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06 Oct 2014 10:41 - 06 Oct 2014 10:42 #188133 by Egg Shen
Went to a local meetup this past weekend and enjoyed some new games.

Alien Frontiers - I've never had a chance to play this dice allocating mash up. The game is like a combination of Kingsburg and Yahtzee where you need certain dice combos to utilize spaces. I really dig the retro sci-fi art and the gameplay is very easy to understand. One of the guys we were playing with didn't really seem interested and just bought alien tech cards. He didn't focus on colonies at all (which is how you win the game). It made for not a whole lot of tension as me and another player vied for victory. I ended up winning by stealing a couple VP cards and then utilizing the space where you turn a spaceship into a colony a few times. It's enjoyable enough, but not something I'd run out and buy. The latest editions components are really well done though.

Automobile - I didn't really want to play this game, but I figured what the hell. I'm not into mathy, heavy Euros and Automobile is very much a mathy, heavy Euro. It's got quite a bit going on and I was lost for probably 3 out of the 4 game rounds. I didn't know when it was a good time to produce cars, or shut down factories etc... By the end it all made sense, but Automobile isn't something I'd ever like to revisit. I will concede that it's an interesting and well designed game. It's just not something I really like. It'a a bit too long and it's very dry.

Aerial Assault - Afterwards we sat down and played a proto-type of a game about high school robotics competitions. It's a team vs team card game that is currently being kickstarted. Each player has a hand of standard cards mixed with a few special cards that we took turns drafting. Problem is you don't know who is going to be on your team prior to the draft! So if you get paired up with a person that doesn't match well with the cards you drafted...well you're screwed! Apparently this is the way that it works out with real robotics competitions which I found fascinating. Afterwards you're paired with a teammate and you go off trying to shoot a ball into a goal by playing cards that let you move, shoot the ball, pick the ball up etc... The game somehow captures the awkward feeling of these robots trying to move up and down a court throwing a ball into a goal. You get points for successfully scoring a goal, catching a pass, etc...The game last 4 or 5 rounds and you tally up the points. This was a neat little card game and I had plenty of laughs playing. You don't see a lot of team vs team games. I also like how everyone plays and reveals a card at the same time. Zero downtime and the game length is just right. Cool game, with a really neat theme.
Last edit: 06 Oct 2014 10:42 by Egg Shen.

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06 Oct 2014 12:41 #188139 by Legomancer
Game day started with Rails of New England, which turned out to be not as intimidating as I feared. A different kind of train game, and I liked it. We played with three, and I think four is probably a little better.

Then Splendor, which is a serviceable mild filler that somehow has enchanted the crowned heads of Europe. I don't hate it -- I don't think there's enough there to hate -- but I genuinely don't get the hype.

Then Impulse, my first time with more than two (three, to be specific, and that may be optimal). I am loving this game more and more each time I play it. I had a great combo by my base: Plan and Draw, so I built a swass plan. I then Researched a Sabotage as one of my techs, which was equally sweet. In one turn I leapt up, between sabotage, a battle, and my plan letting me score some big points and putting me within reach of the win. But I was lacking Build tech, so one player took out my transports and a cruiser and the other killed the remaining cruiser, knocking me out of the game. Boo! A lot of fun. This is on my short list for top games of the year.

Finally, Valley of the Kings. Star Realms should be glad it has that app because this is a much, much better game.

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06 Oct 2014 12:41 #188140 by VonTush

Gary Sax wrote: Conquest really interests me but I'm 100% just going to wait a year or two and buy someone's huge lot of it at a cut rate price.


The game has a really neat flow with a defined Hot-Spot and some forward thinking/planning needed. I think it could work as a stand-alone cardgame with a few tweaks. There's an ally wheel where an army can ally with other races next to them in a wheel, I'd do away with that and just mix whatever like Smash-Up. One would be the Core army so it'd be their Warlord and the Warlords 8 signature units. The Ally deck is everything else except the Warlord it's signature units. That would provide a deck a little less than 50 cards (the minimum per the deck-building rules). There's a deck of 12 Neutral cards, those would be shuffled and added randomly to the decks to hit that 50 number.

