Octopus Overlords

Cutthroat Caverns reminds me of the best parts of Munchkin. It delivers those moments of getting blocked ("and you trip on your sword, hepcat") followed by sweet revenge ("aha, but you see I am not left handed"). It definitely will play best with 5-6. I really enjoyed the end of deliberately damaging a monster "but not enough to kill it", watching it respawn to kill my PvP-loving friend, and then laying down a massive attack to make the kill.

Prestige is an interesting mechanic in Race for the Galaxy. Tom Lehmann explained it at Origins as a way to reward players who play out certain strategy options. It may be a bit powerful, but I think it's going to be best if you play with the other "bonus" options. If you're chasing Prestige, that's some other strategy you're giving up. The Search mechanic is an extremely useful way to get the synergy going (or to dig yourself out of a hole). We should have played a game of Race for the Galaxy.

And how could I have forgotten playing Summoner Wars this past weekend? If you're playing the Orcs, the solution is to charge recklessly. I think I may have gotten an extra move or two from misreading the rules on the Orc Warriors, however.

I don't think Mortis played 6 hour games of Dungeon Lords at Origins -- I think he played 6 games! Don't forget, Paranoia is also a beer and pretzels game. Now with Commie Mutant Traitors!

hmmm... Paranoia!

Didn't get to play anything this weekend (I've got to hold my wife to that "game day" she promised), but last Wednesday my gaming group of 3-4 played:

Imperial 2030 and Cyclades.

I enjoyed Imperial 2030 so much, I wrote a review on BGG not long after - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/545 ... 030-review!

Suffice to say, if you enjoy investment/economic games with a little area control and warfare tossed in, you'll LOVE this one!

I'm excited to get my first play of Steam in as well, we didn't have time last Wednesday.

hentzau wrote:Wings of War. And that game goes really quickly. Just pull the explosion card or fly off the end of the table accidentally.

...or pull a tight turn after doing an Immelman.

Tommy20 wrote:

hentzau wrote:Wings of War. And that game goes really quickly. Just pull the explosion card or fly off the end of the table accidentally.

...or pull a tight turn after doing an Immelman.

Wings are over-rated.

baelthazar wrote:Suffice to say, if you enjoy investment/economic games with a little area control and warfare tossed in, you'll LOVE this one!

I enjoy investment/economic games with a little area control and warfare tossed in. I will be checking out your review when I get a chance.

this was a long weekend for me during which I expected to get a lot more gaming done than actually happened..

we kicked off Friday with Tannhäuser, our first time, playing using the new Revised Edition Rulebook. I was playing against my two sons and what should have been a quick session stretched over most of the day as we were regularly interrupted by inconsequential things (ie not boardgame-related). nonetheless we enjoyed the game and I'm hoping to get it on the table again soon.

Friday night after my wife and kids turned in I played All Things Zombie: The Boardgame solo for an hour or so to get comfortable with the rules. I found it incredibly difficult (to make headway in, not to understand) and made several restarts during the hour when my party were munched on by the first zombies they encountered.

on Saturday we played:
Samarkand: Routes to Riches (a favourite of my seven-year-old son) followed by a Magic 2011 "Winston Draft" with my eleven year old son.

and finally: All Things Zombie: The Boardgame, a skirmish game in which I played a duo of survivors and my two sons played as a competing team, the plan was to play for the highest "glory point" total as suggested in the manual. my sons played with shotguns blazing accruing points at a good rate but constantly swamped by zombies which were drawn to their gunshots. I played on the opposite side of a two-board map and equipped my survivors with crossbows - they consequently had little trouble dealing with the undead they came across, but scored poorly as their stealthly combat failed to attract potential bolt-fodder. the game was fun and I think next time we'll play a straight co-op skirmish (possibly with a couple of enemy survivors on the map to spice things up..)

no boardgaming on Sunday, I took the boys to see Toy Story 3 in the morning (and it was great!) then after lunch at the mall I spent most of the afternoon playing Master Of Magic

Last wednesday I played a game of Doom: the Boardgame again. Anyone who knows this game will also know about the horrible balancing problems it has. It's a great - nay, a FANTASTIC - game system, but the scenarios and some rules are just stacked against the marine players, meaning that the Invader Player (who controls the baddies) has won about 9 out of 10 games so far.

