Boardgames

[deanb]

I guess I've a couple from last time to cover. Apologies in advance for typos, I've writing this with my new tablet keyboard and my software keyboard app tries to auto correct in this mode.

 

^{(image stolen from this weeks game I didn't participate in, but it's a better shot)}

Metro 2033

So this one came from a younger member of our group, not known to bring in games. Gift from his mum for xmas, she h as good taste. (my mum still thinks stuff like monopoly, clued etc for the stuff we play, despite showing her otherwise).

Anyway, this is based on the book, not the video game. But I've only played a bit of the game, and it seems quite a high level version of that world. So you're playing as one of several factions trying to colonise the metro tunnels. The board being a giant metro map, with bits along the side fro tracking points and such. Each turn you carry out actions in phases, expanding your armies around the map, you're a hero token to move too which confers certain benefits. You gain new resources each turn (there's a cycle, so you will get your colonies bullets one turn, meat and money the next, so on) which are used to upgrade your army and push yourself to new areas, heal up etc. As you level up your army it costs more meat to feed, which I'll be honest wasn't a huge issue for me. The main issue we stumped on for this is as you gain bases you push up in VP (up to 10 to win the game) and at 6+ the big bad guys come out (from a separate monster deck) and I was the first to get there and means I get extra items to use, but the guy I was playing with was still limited, due to only having 4VP at the time, and still having to fight the same guys as me. We figured that we'd just let him have the extra item bonus, and he soon skyrocketed up the VP track again (though not in time to beat me).

He was playing it again this week with other guys and said it went much more smoothly with 4 people than our two, also with knowing a bit more of the rules too. Being a Russian game (we presume, I  guess it might not be) the rules weren't super clear.

 

Spyfall

Pretty quick game for large groups. There's a bunch how decks in packets, one is chosen and handed out to everyone. On the card is your current location, except for one of you who is the spy. We have to ask Yes/No questions around the table to either work out who the spy is, or if you're the spy work out where we are (oh  yeah, you all get a play card with the games locations on it, stuff like restaurant, school, antartica, supermarket, submarine, etc. There's about 24 or so locations. A decent amount.)

We started this as first game on the all day gaming day. So it's about 10am in the morning and I wasn't fully awake, not super good at deception games like this anyway (I think I've said before ). I was never the spy, but one point was quite heavily accused cos the location was supermarket, and there's a small sainsbury's express around the corner and I said "no" to the question of "can you get to one in 10 minutes from here". We ended up having a argument amongst ourselves afterwards on whether the glorified corner shop counted as "super market". Only reason I didn't end up being called spy is thankfully housemate was able to pick up on my tells and convince the rest.

 

So new games:

 

XCOM: The Board Game

Maybe the one of interest to many of you. This one caused quite a lot of debate at the boardgame group last night as while many were intrigued by the play, the requirement of an app (works on phone, tablet, or laptop, tablet is best) put a lot of folks off since "not everyone has access to something like that".

In the game you play as one of 4 roles (we think while it suggests 2-4, we found 4 is pretty much a requirement) trying to stave off alien invasion.  As already implied you use an app to play the game, the app assigns issues like where the UFOs are, how many aliens are invading the base, monthly budget etc. During two phases, a timed and resolution phase, you balance the sheets, assign soldiers, interceptors and research new tech. For both games we played I was Chief Scientist which is a nice calm role where none of my guys can die (only exhausted) and while everyone else kinda relies on me (research cards are abilities for the other guys, like if they can re-book die, or if dead soldiers just return to reserve, extra income, etc) it's not as stressful as fighting the aliens themselves, especially as my failure doesn't have a direct impact on stuff like panic and base health. The timed phase is about 10 seconds or so per action (it varies both by action, and if you're kinda sucking the app might speed things along), as Scientist I have 4 actions throughout the timed phase, drawing up new tech cards, then putting them out to 3 areas and putting up to thee scientists on to them to research. Scientists are $1 a pop, and we get about $10-12 each round, so 3 scientists over 3 techs could easy blow the budget we'd want to use on defense. Though my second game I was given $3 budget most turns, which was infuriating cos my tech brought in $3 each turn (selling salvage n what not), role in charge of budget is in charge of interceptors too and he carried on dying (dang if only he had tech to help…). 

After Timed phase it's Resolution phase, which is a lot of dice rolling to get successes and complete research, battles, missions, etc. This is where it's cruel. The success die is a d6, with 4 blank sides and 2 success sides. So only a 1/3 chance of success on most turns. You also role with a d8 which is the alien die (or other, I'm not sure what it represents in research). Each time you re-book the ""Threat" track moves up by one, up to a limit of 5. You roll your alien die below that and you fail, your squad/interceptor/scientists/satellites die/get tired/explode. Very high risk, and shit rolls can leave you without much. This is where my budget limit helped a bit, since I could only lose 3 at a time (out of a pool of 9) and they'd all be well again a turn later. Soldiers n jets had to be re-bought, so further budget cuts next turn to afford to buy stuff never mind field it.

We lost our first game, won the second (actually did quite well all in all). Both as a Tutorial mode, so first two rounds of Timed are paused so you can read the text alongside it, but we know for next time we'll be doing an easy game playing proper. I'd say if you like Enemy Unknown and don't have grievances with apps in games I'd say go for it.

 

Legendary: Alien Encounters

So I tweeted about this last night. It's an Alien (as in James Cameron/Ripley Alien film franchise) version of Legendary: Marvel. And it uses much the same rule sett (and even the same icons too, which I think the owner wasn't keen on our joking of stuff being Wolverine claws and Hulk fists), which means in theory (well not "in theory", the extended rules are at the back of the book) you can combine the games and take out xenomporph scum using Wolverine n Iron Man.

If you've played the Marvel game it's much the same, you build up a deck of heroes to combat bad guys. The main change here is that rather than working through the city the xenos work their way through the complex, and hidden at that. So you have to "scan" a room before attacking, and sometimes what you scan ain't a bad guy. Other rule additions are you can get a chest burster, which eventually kills you and you take a Alien deck n play as that against everyone else. I nearly got to that stage but was offer before I could I could John Hurt myself. What's fun is the rule on the card even says "…before you die painfully". Oh other change is you get a role, on top of the hero cards. I was a scout, so when my card popped into my hand I could use it to ge an extra card and scan a room, there's also  a medic that can heal wounds (they're random this time, not just 1 a pop, it's between 1-5 and some can't be healed*) and so on.

Other than that, it's Legendary through n through, build up a deck, complete the objective (I'm not sure if all but ours was 3 phases, being discover colonists, set up sentires, then kill the Queen), don't die. I'd say if you like Legendary and like Alien franchise it's another goodie to try out.

 

*this is my only issue, the 5 damage Alien attack is the whole "tounge in the head" thing they do. You have 10 health. Just stick a plaster over the hole, you'll be fine! 3 damage was the "tail through the chest". 1 is a bit of acid on the hand. Which killed one of us funny enough.