I think that would give 100's of unique pairings just out of the core set. Sure it means no deck-building aspects, but I wouldn't be getting into the game for the deck-building.

Now that would also give some odd pairings like Tau/Orcs against Space Marine/Chaos...But that's not a big deal to me. Even sticking with the Ally Wheel that'd give dozens of unique pairings.

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06 Oct 2014 13:05 - 06 Oct 2014 13:05 #188141 by Gary Sax
The only thing that could get sticky is game balance. If they designers balanced the game with an eye toward only those fixed alliances, which seems likely, it might not work.
Last edit: 06 Oct 2014 13:05 by Gary Sax.

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06 Oct 2014 13:17 #188142 by jeb
We played RUMMIKUB (twice!), ZOOLORETTO, CALIFORNIA, and CITIES & KNIGHTS OF CATAN this weekend. And got another game of ELDRITCH HORROR in last weekend.

Finally won that last one with a lucky draw on an event while I battled the DUNWICH HORROR. I was marking time, mostly, I was not equipped to defeat it,but I was hoping to chip at it while Shai worked his way across the map to support. Then the Mythos card let us destroy any Monster, and we double-checked that Epic Monsters = Monsters and that solved the final mystery! Golf claps all around.

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06 Oct 2014 14:09 #188144 by RobertB
I gamed with the coworkers this weekend. That day we were looking at 2 hours gaming, then supper, then 2 more hours, for any number from 3 - 6. So I was looking for lighter fare. We ended up with:

Splendor - I saw that Lego got some in this weekend as well. I'm probably playing it more than it deserves. For me, it fills the same niche that Ticket To Ride does. You have to think a little, but not as much as a hardcore Euro. You're also a little at the mercy of card draws, but not completely so. It went over okay, and I think they'd play it again.

Trains - After supper we were down from four to three. Trains was something they had played once before, and wanted to try again. For curiosity's sake, I tried a no rails strategy, a'la Dominion. Since the other players were relatively new (one game apiece), they thought it looked like a good idea, and we all ended up with minimal trains. The game ended on four stacks being emptied, and I won 32-30-26.

Coup - None of us had played it before, so we all kind of flopped around for a few games until we got the hang of it. I think three is too small a number of players for the game, but I'm willing to try it with 4+.

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06 Oct 2014 14:16 #188145 by dragonstout

RobertB wrote: Coup - None of us had played it before, so we all kind of flopped around for a few games until we got the hang of it. I think three is too small a number of players for the game, but I'm willing to try it with 4+.

I like 3-4 the best, actually! Less process-of-elimination-based.

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06 Oct 2014 21:46 #188173 by bfkiller
Saturday night I took part in a local gaming charity event called 24 Hours to Play With Your Food, a gaming marathon that collected $25,000 for a local shelter / soup kitchen / addiction services organization. The charity event was run by local gamer / philanthropist Matt Robertson (who BGGers and HeroScape players might know better as Bixby, with the avatar of a drinking squirrel). Like last year, I played games for 24 non-stop hours (except for quick meal breaks). Here's what I played:

My friends, Adam and Devon (who I played every game with) and I started the event off with back-to-back games of Robinson Crusoe. We shit the grass bed at the Cursed Island scenario, all three of us dying at night due to cold weather, while we snatched victory in Volcano Island, mainly because we used both Dog and Friday to boost our confidence.

Next we played in a social mixer. Sixty people were split into three simultaneous back-to-back sessions of Two Rooms and a Boom. I thought it stunk, but I think most party deduction games stink.

Back to Adam, Devon and I. We played back-to-back games of Letters from Whitechapel. In the first game, I was Jack. The investigators were on my trail the entire game, but didn't finally arrest me until THE VERY FINAL MOVE BEFORE I'D REACH MY HIDEOUT! So tense... Adam was Jack in game number two. We were right on his trail in night two but he managed to inadvertently convince us he was heading northeast rather than southwest through dumb luck, and was able to ride those coattails to victory. I hate to say it, but I think I now prefer this to Fury of Dracula. I feel anxiety playing this game like I do playing none other.

