The Boardgame Thread

[schild]

I should have a copy of The Great Zimbabwe by the first week of November =D

[ghost]

I haven't heard much of it.  What's the skinny?

[schild]

It's the new game from Splotter - I think every single copy is called for but you might be able to get a preorder in at FunAgain.

It's another modular board game like Antiquity with asymmetric player abilities but with route building a la Roads & Boats or Indonesia instead of Area Control like Antiquity. Also, player movement on the board. I haven't yet read the rules (NYA) but it would seem you pick a god and build monuments to them. Building monuments nets you X victory points.

I didn't even want it until I realized what it REALLY was: A Tale in the Desert, the board game.

[ghost]

This one is looking like a "must buy" if you happen to see it out and about.

Get to the Chopper. 

[Ghambit]

It's free print 'n play.  I will be printing it.  And I will be playing it.   

[schild]

I errrr uh.

Yea.

Roads & Boats is getting reprinted right after Essen.

[Azazel]

I'm trying to figure out why Privateer Press put out a boardgame without miniatures.  It's particularly obnoxious that it's a boardgame that clearly needs miniatures.  Have we gotten our first real DLC in the cardboard side of things?  Bastards......

Well, Incursion did that awhile back. But they only do metal figures. PP have spin cast plastics so there's really not a lot of excuse there for them...

[ghost]

This looks pretty interesting.  Plaid Hat Games, of Dungeon Run fame, is putting together a Bioshock board game.  I guess it is modeled after Bioshock Infinite.  I tend to like Plaid Hat's games.

[ghost]

So I've got a $50 gift card for Amazon and need some ideas of what to buy.  Anyone got anything interesting on their radar (that Amazon might have)?

[ghost]

So I spent the 50 bucks on Abaddon, which looks unbelievable.  The pieces are only marred by the fact that there is only one pose for each of the different units.  I've heard it described as if it should have three or four kids on the back with the biggest, Joker style grins possible on their faces, i.e. it's a pretty light game and heads straight to the "fun".  I'd say that's pretty accurate.  It's not a game I'd get for a serious gamers' night. 

I also got in my copy of Mice and Mystics.  I wasn't expecting it today, but it looks spectacular (The publisher is the same group that put out Summoner Wars).  It's a light dungeon crawl ala Claustrophobia, but with a kinder/gentler theme that might appeal to non-gamers.  Some folks just can't handle the "Hell on Earth" theme that is Claustrophobia.  Mice and Mystics plays in about an hour, so that's awesome. 

The third new game is Seasons.  I haven't done much other than just open it and look at it, but the art on the cards and pieces is quite nice.  I'm always a little suspicious of games that don't have a "board"

My fourth recent purchase was Olympos.  Again, haven't done much with this other than open it and look at it.  It's from Philip Keyaerts, who did Small World, which I don't particularly like. 

[luckton]

The Mice and Mystics intrigues me in that it sounds like Ravenloft reskinned/reformatted.  Can you elaborate more if/when you get time?

[ghost]

It already looks a lot more interesting.  The tiles are much bigger with more movement points.  I'll let you know more when I get to play more (it may be a while, what with the new baby and all). 

[Hawkbit]

The family has been crazy about Ticket to Ride lately, maybe five games a week.  I found a copy of 1910 at my local shop and picked it up.  That's $17 well spent for the full-size cards alone.  Not to mention it stretches the game out a bit more.  Great purchase.

[ghost]

Yeah, whoever invented little cards should be beaten around the head and neck with an oar.

[luckton]

So I'm hearing decent things about FFG's take on Merchant of Venus.  Any takers?

[ghost]

I bought it.  It looks awesome.  It's an awesome game.  I haven't played this version yet.  It does have little cards, however.  

I think this is a FFG production that stays pretty true to the base material, unlike Rex (which wasn't really their fault).

[proudft]

Wait, what?  Merchant of Venus is awesome.  To the internets!

[Ingmar]

How many more melfs must die to feed the pelt market?

[ghost]

Apparently my copy of The Great Zimbabwe shipped today.  I still have no idea what it's about, other than a country in Africa. 

[Musashi]

If you have a regular gaming group like I do, I recommend Risk: Legacy.  There are spoilers.  So I'm being intentionally cryptic.  It's goddamn awesome.  It's Risk with factions, and a progressively changing board/content.  IE you put stickers and write shit on it and change it forever.  You unlock new content by accomplishing certain missions or milestones.  Essentially that makes it somewhat of a disposable game.  This may sound alien in a culture where we horde game boxes in purpose built structures like sacred treasure.  But I'm here to assure you that though reputability is necessarily limited, it's worth it. 

We started playing here and there on nights when our DM didn't have his D&D shit together or just wanted a week off.  And now we've found ourselves looking forward to playing Risk more than D&D.

[ghost]

I've heard great things about that version of Risk.  I bought several copies, thinking that it will probably be something that the kids and I will play the hell out of.  I've tried to not spoiler myself though, and have only opened one of them up and leafed through just a little to see what it was like.

[ghost]

schild-  you should check out Mage Wars.  But then again, it may be too close to Magic: the Gathering for you to bother with. 

