OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 11:32 am

That app for Imperial Assault is bad news for my wallet. When the game first came out it looked like a lot of fun but I was perfectly content to just read about it since it seemed to play best with a group. Sigh...

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 7:35 pm

I broke down and ordered Star Trek: Frontiers to go in my solo games collection. I've been wanting Mage Knight forever, so I was really torn between the two. I really prefer the artwork of Mage Knight much more than Frontiers, but I just have so many freaking fantasy games already. Thought it would be nice to have something a little thematically different in my collection. Plus, one of the guys in my game group is a HUGE Star Trek fan, so if I ever want to give it a whirl with more people he'd totally be up for it regardless of the time sink.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 9:23 am

coopasonic wrote:I got to play games!

I played Burgle Bros with X(10) and we won pretty easily... mostly because I forgot to thin the patrol decks for two players (oops). Our loot... Gemstone, Mirror and... Chihuahua. It was a bit of a shock to find that little dog in the safe... and he is clearly *not* potty trained.

Then I taught X(10) and the wife to play Evolution. The kid picked it up pretty quickly but the wife really didn't get the idea until much later in the game. We'll call it a learning game and not really consider it a win... my score was more than the sum of theirs (thanks huge hard shelled foraging scavenger). I'm really looking forward to Climate adding a bit more variability to the game (that I have only played twice ).

Two weekends in a row. This is amazing.

OK, it was just two games of Flash Point with X(10), but we had fun with it. We really need to up the difficulty next time we play. I figured out something I have been playing wrong since the very beginning (years!) and it significantly reduced the difficulty... In fact I am amazed we ever won the way I was playing it (advance fire roll on hot spot = explosion + new advance fire roll and new hot spot... no, just a new advance fire roll and new hot spot, you can keep the explosion thanks).

I also played a game of Hostage Negotiator, trying to decide if I want to go in on the stand alone expansion. It was a beating, probably the worst loss I have ever experienced in the game with no hostages saved. I am still considering the kickstarter, but I really shouldn't be. I just don't find the brutality of the game interesting... as opposed to Legendary Encounters and Robinson Crusoe where I enjoy the brutality, so it's not just the difficulty.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 9:26 am

Forgot to mention, for the parents or people with short attention span spouses, I knew there was a "lite" version of Evolution coming out. I was looking at it in Target and saw there is also a Ticket to Ride Lite edition (First Journey). Both games offer slightly simpler rules and significantly shorter playtime, making them more suitable for younger kids. I picked up the TtR game for the youngest's 7th birthday next month. I may pick up Evolution The Beginning as well. I think both are Target exclusives for some time.

Ticket to Ride First Journey - $35

Evolution The Beginning - $25

Target has 10% off board games with coupon code GENCON. I expect that deal may be ending soon.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 11:14 am

We played a 4 player game of Scythe this weekend. Overall, I had fun - although the first game feels a bit like you are stumbling around with very little direction. I won pretty handily, largely because I was able to up my popularity to the second tier and get all six stars while everyone else only had 3-4 (my last few stars came very quickly due to achieving max power and using a hoard of workers in a village to produce the last remaining workers all at once). When the game ended, it ended fast, despite a fairly slow build up. We only had around three battles, and they were almost always incredibly one sided (one side either had overwhelming power or enough combat cards to deal a decisive blow).

I think the game is a keeper, but I must say I was not as "wowed' by it as I thought I would (in contrast to say Cthulhu Wars, Arcadia Quest, and Blood Rage, where I knew I would love the pieces but worried the game would be too simple - only to be surprised that the gameplay on all of these was also amazing). For all the mechs and the giant map, Scythe feels a little like slightly interactive solitaire. These is very little you can do to completely ruin your enemies, short of running off all their workers or stealing the occasional pile of resources. Mechs and workers do not die, so there is no need to worry about remaking them. Once you get the speed upgrade for mechs and characters, you can pretty much return your forces to the map when you want them there (and the factory cards' "move two" power is helpful as well). We also did not particularly take advantage of production - it seemed too expensive and difficult to get your workers spread out where you wanted them and to have them produce mass quantities when you could use "trade" and get a quick two resources or you could do an encounter and get a nice pile of resources. Perhaps this will change with future plays.

