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31 Jul 2019 22:43 - 01 Aug 2019 10:29 #300319 by Jackwraith
Played a couple four-player games of Villainous with the new expansion. The first game was the new three and Hades. The second game was the new three and Evil Queen.

I won the first game as Ratigan. It took a while to dig through my deck to find the Robot Queen, but I had four Gears in play, so putting her down wasn't an issue. But then I got Fated and A Call for Help brought Basil to the Lair and the Queen was discarded. That changes my objective from "Start your turn with the Robot Queen in Buckingham Palace" to "Defeat Basil." Well, I had one Power left, moved one space to collect two Power, played the cat, and Vanquished him. Scar was 4 strength away from winning with a couple heroes in play and Yzma was another turn from winning with Kronk in position to take out Kuzco. Hades just never got started. I think I'm beginning to sympathize with people who think his win condition is just too difficult because he doesn't have enough draw mechanics in his deck.

I won the second game as Yzma when I held Kronk in my hand for several turns so that I could just drop him on Kuzco's space alongside a Palace Guard and take him out. Stopping Yzma is dependent on understanding how her unique Fate mechanic works. This has been a criticism of the game, in that people don't get into it because, as new players, they're only able to process how their character works and not how everyone's else does, as well. I have a couple people who've now played multiple times and do OK and the new player who played Yzma in the first game did great with her, but I certainly have a strategic advantage as the game owner, since I've played far more games than anyone else and understand all 12 characters and how they function.

We moved on to a game of Villagers, which is the first time I've played it. I liked it because it's a very interactive engine builder (which is why 51st State is my favorite), but it's pretty easy to get put in a poor position by the draft that seems unrecoverable. Anyone who snags the baseline villagers like the Carpenter and the Blacksmith has an enormous advantage. Plus, if you don't get access to build symbols so that you can do more on your turn, you simply won't be winning.
Last edit: 01 Aug 2019 10:29 by Jackwraith.
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01 Aug 2019 08:09 #300330 by Legomancer
Played Impulse for the first time in ages. Sadly overlooked Chudyk title that got panned because everyone wanted it to be Tiny Epic Twilight Imperium, but it's not. Unfortunately it doesn't hit the table as often as I'd like so every time it does, we're relearning it and can't just get into the groove of it.

Speaking of which, we then played Spirit Island, which I like, and want to like more, but just can't wrap my head around. I can't seem to internalize how any of it works, and the powers are often so removed that I can't see the useful application of them, though I know they're there. I played a mediium difficulty level spirit, which was a mistake, and I was just flailing around; the other player was basically doing it all himself.
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01 Aug 2019 08:35 - 01 Aug 2019 08:35 #300334 by Vysetron
Impulse is my least favorite Chudyk that I've played, but that's an absurdly high bar. The game's just okay. Innovation does the controlled chaos a lot better and with a lot less complexity/learning curve.
Last edit: 01 Aug 2019 08:35 by Vysetron.
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01 Aug 2019 09:52 - 01 Aug 2019 11:59 #300340 by Gary Sax
I'm not trying to convince you, Lego, but I also bounced hard on spirit island too for my first two games.

Bernie here gave me good advice: don't use the fast power lightning spirit which gives you terrible habits about the core puzzle of the game and use whatever intro buffs you need that will empower you so that you get the satisfying squashes in. Our first 3-4 games we used an additional bonus growth before the game to get us off and running. It's not really about winning per se, but getting your spirit high enough up the power curve to see where the subtlety, builds, and choices are.
Last edit: 01 Aug 2019 11:59 by Gary Sax.
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02 Aug 2019 13:53 #300414 by Msample
Recap of games played at WBC, in no particular order :

