Octopus Overlords

Got the second act for Descent: Legends of the Dark last week so I added it to the app and went back to my solo campaign. It tossed a few of the new baddies into my current game, so that was a refreshing change of pace.

I've read that while the second act is shorter in quest numbers, the maps are friggin' huge in comparison to the first act. I'm gonna need a bigger boat...errr...table.

Crossposted from the Kickstarter thread, here's a prototype partial solo playthrough of Worldspanner Factions along with first impressions courtesy of One Stop Co-op Shop.

Just to further clarify however, the solo campaign and story-based set up shown is entirely optional. So, you can instead opt to simply play solo skirmish mode games, selecting from all characters and random enemies, if team management ain't your cuppa:



I must admit, in terms of playing solo, I'd personally prefer to see and play a digital version. All the more so in fact, considering the designer's background as a software architect. But the Worldspanner Factions FAQs clarifies this is not his priority though, so probably won't happen anytime soon:

Worldspanner Factions - FAQs wrote: DIGITAL VERSION: Is there a virtual tabletop version of Worldspanner Factions?

There is not a digital version. As the designer, I know this limits some people from wanting to check out the game, but I do very much care about getting players around a table and enjoying face to face time. Factions is a very rare Team Co-op game. It's one of the most enjoyable us vs. them events, a lot of active laughing and chatting and boasts and team camaraderie. And the campaign is that as well. It's a great experience, one I have deliberately worked to produce (I'm a software architect and it would be easier to make a digital version than a real version). One day there is likely to be a digital version, but it's not my priority.

Realized I posted this in the wrong thread. So repost with some additional comments:

20 Strong Impressions!

Won my first game last night and amazingly didn't mess up any rules (at least based on the One Stop Co-op Shop playthrough). I was playing on easy mode (no missions), so I'll have to put my big boy pants on for the next session. One thing that helped me early on was getting my recovery stat up to 5 (and eventually 6) early on, so I was rolling all my purples and red pretty much every round.

I've never been a huge fan of press your luck mechanics, but there's enough "thinki-ness" in how you choose dice in 20 Strong that it didn't bother me much. I think my recent experience with Oathsworn has also warmed me up to the mechanic, so I didn't find it quite as scary as I might have otherwise.

I do love the agonizing decisions that come with deciding which enemy to activate based on their ongoing effect vs their reward. You're rarely ever allowed to "play it safe," as ignoring tough enemies means also giving up the sweetest rewards. And ultimately you're going to have to get stronger to face down the boss at the end.

I LOVE the cards, the foil printing is soooo sweet and the finish is incredibly good (albeit slippery as hell - I dropped half the deck at least 3 times while shuffling). The only disappointment was the dice. They're not *bad*, it's just compared to the cards they feel kind of plain and cheap. Add in the smell problem and the sloppy printing, and the overall effect is of a rushed, mediocre product.

That said, this will almost certainly replace Set a Watch as my go-to travel game I bring along on trips. I still enjoy Set a Watch more than 20 Strong, but even its compact box can't compete wit 20 Strong's tiny size.

Update - Have played 5-6 rounds now (including standard difficulty with 3 missions), and have only lost once. I think Solar Sentinels, in general, is a bit on the easier side if you know how to manage your stats, and especially if you use one of the easier heroes like Valkyrie (who gets an automatic +2 stat bonus at the start of the game).

That said, there's a lot more strategy going on than first meets the eye. I saw one person describe it as "just roll dice and hope you have enough to beat the enemy" and that's such a gross over-simplification I don't know where to begin. There's strategy in choosing which enemy to discard each round, when to fight and when to just take damage, deciding which enemy to fight when, etc. There's a lot going on.

I will say once you learn the strategy, it's not super difficult to have your stats really pumped and have most if not all of your dice pool back by the time you reach the boss. You just have to be smart about how you play.

At any rate, I feel like I've seen enough of the base game to try out Too Many Bones next. Honestly I'd have been perfectly happy with Solar Sentinels as a light, quick, solo travel game, but knowing there are other flavors with added mechanics just makes this a fave of the year for me. Will post Too Many Bones impressions once I've played a few sessions.

