Octopus Overlords

hentzau wrote:I'm going to try a solo round of 7th Continent tonight/tommorrow night. I'll let you know what I think about it as a solo game.

Please do as I've got ~$240 pledged in that damn kickstarter and I'm sure I will end up playing it solo most of the time.

hepcat wrote:

AWS260 wrote:And Nemo's War! It is a fantastic solo game.

Kee-rap...you're right. how could i forget!?! adding it now!

In other news, I'm going to start up the Dunwich Legacy campaign in Arkham Horror tomorrow. I keep starting and then stopping, but this time I'm sticking to it. Then I'm going to finally try Massive Darkness to see if it's truly as bad as a lot of folks say. I'm hoping to round out the day with some Folklore as well.

That's become my primary decider when it comes to games nowadays, can it be played (or better yet, designed for) solo play. Thanks for the list! I need to check out the handful I don't already have.

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2017 1:41 am

hentzau wrote:I'm going to try a solo round of 7th Continent tonight/tommorrow night. I'll let you know what I think about it as a solo game.

Please do as I've got ~$240 pledged in that damn kickstarter and I'm sure I will end up playing it solo most of the time.

So I got in my first game solo...and lost. I got a bit frustrated at the end because I think I uncovered everything but still wasn't able to proceed past a certain point. I need to review the rules and make sure I didn't screw anything up, but I really enjoyed the game while I was in it. I need to watch their how to play video to get a better understanding as to how the game will work if you have more than one player, though.

And now, off to look at their kickstarter to see what new stuff they had for the game.

hentzau wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2017 5:16 pm

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2017 1:41 am

hentzau wrote:I'm going to try a solo round of 7th Continent tonight/tommorrow night. I'll let you know what I think about it as a solo game.

Please do as I've got ~$240 pledged in that damn kickstarter and I'm sure I will end up playing it solo most of the time.

And now, off to look at their kickstarter to see what new stuff they had for the game.

Better stop at the bank first.

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2017 8:20 pm

hentzau wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2017 5:16 pm

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2017 1:41 am

hentzau wrote:I'm going to try a solo round of 7th Continent tonight/tommorrow night. I'll let you know what I think about it as a solo game.

Please do as I've got ~$240 pledged in that damn kickstarter and I'm sure I will end up playing it solo most of the time.

And now, off to look at their kickstarter to see what new stuff they had for the game.

Better stop at the bank first.

Interesting. I just read on BGG estimated time to complete the first curse is 10-20 hours. I was dead after about 2. I may try this over again Tuesday night with two other players and see how the save system works out.

Been playing Dominion at work with a coworker. Just the base set. Quite fun and lots of different gameplay with even just the base set. Then I found that you can play online at Dominion.games. You can play with bots and/or humans. Create an account, have friends list. It's nice and free.

I've been thinking a lot more about 7th Continent. I'll be getting in another game tonight, this time with at least one other player, maybe 2. I'm going to go over the rulebook to see if I missed any major rules...I know I'm a bit fuzzy about how some cards are discarded, and some cards are banished, and some cards are returned, and I may have messed that up a bit. The other thing that I have to remember is that some actions can be done multiple times, like hunting for food.

I just realized what this game reminds me of. It very much reminds me of an analog version of Myst.

I'm really on the fence with 7th continent. I like the idea but I really hate the "this will never be available again" crap and all of the add ons. It's really turning me off. So I'm interested to hear more from you to decide if it's really worth getting or not because the way they are doing the campaign is really turning me off from it.

Played a 2 player game of 7th Continent last night. Since I had already "discovered" many of the things in the early part of the game, I took a back seat to the decision making when it came to exploring and mostly helped out on other decisions (like what should we build, should we spend time to heal, etc.) We still lost in a semi-horrific fashion, but it was still a great time. I know enough now about the first part of the game that I should be able to coast through to the second part now without too many troubles.

Seriously, I am having a ball with this game. Well worth the money spent so far.

(And I wish I could say more about the things that have happened to us, but you really cannot do that at all without spoilering it.)

Does it feel like the replay value is low? Or is it like Gloomhaven and there's just so much content that you'll be playing it for ages before you start repeating things?

hepcat wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:57 am Does it feel like the replay value is low? Or is it like Gloomhaven and there's just so much content that you'll be playing it for ages before you start repeating things?

