Lost Treasures of the Eurogames Reclamation Project

ldsdbomber: I've played nearly all of those. Of the stuff you listed, I think these are the most interesting:

Lost Valley - neat exploration game

Top Race games (aka Daytona 500 games) - Detroit-Cleveland is where it's at; for me Top Race is the worst in the series, solely due to the "switch cars" card

Hansa - rule #1: hurt the player to your left

Carolus Magnus - lots of cube-fighting

Winner's Circle - fun, but goes too long; we never play a full game

Fearsome Floors - interesting if played with two monsters instead of one (the second is placed below the first, but facing down)

I personally don't need to play the others on your list again, though there are a few I haven't tried, including Eketorp, Wildlife, and Arclight.

This weekend's grabs: San Marco, Um Reifenbrite, Web of Power and Bridges of Shangri-La. Yes, I snagged Web of Power instead of China, because fuck you.

Guys, do not sleep on Silber Zwerg. Seriously an undervalued lost treasure.

wadenels wrote:

black inferno wrote: Many many years ago, there was a now-long-defunct Fireball Island tribute site on Geocities containing an exhaustive set of homebrewed rules, character sheets, items, NPCs and game cards that transformed a simple roll-and-move kids game into the pulp adventure version of Talisman you never knew you wanted. The greatest gaming experience of my life was playing this next-level version of F.I. by candlelight during a hurricane party in 1999. Played with that ruleset, it's the best Indiana Jones-vibe game never released.

Any chance you still have the URL (for the Wayback Machine) or a way to track that old stuff down?

I tried and failed to find it (or any online remnant of it). Nothing on BGG, either, although there are other variants there. One day when I have a little more time, I'd be happy to scan and dropbox the homebrewed stuff.

I went with China mainly because it was way less expensive.

I forgot about Bridges of Shangri-La...I actually like Colovini, I think he was sort of in line with the old Alex Randolph style games...another designer that just kind of vanished.

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but Tonga Bonga is an overlooked classic. It's got vomit dice.

Michael Barnes wrote: I went with China mainly because it was way less expensive.

I forgot about Bridges of Shangri-La...I actually like Colovini, I think he was sort of in line with the old Alex Randolph style games...another designer that just kind of vanished.

Colvini just released Hot Tin Roof a few months ago and has been releasing a couple new titles each year, he hasn't vanished he's just not in your vision.

I saw Niagara and Ghost Stories in my FLGS. Should I grab those? $55 for Niagara and $50 for GS.

I wouldn't bother with GS, especially at that price, isn't it on IOS for a few dollars? It's effectively a solo puzzle anyway, so works just as good if not better there. Not much room for creative strategy (as I remember it, though it was a while back), felt like there were "right" answers most of the time, which you realized later on during crushing defeat if you weren't good or lucky enough to realize at the time.

Yeah, Ghost Stories didn't impress me at all. Not sure why it gets so much good press.

Niagara is OK. Pick it up in trade.

S.

Niagara is pretty widely available for under $35...I got it and the expansion for $50 shipped on ebay. Not sure about Ghost Stories.

VonTush wrote: So my copy of Journey to the Center of the Earth came in...So just how much box damage does there need to be before bitching to the Post Office?

It looks like someone sat on the box. Game was new and in shrink, now the bottom is crushed in about half an inch and to the point that it put a 5" rip in the box. No idea yet what the components look like since I likely should take some photos.

I've had some corner dings before which haven't bothered me but this is by far the worst I've seen.

And a quick follow up - The game came in on the 28th, I stopped by the post office the next day to find out some information about filing a claim. After a lot of mumbling by the guy at the counter I found out the best way to do it is online. So the 30th I filed the claim online, uploaded the receipt from PayPal and invoice from eBay. On the 2nd, I opened up the mailbox and found a check from the USPS for the purchase price.

This morning i finally unwrapped the game and found the component still in perfect condition, so I ended up with a copy of Journey to the Center of the Earth for less than $15!


Regarding Ghost Stories - It is a tactical puzzle where often you're just dealing with the biggest threat and trying to hold back the tide long enough to satisfy the win conditions. No real room for strategy - Basically figure out the best ways to mitigate risk.

Ghost Stories pretty much sucks, actually. I'm not quite sure how it got to be so well-regarded. It is probably the worst of the whack-a-mole co-op concepts. Cool setting, kind of terrible mechanics. It's also the kind of co-op you can lose only because the cards came up in a bad order.

I tried to like Ghost Stories but really kind of hated it. I managed to pick up a full set (Base + White Moon + Black Secret) on the cheap, and while White Moon made it slightly more interesting it still wasn't any fun. You do what you're supposed to do but then the game's eyes bug out and it screams "YOU LOSE!" at you Gene Wilder Willy Wonka style.

If you're looking for a dice-rolling "stop the threats!" coop that's similar but better, then try out Yggdrasil. At least Yggdrasil gives you a few good decisions to make while you're losing because of bad card draws and die rolling.

wadenels wrote: If you're looking for a dice-rolling "stop the threats!" coop that's similar but better, then try out Yggdrasil. At least Yggdrasil gives you a few good decisions to make while you're losing because of bad card draws and die rolling.

I thought Yggdrasil was a little boring as well...It felt like the best course was to always focus on the weapons and once you do beating back the evil gods got very easy. Something else here or there, but always weapons first it seemed. Maybe I wasn't playing with enough people because I have heard that the more people the harder it becomes.

Yggdrasil was boring. Just push back whomever is farthest up the track. Nah.

But thanks for the input and suggestions.

I did score a copy of Targi for $22 so that's a win.

You know, reminiscing about Ghost Stories here made me think about why Robinson Crusoe is SO freaking much better as a co-op design...it's not about the whole whack-a-mole thing. I think I really don't like that kind of co-op anymore. Pathfinder was sort of in that vein, but it felt like there was specialization, coordination and actual choices going on that mattered.