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31 Jul 2016 14:22 - 01 Aug 2016 13:18 #231169 by southernman
We've been having our first games (3-player) of Age of Conan with the Adventures in Hyboria expansion and, though it makes the game longer, the variety it provides with new options including the new Conan bidding makes it more enjoyable for us. We're still getting used to final scoring and one of the guys gifted the win to me by ending the game early by crowning Conan, unfortunately he did not have the base empire points I had - I knew I was in a good position for the end game and was expecting to be relentlessly attacked in the last Age to relieve me of those points. Now they'll know for the next time.
Last edit: 01 Aug 2016 13:18 by southernman.
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01 Aug 2016 08:21 - 01 Aug 2016 11:06 #231191 by Legomancer
Based on what you folks have been saying, I'm now hoping I can successfully navigate my away around various groups to avoid Scythe. I saw it on Table A at one place on Friday and moved to Table B, where I played Red Dragon Inn and Betrayal at the House on the Hill instead. Table A ended up doing Concordia but that's still a win for me. This thing sounds dire.
Last edit: 01 Aug 2016 11:06 by Legomancer.
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01 Aug 2016 08:31 - 01 Aug 2016 08:35 #231193 by Gary Sax
Played Evolution and a game of Splendor last night.

Only one worth talking about is Evolution (Splendor is always fine and I was half drunk anyway). I really want to like Evolution more than I do because it's a lot of game in a small package. But there's just something about it that doesn't excite me. It's surprising because there's a lot of simultaneous action going on on the board, which I usually like. Part of it is that it's so much work for a relatively light game. Keeping track of the vast web of species on the board and their traits is kind of exhausting and not in a good way. Since everyone's species board is a tightly integrated machine that relies on one another for protection, cancels, etc you really have to be up on what everyone has. Adding even a single trait to their board can ruin your entire strategy. I think doing that is quite mind intensive. I wish the game had a better internal mechanism to limit the number of species on the board for each player---not artificially, but through incentives. When three players have 3 or 4 species things get rough, so the last few turns are a real drag.
Last edit: 01 Aug 2016 08:35 by Gary Sax.
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01 Aug 2016 13:38 - 01 Aug 2016 14:51 #231207 by wkover
We finally finished our Pandemic Legacy campaign at the 2016 WBC. The campaign ran off and on from March-July 2016. Below are my spoiler-free comments lifted from BGG.

Comments from the halfway mark (mid-June in game months):

The future is dark. We've only won 4 of 9 games, and we're a single loss away from having to open package #8, the pity package for four-time losers. The red sector is an oozing carbuncle that's fading into the twilight, with a torched research station acting as a beacon of failure and most red cities at panic levels two, three, or four.

Suicidal thoughts notwithstanding, the game has been great. We've been willing to play as many as three games in a row, which would never happen with the original. The Legacy aspects are top-notch, though occasionally overwhelming to track. Particularly the new rules, which require a quick review before every session.

Our initial thought was to play two games per night every two weeks, but life's intrusions pushed that plan aside. Now we're stuck playing once per month - though still two games at a time - which has interrupted our momentum and made it difficult to re-immerse ourselves in the experience.

I'm still extremely happy with our decision to only play four-player games, and always with the same people. That vow will never be broken, which has significantly enriched the experience for all of us. Swapping people in and out of the campaign would be a real drag, for a multitude of reasons.

A tip for new players: The order of set-up is significantly different for Legacy than for the original. The board is first seeded with disease cubes, then events are chosen, and then finally the characters and starting location are selected. That's important.

Finally, for those worried about game disposability...

I'm guessing that we'll need to play ~18 games to finish the full campaign (i.e., we'll fail every other month and need to repeat those months). I've probably only played 10% of my games 18+ times, so this actually makes Pandemic Legacy one of the most cost-effective purchases in my collection.

Final comments:

We finished the campaign (Sep-Dec) in a marathon six-hour session at the 2016 WBC in its new Seven Springs location. Absolutely fantastic game, but we screwed up badly by forgetting to open window #30 until it was far too late, which we only realized when the legacy game components started referring to terms and concepts that we'd never heard of. By then, it was mathematically impossible to win the final month and all of our efforts had gone to naught. :(

Final score: 442, which is surely an all-time record in the wrong direction. 21 total games played. We did OK in the beginning, terrible in the middle, and very well at the end. Until we hit a disastrous December.

As far as campaign stumbles go, one of my fellow disease-fighters said it best: It's like each month introduced a brand new expansion, making it impossible to keep everything straight. We regularly made rules errors that affected the game, although we did the best we could under the circumstances.

