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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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22 Mar 2019 14:33 - 22 Mar 2019 14:34 #294279 by charlest
At game night last night we broke out Cthulhu Wars again. It was our first game without the Ancients in quite awhile. Tossed in Nodens and two other neutral Great Old Ones - I ended up grabbing one of them and can't even remember its name. I was Cthulhu and up against Crawling Chaos, Opener, and Black Goat. All very experienced players. Great game as always.

Opener made his big move to end the game and everyone tried to beat him down on the following round (he was at 27 Doom with 1 Eldar sign). He crossed the 30 plateau and ended up with 32. Fortunately for me I ended up with 36 due to a mess of my own ES and controlling 4 gates in the final round. I killed lots of stuff and only lost Cthulhu himself once.

Then we broke out Mech Command RTS again for a 2v2 matchup. I dig this game and its quirkiness, but some of the scenarios are just not up to snuff. They're varied and each present different tactical challenges, but a couple of times we've hit setups that want you to focus on objectives at the expense of attacking each other.

So for this one we needed to destroy buildings and then collect salvage with our support trucks. The other team went at us hard while we focused on the objectives mostly, with my mech built for speed and attempting to flank the opponents and focus down their trucks. This worked as we absorbed most of the hits and gained a lead in VP quickly due to pulling back salvage.

This scenario was a bit of a stinker because there was little overall incentive to attack the opponent's mechs, which is indeed the best part in the game. It was neat seeing the tank chassis for the first time and some heavier weapons. My highlight was boosting over a skyscraper and dropping down behind the opposing tank, getting in two quick slashes with my energy blade and then firing at him point blank with my blaster.

Afterwards we pulled out Sail to India. It was my third play over a span of several years and I still think it's fine. I won, so there's that.

We closed with two four player games of Hellapagos. This seems to get played every week now. We'll probably stow it away for awhile soon, but it's still bringing surprises and laughs.

Our first play here saw a ballsy maneuver of a player throwing down fruit basket on turn 1. Yes, it killed all of our food and water. He had a food and water card in hand and though he may be able to survive the round and get some cards from nearby deaths, then make it out all alone later. It was ill advised.
Last edit: 22 Mar 2019 14:34 by charlest.
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23 Mar 2019 10:38 #294323 by cdennett

Gregarius wrote: I've been having a terrible time with Hellapagos.
...
I need some hard-core ATers in my life that don't get bent out of shape when someone kills you in a 20 minute game.

You want to make the drive to my side of town Monday nights I might be able to hook you up.

I also picked up Hellapagos after the incessant praise it's getting here, but I've been traveling too much lately and haven't had many game playing opportunities. I'm quite curious how some people in my group will react. This might end up being a BGG.Con kinda game...

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23 Mar 2019 12:38 #294329 by DukeofChutney
Played the Barbarossa scenario from Eastfront and lost 2/3rds of the red army enroute to a loss. I'd played columbia's Eastfront 3 times before this but always a mid war scenario which play out sort of like a big game of stratego. Here there is less bluff more race against time and it really works, makes the game feel very different. The game is really all about production point economics, you have to workout how to get into defensive positions or attack spending the lowest amount of supply and men possible so you can actually increase your capability from one month to the next rather than just plugging all the gaping holes. I wasted to many activations early and paid for it down the straight. more than half my army nearly got encircled in east Ukraine.
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23 Mar 2019 13:12 - 23 Mar 2019 13:13 #294330 by Gary Sax
Played Comanchería last night since I'm stuck in TX, my car died for good.



I love it, but the game is way too fucking hard to even get past era 1 (the period of Comanche expansion irl). I would love to know what the designer was thinking, it's pretty intentional.
Last edit: 23 Mar 2019 13:13 by Gary Sax.
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23 Mar 2019 15:36 #294335 by Michael Barnes
Monolith Arena is simultaneously awesome and disappointing. On the one hand, it is the classic Oracz NH design, gently refined and with 4 new armies that are kind of a “best of” from the NH expansions. This is all great,
Because NH remains great and has really stood the test of time. It’s great to have a new, great-looking and low cost edition of this design available.

