Octopus Overlords

Thanksgiving gaming tally, day 1: Camel Up - Lost horribly. Colt Express - Lost horribly.

hentzau wrote:Thanksgiving gaming tally, day 1: Camel Up - Lost horribly. Colt Express - Lost horribly.

I don't think I've won a game in my last three gaming outings. But losing at a day of good gaming is way better than not being able to game. All three days were a great success.

YAY! Monthly game day!

Played Steam and Machi Kori (sp?) - both with 5 players - games that I have played before so had some idea how to play. Second place in Steam, we had to quit before finishing MK - I was winning, only had the airport left to build and some good money making stuff. Finally though, the guy w/ the tech investment rolled a couple 10s and took all the money in the game. He got everything built but the harbor and the 10 or 16 point thing. And had tons of money. It seemed likely he would beat me, so we gave him the win.

Tried Roll for the Galaxy. Played Race once but failed to grasp the mechanics adequately, failed miserably. Did much better w/ roll. 3 player 30 (me), 32, 38. Guess that's a fairly close spread for this game.

Forgot the name of the tile laying game we started with. We each had a castle that gave us 5 gold to start with. Then we got 3 random tiles, one you would destroy, 2 you would put a price on. All in secret at the same time, reveal them. Then takes turns, everyone buys one tile from someone. The person the tile was purchased from gets the money they put up for the price back and the money from the buyer. If you had either/both of the tiles you put out to buy left, you got them, but you lost the money you put out for them. If you bought one with barrels, it would produce one gold, but only if you had roads leading back to the castle. There were cattle, sheep, lakes with boats and lighthouses. The Cattle were 2 points if they had a road back to the castle. Sheep/cattle were 1 point each if they were adjacent (diagonal was sufficient) to a farmhouse. Didn't need roads. Largest enclosed lake was 2 points/tile. 3 points for each lake that contained a boat and lighthouse. But, you only scored 2 of those things in each of the first four rounds, then 3 of them in the last. Think it was cattle/animals, then cattle/largest lake, cattle/set, animals/set, then I think it was animals/largest lake/set (in the 5 rounds, each got scored 3 times). I took second for a large number of cattle/sheep, fair amount of money and managed to get a 4 piece lake and set. Winner got a 5 piece large lake off the bat and got to score it for all 3 rounds. I'd have won most tiles I think and definitely most roads connected if those were categories.

Fun times all around today!

I visited my board-game-playing cousin for Thanksgiving, and tried a few games for the first time.

Robo Rally was just great -- hilarious and chaotic. Space Alert was also hilarious and chaotic, although I think it probably shines best when played frequently as part of a regular gaming group, since practice and coordination play a major role.

I also played Pleasant Dreams, a small-box Kickstarted card game for 1 or 2 players. It has amazing art and very bland gameplay -- for a very light 2-player card game, I much prefer Exploding Kittens.

Friday I played even more Mistfall...and finally beat the intro scenario. Now to put on my big boy pants and tackle the large maps.

I picked up the Warhammer Quest: Adventure Card Game on Wednesday and we played the first quest of that one too. In spite of having the name Adventure Card Game tacked onto the end of the title, it really is nothing like the Pathfinder series that shares that designation. If anything, it plays more like Mistfall and Lord of the Rings: LCG. We beat it, but it rapidly ramped up in difficulty and it looked uncertain towards the end. Two thumbs up on this one so far. It's pretty damn amazing what you can do with just four cards for each character (not counting the 4 upgrades you can buy between quests). Also, it has a simplified campaign system that I suspect will only get better with FFG's tendency to release one expansion per minute for their games.

Finally, we played 5 successive games of The Grizzled. This small card game of friends surviving trench warfare in WWI is brutal. You have to manage your hand of cards with excruciating attention to detail or you lose...and usually within 15 to 20 minutes. We got a bit obsessed with beating it and ended up playing it over and over and over again.

We never did win...