Still, I loved the experience and am anxiously awaiting Season 2. We thankfully were never forced to open package #8, despite a deluge of fallen cities in the red sector. It's just too bad that there was so much pressure to get all of the new rules correct the first time through, since there were no opportunities for rewinding time to fix misunderstandings or unintentional omissions.
Last edit: 01 Aug 2016 14:51 by wkover.
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03 Aug 2016 07:56 - 03 Aug 2016 12:03 #231286 by wkover
Other games (besides Pandemic Legacy) that we played at 2016 WBC:

Legend of the Moonsword (annual tradition, awesome fun; needs an award for 'most unconscious player')
Marvel Legendary
Legendary Encounters: Aliens
Middle Earth Quest
Age of Steam: Four Corners map
Circus Flohcati
Tin Goose (hazards had us all laughing - pain for everyone!)
Bucket King (of course)
WHQ: Silver Tower
Last Spike x2 (40-minute Acquire, but not nearly as interesting)
"The Game" (cooperative solitaire; ironically, barely a game)
Team Play (not bad w/ teams, would be mediocre otherwise)
Deception (party Dixit-style deduction game)
Space Cadets: Away Missions (w/ Al, half of design team)
Warhammer Quest: Adventure Card game x2 (delve quest impossible to beat; next time, to start, will give everyone a random legendary gear, two gear slots, and a random action upgrade)
Thunder Alley
Welcome to the Dungeon
Evolution w/ Flight

Probably a few others that I'm forgetting, but overall a great time.

Edit: Only 16 people on BGG own Legend of the Moonsword? That's an actual crime deserving of jailtime.
Last edit: 03 Aug 2016 12:03 by wkover.
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03 Aug 2016 10:56 #231300 by Josh Look

Southernman wrote: We've been having our first games (3-player) of Age of Conan with the Adventures in Hyboria expansion and, though it makes the game longer, the variety it provides with new options including the new Conan bidding makes it more enjoyable for us. We're still getting used to final scoring and one of the guys gifted the win to me by ending the game early by crowning Conan, unfortunately he did not have the base empire points I had - I knew I was in a good position for the end game and was expecting to be relentlessly attacked in the last Age to relieve me of those points. Now they'll know for the next time.


We found that the increase in breaks to bid for Conan led to some severe pacing issues. Anything like that in you experience?

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03 Aug 2016 12:26 #231313 by iguanaDitty

wkover wrote: WHQ: Silver Tower


What did you think of it?

Sounds like a great time!

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03 Aug 2016 20:05 - 03 Aug 2016 20:28 #231342 by wkover

iguanaDitty wrote:

wkover wrote: WHQ: Silver Tower


What did you think of it?

Sounds like a great time!


Yeah, the WBC was great. The new location was very nice, even if we were awash in rain.

About Silver Tower:

The short answer is that, for the same price, I'd rather own Space Cadets: Away Missions, Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game, and Welcome to the Dungeon. (Of the WBC games listed above, Silver Tower is one of the 5-6 games that I don't own.) I liked the Destiny Dice, the odd flavor text, and the way that adventure card stacks are split when a multi-exit room is discovered, but that's not worth a $100+ price tag. It doesn't help that I have zero interest in building and painting minis, regardless of how detailed they are. Plus I own plenty of dungeon crawls already.

The longer answer has to do with a recent self-realization that sometimes movement in dungeon crawls is better if it is abstracted away.

Category 1: Movement abstracted away almost completely: Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game, Pathfinder Card Game. (Also no minis!)

Category 2: Movement is by area/room, rather than individual squares or hexes: Space Cadets Away Missions, Claustrophobia (I think?).

Category 3: Movement is by individual hexes or squares: Descent, D&D line, Silver Tower.

I find myself shying away from category #3 because individual hex movement introduces fiddly stuff like line of sight, door-blocking, having to worry about ending movement on a teammate's space, etc., which can be annoying. Though the D&D games bypass most of that stuff, which may explain my affinity for the series.
Last edit: 03 Aug 2016 20:28 by wkover.
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03 Aug 2016 20:34 #231349 by wadenels
One of the things that keeps me playing Mice & Mystics is that I love the idea of Category 3, and Mice & Mystics handles it in a smoother way than I've seen in most other games. There aren't squares or hexes -- you move about the artwork -- and LoS is simple & effective.
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03 Aug 2016 20:41 #231350 by wkover

wadenels wrote: One of the things that keeps me playing Mice & Mystics is that I love the idea of Category 3, and Mice & Mystics handles it in a smoother way than I've seen in most other games. There aren't squares or hexes -- you move about the artwork -- and LoS is simple & effective.


I also realize that what I dislike about the games in Category 3 is exactly what many people like about them. Particularly miniature gamers, who are already accustomed to inching along terrain (with a ruler) and shooting stuff in range.

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04 Aug 2016 08:41 #231371 by mads b.
Played Runebound 3rd ed and The Grizzled the other night. The Grizzled is this really tight and very brutal card game about surviving WW1. You basically have to play a lot of cards of unpleasant stuff with the risk of losing a mission constantly hanging over you. And while losing a mission won't lose you the game, it robs you of small bonuses which can be enough to make things go haywire. In addition you can gain "hard knocks" which forces you to play in some ways. Maybe you can't withdraw (increasing the risk of losing a mission), or maybe you've gone mute and can't talk to the other players. There's great atmosphere in the game and we litterally cheered and shoock hands when we finally won a game.

