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19 Nov 2014 15:27 - 19 Nov 2014 15:28 #191023 by Black Barney
lol, that would be the best live trolling ever, I think I might do it.

the worst is that some of these guys are on welfare so if we do play poker, i bet it'll be microstakes, ugh.

One of the guys who was on welfare, I played poker with him once and we were only playing 20$ sit-n-go. I won his money and I know it was devastating for him to lose 20$ so he was sitting beside me and I took his 20$ bill, put it into my wallet, closed it and then slapped him across the face with my wallet (with his money inside it). He got pretty mad and lashed out and hit me in the face which made my glasses fly across the room but I was cracking up still from the idea of what I had just done.

Other people in the room said it's the first time they've ever seen someone get hit in the face and immediately laugh.
Last edit: 19 Nov 2014 15:28 by Black Barney.
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19 Nov 2014 16:43 #191037 by bomber

Gary Sax wrote: Does Age of Industry solve any of your problems with Brass? I don't remember what it does that's simpler.

You know, honestly, I wish someone on F:AT would write a review of Brass and/or Age of Industry. For some reason they're exactly the type of games I'd like to try right now.


Brass is a great game but I've played it so many hundreds of times (a lot thanks to the free orderofthehammer site) that I did eventually play it out a bit. The rules quirks are a pain in the ass to explain but honestly once you've played a couple of times, its really very straightforward and its not a game you need to keep looking back at the rules for. Once you get the idea that iron (in Wallaces words) represents "technology and development" more than an actual physical lump of steel then its not so weird that coal needs transporting and iron just "teleports". The mechanics are actually pretty streamlined once you get past that first game or two. Yeah the virtual link seems a pain but honestly its also very easy to understand and rarely if ever comes up as an issue. In 99% of the games you will find it never boils down to more than who gets Ellesmere Port can link out of there and thus block off the shipyard in Birkenhead for themselves if no one else links into EP first.

It can feel like its obvious who will win before the end, this is much more a problem online, on the other hand, online gets you a lot of games at different skill levels (its ranked so you can see your progress and set up games at your level), and also not only enforces rules (handy at first) but shows points in real time, current and projected. Of course that also introduces some artificialness especially at the end and it CAN feel a bit cheesy if it boils down to which player gets hosed by the dreaded Level 3 Iron overbuild, potentially by the players in 3rd or 4th spot. Very different game F2F of course, which helps in that regard. Scoring is not so onerous after the first game or two, just remember to score things in order and remove stuff from the board at the right time (do links first, removing them as you score them, then buildings etc).

I won't argue that its a pain in the balls to explain the first time and to "non gamers" but honestly its overrated in terms of how difficult it is, the rules really are pretty tight and intuitive (and few in number really). Theres a lot of hand management in there, and you really need to try and go along with the strategy that your cards support, in conjunction with watching what others do, theres a lot of mutual partnerships going on, and lots of room for screwage in very clever ways. The strategic paths are fairly well defined, mostly you're developing cotton quickly to try and flip them in the canal age, or providing the ports to get flipped before the era switch, or building up a high income in order to run riot with the point heavy rail building, especially early on in the second era. Theres lots of cool network blockage possibilities too, and jockeying so as not to get yourself cut off, this becomes crucial in the last couple of turns when you can find yourself with nothing good to do, and no access to the stuff thats left to build. Likewise running out of income needs to be timed just right, if you finish with too much you've wasted actions increasing it, not enough and again you're scratching the last round or two, that can be a wonderful source of gaming tension. Theres some gamey cheese in the loans too, at least almost everyone piles in with the double loan on the last available loan round just to have enough cash to ride out the game.

Brilliant turn order system where the amount you spend in a round determines the next round order (least spent goes first) and theres a lot that goes into manipulating that, particularly the "double turn" (actually you do 2 things per turn so its like a quad action) trick where you spend the least as the last player in one turn and then get to go first again in the following turn. Theres a great balance that comes often when the big spending actions then leave you stranded in turn order so if you open up with an expensive move to secure it, you might be waiting around for 6 more turns before you go again.

