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Kevin Klemme
March 09, 2020
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Mycelia Board Game Review

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River Wild Board Game Review

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Outback Crossing Review

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What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

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08 Jun 2015 12:17 #203499 by charlest

Dr. Mabuse wrote: JEALOUS!
Do tell about Batiatus and Tullius.


Lets just say Mr. Ruth was in his element. Whiskey fueled Spartacus voice acting as he played each card with a monologue about Dominus "Booty Anus" and "Tuggius".

There were a couple times where Pete would spend a couple minutes pontificating about Jupiter's member and what he was going to do to another player and then a successful guard would happen and in about 5 seconds that huge and colorful narrative would be erased.

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08 Jun 2015 13:19 #203504 by lj1983

Disgustipater wrote: Ahh, I misread you original list and missed that you used ion cannon turrets (which makes sense in your list with Dace). We use Autoblaster turrets for an unavoidable second attack.

Two completely different builds. Carry on.


wow, autoblasters with the title? that feels like it would hard to make work. still....sounds awesome, I'll have to try it.

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08 Jun 2015 13:44 #203508 by Legomancer
Yesterday was a pretty hopping game day. 8 people. The host is in a new place now with a game room with a large table, allowing two 4p games at the same time, which is nice.

Nations: the Dice Game

Nations, the actual game, continues to baffle me. Some sessions go pretty well, some sessions are just a nightmare. My belief that I'd finally found a civ game where one player couldn't dictate how the other players were going to play the game seems to be erroneous. Without some house rules, it seems like it's just another "armies-with-grain" game most of the time.

Nevertheless, I was curious about the dice version. I theoretically like dice games, except I often don't, so it was worth trying out.

The dice game is feather light and relatively innocuous. Two criteria that I look at for a dice game are: 1) does it matter that there are other people playing? and 2) to what extent do the dice get de-randomized, defeating the point of a dice game? Thankfully, Nations TDG passes both of those tests. You will get angry at the other players for messing you up, and you will get frustrated with your dice. That's good. Both of those things should happen in a dice game.

The board game has been simplified for this outing, but almost too much so. There's very little differentiating tiles from one another. For a four-player game, each era you'll use all but three of the tiles, so there isn't much variety there. The event tiles are unremarkably different in each era as well. I played three games of this and though they unfolded slightly differently each time, there wasn't that much to tell them apart.

We'll see about Nations TDG. There's nothing wrong with it, and I certainly prefer it to Roll Through the Ages, but as dice games go it's not really standing out. I'd really rather play Ra: the Dice Game.

Tammany Hall

El Grande is pretty much the king of area control games, and I like it a bunch. I'm planning on grabbing the reprint in November. But as good as a game as it is, it doesn't really make much sense. What is happening in it? Who are these things? What's this supposed to be simulating? It's fine, because it's a fun, good game, so you don't really worry about any of that.

But Tammany Hall shows you how it could be. What is more area control than elections? What is more interesting than heated, demilegal elections? Tammany Hall has little betophatted figures and cubes and disks, but is a hell of a lot more thematically sound than most of the other nonsense that's declared "dripping with theme" around here. The actions make narrative sense and are all tied together through the theme. There's no question about how what you're doing fits in. As a result, you end up with a fun, well-tooled game that also provides a compelling narrative other than "and then Tim put his cubes there and got like 8 points for it!!"

What's more, it does all this with minimal fuss. The rules are actually pretty easy to learn. The artwork is handsome and evocative and doesn't provide noisome clutter. The game encourages a lot of sass-talk, negotiation, and banter. There's a lot of game in this package. I don't know if it's better than El Grande, but it's certainly up there.

Finished out with Parade, which I hadn't played in a while and forgot how neat it is.
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09 Jun 2015 10:33 #203539 by Columbob

lj1983 wrote: y-wings with r4 agromech


You would think agromechs should be better suited to play Agricola on Tattooine than used in space fighters.

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09 Jun 2015 10:40 #203540 by Gary Sax

Legomancer wrote: Yesterday was a pretty hopping game day. 8 people. The host is in a new place now with a game room with a large table, allowing two 4p games at the same time, which is nice.

Nations: the Dice Game

Nations, the actual game, continues to baffle me. Some sessions go pretty well, some sessions are just a nightmare. My belief that I'd finally found a civ game where one player couldn't dictate how the other players were going to play the game seems to be erroneous. Without some house rules, it seems like it's just another "armies-with-grain" game most of the time.

Nevertheless, I was curious about the dice version. I theoretically like dice games, except I often don't, so it was worth trying out.

The dice game is feather light and relatively innocuous. Two criteria that I look at for a dice game are: 1) does it matter that there are other people playing? and 2) to what extent do the dice get de-randomized, defeating the point of a dice game? Thankfully, Nations TDG passes both of those tests. You will get angry at the other players for messing you up, and you will get frustrated with your dice. That's good. Both of those things should happen in a dice game.

