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What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

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19 Apr 2016 14:40 #226102 by Jexik
Played a couple of games of X-wing on Sunday. I got to try out Emmon Azzemeen, the Scum pilot of Slave I (or in this case, the Andrasta which can carry extra bombs). I only have 2 bomb cards (one proximity and one seismic charge), but the Andrasta can potentially carry three. I really like that bombs deal damage outside of your attack phase- that's more attractive than the one-shot missiles that might have you just rolling one extra die and giving up an attack and a target lock. Emmon's ability allows him to use the 3-turns or 3-straight maneuver template to place bombs. With the two kinds of bombs being used at either the start of a maneuver or afterwards during the action phase, I had quite a bit of flexibility in using them. More than once I was able to drop a proximity mine onto an opposing ship, which by our reading of the rules causes it to detonate immediately. In one game I also tried out an Ion Turret on Kavil (Y-wing pilot) and that slowed down my opponents' Tie Interceptors pretty well. I'm not sure if that beats running in like a bulldog against them with the Autoblaster Turret though.

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19 Apr 2016 15:07 #226103 by Disgustipater
Now that cluster mines are out, I need to try Emmon again. They have such a large footprint and with his flexibility of bomb deployment, you could cause a lot of problems for your opponent.

The Y-Wing with the title and an Autoblaster turret is an all-around favorite. Or go with a twin laser turret for 3 attacks each turn. You lose the 360 arc, but with an engine upgrade, you can mitigate that somewhat.

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19 Apr 2016 15:09 #226104 by charlest
Yeah the Twin Laser Turret rocks. Definitely one of the strongest Y-Wing builds.

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20 Apr 2016 10:02 #226133 by Gregarius

Shellhead wrote:

Gregarius wrote:

Shellhead wrote: In the current boardgame playing environment, the problem with a Legacy-style game isn't the lack of replay value, it's the challenge of getting a group of players to commit to playing it through the first time.

I just don't understand this. I never worried about having the exact same people play Risk: Legacy, and I certainly don't with Pandemic: Legacy. I want as many people to experience as are interested. I also don't want to hamstring myself by thinking, "Oh, we can't play Pandemic: Legacy because Bill isn't here tonight." Screw that. Play for fun with anyone who's around.

I do lament, however, that we don't play it *regularly*. We tore through the first couple of months, but now we've stalled and only play it once every three sessions or so. That sucks. It makes it a little hard to remember the narrative and consequent modifications.


Moreso than the somewhat abstract original game, Pandemic Legacy goes to considerable effort to create a sense of narrative. If some of the players are only sporadically playing the game, they are missing out on a lot of the narrative. Maybe that's why the game has lost momentum with your group.

You make a good point, but it isn't the case here. Those who have missed a game or two are eager to hear the developments (they're still engaged in the story). The times we've had to skip have not been due to lack of enthusiasm, but because of numbers: 5 or 6 people who all want to play together. Once it was my fault for not bringing it.

PS- There's something weird going on with this post. I tried to clip out some of the earlier quotes and it totally screwed it up. Anyone else having similar issues?

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20 Apr 2016 10:22 - 20 Apr 2016 10:23 #226134 by Not Sure

Gregarius wrote: PS- There's something weird going on with this post. I tried to clip out some of the earlier quotes and it totally screwed it up. Anyone else having similar issues?


I've seen that a lot, especially in Chrome. After I chop a bunch of quote it sometimes turns the text box totally blanks. If it does that, I hit "Preview" to see what happened.

Generally the text is correct, but the display is horked until Preview. Maybe we need to necro the "Bugs" thread next.

(of course, that's exactly what I did there after chopping all the previous quoting)
Last edit: 20 Apr 2016 10:23 by Not Sure.
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20 Apr 2016 14:34 - 20 Apr 2016 14:40 #226149 by Jexik
Bah, just when I was starting to feel comfortable with the size of my X-wing collection, you guys have to go and talk about Twin Laser Turrets and Cluster Mines. The X-wing wiki is a dangerous place.