 

We Didn't Playtest This/We Didn't Playtest This Either

Silly game I picked up in local gaming shops sale. It wasn't on sale, but was cheap enough. It plays a bit like fluxx. There's no rules except "if you win, you win. If you lose, you don't win".

Win conditions can be as simple as "if you're the shortest person playing you win", had a friend that quite liked that one. Other stuff like play rock paper scissors, name a colour, etc. Stuff that eliminates people until there's only a few left.

It's a game I think that requires alcohol involved, all in all it was way too fluid and in many rounds we didn't even get around everyone before the game would be won, so I think it infuriated a fair few of the regulars at the group (I left it home this week).

 

Dice Masters

Oh I guess this is kinda new. I've owned it for a while. Housemates have been into it for a fair while but we've never gotten around to playing. Since our friend now manages local geek cafe housemate got roped into doing a starters event for it, so I joined in and learned how to play. It apparently plays like like Magic, but since I've only played that once I just have to believe folks. You pick a team of 6/8 (I assume that can change) heroes from the Marvel roster with different abilities (boost attack, re-roll stuff, etc) and a set of corresponding dice. It's a bit like Legendary almost, you star with 8 basic "sidekick" dice, which roll 4 at a time and can field them to attack (a bit silly, they're shhit) or to purchase Hero dice. You slow build up stronger and stronger dice and eventually knock out the opposing player. It's not too badly priced eiither, £12 for a 2 player starter deck, and £1 for boosters. We joined forces and got a booster box between us so already my collection is quite a bit beyond the starter kit.

 

Comix

Here's one I nearly forgot. It's a bit weird. You each have a page of a comic book (double sided, 6 or 9 panels) and a set of panels to play. The panels are quite absttrac. You're given a theme at the start of each round and must lay out a comic which tells a tale. Once you're all done you go through and tell your the the comic lays out, then you all hand out points to other players. These are played face down and cover Creativity, Theme, Drama and "eh" for the not so good ones. Then it's tallied up and you get points if you've got he highest in each setting, and points if your critique aligns with others. It's quite nice in that way, otherwise the natural storytellers kinda just blast forwards (or the people that tell the silliest off-the-peg tale). It's not a super-rigid game, but it's nice. More structure than the likes of Story Cubes (which imo aren't games just a story aid for kids). It's a silly one my housemate got since BF is into his comics (hence Sentinels, Legendary Marvel, Marvel Dice Masters etc).

 

We also had expansions for Sentinels of the Multiverse, but I've already covered that (and you guys know how it plays). Though we did have a couple guys join it new to the game, one of them looking for a quick game before we left. We played against a Mr Mystlqppklw (whatever his name is) knock-off, and new guy 2 managed to beat him in one go by attacking us all. One of villains cards meant you won if you all had even amount of health. So certainly a quick game.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I find it  hard to believe that there are 4 people out there who wouldn't have a smartphone or tablet between them especially given the target market.

Edited February 2, 2015 by Faiblesse Des Sens

[deanb]

http://tinywoodenpieces.com/

 

Board game webcomic!

[Hot Heart]

Zombies!!!

 

 

This is possibly the worst game I've ever played.

 

First up, actual components grumbles. The tokens for bullets and health points (shown as actual hearts) are tiny and square and greyscale. They look crap anyway, but also don't really fit with the rest of the game's aesthetic. Secondly, the map tiles could've presented the gameplay information more clearly since it involves placing zombies in buildings and movement involving in and out of doors. Finally, the cards could've been clearer in their language and should've used keywords or some other way of identifying certain elements so you didn't have to keep checking exactly what they meant.

 

The actual gameplay itself is equally terrible. Mostly roll and move, roll to kill, roll to move zombies, with some extra cardplay to alter certain factors. There's a ton of screwage with the cards and it actually completely destroys one of the win conditions...well, both probably. See, to win the game either you kill 25 zombies or get to the helicopter tile (last to be placed) and make sure a zombie isn't occupying your escape vehicle. Problems being that you'll never move far with zombies everywhere, and it's easy to constantly screw over each others' efforts to get to the helicopter as well as mess up their zombie killing so that they die and lose half their accumulated zombie score. Just goes on far too long for what it is, and what it is ain't too hot. If Dead of Winter is the ultimate 'zombie game' this is the very antithesis of that.

 

Dogs of War

My new purchase and a successful one at that it seems (you have no idea how hard it is to please everyone in my group of friends).

 

A somewhat simple game but with obscenely detailed and elaborate minis for what would usually be tokens/cubes/standees, but it is beautiful. Half the rulebook is filled with lore about the game that I haven't really bothered to read yet, but it shows a love of the design, which I can appreciate.

 

Anyway, the game itself. You control a leader of a band of mercenaries, with your own unique ability, and can offer your aid to one of six warring houses who stage battles across four years. Because of the way you deal out the houses and 'order of battle' cards onto the board for each year, you'll find interesting match-ups and ways to manipulate things. Each round, you purchase troops with different costs and strength values then take it in turns adding your captains (the minis) accompanied by one of those soldiers to one side of a battle. What makes it really interesting is that you gain an immediate reward depending on where you place the captain in that battle, which can range from an extra captain or troops, to money, tactics cards (which can really mess up someone's day) and 'influence tokens' for that house. Influence tokens are essentially like shares in that company, and so you might find yourself now taking a keen interest in making sure a certain house succeeds, increasing the value of each influence token of theirs you hold.

 

And so there begins the tug of war between the houses as well as you and the other players because, even before you've bought your first soldier, you are dealt a 'house card' which counts as two influence for one of the houses. Since everyone will have a different one, and every house actually starts as -1, it behooves you to at least make an effort to help that house a little or go all in.

 

While we were still learning all the nuances, and it didn't quite throw up that situation where both horses houses you've backed go up against each other (in my case anyway) it was still good fun. I was left in the unfortunate position of favouring the exact same two houses as someone else, but he was garnering more influence tokens (got really stuck at one point where he used a tactics card to steal a bonus reward because it wasn't worth me wasting the strongest soldier I had to secure it) and no one could really stop that. Whatever I did would hurt myself equally, and while I did try and sneak a win elsewhere to get a hefty VP haul, I couldn't quite do enough to get anything besides a draw (and only because of his character's bonus ability!)

 

Looking forward to trying it again though now everyone's got a better grasp of things. Should play a lot quicker too.

[Hot Heart]

Played another game of Dogs of War. Now everyone was prepared, it went a lot quicker, although one player wasn't really paying attention, which probably upset the balance a bit.

 

This was a cool experience because despite my best efforts, my moves were too bold, so when someone else started calling them out, it was easy for everyone to interfere in my plans. However, this also drew attention to them and so someone being very sneaky managed to steal victory while everyone was distracted. Great show!

