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Mycelia Board Game Review

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River Wild Board Game Review

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Outback Crossing Review

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What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

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28 Apr 2019 04:13 #296185 by san il defanso
Any session where you get to play Hoity Toity twice is a good one.
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28 Apr 2019 08:56 #296186 by Msample
Played some JOURNEYS IN MIDDLE EARTH yesterday, the new FFG adventure game.

Its app supported - you use the app to track enemy monsters, hit points, and events. You can't play without it . Some BGG users are throwing a fit over this. I don't mind - it saves a fair amount of table space that would be taken up by cards, hit markers,etc.

Game play each hero has a deck made up of 6 basic cards, 5 Character specific cards ( Bilbo, Aragorn, etc ) and 3 Role cards ( Burglar, etc ) . So there are a lot of combos given there are 6 heroes and 6 different roles which can be freely combined. This will offer a lot of replay value.

If you've played the Imperial Assault app, its similar in several ways. You gradually reveal parts of the map that have tokens to uncover and monsters that pop up.

Each turn heroes draw two cards and can "prepare" one, Each card has a special ability that helps them. You can have up to four cards prepared. Each hero does two actions, then the monsters go.

Combat is drawing cards from your deck and counting successes, which inflict damage depending on your weapon.

I'd say its still somewhat combat oriented and like IA you don't want to spend all your time fighting, there is a ticking clock in the form of Threat level; each scenario tells you how much you can accumulate before you time out and lose. As play progresses you are told what you need to accomplish to win the scenario.

I played the first four and lost all of them, but I found out some stuff I was doing wrong like leaving accumulated Weakness cards in my deck between scenarios and not upgrading cards, so my decks were diluted. Will restart and try again. Its def not easy. I am undecided on how much I like it; like IA it sometimes feels like you need to run more than fight which can be aggravating at times.
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28 Apr 2019 10:50 - 28 Apr 2019 10:52 #296189 by Jexik
Played Broom Service for the first time in awhile. It's still a solid little Euro that has you paying attention to what other people are doing more than some. It has a neat mechanic where you decide whether to go for a safe and small action or a risky and big action, with the big action being progressively safer as players go around and say whether they picked that role or not.
Last edit: 28 Apr 2019 10:52 by Jexik.
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28 Apr 2019 13:14 #296198 by Josh Look
I broke out Kepler 3042 last night. We’d played once months ago, we both really enjoyed it, but it kind of got lost in shuffle. I won’t make that mistake again as it really is a solid, tense Euro game that packs a ton of punch in a really tight playtime.

You’ve got 16 actions for the entire game. I’m that time you need to build ships, explore space, colonize planets, advance technologies and terraform your planets to get better resource yields and score more points. The unique elements to the game are its resource system and action selection. You have a finite amount resources that you can produce or have in reserve. Think of it as each player having their own very limited number of components. Your action selection is presented in a 3X3 grid, with bonus actions you can take in each row and column but they come at the price of permanently burning a resource. 16 turns is not at all enough time to get everything done but you really need to make sure that burning those resources is absolutely worth it. How tight the whole thing is really does make for an exciting game, something I wouldn’t usually say about a game that’s primarily about resource management.

I feel like it got overlooked, maybe because it came out at that time a couple years ago where every sci-do thing had to have the year it takes place in included in the title (Pulsar 2849 and Blade Runner 2049 were released at the same time). You can easily find it for $30 these days. It’s very much worth that!
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28 Apr 2019 14:44 #296205 by hotseatgames
Lots of gaming yesterday... we went to a game day at a nearby restaurant that was actually more popular than I was expecting.

My whole goal of going was to get people to test my new game, Total Party Kill. We immediately got a group together, which surprised me (usually I have great difficulty in finding people willing to test something). They all enjoyed it, and I got a few good questions about card interactions that I need to clarify.

We took a brief break after that, and a small boy who reminded me of my nephew was SUPER excited about 5 Minute Marvel, and begged us to play with him. Of course we did. You set a timer for 5 minutes and start encountering enemies out of a deck. Each player runs a hero with a special ability and two decks of cards. One deck is character specific. I was Captain America, which meant I had a lot of shields. The entire game amounts to throwing down cards to match symbols in order to clear threats, and it's in real time so you have to hustle. It's not unpleasant, but if you aren't placating a child, maybe pass.

After that I ran a few more sessions of my game. I was really pleased, because people were coming up requesting to play simply because OTHER people who had played suggested that they do so. I didn't expect that kind of response. I also dumped a glass of ice water all over my prototype, but it's getting rebuilt before Origins anyway.

