Boardgames

[Hot Heart]

Viking gets to hit two people if you get lucky with his super power roll (or have 'Press' spent so you can reroll) and get to attach the token. Great damage from the super power but yeah, you gotta do a lot of landing on characters, especially the villain. Otherwise, yeah, sometimes a good idea to go after other heroes and catch them off-guard depending on what combos they have.

 

Definitely not a game you'll fully grasp until you've played a bit. If I recall, the 'Master' part makes any action with the POW type deal 1 extra damage (only the super power for Viking, making it 7 damage), which doesn't sound much but can be pretty great for some heroes (not necessarily Viking though, definitely good for mutants who have two powers). The reducing DMG by 2 part is pretty good though, since you can feel a bit safer getting into the thick of the action, plus you might not need to rest as often and could even get an extra opportunity to play Maneuver for getting into position (you'll never really play Maneuver more than once or twice a game, normally).

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

Been playing some Space Hulk. It's the classic 1 vs. 1 tactical game from the '80s, with the swarms-of-aliens motif ripped straight out of Aliens. It's still a really good game and has been updated with pretty bits and some new rules recently. There is a Steam version as well that does a decent job capturing the feel.

 

[Hot Heart]

Had another game night with friends. Started with my newest arrival [redacted].

 

A game about being a secret spy who is after secrets while keeping secrets from other secret spies at a (non-secret) party in an embassy.

 

 

This was a first game and wasn't how I intended to introduce it, since we had 6 people. I had originally planned to host a four-player game to make it easier for me to track and check any rules queries, etc. but the mission also works for 6, so what the hey...

 

The 'classic' Mission Diplomatique involves getting the enemy side's intel to your side's helicopter on the roof (or blowing up two of the opposing side's helicopters). The problem is a) you don't know quite where that intel is (could be locked in the red or blue briefcase, in the item deck or even dealt to a player at the start of the game), b) you don't know who's on your side and might blow up your helicopter given the chance, c) calling the helicopter can only be done from right down in the basement, which means even getting to it can be a task.

 

The tactical element comes into how you interact with players (Friendly, Neutral or 1 of 3 Rock-Paper-Scissor-style weapons) whenever you encounter them and how you utilise certain room functions (e.g. x-ray to see players' items as they pass through certain doors).

 

Our game pitted the Chinese against the British (Russia and the US are also options), and had some funny little interactions whereby one friend thought the other's wife would be polite but was in fact a ruthless bully, playing weapons when he was clearly friendly. There was a funny moment where my harasser (who'd beaten and interrogated me earlier) wanted to get by me.

 

"Where are you planning on going?" I asked.

"Just down to the basement."

"Fair enough, I wanted the top floor to myself anyway," I replied, and casually passed my interaction card.

He passed his and we look to see we'd played the exact same weapon card.

 

Unfortunately, one agent got the perfect duo of items: the enemy intel and the service staircase key. In other words, he was able to call the helicopter and sneak up the service staircase unimpeded, even with the basement locked down. Victory for the Chinese... not my side. Noooooooo!

 

Little did I know that had I not been forcibly ejected from the x-ray room earlier, I would've seen the item. While it turns out the person who did was on the same side and so had an allegiance confirmed when the helicopter was called.

 

However, the problem was my side consisted of someone who clearly does not like social deduction, deception or conflict in games (he's a pushover in Cosmic Encounter, for example) so wasted his turns trying to avoid people, and the guy who was fooled by the friend's wife. D'oh! Added to that, I got the same item twice, and its only real use was getting to discard it so you don't have to move on your turn, which is useful in certain situations but not for me and not twice!

 

Despite this horrible distribution of luck/teammates, I think it's a neatly-designed game and throws up all sorts of amusing interactions and possibilities. Problem is my group has wildly varying tastes, where some don't like that element of conflict or social deduction and others prefer dry mechanics over an engaging theme.

 

Next we played Timeline

 

I think our pack was 'Science' and 'Discoveries' but other themes are available and can be mixed together.

 

Really simple game. You have a bunch of cards with events on, you try and place them correctly in an ever-expanding timeline, first to clear their hand wins. Main issue is that whoever goes first starts at somewhat of an advantage because there are wider time gaps for them to play any trickier cards early on, and we found that both times the first player won (which was me during the first game).

 

I've heard that it's very much like a much older game called Chronology, which seems a bit like a better design since each player has their own timeline, which should eliminate that 'turn order' issue.

 

Might see about picking up a pack or two (or maybe Chronology) to play with the family at Christmas, though I have heard complaints about translation errors which look like factual errors (e.g. with regards to photography and certain cameras)

 

Then we played Anomia (yawn) and Wits & Wagers (double yawn) yet again and then onto a PnP version of Dead Drop, which a friend wanted to test... before forgetting to back it on Kickstarter.

 

 

Simple game of deduction where one of the above cards is kept face-down as 'the drop', with players having to figure out and reveal two cards equal to its value in order to win (guess incorrectly and you're out, with those cards staying revealed). Each player has two cards and you've got a few things you can do on a turn like exchanging one of them with a public stash or another player, or revealing both to another player to see if they have a card that matches their total and swapping something if so.

 

Essentially, you're trying to figure out how many cards are out ("I've seen two 3s and a 5, so the drop can't be that") and get into a position where you can match the value or mess with others' plans before they get to it. I guess it's reminiscent of Love Letter except way easier to learn and memorise.

 

Plays very quickly, but the theme is entirely tacked-on, and if one person messes up they can inadvertently hand the game to another player (as happened the first game). I had fun deliberately holding the lone 4 through multiple forced swaps and seeing another eliminate themselves because they guessed the drop incorrectly, even though it didn't really help me win the game ultimately. You could actually spoof the whole thing easily (we did with playing cards, though the suits thing makes it a little easier) and probably find the rules online if you wanted. Still, it's a smart design so worth checking out.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Hot Heart

[Hot Heart]

ME AGAIN

 

Boardgames evening down the pub.

 

Started with Colt Express (though, not my copy)

 

Managed to get the full six players which made for some pretty chaotic times. I was Django, who gets to push people across one carriage when he shoots them, which can be very handy but like most of the special abilities, it's situational (though, Belle's seems best all-round).

 

I got off to an early lead, since I started in the second from last carriage and nabbed a couple of gems while others tried to race ahead but then... people started shooting me. A lot of people started shooting me.

