OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Sun Jun 19, 2016 9:05 pm

I know this one is old news but just got finished playing Ticket to Ride with my daughters. The youngest (she's 8) is now old enough to grok these things so it's really fun to play something we all can enjoy.

paulbaxter · Post by **paulbaxter** » Sun Jun 19, 2016 9:11 pm

We attempted our first shot at Eldritch Horror this evening. I correctly guessed that the first try would just be learning and making mistakes. We had fun, and after watching a gameplay video afterwards, I think I have the hang of it now, but holy cow does this thing eat up some time and space. Millions of cards and tokens, nearly all of which you actually use during play. I think it would be just about as fun and MUCH easier to manage as a video game simulation.

My biggest point of confusion was the significance of the text under the cities. Perhaps SOMEWHERE in the rules that's made clear, but I couldn't really find it. I think I have it now after watching the video (you gain the stated bonus for successfully completing the city encounter).

Moat_Man · Post by **Moat_Man** » Mon Jun 20, 2016 3:07 am

We played a bunch of games this weekend. Tiny Epic Galaxies, Race for the Galaxy with The Gathering Storm expansion (first time with the expansion), Qwirkle (ended it tie!), and Dominion: Empires. Lots of fun with the kids.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:41 am

Chaz wrote:My copies of Falling Sky and Cuba Libre came in yesterday. The boards are both so small and adorable compared to the other two COIN games I own (FitL and LoD).

On Falling Sky, it's primarily because they dropped spaces for faction units and spaces for the cards. The various groups now have their own placards. I own both, but I've only played part of the tutorial for Falling Sky so far. Cuba Libra I've played with others at least once and I love it.

paulbaxter wrote:We attempted our first shot at Eldritch Horror this evening. I correctly guessed that the first try would just be learning and making mistakes. We had fun, and after watching a gameplay video afterwards, I think I have the hang of it now, but holy cow does this thing eat up some time and space. Millions of cards and tokens, nearly all of which you actually use during play. I think it would be just about as fun and MUCH easier to manage as a video game simulation.

My biggest point of confusion was the significance of the text under the cities. Perhaps SOMEWHERE in the rules that's made clear, but I couldn't really find it. I think I have it now after watching the video (you gain the stated bonus for successfully completing the city encounter).

The rulebooks are split into two (FFG's been doing that for a while now...and I love it) so you sometimes have to go to the rules reference to find things. But they're usually indexed in a logical manner. That doesn't mean you won't have to go hunt them down from time to time though. I need to get Eldritch Horror on the table more. It's a great game. Next time you decide to join us for Origins or something, we should play.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:52 am

FYI: Barnes and Noble's summer board game sale starts today. Confirmed items on clearance (usually 50% off):

Spoiler:

Of course, most stores won't have many of those games in stock.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Jun 20, 2016 5:52 pm

I may have to get one of these for Camel Up!

The Referee Camel

Rules:

The organizers of the race feel annoyed by the strange habit of the Camels to form stacks and carry each other along. To prevent this from now on, they introduce the Referee Camel.

The game is played as usual. At the beginning of each Leg, the player to the right of the player owning the Leg Starting Player marker places the Referee Camel onto any free space of the Race track.

When a Camel unit ends its movement on the space of the Referee Camel, all Camels of that unit are asked to "unstack" and to line up next to each other on that space. The Camels are "unstacked" from top to bottom and are lined up in the same order from left to right. (Therefore, the Camel on top is placed on the very left at the edge of the board and continues to be the leading camel of the former unit.)

Once all Camels of the unit have been "unstacked" (or a single Camel has landed on the space), the Referee Camel is removed from the Race track and placed next to the Game board. It enters the game again at the beginning of the next Leg (see above).