Late last night we played a 2 player game of Brook City. We used a cop styled after Renae Benson on SVU, and a cop styled after Margie from Fargo. We were trying to solve a murder case while simultaneously putting the brakes on a rock and roll criminal who keeps spreading his demo tape around town, as well as his thugs. Our cops synergized very well, and we managed to crack the case pretty easily. At one point I was very close to failing due to too much stress, but I was able to get a handle on it.

The cops in the game really make it for me; they are all unique and fun. I'm hoping I get the initiative to paint them.
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28 Apr 2019 16:00 #296206 by WadeMonnig

Ah_Pook wrote: Tabletop Day game day today! Played a bunch of good stuff.

Divinity Derby was exactly what I hoped it would be. Great clever betting/racing game. Thanks for the discount dive write-up on here for pushing me over into getting it! Not sure I care about playing with the special god powers, but just the base game was cracking.


We rarely bother with the God power cards. Kinda like cash n guns.

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28 Apr 2019 19:24 #296215 by Gary Sax

Josh Look wrote: I broke out Kepler 3042 last night. We’d played once months ago, we both really enjoyed it, but it kind of got lost in shuffle. I won’t make that mistake again as it really is a solid, tense Euro game that packs a ton of punch in a really tight playtime


Excited to hear your pod review (fingers crossed)?

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28 Apr 2019 22:23 - 28 Apr 2019 22:24 #296220 by Josh Look

Gary Sax wrote:

Josh Look wrote: I broke out Kepler 3042 last night. We’d played once months ago, we both really enjoyed it, but it kind of got lost in shuffle. I won’t make that mistake again as it really is a solid, tense Euro game that packs a ton of punch in a really tight playtime


Excited to hear your pod review (fingers crossed)?


Perhaps some day. I played this with my wife, not Uba and Al and I’m not entirely sure how it would go over. It’s got that space exploration element to it, which I know Al is always attracted to. I’ve been wracking my brain all day to find something to draw a comparison to, but I’m coming up empty handed. The mix of exploration and resource management wrapped up in what’s really an efficiency puzzle, I’m not sure if there’s anything quite like it. I can’t stop thinking about it.

Not sure how much Wade would be into it, but it might make for a good Discount Dive.
Last edit: 28 Apr 2019 22:24 by Josh Look.
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29 Apr 2019 03:32 #296222 by WadeMonnig
Kepler 3052 is still 50 at MM, but I'll file it under keep a look out for on clearance.

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29 Apr 2019 05:31 #296224 by Josh Look

WadeMonnig wrote: Kepler 3052 is still 50 at MM, but I'll file it under keep a look out for on clearance.


$30 on Amazon. It definitely goes on sale at CSI fairly regularly, I doubt it will be long before MM follows suit.

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29 Apr 2019 09:26 #296225 by Legomancer
NEOM - has grown on me a lot, to the point where I need to let it take a little nap. Lots of different approaches with this one. It's 7 wonders with a city theme, and I like it more than that game.

Underwater Cities - A tableau builder where, at the end, you have a little scene of underwater buildings? This one seems right up my alley, and sure enough, I really enjoyed it. It does some interesting things with worker placement and cards, has a great look to it, and pushed its theme along. Plus there are cards with cybernetically tricked out squid, so do what you will with that important information.

Terraforming Mars: Colonies - Still don't like this expansion and I think I'm going to pull it and Venus out of my copy. Nevertheless, I'm a chump, so I backed Turmoil.

Talisman (Revised 4th Edition) - I played the hell out of Talisman 2e back in college and this doesn't change a whole lot, but the changes are pretty good. Assassin is OP. There's nothing like building a raft, having someone attack you and steal that raft, use it, and immediately lose a life because they rafted into the Desert and don't have a water bottle.

Shards of Infinity - What if Star Realms was, I don't know, better? More interesting? That's the question SoI answers, and answers well. This is a fun deckbuilding brawler with a lot of neat things going on in it and some cool art. If you've been looking for a game featuring Cryptofist Monks, buddy, it's your time to shine. Ended up buying my own copy.

Beta Colony - We played a bunch of rules wrong, which would have changed some stuff. This is a modernish euro with multiple board areas, mechanisms upon mechanisms, and, of course, tracks. Gotta have tracks. The theme is a little fast and loose. I really need to play again before I can elicit a solid judgement.

What I'd heard about this was that the production is bad. Now, I take such claims with a grain of salt as "bad" production around here usually just means some bits are insufficiently plastic or the wood is the wrong shape or a playmat is thin, rendering the game, laughably, "unplayable". Folks, I'm here to say that the production here is...well, it's not good. The board feels like a prototype or even counterfeit, with washed out colors that are hard to tell apart and which don't match the cubes. The fonts and graphics feel not only "just grab whatever, it's fine", but "just grab whatever, it's fine" from like 2004. This feels extremely cheap for 2019.