You have to consider each curse as its own storyline. Once you resolve a curse, I don't see a whole lot of replay with that curse. But remember, you'll most likely be replaying the same curse several times in order to figure out how to solve it. You will start to see the same events occurring through replays because of the limited number of exploration map tiles. But I had several things happen during my second play through that did not happen in my first.

I don't think it will have the sheer number of hours that Gloomhaven has. But still a lot of fun. And just as good solo as with a group.

I would imagine it has a good resale value too if I do eventually complete it to the point that I have no desire to play it again.

I played The Expanse Board Game. I haven't watched the TV series, but I don't think it requires any knowledge of the series.

It's an area control game, which has a little similarity to Twilight Struggle and 1960: The Making of the President. I played a 4 player game (it supports two to four players). The board is composed of different orbital areas (generally planets or large asteroids) with each orbital area containing 1 to 3 bases. They comprise of 4 sectors (one sector for Earth and Mars, a second for the asteroid belt and two sectors for the outer planets with one containing Jupiter, the other containing Saturn).

Each player takes a role from the four available organizations. During your turn you select a card from one of the five cards available on the track (the first being free, and the others costing one or two victory points to take early). You can then either use the action point value on the card, or you may use the power of the card - if it allows your organization to use that power (if the card is limited to only being used by some organizations, it will list which ones can use it). If you use the point value, you can take that many actions, where an action consists of putting a fleet on to your home base (if you have any not on the board), moving a fleet from one orbital location to another (with the cost of one action for moves between one sector), and building influence on a base where you have a fleet in orbit around (one action for one influence). Also, if you use the point value of the card, then after you're done, someone else can use the card (if their organization is eligible) - which means a lot of time, you're doing stuff in other people's turns. Also, instead of using the power of the card right away, you can spend a victory point to save it for a later time.

In addition, there's one more card type available, the score card (of which there are six), which scores people based on who has the most influence in each base -which means you can try to delay or speed up the scoring phase a little. The person who picks that card also gets to secretly choose a region they want to score bonus points (presumably a region they're strong in). And before the scoring happens, everyone has a chance to use the power of one card they saved from earlier (which might help you, say, add an influence or two to a base where you need that to get a majority of the influence).

Additionally, each organization has their own extra bonus. One has a larger fleet, another can place one influence without a ship in orbit once per turn, etc.

Overall, it was a good game, that was easy to learn but enjoyable to play. . The rule book could have been improved a little, though (a few things we felt needed clarifications, and some information wasn't in the most logical place), although it did have a nice two page quick start guide which pretty much lets you start playing fairly quickly, and then only checking the rule book later on.

I've heard great things about The Expanse. I was just debating whether or not to run over to a local game store at lunch and look for a copy.

hentzau wrote:Played a 2 player game of 7th Continent last night. Since I had already "discovered" many of the things in the early part of the game, I took a back seat to the decision making when it came to exploring and mostly helped out on other decisions (like what should we build, should we spend time to heal, etc.) We still lost in a semi-horrific fashion, but it was still a great time. I know enough now about the first part of the game that I should be able to coast through to the second part now without too many troubles.

Seriously, I am having a ball with this game. Well worth the money spent so far.

(And I wish I could say more about the things that have happened to us, but you really cannot do that at all without spoilering it.)

Ugh I'm backing it after all despite my not liking their "spend hundreds now or else" Kickstarter approach. Worst case I should be able to resell it but it sounds like it will be a hit.

Chrisoc13 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:39 am

hentzau wrote:Played a 2 player game of 7th Continent last night. Since I had already "discovered" many of the things in the early part of the game, I took a back seat to the decision making when it came to exploring and mostly helped out on other decisions (like what should we build, should we spend time to heal, etc.) We still lost in a semi-horrific fashion, but it was still a great time. I know enough now about the first part of the game that I should be able to coast through to the second part now without too many troubles.

Seriously, I am having a ball with this game. Well worth the money spent so far.

(And I wish I could say more about the things that have happened to us, but you really cannot do that at all without spoilering it.)

Ugh I'm backing it after all despite my not liking their "spend hundreds now or else" Kickstarter approach. Worst case I should be able to resell it but it sounds like it will be a hit.

Now you and Hep have me sitting here going "Man, I really hope they like it."

Haha I won't blame you for my own faults of needing the new hotness at all times.

I would.

hepcat wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:38 am I've heard great things about The Expanse. I was just debating whether or not to run over to a local game store at lunch and look for a copy.