I plan on keeping it, because it was fun and I want to see how the automata plays, but I have to say it was not as exciting as expected from the hype. It did not play particularly quick, so I wonder if a game like Mare Nostrum (which I am still trying to get on the table) would do much of the same thing as Scythe in a quicker time.

One negative side note - the player boards began to warp while we were playing. It was not a humid day (very low humidity, actually and in a closed up house) so I was disappointed by that. I am sure I can fix it, but it was a bit jarring to see this happen. That being said, the Collector's Edition resources make the game way cooler looking!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 11:24 am

baelthazar wrote: I plan on keeping it, because it was fun and I want to see how the automata plays, but I have to say it was not as exciting as expected from the hype. It did not play particularly quick, so I wonder if a game like Mare Nostrum (which I am still trying to get on the table) would do much of the same thing as Scythe in a quicker time.

Mare Nostrum is surprisingly quick for a game of that scope. But a lot of the historical mechanics are abstracted quite a bit. However, I didn't feel like I was missing much when I played. It still felt grand and epic.

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 12:46 pm

coopasonic wrote:I also played a game of Hostage Negotiator, trying to decide if I want to go in on the stand alone expansion. It was a beating, probably the worst loss I have ever experienced in the game with no hostages saved. I am still considering the kickstarter, but I really shouldn't be. I just don't find the brutality of the game interesting... as opposed to Legendary Encounters and Robinson Crusoe where I enjoy the brutality, so it's not just the difficulty.

That's interesting; I recall winning my first few games rather easily, which gave me the opposite impression. Of course, I was disabused of that notion after spending more time with the game. The dice are obviously a major factor, but generally speaking, an early focus on reducing the Threat Level typically works best in my experience.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 1:31 pm

I felt similar with scythe but I've only played a two player game and I was hoping it was a better multiplayer game than two player. I'll give it a try but I'm worried it might be more solitaire than I wanted. I might like mare nostrum more than scythe overall, but I will say mare nostrum is a worse 2 player game than scythe. They have one scenario and it's ok. 4 players I loved it. So we'll see how scythe compares with more in a couple weeks when I get it to the table again.

I had some throw back gaming this week including playing catan for the first time in 5 years. I do still love that game. I have such fond memories of tons of plays of it. It was nice to see it on the table again and to really still enjoy it a lot. Carcassonne also hit the table again this weekend, another classic I've played a ton. Still love that game as well. Just so well designed.

Had a play of isle of Skye this week as well. It was... Ok. Honestly I expected better. But... And this is a big but... It was a two player game. I hope it will shine at higher player counts. I'll get a chance to try it in a couple of weeks with more players. I can see how it should be a lot of fun but with two players it just wasn't clicking that way.

I also saw the new ticket to ride junior (a target exclusive btw) and managed to pick it up with the 10% off code. Then played it for fun. It's actually decent. As a kids game I think it's decent. Much more luck than ticket to ride but it delivers the feel at a younger age.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 1:35 pm

Chrisoc13 wrote:I felt similar with scythe but I've only played a two player game and I was hoping it was a better multiplayer game than two player. I'll give it a try but I'm worried it might be more solitaire than I wanted. I might like mare nostrum more than scythe overall, but I will say mare nostrum is a worse 2 player game than scythe. They have one scenario and it's ok. 4 players I loved it. So we'll see how scythe compares with more in a couple weeks when I get it to the table again.