Still, we all like it, and I've been trying to get it balanced with an abundance of houserules for the last 3 or 4 years

So last thursday, I had finally completed my list of needed houserules, and I've also altered the official scenarios (mostly to include less monsters and more ammo, based on some statistics I've compiled).

Me and and a relative newbie (it was his 2nd game) play the first scenario as the valiant marines, and the evil invader is played by my best friend (who has played as often as I have, about 10-20 times or so).

We make good progress, taking few wounds and killing everything quite quickly. The Invader however complains about not having many 'spawn invader' cards, and he has to discard quite often due to hand size problems. This is trouble for us, because this means that near the end of the scenario all those 'spawn cards' will show up.

I let my newbie friend guide the way, and we quickly find the blue keycard, and it even works (this depends on a die roll, which could just as easily have had disastrous effects for us)! Luck is on our side, and we reach the big final room without dying once! Off course, the exit door is locked by a red keycard door, and we failed to find it on our way. This is a huge problem, because we'll have to backtrack through spawn-infested hallways now, and we have no clue where the keycard is.

Needless to say, from then on the Invader starts killing us. Spawn cards keep appearing, and my buddy who leads the way chooses the worst possible route for us to take, meaning that we have to traverse the level about 3 times before we finally find the red keycard. By then, all the killing has meant that I'm about out of ammo, and the Invader only has to score 1 more frag to win. We pick up the card, and just RUN for it, but in the end a zombie commando spawns in front of me, and with his chaingun he blasts me to pieces.

Dang, we STILL didn't win as the marines!!
BUT, we COULD have, if only we didn't take such a bad route. My newbie-friend couldn't be blamed however, he just chose at random crossroads for the wrong hallway every time.

A good time was had by all though, and we feel the rules are finally balanced, because even the invader had to play to his best ability. So mission sort-of accomplished

Heading out for midnight games of Neuroshima Hex and Magic EDH style.

I'm playing "Try not to strangle the freaking bureaucrats at work that decide to blow a small incident COMPLETELY out proportion and cost us HUNDREDS of man hours trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist!"

I'm afraid I might lose this one...

hentzau wrote:I'm playing "Try not to strangle the freaking bureaucrats at work that decide to blow a small incident COMPLETELY out proportion and cost us HUNDREDS of man hours trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist!"

I'm afraid I might lose this one...

I play that one all the time. The zombies always win.

I would LOVE to play a boardgame again, against other humans.

Maybe one of those zombie boardgames or even an old favorite like Carcasonne...

Gone are the days...

Did a round of Arkham. It's a shame the game takes so long. I'm the kind of guy who likes to play games twice to really get a feel for them and there's no real way to get in two games of that in a night, I suspect. Our one game (with only 4 players) took almost six hours to play. That's too much time for me for a game of its type even if I think I enjoyed it. The next time it comes up, in my mind I'll be thinking do I really want to commit six hours to this game? We didn't really pussy foot around too much either, so I am little surprised. The premise is really solid for a coop game, so I'd play again. I'd just be haunted by the volume of time where a day of gaming = one game of Arkham.

had way too much going on this weekend to get much gaming done

Saturday
Magic: The Gathering one Magic 2011 "Winston Draft" game with my eleven-year-old (plus a few Magic Online games)
EcoFluxx two games using the simplified reduced card selection suggested in the manual while my seven-year-old gets used to the game

Sunday
Maori with my two youngest kids

and that's all

LordMortis wrote: I'd just be haunted by the volume of time where a day of gaming = one game of Arkham.

That's not really an issue for folks who measure their games by quality rather than quantity.

I'd rather watch Lawrence of Arabia once on a Saturday night than Repo! The Genetic Opera 4 times.