Colorfle is not merely a game; it's a journey through the captivating realm of color, where every correct guess unveils a burst of brilliance and rewards the players with a sense of accomplishment

I edited the link because we are not ready to undertake such a journey. The sheer brilliance would turn lesser minds to quivering jelly.

Before anyone clicks, that's a multiplayer browser/mobile game, not a board game, and not solo.

In other words, spam at best and malware is possible.

But..but….Josh and I go way back! He wouldn’t do that to me!

It's ok. He's just joshing you.

And just like that, Punisher was driven from the village and cursed to walk the Earth for all time with a scarlet P tattooed on his forehead.

Oddly enough, he seemed happy with his curse.

hepcat wrote:But..but….Josh and I go way back! He wouldn’t do that to me!

You have know each other since 1433!

Anyone played The Plum Island Horror? I liked Dawn of the Zeds and am interested in a wargame version of it.

My copy arrived right after Xmas, but I haven't had a chance to get to it yet. I'm not sure I'd call it a war game, exactly - though it does use lots of similar components.

My main concern with it right now is that the game board is (1) gigantic (22” x 34”) and (2) oriented badly for solo play. Namely, unless you turn it sideways, the game is assuming you're sitting at the short edge and looking "up" the board, based on the orientation of the graphics. Sure, you can resolve that by turning it sideways, but then every single board element is off by 90 degrees. While it's technically possible to play with 4 people, it feels like it was intended for true solo, so having the board oriented that doesn't in any way accommodate that is strange. Same issue I had with Crowbar - another oversized board oriented wrong.

Anyway, it has a huge, huge footprint which is my immediate impression after unboxing and checking things out. I can't speak to the mechanics yet, but I would like to try it soon and figure out if it's a keeper.

Mine's been in a state of shipping for six weeks.

Six...weeks.



edit: I just deleted all my P500 orders from GMT. Between the shipping costs and now this, I think I'm done with direct orders from them. I'll just get them retail if they go to production.

Yeah, they really are the worst with shipping and I don't understand why they continue to try and do it - they're a board gaming company that is trying to also be a logistics company. They'd be better off handing it over to a 3rd party, imho because they're not doing themselves any favors based on how large the customer base is.

Then again, sometimes I feel like there's a subtset of the GMT / wargamer base that *likes* how difficult and old school it is to get things...

if you can find a reliable pre-order shop, I've had good experiences. However, the guy I was using died back in 2021 and his shop closed. I have no local option, so finding another online retailer that pre-orders GMT games hasn't worked out.

I think the only benefit you have from ordering GMT direct is that if there are issues with counters or components, they will replace them for free.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2024 12:59 pm Then again, sometimes I feel like there's a subtset of the GMT / wargamer base that *likes* how difficult and old school it is to get things...

"Send a check, and allow 8-10 weeks for delivery."

Well, to be fair, I'm also making a concerted effort to reduce my BFP (Boardgame Foot Print) in 2024. It all started when I began de cluttering during the multiple treatments I had to undergo at my place for bed bugs (final treatment was last week and I've been declared BB free by exterminators...but the PTSD is still there, and will be for a while.) and realized I have way too many games that I bought, played once and then put away.

I have simply been content to avoid letting my BFP grow.

I took a bit of a stab at this over Christmas vacation by decluttering my closet and sorting games that are keepers from games I could bear to give away or sell. Anything I could part with went in the closet and off the shelves.

While I still haven't gotten rid of them, at least I can now get my hands on them easily. I think I'll wait for my FLGS semi-annual consignment sale and try to offload them all then.

mrvole wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2024 12:12 pm Anyone played The Plum Island Horror? I liked Dawn of the Zeds and am interested in a wargame version of it.

Not a play-through, but you can see the size of things and get a broad overview in this video that was just released:

I look forward to playing it in 2027.