Well, bear in mind that 2 player was kind of an afterthought for Mare Nostrum. It really isn't intended as such. To me, this is one of those few games that truly shines the more people you add. And the time with a full 5 or 6 players is still under 3 hours (heck, I played a full six player game at Origins in 2 hours). That just amazes me. There's a reason Marcowargamer, the esteemed wargame reviewer, calls it a classic.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 1:37 pm

Yeah I wasn't expecting much for the 2 player game. But I was hoping still. I look forward to trying higher play counts but yeah I really really enjoyed 4 players. Enough to buy the poker chip tokens after the kickstarter because I figure it might get enough play.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 1:43 pm

Yeah, I was tempted by those poker chip resources too at Origins. I didn't add them during the kickstarter, but I played with them at Origins and I have to say, I'm kind of regretting not dropping the cash on them there and then. Ah well, I can't bling out everything.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 9:27 am

I finally managed to get through a (solo) game of Star Trek: Frontiers last night. Just did the walkthrough. I've never played Mage Knight so I knew going in I was heading for a steep learning curve. I was still taken aback at just *how* steep, though. I must admit I was having some buyer's remorse after the first night of taking out the components, and struggling through the walkthrough rulebook.

However, I watched a series of walkthrough videos on YouTube by Ricky Royal - twice - and those helped tremendously. I also practiced just setting up the game, familiarizing myself with the components and layout, etc.

Last night I decided to go for it, and after a couple of turns everything just started to click. Now I haven't gotten into any of the more advanced rules like multiple ship combat or assaulting Borg cubes or anything like that, but foundation-wise I feel pretty confident. At least confident enough I think I can teach the game's basics to our gaming group. Right now that "group" is probably just going to be and one other guy since the others don't have much interest in Star Trek or games of this magnitude. That's fine, since I think just playing with the two of us is going to take long enough.

It's really odd because even as I was watching the videos I kept thinking, "Ok, I think I get the game mechanics, but I'm not sure this actually looks fun." But yet I found myself thinking about my game session over and over this morning - "What if I had done this? What if I had done that?" It definitely worms its way into your brain, and I can't wait to get it back on the table.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 9:32 am

The common complaint AND praise is that the Mage Knight mechanics are a giant puzzle. I think Vlada intended that to be the case though, and I believe that's why he included the rule about being able to take back your moves at any time if you don't think they're going to work out for you.

I love the series, myself. It's the quintessential solo game. Once I get through all my stuff from Gencon, I'll probably start another game of Frontiers. Although I may go for Mage Knight as that one has a bit more variety in units, characters, etc.. Of course, it's had quite a few expansions since it was released.

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 5:07 pm

Took another stab at B-Sieged on Saturday. A lot of time was spent trying to learn the game. We won. But it was with a big *. I'm usually willing to allow a few mulligans under the theory that a mulligan is the same as starting over and having the game go exactly the same up to that point - and then choosing differently. And since I don't play a lot of games, I'd rather speed up the process when I do.

In this case, however, we needed a few more than I'm usually comfortable with.

But it was only the second game for my wife, and the first one for the other player. So I was willing to allow some flexibility.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Thu Aug 11, 2016 11:14 pm

Only Terry and I were available for our game night tonight, so I decided to teach him Star Trek Frontiers. I was really looking forward to playing with Terry because he's a HUGE Star Trek nerd, so I knew he'd get a lot of the references that went over my head. The only thing I was worried about was the game's complexity.

Turns out my fears were unfounded. He's a smart guy, and perhaps partially due to his love of the theme, he picked up the mechanics immediately. For this session we decided to just play through the walkthrough, and had a blast. The walkthrough mission is very easy (as it should be), so there was never any real danger of us getting beat up or losing. We actually wound up winning in Round 2, which was premature but was plenty time enough for him to become comfortable with the core concepts. To ease the downtime of the long player turns, we played cooperatively and helped each other explore various options and card combinations.