Actually it was under five hours, including setup and smoke breaks. And you LOVE playing advanced civ, so pfeh. Yeah, played Arkham with LM, RW, and my son. Prior to that I stayed up all night playing Magic EDH style with Kenetickid, his wife, and a friend. No gaming sunday... Watched LOST and came home to find my old computer hooked up and ready... Played Xcom into the wee hours of the morning. I will be hooked to my ancient monitor the rest of the week...

Chaosraven wrote: Played Xcom into the wee hours of the morning. I will be hooked to my ancient monitor the rest of the week...

I managed to not go home and play CivIV but then I totally blew Sunday away playing it.

Two new games for me lately:

Egizia - new Euro from Rio Grande Games, my opinion is decidedly "meh". I'll admit it may be largely due to getting my ass kicked, but it's so much like half a dozen other worker placement Euros that it really doesn't stand out. It's not a bad game, but I already own two or three other games that are very similar.

Innovation - now this is interesting. A card game that's part set collection, part CCG-ish unique card powers that build into some really interesting (and often super-powered) combinations to score points. There's quite a bit of luck here, as every card in the game is unique and some are much more powerful than others, so lucking into a couple of really good draws can net you huge advantages. However, I've seen runaway leaders get hauled back and demolished by late-game card combos, so anything's possible. I have a friend heading to GenCon later this week and I'm hoping he scores me a copy.

Speaking of games, what are some of the big releases you're aware of this year? Gencon starts tomorrow and I'm eager to make up a few pickups but I'm next to clueless about what's new and/or highly rated this year.

Boudreaux wrote:Two new games for me lately:

Egizia - new Euro from Rio Grande Games, my opinion is decidedly "meh". I'll admit it may be largely due to getting my ass kicked, but it's so much like half a dozen other worker placement Euros that it really doesn't stand out. It's not a bad game, but I already own two or three other games that are very similar.

Innovation - now this is interesting. A card game that's part set collection, part CCG-ish unique card powers that build into some really interesting (and often super-powered) combinations to score points. There's quite a bit of luck here, as every card in the game is unique and some are much more powerful than others, so lucking into a couple of really good draws can net you huge advantages. However, I've seen runaway leaders get hauled back and demolished by late-game card combos, so anything's possible. I have a friend heading to GenCon later this week and I'm hoping he scores me a copy.

I played through most of a game of Innovation while waiting for D&D game to start at my FLGS a few weeks back. I was confused and clueless through most of it, but I did enjoy it. I want to add this one to my pile of games as well.

hentzau wrote:I played through most of a game of Innovation while waiting for D&D game to start at my FLGS a few weeks back. I was confused and clueless through most of it, but I did enjoy it. I want to add this one to my pile of games as well.

It took about a game and a half before it finally clicked for me. The thing I like about it is that your game plan and tactics are entirely dependent on the cards you draw. Since every card in the game is unique, each game is wildly different. Lots of replay.

Jow wrote:Speaking of games, what are some of the big releases you're aware of this year? Gencon starts tomorrow and I'm eager to make up a few pickups but I'm next to clueless about what's new and/or highly rated this year.

I'll be there (along with RedWarlord and another, non OO visiting friend) Friday and Saturday. The games I'm most interested in seeing are:

FFG - Dust Tactics. I'm a nut for weird war stuff so this looks fun. However, the 100 dollar price tag will probably prevent me from picking it up at the con. I do hope to get a demo game in.

FFG - Space Hulk: The Card Game. It's one of the silverline (24.95) card games from FFG so I may pick it up just to try it.

Other than that, I'll be looking for some Summoner War faction packs and some Cutthroat Cavern expansions.

Dust Tactics: know next to nothing about it, but saw the word "miniatures" in the description and my balls went up into my stomach.

Space Hulk: I own a bunch of the Silverline games and have enjoyed all of them quite a bit - thanks for the heads-up on that one.

Summoner Wars: Tell me more.

Jow wrote:
Summoner Wars: Tell me more.

Very simple, very quick card game played on a tiled board. It's basically Magic the Gathering and chess. However, the game is NOT a ccg. You can buy set faction cards and then mix in some merc cards (which aren't available yet...but will soon be) if you'd like, but that's the extent of customization.