But it is kind of a letdown. The Monolith, which is the core addition. Is pretty dumb. It basicallly lets you bank two tiles on the board, and you have the option to “unfold” (???) it, creating a contiguous formation of your banner (HQ) and the two tiles. But it’s a weird mechanism and it creates rules weirdness- and adds some dopey complexity in a game that frankly already has enough dopey complexity. Maybe players who are NH experts and just really want something to mix it up are the target, but after 10 or so games I’m not even taking the Monolith pieces out of the box.

It feels like there could have been more of an effort to make this a new take on the NH formula...but it basically is NH with an addition of questionable value.

Back on the positive side, the game is well produced and at $35 steeer it’s a tremendous value with tons of game that rewards experience and familiarity. The rules and presentation have never been cleaner. The armies are sort of generic fantasy, but they are well defined and each has a unique flavor. The Lords of the Abyss have a nasty poison ability, the elves have high mobility, the humans are able to play extremely powerful charge orders that let their cavalry do a solo attack, and the dwarves have a lot of units with toughness so they have unusual staying power. The Lords of the Abyss May be a little OP.

But overall, $35 for a new edition of NH with fantasy artwork is definitely worthwhile.
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23 Mar 2019 17:39 - 23 Mar 2019 17:41 #294342 by hotseatgames
You forgot to mention those FUCKING SWEET playmats.

I've only used the monoliths one time. I consider them a variant you might use to mix it up every once in a while. They are by no means important to the experience.
Last edit: 23 Mar 2019 17:41 by hotseatgames.
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24 Mar 2019 00:47 #294354 by Ah_Pook
Played a bunch of games today with a friend.

Arkham Horror 2e + Dunwich Horror + Dunwich Horror herald : I've played based AH2e 5 times so far, and I think it has some issues with the pace of the game. Basically it starts with a scramble to get stuff under control, then you seal the big gates and everything's fine and never gets bad again and kinda coasts to the end. Obviously bad luck in various forms can make that go worse but anyway. We added in expansion stuff for the first time today and it got the game into a way better place. Granatathoa woke up and killed us all, and it was brutally fought the whole way. The Dunwich Horror woke up and piled tons of doom on us, a few real bad monster surges maxed out the terror level, the waitress failed to recruit 5 allies from encounters because I guess she's just wildly unlikeable... Yeah it was real good. The difficulty level felt way more correct, and things never got under control. Doubt I'll go back to just the base game again, and I'm really looking forward to trying out more things.

Caylus: Haven't played Caylus in quite a while and it was a great game of it. We went different ways on the favor track and ended up neck and neck at the end (I went points, and bought favors every turn of the third round to bang the 5 point max level repeatedly, he went up the building track and built hella blue buildings). I clinched it by rushing the provost the last two rounds and ending the game a turn before he could build his final big point building and won by 9. Need to get this one to the table more often.

Also played Merchant of Venus 2e and New Frontiers, both of which were great fun as always.
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24 Mar 2019 09:34 #294359 by Shellhead

Ah_Pook wrote: Played a bunch of games today with a friend.

Arkham Horror 2e + Dunwich Horror + Dunwich Horror herald : I've played based AH2e 5 times so far, and I think it has some issues with the pace of the game. Basically it starts with a scramble to get stuff under control, then you seal the big gates and everything's fine and never gets bad again and kinda coasts to the end. Obviously bad luck in various forms can make that go worse but anyway. We added in expansion stuff for the first time today and it got the game into a way better place. Granatathoa woke up and killed us all, and it was brutally fought the whole way. The Dunwich Horror woke up and piled tons of doom on us, a few real bad monster surges maxed out the terror level, the waitress failed to recruit 5 allies from encounters because I guess she's just wildly unlikeable... Yeah it was real good. The difficulty level felt way more correct, and things never got under control. Doubt I'll go back to just the base game again, and I'm really looking forward to trying out more things.