 

Had a first go at Xia: Legends of a Drift System, which my friends keep teasing is better than Firefly. I think Dean might have posted about this before, so I'll keep it brief. We only did the basic setup, with no NPCs and playing to 5 victory points (fame points), so I can't make a true and fair assessment of the whole thing.

 

I see a lot of potential, and I had a little bit of fun using a mag-harpoon to hitch a ride on another ship as well as completing a smuggling job ("Hey, this is like Firefly!"), so I see the emergent story potential. The only problem I can see is how much the various dice are used for everything (D6 up to a D20) from movement to mission successes. No real mitigation, just roll a die and see what happens.

 

The other problem with our game was, although I was a new player, pretty much everyone else had forgotten most of the rules anyway, which caused real problems when the earlier distracted player was missing the 'delivery' portion of his mission cards. Also not in its favour, someone else got fed up because of bad die rolls right at the beginning (move 1, move 1, take 10 damage), and the actual winner took the boring route of flying back and forth between two planets, in two adjoining sectors, buying and delivering goods five times.

 

Definitely eager to try it again with the full experience and more time though. Speaking of (needing) more time...

 

Android

 

 

This was the game I went back and forth on buying. It looked so good and I kinda just wanted to own it anyway, but I wasn't sure I'd ever get it played with my friends... or at least more than once, like half my games.

 

Well, I spent ages going over and over the 40+ page rulebook along with an FAQ, and the BGG forums, as well as getting player aids, then set a Sunday aside (because I'd heard it can take 5-6 hours) and got three of my friends together to give it a bash.

 

First of all, there is a lot of stuff in this game. The basic interactions players take are simple, but there are so many little mechanics in there that it takes a good while to explain it all.

 

There's a murder case, which revolves around following up leads and placing evidence on suspect sheets relating to your guilty and innocent hunches; there's a 'conspiracy puzzle', which allows players to earn other bonuses as well as modify other scoring conditions; there's personal plots, whereby each character balances their own stories with other factors; finally, there is the card play, by which players can use 'light' cards to boost themselves and 'dark' cards to hurt others. Even the movement mechanics are bizarre, but kinda cool. See that thing in the bottom-right of the picture? That's your car, and you place the ruler on those circle/diamond/triangle icons to see how far you can reach for one action point of movement.

 

It's this amazing and odd approach where you control a detective, but also function as a 'storyteller' on other levels. For example, although you're 'placing evidence' it's not that you're literally planting evidence, just deciding the outcome of your investigation to better fit your 'story'. And the cards aren't you 'attacking' other characters but providing some sort of emergent, karmic balance where dark cards you play against others make it easier to play your own light cards to help your character and the other players will be doing the same to you.

 

One of the coolest things is how each player has a unique detective with their own strengths, weaknesses and mechanics tied in to their basic abilities, plots and cards. There's a bioroid who questions his programmed directives (which both help and hinder him), a P.I. war vet with PTSD issues and a potential romantic subplot or someone like my guy, a corrupt cop looking to patch things up with his wife, break free from his mob connections or solve a cold case that has haunted him for years, who also has a good/bad mood mechanic which reduces the cost of light/dark cards based on which was last played.

 

Our session was an interesting one, and in hindsight my guy seems particularly weak or at least needs to play far, far meaner than I was prepared to. He's well-connected and apparently good for ensuring he nails the guilty perp, but I never got to play to that strength. One, because the favours I had aren't worth anything without connecting the conspiracy puzzle to certain end points, and even when I did that correctly, someone else was better at the puzzle stuff and got to mess it all up, and two, because all my drawn cards seemed to focus on the favours side rather than the case-solving side.

 

The big thing that got me though, was another player misunderstanding what I'd done at one point and deciding to completely fuck up my shit as a result. See, there was some card or event that involved me placing a 'hit' token on a suspect (implying heat from the real murderer). Now, before the game I'd explained that it takes 3 hits to kill a suspect, which means no one can score the guilty/innocent hunch for them (robbing someone of a massive 15VPs, potentially) and when I took the action, I said that I'd not really chosen any suspect for any reason because I wasn't going to follow up with two more hits. Seriously, I wasn't. It takes forever to get anywhere for my guy with his shitty short-range car ruler and wastes so much time and favours, which I'd been holding onto.

 

Problem was, the player who had that suspect as their guilty hunch thought I had straight up killed that character with that one token. And so, he used pretty much his whole next turn to give my personal plot bad baggage. Each plot and stage has different conditions for ending them positively or negatively, this one allowed other players to give up 2 "time"/action points to give me 1 bad point on my plot. He used 6 of his 7, which gave me 3 and made it too much of an uphill struggle for me to claw it back, then proceeded to keep going after others with their dark cards. It wasn't until much later, after he'd completely screwed up my and his chances of winning that he'd realised his mistake. FFFFFFUUUUUU-

 

The other issue was one guy had been moving all the leads right near to his portion of the board, but it just meant the other nearby player got to follow them up super easy all in one turn, filling the conspiracy puzzle for loads of bonus points and other bits while we could do nothing to prevent it.

 

In the end, the scores were something like 52, 32, 20 and 9.

 

That said, it was an enjoyable, unique experience and I'm still running it through in my head. And even though I came third, I enjoyed the theme and story of it. I freed 'myself' from my mob entanglements cleanly, managed to prove a bioroid's innocence, and found the cold case killer; although, it was too late for true justice and so I settled for my own personal brand.

 

I definitely feel things will go a bit better overall now that we've got to grips with the basics, and the guys actually would play it again.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Hot Heart

[deanb]

Haven't posted about Xia, did play it the other week though (and I think maybe tweeted about it). Fucking beautiful game, nice little models, metal money that goes "clink", so good. We played to 10 which was considered a quick game, at 5FP that'd barely be longer than the set-up.

 

I have photos, and from another new game too. But we've another event this Saturday and I'm eyeing up quite a few new games we have so I'm gonna make a bigger post for then.

[Hot Heart]

Yeah, it's like the "short" game of Hyperborea (or that starter scenario for Firefly). Enough to grasp the basics, but you definitely don't get the full experience.

 

The other funny thing I forgot to mention is that our gaming day that began with Android (long, complicated, full of theme) ended with Fluxx... almost the complete opposite.

[Hot Heart]

I've never even watched Homeland, but this board game (from the guys behind Firefly) sounds p cool.

http://homeland.gf9games.com/

 

From what I've read, seems a bit like Dead of Winter and BSG but much quicker-playing, easier to grasp, and with an actual balanced victory point dynamic in there.

[Hot Heart]

Played some new games with friends.

 

Billionaire Banshee

 

Simple party game, a bit like those 'relationship' game(show)s. You pull a "Perk" and a "Quirk" which creates a potential life partner, like in the image above and then secretly decide if you would Date or Deny them. So, this imaginary person might have a chocolate island/own a unicorn pet/be able to transform into an ATV... but they have translucent skin/can never wipe their butt properly/speak only in spoonerisms, etc.