Update: I called GMT because they posted a notice that all December orders were already shipped. Turns out they shipped MY copy to another customer who shares my name. Not sure how THAT happened since my order HAS MY DAMN ADDRESS ON IT. Anyway, they're shipping MY copy to me tonight.

What an ordeal! I hope it arrives quickly.

Honestly I'd have held off on Dawn of the Zeds in favor of Plum Island had I known it was the same designer. Just because the theme appeals to be more than zombies. But I'll still probably pick it up at some point.

You'll be happy you got Dawn of the Zeds once you play it. The only thing I hate about Zeds is that they split the damn rule book into multiple books that make it WAY too confusing to learn the game. It still stands as an example of what NOT to do when creating a game manual. They created 3 different rulebooks for each difficulty level. But they don't always include the rules for the lower difficulty game in the higher difficulty rule books. I hate, hate, hate having to have 3 damn books open when I'm playing at a higher level of the game so I can find the goddamn rules for things that were explained on a lower level game setting.

BUT, once you get the rules down, it's a blast.

p.s. a little research shows that having pages 22 and 23 in the Level Up rulebook at the ready helps. Keep that in mind. I know I will now!

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Jan 12, 2024 12:15 pm I look forward to playing it in 2027.

Update: I called GMT because they posted a notice that all December orders were already shipped. Turns out they shipped MY copy to another customer who shares my name. Not sure how THAT happened since my order HAS MY DAMN ADDRESS ON IT. Anyway, they're shipping MY copy to me tonight.

What number did you call Hep? I am also waiting on p500 Plum with no traction.

Phone (7AM - 4PM Pacific Time):
International: +1 (800) 523-6111
US and Canada: (559) 583-1236

I accidentally used the 800 number, but I'm guessing they're the same line.

hepcat wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2024 2:34 pm Phone (7AM - 4PM Pacific Time):
International: +1 (800) 523-6111
US and Canada: (559) 583-1236

I accidentally used the 800 number, but I'm guessing they're the same line.

TY sir, will give them a call on Tuesday.

If you get TWO copies in the near future, I know what your real life name is.

hepcat wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2024 2:49 pm If you get TWO copies in the near future, I know what your real life name is.

If you and I share the same name I will play the lottery for a guaranteed victory!

I'd say, if that was the case, you'd already won the lottery. Unfortunately, it's looking to be more Shirley Jackson than Powerball.

You stone a villager to death ONCE and people never let you forget it.

I'm due to receive my pre-order of Manila: The Savage Streets sometime this week. You play as the US forces trying to take back Manila from the Japanese and the win condition is to do it as good or better than historically.


Looking at the board put me in a contemplative mood, especially when comparing it to the location as shown on Google maps. I was raised around the area shown as the Philippine Racing Club on the map I believe. I'll need to confirm with my mom exactly where, since they brought me to the US when I was two. I've never been to visit, but I'm putting it on my bucket list.

Looks very cool.

Alright, I'm through day 1 of The Plum Island Horror and I have some thoughts.

First off, this is a State of Siege game just like Dawn of the Zeds and many other Hermann Luttmann (20 bucks says he added all those extra "n"s to this name) games. What that means is that you are going to playing as the bottom part of the map watching things descend towards you. Your goal? Stay alive for a set number of rounds and try to achieve any other goals. Simply put, you'll draw cards that move "horrors" (either a generic stack of horrors that represent miscellaneous beasties and ghouls, or a "mutation" which is a more thematic monster) down one of the six tracks that represent essentially highways/roads/etc..

To help you survive, you'll be in charge of one or more factions (depending on player count) which will include 5 characters with special powers each. One of these units will be the leader with some extra special power...although after playing, I could debate that it's all that great in some cases.