It was pretty funny playing with such a big Star Trek nerd. There was one crew member I hired and Terry responded, "That's pretty funny you'd hire him because he doesn't get along with the captain AT ALL on Deep Space Nine." I must say though that it helped me enjoy the game even more, as he framed everything in the context of how it would happen in the show. It also made me appreciate the theming much more, because they truly did take some care in the re-theme. For instance, Picard's focus tends to lean towards diplomacy, and my captain leaned more towards combat. As the game progressed, we realized that our skills and strengths were causing us to play in line with our captains' personalities from the series, which was neat. There were occasional inconsistencies (like me hiring a crew member that I didn't get along with on the show), but those were easily explained away due to the fact that everyone is being thrust together to battle the Borg like it or not.

Terry really enjoyed it and wants to go for a full co-op scenario next week. I was encouraged to discover that I actually enjoyed some of the "friendly rivalry" that came about as we played through the walkthrough. I thought I'd have zero interest in playing this competitively, but now I'm changing my tune. Even though we were trying to work together, we totaled scores for fun and Terry crushed me. This got me thinking about score possibilities that would be a ton of fun to explore in a competitive scenario.

Great game, and any doubts I had about purchasing it have disappeared. It is a beast of a time sink, but that's about the only negative I have. And I'm sure it will get faster as we get more comfortable with the rules.

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Thu Aug 11, 2016 11:59 pm

YellowKing wrote:Terry really enjoyed it and wants to go for a full co-op scenario next week. I was encouraged to discover that I actually enjoyed some of the "friendly rivalry" that came about as we played through the walkthrough. I thought I'd have zero interest in playing this competitively, but now I'm changing my tune. Even though we were trying to work together, we totaled scores for fun and Terry crushed me. This got me thinking about score possibilities that would be a ton of fun to explore in a competitive scenario.

Great game, and any doubts I had about purchasing it have disappeared. It is a beast of a time sink, but that's about the only negative I have. And I'm sure it will get faster as we get more comfortable with the rules.

The next time you play with your mate Terry (or, for that matter, even a solo game), I'd strongly recommend including and using the Random Away Team Missions available on BGG. It definitely helps add more story and flavour to the away missions, which any fan of the series will certainly appreciate (it's also very simple and easy to use, so no worries there).

Another BGG user is also currently developing a random away mission generator web site, though it's still a WiP and hasn't yet been made public (but if you're interested in testing and providing feedback, you can send him a GM on BGG and he's willing to provide access to what he's come up with so far). Certainly looks promising, though.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 8:55 am

I've been watching the fan made stuff for Frontiers on BGG too. I like what they're doing. After I get done going through all my Gencon loot, I think I'll fire the game back up and try those out.

Speaking of Star Trek themed games for Star Trek fans, I cannot stress how great Star Trek Ascendancy is for both Star Trek fans and for fans of epic 4x games. Your friend Terry will kerplotz within one turn, I would guess.

In other news...

Has anyone here played Assault on Doomrock? I've been interested in it for a while, but I've heard both good and bad things about it.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:54 am

hepcat wrote:Has anyone here played Assault on Doomrock? I've been interested in it for a while, but I've heard both good and bad things about it.

I own it and have read through the rules a dozen times, pulled all the parts out and sorted them, but have yet to actually play it. I've watched numerous tutorials on Youtube but just haven't been able to get it to the table yet. I've heard bad things about the expansion but other than being difficult (and random) I don't see what the complaints are. I think the randomness (cards, chits and dice) really turns a subset of gamers off completely. And the fact that there are multiple random elements is tantamount to heresy for some. It's also potentially long, but you can just walk away and come back later. My only complaint (regarding the components) is that some of the cards are tiny euro sized. I hate tiny euro cards, particularly when reading is involved. The game has a cheeky sense of humor and I really should bust it out. Maybe I can find some time this weekend when it's fishtank sauna outside...

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:58 am

Yeah, the randomness is the focus of most complaints I see. Let me know if you play it and like it.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:02 am

I'm almost done assembling my MERCS Recon figures (all of them) so I should have some time this weekend. From what I understand it's entirely possible to lose Doomrock in under an hour so here's hoping.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:05 pm

hepcat wrote:I've been watching the fan made stuff for Frontiers on BGG too. I like what they're doing. After I get done going through all my Gencon loot, I think I'll fire the game back up and try those out.

