Re: What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Michael Barnes wrote: People that don't mix the Wiz-War deck up are cowards.

It can be fun to not mix all of them, I'm not even sure you can play the game without mixing at all (I've never read the FFG rules).

OK, this last week was the first real "Summer of Gaming" get-together, so we played the fuck out of some games:

1. Stone Age: This was the first time for some of the Circus Freaks, and as it turns out, it was TOTALLY AWESOME. Even my wife played, and while she was completely fucking drunk. I won, but barely, and it had a lot to do with the fact that they were mostly ignoring boats until mid-game, but they were chewing up the huts and scoring big early. Great session, and you Stone Age deniers are missing out. GREAT game to play stoned or drunk.

2. Tikal: This was an epic 3-player game where four temples were straight-up fucking snaked by clever positioning. None of us saw it coming. At all. It was awesome. A 10 temple, a 9 temple (or 8?) and two sevens. It was sickening and awesome all in one. I won, again...which never, ever happens.

3. Krackades Mini: This was our third play and it blew. The first game was awesome, and I mean awesome on a scale we rarely ever get to. Total blast. The second game was far less fun because we all saw most of the cards. This last game was bullshit. All the cards were known to all players and it just fucking sucked balls. Wasn't funny, wasn't fun. Review here: superflycircus.blogspot.com/2014/05/krac...-body-sick-mind.html

4. Summer Slam Challenge: McMulti. Not getting into this here as I don't want to ruin the surprise. Short version: It's a good deal at 50$ which I paid for it, but the extra 20$ shipping killed the value. It's a good game, and very different from anything I've played, and it's clever and tight in design, but it just kind of lacked that magic we all hope a game will have. I was pretty tired so the maths were kind of tedious, but I do love the paper money. More games should have paper money.

VonTush filled you in on what I played on Sunday night, but I also did a couple games on Friday night:

Hammer of the Scots: We muddled through the rules a little, but for the most part we grasped how everything worked. I was the Scots, and I lost in the second year. When we got to the end we were both scratching our heads and trying to figure out how the Scots even have a chance. Then I remembered that you're allowed to retreat instead of roll for combat, which gives the defense the opportunity to basically duck out of any fight they don't think they can win. I knew the rule, but I never took advantage of it. Like many wargames, there was a gap between the rules and how I used them. Looking forward to the next game so I can test that out a little bit.

Haggis: Did you guys know that Haggis might actually be better than Tichu? Tichu is the more social game, and definitely has a lot to offer. But I think Haggis is more nuanced, less predictable, and more tense for the entire game. You don't hit that point where you are just playing out the string of cards and finishing out the hand. Every trick is hard-fought, and the nature of how you should play something is constantly in flux. It might even be a brilliant design, though it's a bit less intuitive than Tichu is. Still, this was a great game. My opponent won 353-350. I was way down in the last hand, but then I made my big bet and stuck him with 8 cards. I scored 80 points and nearly caught him. Now I realize that I need to play more often.

San Il Defanso wrote: Hammer of the Scots: We muddled through the rules a little, but for the most part we grasped how everything worked. I was the Scots, and I lost in the second year. When we got to the end we were both scratching our heads and trying to figure out how the Scots even have a chance. Then I remembered that you're allowed to retreat instead of roll for combat, which gives the defense the opportunity to basically duck out of any fight they don't think they can win. I knew the rule, but I never took advantage of it. Like many wargames, there was a gap between the rules and how I used them. Looking forward to the next game so I can test that out a little bit.

Quite right. The Scots are playing a very different game than the English. That retreat rule along with the A-B-C order does a great job of portraying the guerrilla tactics Wallace used. An example would be having the bulk of your clans attack into one territory while the Wallace block moves into and attacks opponents in another that could potentially reinforce that first territory you're attacking. Wallace 'pins' units in place _and_ prevents any movement across the boarder he came in from. Then, when combat starts, Wallace being an A block will likely go first, so he gets a good look at those Englishmen, then retreats. You then get to have your clans fight elsewhere without the English being able to reinforce because of Wallace's harassment.

I hope that example made sense.

Team Wallace up with some other A (Norse) and strong B blocks and watch out. The early game for the Scots tends to be converting nobles in Northern Scotland as quick as possible. Once Edward settles into Mentieth, you're going to have a problem...

I actually got in a game of this last week. It was a teaching game and my opponent won as the Scots in the third year. Being a teaching game, I played with my hands tied and did some inefficient stuff such as have the english purposely use the irish and welsh in combat, as I was slowly introducing the exceptional elements of the game during play. Still a great time.

Love Hammer of the Scots.

SuperflyTNT wrote:

2. Tikal: This was an epic 3-player game where four temples were straight-up fucking snaked by clever positioning. None of us saw it coming. At all. It was awesome. A 10 temple, a 9 temple (or 8?) and two sevens. It was sickening and awesome all in one. I won, again...which never, ever happens.

Tikal's a fun game, but the last couple of turns will drive you straight to AP hell. Even if you fly most games seat-of-the-pants, Tikal will make you hit the brakes and suffer through the end of the game. Still. I'll play it anytime, and I hope you played it with the auction option.

My brother and sister-in-law were over on Sunday, and we played Lords of Vegas. He and my wife tied on score at the end, and she won on the money tiebreaker.

That took them to bedtime, so my wife and daughter played Love Letter. My wife liked it, but I'm not so sure about my daughter. She's that age where she's messaging every 10 seconds, and if the game takes longer than that, it's in the way of important conversations.