 

Then everyone else has to work out what you've decided and give their reasons (hopefully, in a humorous way).

 

Very simple, but works well with the right group of friends (and I got to make a bunch of terrible puns). It does feel somewhat overwritten, funnily enough, but that might be to justify some of the weirder 'perks' like "vomits cheeseburgers" (probably in an attempt to include more content since it was a kickstarter).

 

Ninja Dice

 

 

Cool theme, nice components, but this is marginally better than Elder Sign, and also competitive rather than cooperative. We played with a "Locations" expansion, which adds a little more in the actual theme department, but it simply picking some extra modifiers for your die roll to beat.

 

The interesting thing is that there's some simultaneous die-rolling, with other players still taking part when it isn't their turn, and there are spatial elements to the die rolls too. This is with regards to being able to apply certain bonuses, or also allowing players to steal coins off one another, depending on which way they are facing in relation to other people's rolls.

 

That said, it is a huge dice fest where one player can get incredibly lucky and just run away with it. It was only three rounds and pretty much decided after round one, which is a total bummer.

 

Our Descent campaign is still going strong, although I feel really sorry for our overlord now. My warrior character has pretty much become the Terminator, who is incredibly hard to harm, and can cut through groups of enemies without much difficulty. That said, the rest of our hero team is a little underpowered/neglected, but that has more to do with the gear that has become available to buy or through quests. Every time it comes to a shopping phase, it's "Priority goes to these guys this time..." and then nothing worthwhile comes up for them.

 

Anyway, we played a campaign involving goblins trying to make off with crops, which would somehow impact the next encounter depending on how many they took. There were four overall, and we would not let a single one go. It made the encounter last a good while, and it really did come down to a 1/3 die roll at one point, but we managed to deny the overlord completely (much to his frustration). I felt sorry for the guy, because he played well, but I think it made for the most interesting part, since it really required some coordination from us.

[deanb]

Local paper did a write up for International Tabletop Day. Managed to spell Cluedo wrong though not Dixit.

 

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/geeks-gamers-unite-across-newcastle-9015495

 

Also asked around at the local Forbidden Planet for suggested games to play:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/international-tabletop-day-2015-top-9015435

 

It's funny, not entirely considered much of a boardgaming shop tbh, they've got like a backshelf with some popular and recent releases but beyond that Travelling Man is generally the larger one for boardgames. Forbidden Planet for comics alongside figurines n the usual collectible tat (of which they're 2' Gypsy Danger will one day be mine).

[Hot Heart]

Also asked around at the local Forbidden Planet for suggested games to play:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/international-tabletop-day-2015-top-9015435

 

It's funny, not entirely considered much of a boardgaming shop tbh, they've got like a backshelf with some popular and recent releases but beyond that Travelling Man is generally the larger one for boardgames. Forbidden Planet for comics alongside figurines n the usual collectible tat (of which they're 2' Gypsy Danger will one day be mine).

 

Based on most of their suggestions, I still wouldn't think of them as one.

 

/elitist

[Hot Heart]

I had a fun ITT Day.

 

There were a few events all over town, and I know experienced gamers were needed at a local pub so that's where I headed first.

 

With my usual luck, I managed to arrive at a bad time, with a few big games going already. Some smaller games did get going while I was there, but I wasn't really interested in playing Dixit. No, by then, I'd gotten myself involved in a game of Firefly that had been put on by the guy I played with at the brewery months ago. Only this time, he'd gotten himself into a six-player game with only himself having played before. Madness... madness...

 

Finding a bit of seating at the side, I made quick friends with the new guy next to me and, feeling sorry for him being stuck with the S.S Walden (only moves 4 sectors, has no Stash space) along with one of the "weaker" leaders, I took to helping him out.

 

Rather than backseat drive the whole thing though, I would just offer a few thoughts and the main options (since he was completely new to the game). He made some poor decisions a couple of times, but they only really cost him a couple of turns in the grand scheme of it. He got lucky with some of the Alliance Cruiser and Reaver movement (although, they got him plenty anyway), after he flew way too close to the former for my liking. That said, he also had his fair share of bad luck in other areas, like trying to find a pilot, so it all balances out, really. A bit like the ol' tortoise and hare story, he made his way slowly but surely, working his way up through the jobs he could manage (Duul to Patience to Badger) while the others won and lost big over and over.

 

The main rival, of course, was the guy who owned the game and I was determined to beat him this time... after his luck at the brewery session. With the guy slowly heeding my advice to ignore a job that took him too far out the way, he managed to grab some good crew where I'd told him to head along with a job that took him right towards the goal planet while giving him enough money in hand, provided he didn't pay his crew.

 

It all worked out... just. Victory, woo!

 

Next, I played a game of 7 Wonders with five others, all but two being complete newbies (this was someone else's copy, and the other non-newbie had played once).

 

 

I did pretty well, but the person to my left managed to scupper my military stalemate in Age 3 and so I was tied with the game owner who'd managed to accrue more money and, therefore, win. I'm definitely noticing that Ephesos is a strong Wonder to play as against newbies, and since he was to my right but wasn't neighbouring me, there was nothing I could really do to affect him much (player to my immediate right was doing all sorts of dumb/unpredictable things, despite having played before). Oh, well...

 

Then, finally, onto the game I was looking forward to the most: Homeland.

 

 

This is a really cool, mid-weight "traitor game". What I mean is that it's not as light or as simple as things like The Resistance or One Night Ultimate Werewolf and it's not as complex or as time-consuming and complex as Battlestar Galactica, or perhaps Dead of Winter (which itself isn't purely a "traitor game").

 

And the actual structure of the hidden agendas combined with how the game plays out really adds this constant air of paranoia (along with a refreshingly cynical slant on US national security affairs). See, because there will only ever be one winner (or just everyone losing) based on how the game actually comes to a close.

 

The simplest ending is that enough terrorist plots succeed that that red track on the left fills up, meaning the terrorists have won. Everyone reveals their agendas and if there's a terrorist mole, then they've won alone. Otherwise, the whole group has lost.

 

The alternative is that the agency track manages to fill up because they've stopped enough threats. The game then moves into an accusation phase. This is where everyone has a chance to secretly pick out the terrorist mole (or simply pass by showing their own card). A correct identification gives that player an extra 6 points, an incorrect one costs them 3 points.

 

And so, even if you're confident you've identified the mole, you might do better to keep it to yourself. Firstly, because you could collect those extra points along, but also, if the mole still thinks they're safe, they'll probably play a bit friendlier, giving you more chance to stop the threats.

 

And this constant paranoia and questioning occurs because of these three different types of agenda, each with their own scoring conditions. Plus, to add a bit more to it, there's always one more card in the distribution than there are players, which goes back into the box unseen. So, yeah, there might not even be a terrorist, or maybe there'll be too many greedy political career chasers.