 

See, you 'program' your moves for a round by playing action cards into a common pile, with each player going in order, but you'll have to try and remember what people played before and how they might move or shoot (since that's a later decision). You start with 10 cards, and draw 6 for the round. A round will typically have 4 phases where you play a card (you can skip to draw 3 more) but sometimes they will be played face-down, or players put in two simultaneously (allowing them to obscure the first part). If you get shot, a bullet card gets put into your deck, which you might draw instead of something useful. I was shot twice in the first round...

 

Anyway, the game continued and I was holding onto my two valuable gems, looking to have more money than anyone else but then there is the Gunslinger bonus. See, each player has six of those bullet cards for shooting other people. Anyone who manages to use all of them, gets a massive $1000 bonus. Since gems are all $500, and purses range from $250-450, it's a very big bonus.

 

Problem I had was trying to shoot people but also stay away from the Marshall, and I had a rivalry going with the red player, Tuco. While everyone else was having a scuffle on the locomotive, I was battling it out with Tuco, who'd managed to snag a decent number of purses by 'bottom-feeding' (to be fair, I did push him back a couple of times) and had managed to fire off all his bullets.

 

It came down the final round, where like the one before it, I'd 'wasted' a turn getting more cards so I could get my Shoot one, since I'd been shot eight times and found my deck completely clogged. A decision had to be made when I played a move card, and an unexpected Marshall move had scuppered my initial plan. I just needed to shoot one more person and I should seize victory. Rather than join the scuffle and the front and risk dropping my loot from an errant punch, I decided to try and anticipate red's moves.

 

He makes his final move and switches to the roof of the carriage, I fire and find there's no one in sight to take that final bullet. Nooooooooo!

 

Red wins. Good game!

 

7 Wonders

 

In most circles, and for most of this group, I think this game has been played to death. Me? I'd heard of it, but never had a chance to try it.

 

What a fool I was. It is a great game. Even the 'vanilla' version.

 

It's essentially a card-drafting, set-collecting, empire-building game, but with a nice injection of direct competition among neighbouring players. In our six-player game, it meant that things would be going on far over the other side of the table of which we only had a vague idea... but in a good way! Each of the three Ages sees hands of cards going round from player to player, with each choosing one and passing it on.

 

You have multiple ways to earn victory points, and it's all about picking/hoping for the right cards to come round as well as working off/responding to what the players to your immediate left and right are doing. You have to watch out if they're building a military or find ways to benefit from resources they stock, or a way to earn VP or cash multipliers off cards they've played.

 

Since it was a first game for a few of us, I overheard one tip: if in doubt, go for more resources or military. I kept that in mind and with a quick overview the game got underway.

 

I started with a few resource things, not really having an idea about what I was doing for the first few turns, but I guess did alright, getting myself some sort of market, which would be handy for buying any required resources cheaper from neighbours. The end of Age I came round, and by the number of red cards out, I could see that the other end of the table had gone into full-on war mode. Meanwhile, my neighbours and I had foregone such barbarism.

 

"See, this end of the table is far more refined and civilised. I've started on building Baths and a Scriptorium," I commented, jokingly.

 

Age II begins and I'm looking at a hand of cards, all of them military except for two not so great ones.

 

And so began my military pursuit.

 

The owner of the game acted faux-offended. And I felt kind of bad since twice during Colt Express, I'd been forced to shoot him as the only legal target, but hey, I'm building an empire here; gotta pre-empt your enemy.

 

The game continued, and I was enjoying it more than I thought. I 'starved' the player to my left by keeping my available resources lean, but using my own merchant stuff to get any things I needed cheap and managed to get some extra military and such thanks to owning prerequisities as well as a well-timed injection of cash thanks to a multiplier and 'burning' (term the game's owner used for paying to remove a card from the game to build a stage of your own wonder) a card which I sensed I shouldn't pass on. Also mamaged to snag a multiplier based on my neighbour's negative military tokens, which was  handy since I won the military stages of Ages II and III despite the right-hand player's best efforts to respond.

 

At the game's end, I'd enjoyed myself and felt confident that I'd at least done pretty well for a first-timer. As one guy went round the table, using an app to calculate the final scores, I was looking okay at 53, while the closest others were at 48 or high 40s. Then it got to the owner of the game, the guy who clearly loved it, and the app started totting up his science scores. I look at this same wheel/cog symbol and see he has 4 and then some extra stuff. Uh oh...

 

The app keeps on adding them up, the player mentions how one level of his wonder lets him choose a symbol, so he elects for the same again... the live score ups his bonus from 16 to 25. Yikes!

 

...but his final effort comes in at 49. I win!

 

The owner of the game mentioned how he had advised me on one modifier card (honestly, not in a sore loser-ish way) which gave me 8VP by the end, but my initial thought would've given me a straight-up 6VP (so, I still would've won!). In actual fact, what probably clinched it for me was a certain card I'd burned earlier because I didn't want to pass it on. A sciences one, with a wheel/cog symbol...

 

I'll never tell him.

 

Then we played Alhambra, which was clearly his revenge. God, I hate that game more each time I play it.

 

Although, it has made me aware that I seem to excel at games that involve card-drafting and card combos but definitely not whatever the hell you call the mechanic in Alhambra and Ticket to Ride.

[SomTervo]

7 Wonders is so, so good

 

Got redacted but no time to get a good sesh in yet!

[deanb]

So it's been a while, I've had a fair build up of titles.

 

So first of all to get my sisters stupid cute thing out the way first. She wanted to have her own copy of "the game where you sleep". However we didn't have the card at hand, so I made the cards, named them and let her fill them in. And...man gotta love that Minion.

 

For those that haven't played, this is the Minion card:

 

 

 

 

 

Now on to the new games, with official artwork and everything.

 

Letters from Whitechapel

So one person plays as Jack the Ripper, and the rest as policemen (and occasionally ladies of the night, depending on circumstances). The aim is to find and arrest Jack before the fourth night is up. This is on a board of around 150 places Jack could be at any moment, and with many connections between these places. Jack has a secret board, so you don't know where he has been or where he will be going to as his base (it's the same every night, so you do close in on it progressively). You move your guys around and can either ask if Jack has been at a space adjacent to you and get a clue if he has been, or if you're sure you can make an arrest. I've only played one game where Jack won, so while initially it seems like it's night impossible to catch Jack it can be done. And the time he escaped, his home was 69 cos I play board games with mature people. We did have one where he got arrested right away on the third night. Third night Jack kills two, and this makes a weird change to the rules where the police move first. So I moved right to the spot where he'd killed and said "got you". There was a bit of sourness on that, mainly with the not so clear rules than my immediate arresting.