The rest of Thanksgaming weekend went as follows:

Thursday - Played 4 games of Bottom of the 9th. My brother really loved it. Split the 4 games with him. This really is a great little game. Highly recommended.

Friday - Got in a game of Steampunk Rally. Really like this one too. Just haven't had the time to play it much. I won this one pretty decisively, but I wasn't expecting to based on how I started. Plus, it was only a 2 player game, much more fun with 3-4.

Nothing the rest of the weekend, sadly. Spent most of the rest of the weekend traveling, shopping, and raking leaves.

4x Powerboats
2x Monster Factory
1x Kids of Carcassonne
1x Life

All were with my 6 year old. He likes Powerboats, but doesn't have the attention span for it, so I end up playing against myself.

Guys, don't try to teach Castles of Burgundy after a single read of the rules. It's not a complicated game once you know what you're doing, but the rules do a pretty terrible job of explaining it. I tried this with my in-laws and wife on Thanksgiving. It took us over three hours to play, and I managed to screw up three different rules, including turn sequence. One of them was especially annoying because I knew I didn't know what a particular symbol meant, and I spent 10 minutes searching the rules for it, but never found it. We liked it in the end, but it was a rough go.

Then we played Castles of Mad King Ludwig. My wife and I have played this a half dozen times. Then she noticed that I'd never had us put $1k on the un-bought room tiles each turn. That changed things a bit.

So basically, I suck at reading rules and should never be trusted to do it.

Chaz wrote:So basically, I suck at reading rules and should never be trusted to do it.

It's a blessing to not be trusted as the game teacher.

coopasonic wrote:

Chaz wrote:So basically, I suck at reading rules and should never be trusted to do it.

It's a blessing to not be trusted as the game teacher.

coopasonic wrote:

Chaz wrote:So basically, I suck at reading rules and should never be trusted to do it.

It's a blessing to not be trusted as the game teacher.

Truth.

Isgrimnur wrote:Just demoed Sol: Last Days of a Star with the designer. It will be up on Kickstarter in January. It's pretty good, despite my last place finish.

I'll have pics and links later.

The box:


The board:


The creator:


The Boardgamegeek page

Ryan states that it should be up on kickstarter in January.

Ha we've all been there. I found out I was playing five tribes wrong for months the other day.

The most recent episode of the podcast 99% Invisible was about Monopoly (it's history and some about whether as a game it is well designed at all). Apparently, I (and most everyone) plays the game incorrectly. According to the rules, when you land on an empty space and you decide not to buy it, the space goes up for auction to everyone.

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:The most recent episode of the podcast 99% Invisible was about Monopoly (it's history and some about whether as a game it is well designed at all). Apparently, I (and most everyone) plays the game incorrectly. According to the rules, when you land on an empty space and you decide not to buy it, the space goes up for auction to everyone.

We all knew that.

Well...you did, apparently.

And no money goes on Free Parking.

Playing monopoly right actually makes it decent. It's all the crap rules people add that extends the game too long. Crap rules we were all raised playing (like free paying). It's much more ruthless played correctly. People run put of money much faster and the properties all get bought up much quicker.

Isgrimnur wrote:And no money goes on Free Parking.

Isn't there a card that adds money to Free Parking? So most of the time there is no money, but it is possible?

Nope. All payments go to the bank. It's a socialist contrivance that fees and penalties beome windfalls for others.

Isgrimnur wrote:Nope. All payments go to the bank. It's a socialist contrivance that fees and penalties beome windfalls for others.

Next you'll tell me you're not supposed to assign all properties as owned by the State with equal rent all around the board? Or that you're supposed to get more than one loaf of bread when you pass Go?

There is an optional rule to shorten the game by handing out a number of random properties to each player and they have to pay full price for them. That helps also.

And let's not forget the rule that you have to get a beer for your creepy uncle whenever you pass Park Place.

Even played correctly I still don't like Monopoly.