COMBAT COMMANDER ( x4 ) . In honor of the tournament getting the rare Sand plaque for sixth place, devious GM Bryan Collars devised four scenarios all set in ...the desert. After winning my first match playing the Brits attacking a over a dry wadi against some dug in Italians, I drew the Brits again in a barren map with no cover other than random debris that players had to move into to find out what they contained - could be entrenchments, could be mines. I avoided them but my smarter opponent took the risk and found mostly cover and proceeded to shoot up my exposed Commonwealth troops. When I did explore I merely found mines and wire and I think one Foxhole, but by then it was too late. The third match was an unusual one in that the visibility was basically 3 hexes due to Night, but inside that range there was no Hindrance. My issue was that it seemed as though my opponents deck was stacked with Time Triggers, as he drew three of them before I could force a Time Check by draining my draw pile. The game ended with my forces adjacent to the objective necessary for the win but unfortunately time ran out . A very close game and probably my favorite of the four scenarios, it really forced both sides to think about the impact of the night range hindrances. The last scenario was one from the Med battle pack featuring lightly armed German paratroopers holding off some Brits on a moderately hilly board. After trading some blows back and forth, I isolated a detachment on the far right flank and once broken, exited a bunch of guys for enough VP to win . My record of 2-2 was not enough to advance, despite plying the sodden GM with several Bloody Mary depth charges stacked with bacon and olives and cheese.

PAX PAMIR 2nd edition ( x 4 ) . The first edition had left me with mixed feelings. But in the interim, I had played PAX RENAISSANCE and got a much better grasp of the whole card tableau mechanic, esp moving Spies ( vs Bishops in PAX REN ) And the new edition cleaned up some stuff and injected some cash into the games tight closed loop economy. So now that I had a much better idea of how to play, I could focus on playing the game vs learning it. This game , to use a cliche, a knife fight in a phone booth . If you don't have control over a province, you have to pay scarce coins to the controlling power to get in . Unlike say PAX PORIFIRANA, you can't take cards from the market and sell them for money. So disposing of cards that your opponents might want is a lot harder. Overall, this game is much higher on my rating scale . I think its OOP right now, so if you see a copy grab it if its a reasonable price. The component quality is top notch - blnged out but nothing unnecessary .

JOHN COMPANY ( x3 ) All three were the six turn campaign, which removes the potentially more interesting de-regulation every man for himself aspect, but is also easier from a rules overhead and flow of play standpoint. This and PAX PAMIR have vaulted Wehrle into auto buy territory for sure. I've heard an expansion is in the works for the next edition where one player will be the Bank of England. I look forward to it. None of the games were blowouts and were pretty damn close score wise.

PAX PORFIRIANA ( x2 ) . I hadn't played in close to two years and after a binge of online games back then on the excellent Yucate online client, playing the physical version was a bit jarring. We played five player, and due to Dr. Rob insisting on not using Iron Hand or the Diaz Senility, both games ended relatively early. I still like the game, but after a bunch of Pamir and Renaissance in the intervening times it seems a bit...off somehow. Mechanically its simpler and more free wheeling so there is that. Still an excellent game, but overshadowed by more recent games in the series. I haven't played PAX EMANCIPATION yet .

Side note - these were the only two games I played the second Saturday. By then I was pretty fried and spent most of the day catching up with people and just hanging out; didn't feel like I was missing anything by not playing.

SPACE BASE ( x 2 ) . The hot new filler game of recent times. I didn't play in the event on Saturday but just a couple pick up games. I still avoid some of the more complex/weird ability cards and focus on mostly the more basic ones. In the second game I had a really good money engine going, usually having $10-$15 each turn I could either spend or hold to buy something really big - I rarely bought off the first two that game and ended up winning. This game strikes me as something that will be totally dead and buried in two years a la Race For the Galaxy but for now seems to be enjoying its 15 minutes of fame.

SPACECORP ( x2 ) . One base game in the tournament; one player got out to an early lead and really milked the Cooperative Empathy Adaptation, which to this point I had kind of ignored. It allows you to copy other Infras w/o giving the owner a card draw. I'll def give it more consideration going forward. One playtest of the expansion, which consists of a bunch of new corporations, each of which have unique powers/downsides. For instance, mine allowed upgrading TWO Infra cards per turn, as well as upgrading directly from the Offer display. The downside was that I could only Research/draw ONE card vs the usual two. I could also take a VP instead of a card draw when someone used my Infra, which converted the Contracts in all three eras for upgrades. These new corps really spread out the variability and offer a ton more replay value. I had envisioned this would be the path the expansion would take, but was unprepared just how many different things that can be done to differentiate them from one another and add in zero new rules, so they are very easy to integrate .