So far, I was just aiming to have 100 points worth of Scum and Imperials at the same time, with some wiggle room. I've got:

Force Awakens starter
Most Wanted (scum starter thing)
Slave I
TIE Defender
TIE Advanced Prototype (I noticed they seem to be trying to make missiles more viable)
Kihraxz Fighter
Rebel Y-wing (largely to allow the use of both dials from the scum pack)

With this, my gf and I can swap between who gets to use the Firespray and still have 100 points. I like picking up stuff that works for two factions, so I've wanted to get another starter (perhaps the old one) for some more variety, grab a HWK-290, etc. But now I want to get a K-wing and a Punisher for those upgrades, and at that point I can field rebels too so...

Interceptors and Phantoms look cool too, but I'll feel like a douche if I just run at them with Autoblasters...

Hmm... maybe I should go find the X-wing only thread.
Last edit: 20 Apr 2016 14:40 by Jexik.

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20 Apr 2016 14:47 #226150 by Gary Sax
Argent is soooooo good. There are so many options that are counter-intuitive, if you want to take them. The more players there are, it's a bit more chaotic, but on the other hand you can be more specialized and really laser in on doing just a couple things well because you don't need as many categories to win.
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20 Apr 2016 16:49 #226161 by san il defanso

Gary Sax wrote: Argent is soooooo good. There are so many options that are counter-intuitive, if you want to take them. The more players there are, it's a bit more chaotic, but on the other hand you can be more specialized and really laser in on doing just a couple things well because you don't need as many categories to win.


It's chaotic, and yet it's still a very strategic and very interactive game, not to mention one that totally sells its setting. For all its complexity (and there is plenty) the basic structure is easy enough to grasp in a single game, but here I am working on my fourth game (on VASSAL) and still learning it. It's the deepest, most varied, and most thematic worker placement game I've ever played, and it's basically all I want to play right now.

I love the way the spells work with each other, and how the spin the game in totally new directions. And the voters work in such a way that they actually encourage people to take moves that might be "suboptimal." It actually feels a little like Twilight Struggle (and plenty of other games I can't think of), because it has that "why on earth is he doing THAT?" feeling to it, and then you want to respond.
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20 Apr 2016 18:30 #226168 by Shellhead
This post is actually about a game that I haven't been playing.

A very close friend of mine was a big fan of Settlers of Catan. He loved the game, and he loved that it was simple enough that even stoned non-gamers could enjoy the game. So for many years now, he hosted a Settlers tournament each year, always on April 20th. (4/20, get it?) Several dozen people would show up at his house each for the tournament each year, and play and laugh and smoke up. I think there was a cash fee to play, and the winner got the money. I never went, because it was too far away from where I live now and I don't even like Settlers, but it made me smile to think about all the people enjoying the day-long event.

My friend died of cancer last December. It was his second dance with the Big C. I don't think there was a 4/20 tournament this year. Even if there was, it couldn't have been as good without my friend there. He was a super-nice guy and a great host.
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21 Apr 2016 08:50 #226191 by charlest
Played a great game of Clockwork Wars last night where I tied for first and lost on the tie breaker. I jumped out to a big lead in the second age and then had people gunning for me.

Saved all of my IP for the Juggernaut which lets me choose a hex within two spaces and kill up to three soldiers every round. This scared them, but they pushed me hard and I had lost my City on the turn before so my worker pool was suffering.

In the final turn I went all in on the Court thinking I could snag the four VP from that and no one could take it from me. Another player went heavy into the Court too causing us to tie and I didn't get the VP I needed. 1 soldier difference and I win the game instead of lose on the tie breaker.

We also played Mottainai which I still think is suspended in this perpetual state of duality where it sucks and is brilliant at the same time.

Also played an old Z-Man game Grimoire which was cute but not particularly something I enjoy.
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22 Apr 2016 10:27 #226285 by SuperflyPete

Jexik wrote: With this, my gf and I can swap between who gets to use the Firespray...

