Octopus Overlords

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:I played another game of Terraforming Mars last night. I really like the theme and the art, but it really has very little player interaction. I haven't played it solo, but it seems like it wouldn't be all that different than against others.

Chaosraven wrote:Played a few games of Terraforming Mars yesterday, and I would consider the "screw your neighbor" aspects of the game plenty of interaction.

Hate Drafting, being the one to take the Milestones/Awards, placement of tiles on Mars, the race at the end for TR from O2 and Temp to keep others from it, the calculations of production for Awards the final turn, that 1 action to keep from passing versus the Gotta Do Two to get them done before someone ruins it.

I am loving this game, and I lost all three times yesterday.

Terraforming Mars: Hellas & Elysium, the first expansion for Terraforming Mars, consists of a double-sided game board presenting two new areas of Mars:

• Elysium takes players almost to the opposite side of Mars' equator, with vast lowlands for oceans in the north and a dry, mineral-rich south. Place a tile on Olympus Mons, the highest peak in the solar system, to gain three free cards!

• Hellas, the southern wild, includes Mars' south pole and the enormous seven-hex Hellas crater that just begs to become a giant lake. Building around the pole gives you new placement bonuses in the form of heat and possibly even water.

Each of these maps consists of new sets of milestones and awards with relevance for that particular map. Place three tiles around the south pole to be a Polar Explorer, for example, or race to have the most estates beside water on Elysium!

coopasonic wrote:Played a couple games of Kingdomino with X(11). He crushed me in the second game. I am taking the kid gloves off.

coopasonic wrote:I understand it a lot better now having a lot more gaming experience and going through the Frontiers tutorial at my own pace and having watched Ricky Royal play one round solo. There's no way I could teach it though.

Chaosraven wrote:Well I am now very disappointed in the publishers of Terraforming Mars, as they had BGG take down the cardlist for the game.

Time for an underwater game of cat-and-mouse, with each of the two teams in Sonar competing to be the first to deal two points of damage to the other. Do that, and you win the game instantly.

In detail, Sonar includes four pairs of maps, and each team takes the same maps in their color. A team can be one or two players, and with two players on a team, each player takes a different role: Captain or Radio Operator. (A one--person team handles both roles.) A divider separates the teams, and each Captain marks their starting location on the map.

On a turn, the Captain calls out an action, typically moving their sub one space north, south, east, or west. When they do this, they call out a direction, mark their new location, and add one energy to their ship's register. The Radio Operator on the other team notes the movement of this sub on a plastic sheet, and through deduction and trial-and-error tries to determine exactly where the opposing sub might be on the map.

Instead of a moving, a Captain can also:

Use sonar: Erase two energy from your register; the opposing team must reveal their row or column.
Go silent: Erase three energy from your register; move your sub, but don't gain energy and don't tell the opponents which direction you're moving.
Fire a torpedo: Erase four energy from your register; call out coordinates in your quadrant (e.g., F6); if the opponents are on that space, they take a point of damage.
Surface: Announce your location to the opposing team, then erase your previous path on your map; you can't cross your own path during the game, so sometimes you need to surface in order not to box yourself in.
You can have at most four energy in reserve, so you need to manage movement and the other actions carefully so that you'll be able to fire at the opponents once you know where they are — ideally without being torpedoed in response!

Blackhawk wrote:Write them. Write the publishers a polite note and tell them what you just told us.

LordMortis wrote:Captain Sonar was too intense for me. I am a sad sad human being.

hepcat wrote:

LordMortis wrote:Captain Sonar was too intense for me. I am a sad sad human being.

You and me both, brother. You were sitting next to me during that game, so you know how quickly I bowed out after my initial embarrassing turn. I was a nervous wreck for about 20 minutes after that.

Defiant wrote:Oh man, sorry to hear that about Captain Sonar.

I do enjoy cooperative games, and I enjoyed the experience of Artemis. I don't, on the other hand, enjoy some of the real time games like Escape: The Curse of the Temple and especially Magic Maze. I did find Space Cadets: DIce Duel an ok but flawed game, and was hoping Captain Sonar would be better than it. But it sounds like it's more on the hectic side. I still want to play a game of it for the experience, but I guess I wont enjoy it as much as I've ben hoping.