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 12:20 pm

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:FYI: Barnes and Noble's summer board game sale starts today. Confirmed items on clearance (usually 50% off):

Spoiler:
Among the Stars
Arkham Horror
Armadora
Bora Bora
Bring Out Yer Dead
Car Wars Classic
Car Wars the Card Game
Catan Explorers and Pirates (4th ed. only)
Catan Seafarers (4th ed. only)
Catan Traders and Barbarians (4th ed. only)
Cheaty Mages
Colt Express
D&D Attack Wing Frost Giant
D&D Attack Wing Green Dragon
D&D Attack Wing Wraith
Diamonsters
Doomtown Reloaded
Elder Sign
Fairy Tale
Flashlights and Fireflies
Golem Arcana
Harbour
Homeland
Istanbul
Jamaica
Kahuna
Kingsport Festival
Legendary Dark City
Mars Attacks the Dice Game
Mars Attacks Ten Minute Takedown
Masquerade
Munchkin Zombies
Pandemic the Cure
Qin
Rumble in the Dungeon
Samurai Spirit
Smash Up Awesome Level 9000
Steam Torpedo
Terra Mystica
Ticket to Ride Asia
Tiny Epic Defenders
XCOM
Zombicide
Zombicide Prison Break
Of course, most stores won't have many of those games in stock.

It's been a decade or more since I set foot in a book store. I went to my local B&N to look for games and First Contract as recommended by Izzy.

1) The "Red Dot" sale on those games was impossible to find.
2) Of those listed above my B&N had Car Wars Classic, Doomtown Reloaded, Zombicide. They also had PathFinder Card Game core set not listed. I was unimpressed and bought nothing. They did have a lot of puzzles and a bunch of toys, some of which geek toy lovers who order those geek of the month boxes would enjoy, I guess.
3) They didn't have First Contract either and their kiosk couldn't even locate the book in the database and that took forever.

I left empty handed.

So what should have taken me five minutes at most to figure out I was going to leave empty handed took nearly 40 minutes. I am not inspired to set foot in a book store again for another long time.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:00 pm

I'm pretty sure First Contract is OOP. Your best bet is Amazon resellers or your local used book store.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:02 pm

B&N sets them aside on separate counters that won't necessarily be near the board game section of the store. But my local store had a bunch of the games listed above. I fought my urge to buy everything and instead only left with Legendary Encounters: Alien.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:05 pm

Wise choice, my friend. Wise choice.

I need to run up to the one near the office this afternoon and see what's up.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:07 pm

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:B&N sets them aside on separate counters that won't necessarily be near the board game section of the store. But my local store had a bunch of the games listed above. I fought my urge to buy everything and instead only left with Legendary Encounters: Alien.

I learned that hard way. Mine also had Red Dot sales in more than one spot but all of the trending to adult style games were all in one spot... no where near the trending to adult style games shelves in the store. May others have a better experience than I did.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:43 pm

I need to remember to go by my local B&N as well. Not that I truly need any new games.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 2:33 pm

Okay, just got back. I grabbed the last two core boxes for the new edition of the Game of Thrones LCG. At 20 bucks a pop, I got one for me and one for seppe (zarathud already has 3) for better deck building variety.

They had Zombicide (two copies), Smash Up and a Cataan expansion. This is in Deerfield, IL.

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 3:10 pm

Since I noticed that my copy of Defenders of the Last Stand was delivered this should be enough to keep me from stopping by the nearby B&N and checking out the board games...well that's the hope anyway.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 3:34 pm

I have just 2 core boxes of GoT2.0, but look forward to playing.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 3:46 pm

I thought you had 3?

Ah well, they only had two cores, so now all of us have the same number. I could justify 20 bucks for another core, but I couldn't see spending another 40 on the game. I'm weird like that.

paulbaxter · Post by **paulbaxter** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:57 pm

So it turns out I was STILL wrong about the text under the cities on EH. It merely represents the MOST LIKELY outcome of a successful encounter in that city. Which I guess is why the rule book doesn't spend time on it. I still found that very confusing.