Mad Dog, please remove this as an NSFW post... ;)

Finally got in a play of Boots on the Ground. What a weak ass production. Cheap everything. I mean, CHEAP. Still, I paid $12 for it on a lark. Turns out it's not horrible, but not great. It's like a wargame for dumb people. Very simple rules, although too many for what it is. I normally like Worthington stuff, but this is way too "beginner", and they rely on CRTs way too much, which ends up taking a disproportionate amount of time looking up results.

Played Survive! Space Attack again. Really not digging it. Still pissed that laser cannons can't kill ships, and that fighters can't kill other ships. Slated for dismissal, sadly, because I wanted to like it.

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23 Apr 2016 08:20 #226347 by Chaz
Yesterday at PAX, a bunch of us were boardgaming. Two guys were sent over to the lending library to get a game to play. They came back with Galactic Strike Force. Which none of us knew how to play. Okay, so we figured we'd look through the rules and see what we could do.

Opened it up, and found out that all the cards were basically just dumped into the thing. We started sorting things out. Found about 500 different decks, including a ton of two-sided cards that were completely different on each side. Also found a bunch of two-sided cards that were almost identical on each side. These ones seemed to be faction-specific, which you could tell by the itty-bitty text at the top. Holy shit, that was some terrible graphic design.

We spent about twenty minutes getting the mountain of cards sorted, then decided "fuck this shit", and put it all back in the box. I was so not surprised when I found out it was a Kickstarter joint.

Then we opened up Ubongo, which none of us had played either, and were in in the middle of a game within five minutes. There's something to be said about euro designs for getting to the fun quickly.

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23 Apr 2016 08:49 #226348 by Legomancer

Chaz wrote: Yesterday at PAX, a bunch of us were boardgaming. Two guys were sent over to the lending library to get a game to play. They came back with Galactic Strike Force. Which none of us knew how to play. Okay, so we figured we'd look through the rules and see what we could do.


I sat in on a demo at this at GenCon one year. The guy demoing it was terrible and didn't seem to have a firm grasp on the rules himself. I don't think any of the six of us walked away impressed. Not sure you missed much here.

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23 Apr 2016 09:03 #226349 by Legomancer
So my friend Matt, myself, and our two wives went through Pandemic Legacy together and had a great time. It's now over, and we're looking for something else similar. The most obvious choice (for me) is buying another Pandemic Legacy and doing it again, because our score was TERRIBLE. (And I think that even knowing plotlines in advance won't give us THAT much of an edge.) Instead we're trying out Robinson Crusoe. Last night we played the base game to see if the wives would even be interested (Matt and I had played before, his wife once and mine never) in a campaign. Went through the first scenario. I love the game but goddamn it is HARDER THAN ROMAN NUMERAL ARITHMETIC. Ignacy makes you fight for every single inch.

And yet, we won on the first turn we could. So it wasn't too bad, and we had a sense of accomplishment. The ladies seemed to like it, so that was good as well. My wife is about to head off to Italy for a few weeks, so starting something big now isn't a good idea, but when she's back we plan on going through the Voyages of the Beagle campaign.

Another one contender once THAT is done is Space Cadets: Away Missions. I've only played the first scenario of that so far and want to do more.

Seafall will be out by then and I plan to get a copy but I'm not sure how well that one will fly with my wife. She isn't a hardcore gamer and may not enjoy playing against three other people who are seasoned, so co-ops are probably more amenable to her. But we'll see.
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23 Apr 2016 10:08 - 23 Apr 2016 10:20 #226351 by Gary Sax
Beagle is kind of a monster rules wise. I keep thinking about busting it out and being like "ugh."

Robinson is one of my favorite games, though... I'll probably buy the game of the year edition when it comes out and pass my current well loved version to someone else.
Last edit: 23 Apr 2016 10:20 by Gary Sax.

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