WAR OF THE RING ( x2 ) . Lost in both the Mulligan round ( as Fellowship to a military victory pretty early ) and in the first round as the Shadow. In the latter game, I had gotten up to 8 VP relatively easily, taking Helms Deep, Woodland Realm, Pelargir, Dol Amroth, and Dale. I had cornered and almost killed Aragorn, but he used Scouts to escape and wound up in Minas Tirith with a 10 figure army including lots of Elites due to several Events. The Fellowship holed up there and healed to zero corruption since their journey there had resulted in a fair amount of carnage since I had 2-3 Eyes in the box all but one turn along with many Nazgul and Orc re-rolls. . Meanwhile I set out to take Lorien for the win, but twice I ate 4-5 hits in a single round of combat and decimated my besieging forces. Basically, I stalled out and allowed the filthy little hobbits to waltz into Mordor and casually dunk the ring with only like 4 Corruption. Hope the little fuckers get lung cancer from all the smoke they inhaled.

PACIFIC TYPHOON - played a qualifying round and won a relatively low scoring game - I think I had 27 points. That got me into the semis, my first trip there in 4-5 years.

ATLANTIC STORM - the default version for later rounds, I was stuck at the table with two former event winners, one of whom ended up winning after winning a few large battles solo, taking about half his total points from those two convoys. I like the new cards and events that basically increase card churn and decrease hands where you are left with no play. But the graphics are a definite step back in terms of readability, esp discerning Atlantic from Arctic theater.

GLORY TO ROME - never gets old . I had a very good engine going that allowed me to draw up to 12 clients. However, as usual the Vault was the key, with one player scoring 2 bonuses and winning despite finishing like 2 buildings.

WELCOME TO CENTERVILLE. Anna and I taught Jeff Heideman this game, hadn't played it in awhile. It gets overlooked but has a deceptive amount of depth to it. Unusual in that nobody really bought Education at all so no disasters came out . Can't remember the final score, other than Jeff won.

WARRIORS OF GOD: James Terry and I went for a change of pace and played the lesser known LION IN WINTER scenario. Yeah, the one with Robin Hood. My French started off decently, but as can happen, a disease stricken turn that saw five of my leaders bite the dust saw the start of my eventual decline . Still a very fun game and between people that know what they are doing, quick so if you get hosed by the dice gods, at least you didn't burn an entire day playing it . I think we finished in well under two hours after playing maybe to 6 turns.

LABYRINTH: my first game of the con, playing Jeff Burdett Friday afternoon. We played the base game first deck and then added the expansion deck if we finished the first deck, which we did. But by the end of the initial deck, Jeffs US was on the ropes - he spent almost the entire game at negative Prestige and was thus hamstrung on War of Ideas. I ended it on the first turn of the expansion deck by converting Syria to Islamic Revolution to go along with the adjacent Iraq and Indonesia for the win. Been awhile since I played this, its enjoyable due to its extreme asymmetry. I have only played the expansion once; I think a second expansion is being worked on.

SPACE EXPLORERS : sort of Splendor meets space race. I didn't really care for it and yes I rushed Bill into explaining it so we missed a key rule ( you can chuck a card for two wild card icons ) but even with that sorted out, its just too light for my tastes . That said, the period artwork is outstanding. On a related note, I saw some folks in open gaming playing what looked to be a game of LEAVING EARTH with expansions on a nice neoprene playmat.

TERRAFORMING MARS: one game, just the base game with an expansion map. I think Bruce Monin won, I can't remember. Its been almost a year since I'd played it.

TIME OF CRISIS: we played with the expansion cards added to the base cards, but not the Emperor variants. Anna got to be Emperor first and due to some player squabbling, was able to hang on long enough to build a lead too far to catch up. By the end game two of the trailers got within shouting distance, but I ended up pretty far behind . None of us had used the new cards and I suspect we were all sort of experimenting more than actually optimizing play. I really like what they add to the game and would not go back to just the base game. On a related note, played a demo of BARRACKS EMPEROR and liked what I saw. Its basically a trick taking game, the twist being that a card you play on the tableau also potentially helps an opponent.