Next up, three rounds of Lost Legacy: The Starship followed by a full game of Love Letter. Lost Legacy feels like Love Letter but with player interaction largely replaced with interacting with the draw decks. Not as fun.

After that was StarCraft, which we hadn't played for six years or so. Oh, man. WAY better than I remembered. It's now my favourite tactical combat game.

Adam was Terran, Devon was Zerg and I was Protoss. I built up a huge early lead on combat points. I believe at one point it was 10 for me and 4 for each of them (out of a needed 15 for normal victory). I was cruising to victory until they rightly ganged up on me when I was at 12 points and removed me from all combat point areas. Adam could have easily wiped me out completely, but I convinced him to let me live so I could help him prevent Devon from winning a Special Victory (have three bases in Stage III). In the end, Devon narrowly missed getting his special victory because the card that would have kept his Ultralisk alive was the second top card on his draw deck rather than being in his hand. Adam and I each finished with 15 points. However, Adam won in the "who has more resources" tie-breaker. So it was essentially a photo-finish between all three of us. Incredible. We need to stop neglecting this one.

We followed that with a game of Firefly. We played the scenario in which, basically, the first to $12,000 wins so long as they're not penalized too much by unfinished jobs. We called it when it was obvious that Adam was going to win. Devon had to do a couple of runs around the table to wake up.

We were all feeling pretty frazzled by this point (about hour 20 or 21) so we played a couple games of easy, breezy Carcassonne, with the river as the only expansion material. I lost both times. Adam fell asleep with a tile in his hand and woke up when it fell from his fingers.

We finished the event with Freedom: The Underground Railroad. Devon wanted to quit halfway through because his brain stopped working, but I forced him to man up and finish. Good thing, too, because what was looking like a devastating loss took a turn for the better and became a relatively easy victory in the final round. Strange, but a nice end to the 24 hours.

Last night I slept for about 16 hours. I'm still tired.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Ska_baron, Gary Sax, Gregarius, JEM

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07 Oct 2014 08:33 #188191 by SuperflyPete
That's awesome. Tell Matt I said hi if you see him again. He runs these bad-ass poker nights too, from what he's said, and that's what I'd like to get in on one day. But...fuck sakes...being out in Vregina makes it hard.

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07 Oct 2014 12:30 - 07 Oct 2014 12:45 #188204 by ThirstyMan
Reposting from the video game thread where they are having a fight about what constitutes an RPG video game.

As you may have guessed, it's Eid and I have a week off work. This is how I have the time to binge on Fire in the Lake of which I am currently on game 5. I even printed out a check sheet so I don't forget 'special powers' (like SA-2s and AAA on The Trail). I am always forgetting the US special power of having armor and it really kicking ass when they run an assault.


I enjoy logging my processes (but not with douchebags at BGG....got a warning for calling someone an asshole in a racist/anti racist fight.....they just don't get that there is no such thing as 'harmless racism' so fuck them) so I built a little chart where I can track all the things I need to track. It is so easy to forget if you've actually done something, I wanted a way of remembering what I'd done in case I needed a mini reset.

I've been getting the US AI rules wrong on helicopter assaults but I'm getting there, after a solid 10 hrs no break play session. It's super addictive. Just one more turn then I'll go to bed. Whoops it's 3am.

I've now got the partner thing working better between the US and the ARVN (which I am playing). I sweep for the baddies and the US come and blow them all to shit for me. Spending a lot of time setting up how to draw the US into fighting for me. It's lots of fun. I even help them with the ground attacks even though my guys are a bit shit and don't have any arty and keep dropping their rifles. Of course, needless to say, in the middle of a goddamn motherfucker of a battle with NVA in Quang Nam (North of Da Nang) involving helicopters, US, tanks and me, the VC decide to run the Tet Offensive. Whaaat?? Shiit!