 

And so each of these roles pulls against the other. A loyal agent clearly wants to stop threats that they've taken the Case Lead on, earning themselves those Rep tokens. But there will probably be more than one loyal agent, who wouldn't mind seeing a rival's case fail or just snipe the better/easier threats where possible; perhaps even try and convince everyone they're a terrorist to cost them points. A political opportunist is somewhat on the same side, but they don't get points for Rep tokens, instead they want Political Clout... which everyone earns when a terrorist plot succeeds. So they've got this careful balancing act of letting a few threats slip through perhaps, but not too many, while hopefully appearing like a terrorist to fool others.

 

Then onto the terrorist who had a big decision to make: either go bold and hope to cause so much chaos and damage that the terrorist track fills up even with everyone knowing it's clearly you. Or play it very subtle so that even if the agency track fills up, enough plots have succeeded that you get enough points to win. However, if even one person figures out you're the terrorist during the accusation phase, then you're disqualified from winning.

 

And so, it all makes for this wonderfully tense game where even if you don't think you're good at lying as a traitor, there's enough shade and suspicion on everyone that you could pull off a half-decent job anyway by either going bold or some sort of double-bluff. Each turn, a player is forced to play an intel card (basically, single-digit plus or minus values to cases) to at least one other person's case so they can still bluff that "it's the best they could do".

 

In this game, I was the terrorist mole but played it like a political opportunist, making sure to cling on to a few clout all the while and make sure my own cases succeeded. Little did the other players know that I'd put a Jihad (highest value negative card) on someone else's case, knowing that they hadn't been paying it too much attention and hoping it would be thought of as the blind, "starter" intel card that appears when the case was placed on the board. My ploy succeeded, and so round four turned into this horrible cascade of all these threats resolving at once, all in my favour while my own all looked above board.

 

Needless to say, I enjoyed it and I think the others appreciated the different style of game to what they'd been used to. That said, it does take a little while to wrap your heads around the mechanics, even though they're not too complex. Plus, with all new players, it seems highly likely that the terrorists would win anyway, even without a mole perhaps. I look forward to trying this with my close friends though. I know one isn't too fond of traitor games but I think he might warm to this when everyone's out for themselves.

 

EDIT: Added images from the event.

Edited April 22, 2015 by Hot Heart

[deanb]

I played:

 

• We Didn't Playtest This At All/Either
• Mars Attacks Dice
• Dominion (A recent purchase after playing with Kenshi)
• Abyss
• Zombicide
• Superfight
• One Night Ultimate Werefolf: Daybreak
• Battle Wizards

 

 

And I think a bunch others I've forgotten. There was a lot of games going on.

[Nexus]

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.

 

I just saw this - I know the guy who designed Goblin Quest. pdfs came out last week - waiting for my hardcopy. I need to find people to play it with.

[Hot Heart]

In case my ramblings haven't convinced you that Dogs of War is a must-own, try a review by the guys at Shut Up & Sit Down: http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/blog/post/review-dogs-war/

[Hot Heart]

Last weekend, I had a couple of gaming sessions with friends.

 

Started playing five-person Android at 8:30pm on my birthday, against my better judgement. Fair enough, we didn't have anywhere to be the next day, but it takes a good 45 minutes just to set up and explain everything before you even start playing. It got so late that we decided to end it after one week instead of two, which probably doesn't work too well. Either way, I was enjoying myself, and I had been doing well with a different character. Funniest, however, is that my friends once again assumed I had scored for my guilty hunch when I had a strong feeling I hadn't... and I was correct; the same guy who won last time did.

 

I could see us trying a Sunday session of that sometime.

 

Onto the Sunday and we started with the jailbreak scenario for Firefly. I was enjoying it because I got to try the new leader, Murphy (who has medic and mechanic keywords) and all four of us were on level-footing in the standard Fireflies, but the story card wasn't brilliant. I mean, I played well... barring a complete screw-up early on, starting a job without realising I'd not met the needs, so forfeiting a great chunk and a few turns in the process. I stole a disgruntled Jayne and assembled a decent crew overall. However, because of the way it's structured, you work up to the first goal a bit, and then there's no stopping anyone after that. One person got fortunate with some big paying jobs (though, I got fortunate in other smaller ways) and managed to win by one turn. If I hadn't messed up earlier, who knows... D'oh.

 

Still, more testament to how tightly balanced it can be for such a sandbox-like game.

 

Then we had a go at Conquest of Planet Earth

 

 

A very "trashy" game about an alien armada invading Earth in a B-Movie style. This can be played competitively or cooperatively, and I opted for the latter because it has a bit more going on. At its core you move your ships around, discovering locations and fighting the resistance there to conquer them and score the associated points. This is done by comparing the strength of your ships against the resistance and then rolling a die for each. There are all sorts of wrinkles with the different alien races having different strength values, extra abilities, etc. and the fact that a roll of 6 is an automatic crushing victory for that side; in other words, your giant APOCALYPSE CUBE (black object, just in shot, mid-right of photo) can be destroyed by a lone fishing boat if you get unlucky (and have no cards or abilities to prevent it).

 

It's a fun theme, with silly goings-on and fun moments; you can do the whole "we come in peace" surprise attack thing, unleash a deadly contagion, resurrect fallen enemies to fight for you, etc. One player got his hand on loads of allies (giant robot, warlord, godzilla-like monster) while my particular race of aliens spent the whole time discovering barely anything. If you look above, I found coastline and grassy fields along with just small towns, with most worth zero points (the green population value), which led us to think that perhaps I'd received the wrong landing coordinates for this invasion.

 

As well as that, you feel the tension mount up as the human's bring out more resistance to retake locations, forge new deadly tech, and the fact that you have ten rounds to accumulate a score eight times the number of players. Little did we know, I'd actually chosen the "brutal" difficulty by mistake. Still, we won and it felt good.

 

That said, it takes too long for what it is and there were so many little things you had to consult the rules about (mostly timing of stuff and how certain abilities relate to co-op play). A competitive game would go far quicker, but I also think we'd be a lot faster now in future.

 

After that, we played Legacy: Gears of Time

 

I spoke about this almost exactly a year ago, and this is our first time playing it since (it's four-player when our group is usually five, so doesn't often get an outing). Either way, I still really enjoy it and it's a clever little game. Turns out we weren't playing with the "Fate" cards before (and now) but they sound too trashy for this sort of thing.

 

Also, I remain undefeated. I'm red in the photo above just before the scoring for round 3 of 4 takes place, and grey shoots way up (partially due to black claiming half for an invention of mine) but I clawed it back in the final round thanks to getting Genetics established, and stealing all grey's influence on other techs after he travelled farther back in time before me (since turn order changes, always go last in the final round if you can).

 

All in all, though, a fun time!

[Hot Heart]

Played a few games last night.

 

Firstly, took Port Royal for a spin.