SUCCESSORS: Dr. Rob, Doug Smith, Jeromey ( fresh off exploiting the East India Company yet again ) and sat down for this classic on Friday morning. I got Antigonus and Peithon, pretty far apart from one another. So I set out to consolidate the far east and use Antigonus to snatch one province but more importantly lineback Asia Minor for when Doug's body bearing horde came thru to attempt a Pella body dunk. But Fate dealt me an opportunity and I was able to steal the body and bury it in Asia Minor, removing a Legitimacy victory from consideration for anyone. Dr. Rob was trying to cajole me into making a run for Pella ( where he had two generals no doubt ready to "help" ) but with my forces too far apart I didn't want to risk it - I've seen too many games decided by a body convoy losing at the gates of Pella and the locals pick up the body for the win. After the body got buried, Doug held the key the game end as he had all the heirs and after defeating both Antigonus ( who rolled snake eyes ) and Ptolemy, his control of most of Asia Minor and the Levant was enough to seal the win for him at the end of turn 4. The game ran a bit long ( 6 hours for 4 turns ) but with a good group of people it didn't drag. We played using 3rd edition, with a few of the variant cards ( Cleitus, Salvation in the 11th Hour ) thrown in.

Sadly that evening we learned that Richard Berg had passed.

Finally, JAWS !! Played twice and saw several more matches being played. This has be one of the best $30 you can spend . Go get some.
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02 Aug 2019 14:35 #300415 by Jackwraith
There's a copy of Pax Pamir sitting on the shelf at one of my FLGSs, but I'm not willing to throw down $100 for it.
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02 Aug 2019 14:44 #300416 by Msample

Jackwraith wrote: There's a copy of Pax Pamir sitting on the shelf at one of my FLGSs, but I'm not willing to throw down $100 for it.


That's not a bad price given the components and the likely increase in price once it goes full on OOP . I think retail is $80? I don't think it went to the usual mail order discount places.

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03 Aug 2019 02:33 #300434 by Gary Sax
Fuck msample, that is how you game. Jealous of a lot of those plays! 3x John Company games!

That 2nd war of the ring game sounds pretty epic.

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03 Aug 2019 09:59 - 03 Aug 2019 10:00 #300437 by Ah_Pook

Msample wrote:

Jackwraith wrote: There's a copy of Pax Pamir sitting on the shelf at one of my FLGSs, but I'm not willing to throw down $100 for it.


That's not a bad price given the components and the likely increase in price once it goes full on OOP . I think retail is $80? I don't think it went to the usual mail order discount places.


It was a Kickstarter only game, with extras sold throughthe publishers website. There has been talk of another print run but nothing solid yet. MSRP was $80-85 i forget, $100 is a pretty reasonable price given all that, and if another print run isn't incoming that price is going to go way up I think. I wouldnt pay that much for it personally, but it's a really cool game.
Last edit: 03 Aug 2019 10:00 by Ah_Pook.

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04 Aug 2019 16:54 - 04 Aug 2019 16:54 #300466 by hotseatgames
Today I played Freakface for the first time. Two players, and both of us had played Psycho Raiders. The rules are very similar. I was the teenagers, and my friend played the creeps and freaks.

The teens start out in a bad way, trapped in the maze of mirrors, directly adjacent to Freakface himself! Little Randy starts at the fence and has a pistol. The teens start out aided by another guy, Brady, possibly, but he has a chance to turn out sinister, so I didn't trust him. I sent him one way, and the two teens the other way. I soon found myself pursued by Gator Man and Triangle Boy (I'm getting names wrong). A wheel of monsters showed up to cause havoc as well. Freakface tried to turn Brady into a freak, but failed.

Randy entered the big top from the side and started attacking Triangle Boy, and everyone else piled on. Triangle Boy was felled, his brains bashed all over the place after getting shot with a BB gun. It happens.

The Evil Carny Lucius caught up with Brady and he got beaten into oblivion. Poor Randy almost got run over by the Fortune Teller riding on a rampaging train car, but he expertly side-stepped and filled the car full of lead. The Fortune Teller was unharmed and started pursuing Vaughn. Motorcycle Man was moving to intercept Vaughn as well.

Meanwhile, Lucinda managed to make progress, riding a carousel to boost her movement as she made her way to the edge of the tent. Once she got out of sight of the evil Electrician, she hid. On the next turn, she used a burst of speed to get under the tent wall and over the chainlink fence to freedom. Victory for the side of Good!

