Re: What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

I played Marvel Dice Masters last night as well. Very enjoyable.

Then Scripts & Scribes came out, which is killer good. Uber-euro. Great gaming night last night.

S.

Twilight Struggle this evening, another win for me. Turn 9, I controlled Africa which is 10 points (5 for control-presence, 5 more for 5 battlegrounds). My opponent has finally figured out the early/mid game ok, he was up -4 or so as the USSR (which isn't as much as you'd like to be up as the USSR). I think now my opponent needs to work on what to do when the map is full. At some point, the map fills up and most countries have influence in them. That's the point when you need to adjust and use some other techniques to force the opponent out of countries in a way you didn't before. The game becomes even more zero sum around halfway.

Gary -- you up for a TS game via ACTS?

Played Lords of the Sand the first game in John Clowdus' The Nile Ran Red. Each player is a god, playing cards to a tableau around their God card to score maximum points before the end of the game. Each card lists a god, a type (Vizier, Soldier, Priestess or Entombed), a cost (one of the four icons), a special power and the icons they generate if they're played as a Leader to the tableau. As is typical with Clowdus each card can trigger an action, which can trigger the action on another card, etc depending on when and where it's played. You are awarded obelisks at the end of your turn depending on how many achievements you've made (having both a leader and a full court, for example, gives you one obelisk.) Game end triggers when one player has five obelisks, every other player gets one more turn then the score are tallied.

The first few turns you're basically wading through the text on your God card and the cards in play, trying to get a handle on how to play it - then something will click and you'll be able to pull a massive turn out of your butt (I managed this on the very last turn, generating three obelisks at the end to steal the win.) It's an interesting game, but there's a lot of information to take in and not much direct player interaction (though more than, say, Race for the Galazy.)

It's at least above average for a Clowdus game with good production values (now that he's using KS to pay artists) so it's a recommendation, but only for those familiar with his style of card game.

The two player game Crimson Sun is a remake of Bhazum, one of his best games, and Rise of the First Dynasty is an interesting double think multiplayer game, with scope for negotiation. I look forward to trying them out.

Spaceghost: I'm leaving for almost the entire month for Tahoe then Africa, otherwise I'd probably be interested.

We played Battlestar Galactica last night so that we could try out the Daybreak Expansion. We hadn't played BSG in probably 2 or 3 years so it was nice getting back to it. Due to advice on BGG, I took out all of the other expansion material and went just base game and Daybreak.

We had 5 players and surprisingly had a very early reveal on a Cylon (Dee). Later our pilot (Lee) would reveal as well, but this was closer to the end. We ended up losing due to Morale hitting 0, although we could have jumped in the next turn and possibly won.

Daybreak is decent, although still not the perfect expansion I've been craving for this game. The Mutiny cards are interesting and perhaps the best part. The Cylon Leader agendas look very good, but haven't tried them yet.

The Rebel Basestar board was interesting, although it went to the bad guys so I didn't get to directly interact with it.

The Demetrius was thematic but I'm not sure it really adds anything to the game. The Mission cards is just another deck you have to mill with yet more skill checks. Not sure the overall point and would have rather seen a new mechanic used for these missions (maybe something like Merchant Raids in Merchants and Marauders where you play skill cards for strength and flip over a new deck to see what you need or something).

Anyway, glad we played and we had a new player who enjoyed it.

Since Daybreak has the Earth destination, which is further away than the original destination, it can sometimes be very worthwhile to blast through that Demetrius deck looking for the card (or two, I don't remember) that give you additional distance. Especially if you suspect your Admiral might be a Cylon. I vastly prefer Daybreak's Mutineer to the old Sympathizer mechanic. Overall I'm a fan of Daybreak, and if I were to only use one expansion then Daybreak would be that one.

wadenels wrote: Since Daybreak has the Earth destination, which is further away than the original destination, it can sometimes be very worthwhile to blast through that Demetrius deck looking for the card (or two, I don't remember) that give you additional distance. Especially if you suspect your Admiral might be a Cylon. I vastly prefer Daybreak's Mutineer to the old Sympathizer mechanic. Overall I'm a fan of Daybreak, and if I were to only use one expansion then Daybreak would be that one.

Yes we did that and I understand the purpose of Demetrius, but I think mechanically it doesn't really add anything interesting.

When I said I didn't understand the point, I meant from a designer/mechanic perspective. That wasn't clear in my previous post though.

It's the same mechanic as the Skill Checks. So you need to mill this new deck to get that 2 Jump distance card and then perform one hard skill check. That's not very interesting. Say you remove this and you remove the Earth destination, what do you really lose? Well, besides the Rebel basestar board which is neat.

"But I like going on the Earth Missions!"
"You get to go on an Earth Mission every turn, it's called a Skill Check."

"But I like to look at the top card and discard it if it's not the 2 Jump Distance Mission!"
"So play the 'Launch Scout' action card and look at the top Crisis card. It's the same thing practically."


Mutineer mechanic is awesome. New treachery is awesome. Just don't get why they added a layer to the game (Earth/Demetrius) that is basicaly a mechanic that is already there.