 

Neat little game that does a fair amount with nothing more than a deck of 120 cards. The theme is that you're an entrepreneur at Port Royal, looking to find fame and fortune. This is done by filling up your own personal display of cards worth victory points, which can be done in a variety of ways. Twelve points triggers the end, and everyone gets an equal amount of turns as the active player.

 

A turn is simple, you reveal cards from the top of the deck until you wish to stop or you are forced to forfeit by revealing two ships of the same colour (there are five different colours, ten of each ship). If you didn't forfeit, this creates a harbour display from which you may trade with ships or hire people. Trading with a ship puts it into the discard pile and gives you the coins shown, whereas hiring people involves paying the hiring cost, but then gives you their ongoing ability. After you have taken a card, it then proceeds clockwise as other players get a chance to trade or hire; however, since it is still your turn, one coin must go to you if they take a card. it is permissable for another player to do something like trade with the green ship pictured above, taking three of the four coins themselves and giving you one.

 

The characters you hire along the way will help you form strategies and approaches in the way they work during your turn and others. Drawing lots of cards can be risky, since there's an increased chance you'll forfeit by drawing two ships of the same colour, but if you manage to get four different colours into the display, you can then take two cards instead of one. Get all five different colours and you can take three cards. In addition to that, you can hire sailors and pirates with sword icons, which can repel the ships (in the image above the black ship only requires two swords present in your display, the green requires five) giving you a little more control over the draw. There are other characters which give you extra money if you (or someone else) gets enough cards into the display, one that rewards you whenever someone forfeits, and others you can send on expeditions if you collect the required set.

 

There's also the occasional "tax card" which essentially punishes players for stockpiling too much money by halving anything over 12 (rounded down) and resolves as soon as it's drawn.

 

And further complicating things is the fact that the card backs double as money, so you'll constantly be adjusting the dynamic of the deck whenever you take money or even spend it. So it's a mxiture of engine-building, set-collecting and press-your-luck. A lot of stuff with one deck of cards.

 

Anyway, I enjoyed it, but it can drag with new players (or the maximum number of five), especially if they keep 'busting' instead of sticking. One player managed to get to 12 but right on the last turn someone just managed to eke out a tie-breaker victory with a card purchase and having more money. Scores overall were pretty close, and it came down to a few desperate card searches. Cool stuff.

 

Then onto Machi Koro with the Harbour expansion.

 

Not a particularly big fan of this game anyway, but at least this diversifies approaches and prevents the "cheesecake factory" issue. However, it really randomises the setup so makes it tricky to actually form a coherent strategy. I tried a single die, big attack approach but it's not enough to prevent whatever fishing boats were doing for one player and it didn't help when others mistakenly bought two copies of a building I wanted which were completely useless to them.

 

And after the couple of friends who share a flat left, we had a go at three-player Homeland.

 

This was a completely new game to these guys, but they picked it up pretty quickly. The setup involves two loyal agents, one political opportunist and one terrorist mole, with one going back in the box without looking at it as usual, so there's always that question of what isn't in the game.

 

Things progressed fairly comfortably for a while and we were neutralizing all the threats, so it looked like we had a game of two loyal agents and, most likely, a political opportunist. I was a loyal agent, so my job would be beating the other two on points and hopefully convincing them that I was a terrorist so they make a false accusation if possible. It got to about round four and a big row of threats was up, when things started going a little wrong... and it definitely wasn't me screwing up other people's stuff. I'd been playing it fairly straight (and to be honest, I'd gotten fairly lucky with cases I'd claimed, plus others were really helping mine) but keeping my rep/clout tokens lean by purchasing a lot of assets instead.

 

Assets are good because they're worth points and offer certain personal or global abilities, but they also mean that you aren't recruiting agents/soldiers to help in other areas, plus you are spending all those potential rep/clout points that a good guy would want. This can arouse suspicion in others. Which I wanted.

 

I was quite fortunate in what I drew, managing to find someone who lets me get people from the discard pile, and another who let me purchase assets for one fewer token. I managed to get Brody but then kept Jessica "deactivated" (face-down) when I found her. It meant I couldn't use her ability (not that it was worth it for me), but there is a Mike > Jessica > Brody chain of asset-stealing which that prevented, and someone already had Mike.

 

A few successful terrorist plots gifted me a couple more soldiers (thanks to an asset), which I then used to drone strike someone else's case (removes it completely, doesn't resolve good or bad) which I'd suspected was going south or would at least help them more than I wanted. The agency track was nearly full, and one player was concerned that I'd win outright on assets... unless I were a terrorist.

 

That player winds up exposed (reveal all your intel cards, and any assets are instantly "activated") and puts a gold "threat neutralised" card under one of my upcoming cases. I should have it in the bag next round...

 

Another case goes wrong (not mine or my doing) and then we get to mine which we beat, ending the game and putting us into the accusation phase. Ooh, fun! You get a case lead card for every player, including yourself, and then play one face-down for who you want to accuse. Play your own and you opt out of accusing anyone. Correct accusation = +6VP, Incorrect = -3VP.

 

This is where all sorts of interesting dynamics come in, particularly with so few people. The terrorist track was over half full, which meant any of us as a terrorist, with all our assets would win as long as no one accused us. So, play it too safe as a breed of "good guy" and you could still lose. However, when things are so close, a wrong accusation can cost you the victory too. I'm suspicious of the guy with a lot of political clout and a fair few assets, both others are suspicious of me (but one far less so than the other).

 

We revealed our accusations:

I opted out, playing my own card.

The other person I'd suspected of being a loyal agent did the same.

The third player, who I'd had my suspicions about, accused me.

 

Ahahaha. Yes!

 

We all reveal our loyalties. I'm the loyal agent, the other guy is too, and the final player is a political opportunist!

Final scores. Me 25, Political Opportunist 21, Loyal Agent #2 19

 

I'd almost accused the political opportunist of being a terrorist (partly because I thought he was "forgetting" what a terrorist needs to win by keep asking), but he had so much clout that I felt safe enough he wasn't. If, however, I'd accused him and he'd played it safe, he would've won. In addition to that, it turns out the case of his that I'd drone-striked would've resolved badly and probably given him enough to win even with a wrong accusation. And if the other player had rescinded his automatic win card on my case, things could've turned out drastically different. And if a terrorist had been in the mix, provided they weren't me, they could've played exactly the same and won.

 

Very cool game and such a smart balance of elements in its design. Definitely my favourite of all the social deduction games. It can be a little more chaotic with more players (and obviously an increased playtime) but I think it sits comfortably in that mid-weight experience, plus it's something you'd need to play a few times anyway.

[SomTervo]

For my girlfriend's birthday, I did loads of research into co-op games which are good for couples as well as groups. This one came up trumps:

 

 

We played it four times yesterday. It's fucking glorious.