If it were me, I'd probably wait until you could find it in for say $30-$40. While the components were fine (with the rule book being the exception), and I don't know how solid it will last for replay value, the game doesn't feel like it has quite the depth of some games (eg, Great Western Trail, Terraforming Mars, etc) to justify a higher price tag. But your mileage may vary.

Ah, thanks for the tip.

Finished my introductory adventure for Folklore the Affliction and I'm finding I have very mixed feelings.

I like the general game play - roaming on the map, deck-based events that are varied for road vs wilderness and day vs night - it's fun. I also really like the map related skirmishes that take place - a great way to simulate combat quickly and keep the story moving. The theme is great and I actually liked the two characters I selected (it's a minimum of 2 characters regardless) - the Arcanist and the Madman. Both had unique skills and actually played very differently. I actually liked the tactical combat and how the actual die rolls determine what type of attack any given creature uses. It's not just a back and forth die fest. It's simple, but it works. All that being said, I did have a total party wipe during the last encounter, which as soon as I set it up I could tell that's how it was going to end. I need to go back and re-read a bunch of rules, but I think I handled everything correctly.

The game scaled the encounters for my two characters, but I don't know if I need to always play with two specific characters (that can handle it) if that's how the game will be played. If, instead, this game pretty much requires 4 characters playing then sadly it will be one I have to get rid of because it'll be played once or twice a year (if that). It feels like what I wanted Shadows of Brimstone to be - very much an RPG / boardgame hybrid. I can appreciate it might not really be balanced for only two characters though - as would be the case for anything with D&D roots (and make no mistake, this game has them).

Feeling very mixed overall. I can't remember the last time I liked a game but knew it would sit untouched based on a realistic number of players required. It was also not great running two characters - lots to keep track of and I wouldn't enjoy running the games that way.

Unlike Massive Darkness, I think Folklore's issues are fairly easy to fix though. True, right now it does not scale well. But I also think that "tutorial" story is just too damn hard for first time players (or any player, to be honest). The inability to run back to town after you start the final encounters is what killed our four man team (two players, each playing two characters). Next time I take a crack at it, I'm ignoring that and heading back to town to rest up and gear up after the graveyard mission.

I'm hoping that the other stories are designed better, but if I see myself getting chipped away to the point where I don't stand a chance after being forced through two or three encounters without a chance to rest, I'm going to do the same thing and head back to the world map. I didn't pay for a game that continually frustrates me, so I don't see why I should play it that way.

I also hope that once our characters start leveling up, they'll find themselves challenged, but still feel like they're becoming badass. I know the game has a difficulty level, so I hope they use it well.

I do think it was a balance issue for the final encounter, yes - and a complete lack of gear or anything that could have mitigated problems would have been really helpful. I think just fighting the Affliction would have been tough enough. Adding in two other enemies that have the ability to potentially spawn more enemies seemed punitive.

I am hoping there are tweaks or adjustments to be made. Really my only other concern at this point would be the Road/Off road decks and how they could potentially get repetitive. If that can be addressed as well, I think there's huge replay value, particularly with the mixing and matching of characters and specializations.

I almost wish they'd have done away with miniature based tactical encounters all together and gone with just the skirmish rules. I really like how those flow.

Question...

I got my box for Folklore yesterday. So far all I've done is open it up. But I seem to be missing a lot. Like all the "unlocked stretch goals". I went back and skimmed the communication updates, but I don't see any mention. Are those coming later? The KS page mentions 88 figures repeatedly for the base pledge; I only have about 50... the ones shown in the "This is what you get" and the top part of the "You also get" section. As far as I can tell nothing that says "unlocked" was included.

You should have received a second box in the shipment (assuming you were a $95 backer). The core game box is what it is (aside from component changes). The second box is a bundled "expansion" - Folklore Dark Tales. The Dark Tales (woo hoo) box isn't something that will be released to retail, but instead the collection of all things unlocked during the stretch goals. There was also a baggie filled with a a dozen or so miniatures tucked into the shipment as well.

Now, if you were a pre-order supporter after the campaign, I don't know that your order included stretch goals or the Dark Tales expansion.

Not sure if that helps, but there you go.

Hmmm... I thought the Expansion was an add-on. But looking back over the page, there is no Expansion listed. I hadn't opened it yet. So they basically took all the unlocked stretch goals and bundled them into an "expansion"? Weird. I'll open it up.

Thanks.