Maybe another separate rant here, but my brother has an annoying habit (to me) of giving his wife advice when she's new (or not) in a game. I wouldn't bash it as bad advice, except for the fact that it's unasked-for advice at all. Being my brother, I'll start making fun of him, we get to argue about it a little bit, etc. Anyone got any advice beyond ridicule? Pepper spray? Taser? Make him wash the pile of dinner dishes?

I forgot how much I really like Tikal. I've been playing the IOS game a lot...no AP at all unless I get bogged down. Pretty challenging too. Anyone played Tikal II?

I actually would like to get Mexica and Java...but they seem to be $$$.

Pete, are you playing with an old McMulti set or the Stronghold reissue (Crude)? If I recall, Crude had a couple of minor improvements.

It's a really neat game, but it is pretty old fashioned and I think what you mean by a lack of "magic" is that it is kind of strangely literal. It's almost too specific in some ways. I think the value of the game is mostly that it was a VERY forward-thinking, innovative design that was actually pretty ahead of its time. It's still good today, by today's standards. A little long though.

Michael Barnes wrote: I forgot how much I really like Tikal. I've been playing the IOS game a lot...no AP at all unless I get bogged down. Pretty challenging too. Anyone played Tikal II?

I actually would like to get Mexica and Java...but they seem to be $$$.

I've played Tikal II, and it is a very different game. I'd pretty much say it isn't worth your time at all, but there might be some value playing with kids. Then again, why not pick a game that's great for kids rather than hope with this one.

I finally sold all three of the Mask games last year. They just weren't getting played, even though I really liked Java.

incidentally, here's me using my first emoji's ever to report on our Flash Point game to a player who had to leave early

Michael Barnes wrote: I forgot how much I really like Tikal. I've been playing the IOS game a lot...no AP at all unless I get bogged down. Pretty challenging too. Anyone played Tikal II?

I don't like Tikal II at all. It's just not fun. I have Tikal on iOS...I forget if there's async mode, but if so, we should play.

Pete, are you playing with an old McMulti set or the Stronghold reissue (Crude)? If I recall, Crude had a couple of minor improvements.

I'm playing the Hexagames McMulti, not the original or Stronghold Crude. I read up on the changes, most of which are not so much changes as 'streamlining'. The big one is the fact that the economic situation is more predictable. I wanted this for the SummerSlam Challenge, and getting the reprint didn't really pass muster for that, so I opted to go big and get the McMulti version. There is one HUGE HUGE HUGE translation error, but I was aware of it, so it wasn't a problem: The book says that on doubles, move the gas price track up by X points, but it's actually RED points. We also dropped the win situation to 750MM versus 1B as the Stronghold one does because it shortens the game and actually makes it closer.

It's a really neat game, but it is pretty old fashioned and I think what you mean by a lack of "magic" is that it is kind of strangely literal. It's almost too specific in some ways. I think the value of the game is mostly that it was a VERY forward-thinking, innovative design that was actually pretty ahead of its time. It's still good today, by today's standards. A little long though.

Yeah, that was my impression, to the tee. I am in the commodities business, so there's a strong interest in these kinds of things (I ~love~ Mine a Million, despite it not being that great a game) and even though I had a huge advantage in understanding how this kind of thing happens in the real world, I still got beat like a rented mule. I didn't really pay attention to one player amassing refineries and stuff - he kept saying he was mitigating luck while I was being more conservative and buying and selling in the market with my money. At the end, he beat the shit out of us by at least 200K by selling off all of his assets, which was no small change, and with a nearly-full island, he crushed us by surprise.

I will say that the Hexagames version is WAYYYYY better looking than the Stronghold games version. From what I've seen of Crude, it doesn't have the gas price spiral, but instead has a sideboard (I hate these), and there's no islands...just grids. Way less thematic.

Had family in town over the weekend. Sat out on the deck and played about a dozen games of Crokinole, some 30 hands of Pairs, and at least a dozen hands of Cheaty Moth. Great fun was had, and much beer was consumed. Drunken Wade is a good cheater, but a piss-poor Guard Bug.

SuperflyTNT wrote: 1. Stone Age: This was the first time for some of the Circus Freaks, and as it turns out, it was TOTALLY AWESOME. Even my wife played, and while she was completely fucking drunk. I won, but barely, and it had a lot to do with the fact that they were mostly ignoring boats until mid-game, but they were chewing up the huts and scoring big early. Great session, and you Stone Age deniers are missing out. GREAT game to play stoned or drunk.

I like Stone Age quite a bit (especially as a 2 player game), but what strange ass version are you playing that has boats?

Aha. So Pete has actually been playing Serenissma, thinking it was Stone Age. This explains A LOT.

The 4 boat cards beneath the huts....is there a different Stone Age?
zmangames.com/product-details.php?id=1249

If you have it on iOS, I'd love to play with you. I really, truly love it.

Oh, you're talking about the Civilization Cards - I never noticed the canoe on them. Never heard them called boats before, that threw me. Apparently the theme of Stone Age is indeed paper thin, since I didn't even notice the boats on the cards.

I don't have it on iOS. I'm hesitant to get games on the iPad/iPhone due to a fear of getting sick of them and not wanting to play them in person (this has happened with Carcassonne and to a lesser degree, Dominion). I may pick it up some day though, and will let you know. I have played it a bit on boardgamearena.com and really enjoy it digitally.

Taught New Era with Winter last night, and proceeded to get my ass handed to me. I just couldn't get any synergy going, and the two newbies (one had played once, ages ago) just rocked it. One guy had some devastating combos going that I'd never seen in action. The other was trailing for most of the game and then suddenly in the last two rounds just blew up. They ended up tying. I'm always nervous about teaching it because it's not easy to teach and I like it so much that I'm afraid people will walk away with "really? you like THAT?"