 

Fast turns, perfect random elements, challenging but not unfair, easily scalable to simple/complicated and long/short games, simple principles, great theme/mechanic combination. It's a real winner and I look forward to bringing it to all my family, too. Sure it'll be a favourite all round.

 

Thumbnail description: Each player is a firefighter who has been called out to an emergency. A large house is on fire and the flames are spreading rapidly (and randomly). There are survivors throughout the place but you can never be sure where. Each turn you move through the building, fight fires, save people and chop down walls. After your actions you roll dice to see where smoke emerges, possibly igniting new fires or causing explosive chain reactions that might damage the building.

 

If you save 7 survivors you win (but you can keep going to save 10 for a perfect game if you want). But if 4 survivors die, or the building collapses, you lose. The building collapses when you run out of Damage Markers.

 

Explosions (when fire is placed on fire) damage nearby walls, and you can damage walls by Chopping them. If a wall segment has two damage markers on it, you can pass through it like a door. But there are only 25 Damage Markers or so in the box, so you can run out quickly if you're going axe-happy. One of many ingenious mechanics which really elevate the risk/reward nature of the gameplay.

 

Fast, fun, engaging, deep. Yes yes yes.

Edited May 11, 2015 by kenshi_ryden

[Hot Heart]

Yeah, my friend bought that ages ago. I think we've only played it a few times though.

 

First game, we used the "family" rules (I think that's what it was called) which was, basically, easy mode. There was still a bit of tension a few times but we beat it, no problem.

 

After that, we've played "regular" difficulty (or whatever it's called) which really turns up the heat (LOL!). Involves hazmats, flare-ups and some such. Essentially, you are fucked from the word go as everything just lights up and things explode before you've even entered the building. We've lost both times and it just feels crushingly difficult. Seems as if you need a perfect blend of roles to even stand a chance.

 

I definitely enjoyed it more as a "relaxing" game of heroism than a punishing lesson in triage (both with rescuing, and "treating" fires).

Edited May 11, 2015 by Hot Heart

[SomTervo]

Yeah the rulebook itself actually recommends picking and choosing the rules that work best for you. We haven't properly tried the advanced game yet but it looks potentially brutal. You can change the difficulty a lot, ie how many explosions are there from the beginning

[Hot Heart]

Finally fought some actual dragons in our Descent campaign.

 

Some shadow dragons!

 

 

Had to take a picture of them in all their majesty before we wiped out those fuckers in no time at all.

[Hot Heart]

Played some new games (to me) recently. One during the week, a few yesterday.

 

Lords of Waterdeep

 

The go-to "worker placement" game it seems. Cool little theme (even though I don't know much about D&D) even if it does fall somewhat by the wayside and you're just looking at coloured cubes, trying to collect them all. Place workers down in spots, receive things (mostly cubes), complete quests by turning in specific sets of things and earn points for doing so. There are a few other factors (card play, buildings, etc) but that's the core.

 

The further wrinkle is that each player gets a secret lord who provides bonus points for exclusive things at the end of the game. I got the woman who earns bonus points for each Commerce and Skullduggery quest that gets completed, someone else clearly had one for buildings owned. It was easy to grok and so things moved relatively quickly (except when someone steals a spot you wanted).

 

I got lucky with a starting commerce quest that gave me bonus points for later ones, so that somewhat hid my intentions. Problem was all those quests required money for completion as well, which fed into the main issue as one player ran away with the game. For a long time, I was last player, so I could do nothing anyway, and round after round another player could purchase building after building; despite other players knowing his secret goal, none attempted to stop him. Instead he just kept earning extra bits from people (myself included) using his buildings... which allowed him to buy more buildings. I tried to steal first place, but then he played an intrigue card that gave him it back.

 

I think I made a valiant effort and assembled some decent ongoing modifiers from my quests and wound up joint 2nd. I could've leapt ahead if I'd known I would receive an extra quest late in the game (from an intrigue card) and did choose a different coloured cube from an action; one which was only going to be waste. Not that it mattered because the building player had filled the board and ended about 30+ points in the lead...

 

Anyway, a neat game. I like it.

 

Next up, we did the starter scenario for Legendary: A Marvel Deckbuilding Game

 

Like LoW, this is another game where there's a theme but it's more about the mechanics. You fight a mastermind who also has a mishmash of villains and henchmen (we fought Red Skull along with HYDRA... and Spider-Foes, The Hand, Skrulls, Sentinels and some others I probably forgot) and you assemble a deck of cards from the available decks of heroes (we had Iron Man, Cyclops, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Hawkeye).

 

So each player could have the same hero somewhere in their deck just with different abilities. You use hands of cards to generate recruit and attack points, spend them to get more heroes or fight villains, try and "build" your deck to generate combos like extra card draws or attack/recruit points; the aim of the game being to defeat the villain and have the most victory points (from defeating villains, the mastermind tactic cards, etc.)

 

First game's somewhat simple (we used a suggested modifier because people say the game's too hard with more than 4 people; the modifier essentially gives you 1 extra recruit point in your starting deck) and we never really got a chance to build big, combo engines, although one player had a pretty big turn of card draws and such... just with nothing really to attack or worth recruiting.

 

Anyway, I won. That's what counts.

 

I'm kidding. It's decent and I look forward to trying the trickier scenarios and villains in future.

 

The Battle at Kemble's Cascade

 

 

A much appreciated gift from my sisters (they researched it and everything) that I got to the table finally. I hesitated because it seems like it could take a while, so saved it for a Sunday rather than an evening.

 

Awesome retro presentation and it captures the spirit of the shmup for people who lack the dexterity. You have your little ship, which starts pretty basic with 5 energy, and each turn you get a free move and shoot (for 1 damage) then have to resolve the "threat" generated from enemies, either ones right next to you or firing from a distance.

 

The board itself is made up of cards from a deck, and that scrolls, getting progressively more dangerous. You'll even get scroll-pushed if you linger on the last row at the end of a round. Kind of a fiddly thing with the trays and card, but it's not too much trouble if you have a few of you handling it as it goes. It's actually trickier making sure you correctly resolve threat from the previous turn (remembering to reduce it if you 'evade' by moving; 1 for each move) before adding new threat for the one just gone

 

There are a few ways to score points but early on it's mostly about gathering in-game currency, known as "bellonium" (heh) so you can improve your ship for the harder things later. On your turn, you can power down to regain energy and "shop" so you can upgrade your engine, rotary cage (governs your 4 orthogonal firing directions), shields or buy a laser, flamethrower, gamma cannon or missile or even power-ups. These'll allow you to take more damage, move farther, deal more damage, shoot through a whole row, etc.

 

All sorts of options and things to think about, and it's really neat. It even balanced quite well with us taking different approaches. I bought 3 different weapons the first chance I got (for an achievement) whereas someone else bought all the ship upgrades (for a similar achievement) and our scores weren't too far apart. I think it'll be cool to experiment with different setups.

