Octopus Overlords

Eminent Domain expansion. I has it.



The scenario cards look *awesome*



I really liked the mechanics of ED, but got bored of no variation between games. This is gonna be fun, I think.

That made my day.

Sat down this afternoon to play a solo learning game of Robinson Crusoe. Pretty fiddly game to get into, had several interruptions as I was trying to play, but soon I got the hang of things and really started to get into it. Slowly building up my resources, slowly getting the wood pile set up, went to fight a beast to get some fur and WTF!!! A tiger for my first fight??? Ouch...

Lots of exploring, finally find a mountain so I can get my fire started, and then a river so I can get my map and shortcut inventions out of the way to start to generate some food. Move my camp to the mountains, because there is a natural shelter there. This takes me away from food, but I have some biscuits that I can eat for a while. Concentrate on getting more wood stockpiled and my roof set up when we hit winter. I send Friday out to get more wood, and he has a tree fall on him, killing him. Ah well, at least he managed to drag the wood back to camp!

Winter hits in earnest, and I am hard pressed to get enough wood for the pile to be able to signal a passing ship. I find a mast, that adds much needed wood, and at the end of turn 11 I only need one more wood on the pile to win. I smile, knowing that I will generate 2 wood on my next resource gathering phase, so I can place the last wood cube on the signal fire pile.

I start the event phase of turn 12...and turn over "Thunderstorm". The closest wood (camp tile if possible) is exhausted.

No. Wood.

Son of a...

Played Elder sign today. We won on the last roll, he needed a lore and a terror. He surprisingly got both when he had 2 dice left. When he got that roll we had 13 elder signs and we were 1 doom token away from summoning the elder god.

We also started a 4 player game of "Mice and Mystics". It was a fun light RPG with some cool new features for the way skills and fighting works. It is a lot of dice rolling and the defender has to roll to block attacks. We just got through the first chapter and we were having a lot of fun with it.

hentzau wrote:
Son of a...

I'm convinced Castaways is next to impossible to solo. Even with the dog and Friday. If you're comfortable with the rules, move on to one of the other scenarios and give it a shot. One of the great things about the game is the scenario driven gameplay. If you don't like (or have issues with) one, there are a half dozen or so others that change up the game significantly enough to make it feel fresh and/or different.

Also, don't forget to grab Ignacy's additional scenarios from the files section of its entry on boardgamegeek. I'm partial to the scenario for King Kong Island, personally.

My first game of Cruel Necessity, which was interrupted by life this week and thus only finished on Friday night, ended very, very badly for the Parliamentarians. The Royalists crushed us...utterly. But still, a great little game that I highly recommend.

I've been painting Hordes miniatures the last day or two, but I'm hoping to get back into Pathfinder this afternoon if I can put down my brushes.

Spent some time trying to grok the rules for Eldritch Horror. I've only ever played one game of Arkham Horror (which I enjoyed for the first 120 minutes...and then it got to be really, really long and too much) and I think my lack of experience with some of the similar systems is slowing me down. Actually, I hated setting it up so I bought a Plano box and some foamboard and built a box liner, card dividers, and organized the counters to assist with that.

Played 2-3 games of Darkest Night. I like it, but it does start to lack something without the expansions, which are on the way.

Watched some play videos of Mage Knight, and after thinking it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen at first, I'm starting to come around on it.

Finally--saw some videos for a game called Touch Of Evil, and it looked amazing. Anyone got info on it?

Touch of Evil is kind of like a stripped down version of Arkham Horror. It doesn't take as long to set up (but then again, aside from the economies of some smaller countries, what doesn't?) and it usually plays in about half the time. I really like it. I have the base game and the first expansion and I recently dug it out in order to give it another go during one of my week long, after work solo games.

I've learned that for FF games, the plano boxes are a necessity, not an option -- at least in terms of speeding up game play. On a whim, I also picked up a Hold It! plastic card organizer. Very expensive for plastic, but it's made my card-intense games much more manageable to play. I've used it now with Eldritch Horror and Merchants and Marauders and it performed perfectly. I haven't tried it yet, but it strikes me as something I could use for the Pathfinder card game as well to try and save some table space.

I still have Mage Knight sitting opened, but unpunched. Maybe this summer...

triggercut wrote:
Finally--saw some videos for a game called Touch Of Evil, and it looked amazing. Anyone got info on it?

I've owned the game since it came out, and it's never hit the table. But I think Hep likes it.