Speaking of Star Trek themed games for Star Trek fans, I cannot stress how great Star Trek Ascendancy is for both Star Trek fans and for fans of epic 4x games. Your friend Terry will kerplotz within one turn, I would guess.

In other news...

Has anyone here played Assault on Doomrock? I've been interested in it for a while, but I've heard both good and bad things about it.

I'm really looking forward to ascendancy. Did they have any of the faction expansions out at Gen con? Pretty cool the way they are doing it. As a star trek fan and a 4x fan this game is right up my alley.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 2:03 pm

Unfortunately, they did not have any expansions. I heard that they were hoping to get Cardassians ready, as they had demo copies that they used in their demo space. But they weren't able to get the bulk of the shipment ready in time.

I had Seppe grab me a copy while I was on my way down with Zarathud...then noticed that they never ran out the entire con. I'm guessing they brought a LOT of copies. So no worries about this one selling out on release, I would say.

I'm hoping to throw this on the table next weekend. The only downside right now is that it's 3 players only. You can't really play 2 without losing the trade aspect of the game, or at least trivializing it. So even after the release of expansions, it's going to be 3 and up. But that's fine by me. I've got MORE than enough 2 player games.

Harkonis · Post by **Harkonis** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 7:23 pm

Finally got my copy of The Undercity, played a ton of Star Realms and Shadowrun: Crossfire along with a smattering of Legendary Encounters Firefly.

Also loaded all my Krosmaster minis into the digital version on steam so now I can play without friends. lol

Do we have a thread for listing collections?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:17 pm

I just got finished playing Star Trek Panic! and boy was that great! I had been mildly interested in the game when I saw it, but when I saw the game played at GenCon, I had to snag a copy ($27 at CSI.).

The addition of the mission mechanic, characters with special abilities, and ability to maneuver the Enterprise change the play of the game quite a bit. You have many times that you need to make the hard decision about using cards to complete the mission at hand or shoot down ships that are pounding the heck out of the Enterprise.

In our game, I thought for sure we were done. By the time we hit the middle of the 4th mission we had taken so much damage that we were unable to maneuver. Then, we ended up losing the 4th mission. Had to start over. So we drew a new mission and had to start over. We had one nacelle that was still intact, but it had a damage already so a single shot and we would be dead. Anyway, through some luck and some great plays, we were able to actually pull off a win with two nacelles still functioning.

Highly recommended for fans of both Trek and Castle Panic.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:39 am

Thanks for that write-up hentzau. Star Trek Panic is definitely high on my buy list since our group has already run through all the other Panics and expansions. I've watched a few review videos and it certainly looked like much more than a simple reskin.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:42 pm

Played 3 games of Hostage Negotiator this weekend. Only won one. What a fantastic theme on a push your luck game. It really plays out like a hostage situation. The dice and cards make it feel like you're dealing with a disturbed opponent and less like luck. So much fun.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Sun Aug 14, 2016 9:00 pm

Cool! Need to give that a whirl.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Aug 15, 2016 12:52 pm

Hostage Negotiator? If so, you should. I really, really enjoy it. I'm surprised at how thematic this little dice and card game is.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Mon Aug 15, 2016 5:30 pm

baelthazar wrote: I think the game is a keeper, but I must say I was not as "wowed' by it as I thought I would (in contrast to say Cthulhu Wars, Arcadia Quest, and Blood Rage, where I knew I would love the pieces but worried the game would be too simple - only to be surprised that the gameplay on all of these was also amazing). For all the mechs and the giant map, Scythe feels a little like slightly interactive solitaire. These is very little you can do to completely ruin your enemies, short of running off all their workers or stealing the occasional pile of resources.

Once you get used to it, Scythe should be about a 90 minute game. We cut our playtime in half from our first to second game and cut that down a little more by the third. Slow build up with a fast end is pretty common though. It is quite typical in all of our games to end with one player pulling out 2-3 stars in a single turn. The German/black faction is particularly good at this since there is no limit on the number of stars he can place from combat.