 

Frankenstein's Bodies

One of my housemates kickstarted games. You're trying to build up a complete person (or two, if you can). There's point multipliers for having fresh body parts, of the same gender, and of the same colour. You take cards from a stockpile each turn, so if you're last you might be digging through the trash bin for offcuts (which are infected, so less points until you clean/heal them). Pretty fun, simple and quick-ish game. I'd say only issue is stuff is a bit slip n slide around the board.

 

 

Lords of Xidit

I believe this is based on another boardgame. In practice it plays kinda like Frozen Synapse. You all plan out 6 moves at the same time, the cogs show the colour path you'll be taking or if you'll be doing an Action. You  then all play them out, which means you might find your 4th turn that would have you defeat a monster ends up with you sitting on an empty space.

Main aim of the game is to build up armies (go to cities, collect the army pieces off them) and attack monsters. stuff is then scored up three times throughout the game, based on units you have built up, enemies taking out and other stuff I can't quite remember. I'm definitely up for it again if only cos of the Frozen Synapse vibe.

 

 

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Tactics

Housemate really enjoys his Sentinels, so it was a no brainer he'd get this. I'm not too impressed with my playthrough. It's simpler than Heroes Wanted I guess, similar stuff. You have a hero, you move around. My dude was essentially Multiple Man, which when it comes to King of the Hill has some interesting effects. You only count as one still, but you an take all the spaces. However we played much crueller. One teammate could lay hidden mines (lays out 9, 6 are active). We ended up with one of my clones stepping on a mine. Killed instantly, but took out all the other team too. We think some negative of the palythrough was it being at the upper limit of players, took a while to get through people, and not helped with one being english as a second language.

 

Kings of New York

So this started with a "Dean, you've never played Kings of Tokyo?!?!" (Also I was not drunk at this point)

You are a giant monster, you roll dice of many sides. These dice can mean you're attacked, you get to attack, you'r healed, or other stuff. The aim is to either score 20 points or be the last monster standing. I won my first game mainly through doing the "other stuff". I ended up with "Star Power" card, any stars I rolled count towards my points. When you have 6 dice to roll it quickly counts up.

 

 

Melee

Another new kickstarter game. It's a simple game, we played two palyers and it's like a short and somewhat more literal version of Chess. You have a castle, your aim is to either take thier castle, or have the most land by Winter. It's played in four rounds (my last sentence should give an idea on the round names). Each round you may take 1 of three actions (except winter, you take two). These are to build your armies, get tax, or move your army. You reveal at same turn, so someone might just get in a bit of cash, but you'll be moving on to the. A lot of the game is done with the "put a bit of coins in your hand, have the other person guess it/be lower than you". It took a while to get going cos we carried on bidding the same amount to go first and half of those times it was zero). When you attack you place some coins in your hand, this is what you're paying your soldiers, then the other person guess how much it is. I only lost one attack (it's pretty easy to attack, unless you've only ended up with like 1 coin left). Good quick game for the times we end up with one game ending before another.

(We had 38 folks at this weeks meet up, I think if it remains consistent at that we'll need to get a bigger venue)

 

As usual extra photos are in my growing album

http://imgur.com/a/y50vJ#0

[Hot Heart]

I was interested in Sentinel Tactics, but it looked a bit too fiddly like the card game (now available as an app, hooray) and I know my friends would never play it. Plus, getting it all shipped to the UK is a rip-off.

Recently played a PnP version of Web of Spies that I assembled (never doing that again!).

 

Currently on Kickstarter but doesn't look like it'll make its target. Probably doesn't help that most of the artwork isn't shown and people were put off by the stark black & white style. Also, you know, it doesn't have a bunch of plastic miniatures.

 

A very easy-to-grasp game whereby you acquire assets on a board, which add more cards to your deck, allowing other special actions to attack, defend, move agents, acquire further assets more easily or sabotage other players, etc. So far, like a very light version of the agent side of 'A Study In Emerald'.

 

Each player has five agents for spreading around the board, cards are drawn in hands of five and discarded at the end of a turn (standard deckbuilder fare) and the winner is the person with the most agents on the board when one agency is completely eliminated (ties decided by 'most kills/trophies'). What this victory condition does is ensure the game self-balances to some extent, since bashing one player will probably not be in everyone's favour (particularly not that poor sap's) all the time.

 

Played this with four friends, which is above the officially supported player count, but it still works well. They had some issues with wanting it to be like other deckbuilders where you can cycle your hand more often and the frustration of not always having quite the card you need (which is in every deckbuilder!) but I think altering it would really upset the balance. Since you're always using your cards to move agents and acquire assets as well (each discarded card = 1 move or 1 acquire point), as well as defend against attacks, you're generally going through your deck pretty quickly anyway. Plus, there are some really powerful cards (agencies for different regions, like MI5, that if used in corresponding region count as an unblockable attack) that shouldn't be coming up so often.

 

There are some cool card combinations in there, like where I had a card where an opponent had to discard 2 cards, or I get to draw 2 more; so he discarded two crappy cards, which I followed up with another card that let me take one from his hand at random, increasing my chances of getting something decent. Another funny moment was when someone moved to attack me, and failed, but then the next player used their 'Secret Weapon' to wipe out all agents in a location, killing us both. On top of that, you imagine these (usually bizarre) scenarios during combat, where you build on the cards used.

 

"I'm attacking you with my cargo plane. I'm dropping cargo on you."

"I shoot it out of the sky with my sniper rifle."

"So I come after you on a motorbike."

"I escape on a cruise ship."

"I guess I dropped my bike in the harbour..."

 

However, I do feel that the game might benefit from having more cards available to acquire at a time (you get two known assets and one secret), since deckbuilding mechanics work better if there's more choice in how you tailor your deck. There is meant to be a fight over assets, but sometimes you just don't particularly want something or your agents are just too far away.

