just reserved a copy of Battlestar Galactica for $12 at my local store. At least online, it looks like everything else has already been picked over.

Holy hell, the box for Forbidden Stars is really deep. Kind of love that I ordered it from Amazon for $66 yesterday, and it showed up today.

Chaz wrote:Holy hell, the box for Forbidden Stars is really deep. Kind of love that I ordered it from Amazon for $66 yesterday, and it showed up today.

Forbidden Stars is the only board game I own where they gave MORE room than is actually needed to store everything. Most games fit so tightly that the cover won’t close if a single item is out of place and forget about it if you want to organize your components to make setup easier!

Maybe I buy weird games, because I frequently have times when I wish the box was only big enough to hold the components. Forbidden Stars definitely has an extra inch of air above all the components. They're probably leaving room for the inevitable expansions. Of course, it's nowhere near as bad as the copy of Castles of Mad King Ludwig I opened yesterday. That's a normal-size box that's literally 75% empty.

I wouldn't really care except that shelf space is at a premium.

A couple of things announced at Gen con so far that I noticed that I am really looking forward to now. First a new map pack for Ticket to Ride was announced- UK on one side, Pennsylvania on the other side. I don't play Ticket to Ride all that much anymore, but with non-gamers we do play it a fair amount. It's nice to have some more variety in map packs so I'm looking forward to seeing what the new mechanics are for the new map pack.

Also FFG had some nice big releases for it's Star Wars games announced- a Hoth expansion for imperial assault (which is apparently going to be as big as the original box), and a bunch of new content for X-wing (wave 8 announced with ships from the animated Rebels show) and the Gozanti cruiser with 2 tie fighters it can drop (in a yet to be released manner) during epic games. And FFG announced that they have episode 7 stuff on it's way already which will be released before the end of the year that they are not allowed to announce yet. Here's hoping for some episode 7 content for X-wing and Imperial assault. I would be a big fan of that...

So....I was able to trade in pretty much all the games I no longer wanted at the local game store (Fan Fare in Kalamazoo, MI) for store credit. Walked away with Cthulhu Wars, Relic (plus the two expansions for that) and the latest small box expansion for Eldritch Horror.


Happy am I.

This weekend saw a couple games of Mysterium, thanks to my cousin who imported the Polish edition of this Ukrainian game. It's a simple, lovely game of dream interpretation, very well described in this SUSD review. Totally enjoyed it, but probably not enough to import my own copy from Poland. I have read that the upcoming English version will feature different art, which is a shame, because the art in this is amazing.

I also played a 2-player game of Race for Galaxy, against myself. I won.

And there was quite a bit of Boggle. I'm a sucker for Boggle.

AWS260 wrote:This weekend saw a couple games of Mysterium, thanks to my cousin who imported the Polish edition of this Ukrainian game. It's a simple, lovely game of dream interpretation, very well described in this SUSD review. Totally enjoyed it, but probably not enough to import my own copy from Poland. I have read that the upcoming English version will feature different art, which is a shame, because the art in this is amazing.

Not to worry! It sounds like the English edition has new art basically everywhere EXCEPT for the card art, where they kept the original. From the samples that they showed in the article, I'm totally fine with the new art, and extremely glad they kept the card art.

The new version does add some new rules to give things more structure, but they sound like they're all reasonable changes. I've already got a copy ordered at my FLGS.

Chaz wrote:

AWS260 wrote:This weekend saw a couple games of Mysterium, thanks to my cousin who imported the Polish edition of this Ukrainian game. It's a simple, lovely game of dream interpretation, very well described in this SUSD review. Totally enjoyed it, but probably not enough to import my own copy from Poland. I have read that the upcoming English version will feature different art, which is a shame, because the art in this is amazing.

Not to worry! It sounds like the English edition has new art basically everywhere EXCEPT for the card art, where they kept the original. From the samples that they showed in the article, I'm totally fine with the new art, and extremely glad they kept the card art.

The new version does add some new rules to give things more structure, but they sound like they're all reasonable changes. I've already got a copy ordered at my FLGS.

Very interesting. The dream cards -- the most important bit -- are the same, the new character cards look a bit better, and the new location cards look (in my opinion) a bit worse.

I tried out Battlestar Galactica for the first time yesterday. Only had 3 players and we managed to screw up some of the rules (not too surprising considering the rule book is ~40 pages long) but it was still fun. I turned into a cylon on the sleeper agent phase and since I was also the president that gave me lots of power to screw up the various crises. I didn't see the point in revealing myself since I figured I could do more damage with my presidential powers. Ended up winning one turn before the humans could have won the game by taking the last jump, mainly because one of the other players thought they had enough cards to overcome my "contributions" to the crises and so chose to play it out rather than take the lesser penalty. They didn't.

Played Firefly again this past Sunday with 4 of us. We had the Blue Sun, Breaking Atmo, and Merc's and Pirates expansions.