The board game has been simplified for this outing, but almost too much so. There's very little differentiating tiles from one another. For a four-player game, each era you'll use all but three of the tiles, so there isn't much variety there. The event tiles are unremarkably different in each era as well. I played three games of this and though they unfolded slightly differently each time, there wasn't that much to tell them apart.

We'll see about Nations TDG. There's nothing wrong with it, and I certainly prefer it to Roll Through the Ages, but as dice games go it's not really standing out. I'd really rather play Ra: the Dice Game.

Tammany Hall

El Grande is pretty much the king of area control games, and I like it a bunch. I'm planning on grabbing the reprint in November. But as good as a game as it is, it doesn't really make much sense. What is happening in it? Who are these things? What's this supposed to be simulating? It's fine, because it's a fun, good game, so you don't really worry about any of that.

But Tammany Hall shows you how it could be. What is more area control than elections? What is more interesting than heated, demilegal elections? Tammany Hall has little betophatted figures and cubes and disks, but is a hell of a lot more thematically sound than most of the other nonsense that's declared "dripping with theme" around here. The actions make narrative sense and are all tied together through the theme. There's no question about how what you're doing fits in. As a result, you end up with a fun, well-tooled game that also provides a compelling narrative other than "and then Tim put his cubes there and got like 8 points for it!!"

What's more, it does all this with minimal fuss. The rules are actually pretty easy to learn. The artwork is handsome and evocative and doesn't provide noisome clutter. The game encourages a lot of sass-talk, negotiation, and banter. There's a lot of game in this package. I don't know if it's better than El Grande, but it's certainly up there.

Finished out with Parade, which I hadn't played in a while and forgot how neat it is.


Thanks for the post---I'll pass on Nation TDG but was curious about it.

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09 Jun 2015 20:26 #203587 by bendgar
Wow. It's getting crowded in these forums.

My wife and I played Theseus last night. My wife played the Marines and I was the Aliens. She destroyed me. I thought that the two factions without the data point side bar would be balanced enough for us noobs. I was wrong. By the time I realized I had made some missteps it was far too late.

Even after loosing I am itching to try the same faction again. I love the trap engine you are building and the simple mechanics.

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10 Jun 2015 07:52 #203658 by Legomancer
bumping this above the spam
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11 Jun 2015 09:10 #203922 by Scott_F
Bump.

Played Dogs of War again recently. Still impressed with this game and the various factions. Too bad the 4 extra factions and some extra tactic cards were kickstarter only and can't be bought in retail, they add alot of variety to the game. Game is easy to learn and forces you to understand and factor in other players moves.

Second try of Unhappy King Charles. I'm really starting to like this game alot, possibly equal to Hannibal RvC or Twilight Struggle. The rules are still a bitch though and I'm pretty good with rules. Also after two games and reading on the forums it seems like the Royalists should win 60% or slightly more of the time. Play time was around 4 hours with a decent amount of rule checking, I'm hoping to get it down to about 3 hours for a full game soon. If I get a chance to play it again - so many rules are a huge entry barrier for most people, even if they are willing to play one two player game for 3-4 hours.

Had another 5 player game of Chaos in the Old World. Still love the game. I was Tzeentch and won the game, but not by much. Rat and Slaanesh were around mid 40s for points too and Khorne needed 3 ticks to go - he had a rough first round of three battles and no kills. Taught the game to two new people also. One of them made the comment of, "yeah the game is neat, I don't like the demon theme (although he loves Thunderstone and other fantasy crap), but I feel like you have the advantage because a new player can't win". Aside from the obnoxiousness of loving fantasy themed games and disliking demons in games his last comment highlighted why I hate his games. If I've played a game 10 times and I teach it to someone who has never played, I expect to win the game maybe 80% of the time. Otherwise why the hell am I playing this game so many times if it can be mastered after one play. One of his top games is Splendor so that explains it.

Played Dungeon Lords for the first time. I have alot of nostalgia for the PC game Dungeon Keeper, so I'm a fan of this theme generally. However I just hated the game. Low interaction and scoring similar to Agricola with a ton of minus points, and somewhat random assignments of heroes that either disarm all of your traps or constantly heal themselves. And an obscenely long rules explanation for what is a pretty simple game with a bunch of random mechanics.
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11 Jun 2015 10:30 #203941 by lj1983
I'm hoping to play Chaos in the Old World for the first time this weekend. Ideally we'll have just 4 players, and can play it vanilla. But if I've got 5, (and I have the expansion) do I play with the new chaos decks along with the 5th player?

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11 Jun 2015 10:38 #203946 by charlest
I wouldn't. Five is a bit wonky (not bad but can produce weird results). I'd stick to base game with base chaos cards if possible. The only thing I'd recommend is letting everyone know they probably need to run away from Khorne or Khorne will win.
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