I had the first Star Wars Monopoly set when it came out. I was very disappointed to discover that it was simply Monopoly with the names and tokens changed. I was hoping that you could build a Death Star in the game and destroy other player's properties.

hentzau wrote:I was very disappointed to discover that it was simply Monopoly with the names and tokens changed.

I've got some bad news for you regarding about 700 other 'opoly games.

Maybe you do suck at reading rules.

I have been in the same boat. I would rather make a judgment call and continue rather than get bogged down for 10+ minutes looking for the answer. There are a few games where I dread teaching the rules.

I was at the House of Hepcat this weekend.

The Grizzled is a really tough game, but over so quick that you're certain that THIS is the time you'll finally make the right choices to survive. Then someone plays a card that screws you all over. Every damn time.

Warhammer did a decent job of steadily ramping up the difficulty and dread. The bad guy was killable, but kept surviving and escaping in the scenario so we had to kill the rat bastard 3 times.

As the dwarf, I fought and killed a lot of critters. And received a LOT of aggression which made sure I couldn't get away from the action. Luckily, i was tough to kill -- especially in my sweet plate armor -- but would have died in the final turn of the game. While hepcat's sweet healing abilities could not save me or kill the boss, he was instead finally able to complete the scenario just in time.

The kicker is that with only 4 actions that don't refresh each turn and 9-10 turns only, you have a puzzle that requires much more thinking than you would expect. I couldn't attack every turn unless someone aided me to refresh my attack - or I aided someone else to attack their enemies even though I had my own bad guys to kill! And if I had too many bad guys, I was stuck inefficiently managing my cards or healing instead of fighting. If you don't like puzzles, Warhammer Card Game might not click with you.

My wife ordered Flick 'Em Up for me for my birthday. Should be here by the end of the week.

YellowKing wrote:My wife ordered Flick 'Em Up for me for my birthday. Should be here by the end of the week.

hepcat wrote:Well...you did, apparently.

I only know this because I played Monopoly on the NES as a young 'un, and that enforces the auctioning rule.

Of course, the game also allows you to fleece any AI that needs one of your properties for a monopoly. Like, if you own Park Place and the AI owns Boardwalk, it will demand that you trade it Park Place, and will accept a trade wherein you give it Park Place in exchange for Boardwalk and $20. Of course, the AI will then immediately demand that you trade it Boardwalk, and will accept a trade wherein you give it Boardwalk in exchange for Park Place and $20...

El Guapo wrote:

hepcat wrote:Well...you did, apparently.

I only know this because I played Monopoly on the NES as a young 'un, and that enforces the auctioning rule.

Of course, the game also allows you to fleece any AI that needs one of your properties for a monopoly. Like, if you own Park Place and the AI owns Boardwalk, it will demand that you trade it Park Place, and will accept a trade wherein you give it Park Place in exchange for Boardwalk and $20. Of course, the AI will then immediately demand that you trade it Boardwalk, and will accept a trade wherein you give it Boardwalk in exchange for Park Place and $20...

YLSSOLPU Collect $300 as you pass Go
IPSSOLPU Collect $100 as you pass Go
AAVZKAYP Pay $0 to get out of jail
IPVZKAYO Pay $100 to get out of jail
LOOAVKZP Pay $30 for luxury tax
IOOAVKZO Pay $100 for luxury tax
PUOAVKZP Pay $200 for luxury tax
AESAVGPL Pay $0 for income tax
LOSAVGPL Pay $30 for income tax
IOSAVGPU Pay $100 for income tax
YUSAVGPU Pay $300 for income tax
YLOSLKLK $300 to buy Boardwalk
LIOSLKLG $600 to buy Boardwalk
PLOIZGIG $200 to buy Park Place
LGOIZGIK $400 to buy Park Place
LIOIZGIG $600 to buy Park Place
IPOSZGPU Houses on Park Place cost $100
YLOSZGPU Houses on Park Place cost $300
IPXILGPU Houses on Boardwalk cost $100
YLXILGPU Houses on Boardwalk cost $300
YAOAILLA Go Back 7 spaces instead of 3 on Chance

See, Free Parking comes with a 500 bill, one population card, one NukeWar card.

