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What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

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16 Apr 2014 10:29 #175975 by Gregarius
I tried Hapsburg Eclipse last night. It's a solo wargame from Victory Point Games, and companion to Ottoman Sunset.

I don't know if I missed a rule or just had great rolls, but I killed it on my first try. Strategic Victory (although I think I miscounted and actually got the Supreme Victory). I know that the cards came out in an almost ideal order, which helped immensely.

I like Ottoman Sunset quite a bit, but I've never won it. This one felt like it had less going on and the decisions didn't seem as interesting. These are the only two States of Siege games I've played, but they felt rather similar. Are all of them pretty much the same?

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16 Apr 2014 12:04 - 16 Apr 2014 12:05 #175979 by Dr. Mabuse
Last night only Keith (of Ask Keith Anything fame) showed up to game night, so we busted out his first 2 player game of Pax Porfiriana. My entry for 2013 Game of the Year didn't disappoint, Keith built a series of mines and established himself as a rail baron. At one point he was pulling in 18 gold per turn. I had 1 plantation which he extorted but I made some money buying and selling cards as well as through speculation.

A military topple came up and Keith was sitting pretty at 2 command points, 1 from an extorting troop. I played a black card that allowed be to take my lone enterprise back into my hand (giving me 1 Revolution point) thus forcing him to decide what to do with his troops. He decided to flip his hacendado and keep the troops at his ranch, preserving the 2 points (damn!).

Another troop with a command point popped up which he quickly bought, now putting him in the contention to win as the regime was in Martial Law (Command point victory)and the topple would reduce Diaz's influence by 1 point.

On my turn, I was forced to spend 16 gold to trigger the topple which fizzled spectacularly. I prevented his win but I only had 3 gold left.

I built up some cash over a few turns, bought a couple of key cards and had a troop with a Revolution point extorting one of his mines. When the next topple appeared I was able to send some bandits to one of is mines which turned the regime to Anarchy, published an Anarchist Newspaper (1 Rev. point) and triggered the topple for the win!

Next up was a game of Catacombs with the Cavern of Soloth expansion. Keith was the Overseer and I went in with the Witch Hunter (build specific items with kills), Elf (w/bow and 2 arrows), the Barbarian (4 melee rage attack) and the Sorceress (missile attacks, teleportation and shrink abilities). I'm pretty aggressive playing this game but it cost me my barbarian by the third room and met complete death by the penultimate room. Super fun, I really love this game.
Last edit: 16 Apr 2014 12:05 by Dr. Mabuse.
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16 Apr 2014 12:12 #175980 by Legomancer
I am super pleased to hear that Pax Porfiriana plays well with only 2!

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16 Apr 2014 12:27 #175981 by Dr. Mabuse
Lego, I found that it's less chaotic (which is moot for me) and by simply having Diaz's Prestige increased by 1 point scales the game perfectly for 2.
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16 Apr 2014 12:54 #175982 by SuperflyPete
Tomorrow IS HERE.

Now, I just need to get 6 people of higher intelligence together in order to make this happen.

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16 Apr 2014 14:32 #175988 by Grudunza
Played games with a friend last night, including Capo de Capi, a push-your-luck dice game for 2 players with some interesting area majority, Guildhall, which is a clever card game, and Eminent Domain, which I hadn't played before and really liked.

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16 Apr 2014 17:24 #175995 by DeletedUser

repoman wrote: ... Vegemite, a horrible paste like substance that you apparently spread on crackers...

It's an acquired taste and is especially good in sandwiches. Could possibly rouse you from a coma too which has to be good, right? Most Kiwi and Aussie kids grow up on Vegemite (and it's close cousin Marmite). I still slap a dollop of it on my toast most mornings. Now I'm getting hungry.

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16 Apr 2014 19:52 - 16 Apr 2014 19:53 #176003 by Justin Hankins

Gregarius wrote: I tried Hapsburg Eclipse last night. It's a solo wargame from Victory Point Games, and companion to Ottoman Sunset.

I don't know if I missed a rule or just had great rolls, but I killed it on my first try. Strategic Victory (although I think I miscounted and actually got the Supreme Victory). I know that the cards came out in an almost ideal order, which helped immensely.

I like Ottoman Sunset quite a bit, but I've never won it. This one felt like it had less going on and the decisions didn't seem as interesting. These are the only two States of Siege games I've played, but they felt rather similar. Are all of them pretty much the same?


I'm looking forward to trying Habsburg Eclipse, but my next VPG purchase will undoubtedly be Dawn of the Zeds.

I've played Ottoman Sunset around 20 times, and won three of them. It really is tough. Lots of fun though. Even when you lose you always FEEL like you almost won.

I also have Zulus on the Ramparts, which is pretty cool. I don't think it's as good as Ottoman Sunset though, because the variability in difficulty is tremendous - you have games where you lose on the third turn, and then you have games where Bromhead and Chard are sitting around smoking cigarettes and stretching and yawning because there's nothing to do and nearest Zulu is in the 4 or 5 box washing his spear.
Last edit: 16 Apr 2014 19:53 by Justin Hankins.
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17 Apr 2014 19:43 #176058 by SuperflyPete
I got both Heroquest and Dragon Strike today.

I have about 30 hours of home repair/painting/caulking to do this weekend as the appraiser is coming Tuesday.

Fuck.Real.Life.