The double era feature is brilliant, and the thing most people tend to miss with Age of Industry because you get this great buildup and setup going on early on, and then a lot of it is reset so if youve not invested enough in development, or money, or networking (level 2+ buildings dont get taken off the board) then you really fall behind in the more lucrative rail era. As someone who's from Yorkshire the theme is fucking fabulous and does a great job of capturing historical feel, I chatted with Martin about that by email and it shows that he really did look into the history of the canals and rails in the north of england during the industrial ages genesis, the industries and that feeling of "obseletion" that came with a rapidly developing and expanding network of industry and wealth.

I know a lot of people say that AoI is Brass lite, and I can see why they say that, but I think often it boils down to which you get into first you tend to have a soft spot for. In many ways its not dissimilar to Age of Steam / Steam. Brass like AoS is a bit more punishing with income and network build restrictions, AoI like Steam a bit more forgiving and streamlined, a bit more gentle. It does away with a lot of unique named locations with the cards and breaks the map up into regions by colour code, clearly done with expansions and simplicity in mind, another plus point of AoI then that maps exist for 2,3,4 AND 5 players. Brass says 3-4 and there is a 2P variant but ignore anyone who says its anything but a 4P game. Its all about making use of and extorting a full complement of players. Play Brass with 4. 3 is too loose and easy. 2 is not Brass, its a Brass themed game that has some aspects of the full game but its not "brass". Because AoI has the option with extra maps, which are tweaked for different players its supposed to work better, and I think the weakness caused by the relaxed geography and networking also reduces the intensity of relying on reading, predicting, working with, and cutting off all your rivals. In Brass, you must pay attention to what everyone else is doing and work with it, I think its less constrained in AoI, but on the other hand, maybe that works better at player counts that are less than 4. I have not played 5P though, I bet thats neat.

But theres no dual era either, and I think that not only cuts out quite a unique aspect of the mother game, the charm, but also as a game it really loses "something", on the other hand, a lot of people prefer just a "standard" play the board, and score it and go home, and dont like the concept of a lower scoring almost "prep" era and then kind of repeat it (with some modified rules restrictions lifted) for the second era. Also, in Brass, loans are an action and thus need to be accounted for in your limited number of actions you get in the game, in AoI you take them as needed, again harking back a bit to the AoS/Steam difference in ease of financing yourself. One is clearly tougher/tighter. In Brass many a great plan has come to waste in the final turn just one fucking pound short because you miscounted how much that last cube of coal would cost you (and theres some great gameplay in manipulating the cost of the iron and coal markets by clever players to provide just such fuckyou-ery in the final rounds. Likewise sniping in and selling your cheap shit cotton to the external market to bump your income and simultaneously leave Johnny Fancy Pants Level 3 and 4 cottons sat with nowhere to ship to - at least until Peter Posh Ports sees his chance to lead you to his Level 3 and 4 Ports etc etc)

I've not played AoI enough to give a fair comparison, obviously I love Brass, and though I've taken a break from it, will surely keep returning to it. I wouldn't dismiss AoI though, I can definitely see it working better with some groups and like I said, there ARE plus points to it, but I do think its difficult to feel that Brass, with all its little idiosyncracies isnt just that little bit more "magic" captured by a designer with inspiration and the AoI more of a workmanlike revision to appeal to the masses. Somewhat trite conclusion but there you go. Brass is fucking awesome and since you can play it for free online its easy to judge for yourself if the quirks are too much for you, or even if the gameplay is there for you. I don't think if you hate brass, AoI will be a "fix" for you though. And I do feel like 2 or 3 games of brass removes ALL the concern about rules and confusion, so everyone should give it a go and then maybe try to compare it with the other game, I just feel AoI is that little bit too bland, it doesnt have the soul that Brass does.

I'd be more than happy to setup some games on the online site to show people the ropes but theres loads of helpful players there who will do the same
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19 Nov 2014 16:45 #191038 by bomber

Shellhead wrote: Played a couple of games with F:AT's Erdulis recently. I finally got to play Twilight Struggle. The game itself is appealing, with a great theme and a nice structure, but I wasn't able to fully enjoy it because of the punishing difference in our respective skill levels. Game was over by mid-war with a VP win for the Americans. I would definitely like to play again sometime.
.