Ran back to Saigon to calm everyone down and pour a few drinks. Next thing I know, Nixon is on the TV talking about taking another division of US troops out of Nam. Holy Shit! I can't do this by myself..... Bring on Linebacker II to bomb the fuck out of North Vietnam, that should keep them at bay for a while...

Just got notified that COIN 6 is in the works. American Insurrection: Liberty or Death. Name is guaranteed to get Repo frothing at the mouth. COIN 5 is Gallic Wars (Roman stuff). Like to see them tackle Ireland (IRA, UDA, British Government and Irish Government) but plenty of these complex wars to go round I think.
Last edit: 07 Oct 2014 12:45 by ThirstyMan.
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07 Oct 2014 13:54 #188223 by Columbob
Last time I played Knizia's LOTR was before the last Ice Age it seems, so we pulled it out last week and had our easiest victory ever (I don't even remember if we'd won a single time). I mean Sauron didn't even step forward once and we were hardly corrupted. The random event draw was probably responsible for our earlier abject failures to save the world from a giant eyeball.

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07 Oct 2014 18:02 #188255 by repoman

ThirstyMan wrote:

Just got notified that COIN 6 is in the works. American Insurrection: Liberty or Death. Name is guaranteed to get Repo frothing at the mouth. COIN 5 is Gallic Wars (Roman stuff). Like to see them tackle Ireland (IRA, UDA, British Government and Irish Government) but plenty of these complex wars to go round I think.


Mouth fully frothed already. I won't be getting that game. Not just because of the name but I think the conflict doesn't really fit the game mechanics. Shoe Horning it to fit the hot hot system. I'm not even sure about the Gallic theme. Spanish Civil War would be cool. Ireland as you suggest would be cool.
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08 Oct 2014 11:21 #188285 by Legomancer
Last night I played Cypher, which is a not-bad AEG microgame, Chaos & Alchemy, which is typical Kickstarter bullshit, and Abluxxen, which is a fun card game from Kramer/Keisling which hopefully means they're back on good games again. But that's not the point.

I added them to my New to Me geeklist where I track the new-to-me games I play, and I am appalled. In 2013 I played 67 games that were new to me. In 2014, it's only barely October, and I'm already at 81. Even figuring in my first-ever trip to GenCon that's insane, and I'm not entirely thrilled about it.

I like trying new games, but I don't want to play a bunch of flavor of the month bullshit that we'll never touch again, and that's a lot of what's on the list. Part of it is being polite; one of my groups has a Kickstarter Enthusiast and both have some Cult of the New folks, and part of being in a group means sucking it up and playing things you're not particularly excited for but someone else is. I'm actually lucky that a lot of the people in my Sunday group also play together elsewhere so I am spared even more elegantly intriguing games with innovative mechanics that no one will even be thinking about in two months because Uwe Rosenburg put out another game about tilling.

I'm thinking about hosting once-a-month game days of only played-before favorites; no new stuff allowed. Maybe some of the games I have and enjoy will actually get played if Spice Farmers of Manila isn't even invited in the first place. Snowdonia deserves to be played once and forgotten. Merchant of Venus doesn't.
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08 Oct 2014 11:34 - 08 Oct 2014 11:44 #188288 by Gary Sax
Yeah, seriously, you may need to step in and set up time specifically for older games. 81 is crazy shit... but then people in my small game group of friends HATE learning new games.

edit: read through the thread again. That is a lot of lukewarm 6s... which exactly what would happen to me since I don't hate games generally. "Yeah, I guess I'd play again." For game after game...
Last edit: 08 Oct 2014 11:44 by Gary Sax.

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08 Oct 2014 16:15 #188317 by wadenels
Lego, that's a good idea for a separate thread. It's something I've been trying to do as well. I've managed to get quite a few of my old favorites played this year by just scheduling stuff at my house and bringing old games I want to get played more to convention-type environments. I've had more luck with the former and less luck with the latter, but some luck is better than no luck.
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