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26 Aug 2019 10:57 - 26 Aug 2019 10:58 #301088 by RobertB
Last week I browbeat the wife and daughter into playing Century: Spice Road. So far I like it better than Splendor. You definitely have to watch the other players when you're targeting which point card to go after.

Then I met my brother at the local game club last Saturday. He bought Cthulhu Wars with him, but we couldn't get a third player; my nephew had other plans, and it was really too nice an afternoon to boardgame. We played 2-player, but my vast zero-game experience makes me believe that it isn't really a 2-player game. He had Black Goat, and I had Crawling Chaos. One of his powers was, "Oh look, free guys," and the free guys could soak combat losses. Between that and my lack of skill, the final score was 30-20.

Afterwards I played a couple of games of Wingspan. The third printing has shipped, and you can get it at a reasonable price (~$40) now. The first game was with my brother, and he beat me in a close one. Evidently I'm not the Wingspan god I thought I was. The second game was with two other club members, and I came in a distant third - I'm definitely not the Wingspan god I thought I was. Both of the other players got combos that helped them a lot more than my bird choices helped me. I do enjoy it though; you have to think a little bit, the birds are neat, and it plays fast.
Last edit: 26 Aug 2019 10:58 by RobertB.

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26 Aug 2019 12:15 #301090 by cdennett

RobertB wrote: Cthulhu Wars... We played 2-player, but my vast zero-game experience makes me believe that it isn't really a 2-player game.

It's not. There are some special 2-player rules the designer has put out for it, but even he admits they're not very good.
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26 Aug 2019 14:35 - 26 Aug 2019 14:36 #301092 by Gary Sax

RobertB wrote: Afterwards I played a couple of games of Wingspan. The third printing has shipped, and you can get it at a reasonable price (~$40) now. The first game was with my brother, and he beat me in a close one. Evidently I'm not the Wingspan god I thought I was. The second game was with two other club members, and I came in a distant third - I'm definitely not the Wingspan god I thought I was. Both of the other players got combos that helped them a lot more than my bird choices helped me. I do enjoy it though; you have to think a little bit, the birds are neat, and it plays fast.


40 bucks is a good price for a nice light game like this. I'm pretty lukewarm on it, honestly, it's in deep "6" territory, but I'm always glad to play it because it at least has some variety for such a light game.

Hard to believe how hard BGG went in on it, from my perspective. I *do* see why it has crossed into the mainstream.

Real pumped for this three player game of Pamir elsewhere on the site.
Last edit: 26 Aug 2019 14:36 by Gary Sax.
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26 Aug 2019 17:16 #301098 by Ah_Pook
Bought a copy of Shark for $5, tried it out with my brothers today. Its a stock game from the 80s, but it's actually largely a dice gambling game where certain outcomes allow you to savagely attack other players. It's REALLY FUN! it looks like it will be basically Acquire, but the dice and the volatility of the market make it feel pretty different. I could see it dragging if the dice don't let you reach one of the end conditions, but I'm not sure how often that will actually happen. If you like stock/gambling games this one is definitely worth checking out. Plus it has maybe the best cover art I've ever seen.
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26 Aug 2019 18:29 #301099 by A Lad Insane
I played this once. The first half of the game was so boring, and then it happened. Shit got real. People were attacking each other, it was vicious! This was at the old Lancaster Host for the WBC.
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26 Aug 2019 22:58 #301108 by Michael Barnes
Oh, Shark is a good one...I kind of prefer the later version, mainly because the art of the old one is not great. There are some differences, I can’t remember what they are though. Definitely a fun Acquire-ish game.

Come to find out, I like just about all Acquire-ish games. Big Boss and Rheinlander for example.

Played a couple of games of Lifeform, Mark Chaplin’s (Yugblad) Alien tribute.
It’s pretty awesome, but it’s not going to be for everybody. It is a decidedly old school adventure game in some ways, it makes me think of Awful Green Things, Old SPI adventure designs, Dwarfstar titles, maybe even Legend of Robin Hood..:mainly in that it is all very specific and takes a “narrative or bust” approach. Which makes it sort of inelegant and awkward...the rules aren’t the best, but it’s a kind of complex design so expect to spend some time working it out. But it’s worth it because doesn’t really feel like -anything- else on the market. It’s very singular with some really cool things going on. I’m liking it quite a bit. The multiplayer game is superior to the solo mode, but playing alone is pretty neat as it is quite different.
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27 Aug 2019 00:02 #301110 by DarthJoJo
Played Knizia’s cooperative Lord of the Rings with my mom, I as Frodo, her as Sam. It’s such an odd duck of a game. I can’t think of any other game that straitjackets you so tight to the existing story (discard Éowyn to cancel the effects of the Lord of the Nazgûl, discard a friendship icon to ‘speak friend and enter’ and avoid a penalty) but the majority of the very many named characters and items that appear are also represented by just two of five icons and zero text. At the same time this very long story is told in a straightforward game of hand and resource management. You could rush the victory track, but you have to watch out for your fellow Hobbits, allow them the time to collect the resources they need. You may have to volunteer to take on hardships for your own fellowship. It’s quite a feat what Knizia achieves with just a few icons and tracks. For all it’s simplicity, it’s not a rule set that could so easily be adapted to another setting.