You know I hate to give Michael Barnes credit for anything, right? You do know that! Ok, so I will not say the games we played at F:AT Thursday had anything to do with his Euro Reclamation Project.

It was all about booze, speed, and gambling last night.

First we played Top Race by Wolfgang Kramer. It's the Formula 1 version of his classic race game Daytona 500. The map has some cool twists and turns with some serious choke points that are great unless your cars are the ones getting jammed up behind them. It's been years since I played any version of this and I forgot how much fun it is. There is some strategy, there is a lot of luck, and a lot of sticking it to the other racers.

From the graphic design point of view, the cards themselves are poorly done. The blue and black colors aren't distinct enough and the move values of the cards are printed down the right hand edge of the cards which means if you want to hold your cards in such a way as to quickly and easily see the values you must "fan left" which is opposite the way you would normally do it unless your some sort of left handed freak. Not a big deal, more a mild annoyance.

Engineer Al was the big winner with close to 800 billion race bucks at the end while I walked away with 23 cents and a wad of pocket lint.

Then, because we are all degenerate gamblers, we broke out Winner's Circle by Knizia. More racing and gambling but this time with horses! Again, years since I played it. This is a totally solid game. Still with some strategy, still with a lot of socking it to your friends. The gambling is a bit more adult than in Top Race regarding using hidden bet values and payouts based on how many bets were placed on a given horse not just where the horse finished in the race.

Production wise, the colors for the horse tokens are still 50 shades of infant excrement and cause some difficulty in telling which horse is which. The sculpts themselves are really nice though made with the old school battle lore type resin that feels good to the touch.

Uba was the big winner not only walking away with 800 billion horse bucks but really wowing the fashion world with her fabulous hat bought specifically for Ascot Opening Day. I left with 23 cents, a wad of pocket lint, and a worn out baseball cap.

I really like Winner's Circle and have been wanting to get a copy of it.

After two weeks away I finally got in some gaming last night. My pal Matt and I started with Crimson Sun, one of the games from John Clowdus' The Nile Ran Red box. It's a sort of re-do of Bhazum, which I dig. Here's what I had to say about it:

I've played several of John Clowdus' games, though I actually don't own any of them. He makes nice, tight, compact designs with visual appeal. I didn't realize this one was a sort of re-do of another one, Bhazum, which I like. We struggled in the first game to sort of work it all out (there's a drafting element, and if you're not sure what's out there and how powerful things are, it may as well be random) but once we got going it was easy to pick up. A second game was more dynamic and strategic. I like what Clowdus does with the multiple-use cards, and the play between the temples and the tableau is interesting. I may even like it more than Bhazum.

Then we followed with SOS Titanic. Bleah.

I'm still on a no-buying spree, but this doesn't count because I won it in a geekgold auction. I'd heard about this, and I tend to like Cathala and Maublanc stuff, but it's cooperative, which is the death knell for my groups. Still, I was eager to try it out. It's...okay. Basically themed Patience Solitaire with special powers and a timer, there is some decision making and tension here, but given the nifty fold-out book and the lovely design, you can't help but wish you were playing a better game. It also didn't help that the two of us did very well on our first play and even better on our second. It's already on the trade pile.

You do know that I am like Doctor Claw, petting a chicken and watching monitors that show ERP satellite feeds of you guys playing these games...

I really want Top Race...we've done a couple of rounds of Detroit-Cleveland and it RULES. I've been thinking about just adding the betting into it, doesn't seem like it would really be a problem.

The common thread between those two games is this notion of not always controlling "your" piece. Which leads to some serious boning- if you think Knizia games don't have some nastiness, try completely screwing the top horse everybody else bet on by wasting his move for a round behind another. Such a great concept for a racing game, it keeps the pace moving constantly and increases strategic decisions beyond "move here or there". But the tracks are kept simple (in Winner's Circle it's completely linear) so it's not like Formula De where you have all of this calculatory BS going on.

No I don't think adding the betting would be an issue at all. Just need a scan of the betting sheet from Top Race to see what the payouts should be. Oh...and you'll have to acquire some "Betting Pencils" as specified in the rules because normal pencils just won't do.

We actually used the rule from Detroit-Cleavland that the "10" card for a specific car automatically goes to the winner of the auction for that car. It isn't in the rule book for Top Race but it's a good rule and makes sense.

I didn't play a game, but I did watch a YouTube of a game being played of X-Wing. Does that count?

What started as watching a Finals video just to see the fleet lists and to see someone of high skill pilot a Tie Swarm turned into an hour watching what I'd call a Nerd Sport Broadcast - Complete with announcers providing commentary and play by play as well as graphic overlays detailing the ship status with shield and hull counts.

Towards the end I found myself rooting on the Rebel player (my team if you will), I couldn't sit still in my chair, I let out audible yelps of excitement, Crit card flips threw me into oubursts of excitement and groans of despair...And I found myself way too involved watching this than I ever should have and liked it way more than I'd really care to admit.

I played Through the Desert with my girlfriend. She really liked it. It's always been one of my favorites so I'm thinking it will get played again.

Was she aware that you were playing a NINE HUNDRED DOLLAR game?