[Ghambit]

schild-  you should check out Mage Wars.  But then again, it may be too close to Magic: the Gathering for you to bother with. 

Already tried.   Failed to intrigue him.

I've played about 5 times now and the last game was an epic near all-nighter.  Wiz vs. Beastmaster and I turtled as much as possible as the wiz.  Draining mana, counterspelling, stuns, incaps, etc. whilst building my own resources.  "Everything was going to my design" until I forgot he had a 'dissolve' (acid destroys equipment) and I lost my only attacking wand.  Game was essentially over then and I used the remaining time to just try out new shit.

Must-haves:
-Timed turns (2-3 mins during planning phases and action phases)
-Know when to concede
-Extra set of cards or another set (just like most LCGs the starters are really just there to learn - it's still a lot of fun though)

[ghost]

I think I like it, but there are some definite negatives including length of play.  I see a lot of potential for the game though. 

[schild]

Turtling is the worst way to play a game. Just the worst.

[Ghambit]

Thing is, even when turtling there's still confrontation between "pieces."  I only say turtle in the respect that my Mage isn't engaging except to slow down the opponent to buy time; and boosting survivability when a shitton of pets were on the board.  It was mostly a tactic I tried to use when my wand was destroyed with my best spell bound to it.  Against the beastmaster you really have to try and deal with his pets while you build resources and pets of your own; then direct damage as much as possible while hopefully getting rid of whatever Lair (spawnpoint) he has out.  That's not the only strat. though obviously.  Then there's the inherent turtle while you build channeling (which has to be done asap to be worthwhile).

I think I like it, but there are some definite negatives including length of play.  I see a lot of potential for the game though. 

Yah, tourney rules are pretty developed to minimizing AP.  Also, knowing your tome is key, which comes with deckbuilding and practice.  Most complaints about game length are obviously new players trying out the starters, which all have different playstyles and niggling rules (like wiz' stun and sleep cards).  Bmaster has pet rules, warlock 'vampire' and 'fire' rules, etc.

[schild]

In my recent unemployment, I noticed that GMT was still offering their "Tough Economy" sale of two free games to gamers who are recently unemployed. Given how much money of mine they've gotten, this is a pretty special thing that publishers should likely look into as it is pretty much a total guarantee of widened exposure of their games. Anyway, they're shipping me Dominant Species and Virgin Queen for free - which is pretty great because all of their games that I currently own are 2 player only.

[Ghambit]

How do you prove that you're recently unemployed???  If I'm an underpaid Indy contractor does that help?

[schild]

Not really. I had emails from my boss about being laid off. They were very real emails about unemployment claims and such.

[ghost]

Great Zimbabwe came in the mail.  There's not much in the box for this one.  Definitely not worth the price, if you're going on components only. 

[Ghambit]

Slight bump.  "Mage Wars" organized play pretty much starts this month at supporting retailers.  We shall see how long this fad lasts I guess.  Kits come with free shwag, etc.  There's a world campaign but I dont think OP outcomes effect it; it's just a voting thing, which is kinda retarded.   1st Expansion should be coming Q1.

In other news, I FINALLY found the game I was looking for.  Was a game I played in a store in Virginia and I'd forgotten the name.  I pretty much summed it up as "Monopoly the way it should be."  "Power Struggle" was the one.  Duh.  Anyways I traded Netrunner for that and "Innovation."   

[Ingmar]

You were pretty high on Netrunner before - replayability wear out?

[Ghambit]

You were pretty high on Netrunner before - replayability wear out?

It was too reliant on collectibility (reminding me of Warhammer:Invasion; needing multiple core sets to even be slightly competitive [3 in this case], etc.) and I wanted to get more into MageWars and the impending Serpent's Tongue.  I dont have the time/money for two big LCGs and MageWars is actually easier to get people to pick up and play, let alone a more rewarding experience overall.

Still not a bad game, but I wouldn't put it ahead of Summoner Wars either.  Now, if you're a rabid deckbuilder and are in it for the long haul as well as have a FLGS to play it regularly at, then I'd say go for it.  But realize the game fairly sux w/o constructed decks and knowledgeable players.

Above all, I got triple the value ($70 worth of games) for my Netrunner.      Had to let it go in that case.

[Sky]

Mentioned it in the mini thread, but I got in my copy of Dreadball. Looks really awesome, now I've got to convince the local BGGs to play a mini-based game.

Also broke down and bought a copy of Space Hulk.

Even with all that, I think my next painting project will be the orc team for Blood Bowl. I've got a decent match for the 85 Bears at my buddy's request.

[schild]

So, I jumped straight into constructed with Netrunner despite not having played it since the original release. The card pool in the initial release is pretty thin and easily solved which is a shame. The first "expansion" pack doesn't add much depth to it either. Unfortunately, Garfield had a bunch of cards that never should've been in Magic in Netrunner in the early days and they found their way into the FFG release because FFG doesn't actually know how to balance a card game and they clearly revere Garfield as god (see Game of Thrones LCG to see what I mean).

That said, it's a nice break from Magic if you want to play something non-symmetric and completely unbalanced.

I've looked through a bunch of the "decks" that have been winning tournaments - Netrunner players are pretty shit and I'm tempted to go spike a few tournaments for no reason.