The tile based board is paper in the starter sets, but that helps keep the cost down to 24.95. They're releasing a hard board version soon, though. That's supposed to come in at around 15 bucks. It's a small, independent developer and the art work isn't anything to write home about but i like it for its ease of accessibility and the board game feel. You can play 2 player, or buy two starter sets and play with a friend against two other opponents on another team.

I like the resource management mechanic. Your resources are any cards in your magic pile and you can get them in one of two ways: Any enemy you kill goes into your magic pile and that is your currency to spend on summoning other cards to the board. You can also decide each turn to discard any number of cards from your hand to this pile. However, once you run out of cards from your deck, you're stuck with whatever is in your hand or on the board. You don't reshuffle the discard pile back into your hand when you run out.

The developer is very active on BGG and is quick to answer any and all questions.

I like supporting small developers if they have a solid game.

hepcat wrote: FFG - Dust Tactics. I'm a nut for weird war stuff so this looks fun. However, the 100 dollar price tag will probably prevent me from picking it up at the con. I do hope to get a demo game in.

Speaking of Weird War games, have you ever gotten your brain wrapped around the Tannhäuser rules? I tried a game once and couldn't even figure out where to start. I'd like to try it, but am too lazy to try and figure out the rules again.

hentzau wrote:

hepcat wrote: FFG - Dust Tactics. I'm a nut for weird war stuff so this looks fun. However, the 100 dollar price tag will probably prevent me from picking it up at the con. I do hope to get a demo game in.

Speaking of Weird War games, have you ever gotten your brain wrapped around the Tannhäuser rules? I tried a game once and couldn't even figure out where to start. I'd like to try it, but am too lazy to try and figure out the rules again.

After gencon let's get together for this. They just released a completely revamped set of rules for Tannhauser (the complaints about the previous rules were loud and many) and they seem to have really fixed it. It incorporates all the stuff i thought was missing: an overwatch mechanic, better melee rules, etc.. Of course, they charged me 10 bucks to buy these rules (5 bucks for the download) but they did include the rules for every expansion in it as well.

hepcat wrote:

hentzau wrote:

hepcat wrote: FFG - Dust Tactics. I'm a nut for weird war stuff so this looks fun. However, the 100 dollar price tag will probably prevent me from picking it up at the con. I do hope to get a demo game in.

Speaking of Weird War games, have you ever gotten your brain wrapped around the Tannhäuser rules? I tried a game once and couldn't even figure out where to start. I'd like to try it, but am too lazy to try and figure out the rules again.

After gencon let's get together for this. They just released a completely revamped set of rules for Tannhauser (the complaints about the previous rules were loud and many) and they seem to have really fixed it. It incorporates all the stuff i thought was missing: an overwatch mechanic, better melee rules, etc.. Of course, they charged me 10 bucks to buy these rules (5 bucks for the download) but they did include the rules for every expansion in it as well.

I might try and pick up the new rules at GenCon then. And I'll be up for it, let's try and set a date.

hentzau wrote:I played through most of a game of Innovation while waiting for D&D game to start at my FLGS a few weeks back. I was confused and clueless through most of it, but I did enjoy it. I want to add this one to my pile of games as well.

The idea behind Innovation triggered enough interest that I put in a pre-order over at Cat & Mouse without having played.

Looks like I'm missing GenCon this year, so no schmoozing with Hepcat and Zarathud. Next year my dad and I are going to early register.

I got to play Zombie State: Diplomacy of the Dead, on Sunday with my wife and it was fantastic! It is an indie developed game, small publisher, but the components are pretty good and the rules are pretty well laid out. The game plays like Pandemic, only much more interactive (you can build military, research techs, and you have random events) and of course there are Zombies! My wife very much liked the game, and games can be pretty hit or miss with her. I probably write a review on BGG after my second game.

I'm pretty excited about the upcoming release of the other "pandemic-like" Defenders of the Realm, which should ship by the end of the week or early next week. Also, Fantasy Flight Games just put up the rules for the new DungeonQuest and it looks like silly and crazy fun. Lots of treasure but also lots of death and despair. Good times, good times.