 

Other than that my only real gripe is that it went on far longer than expected, considering it's so easy to learn and fairly light. That could've been because we had five people and the length of time spent actually acquiring useful cards before baring our teeth (because of competition and lack of starter ones, which also get trashed). The endgame was pretty tense and fun though, since throughout everyone's encouraging the active player to attack someone else, pointing out how they might win. Ultimately, the win went to the sneaky green player who was down to his last agent, with the rest of us the same except for another at two. Little did we know, he held the 'Double Agent' card, which allowed him to replace any other agent with his own. So he just picks someone to eliminate, he's tied for two agents with the other player, but has killed way more throughout the game. Good show!

[SomTervo]

These all look amazeballs, goddamn

[Hot Heart]

Another board games evening down the pub the other day. I arrived a bit late for the start of this game, but it was a fun watch...

 

Black Fleet

 

 

I've heard it compared to Merchants & Marauders, but a much, lighter version. Essentially, each player has a merchant ship and a pirate ship. With their merchant ship, players are trying to transport different coloured cubes (goods) across the map, getting more for them the farther away the port is. With their pirate ship, they'll be blocking off or attacking other players' ships, stealing goods and burying them for cash.

 

Cash lets players purchase various cards they have as a tableau in front of them, unlocking exclusive extra abilities and perks. Each turn consists of playing a movement card that allows them to move both their ships as well as one of the two merchant navy ships who can sink pirates. Turns can be enhanced with various rule-breaking cards to allow extra movement and such.

 

It's a simple 'take that' game, with a constant back-and-forth of ships being sunk only to rejoin and hit right back. The above-the-table diplomacy will probably play a greater part than any tactics or strategy, which is why I feel that it drags on too long for its own good (and not just because I was watching).

 

Then, since one of the other people there wanted to try it in case he missed it during tomorrow's all-day session, I set up a three-player intro game of Hyperborea

 

 

This was probably the worst circumstances under which to play this game. Forced onto half a table, with the other taken up by Deus, in poor lighting and with someone who's colour-blind. Doesn't help that the reds and purples already look similar, and the blue, green and grey aren't so different in the dark.

 

Anyway, it's a really interesting hybrid design that I think will shine more with a 4th or 5th player (6 might be pushing it, but game allows for it) and the addition of race powers that favour certain specialisations. It's a very claustrophobic civ and strategy game except without extra complications or dice rolls. You have a bag of different coloured cubes, you draw three each turn and use them to unlock specific actions on your turn (move, attack, develop, unlock tech); simple as that. Except, there is a great deal of hidden depth when it comes to what cubes you look to add, what terrain is nearby, what tech you can utilise, etc.

 

It's cool that the game scales for short, regular or long games, but I think the short version doesn't serve it well. Not enough going on and over too soon, but probably good for an intro.

 

I think it's a great addition to a collection because it's somewhat accessible at a base level, it's fresh and replayable, and I personally don't have anything quite like it (my aim was always to get a diverse collection). I think the only downside I could see with some is that the end might feel somewhat anticlimactic, since you just trigger certain endgame conditions and then score for different things rather than go for an all-out victory in one path. Or you see a bunch of miniatures and expect a lighter, dice-rolly, trashy combat game.

 

Then the other day, hung out with friends to try Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition). Yes, that is an important distinction.

 

I think we'd all been craving some sort of D&D/RPG experience but don't have the time or imaginations to devote to it, so this fills that role perfectly. Just a shame that there has to be a bad guy.

 

Cool tactical, roleplaying, questing game... that uses squares instead of hexes! There's a lot to love about the tight, accessible design and scope for a continued campaign as well as expansion if desired.

 

Setup was pretty simple, and I just chose whatever miniature seemed the coolest. Wound up as Syndrael, with the Knight specialisation, who's an elven knight lady with a sword and badass shield (even though my starter card depicted a lame wooden one). The others rounded out the team after I and another had picked the Warrior and Scout classes. Can't actually remember what one is called, but I think it's Healer. Basically, we had the full complement of Warrior, Scout, Mage and Person Who Can Heal People.

 

As was my duty, I immediately went for the biggest thing I could find and started hitting it.

 

Things got a little tense, as we had to prevent goblins from escaping (and those guys can really move!) but the intro scenario is heavily weighted in the heroes' favour. We took the opportunity to nab all the loot we could, since we were in a good spot, and soon enough, killed Mauler.

 

 

Hooray, for us. We got 1XP each and got some new abilities, the extra loot allowed us to essentially upgrade some gear and we travelled (with its own little story element) onto the next scenario before calling it a night.

 

Really enjoyed it and I think it fits our group well. I eagerly anticipate any greater challenge to follow.

[SomTervo]

 

I wrote a giant, giant post about this game and then the image I attached was too large and it never saved.

 

'Sake.

 

The short of it:

 

4 players must be the perfect number of players, because we played with 6, and it was fun but not great. The issue was that:

 

- for the first half of the game nobody could really do anything because victory is predicated on having the bomb or the intel (random draw from the item deck).

- the person who ultimately won did so with no expectation and out of pure chance (they happened to be on the top floor when someone else called their side's chopper - to bomb it - and then they happened to pick up the intel from the Store Room the turn before, so they just stepped two rooms into the chopper and won)

- with 6 players we were all bumping into each other all the time, and turns were being halted too much imo (you have to have an encounter when you meet another player)

 

But it was still v. good. The Ballroom has a great effect (everyone gets drawn there and it becomes a safe room) and several times somebody locked off the upper or basement floor - hilarity ensued - and several times someone turned the lights off - they were obviously the only person with NVGoggles and hilarity ensued.

 

Deffo need 4 players. Too much random chance and too many game-halting encounters with 6.

Edited November 25, 2014 by kenshi_ryden

[deanb]

The game has some weird box art.

 

Anywho, article on the Guardian about board games n such.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/25/board-games-internet-playstation-xbox

[TheMightyEthan]

We played Pandemic at my friends' last weekend.  It's amusing to me just how similar the mechanics are to Forbidden Desert.  I knew they were related, but I hadn't realized they were basically identical.  It's also amazing how well the same mechanics work with such different themes.

[Hot Heart]

- the person who ultimately won did so with no expectation and out of pure chance (they happened to be on the top floor when someone else called their side's chopper - to bomb it - and then they happened to pick up the intel from the Store Room the turn before, so they just stepped two rooms into the chopper and won)

- (you have to have an encounter when you meet another player)

 

After some more experience with the game, one thing becomes very clear: when it comes to the helicopter you have to coordinate with your team. Of course, you need to find out who's on your team first...