Played Wiz-War for the first time. Man it had a lot of rules, especially for the less experienced gamers at the table. But it was fun because I won. We followed it up with a game of Carcassone, since the rules were much more manageable. I won again, as my last tile linked up my farmer with the mega-field.

Smoove_B wrote:I've learned that for FF games, the plano boxes are a necessity, not an option -- at least in terms of speeding up game play. On a whim, I also picked up a Hold It! plastic card organizer. Very expensive for plastic, but it's made my card-intense games much more manageable to play. I've used it now with Eldritch Horror and Merchants and Marauders and it performed perfectly. I haven't tried it yet, but it strikes me as something I could use for the Pathfinder card game as well to try and save some table space.

Pimp out your copy of Eldritch Horror or Arkham Horror with some slick lookin' card and token trays custom made for those FFG games.

...of course, you're going to need to drop about a hundie to get 'em all.

I still have Mage Knight sitting opened, but unpunched. Maybe this summer...

Come to the next Octocon and we'll teach you how to play.

PLW wrote:Played Wiz-War for the first time. Man it had a lot of rules, especially for the less experienced gamers at the table. But it was fun because I won. We followed it up with a game of Carcassone, since the rules were much more manageable. I won again, as my last tile linked up my farmer with the mega-field.

Wiz-war is my favorite game. I found out today that there is an expansion I already ordered mine, there is only 1 left at amazon, better hurry.

SpaceLord wrote:Eminent Domain expansion. I has it.

More cards, more variations, more fun!

hepcat wrote: Pimp out your copy of Eldritch Horror or Arkham Horror with some slick lookin' card and token trays custom made for those FFG games.

I would actually be tempted to purchase (and paint) those if someone didn't have a reaction to the mere thought of playing Arkham Horror. You can get rid of the entire event card tray using the FF app.

I love Arkham Horror and will never turn down a chance to play...but not if we're using my copy. It's just too much work to sort out everything.

hepcat wrote:I'm convinced Castaways is next to impossible to solo. Even with the dog and Friday.

Playing Castaways solo with the dog and Friday was the first time I ever actually won a scenario in RC. I think we've won it one other time with 3-4 players. Having more people always seemed to make the game harder to me. The extra food and wood/hides needed to survive and make shelter with more people seems to be tougher to gather, not easier.

Moving on is nice, but we haven't won ANY of the other scenarios yet. I want to get the Beagle expansion, and then I realize that we've barely succeeded at the base game so far.

Boudreaux wrote:

hepcat wrote:I'm convinced Castaways is next to impossible to solo. Even with the dog and Friday.

Playing Castaways solo with the dog and Friday was the first time I ever actually won a scenario in RC. I think we've won it one other time with 3-4 players. Having more people always seemed to make the game harder to me. The extra food and wood/hides needed to survive and make shelter with more people seems to be tougher to gather, not easier.

Moving on is nice, but we haven't won ANY of the other scenarios yet. I want to get the Beagle expansion, and then I realize that we've barely succeeded at the base game so far.

Tried a 2 player game with Castaways last night, and got our asses handed to us. Explorer and carpenter. Made a big mistake in not getting the Map and Shortcut set up right away, so had to spend much too much time chasing food. I had a TON of bad rolls as the carpenter, and ended up blowing getting some very important items made early on in the game. It was just a never ending spiral into wounds and morale loss. We lost the game by the Explorer dying on turn 7.

It was a completely different game than my solo attempt, where up until the very last turn I thought I had a shot at winning. In this, by turn four, I could see the writing on the wall.

I hope Tommy wasn't too put off by it, I still think it's a great game, but for his first play through of the game it was pretty brutal.

Zarathud is much less obsessed than me about playing RC in any supposed scenario order. He got annoyed with Castaways and just jumped over to a different one...and ended up enjoying it more, I believe. I need to be more like that with this game.

So for someone who just was given the game as a gift and hasn't played a scenario yet but had read the rules which scenario would you suggest starting on?

Oh, go ahead and start with Castaways. It's a good intro to the game and doesn't add a whole lot of rules right away. I'm just saying don't get stuck on some personal vendetta to succeed at that one scenario before moving on to any of the other excellent ones...like myself.

Edit: disregard my previous assertion that you feed people before moving the camp. It's actually that you can move your camp AND THEN take damage for not having a shelter (which is reversed in the Z-Man rules...or at least they were in the initial print run.). This allows you to move to a tile with a cave (which acts as a shelter) before taking damage from exposure.