Edit: We tried another game tonight. Even though we were much more familiar with the rules, we didn't come all that close to finishing before bed time for the kids (about 2 hours in). We were having some fun, though my youngest was a bit hesitant about sacrificing his health to grapple with the monsters. Also, we had lousy luck with trying to solve the mysteries. We came CLOSE to the conditions for the first one. We had to close a gate while the omen marker was correct for that gate, but then the investigator had to spend a clue to put a token on the card. The encounter to close the gate ate all our clues. Also, a rumor spawned an epic monster that nearly killed us all (countdown to doing 6 damage to everyone). We narrowly avoided that, but we were still a ways from solving any mysteries, the doom clock was running down, and bedtime was approaching. We also had another rumor that ate ALL of the items other than ones in our hands.

Maybe next time we'll have better luck?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:18 pm

Got in about half of a learning game of Defenders of the Last Stand last night with my son (13). I was actually pretty excited because usually I can't tear him away from his Xbox for something as simple as a board game, but as my wife said, with a bad guy called "Puke" in it, what's not for him to like?

We really had a good time playing. I was letting him make his own decisions, providing some strategy advice overall but letting him take the lead on what his character would do. He had the flier and I had the trapper, so he was very mobile flitting all around the board and I was pretty solid at taking down monstrosities. We quit about 10 because he was getting tired and he thought the game was rather hopeless. It did look slightly grim, but having been a veteran of many a game of DotR, I saw some light.

Overall, I like all of the new mechanics. I like the different feel of the gangs, I like the adventures in addition to the missions, the differentiation of the gear. None of the changes seem to slow down the game much either. I like the idea of the scenarios, but wish there were more than just the 3 that came with the game. Hopefully 8th Summit will post some more on their website as the claimed they were going to.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:33 pm

That's my take as well. It's pure Ameritrash fun. But the hand management is surprisingly deep for such.

I keep losing thanks to damn overruns, myself. I need to concentrate more on taking out those oil rigs as they're limited, and once the last one goes out, it's game over...you lose.

It's got a lot of moving parts, but they're all thematic, which I love. I do suggest not playing with less than 3 heroes though. It seems a bit too hard for less than that. But that might just be because I suck.

As far as I know ,there are plans to release more scenarios online by 8th Summit. As well as expansions if it sells well enough at retail. I imagine it will, as Defenders of the Realm was very popular for a while. And this is just as much fun, I feel.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:34 pm

hepcat wrote:That's my take as well. It's pure Ameritrash fun. But the hand management is surprisingly deep for such.

I keep losing thanks to damn overruns, myself. I need to concentrate more on taking out those oil rigs as they're limited, and once the last one goes out, it's game over...you lose.

It's got a lot of moving parts, but they're all thematic, which I love. I do suggest not playing with less than 3 heroes though. It seems a bit too hard for less than that. But that might just be because I suck.

As far as I know ,there are plans to release more scenarios online by 8th Summit. As well as expansions if it sells well enough at retail. I imagine it will, as Defenders of the Realm was very popular for a while. And this is just as much fun, I feel.

Make sure you are playing the overruns correctly. Overruns do not trigger other overruns, like they do in Pandemic.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:42 pm

No, but they put out oil rigs when it would trigger any past the first. That's where I get beaten up.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:52 pm

Yep. Just making sure you weren't exploding out beyond what you needed to.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:53 pm

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 1:34 pm

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:I fought my urge to buy everything and instead only left with Legendary Encounters: Alien.

I haven't played yet, but I have to say that I'm impressed by how randomly and unintuitively packaged the cards were. It only took my about an hour to sort them...

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 1:45 pm

Oh Good God, yes. I love that series, but jeebus they're a pain to sort out initially. It's like they went to great lengths to make it as difficult as possible.

Fortunately, once you're past that, you'll find it's a very fun game.

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:17 pm

Just finished a tutorial game of Dawn of the Zeds (2nd ed.) This game is made for a Taoist. Success is an illusion. Victory against the undead is an illusion. For every bit of hope you may have is a card to show you that life is suffering and in the end death (or undeath). Even so, there was one group of civilians in a village that kept making those rolls and surviving against all odds. In my head, they hear the gunshots from the town center growing more desperate then silence. All attempts to raise them by radio in vain. But by nightfall they are able to slip out of the village to an uncertain future...