My parents also came up Friday and we got to almost finish a game of Martin Wallace's Steam. My wife wasn't enthusiastic, but both mom and dad liked it (which says a lot with my mother) and I really enjoyed it as well. I can't wait to play it again and get a full game in!

Hope you guys have fun at GenCon! I'm looking forward to hearing reports on Dust Tactics and some of the other neat stuff coming out! I hope Flying Frog will be showcasing their new Alien Invasion game, and get an autograph of one of the Last Night on Earth girls for me!

baelthazar wrote:Looks like I'm missing GenCon this year, so no schmoozing with Hepcat and Zarathud. Next year my dad and I are going to early register.

*Hentzau goes back to his hotel room in tears, knowing that he just can't compete with the likes of Hepcat and Zarathud.*

baelthazar hasn't seen your gaming lair, hentzau. Not only do you have your very own convention going, you've got the equivalent of the Origins boardgame room in your basement.

There's a family reunion in my hometown that demands the presence of the spawn, so hepcat is going to GenCon without me. I hear he's going to spend the time picking up furries.

Not that I'm jealous. He'll just have to explain the latest joke from the graffiti on the bathroom walls.

hentzau wrote:

baelthazar wrote:Looks like I'm missing GenCon this year, so no schmoozing with Hepcat and Zarathud. Next year my dad and I are going to early register.

*Hentzau goes back to his hotel room in tears, knowing that he just can't compete with the likes of Hepcat and Zarathud.*

Sorry Hentzau! I sort of "browsed" the thread and didn't see you were going!

Thanks for AAR BTW, it made me sure that I will early register and go next August!

I hear Eric Sohmer of Least I Can Do and Looking for Group was there... damn! I've always wanted to meet him and Lars! Also, I was really looking forward to getting autographed character cards with "Sally" and "Eliza" of Last Night on Earth and A Touch of Evil, respectively. It would have been nice to see the copies of DungeonQuest that FFG had too... I can't decide if I want it or not after reading the rules. I had it for pre-order, but canceled it and changed my pre-order to Castle Ravenloft D&D Boardgame, which sounds more of what I am looking for (i.e. less random, more character customization, more adventure than puzzle-meets-card challenges-meets-instant death). Did anyone see either of these games or get to play them?

Bael

Gencon was a mixed bag this year in terms of new gameage. I ended up coming home with only one game, the one that should have been my least likely candidate - Warhammer: Invasion. I say least likely because I already own the Game of Thrones AND Cthulhu LCGs with a substantial number of chapter/asylum packs for each and there's just no way I can actually play all three of these with any seriousness. However, after two "rentals" in the board game hall I decided it was just too good to pass up and grabbed the first two Battle Packs and the two bigbox expansions (the latter of which just released at the con - Damned something or other). I am a complete whore for that type of gameplay, what can I say?

Otherwise, foot traffic was so heavy that WH:I was literally the only game we were able to actually demo in the exhibit hall. We were interested in City of Thieves (developed by AEG but sold to FFG), but not enough to buy it sight unseen. I was interested in some of the other FFG titles as well, but prices seemed even more ridiculous than usual ($60 for Cosmic Encounter? Really?). In the end I decided whatever else I was going to buy was going to be done online after the convention.

Some other highlights:

--Chaos in the Old World with the designer, Eric Lang (who also designed or had a part in designing all three LCGs). Super cool guy who took a ton of time explaining the game and backstory to one of the other players who hadn't played the game before. I'm happy to report that I pretty much ran people over and won by dial with Khorne. Blood for the Blood God!

--I'm really intrigued by Horus Heresy and will likely be buying that one online in the near future. The combat system is pretty unique - you add up all the strength of your present units, divide by 2, then draw that many combat cards (adding 2 hero cards for each hero present at the battle). Those cards have different combinations of attack values, shields (for defending against opponent attack values) and abilities. You have to figure out how you're going to utilize that assortment of cards for however many iterations of combat will occur (usually 6, but it varies).