Start with Castaways. The setup is laid out in the instructions and it is a basic scenario. It may not be the easiest scenario, but it's not very complex.

I wanted to play a solo game this weekend, but there are too many baggies. Plano box is on order.

Chris, this Quick Start Guide REALLY helped me to get this game figured out. Highly recommend you have that with you on your first game of Castaway.

In the world of war games, Volko Ruhnke has become a hero: Washington Post article about the designer of the COIN series, including Andean Abyss. Fantastic read. I'm going to have to teach myself Cuba Libre soon.

Cuba Libre is a concentrated version of the COIN system so it's definitely an easier game than any of the others in the system. It also plays much, much faster.

SpaceLord wrote:In the world of war games, Volko Ruhnke has become a hero: Washington Post article about the designer of the COIN series, including Andean Abyss. Fantastic read. I'm going to have to teach myself Cuba Libre soon.

Posted that same link back on the previous page.

Boudreaux wrote:

wonderpug wrote:Is Takenoko as fun as Wil Wheaton makes it look? Does it play well with 2 players?

I'm not sure anything is actually as fun as Wil Wheaton makes it look. Takenoko is a pretty good, light strategy game though. It's designed by Antoine Bauza, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite game designers (he also did Ghost Stories, Tokaido, and Hanabi). The components are fantastic, it's easy to understand and there are enough interesting decisions to keep the game fun. Turns go pretty quickly and it's not too long.

There is at least one complaint I've heard about the game that is somewhat valid - the different "mission" cards you're given are not always balanced. You're either trying to get a specific combination of bamboo on a tile, a specific arrangement of tiles, or a specific set of bamboo pieces that the panda has eaten. The first two objectives can be much more difficult to complete as the game goes on, without a corresponding payoff in points. This hasn't really bothered me in game - it's not a big enough problem and the game isn't long/strategic enough that it's a huge issue.

I picked it up a couple of months ago when Amazon had it on sale for something like $20, and I'm pretty happy with it. It'll be staying in our collection. Also, I think it would work fine with 2 players, maybe even better than 3/4 since there would be less changing from turn to turn. That might help with some of the objectives and general chaos that more players can create.

hentzau wrote:It's the general chaos of the game that I love. I've done 2 player and found it to be a little boring, but really enjoyed my four player games.

Thanks for the input! I ended up jumping on it since it sounds like I'll find it fun enough, the subject & presentation should appeal to The Wife, and it has a high potential of catching the interest of some more family members. Wish I could have gotten it at the $20 price, but if The Wife likes it as much as I think she will it'll still be worth getting.

SpaceLord wrote:In the world of war games, Volko Ruhnke has become a hero: Washington Post article about the designer of the COIN series, including Andean Abyss. Fantastic read. I'm going to have to teach myself Cuba Libre soon.

I love this article. I'm using it to persuade certain friends that wargaming is thoughtful and worthwhile and not just for obsessive panzer nerds. (Although I wish the photo captions focused more on the game and less on Volko's gun collection.)

Because war gaming is often for the obsessive Panzer nerds, my approach has been to go in half-cocked and let my teammates fill in the modifiers and recommendations for better tactics. They're going to do it anyway, so why not make it easier on everyone?

hepcat wrote:Oh, go ahead and start with Castaways. It's a good intro to the game and doesn't add a whole lot of rules right away. I'm just saying don't get stuck on some personal vendetta to succeed at that one scenario before moving on to any of the other excellent ones...like myself.

Edit: disregard my previous assertion that you feed people before moving the camp. It's actually that you can move your camp AND THEN take damage for not having a shelter (which is reversed in the Z-Man rules...or at least they were in the initial print run.). This allows you to move to a tile with a cave (which acts as a shelter) before taking damage from exposure.

coopasonic wrote:Start with Castaways. The setup is laid out in the instructions and it is a basic scenario. It may not be the easiest scenario, but it's not very complex.

I wanted to play a solo game this weekend, but there are too many baggies. Plano box is on order.

K I'll plan on starting with the castaways scenario this weekend really looking forward to it.

I'm also a big plano fan. Even if a game doesn't need it I tend to find myself putting one in to make set up just that much easier.

hentzau wrote:Chris, this Quick Start Guide REALLY helped me to get this game figured out. Highly recommend you have that with you on your first game of Castaway.

Just took a look at this, looks really helpful, thanks for the link! Should make the game a little easier to get started. Really looking forward to trying it after hearing so much about it.