Okay.... so what do I think of Freakface after one play? I think it has more variety than Psycho Raiders, but PR is leaner and more focused. I could see both seeing play, but if I'm in the mood for this kind of thing I'd have to think twice before not just playing Psycho Raiders. And let's talk about that map.... they really need to work on their printing. It's too damn dark, and half the time you can't even tell what is supposed to be a wall vs. not a wall. They need to learn that evocative art is worthless if no one can tell what is going on.

I genuinely appreciate their attention to detail; these games evoke stories in ways that most games just... don't.
Last edit: 04 Aug 2019 16:54 by hotseatgames.
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04 Aug 2019 17:48 #300467 by Shellhead
Drove north an hour to play boardgames with Edulis of F:AT and some locals. I spent the whole day moving furniture and painting, so I wasn't up for a long night of gaming. Neither was anybody else.

We had five players, so I suggested Battle for Rokugan. I played Unicorn Clan because I picked last and my other options were Lion (military) and Phoenix (magic). I spent most of the game battling with the Dragon Clan for control of the north. We were both based there, and I also needed to claim the Phoenix lands up there. Edulis was playing the Crane and spent most of the game fighting the Crab and the Scorpion for control of the coast, the south, and a big island. In the end, four of us clumped up for the loss with 10 to 14 honor each, while the Crane walked away with 26. It helped that he locked down a couple of valuable territories with diplomacy early on. And it hurt the rest of us that some other prime real estate got put to the torch.

Two of the other guys needed to leave by midnight, so we picked a shorter game, which was Kill Dr. Lucky. It was a close, tense game that finally ended when somebody went for the default poke in the eye and nobody had failure cards left.

At the end, we played a filler card game called Saboteuer. We played gnomes who were tunneling to get at a subterranean trove of gold. It's a traitor game with some take-that play. It was mildly fun, as the better fillers can be.
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05 Aug 2019 10:01 - 05 Aug 2019 10:02 #300477 by Vysetron
Went to a pop-up GenCon at a local store. Was a good time. We played 6p Mystery Wizard on my pnp copy and 4p XCOM.

Our game of MysWiz was a overly long clusterfuck that still left 3 people wanting to buy it. It was a particularly brutal game; took a while for the first mystery to get solved and it snowballed from there. I don't know if I'd say it's at its best at 6p, but I'd rather play MysWiz than not. "The Moment" of this game for me was when a player cast Weird Wednesday, which lets them switch cards/characters/physical seats with another player, and it got countered by a spell that only works if you roll a hard 6.

XCOM...I didn't like XCOM. It was a tutorial game so I recognize that it was somewhat on rails, but rolling a bunch of dice with 1/3 success chances over and over doesn't really invoke the source material to me. Maybe if you're bad at real XCOM it does, I dunno. I'd try it again, but it's gonna be an uphill battle.

Not gonna post this bit in the "stuff I bought" thread because it doesn't really apply: spent $10 at the event, and due to random drawings/ding and dent walked out with Res Arcana, Arctic Scavengers with expansions, and Witness. That last one surprised me. I guess no one realized that game's like $90 now. I already know I like AS. Res didn't impress me before but for basically no money I figured I'll give it a few chances. Worst case I sell it or harvest its bits.
Last edit: 05 Aug 2019 10:02 by Vysetron.
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05 Aug 2019 10:12 #300481 by Sagrilarus

Shellhead wrote: Two of the other guys needed to leave by midnight, so we picked a shorter game, which was Kill Dr. Lucky. It was a close, tense game that finally ended when somebody went for the default poke in the eye and nobody had failure cards left.


This game has been the topic of debate in our group for years because my buddy Paul let someone win one time. The guy to his left took a shot at the Doc and everyone around the table left the whole damn thing to Paul to stop him. Paul wasn't even in the lead. So he asked on time if anyone including the leaders wanted to throw even one token in and when everyone said it was his problem he just said "nope" and let the guy win. "That's what you get for screwing me over."