And you can base and launch from there (though anyone else can steal it if you fail to launch before someone lands there).

You may also base one card from hand on any of your properties.

Got a couple of scenarios of Flick 'Em Up in last night. Before we began I had Ennio Morricone soundtracks blasting to set the tone, which everyone loved.

Scenario 1 is basically just a shootout to teach the basic mechanics, and I lost narrowly due to an eagle-eye shot from across the table that brought the whole room to its feet clapping and cheering.

Scenario 2 is set up to basically force everyone to duel. Time ran out on the scenario, so it came down to my Sheriff and his deputy against one outlaw in a fight to the death. My Sheriff had two revolvers, so I was getting 3 shots per turn vs his 1, so I thought I had it in the bag. NOPE. He stumbled across an excellent flick technique and made short work of both my guys, much to the delight of the outlaw team who had all but given up.

This one was a big hit, mainly because it is so different from anything else in my collection. One of our gaming group even called it "the single best purchase" I'd made in a long time. He was totally enthralled.

A couple of observations - we found that depending on how you set up the map layout, you could make it really hard to get your hands into position to flick. So next time we'll probably take a bit more artistic license to spread things out a bit to accommodate adult-sized hands. We also wound up playing on a glass table, which I think inhibited the movement of the disc a bit. I think playing this on a recently Pledged wooden table would really make things interesting.

I can't say enough nice things about the components and box - this is one of those games that you definitely get your $60 worth in component quality (though I got it for $45 from CoolStuff which was even better).

Eight hours of Cards Against Humanity, followed by about three hours of Munchkin, all on 4 hours of sleep and gallons of coffee. I will have some fun dreams tonight!

Been playing Myth 2.0 solo this weekend. It's a large improvement overall. The quest and realm tile system no longer seem to be haphazardly thrown together, and the key words on cards work perfectly with your actions. Now to wait for the rest of the 2.0 stuff next friggin' year so I can actually play this game.

...and I thought Shadows of Brimstone made me wait too long.

hepcat wrote:Been playing Myth 2.0 solo this weekend. It's a large improvement overall. The quest and realm tile system no longer seem to be haphazardly thrown together, and the key words on cards work perfectly with your actions. Now to wait for the rest of the 2.0 stuff next friggin' year so I can actually play this game.

...and I thought Shadows of Brimstone made me wait too long.

I printed out Myth 2.0 character cards earlier this year and they were definitely a huge improvement. I received my Myth 2.0 upgrades on Saturday and re-sleeved all my older materials. I went over the new rules, and looked over both the quest and trap cards. Both look to be major improvements as you stated, and I am looking forward to playing again soon. I just received Dungeon Saga today, but have yet to even review any of it.

I tried out Castles of the Mad King Ludwig for the first time yesterday. It was really fun even though I was terrible at it. Hopefully I'll get to play it again soon now that I have a better idea of which bonus cards are valuable and how the completion bonuses work.

It's safe to assume that it's slipped, as I can't find it, but they did have a setup at BGG.CON.

New supplement announced for Elder Sign. I'm liking what I'm reading.

I played Quarriors with my seven year old on this week. So far I believe he's undefeated against me. Much fun is had when your kids beat you at a game.

(and no, I didn't tank it)

Played Sheriff of Nottingham for the first time. I enjoyed it but the other people I was with didn't. I don't think they are much into games that require deception.

I also played a two player game of Small World. Again, I liked it well enough. I think it would be a lot more interesting with 4 or 5 people, though.

Finished the weekend with my second game of Castles of Mad King Ludwig. I did a lot better this time now that I have a feel for the game. Of these three games (which I bought together with the Amazon B2G1 deal), I'm pretty sure this is the one we'll be breaking out most often.