Arkham Horror 2nd base set is a solved game. You focus on sealing six gates and you will win at least 90% of the time. Adding in at least one expansion board is necessary to keep the game challenging. I don't think that a small expansion with a herald is enough to make the game a challenge, but the extra board spreads out the gates more and adds some additional source of trouble, like the Dunwich Horror or the Rifts or the Deep One Uprising.
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24 Mar 2019 10:33 #294363 by Gary Sax
Dunwich is the expansion that created the ffg stereotype of a "fix" 1st expansion. fwiw, the fix is perfect (more unstable locations, busting gates, madness/injury, etx) but it's fair to be a little frustrated by it.

Glad you're enjoying it. I still maintain AH's hegemony over the genre despite its problems.
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24 Mar 2019 13:25 #294367 by hotseatgames
Last night was the debut of Root to my group. We ended up with 4 players, and after I explained the common rules, then the rules for each of the factions, eyes were pretty glossy. Which is understandable, because Root has a lot of rules.

We opted to randomly distribute the roles. I wound up with the fucking cats. Of course.

The game actually went pretty well. The most AP player at the table had the Eyrie, and that motherfucker NEVER went into turmoil. He won because of it. This hammers home the biggest thing about this game... sometimes you can't spend your turn doing what you want. Sometimes you have to fuck somebody up.

The Vagabond was completely peaceful the entire game. He never attacked anyone. He literally damaged his two swords when he was attacked, and never repaired them. He just loped around completing quests and performing Aid. He nearly won, and probably would have, if he would have gotten hostile towards the Eyrie.

There was a point in the game in which I could have gone for a Domination victory. It was very clear that I was not going to get to 30 VPs, and I wish I had attempted it. I do know though, that if I had tried, I would have gotten my ass beat into oblivion. I think if I had done it, the Woodland Alliance probably would have won the game because it would have given them a boost.

The game took 2 1/2 hours due to people figuring out how things worked, and the Eyrie player literally rewinding turns because he didn't understand key rules. Regardless, everyone enjoyed it and I am sure it will see the table again.

I wanted to play it again right after that, but they asked me to pull Doom off of the shelf. I should have told them to fuck off. We all completely forgot how complicated Doom really is; I couldn't remember any of it. Once we finally figured it out, we were 2 turns in and called it. What a waste of time. I'd actually consider selling it, but it is a cool game and will probably be worth a fuck ton some day. Maybe it already is.
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24 Mar 2019 13:32 #294368 by Colorcrayons
Is it the first or second edition of Doom?

If first, yeah it's worth some coin. The expansion alone goes for some bucks. I sold my barely used set in 2012 for $150.

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24 Mar 2019 14:22 #294372 by hotseatgames
Second edition. It's very good. It just doesn't see the table. I also don't like always being the Invader.
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24 Mar 2019 21:03 #294381 by Gary Sax
Pseudo gears of war system, right? That's a great base for a game.

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24 Mar 2019 21:25 #294383 by hotseatgames
I don't think so; it's more like a Descent-style system with deck building added in; weapons picked up put cards in the decks of the marines.
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26 Mar 2019 20:58 - 26 Mar 2019 20:59 #294556 by Gary Sax
I had never played steam before until I downloaded the app when legomancer mentioned it. It's good but it's a lot lighter than I thought. Can see it's very cutthroat.

I must say, the rat's nest of crossing lines that develops late game you have to *very* precisely parse is not great. If you miss something there goes a long route payoff stolen. I could see that would be easier to parse on a board.

I can't figure out what the end game trigger is... fill me in?
Last edit: 26 Mar 2019 20:59 by Gary Sax. Reason: Endless revising.

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