Anyway, the game is split into 9 days, each of which has a morning, noon and night round. So a total of 9 rounds will be played. Each round will consist of the following:

1) Feed your people by giving them supplies (only during the night round)
2) Draw an activation token. Each player will have a faction mat with their units on it. They'll also have a faction token. These will go into a bag, along with 3 red tokens (which are bad) and 1 event token (which is usually bad). When you draw your faction color, you take a turn.
3) If you draw a red token, pull a fate card and spawn some enemies (potentially) then activate existing enemies on the tracks called out by the fate card. This could lead to battle. But as we're not playing Barbie's Adventure Time Island, this is to be expected.
4) If you draw a player token, you can first perform a "crisis adrenaline move" which basically means a full move or less for your faction units. Then you have a set number of actions you can do depending on the time of day. On the first day, Morning has 1 action, Noon gives you 2 actions, and Night heaps upon you 3 actions. Later days give you more. There are nine actions which include things like repairing damaged bridges (so you can usher civilians across them) and locations, healing, moving, fighting (close combat or ranged), foraging for supplies, searching your area (pull from a search card deck and get stuff), crowd control (push civilians towards evacuation points), decontamination (the game has a bio hazard track that goes up every time a horror engages in close combat and you lose if it gets too high) and special actions that are unique to each character.
5) After you go, every other player (faction) can do one follow up action, but you have to draw from the fate deck to see if an event occurs if you do.
6) After the day ends, you do some clean up and draw two cubes from the bio hazard bag which will most likely result in your bio hazard track going up.

You lose if the bio hazard track gets too high, you don't evacuate 26 civilians by the end of the nine rounds, your overrun (essentially horrors making it to the evacuation points) gets to the end of the track or you just give up and go outside and think about dandelions instead.

That's the overview, as for the review, I'll say "I like it" without reservation. And I think it's different enough from Dawn of the Zeds to have both in your collection. Zeds is probably still the better game (and DEFINITELY has a much higher quality of components), but that's only because it's had 3 generations to percolate. Although I will say that Plum Island has taken some mechanics from Zeds and refined them for its theme/mechanics.

They both feel unwinnable until you actually win. So don't expect to be great at it until you've got a few games under your belt. I also felt the "pandemic" mechanic more with this, as you shuffle civilians towards evacuation points to save them. That's in Zeds, but it's not as pronounced.

The other thing that surprised me is that it's great solo...but I can see this being a blast with 2 to 3 other players. It doesn't FEEL like a solo only game.

Now, I'm about to start day 2 and there's a senior tour bus with some elderly people who don't want to be evacuated that I have to deal with...

Nice summary, hep.

It sounds close enough to Zeds that I'm not in a hurry for it yet. After all, I've only played a couple of games of that one so far and have barely scratched the surface. But I'll keep it on the wish list for some time down the road.

I can only presume you're eating meals on a snack tray while Plum Island takes over your entire dining room table?

It's not really that bad. I have it portrait orientation and it only overlaps a little across the edge of the dining room table. Then I have my faction mats on the right of that and the other stuff to the left. I've seen far worse.

There's a scripted version on Tabletop Simulator that's pretty good. I was surprised to find it.

update: i played a 4 player game of Horror of Plum Island saturday with 3 others on Tabletop Simulator and it's really fun as an MP game. As a matter of fact, I think I actually prefer it that way as you have six units with unique special actions on each faction player mat. When playing solo, that goes up to 12 or more (depending on how many factions you play with). With each of us controlling one, it just felt a little less cumbersome.

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 11:17 am update: i played a 4 player game of Horror of Plum Island saturday with 3 others on Tabletop Simulator and it's really fun as an MP game.

Hep, what is the playtime for this? I have heard anywhere from 60-120 mins per player! I have mine in shrink, and after hearing that cooled on the prospect of getting it to the table.

It is NOT a short game. Especially with 4 players. Even my solo game is probably going to be 3 to 4 hours. I'm guessing it would be closer to 3 for solo after a few games, but I don't see much shorter than that. Long games don't bother me though, as long as I'm enjoying myself.

It’s a game that is going to take forever the first play, then speed up as you know what’s going on. I kept forgetting the max character per tile and special actions. And repeatedly wanted to move places where the paths didn’t allow.

I'm just not wanting to play Twilight Imperium on Plum Island. Also there is nothing worse than waiting 10 mins per player turn, meaning you get one turn every 30 minutes.