Playing with a higher player count makes Scythe a lot more interactive. One strategy that has cropped up a couple times is using workers as human shields. Since players lose popularity for each worker they attack, you can cut players off from valuable resources. This goes double if you can get some works to the factory in the early game. Make people think twice about getting their upgrade.

Mare Nostrum is pretty fun too and we have completed 6 player games in about 2 hours.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 8:19 am

Played two games of Betrayal at House on the Hill with four players. My coworker Scott bought the game and had already played it a few times with his brother-in-law Nick (also present). Myself and a friend of coworker's wife, Steve, had never played.

In the first game I was little Missy DuBourde. A speedy knowledgable 9 year old who was not very strong and only slightly sane. We all bumbled our way through the spooky house, uncovering the chapel, library, and other rooms. Scott fell through a collapsed floor to the basement, where his flashlight promptly gave out, causing him to stumble blindly until he managed to find the stairs and then make it to Nick, who gave him fresh batteries, thus enabling him to take his full movement again. In the meantime I made it to the second floor along with Steve, who managed to discover a bunch of items. Including a music box, which, if opened, required everyone in the room to take a sanity check or be mesmerized by the music and have to sit there for one turn (including the person who opened the box). Scott also found the medallion, which became very important. I only discovered two items, smelling salts - which weren't really useful to me, and a revolver - which became very useful. More on the revolver later.

Nick triggered the haunt, which resulted in the youngest person becoming the traitor. Triggering the haunt results in consulting a table which tells you which haunt it is, and is dependent on the state of the game at the time the haunt is triggered. The haunt basically divides the players into two groups - the traitor side, and the heroes side. Both sides get their own haunt book which tells them their side's goals. These goals are hidden from the other team. Spoilers ahead for folks who want to play the game:

Spoiler:

For this haunt my backstory as the traitor was that I made a pact with the house. Every 10 years I would lead another group of explorers to the house to be sacrificed. The house would slowly steal their life force, causing them to age faster than normal. In return for this sacrifice the house would grant me another 10 years of youth. My win condition was for all the heroes to die. The immediate effect was that all the heroes would age 10 years and there was a table that told me what stats would rise/fall depending upon their age range. Heroes in their 20s and 30s would see their physical stats go up a bit, then in their 40s their physical stat would go down a bit but knowledge would go up. But in their 50's, 60's, and 70's everything started going downhill.

When any stat reached the last pip (the skull) that person was dead. If a hero died then I would get to roll 3 dice and increase my stats by the total value.

In addition, at the end of my turn everyone had to roll one die to determine how many decades they would age. The person with the medallion got to subtract one from the die roll, and the dice were numbered blank through 2. So the medallion wearer had a chance to escape the aging effects entirely.

It became clear to me that my immediate priorities were to 1. stay alive and let the house slowly kill the heroes and 2. Try to keep the heroes from doing whatever they need to do to stop the house from killing them. Since Steve was the closest to me, and I had the revolver, I resolved that he needed to die first.

Typically combat involves rolling dice using your might stat. The attacker and defender both roll the amount of dice equal to their might and compare the totals. If the attacker has more points then the defender takes damage equal to the difference between the totals. But the revolver lets one take the speed stat instead. And gives +1 die if you decide to roll using speed stat. And allows one to shoot across multiple rooms as long as they had line of sight through the doorways. Which I did.

Over two turns I took two shots at Steve, wounding him both times. In the meantime the heroes started making sanity rolls in several of the rooms, even as they slowly got older. It was only then that I realized Steve was the designated blocker. He was right in the middle of where I needed to go in order to get at Scott and Nick, who were in the basement, and he opened his musicbox and left it right in my path. Steve then went to the room with the slide to the basement and joined the others there. On my turn I decided I had no choice; walked to the room with the music box and tried to make my sanity roll. I failed and sat there, mesmerized by the music.