 

All in all, I really liked it (not sure the others were as keen) because it looks great and it's really thinky. The main issue is that there are little quirks with certain rules (and the FAQ isn't always clear) and it was our first time playing so we had some fumbles with little things (like an "omni-threat") appearing on the board, but I reckon that's all ironed out and everything would flow more smoothly in future.

[deanb]

Lords of Waterdeep is a fave of my housemate, but doesn't quite tickle the right spots for me. Too much moving random cubes around n kind of a pain to build up the right cubes (and on top of that it's usually played with at least two people that've played it a lot n know all the nooks n crannies).

 

I quite enjoy Legendary, shame housemate sold his copies off. I'd have picked up, but combined it was £100 and I don't enjoy it that much (especially as that include the Villians version. I prefer the mat, but dislike the mechanic changes)

[Hot Heart]

Games night!

 

Since it was a Friday and none of us had to be anywhere the next day, we decided to attempt Firefly in an evening. We went for the Desperadoes story card which involves getting the most money, with a player being able to call when they get over $15k; Illegal jobs pay an extra $1k and you start with a warrant. Same old deal with randomly dealt leaders and ships; I got Murphy in Serenity, and a couple of others got regular Fireflies too, while someone got the Artful Dodger (usually wins) and the final got the sloooow SS Walden.

 

 

Because it hardly sees any action, I decided to start in the Blue Sun expansion area on Meridian and figured I might check out some Harrow jobs. The stuff there is expensive, but I think it's all great value.

 

The game got going and we were quickly passing around doing our shopping and making work before setting off anywhere. I spent a little longer because I couldn't get an elusive third tech skill point (I remember Harrow jobs have higher requirements for starting them) but I snagged a fair few decent bits of gear and a solid crew, barring the aforementioned lack of tech. There's this cool guy on Meridian who you can discard as a Buy action to get a ship upgrade or drive core from any discard pile for half price; turns out I'd already revealed this great engine that increased my range and gave me a 50% chance of evading Reavers or Alliance before they got me. Score!

 

Anyway, everyone else had got going, completing jobs and raking in $2-3k a job while I was still getting set up. I was worried, but then I finally got a person I needed (I had two great crew options turn up at the same time and had a tough choice between them) and got work underway. First was to pick up a whole mess of contraband and lug it across the length of the 'verse. I doubled up with these jobs so I was running with 7 right away. I got to the first drop-off point okay (after my engine saved me from a massive upset by the Alliance Cruiser) but messed up the delivery, earning an extra warrant but getting to keep the contraband (silver lining!)

 

I carried onto the next drop-off, no problem and netted a tidy $3.7k before heading to Persephone, with that dreaded Cruiser nearby once again. Bought a few bits to enable me to do a job for Badger, and started another Harrow pick-up. This time, I was flying about with 3 leftover contraband, and another 7 from these two new jobs. Scared, I skirted round Alliance Space as much as possible to reach a nearby hospital heist ("as seen on TV!"), completing that for Badger and getting nearly $4k.

 

The game had actually been going on a while at this point, and one guy was starting to get a little annoyed so we were trying to speed it up.

 

So... at this point, I was weighing up my options. Since I'd completed a Badger job, I could now sell him contraband at $700 apiece, plus both my leader and middleman abilities meant an extra $200 per one sold. If I just ditched the two smuggling jobs and sold their goods, that would net me a cool $9k, putting me at around $14.7k; just short of the goal, but around $6k ahead of the nearest rival.

 

Option 1. Head over to Patience, grab a crime job in the discard pile that starts nearby and hope I can knock that out in a couple of turns, not even pay the crew and then race to Badger to sell all the contraband

Option 2. Race to Badger now and get rid of the contraband asap, then look for a new Badger job in the deck.

 

The main risk was getting caught by the cruiser, while trying to get to Badger; that would've put me out of the running completely. Sensing I needed to ditch it asap, I skirted Alliance Space as much as I could to get back to him, dreading the flip of each of the three nav cards I had to draw in "blue" space.

 

Turns out, things worked in my favour and I encountered a shrewd trader (or barterer, I forget) along the way who was selling contraband at $400 a pop. I only had space for one more, but took it, made it to Badger and sold the lot for $9.9k, putting me over the threshold. Woohoo! I also had hired a guy who gave me $500 whenever I took a goal token (which I could do by calling an end). The others were stunned and all checked to see if they could earn more than $7k in two turns (one after that, and one after I had a free action to call) but gave up. Victory! And all it took was selling Badger his own contraband and Harrow's!

 

Then we had a go at DC Comics Deck-Building Game (catchy title)

 

After playing Legendary, clearly my friend got a hankering for superhero deckbuilding and grabbed this while browsing our FLGS.

 

It's actually pretty decent. It's a very different beast to Legendary, and is entirely competitive, with a focus in different areas. It seems like there's a lot more scope for pure deckbuilding (not so much with five players), but at the same time, it doesn't have a particularly strong identity.

 

You have cards that give you 'power' which enable you to buy/beat one of the five cards in the line-up, adding beaten villains, heroes, superpowers, equipment, locations (ongoings), to your deck. Pretty much every card besides your starter one has victory point values, and it's about searching for combos or ones that benefit your particular hero character. Basic stuff like villains offering extra power, or attacks on other players while heroes and equipment can retrieve other cards or enable extra draws. Each player will be a unique hero, so Superman benefits from playing various superpowers in a turn; Batman the same but with equipment, but there's nothing to stop Superman buying a Batmobile, a Bat Signal or his own Wonder Woman and Arkham Asylum (yeah...)

 

So, yeah, it plays okay and supports five people fairly well, but it doesn't have a special spark you might hope for.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Hot Heart

[Hot Heart]

Roll for the Galaxy

 

By and large, I find every game I've played where the main mechanic is dice-rolling to be complete garbage, e.g. Elder Sign, Ninja Dice.

 

Thankfully, this actually has some depth and flexibility. You have your pool of dice, and some starting worlds and tech which provide extra dice, abilities, benefits then you're simply rolling certain symbols that align with different actions to accrue the most points. It took me about half the game to actually learn the rhythm of it, so I was doing pretty crap overall. I hadn't quite understood all the actions or the importance of getting money (and you get 1 free each turn/round anyway) to regain your dice to roll again, so I think most dice I ever got to roll were 5 while others were getting about 7-8. I think I had a bit of bad luck with some of the techs/worlds I drew; which were just kinda lame and no real combos. I mean, look at this...

 

 

I settled freaking Spice World...

 

I also thing some of the language for abilities is misleading. It says can "reassign" workers when, technically, it's more like treating them as "wild" dice since you can't actually reassign them once they've been assigned.

 

Overall though, not bad. I appreciate how the different dice offer different strengths, but then you don't exactly have full control over what you get. I'd be interested in trying it again now I've got a better handle on the rules (it should definitely move quicker), but it'll never quite be my sort of game.