Oh, highly recommend this game and hope to find the time to bring it out again and play one of the regular scenarios...with an extra helping of doom of course. But now back to Warhammer Quest the Adventure Card Game where I'm in the middle of a campaign and finally making some good headway with my heroes. Of course, at this stage the monsters get harder...

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:53 pm

As soon as the new witch hunter and troll slayer character packs are out, I'm starting a campaign in that as well.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Sat Jun 25, 2016 6:28 am

Played sea of clouds the other day. It's a shall push your luck card game where you look at a card, decide to either take it or pass and make it sweater for the next person. You collect sets of relics or add to your pirate crew. Every few turns you fight your neighboring ships. I bought it knowing nothing about it and I have to say it's actually pretty good for a light filler game. It's beautiful and the decisions are interesting. Not bad.

Also I suddenly want scythe. I probably should have backed it. Now I'll end up paying a little more for it.

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Sat Jun 25, 2016 8:16 am

hepcat wrote:As soon as the new witch hunter and troll slayer character packs are out, I'm starting a campaign in that as well.

You can buy them right from the FFG website, standard shipping got them to me in 2 days. I hope to try them out soon.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Sat Jun 25, 2016 6:41 pm

Been playing the BattleCON series games. Wow! We are really enjoying that. I also got Fief with the expansions pack) through a trade. Looking forward to getting that to the table.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:57 pm

Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game

This was considerably more fun than I was expecting. The rules are super simple but the way cards combo together creates a pretty dynamic game. The fact that killing your own units is a valid strategy to win creates a weird dynamic where your opponents are actually trying to keep your pieces alive...except for when they are trying to murder you of course.

If you like fairly light games with a hefty helping of goodhearted “take that” mechanics, I would say give it a look.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sun Jun 26, 2016 8:24 pm

Got in a great game of Churchill yesterday with Seppe and Archinerd. We played the full campaign. Probably around 4 or 5 hours. Look forward to playing it again. Also looking forward to the next game from Hermann that uses the same mechanics. The back and forth wasn't working for me until I realized that as Stalin, I really need to be argumentative whenever possible.

Then we got in a game of Ashes with the new factions. I picked up a full set of dice at Origins so we were able to field whatever we liked.

Next weekend I'm hoping to get games of Millennium Blade, Mare Nostrum and Defenders of the the Last Stand going.

Archinerd · Post by **Archinerd** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:30 am

hepcat wrote:Got in a great game of Churchill yesterday with Seppe and Archinerd. We played the full campaign. Probably around 4 or 5 hours. Look forward to playing it again. Also looking forward to the next game from Hermann that uses the same mechanics. The back and forth wasn't working for me until I realized that as Stalin, I really need to be argumentative whenever possible.

Then we got in a game of Ashes with the new factions. I picked up a full set of dice at Origins so we were able to field whatever we liked.

Next weekend I'm hoping to get games of Millennium Blade, Mare Nostrum and Defenders of the the Last Stand going.

You forgot the part where we quoted lines from Grease, but maybe that was intentional.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 7:27 am

In all fairness, I think everyone gets Roosevelt and Rizzo mixed up.

Archinerd · Post by **Archinerd** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:11 am

Oh, and you forgot to mention the giggling too. There was plenty of giggling.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:26 am

I stand by my belief that a board game based on Grease would be great. Not as great as the board game version of Three's Company...but still great.

You still need to feign an illness and join us this Saturday. Family obligations be damned!

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:26 am

Played my first game of Legendary: Aliens yesterday. We had only played about 8 turns when my girlfriend got a facehugger and neither of us could kill it. I guess in future games we should make sure to kill them before they get attached to our face....

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:28 pm

Just noticed the pre order for Star Trek: Frontiers is up on Coolstuff and Miniaturemarket. I ordered from the former just now. The street date is supposedly this Wednesday.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:12 pm

hepcat wrote:Just noticed the pre order for Star Trek: Frontiers is up on Coolstuff and Miniaturemarket. I ordered from the former just now. The street date is supposedly this Wednesday.

Happy 4th of July weekend!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:21 pm

Oh, I won't get it until after the 4th, I'm sure. Coolstuff doesn't ship THAT fast.