 

Definitely something that is heavily reliant on the group though, since most of the game is the constant interactions. I like it because there's a bit more to it than something like Resistance (not that the Resistance is bad).

 

Anyway, I'll come back to this in a bit.

 

Had a Boardgaming Day at a local brewery. Which was fun because there were loads of people and loads of games there.

 

I finally managed to get in a game of Firefly using the Blue Sun expansion, which meant new job opportunities, new supplies and three Reavers... none of which I really interacted with.

 

 

Well, I tell a lie, the Reavers being all around was pretty cool and also pretty scary. I actually spent some time making sure I got a pilot and mechanic in my crew because of them, but it took too frickin' long finding a single mechanic (or any crew) at one place and then a pilot at another, which essentially lost me the game. Still, I had fun, even though the playing situation wasn't ideal where we are, and I anticipated a three-player game only to discover it became a five-player with some relative newcomers (one of whom didn't really like the game before). Took a bit under four hours in all, so not too bad, I guess...

 

I look forward to trying it again with close friends anyway, and I'll probably take advantage of the new things next time.

 

Meanwhile, others were playing things like Black Fleet, Paranoia RPG, Progress, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Colt Express, while I got stuck between games and wound up observing a game of Dead of Winter. It was pretty fun despite some major mistakes from all the non-betrayer players, with adding loads of pointless useless helpless survivors when they were trying to get more barricades up at the colony. Somehow they managed to complete the main objective (though I daren't tell one of the players that I think they actually built a barricade without spending a die or having a special ability that allowed them to do so).

 

Then I got in some Guillotine, an enjoyable little filler, which I was comfortably winning until someone played a card that prevented people altering the order when pretty much all my cards (which I'd amassed thanks to an earlier bonus) did that. There was nothing I could do and so wound up with some low-scoring and minus nobles as a result.

 

After that, some The Resistance: Avalon, which is cool with the new roles, but I am not very good at it.

 

And, finally, some [redacted] with the same group as Resistance. Funnily enough, two of the players (husband and wife) were American and actually wound up with American loyalty (I was the third).

 

Early on I managed to find a British spy and harassed him, while another player called for the British helicopter. Uh oh!

 

At that point, the American guy decided to 'attack' his wife and stole something she was planning to use anyway: a bomb. He promptly blew up the helicopter and she yelled, "I was going to do that. We're on the same team!"

 

That settled that one. I then went after the guy who originally called the helicopter and kept trying to mug him. Instead, we traded a pair of night vision goggles back and forth...

 

Meanwhile, the American bomber just attacked everyone he encountered, and after a few victories and asking the rewards (injure, interrogate, steal), he was automatically just saying, "You're injured." So half of the spies in the embassy were limping around the place.

 

Fortunately, the big bully spy had nabbed a briefcase and found the British intel was inside, thanks to a codebreaker, while his wife hobbled down to call the helicopter for him. The American spies win!

 

Turns out, he already felt so confident that he wanted to step onto the helicopter without even checking the contents of the briefcase. Either way, he was a riot because he never even interrogated anyone, hobbled the opposite team (and his wife) and escaped with the intel himself.

 

Despite a rocky start, it made for an entertaining game and it was a good group altogether.

[Hot Heart]

Managed a game of Hyperborea with three of my friends, playing the "Regular" length game and race powers. It was as brilliant as I'd hoped.

 

The core mechanics of the game are great because they're somewhat intuitive - each cube colour represents types of actions (red for warfare, green for movement, purple for growth, etc.) - so even before you start developing and building up your pool of cubes, you have an idea of how you might want to approach things. You blindly draw three cubes from your bag each turn and use these to activate technologies, which give you action points to spend however you wish during that turn. Going by your basic technologies (everyone has the same) and any advanced ones you might wish to unlock, you get an idea of what you can activate on a turn and what might come up in a future turn.

 

Since you start with a cube of each colour then get to choose your seventh it seems wise to match your pick to the colour of your race (each one has a choice of special ability usually linked to what their colour represents). As The Celestial Reign (Blue), I took an extra blue cube, but after that I only took one more for a total of 2/13 for most of the game. Because I had an idea of what I was doing I knew that the Red Duchy on my left would benefit from attacking a bunch and The Emerald Kingdom on the right could zip across the map quite easily. On top of that, none of the cities or ruins (they grant extra action points when a minature moves into them) on my homeland tiles (the immediate three) would allow me to attack back or defend. Because of all these factors, and all the ways you want to be scoring VPs, I knew that I'd have to fight for territory control and ghost killing, which meant focusing more on green and red cubes early on. And that served me well.

 

I managed to nab the Beast Riding tech and, later, Bastions (two fortress tokens at that start of each turn, and they last until the start of your next turn) which meant I could kill off some opponents and keep my guy safe with the bastions. Everything was working out.

 

The coolest part is when you get to combo a big turn. Using the example above, I've just reset so I've got all my cubes back and can reactivate the cities in the hexes my guys are in. In the green (forest) hex the guy can move into the city, allowing me to 'develop' more cubes and add them to my bag, but also lets me draw an extra cube. Because I can save the effects, I can also move the guy in the adjacent hex into that city for the same effects. At this point, I might have been able to generate one or two extra cubes, instantly placing them in the bag, and draw two more from my bag anyway. Then I've got that other city to activate which could allow a further cube draw or a movement point.

 

I definitely got lucky with the hexes that appeared near me, but it was still a very close game. All the scores were within 5 points (38/38/35/33) and I only just squeezed victory because of controlling more hexes. Partly because the green player probably rushed the endgame too soon while not using his extra movement to spread his guys a bit more, but also because I managed a super last turn with an awkward combo. It took some planning but I managed to copy someone else's tech with an espionage effect, the race power meaning I could draw an extra two cubes because of it's a science activation, the espionage effect allowed me to move a miniature and kill an opponent's, both seizing the hex and gaining a new effect that allowed me to develop more cubes and draw another cube. I 'cashed in' the extra develop to gain two extra cubes (worth 2 VP) and the only thing I could do after that was gain a technology so I grabbed one based purely on the 2 VP value.