Runebound is a different beast, but also a good game. We were three players and ended up playing for about 2,5 hours with a bit of a rushed ending because one of us had to leave. But it didn't feel long as the pacing of the game is quite good. The different kinds of encounters make you feel like you are adventuring, and there's a lot of variety in the way you make your skill build and the equipment you buy. Also, we talked about how we all rather enjoy games in Terrinoth even if we are not interested in fiction from that world. I don't know, but I know that I like the little stories they have put in RB 3rd. It still doesn't have the size and scope that second edition had, but I think that will rapidly change and I imagine it being my favourite adventure game. Especially if they revisit the Frozen Wastes setting. I never got to play it in second ed., but I love the idea of a crashlanded spaceship in a fantasy setting.

I also soloed a quick game of Tavarua which is a game about surfing. It looks very nice with little cardboard surfboards and surfer meeples, but it's also quite fun. I groaned when I wiped out and pumped the air when I managed to ride a barrel wave for extra points. It also plays fast and even though I think the solo campaign will be fun, it's most likely even better with more players.
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04 Aug 2016 08:57 #231372 by Gary Sax
Huh, Tavarua is another game by the guy who made Xia.

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04 Aug 2016 09:01 #231373 by mads b.

Gary Sax wrote: Huh, Tavarua is another game by the guy who made Xia.


Yes, that is true. The rule book is quite long and at first glance it seems like an overly complicated game. But once you get going it's actually quite easy and somewhat intuitive.

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04 Aug 2016 11:07 #231388 by Columbob

mads b. wrote: but I love the idea of a crashlanded spaceship in a fantasy setting.


Check out Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse series if you're not yet familiar with it.
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05 Aug 2016 12:17 #231464 by Egg Shen
Ghostbusters - Played the Cryptozoic version that everyone seems to hate. Man, this game is GREAT. It's so much goddamn fun. It's a very lightweight game that is more "classic Ameritrash" than most games that come out these days. You're running around the board (or driving in the Ecto 1), capturing ghosts, getting slimed, and trying to accomplish a simple goal. The gameplay is short, sweet, and satisfying. I love how when you try to attack the ghosts they go apeshit with their movements. It totally nails this aspect...which is good because it's like 85% of what you're doing. If you like simple mass market style ameritrash then this ought to be right your alley.

Baseball Highlights 2045 - Man, I hope this is what baseball is like in the year 2045 because this game is great! Two player card games are something of a favorite of mine and this one made a fantastic impression upon me. I like the back and forth that goes on with allowing hits to go through or deciding to cancel them. There is this excellent ebb and flow to the gameplay that actually feels like some weird abstracted version of baseball. On top of the basic gameplay there is deckbuilding where you're constantly adding new players to your roster which makes your team feel wonderfully different by the end of the game. If you're a fan of card games and want something different then this is one to get. In one game of the World Series I managed to hit a Walk off Grand Slam to come from behind and win on the last card played...and it was amazing. Totally in love with this game.

Mare Nostrum - So this game is back in print thanks to a recent Kickstarter from Academy Games. I never played the original version, but it was always something I wanted to try. First off the game looks great...just a very classy looking production. I always thought the original Euro Games edition was pretty nice and this one doesn't disappoint either. We had a four player game with a map full of plastic. The main thing that hits you is that this is a very early 2000s design. Most games of this style that come out now are fast, brutal, and direct. Mare Nostrum is like a powder keg with a long and slow burning fuse. Players take turn after turn of eking out a resource here, fortifying a position there, and planning for the future. Eventually it reaches a bursting point and war erupts across the map. And war is brutal in this game. When you lose resources and troops you really feel it. Playing a game like this was like retraining my brain as to what to expect from a dudes on a map style game. And to be fair this game is more about resources and positioning yourself for victory. Apparently, they've added some new victory conditions that weren't in the original game. The easiest one to complete seems to be the purchasing of heroes/leaders. I had a good time with this game even though I felt a bit lost for the first 30 mins or so...there are quite a few systems you need to wrap your head around. Realizing how important trading is and how you can use it to your benefit isn't readily apparent. Then being the leader on a specific track lets you be the person who chooses the order for when to build or when people attack. This is very powerful. Yet, for as much as their is going on the game felt like a well oiled machine and never slowed down or got hung up on any extraneous bullshit. You can tell it's been redesigned and any unsightly wrinkles have been iron out. I'm not sure how much of market there is for this type of design, but hopefully it still exists because it's a very good game.

Ghostbusters: Protect the Barrier - Yep, what you've read is true. This Ghostbusters re imaging of the german game "Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister!" is a very fun little family game. It's very random, with lots of dice chucking, roll to move, and card flips that reveal ghosts...but it's short and quite a rush. Playing with the advanced rules proved to be brutal and we lost after collecting about half of the devices. The game itself is just adorable. The artwork is cute and the little plastic ghosts are so happy looking that you almost feel bad for "bustin" them. This is another mass market gem that is perfect for families...or drunk bastards who like to chuck dice and bust ghosts.
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