So . . . half the group is saying "it's in the rules, you HAVE to stop him" and Paul's answer is more or less that the game is stupid if that's the rule. He proposes that maybe, just maybe, a little brinkmanship would add some flavor to the game, encouraging other players to take some level of weight off of the guy to the right of the killer. Expands the conversation a bit.

I was in complete agreement with Paul. If on my turn someone says, "no, you have to do exactly this" it's more or less a tedious exercise. Granted this is a light game. But it has proven way more interesting when we play it that the last guy doesn't have to spend his chits, especially since they're open knowledge on the table in front of him.
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05 Aug 2019 10:14 #300482 by Sagrilarus
We (my family) got in Deception: Murder in Hong Kong which I think my family liked more than I did. I bought it months back and sent it directly to my daughter at Towson University because she was playing a lot of games with her friends there. That's a college thing now apparently. Her group loved it and she brought it home this weekend for us to try.

It's fine. I think I like Codenames better. Kind of in a similar genre.
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05 Aug 2019 10:16 - 05 Aug 2019 11:05 #300483 by charlest
The Freakface map is very aggravating Mark. I don't think they intended to print it that dark.


I'm back from Gen Con and exhausted. I go to Gen Con as kind of a getaway with a group of friends. We actually bring a lot of games we've been itching to play and don't get/check out much new. Of course I usually bring newer review copies with me (such as Sovereign's Chain and QE). We also meet up with some friends from Detroit/Chicago - people we met at Gen Con five years ago and now hang out with every year - and forge many memories.

Here's what we played:

Secret Hitler (7 plays) - We played this every night of the convention. Totally awesome and I won 6 out of 7 games. In one particular game a good guy outed two of us bad guys early on. I managed to convince one Liberal to believe me and we somehow got Hitler elected.

In another play, Raf did an actual spit-take and spat water across the entire table. We were dying. With the right people, this game is top shelf.

Finger Guns at High Noon (5 plays) - I brought this one not thinking much of it. It's kind of a Bang-style game where you countdown 3-2-1 and then make a gang sign/signal with your hand to perform an action. Things like pointing your finger at another player to shoot them, throwing up the devil horns for blow up Dynamite, or a number of fingers to heal that many.

But it's extremely social with a ton of negotiation and is completely silly. It's one of my games of the con and I wasn't surprised to hear Indie Boards and Cards sold out by Friday (it's only $15 MSRP).

We loved this one. Tons of table talk about forming a posse (if half or more of the table puts their thumb up to form a posse those who didn't suffer 5 damage). People agreeing then backsliding to instead look dumb by making a circular lasso motion. The lasso action grants you the special ally character in the middle of the table, which is a permanent special ability, but you don't succeed if anyone else at the table lassoes. Lots of talk like "that ability kind of sucks" and then multiple people trying to sneak it in thinking no one else will and no one getting it.

There's also this brilliant mechanism where we have to flash our hand signs when any player counts down 3-2-1. If you performed the previous countdown you can't do the next. You can count down at any speed though. Occasionally we'd be in conversation, possibly arguing about something, and someone would rush the count out of nowhere trying to take people by surprise. If you don't get your action up fast enough it doesn't count.

So, one time I said we should all posse, asked another player what he thought and he began to explain his opinion but I hammered the countdown and Power Shot him immediately (a huge attack that is unsuccessful if anyone else shoots you). It's hilarious watching other people scramble to come up with a sign on the spot and what they choose.

I have no idea if I ever won this because it doesn't matter. All throughout the con we'd be playing something else and randomly someone would rush a countdown and a few of us would throw up Finger Gun actions.

Android: Netrunner Terminal Directive (x3) - We played this on day 0, before leaving for the con. I think we're almost done and I finally won a couple of games as the runner. I think I'm like 3-5.

Betrayal Legacy (x2) - Carved out some time to play this one with three of us during downtime on Saturday afternoon. We've now finished four sessions of this and I'm really digging it. It's definitely better than standard Betrayal. For those who have played we opened the Helm and I absolutely love it.

Horrified (x2) - Solid game for sure. I love how they tied defeating the monsters to a mini-game associated with each. The Creature from the Black Lagoon is my favorite of these films so pushing that little boat along certainly hit some nostalgia factors.