 

Anyway, long story short, I thought it was fantastic. It's got so much depth and so much going on, but never in an overwhelming way. You have this individual civilisation game bit going on, but also that wargame-style bit of conflict and reacting to other players as well. Individually, you must manage your cube pool for efficiency, both in terms of what actions you can perform but also not bloating it so you don't get to reset as often; therefore, missing out on the benefits of moving miniatures back into cities or ruins to gain extra effects (after you've drawn all your cubes, miniatures that were 'frozen' in cities/ruins are moved back out and can reenter next turn). Collectively, you've got to assess what your opponents can do (cubes are public knowledge, since players draw up at the end of their turn) and how they might spend their actions ("It'll be more efficient for him to go kill the ghost, take the ruin token and also control that hex over simply killing my guy.")

 

On top of that, it only took about two and a half hours, including a full explanation. Definitely a massive plus for that sort of game. I'm eager to delve back in and try out the other races and different powers and see how the map affects things. Especially since the Red Duchy does appear somewhat underpowered with either of its race abilities (came second last here, though).

[Hot Heart]

Me again!

 

Managed the next part of our Descent campaign: the Masquerade Ball.

 

Another cleverly designed encounter, this time a two-parter.

 

Part one was the party itself, which involved revealing guests or shape-shifting monsters. I just charged in and started hitting things, as that's usually the best approach. Unfortunately, I rolled a few misses at critical points, since my character works best combo-ing off kills, but my broadsword purchased after the first session proved useful. Could reroll the red power die, which is 1/2/2/2/3/3 distribution, meaning some of my attacks were pushed over into kills on 3s, especially with surge abilities.

 

On talk of surge abilities, we found out we'd missed a little rule about being able to use a surge to remove a fatigue (for instances where the surge isn't needed for any other effects), which was quite critical for my character who's always pushing the limits.

 

Anyway, the Overlord played well and crafty, managing to steal away 2/4 guests, but fortunately the deciding roll meant we'd rescued the host himself: Lord... I want to say Fiortefeld but that probably isn't right. Either way, he's a madman and his party suuuucked.

 

The second part involved a race to a relic, the coveted Fortuna's Dice, in the same place's basement. So we discover this Lord Furfenoogle has been hosting a shindig on top of a cellar of giant venomous spiders and other horrible creatures. Not cool, man.

 

From looking at the setup, and after the first few turns, we could not see how the heroes would win this. Basically, there are a bunch of doors to get through, which involve skill tests for might, knowledge or awareness (I think?) and each have different effects. One bashes the door down, which isn't ideal because then the monsters can follow; another opens the door, which means you can shut it behind you; the final option allows you to teleport through the door, leaving it in place.

 

So, there was the killer vampire lady who could teleport through doors while sicking her minions on us, and us heroes trying to coordinate how to get through these things and not get beat to hell. And did I mention we start one door back?

 

Fortunately, the overlord had some bad rolls on the second of her doors (well, most of our heroes had to roll 4 or under, she was restricted to rolling 3 or under) which gave us a ray of hope. Our initial scheming about opening and closing doors gave way to a mad dash, involving me breaking them down and trying to get our door 'porting mage ahead while our healer used a stun ability to limit the vampire's movement.

 

Just about worked, though the overlord put up a strong fight, and we got two heroes ahead of the villain. Took a long time for a race, but some smart team tactics and lucky rolls got us through.

 

After the first encounter, the scout took to keeping trophies in the form of the miniatures killed. I did the same, since I'm the warrior, and had 8 kills in that first encounter.

 

From the second one, well...

 

 

Yes, I counted the doors as well.

[TheRevanchist]

My buddy told me that these guys were in our town.

 

http://www.gmtgames.com/default.aspx

 

So, yeah.  I don't live in a large city.  We are the largest town in the county, which isn't saying much.  Primarily due to work, I've been to many Chamber of Commerce events, fundraisers, and other social events in town.  So, to hear that these guys were in this town is amazing!  I'm going to a charity event on Thursday night, so I plan on peering at the sign in sheets when I get there for any signs of the people.  I'd like to see if there is a way to see their operation in action.  That would be sweet!

[Hot Heart]

Played another four-player, regular game of Hyperborea, trying out a different race. Still loving it, but I'm yet to try an 'on-the-board' race (Red, Purple and Green are more focused on exploring and controlling hexes, and killing ghosts while Yellow, Orange and Blue are more about getting tech, gems and more cubes) or the 'long' game. Still keen to do that when we get all five of us together.

 

Then had a crack at Machi Koro, with its comically-large box that looks ripe for expansions.

 

 

Simple game in which you roll dice (one at first) which will trigger effects on certain cards for earning more money or stealing off others. From that, you focus on building up your own city with all sorts of establishments while working towards purchasing all your main landmarks, which also grant extra abilities and effects (like rolling two dice). First to purchase all four landmarks wins.

 

Things start off simple as you grab bakeries, ranches and wheatfields then onto things like convenience stores, TV stations and mines. It gently ramps up as you debate saving up for a big landmark but risk having someone else steal loads with a bad roll against going for another building to amplify other effects or 'cover all the bases' (die values).

 

Honestly, was not impressed with my first game, simply because leaving such a large element of the game down to die rolls makes it so swingy. Others had seized on ranches, which paid out every time a 2 was rolled, whereas I'd stuck with wheatfields that do the same on 1s. So when lots of 2 rolls are coming up, you already start to fall behind. Fortunately, there are later cards that build off of either of those options, but again... it's die rolls and, of course, the one that works with ranches is the only card that activates on a 7 aka. the value you have the most chance of getting. It was no surprise to see the person getting 12+ coins on their turn going on to win. Then, it was still close, as a bad roll did see everyone else rob him blind the previous round.

 

Then we played a second game.

 

Now I actually observed what others were doing, focused on an actual strategy and eked towards victory. I spent most my turns rolling just 1 die because I'd bought loads of bakeries and cafes and something else on a roll of 4, that were all buffed by a landmark, with only a roll of 3 punishing me (what actually led me to purchase more bakeries to overcome it). Later, as others unlocked the ability to roll 2 dice, I purchased the cafe's bigger brother, a family restaurant, to punish them on rolls of 9-10. This very aggressive approach kept the "lucky 7s" player's repeated strategy in check, too.

 

So, yeah, actually a surprising amount of depth and scope in there but, like any die-rolling game, can be a little too luck-driven for some people's taste.