However, the house still had to take its share of their life force and they all rolled a die to age. Steve succumbed first. Wounded by my revolver, and with his speed stat down to the last pip, he died with a surprised gasp. Then the medallion took effect. Apparently anytime someone dies the medallion wearer ages 10 years. Nick also died, aged beyond his years, which caused Scott to age another 10. By then Scott too had no life force left. Not even enough to scream "but we were so close!"

And so I left the house, still my 9 year old self. For another 10 years.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 9:08 am

Ares games has a new hidden movement game (think Letters from Whitechapel, Fury of Dracula, Specter Ops, Scotland Yard, etc) called Last Friday. It features some very interesting changes to the formula. One player is the Maniac, let's call him Jason. Up to 5 other players are the camp counselors. The camp counselors arrive at the campground, let's call it Camp Crystal Lake, to set up for summer camp... and they find bodies. The campground is a map set up identically to Letters from Whitechapel with close spaces for the counselors to move on and different spaces for Jason.

The first phase, the counselors are looking for keys to the cabins to get to safety. If they cross paths with Jason, they die. Each player has three counselors so three lives. Dead counselors are replaced at the start of the next phase.

After 15 turns it goes to phase two, the sun is up and the counselors are still looking for keys, but also looking for Jason. They have 15 turns to find him. If they don't find him they lose all the special ability tokens they have found and Jason gets an invisibility token for future use.

After 15 turns or when Jason is found it goes to phase 3. This is the first round the game can end. Whichever counselor found Jason or whoever was closest after 15 turns is "the chosen one." Jason's job is to kill the chosen one.

If Jason fails his job after 15 turns it is the final phase. If the chosen one crosses paths with Jason the good guys win. If the counselors surround Jason, the good guys win. Otherwise Jason escapes.

The rules change slightly for each phase. In some phases every 3 turns Jason reveals where he was 3 turns ago. In one phase every 3 turns he reveals where he is right then. The ability tokens the counselors find allow them to place traps or set up spotlights or move faster or bury bodies (which block counselor movement).

Most interesting to me. The playtime is supposed to be 2 hours and reviewers have said that's about right. If pressed for time, you can play any of the 4 phases independently. Supposedly this is better with 6 players because there is too much to manage for less players on the counselor side. That's a downside to me, but I'm still very interested.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 9:22 am

I tried to get into demos of it at Gencon more than once. Unfortunately, it was always booked solid. I didn't see any copies for sale too, although I'm not sure if they sold out or if they just didn't have it available at the time.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 9:52 am

Apparently they had limited pre-release copies and they sold out. It's supposed to ship in September. I just changed my open CSI order to include it (in place of the Ashes expansions

)

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 11:43 am

I managed to snag one of the two newer, newer ashes faction packs at gencon. I now have 7 decks to choose from. I think I'm almost at the point where I could do some deck building...

...if I was even mildly competent at such, that is.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 12:09 pm

That Ares game sounds pretty cool, however it also looks like you ideally need 4+ people to play. That rules it out immediately for me.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 12:13 pm

Smoove_B wrote:That Ares game sounds pretty cool, however it also looks like you ideally need 4+ people to play. That rules it out immediately for me.

Some on BGG are saying it's more exciting with 2. I am not sure what that is based on. I'll make Isg play me 2p on both sides and let you know.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 12:21 pm

Yeah, maybe -- I could see that. It would definitely have a much more adversarial feel than 4 or 5 against 1. Definitely report back - because I absolutely need more games.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 12:22 pm

I just want to kill people. (check my avatar if that raises any questions)

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 12:43 pm

coopasonic wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:That Ares game sounds pretty cool, however it also looks like you ideally need 4+ people to play. That rules it out immediately for me.
Some on BGG are saying it's more exciting with 2. I am not sure what that is based on. I'll make Isg play me 2p on both sides and let you know.

I'm certainly willing to do so.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Aug 16, 2016 12:50 pm

I wasn't imagining much resistance from the guy that introduced me to Letters.