I do have some concerns on this one long-term. If you're going to play it more than a half dozen times, I think the basic structure would get repetitive. You're basically just moving around a board (one that looks stunning) spending actions to pick up items and then moving some more to drop them off. The game is centered on the antagonists and that's where the interesting elements lie.

But the mini-games aren't complex or overly novel. They're largely similar really with only a few minor variations on how the track or collection works.

So, I dig this one but it's not nearly as good as Jaws and I'm certainly fine never playing it again.

Jaws (x2) - This game rocks. It's also much better with a full complement of players discussing possible locations for the shark and collaborating on strategy.

It's been tense and down to the wire each time. My only point of criticism is that the first phase feels almost inconsequential in terms of balance or affecting the outcome of the second phase. It certainly matters as it affects the card draw, but the wild and random nature of the dice and card effects has me questioning whether it really matters.

And if the first phase is almost inconsequential, I'm not sure that even matters that much. It's still fun and tremendously thematic. In our last game, I ate Quint in the final showdown as he was hacking at me with his machete. Hopper finished me with his hammer though.

Q.E. (x2) - This one is fascinating. After our second play we talked about it for an hour and even drew graphs to help focus discussion.

I agree with the comments here that a particular strategy may be dominant, but I think I was convinced that it can be shut down if the rest of the table bands together and simply allows the player to commit suicide and lose the game.

I think this is a flaw in the game but it's one that's surmountable. The game needed a simple change - the winning bid should get the first pick of multiple tiles, second highest bid should then get to pick, and so on. There needs to a point value award for not over-bidding when someone decides to take the game off the rails. It still would have nailed its thematic points this way and it would have a built in mechanism to align gameplay.

Time Chase (x2) - Here's one you won't hear about anywhere. This is a trick-taker from Renegade that is wonderful. I don't even like many trick-takers.

The novel mechanism here is that it has time travel. You receive gems each turn and can go back in time and influence previously won tricks. The winner is the first to have three tricks won at the end of a turn. It's pretty wild and thinky for a trick-taker. Very unique.

Bahamas - An interesting game of stealing cards and money from each other, with action selection based on a dice roll. It reminds me vaguely of Tiefe Taschen (it's not the same mechanically but it fits in the same slot). The problem is TT is much better and I'd always choose it over this.

Blockbuster - This recent party game is a bit underrated, but it's not as good as Time's Up. Wish I would have brought Time's Up instead.

Blood Rage - Great game where we all pursued different paths and scores ended up with the winner only besting last place by 6 points. I'm used to seeing at least a couple of players blown out so this was pretty tense.

Condottiere - Love every play of it. I had a big maneuver near the end of round one where Raf and I were the only one left with cards. We were fighting bitterly over a territory and I realized I couldn't likely win. I had one card left (he had several) and I offered - if you pass and let me win this, I will play my last three next battle and you can win that one. This way we each end the first round with a win rather than risk getting nothing.

He accepted after some debate and then I discarded the winter card I was holding to drop the hammer.

Cosmic Encounter - Great play of this with a five player win. Poor dude with only 2 colonies.

Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates - A Glenn Drover game that's kind of a pirate race thing. You have three ships, each on a different path (think track in a racing game). It's deckbuilding and you play cards out of your hand to move one of your ships. You can't really push all three of your ships so you need to commit to really shoving forward a couple.

There are considerations besides finishing in a certain position, such as needing to stop at ports and collect goods to buy better cards. It kind of mixes some Euro-style set collection and efficient gathering of resources with deckbuilding to fuel a race game.

Utterly average and forgettable.

Fate of the Elder Gods - I feel duped by this one. My buddy played it Thursday night while I was busy in another game, and he raved about it. I played it Friday with him and it fell flat for me. It looks like an area control game where you're cultists competing to summon their great old one (which wins you the game). But it's really more of a worker placement game that's highly repetitive and very convoluted.

I won by kind of hitting the same two locations as often as possible. Felt like I was playing a Euro overall, despite being raided by investigators, casting spells, etc. Fine never playing again.

Flamme Rouge - Still love it. I wished we were playing this instead during Drover's Pirates.