If you know your way round in VASSAL I'm still a beginner if you want to give it another try sometime

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20 Nov 2014 08:13 #191082 by stormseeker75
Barney, you are one fucked up individual.
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20 Nov 2014 09:42 #191093 by lj1983
Sunday -
some people from church who had expressed interest in playing games.
One Night Ultimate werewolf a couple times, to get things started.

Resistance, as one of them is a wheaton follower. they liked Werewolf better. I don't have the additional "merlin" style cards, but they felt like there just wasn't enough information going around.

Magical Athlete - a great game, but the racers can combo for boring races on occasion. 4 races, the middle 2 were pretty boring (ended up with Thief,assasin,spy all in same race)

Tuesday game night-

played Wiz-War with Bestial Forces. ended up with a minotaur chasing a boggart around. a Grendel trying to beat down a wizard with 1 HP left. but two totems of the bear out (-2 damage for attacks on that wizard ea, within that board). that same wizard also had an acid bath with a ton of time counters, so as soon as he leaves the board and loses protection from the bear Totems he's dead. I loved it.

Legendary Encounters - i traded Gears of War away for this (and considering the FFG sale, i timed it right). I like Legendary Marvel, and this improves. but if you don't like deckbuilders, or games where you flop your hand out and have alittle puzzle, then stay away. the small changes they have made make this game have more of a tie to the theme than marvel does. it still has that, who the F am i? feeling. sure, you are a 'gunner' or 'battlefield medic' but why do I have Hick's "stay Frosty" and Ripley's "enraged ripley" cards in my deck? get past that and you are fine. Marvel has much better combos, if that's what you want. The art is...ok, but the graphic design is improved over some of the graphic diarrhea that Marvel has.

4 players, two players died fairly quickly...last two slogged to the end, with several 7 health "howling xenomorphs" rumbling down the hallway. the Synthetic player stayed at 1 health for most of the game, while just barely sliding by attacks and being able to heal a couple times (same player who had the 1 health wizard in Wiz-War). after holding the queen in the airlock for 4 or 5 hands, and a sentry gun sitting there waiting for it, and the Priest and synthetic managed to take down the queen (priest had a 2 atk coordinate card, which got to the needed 10 atk pts.)

Wed - one of the sunday people saw Twilight struggle on the shelf, and mentioned his brother back in Minnesota had just purchased it but couldn't figure out the rules. So I offered to teach him, so when he goes back to MN for thanksgiving, he'd at least have some idea to help his brother through it.

We played through turn 4, so just into the mid-war cards. and its been a long time since i've played, but skill level difference is huge in this game....i tried to hold back and didn't play events to score extra vps. he enjoyed it, which is the important part, and wants to play again. hope he can get his brother into it next week.
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20 Nov 2014 18:00 #191164 by bomber
Tash Kalar (new, not shitty version). Meh, theres something in there thats kind of appealing but I dont think it really works. YOu're not really controlling much, sure, once you know the cards and some of the shapes, but really, its pretty tenuous that you can plan much outside grabbing for the task cards. Its missing something, for sure, wont be rushing to play it again

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20 Nov 2014 21:03 #191171 by Grudunza
Having a great time at BGG.con. FFG is doing full-game demos of X-Com, and I played this afternoon and loved it. Anyone bitching about the app is an idiot. It integrates really well and complements the regular board game aspects in a way that just feels cool. It's about half real-time and half turn-based, but the real-time aspect, though tense, doesn't feel hectic or heart-racing; it's still very cerebral and board-gamey, more like... the science officer has 10 seconds to decide how many scientists to assign to tech, okay now the command officer has 10 seconds to decide between which of two crisis cards to add, then the squad leader decides which soldiers to assign to the mission, then back to the crisis card guy to choose another card, and so on. It gives a sense of urgency, but there's still some time to think and communicate quickly about what the current needs are.

And then there's a resolution phase which is not in real-time, where each player goes through their stuff that they'd planned out in the timed phase... the science guy tries to research the tech, the command officer uses the interceptors he sent out earlier to attack UFOs, the squad leader resolves his soldiers attacks against aliens, etc. And though I'd read about the push-your-luck skill resolution thing in one of the previews and thought, eh, whatever... in practice, it's a really great mechanic.