[SomTervo]

Both of those sound great. Keen on grabbing Hyperborea now

 

Edit: I'm also very very much looking forward to my obligatory Xmas board game

Edited December 22, 2014 by kenshi_ryden

[deanb]

We upgraded to two shelves the other day:

 

Direct Link

[TheMightyEthan]

So jelly.  I wish I reliably had people to play with.

[Hot Heart]

Had three or four major gaming days over the holidays, so gonna try and remember what I can.

 

PART ONE!

 

 

A Star Wars version of Descent. Only played the tutorial so far, but it shows promise. Future scenarios should show more dynamic events occurring during the mission, and I think the overlord has a few more tactical options at their disposal. Main change is that turns alternate, so the overlord doesn't have to wait around while all four heroes decimate their forces in a carefully coordinated plan. The back-and-forth and shifting nature should set it apart from Descent, although I'm not sure if we'll be playing both that often...

 

Adventure Time: Munchkin

 

 

I didn't get to play this because I had to rush off and give someone a lift home, but that's cool because I'm not really a fan of AT, nor Munchkin. That said, from what I observed of it by the time I got back, it should please fans of AT and there seems to be a lot more going on compared to regular Munchkin; loads of extra items and things in play, and it wasn't necessarily down to that final "everyone at level 9 until bad effects run out so next person wins".

 

Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game

 

 

The game my friends had been raving about. I probably need to play it more to become more invested, but really not seeing any great appeal. You have your character (I have to admit, my one above looks like a badass) and they have a deck which is also their health, then you choose to 'explore' locations, flipping and resolving cards in order to ensnare and confront the scenario's villain. There's a bit of coordinating with your party as they can play other cards to help on your turn or you try and lock down locations so the villain has nowhere to run.

 

I do find it odd that my friends don't like Sentinels but find this one of their favourites. Can't be the theme because they completely ignore that and just look at the maths. There's still a lot of keyword and stat-tracking, but I guess it's a little lighter and you don't always feel as locked out on your turn. I don't know...

 

Played Hot Rod Creeps again, and built our own course. Although, maybe we didn't build the best one because it was easy to nitro around it. Problem might be that the toughest corners don't actually cause damage (card discards, run out you go back to pit stop) but make you discard upgrades after you've moved. I never relied on any. I won though, that's the important thing. Even if it was very close and based on a blind card flip.

 

Had a go at 7 Wonders for the first time with this group. I relayed the advice that "If in doubt, build resources or military". Seemed like that is a very powerful strategy as one friend stormed away with military while the other neighbour (not me!) kept paying to use his resources. I tried to keep up but I guess I was spread too thin... and those hands where you receive two military cards so have to pass one on.

 

Small World. I like this game... except when everyone beats up on you, even if one person is clearly the leader and you're not even the closest threat! Ah well. Things were late and things started getting a little heated with "mock impressions" of one person who was clearly identifying the points leader. Ashamed to admit that I joined in a little with the joke. p.s. fuck that stupid reinforcements die. Never went my way!

 

All in all, it was a fun day and we got through a lot of games.

[Hot Heart]

PART TWO!

 

Firefly: Blue Sun

 

 

My friend comes from Burnham. It's definitely gone downhill.

 

First go with the new expansion with my group of friends and one of the new story cards. This one made for a pretty exciting game as we had to take a job from Mr. Universe and the goals meant we had to kill crew members even when succeeding. It was pretty close between 3 or 4 of us as well and I only just lost out because of one of the friggin' misbehave cards that requires River. Really fun session and definitely dig the new additions. My favourite was probably buying the hovering mule - the vehicle that "won't run with five" - and fitting not one but two vehicle-mounted BFGs onto it.

 

We also played some more Descent and I think we annoyed the overlord with our laborious planning, especially when I think he'd realised a tactical error early on so was jus waiting for us to hurry up and win. Also played some more 7 Wonders and military won yet again. Hmmm...

 

The following weekend, there was only four of us on one day, and we got through a ton of new games...

 

Panamax

 

 

A game about transporting stuff through the Panama Canal. If it looks hecka confusing, that's because it is... though not as confusing as first appearance? It's an economic eurogame at its core but there's some interesting stuff with loading cargo onto other people's ships and how you spend movement points across all the various options. However, there's just a bit too much going on with all the micromechanics and I'd misunderstood something, completely screwing myself over on my last turn when I didn't want to (if I could have done nothing whatsoever, I would've) and giving someone else the win. As it turns out we'd played a vital rule wrong the whole time which completely changed everything anyway... OH WELL

 

Scoville

 

 

A friend's kickstarted game which was actually a success (other friends tend to dislike everything he gets). Really smart game about planting peppers to yield more coveted peppers in order to fulfill market requests and special recipes. Multi-faceted game with bidding and planting and harvesting, where you might want to go first to ensure you get what you want in auction, earn a plaque for planting a certain pepper and make sure you beat others to the punch in cooking a recipe but might actually miss out on everything when someone else blocks you during harvesting. It's fun just moving around the 'board' you create, collecting different coloured peppers depending on the combination your worker passed between; and it will play differently every time.

 

Also, I crushed everyone in that first game.

 

Assault on Doomrock

 

 

Something I got via indiegogo. Big adventure in a little box, with a really smart combat system involving activating abilities on dice rolls and carefully coordinating with your party to maximise their effectiveness. It's also hard as balls as we just about limped away from our first battle (game features only three, with each ramping up) against a vicious gang of exploding tomatoes then died while adventuring not long after (whoops!)

 

Oh, yes, if the name and character created above didn't give it away, it's got a humorous slant. Even your typical characters get a special 'trait' like my Erratic Ranger who flipped out everytime he was attacked, earning extra attacks.

 

p.s. it's translated from Polish, so there are some funny little quirks/errors ("loose" seen above).

 

Sushi Go

 

 

Simple little card-drafting game. If you've played 7 Wonders, you'll grasp this, just that there's no combo-ing across rounds or assessing costs. You pass around hands of cards, pick one to play each turn, try and collect sets worth the most points. Perfect little filler with some nice artwork.

[Hot Heart]

PART THREE!

 

Played Colt Express with my sisters. They were worried about being able to understand it, but they picked it up pretty quickly. Lots of shooting and punching and laughs. Actually came to a tiebreaker between two of them, decided by spent bullets. They enjoyed it, but for a while afterwards they were pretty annoyed with one another over the shooting and punching.