There was a time when this might turn heads, but I fear it can't compete in the same space as many current games
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29 Apr 2019 09:54 - 29 Apr 2019 09:55 #296227 by RobertB

Legomancer wrote: Terraforming Mars: Colonies - Still don't like this expansion and I think I'm going to pull it and Venus out of my copy. Nevertheless, I'm a chump, so I backed Turmoil.


I played a game without Colonies this weekend - just Corporate Era + Prelude. I got a 2p game done in about an hour. I didn't know how to act. Then I played a 2p with Colonies and it took 3.5 hours. TM isn't the epitome of elegance, but taking Colonies out does make it play a lot more smoothly. I'd lobby against it at home, but my wife does like Colonies, so I guess I'll play it.

And I did spring for Turmoil too.
Last edit: 29 Apr 2019 09:55 by RobertB.

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29 Apr 2019 10:06 #296228 by Vysetron
Terraforming Mars is already too long for what it is. I haven't played these expansions but they sound like a nightmare.

Anyway, I played Dungeonquest twice and died once!

The first quick game to solidify rules ended in my dorf never being able to get to the dragon's lair. He bumbled around, found some loose change, and eventually walked out.

Last night though, last night was an adventure. We both made it to the hoard and pillaged the hell out of it. I even managed to managed to yank the Sun Spear and Staff of Light, which are worth 5 grand together.

Both of us decided that the other person's entrance was going to be our exit. After spending my rune to get out of a pitfall trap I hit a dead end and opted to test my luck with the catacombs to get out. Two ambushes later my chufty knight died horribly down there.

Meanwhile on the opposite end, Cindy's stupid elf just danced right through everything until she found a rotating room that spun against a wall. Fortunately her rune let her game the search deck a bit, so she was able to sneak out and escape with her modest bag of goodies completely unscathed.

She then established the HUT. This game is amazing.
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29 Apr 2019 13:57 #296244 by Shellhead
My girlfriend recently bought me Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle-Earth. Despite the name, it is a small, quick filler game featuring about 64 cards and a two-sided rule sheet. It is specifically a two-player game, but both players are the good guys. Players take turns playing allies into fellowships, or attacking bad guys with a fellowship. Both good guys and bad guys feature various combinations of six color icons plus one wild card icon. To successfully attack, members of a given fellowship must match every icon on a given enemy. A successful attack allows that player to take the enemy card, which is worth 1 to 10 vp, then discard the entire fellowship that made the attack. There are always three enemy cards in play. A dozen Mordor cards are mixed into the ally deck, and those eventually start triggering counterattacks that cause players to discard cards from the hand, from a fellowship, or from their VP pile, depending on the exact wording on the Mordor card. Many of the ally cards include a special ability.

In the early turns of the game, I drew every single character with a wild card icon, and yet struggled to rack up any kills to a surprising early onslaught of counterattacks. Then I finally knocked off the Balrog for 10 vp. After that, I mostly focused on cheap shots on weak opponents, like 1-point orc patrols. Then I lucked into another combo to score Saruman for another 10 vp. My friend struggled with figuring out when to play characters into an existing fellowship and when he should start a separate fellowship, which led to trouble making kills.

Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle-Earth is a quick, easy filler that can tolerably fill a gap that might otherwise involve awkward conversation or boredom in between better games. I am not personally a fan of 2-player games, fillers, or light games in general, but I didn't mind playing this one. The artwork is average by modern gaming standards. The small box is still about 9 times as large as the components inside. There is a bit of strategy, of the set collection and luck-pushing variety. Many familiar Middle-Earth characters are in this game, but the abstract combat and gameplay doesn't convey any real sense of the characters or setting. Unless you need another filler or you are a big fan of the Lord of the Rings, you probably don't need this game.

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29 Apr 2019 15:05 - 29 Apr 2019 15:07 #296253 by Ah_Pook
I have a high score list for DQ and my name isn't on it, having owned the game for like 5 years now. I've made it out alive a few times, but you only get your name on the list if you steal from the dragon and make it out alive. One day...

Also I played DQ the other day and one guy was one previously placed corridor away from making it out with a ludicrous pile of treasure. He thinks he's made in the shade . He then pulls the wizards curse, which rotates all corridors. He is then trapped one tile away from the exit and the sun sets and kills him. Pretty much the perfect ending. This game also featured not one but two rotating rooms trapping people and killing them, and myself dying ignominiously from an instant death roll while drinking a potion.
Last edit: 29 Apr 2019 15:07 by Ah_Pook.
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