The objective was just to get to $ 12,000, so actually once we got built up, it was fairly easy to do. I won, but boy did the other guys make it hard.

I was ambushed no less than 3 or 4 times with reavers from other players moving them onto my spaces or moving the reavers to places I needed to go to. But with a mechanic and pilot in my crew I was able to simply pay a fuel and evade.

With the 'bounties' in play, I had several situations where people were after Simon Tam, who was in my crew. I tried to save River, as at one time 3 of the guys were attacking each other to turn in River to the authorities. However, I had like 4 warrants and all the players were on the same space with the Alliance cruiser. So it would have cost me 4k to even move onto that spot, and while I was tooled to repel boarders, I knew it would be bloodbath to have all of us on the same spot. So River was turned into the feds for 4k. Those commie bastards.

Firefly is one of my favorite games currently. You can play a game in about 2-3 hours if everyone knows the rules and the scenario for win conditions is not too over the top.

We also played a few games of Smash-up and had a blast as usual with that game.

I just read somewhere that Gale Force 9 games is doing a Star Trek board game, so I am going to keep my eyes open for that one. I have loved the last two games I have played from Gale Force 9, and while I have avoided the last two that they released, the motorcycle gang one and homeland, I will definitely look for the Star Trek game when it comes out.

I need to figure out shelving for board games in the new house. In the past, I've done the Ikea Gorm shelves, and that worked fine. I'm considering whether to get another pair of those, or do some wall-mounted shelves. It seems like it'd be simple enough to get some 1x12 lumber, stain it, and mount it with some brackets.

Anyone got ideas for cost-effective game shelves that looks good?

RMC wrote: I just read somewhere that Gale Force 9 games is doing a Star Trek board game

hepcat wrote:

RMC wrote: I just read somewhere that Gale Force 9 games is doing a Star Trek board game

hehe.. Yup that's what I said.

One of the guys in my gaming group is starting to get into the Star Trek Ship game. What is a good starter set for that game?

Are you talking Star Trek Attack Wing?

hepcat wrote:Are you talking Star Trek Attack Wing?

hehe.. Yup that's the name. I forgot what it was called, other than the star trek ship thingy.

Looks like there is a starter set. But I guess once you get that what is the next stuff to buy?

I play ST:AW...a lot. Seppe is my only foe though as everyone else is enamored of the Star Wars version.

You need the starter, and there's only one.

After that, just choose a faction or two that you like, and start building your fleet(s).

I went Dominion by buying one of each ship from that faction. Then I added doubles on a couple of the smaller ships that would logically fly as escorts with bigger ships.

Next, I bought a bunch of Klingon ships. The selection ticks me off because they just use the same model for a few of the ships that SHOULD be slightly different in some meaningful ways. But this would only matter to someone who played a bunch of Star Fleet Battles as a kid.

Finally, I bought some "Independent" ships. These are ships from factions that aren't really all that well defined in Star Trek. Tholians and Gorn, for example.

Seppe went Federation and then Romulan.

The reason that I love ST:AW more than Star Wars is because it feels more like a Star Trek episode simulator. You get a mission with each ship that mirrors an episode it appeared in. The Tholian ships, for example, came with a reenactment of Kirk's initial meeting with the Tholians. I had a blast trying to maneuver my two Tholians around the map to ensnare Seppe's Enterprise as he tried to get away.

I'll bring my copy back to my father's place for our Christmas holiday gaming event, along with all my ships and my star mat so we can get a group game going. Everyone that comes down for those events that you know is a huge Star Trek fan, so it should be fun.

I'll pipe in just to say that the x-wing version also has those missions that recreate stuff from movies, but nobody plays them.

That sounds like a blast. Can I play a Borg? I think I saw that silly looking ship when I was looking at the models a while back.

Okay, I'll pick up the starter so that I can learn the rules at least, and I will await the annual Hepcat beat down holiday party.

Star Wars is for competitive types, while ST:AW is more casual. I think Hark views the latter as essentially broken.

RMC wrote:That sounds like a blast. Can I play a Borg? I think I saw that silly looking ship when I was looking at the models a while back.

I forgot to mention that I also have three Borg ships. So yes, you can.

Brief aside: At Gencon, they had the giant Borg and the giant DS9 for 60 bucks each. I was THIS close to getting the DS9. If I had gone back on Sunday and they had been down to 50 each, I probably would've bought both. Those things are monsters.

hepcat wrote:Star Wars is for competitive types, while ST:AW is more casual. I think Hark views the latter as essentially broken.

RMC wrote:That sounds like a blast. Can I play a Borg? I think I saw that silly looking ship when I was looking at the models a while back.

I forgot to mention that I also have three Borg ships. So yes, you can.

Brief aside: At Gencon, they had the giant Borg and the giant DS9 for 60 bucks each. I was THIS close to getting the DS9. If I had gone back on Sunday and they had been down to 50 each, I probably would've bought both. Those things are monsters.

Ohhh... That looks awesome! Now I want the DS 9 model, just to have it...