 

Family friends came round and we played my sister's purchase Gogglebox. Based off the TV show I don't watch, so I was no help on the actual scoring questions. Not a great game anyway (just a bunch of easy TV trivia), and our insistence on a parent/children team split, saw us at a disadvantage.

 

A disadvantage that would carry over into our next game Logo with some 'Best of British' question set. A more interesting game where you can question-steal and jump ahead (wach question relates to a colour on the inward spiral). Lost that one twice, but was still entertaining. Unfortunately, one of my sisters is a really sore loser.

[Hot Heart]

PART FOUR!

 

Firstly and most importantly, though: my friend made brie and bacon baguettes. They were AWESOME.

 

Terra Mystica

 

 

The game my friend reviewed for Roll 6 or Die but one I'd never played before, because it's not the sort of thing you really cram into an evening unexpectedly.

 

I can see why really heavy eurogamers like it since there's a lot going on and the mechanics are fairly innovative; I can see a great deal of replayability. You have double-sided boards which represent different races (both share the same colour), each with slightly different development bonuses and special abilities as well as the type of terrain they can build on. You'll spend turns using workers and money to convert terrain or build extra buildings, trying to create towns for extra bonus effects. And the combination of buildings moving off your player board reveals different spaces, which affects the income (workers, money, priests, etc.) you receive next round. There's a whole other magic system thing as well involving cycling purple pips between bowls and it's also affected when people build adjacent to you, but cost you points. And these pips can be reset for different bonuses and unique round abilities, plus there's round-specific bonuses and a cult track thing and there's a thing about 'shipping' which allows you to maintain a joined settlement down rivers, and there are these bonus tiles you swap around when you pass and...

 

Problem is, it's so dry and boring and confusing, with stuff all over the place. So many micro-mechanics for very simple things and the constant "I wanted that" frustration. Plus, it's far too easy to bring your whole setup to a grinding halt because you're one-short of something, so you wind up passing for the rest of the round (game has a set number of 6). Experience will probably iron out those tactical blunders, but with too much downtime, wafer-thin theme and not enough interesting decisions I wouldn't find it worth persevering.

 

So, yeah, smart, deep game but not for me, thank you.

 

7 Wonders: Cities

 

 

Confident that my group had grasped the base game enough, I introduced this expansion. I'd heard Leaders was good but tended to railroad your strategy, whereas Cities opens everything out. You've got debt, peace treaties (sit out the combat phase, make other neighbours fight each other) and espionage as well as a bunch of other interesting effects and new guilds.

 

Definitely felt some variety in this game as military no longer dominated. The extra turn really allows you to achieve loads more and just makes it a lot more satisfying. I stormed away with a scientific victory (36 from that alone) thanks to some smart play, but a heavy dose of luck with my Wonder (build cards from discard pile for free each stage), the science cards synching with free miltary development just enough to keep my neighbours in check, as well as some guilds I didn't expect to see come back around (or get discarded). Thanks to some debt, I ended the game with 69 points.

 

If you've got the base game, I highly recommend this expansion. A surprising amount of extra stuff/layers without confusing rules or a greatly increased playtime.

 

Hyperborea

 

 

First "long" game with five people! I randomly drew another 'off-the-board' race and got to work. Another mixture of smart play and luck here. The above picture shows my killer tech setup ("golden combo") which meant I got an extra gem each time I generated that effect. With four other techs generating that effect and two spaces on the board doing it, I became unstoppable. Luck came in nabbing the techs, being quick enough to kill ghosts, some 'extra cube' ruin tokens and my neighbours not beating me down quite enough. The yellow race's A power is also really cool: once per reset, sacrifice a gem to instantly generate a choice of effect (move x2, attack, draw x3 or... something else). Worked wonders!

 

All in all, an enjoyable season of games with good friends and I'm sure there's still more to come!

[deanb]

So I've done a few new boardgames over Xmas (and I've some more upcoming) but one I wish to write about today is:

 

Sean Bean Quest

It's a spin-off of "Goblin Quest" (which we also played), which isn't due out yet but housemate got an advanced copy.

Basically it's less of a board game, more an RPG I guess, but it's very quick so not super sure if it counts to be with D&D and such.

You all play Sean Bean's, who are cursed through time and space to be involved in events that lead to usually gruesome deaths. You've had enough, so you band together and try to make your way through one tale without (your main) Sean Bean dying, thus ridding yourself of the curse.

Very simple game, with several pre-set characters (you roll a D8 to get it, I started with Stark Bean), and most actions decided on a D6. You set the scene, and act out trying to get 4 success. In our scene since it was "Sci-Fi film, where your main Bean is a leader who will avenge a close ones death", we decided to set it at the medal scene in Star Wars, creating "Stark Wars". Your different Beans have different skills, or method of death, which if invoked ("Stark Bean follows Tradition, which an award medal ceremony is very Traditional event") get you "bonuses" in the ability to roll an extra dice. This means double the chance of a success. Or snake eyes. Which is death twice over.

We're all playing various Sean Beans taking on roles in the film, so I was Leia (since I was a leader), we had Sexy Bean reprising the role of Han Solo, Shakespeare Bean as C-3PO, and other beans I can't remember being Luke, Chewy and R2-D2. Four Sean Beans died in the process of the awards ceremony. It was going so well, Han got his medal, then Luke almost broke his neck from a poorly weighted medal, then a Lannister spy tried to upset things which led to...Chewbacca Bean fucking up with his bowcaster and killing himself. Can't quite remember the rest, but several scenes later I was playing "The Ewoks" (I nipped to the loo, came back and that's who I was), and was killed by Cersei. Which led to us having to clarify that if I'm playing all the Ewoks, does that mean all the Ewoks died or just one. It was ruled that Cersie Lannister killed all the Ewoks. Oh then I played Spy Bean (which we decided was 006, since by death was by "heavy things falling on them"), and was my most successful scene; managed to beat information out of Tyrion (we had Tywin too and there was a lot of mix ups in names) and find a lightsaber under the chair he was tied to.

 

I've also done:

Metro 2033

Spyfall

 

And actually that seems all I have in my phone photos. But I'll flesh them out another day cos I maybe will have Alchemy to add to the list soon. And maybe Imperial Assault if we play it after work one day. And I know we'll have X-COM come end of month too. And the new Fantasy Flight Zombie RPG thing.