I've slacked off too long to get to this weekend's boardgame event, as I need to get my airbag light addressed, replace another headlight, get new tires, and get the car inspected so I can renew my registration. Then there's my part of the group project paper and the final exam for the Sr. Sys Admin class. At least there's BGGCon next month.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:36 am I've slacked off too long to get to this weekend's boardgame event, as I need to get my airbag light addressed, replace another headlight, get new tires, and get the car inspected so I can renew my registration. Then there's my part of the group project paper and the final exam for the Sr. Sys Admin class. At least there's BGGCon next month.

And my wife is out of town.. not that I would have made it out anyway.

I just got the "Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn" Deluxe Expansions. Maybe I will play it again someday. I also got the Whitechapel expansion, but I really just wanted it for the minis. The game doesn't need expanding. Finally, Flick Em Up: Dead of Winter... a top candidate to sell before I even open it. I have no idea why I bought it (in my defense, I placed this order months ago, so I really don't remember).

Hit our last (and hardest) scenario in FIRST MARTIANS last night, LANDING.

This is a notoriously difficult scenario (nearly impossible), and we approached it knowing we'd probably fail. I consider it a bullshit scenario because if you're going to put something so heavily luck dependent in your game, you probably need to flag it as such. As it stands, it looks like any other standard scenario even though it's horrendously unbalanced and out of whack with the other scenarios.

We failed miserably twice on Easy, then decided to use some variant rules that someone on BGG created that make it actually winnable. We just went all in using all the variant rules, and won handily. Utilizing only 1 o 2 of the variants would probably make this one just about right in terms of difficulty.

Even Ignacy estimates the winning percentage is only about 5% for this one, so one night on this was more than enough for us. As much as I like the game, I think it's disappointing that they threw something like this in the box with no warning. I can imagine if I did not know about BGG, running into this would cause me to chuck this game in the trash and move on.

Brighter days lie ahead though. Next week we start the first campaign fresh. Looking forward to it.

Played Between Two Cities. Everyone is trying to build two cities, one each with each of their neighbors. You're building a four by four tile map of the city with your neighbor, using a drafting system. Each turn, everyone chooses two tiles and places one tile in one city and one in the other city. Each tile type generates points in the city in different ways (some generate points being next to each other or in a straight line, others generate points based on being next to a different type, one is based on a set of different types, etc). When the game ends, you earn the points of whichever city generates less points.

It's an interesting mechanic, forcing you to try to build up both cities equally rather than focus on one over the other. It was also easy to learn and quick to play.

It was the best of tiles, it was the worst of tiles....

Defiant wrote: ↑Fri Oct 20, 2017 4:06 pm Played Between Two Cities. Everyone is trying to build two cities, one each with each of their neighbors. You're building a four by four tile map of the city with your neighbor, using a drafting system. Each turn, everyone chooses two tiles and places one tile in one city and one in the other city. Each tile type generates points in the city in different ways (some generate points being next to each other or in a straight line, others generate points based on being next to a different type, one is based on a set of different types, etc). When the game ends, you earn the points of whichever city generates less points.

It's an interesting mechanic, forcing you to try to build up both cities equally rather than focus on one over the other. It was also easy to learn and quick to play.

I like this game a lot for large groups since A) there's no downtime waiting for other players to take turns, and B) the shared city aspect helps serve as an icebreaker for people new to the group.

Jamaica has always been a hit with my family, and now my 7 year old daughter absolutely loves it. She plays well too and is very good at gauging when she's not likely to reach the finish line and shoot for points via gold/treasures instead.

The game is 10 years old but they've just put out an expansion, Jamaica: The Crew. I don't think it's generally out until the end of the month here in the US but I picked up a copy from Europe since she was so excited to hear about it. The short version is, if you land on a harbor space (the ones that cost gold) you get to add a crewperson to your ship. Crew offer special abilities and are worth points, generally more points if you reach the finish line, less if you don't. A few more powerful crew are worth negative points if you don't reach the finish line.

The crew tiles get laid out in a grid (expansion has another great box insert) and most crew are facedown. There's some gameplay about which tiles get flipped over, which crew are exposed and are available to be chosen but it's not complicated. The main improvement to the game is that those harbor spaces, which we usually avoid since gold=points and food is more plentiful, are now pretty attractive options. Sure you pay gold at the time but you get an ability out of it and usually points back at the end of the game. Also, crew get "loaded" into your cargo hold just like gold/food/gunpowder so you have to be mindful... take too many crew and you have less space for other stuff.