I've mostly been playing Caverna and Clash of Cultures this last week or two. I really enjoy Clash of Cultures but I was disappointed when I got it out for the first time in 6 months and found that the yellow pieces had "leaked" oil all over their bag. SO I contacted Z man games because apparently this has been a problem and they have been good about replacing pieces. Haven't heard back from them yet but I am hoping they will replace my pieces no problem.

Caverna is still fantastic. Possibly my favorite game from last year. Just very enjoyable all around. I always liked Agricola, but Caverna is just... better. I've really enjoyed finding new ways to win. The rooms really offer a lot of variety to the game and there is always a different strategy to try.

my copy of Robinson Crusoe arrived...and I have been working my way through the rules...currently have a game set up on the table, am on round 4, I think. The game actually seems better than I thought it would.

For those of you that have the game, and bought the promos that are available on the BGG Store...are those worth it? Do they work well enough?

Chris

I just learned how to play Go. This requires more consideration. Most importantly, it makes chess seem really complex by comparison (ie - the kids can play it).

coopasonic wrote:I just learned how to play Go. This requires more consideration. Most importantly, it makes chess seem really complex by comparison (ie - the kids can play it).

Give it a few weeks and Chess will seem simple in comparison. GO is a very easy game to learn how to place pieces in. It is a very difficult game to learn strategy and counter strategy in. It also varies depending on the skill of your opponent.

Speaking of which,
Hey Chaosraven,
We should plan on getting together to play Go sometime soon.

Rule number 1 in Go. Learn the Ladder. It is your friend and enemy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_%28Go%29

Remus West wrote:Speaking of which,
Hey Chaosraven,
We should plan on getting together to play Go sometime soon.

Speaking of Lost Causes, go roll your final dice in Titan.

Played my first game of Robinson Crusoe last night with my brother. It was really enjoyable. Hard, but really fun. After looking over the rulebook after the game we got a few rules wrong. No big deal, next time we will get them right. We thought you had to pay 2 determination every time you used the personal invention you made rather than getting two determination when you built it. So we burned a ton of extra determination that way. That was the biggest mistake we made. But it was really fun, and challenging. We actually managed to beat the castaways scenario, we went crazy on wood and that really paid off as the game went on. I was the cook my brother was the explorer and we had Friday. Really looking forward to our next chance to play that game.

MythicalMino wrote:my copy of Robinson Crusoe arrived...and I have been working my way through the rules...currently have a game set up on the table, am on round 4, I think. The game actually seems better than I thought it would.

For those of you that have the game, and bought the promos that are available on the BGG Store...are those worth it? Do they work well enough?

Chris

I bought the promos (I can't help it... if promos are available on BGG for a game I own I pick them up just in case they become difficult to pick up later). I haven't used the trait cards at all yet having only played one game, but they look pretty interesting. Essentially it looks like it gives everyone a trait where they cannot do certain things but also get a benefit. For instance there is one that says you are a kid. You cannot hunt. But also the beast dice doesn't hurt you. Not sure I will use them very often, but then again I might as I continue playing the game. I need to read up on them more before attempting to use them.

The extra animal cards I shuffled into the beast deck and simply used them along with the base. It adds a but more variety to the animals. Having only played one game I obviously didn't need the variety yet but I figured what the heck. Are they worth it? Maybe not. Probably not. But I like variety and I was already putting an order in with BGG. One thing to note the beast cards are slightly different size. When shuffled together I didn't notice very much but they are not exactly the same size. This might drive some people crazy. It doesn't bother me very much because I cannot really tell when looking at them and not inspecting them but I thought I would let you know.

Setting up to play more COMBAT COMMANDER with my son...

YoungestSon and I picked up a 2player Magic pack, and a deckbuilder box and played some random Magic over lunch this afternoon.

Much fun and really makes me want to start another ante league.

Chrisoc: awesome...I had read that the length of the cards were an issue...but if you don't feel they are, then I will go along with you...guess I have an order for BGG coming up soon. I noticed that the trait cards, along with the Trait Cards II are available via download from the publisher's webpage (along with the King Kong Island scenario and the other free scenario).

I spent some time Saturday and Sunday teaching myself Mage Knight.

Played two games of Robinson Crusoe purely solo (Carpenter, Friday and Dog). First game was Castaways and I messed up early and ended up getting pounded by the weather die. I actually had a path to a win on turn 12 by building the mast, but the turn 11 weather killed me (didn't have a weapon to handle the animal I rolled).

Second game was Cursed Island and I died way faster on that one. It was actually turn 7 or so but it felt faster. I only got one cross built.