Lordnine wrote:Captain Sonar seems to be pretty divisive with people. Part of the fun of the game comes from the fact that people DO make mistakes and then everything goes wrong. It is basically an experience in damage mitigation, things will go wrong and your team needs to overcome your problems better than the opposing team is overcoming theirs.

But if you are easily worried about what other people will think of your performance, it’s probably not going to be a game that sits well with you. I’ve brought it out at a few different gatherings now and usually the majority of the group really enjoys it but there are almost always one or two people that get super stressed out. I have found that I can help a little with this with some gentle role-playing. People seem to get less stressed if everyone is playing a part and laughing about it than just trying to "beat the game".

Lordnine wrote:That sounds less fun. Also, technically, the captain is supposed to wait for the all clear from his team before moving on. This is actually important because it’s possible that he can’t do something if his engineer breaks a system that he wants to use.

Defiant wrote:Oh man, sorry to hear that about Captain Sonar.

I do enjoy cooperative games, and I enjoyed the experience of Artemis. I don't, on the other hand, enjoy some of the real time games like Escape: The Curse of the Temple and especially Magic Maze. I did find Space Cadets: DIce Duel an ok but flawed game, and was hoping Captain Sonar would be better than it. But it sounds like it's more on the hectic side. I still want to play a game of it for the experience, but I guess I wont enjoy it as much as I've ben hoping.

RenegadeGameStudios.com wrote:

FUSE

Intruders have made their way on to your ship! Their goal: Total Destruction!

FUSE is a real time cooperative dice game for 2-5 players where friends work together to quickly save their ship from impending doom!

Twenty bombs have been detected on-board, and the ship's computer has begun to countdown. Your elite Bomb Defusal Team (BDT) has been called into action to neutralize thethreat.

Hurry! The computer says you only have 10 Minutes to complete your task.

Does your team have what it takes to work through the intricacies of the bombs and defuse them all in time?

You'd better get moving, because this game will self-destruct in 10 minutes...

coopasonic wrote:FYI, Sonar is turn based with a much narrower scope, so it might help some of you that got stressed out with Captain Sonar. Apparently it is also already on clearance at some stores (it sounds like it is a Target exclusive btw).

Anonymous Bosch wrote:

Defiant wrote:Oh man, sorry to hear that about Captain Sonar.

I do enjoy cooperative games, and I enjoyed the experience of Artemis. I don't, on the other hand, enjoy some of the real time games like Escape: The Curse of the Temple and especially Magic Maze. I did find Space Cadets: DIce Duel an ok but flawed game, and was hoping Captain Sonar would be better than it. But it sounds like it's more on the hectic side. I still want to play a game of it for the experience, but I guess I wont enjoy it as much as I've ben hoping.

For a more light-hearted real-time co-op dice game that plays in only 10 minutes, I'd suggest FUSE from Renegade Game Studios (more well-known as the talent behind Clank!):

RenegadeGameStudios.com wrote:

FUSE

Intruders have made their way on to your ship! Their goal: Total Destruction!

FUSE is a real time cooperative dice game for 2-5 players where friends work together to quickly save their ship from impending doom!

Twenty bombs have been detected on-board, and the ship's computer has begun to countdown. Your elite Bomb Defusal Team (BDT) has been called into action to neutralize thethreat.

Hurry! The computer says you only have 10 Minutes to complete your task.

Does your team have what it takes to work through the intricacies of the bombs and defuse them all in time?

You'd better get moving, because this game will self-destruct in 10 minutes...

They also provide a nifty free companion app for the game which helps inject more thematic flavour, and also assists in scoring games.

Anyway, you can see how it plays in this Dice Tower review.

Defiant wrote:

coopasonic wrote:FYI, Sonar is turn based with a much narrower scope, so it might help some of you that got stressed out with Captain Sonar. Apparently it is also already on clearance at some stores (it sounds like it is a Target exclusive btw).

Looks like there's a turn based mode to Captain Sonar, too. How does that play?

YellowKing wrote:I enjoyed Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu way more than I thought I would. I was expecting a very thin re-skin of Pandemic, but I was pleasantly surprised at how different it plays. I think it's because the smaller map and easier movement allow you to really focus on containment strategy vs worrying about getting from A to B. It's almost like Pandemic Lite without actually being easier, which is a great combo.

While I'm posting, I'm itching for a new game. Any suggestions? I've been looking at Godfather (the Watch It Played looked fun, and I love Mafia themes), and Great Western Trail (ditto on the theme).