Hako Onna - Maybe my most disappointing play of the convention. This game is on fire conceptually - one player is a dead girl stuffed in a box, able to move around the mansion and live in other boxes. The other players are trying to search all of the boxes and find a way out of the mansion (which there are multiple paths such as finding the girl's weakness, unlocking a safe to grab some keys and then make it out the secret door, or returning the doll to the girl's bones). The trick is that if you open the box with the girl you are dead.

So it's this horror thing with tension and kind of reverse hide and seek. It wasn't bad and it was certainly ok, but I had hope it would be great. One thing which is very annoying is this mini-game where you stack discs. Players must stack a disc before they take their turn, if the stack falls the girl player interrupts and goes. This sounded awesome. Unfortunately the stacking of discs is so extremely difficult it didn't work.

They do provide an alternative system which works fine, but it's not the same.

Hanamikoji - Surprised how much I enjoyed this. Battleline-ish.

Hellapagos - Seven player game. Raf had never played before and he tried to work a deal for someone to trade him some bullets for his gun. I wasn't letting that alliance form as I had a gun and two bullets. I shot Raf and then threatened the player who had another two bullets to give them to me or I'd shoot him. I got those, then a round later shot three players. Two of them had the sheet metal!

All was well as I eventually was able to get another bullet by working a deal and shot a player, allowing me and the first guy with bullets who I strong-armed to win.

High Society - Yep. Spent too much.

Inis w/ Expansion - Great play. The expansion is solid but nothing spectacular. More cars and a fifth player are good. The ports are interesting and worth including. I like the altered end game well enough. The little season wheel thing is dumb and unnecessary extra cruft to remember. Would almost never choose to play with it.

Palm Trees - Dumb card game where you have to hold these plastic palm leaf cards in your hand. Each card has rules on it which require you to hold it with certain fingers. You play until someone drops a card and then total points. The game comes with cloth sleeves depicting a palm tree stump. You wear these on your arm. It's dumb. I really enjoyed this game but it's not something I'd play often. Reminds me of Yogi of course.

Pax Pamir 2 - Our first play Wednesday night at the convention. One new player. Riveting game where it came down to the Dominance check as the very last card. Every other card was removed from the offer. Crazy.

Quacks of Quedlinburg - Fun for sure. Nothing I need to own and I'd still prefer Can't Stop, Incan Gold, or World Championship Russian Roulette if we're doing push your luck. Still, I dug it and I played well enough to win a four player game by a solid margin.

Rising Sun - I played poorly but had a great time as always.

Skull King - A trick-taker which was fine. Some neat weird powerful cards that trump everything, but it's a lot of book-keeping and a little complex. Definitely preferred Time Chase.

Sovereign's Chain - Need more plays of this. It's another quiet Wizkids release that will get no buzz. Wonky tableau builder where you play cards to your, or another player's tableau. Cards do weird things such as cover other cards. There are two suits and your final score is the difference between them - so you want high in one and low (preferably 0) in the other. You play to other player's tableaus to of course raise the suit that they don't want.

Lots of nifty abilities and thinky play in 30 minutes. Love the event deck which has some crazy rules. One of my favorite plays of the convention.

Tentacle Town - Got in another play of this one. Still feel it's a solid family game. It's not a mind-blower and the most fun part is tossing harpoon tiles across the board.

Cosmic Frog - This has progressed much from last year. It was smoother and still a very fun time. Jim is of course always enjoyable to be around.

I did provide some feedback and there's one mechanic in the game which basically has you lose one or more turns in a row - being knocked into the outer dimension of the cosmos. While narratively delightful, I'm very much anti-skip a turn in modern board game design. It's certainly not a significant enough portion of the game to ruin it for me, but we'll see how the final version ends up. I know Jim's reluctant to get rid of it completely, but he was considering ideas to tweak it.

Valley of the Vikings - Haba game that's kind of like Viking bowling. It's fine but not something I'd play with adults.

Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault - Fantastic game where I played Magore's Fiends and opponent was the Dwarves in season one. He bested me by a small margin due to some clever play, very satisfying overall. I got Dreadfane (the new streamlined core set for Barnes & Noble), and am eager to try out its event deck in regular games of Warhammer Underworlds.

Word Slam - Second time playing this one and it was pretty enjoyable. I'm down with team-based party games.
Last edit: 05 Aug 2019 11:05 by charlest.

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