Seems like it has been forever sonce I was here...

I have bought some games recently.

The Manhattan Project. I know, it has been out for some time, but I just bought ut a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy it, pretty fun.

Vast: The Crystal Caverns. This is a fun game. The KS items will be showing up within the next month or so.

This War Of Mine. Oh wow...this is my darling of a game. This is based off the video game of the same name. Great solo, and pretty good up to 3 players. Just a great game. Kind of a mix between Robinson Crusoe and Dead of Winter, but I like this better than either of those two games.

My parents got me Great Western Trail for Christmas. Just gotta wait until then to get it.

MythicalMino wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2017 6:51 pm Seems like it has been forever sonce I was here...

I have bought some games recently.

The Manhattan Project. I know, it has been out for some time, but I just bought ut a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy it, pretty fun.

Vast: The Crystal Caverns. This is a fun game. The KS items will be showing up within the next month or so.

This War Of Mine. Oh wow...this is my darling of a game. This is based off the video game of the same name. Great solo, and pretty good up to 3 players. Just a great game. Kind of a mix between Robinson Crusoe and Dead of Winter, but I like this better than either of those two games.

My parents got me Great Western Trail for Christmas. Just gotta wait until then to get it.

Played a game of GWT at OctoCon this weekend. Still one of my favorite new games from 2016. We actually ran out of time to finish it, because I kept getting dragged away for other things,and we lost a player so we added someone in that needed to learn the rules, but still had a great time.

Like on any good Octocon weekend I played a lot of games, most of which are new to me. The "new" games we played were "Middle Earth Quest", "Colt Express", "Terraforming Mars", "Century Spice Road" (Bob played it twice, I missed it both times), "Hanabi", "Vast", "Inis" and "Blokus". I also played "Deer in the Headlights", "Dastardly Dirigibles", "Roll for the Galaxy" and a pvp game of "Dead of Winter".
Of all the (new to us) games we played we liked "Colt Express" best and are already thinking of picking it up.

MythicalMino wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2017 6:51 pm Seems like it has been forever sonce I was here...

I have bought some games recently.

The Manhattan Project. I know, it has been out for some time, but I just bought ut a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy it, pretty fun.

Vast: The Crystal Caverns. This is a fun game. The KS items will be showing up within the next month or so.

This War Of Mine. Oh wow...this is my darling of a game. This is based off the video game of the same name. Great solo, and pretty good up to 3 players. Just a great game. Kind of a mix between Robinson Crusoe and Dead of Winter, but I like this better than either of those two games.

My parents got me Great Western Trail for Christmas. Just gotta wait until then to get it.

I really enjoy Manhattan Project quite a bit. We've played it a lot over the last years. I'm really looking forward to Manhattan Project 2 as well, should be really good. I think you'll like Great Western Trail quite a bit if you like Manhattan Project.

Sadly no time for gaming recently. Hopefully soon. But I have been enjoying the ramp up to Essen though.

MythicalMino wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2017 6:51 pm
This War Of Mine. Oh wow...this is my darling of a game. This is based off the video game of the same name. Great solo, and pretty good up to 3 players. Just a great game. Kind of a mix between Robinson Crusoe and Dead of Winter, but I like this better than either of those two games.

Definitely a game I want to try, though it looks fairly complex (even with a quick start guide), and one that looks like it'd be far, far longer than the advertised game length on the box.

I got to play a couple of card games in the style of CAH. I played superfight, which was a light game where you either have a fight between two players, with each using a card to identify who they were as well as an attribute. They try to defend why their character would win the fight to the other players (who serve as judges, and may have thrown a card to complicate the fight). There was also another playmode where one player is a super villain (and judge) while the others present their hero to fight them and argue why theirs would beat him, compared to the other players' heros.

Also, another game I player (who's name I forgot) was along the lines of CAH where everyone has a hand of cards, each with a word (adjective or noun) and can submit one or more words as an answer (putting the cards in a little card holder in the order they want it read). Also, answers are scored with points (rather than just one winner). The combining of single word cards gives it a lot more replayability than CAH, I think (which I got tired of fairly quickly).

Believe it or not, This War Of Mine is not all that complex. Very difficult to win, yes. But not too bad to learn. I woukd day similar difficulty to Robinson Crusoe and Dead of Winter. Maybe even easier... definitely easier to teach than either of those two.

It is a very thematic game, and has quickly become one of my favorites.