--After playing Thunderstone a couple of times at the con, I no longer feel driven to play Dominion again. If you're unfamiliar, the two games are similar to each other in that you spend resources to acquire cards which are added to your deck. However, the big difference between the two is that while the theme in Dominion is razor-thin to nonexistent, the theme in Thunderstone is actually pretty cool and deepens gameplay. In Thunderstone, you're an adventurer who hires heroes and buys weapons in the spirit of entering the dungeon to defeat various monsters, who yield experience points (which are spent on various upgrades) and victory points. Each turn is spent doing one of three things: 1) Village action (where you utilize village abilities in your hand and/or purchase cards from the village). 2) Dungeon action (where you use the attack values of your heroes and/or weapons to go after a monster in the dungeon). 3) Rest (discard a card - great for getting rid of things you no longer want). Both Dominion and Thunderstone award victory to the player with the most victory points, but I find the journey much more interesting in the latter game.

Jow wrote:--After playing Thunderstone a couple of times at the con, I no longer feel driven to play Dominion again. If you're unfamiliar, the two games are similar to each other in that you spend resources to acquire cards which are added to your deck. However, the big difference between the two is that while the theme in Dominion is razor-thin to nonexistent, the theme in Thunderstone is actually pretty cool and deepens gameplay. In Thunderstone, you're an adventurer who hires heroes and buys weapons in the spirit of entering the dungeon to defeat various monsters, who yield experience points (which are spent on various upgrades) and victory points. Each turn is spent doing one of three things: 1) Village action (where you utilize village abilities in your hand and/or purchase cards from the village). 2) Dungeon action (where you use the attack values of your heroes and/or weapons to go after a monster in the dungeon). 3) Rest (discard a card - great for getting rid of things you no longer want). Both Dominion and Thunderstone award victory to the player with the most victory points, but I find the journey much more interesting in the latter game.

This is blasphemy. I'll have to try Thunderstone out.

This weekend we got a couple of games of Dominion in, along with some Munchkin. This was the first time I'd played any of the Munchkin games; good stuff.

Zaxxon wrote: This weekend we got a couple of games of Dominion in, along with some Munchkin. This was the first time I'd played any of the Munchkin games; good stuff.

Despite having known John Kovalic, the artist on the lions share of the Munchkin Cards, for over 15 years now, I have never played a single game of Munchkin.

hentzau wrote:

Zaxxon wrote: This weekend we got a couple of games of Dominion in, along with some Munchkin. This was the first time I'd played any of the Munchkin games; good stuff.

Despite having known John Kovalic, the artist on the lions share of the Munchkin Cards, for over 15 years now, I have never played a single game of Munchkin.

Congratulate him for me; some of them are quite hilarious. So is some of the monster text.

Spent all day saturday (from after work friday night til heading home saturday 7pm) playing Magic EDH style... Planning on finding my Planescape cards and Vanguard cards to usre with the new Archenemy for a twist. Games were pretty evenly split between Kentickid, his wife, myself, and our gaming buddy Dennis.

I just played a solo game of Defenders of the Realm (my wife was supposed to play, but got distracted by the phone). It is like Pandemic, with much more interaction and a story. I can see it completely replacing Pandemic in my collection, as it is the better game, with better mechanics, and better quality pieces.

Few games of Zombie Fluxx and Monty Python Fluxx, thus far. Excellent recommendation from the various threads in this forum. Zombie is easier and plays a bit quicker than Monty Python due to a bit more reading required on the Monty Python cards and the even more constantly changing goals than other Fluxx games.

I introduced my kids to EcoFluxx a couple of weeks ago and we're having fun with it (and I have Zombie Fluxx on order to pull out sometime down the track..)

This weekend we played Roll Through The Ages (totally luck-driven dice game, but quick and fun) and Chicago Express which I've had for a while but hadn't got around to playing. I have a hankering for train games at the moment and this one fit the bill nicely - it was simple enough for my seven-year-old to pick up after a couple of turns and different enough from the other train games we have that I imagine it'll see regular play from here on.