I can see why the later-coming Pandemic introduced the hobby to cooperative games. I couldn’t see playing Lord of the Rings more than a few times a year. There are probably optimal plays, and it lacks the turn-by-turn variability of a Pandemic or Ghost Stories, but Knizia’s game is a splendid thing in its achievements.
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27 Aug 2019 08:54 #301116 by charlest

Michael Barnes wrote: Oh, Shark is a good one...I kind of prefer the later version, mainly because the art of the old one is not great. There are some differences, I can’t remember what they are though. Definitely a fun Acquire-ish game.

Come to find out, I like just about all Acquire-ish games. Big Boss and Rheinlander for example.

Played a couple of games of Lifeform, Mark Chaplin’s (Yugblad) Alien tribute.
It’s pretty awesome, but it’s not going to be for everybody. It is a decidedly old school adventure game in some ways, it makes me think of Awful Green Things, Old SPI adventure designs, Dwarfstar titles, maybe even Legend of Robin Hood..:mainly in that it is all very specific and takes a “narrative or bust” approach. Which makes it sort of inelegant and awkward...the rules aren’t the best, but it’s a kind of complex design so expect to spend some time working it out. But it’s worth it because doesn’t really feel like -anything- else on the market. It’s very singular with some really cool things going on. I’m liking it quite a bit. The multiplayer game is superior to the solo mode, but playing alone is pretty neat as it is quite different.


Yeah, I have this one and am hoping to play it tomorrow night, not sure if it will happen. One thing I like about the solo mode is how the lifeform is abstracted away from the board and you use the motion tracker. Very clever and it feels like the pressure is cranked up right away.

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27 Aug 2019 09:29 - 27 Aug 2019 09:30 #301117 by RobertB

DarthJoJo wrote: Played Knizia’s cooperative Lord of the Rings with my mom, I as Frodo, her as Sam. It’s such an odd duck of a game. I can’t think of any other game that straitjackets you so tight to the existing story (discard Éowyn to cancel the effects of the Lord of the Nazgûl, discard a friendship icon to ‘speak friend and enter’ and avoid a penalty) but the majority of the very many named characters and items that appear are also represented by just two of five icons and zero text. At the same time this very long story is told in a straightforward game of hand and resource management. You could rush the victory track, but you have to watch out for your fellow Hobbits, allow them the time to collect the resources they need. You may have to volunteer to take on hardships for your own fellowship. It’s quite a feat what Knizia achieves with just a few icons and tracks. For all it’s simplicity, it’s not a rule set that could so easily be adapted to another setting.

I can see why the later-coming Pandemic introduced the hobby to cooperative games. I couldn’t see playing Lord of the Rings more than a few times a year. There are probably optimal plays, and it lacks the turn-by-turn variability of a Pandemic or Ghost Stories, but Knizia’s game is a splendid thing in its achievements.


A fellow member of the local gaming club swears by this game, says he would play it all day every day. But I saw a game of this once, where him and two other alpha gamers argued for 10 minutes over some particular play. That looked like the opposite of fun to me, but I'll grant it was probably more the players than the game.
Last edit: 27 Aug 2019 09:30 by RobertB.
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27 Aug 2019 13:20 #301129 by barrowdown
We played the fifth case of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases and were 100% right. We nailed everything because we were awesome. Also, I do not like ciphers in the middle of my game as it grinds the game to a halt while one person sits there staring at it. Otherwise, this was a better scenario than the other ones and did not require any outrageous leaps in deduction.

I also played 8 games of Zombie Kidz Evolution in a row with the minihuman as she was worried about the first day of school and found it comforting to whack zombies. We have now unlocked everything in the box. She did request it again last night so we will probably work through the rest, but if anyone has any suggestions on a legacy-like game for around age 6-7 that would be much appreciated!