Lastly, you step through the app and tell it certain things about the game state, and then it uses that information as part of its "strategy" for the next turn. I wasn't the app person, but it seemed very simple and intuitive to use the whole time. I think the game took about 75 minutes altogether, though it could have been 90 and just felt shorter.

The co-op aspect of this is quite strong, where you need to work quickly with each other and coordinate things with limited time. But the way it's structured and with the timed phase, it seems to give each person their own responsibility to be on top of their thing. I'm not saying this is the game that breaks the supposed alpha dog co-op thing, but I think it definitely would mute that to some extent.

Any other questions, let me know. I might try to jump in on another game tomorrow or Saturday.
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21 Nov 2014 00:21 #191181 by charlest
Machi Koro - The Fuck? In an alternate reality where Catan was never invented this may have deserved recognition. I don't live in that reality. It's like Catan with all of the strategy flattened out and everyone on training wheels.

King of Tokyo - Been awhile, enjoyed it as always. I was Pandakai and the first one eliminated. Had some bitching evolution cards as well.

Netrunner - Killing time waiting for a friend and played a game of Netrunner. I used a GRNDL deck that my opponent provided and ended up crushing his Noise deck. Forgot how much I love this game.

Xia: Legends of a Drift System - My second play and the main game of the night. I purposely shut out an annoying MFer at the meetup group as I wanted to play 3 players and cannot stand playing games with that dude. Our 3 player game to 12 Fame Points took about 2 hours and was very enjoyable. I liked it even better than my first play, although it's still not an exceptional game. I think it's pretty good though and it certainly delivers that adventure/seafaring feel of Merchants and Marauders but in space. It lacks some of the qualities of M&M that I love but it has some of its own quirks that are endearing. M&M is the much better game but if you can stand the dice rolling, this isn't too far behind.
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21 Nov 2014 07:04 #191184 by DukeofChutney
met up with my Spanish friends to play some games last night including;

Condottiere - One guy took 3 cities and other 2. I was on nothing then managed to take 3 in a row to steal the win. Inexperience on their part. My opening hand of the game had 6 scarecrow cards and a bunch of 1 through 3s. Some people think this game is too chaotic. It is chaotic but you can use a bad hand to blow out an opponents good hand then hang on to capitalize later.

High Society - also won this, for the first time, with a mighty score of 2. One girl spent all but one money card, i won two auctions and the other two had nothing (just multiplier cards) and then the fourth red card turned over early ending the game.

Tichu - not enough grand tichu.

Fading Glory - Played the Salamanca scenario. Rolled five 1s in my first 5 combats. Came close to recovering later but couldn't quite save the french army. I really like the nappy 20 system. It is really easy in play but it has enough operational and historical depth to all me to relate to the kind of decisions and thinking i see in the history books i read. Some elements of the CRT annoy me quite a bit though. I dislike how common exchange results are when you have combat superiority. It sometimes seems like you are better off fighting at less advantageous odds.

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21 Nov 2014 09:14 #191194 by Legomancer
Played Marrying Mr. Darcy last night. I played as Georgiana Darcy (his sister) so I actually COULDN'T marry Mr. Darcy, so I was heading for Fitzwilliam. My main rival was Caroline Bingley (more on her later) and I knew I was going to have to pocket a lot of Cunning to get a shot at Fitz. Caroline unfortunately screamed past me in Cunning so I went to Plan B, Mr. Bingley. When we got to the Suitor phase I was all ready to claim Bingley when I realized he requires FIVE Friendliness, not three (I didn't have my glasses on). So I didn't even interest him and I had to settle for Mr. Collins, boooooo. (At least I didn't end the game as badly as Lizzy Bennett, who was not only an Old Maid, but the worst possible Old Maid result. Still, two of the possible Old Maid outcomes would have netted me more points than Collins.)

Now, the person playing Caroline Bingley played well, and if Lizzy had rolled better she would have snagged Darcy and won, but I still think Caroline is overpowered. Her special ability is that when she draws character cards she draws an extra one and discards one. That is huge, and way better than any of the other special abilities. This is the third game I've played, and Caroline has won each of them. I think she's overpowered and needs to be nerfed.

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