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18 Apr 2014 09:51 - 18 Apr 2014 09:54 #176072 by san il defanso
Last night two friends came over and we played a monstrous game of Talisman. We played with Reaper, Dungeon, Frostmarch, Highlands, Blood Moon, and City.

The three of us started out with the Assassin, Valkyrie, and Sprite. The Valkyrie and Assassin (me) met with early deaths due to simple bad draws, and they got replaced by the Gladiator and the Sage, respectively. I had a little more luck with the Sage than the Assassin, just because I ended up gaining a big pile of followers and items that buffed my stats instead of leveling up the regular way.

The Sprite started to hang out in the city, and was getting a little too strong for comfort. The Gladiator went to the city to remedy this imbalance, and ended up encountering an assassin (not the character) who let him pay money to take life from another character. Since he had like nine gold at this point, he took down the Sprite. That player came back as the Ogre Chieftan.

I was lagging behind a little since I didn't have the cash to do much in the city. The other two used the Wharf in the city to get into the middle region. I had to go by way of building a raft in the woods. By this time the Gladiator had ridiculous strength. I think he had hit about 15 in battle, maybe 10 or 11 natural. I couldn't compete with that, but I had a card that let me choose psychic combat instead of battle and I wasn't too worried about encountering. We all got ourselves a Talisman, but I was the first one to make my way to the inner region.

I'll be honest, I had some AMAZING luck in the inner region. I rolled like an 8 in the mines, and even though I had to fight five pitfiends, I destroyed three of them in one turn and was able to block the damage from the other ones with my Sun Shield. Once I made it to the Crown of Command, I had amazing luck with the Command Spell, succeeding 4 out of 5 rolls. There were only two problems: the other two guys were buff with health, and the Gladiator (by this time with an attack value in battle of over 20) was just a space or two behind me. I was able to get him down to one health, and I used a spell to delay getting killed by him, but he took me down at the Crown of Command.

Through this whole thing the Ogre Chieftan was cruising around the middle leveling up and getting a ton of items and followers. One of those was a Physician who could heal him for one gold per health at will. That bought him some time and got him into the Inner Region, but he also couldn't handle the Gladiator either, and the Gladiator emerged victorious.

Terrific game. It's the first time I've seen a game where 1) every died and got a new character and 2) everyone eventually made it to the Crown of Command.
Last edit: 18 Apr 2014 09:54 by san il defanso.
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18 Apr 2014 10:37 #176079 by Sagrilarus
Talisman is due to come out at Trashfest Mid-Atlantic and may stay up for awhile now that 15-20 people appear to be in the mix. We've played twice in the last six months and just had a great time with it. It's a game that deserves enough time to play at leisure.

S.

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18 Apr 2014 10:56 #176083 by san il defanso
More than most games, it's a very laid-back experience. Not that there isn't a lot of trash-talking and competition, but the whole tone of the game is just so frivolous that it's impossible to take it seriously. In that sense if you're complaining about how "random" it is you've already missed the point. You play it for totally different reasons than something like, say, Age of Steam.
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18 Apr 2014 11:26 #176090 by Sagrilarus
I stumbled into a great debate on this at the local game store -- each game has a spirit to it, a personality all its own that you need to work with, instead of against, in order to enjoy the game. Anybody in a game store that gets that can make some serious sales just by offering games that appeal to the nature of person in front of them instead of the mechanical features of the game.

S.
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18 Apr 2014 15:00 #176111 by jpat
Recently, I've played three games of 1775: Rebellion from Academy Games, finding it to be a good two- and three-player but best at four, with one person on each side controlling one of the main forces (American regulars, American militia, British regulars, Loyalists). The variable number and facings of the dice for the four forces works really well, and the map is gorgeous (though mine is pulling apart at one hinge). It's quite easily taught and a very clean and engaging design, with plenty of room for trash talking. I'd think of it more as a war-ified area control game than a "real" wargame, but it's not worth quibbling about. My wife and I have also been playing Runewars two-player, and I can't quite decide how much I like it after about five plays (some of those, admittedly, truncated or hobbled by being learning games). It's right on the edge for me so far of being a good match between effort, time, and complexity. If we could get it down to three hours or less, or if proved better with more players (unknown so far, but presumably), I'd probably kick it up a notch, but it exists in a very crowded 4x space. Hoping to finish our suspended Runewars game tonight or early tomorrow and to play Thunderstone Advance: Worlds Collide this weekend, assuming I don't die from the petrochemical fumes beforehand. Also very much need to return to Mage Wars before Geekway.

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19 Apr 2014 01:44 - 19 Apr 2014 08:06 #176125 by KingPut
I haven't played anything in about a month until this week.

On Wednesday night I played 8 minute Empire. I don't understand the love for this game. I'd much rather wack off for 8 minutes than play this bland, less filling game. Luckily, it was only 8 minutes. TOS rating = 5.

After 8 minute Empire we played Nations. On the plus side, Nations takes about half the time of Through the Ages. On the minus side, Nations takes all the guts out of Through the Ages and leaves us with a soulless boring game that's more "Accessible" than Through the Ages. TOS rating = 6.

Friday night, I played Storm over Stalingrad. I haven't played Storm over Stalingrad in years but I'm really liking the Area-Impulse style game. Love war games with 8 pages rules that just as deep as a much more complex complex games. I'm hoping the get this and What Price of Glory on the table again soon. TOS rating = 9 as the Germans 8 as the Russians.
Last edit: 19 Apr 2014 08:06 by KingPut.

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