I also soloed one game of Supply Lines of the American Revolution: The Northern Theater, 1775-1777 from Hollandspiele. I think it is a terrible solo game. It is designed for two players, but unlike most wargames that have no hidden information, it does not play well solo. It is too chess-like in its structure and too stripped down to be interesting as a solo game. There is not enough chrome for solo play and the limited paths (which give it the chess feel) make it too constricted to play with. I am curious to try it out with two players, but if you are thinking it will work for just one, I think it fails.
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27 Aug 2019 23:56 #301153 by DarthJoJo
My mom taught me cribbage tonight. I have missed nothing.

I can see the appeal of the tactility of the board and pegs, and there is just enough decision-space that you feel like you earned your points, but dealer gets a point if the turn-up is a jack? The dealer gets to score a whole second hand? You can steal points?

I kind of like the two phases of the game between playing for 31 and scoring the hand, but I feel like we should have been able to evolve the rules into something better over the ensuing centuries.
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28 Aug 2019 15:34 #301173 by boothwah
I played Gloomhaven this weekend. My buddy bought it for another buddy's bday. We cracked it open and punched what we needed for the first scenario and then played it over other games the rest of the weekend. It was like being 12 and playing Hero Quest on a long weekend all over again.

I'm gobsmacked. What fun.

I'll do a better write up, after I catch up on work, but all I could think about on the way back, was which games were getting sold/traded to make room for GH.
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28 Aug 2019 18:46 #301188 by boothwah
I liked it enough, that I'm thinking of putting a Filthy Casual's review of it up.

It's magnificent. It's not the best board game ever. But it does what it does better than anything that I've seen attempted. And it is pretty.

At the same time, it saddens me the number of threads I see on TOS about all these people and their solo.plays.....what a waste. This game deserves to be played with people that will high five you when you finish off the Inox with two cards left before exhaustion. There should be a moment of anticipation and satisfaction when a sticker gets stuck on the map.
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28 Aug 2019 21:21 #301193 by Michael Barnes
Gloomhaven is so popular, IMO, -because- it offers such a robust solo game.

Talk abou solo, by myself it took me over an hour today to set up Core Space including the characters. I did screw up the item set up, so I’m probably +10 minutes on it.

But it was actually worth it. The game is pretty freakin’ great. It’s sort of a halfway point between Earth Reborn and Frostgrave with a setting that is more Mass Effect than grimdark. It really isn’t so much a typical dungeon crawl- it’s more of a sci-fi shootout with lots of cool skills, great cover rules, ammo depletion, and weapon jams.

The mission I played was to get in and get out with the most loot (which you pull from 3D crates) before getting killed by the other team or the killer robots that increase in hostility the longer you are there. Along the way you might persuade NPCs to join you or they may shoot at or trade with you. The mission I did didn’t have them, but there kiosks where you can buy weapons and equipment, which is pretty neat. Lots of detail.

There was a great moment where the big alien dude on one team stepped into a room and blazed this guy down to one health. He was next to a crate, standing there with a jammed pistol. He opened the crate, found a bad ass energy rifle, and burned his almost full ammo supply to overcharge it, laying the big dude out in one shot. His teammates had to literally drag him back out. It was awesome.

The second game I played the Hostility level shot up more quickly so it was robot mayhem earlier. The big Devastators showed up and started gunning down everybody. It was rough, everyone wound up KO’d on both sides- that was a situation where I think the potential to form an alliance of convenience with your opponent might be incentivized.

It’s really fun to play once you get it going...which also requires wading through a suboptimal rulebook and deciphering rebuses. I don’t think the game will find a whole lot of traction in the mainstream but it could be a cult thing like Earth Reborn was...but this is the better game, I think.

I started speed-painting the minis (which aren’t that good) today, so I guess it’s sticking around for a while.
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29 Aug 2019 09:13 - 29 Aug 2019 09:56 #301204 by charlest
Awesome stuff, Michael.

Last night we played Europa Base Alpha, a new Wizkids game that disappeared before it even hit the market. It's a solid hybrid design where you pick a card out of your hand and then attempt to Yahtzee-style roll the needed symbols to build the structure (we're building military and defense systems on Venus).

More difficult cards are worth more points and you use other cards in your hand (each card has four uses) to dick with others or boost yourself. So it's kind of a solitaire dice rolling thing with ways to mitigate luck, but there's some interaction through stifling opponents. It has a nice arch to play where you build up abilities over time so you can build the more difficult structures later on.

The neatest thing is that if you happen to build one of your constructions, you can risk it all and try to build a second, basically getting an entire nother turn. Imagine Cosmic Encounter with the second encounter being optional, and failure undoing your first. Do you stop at one? Do you try and build an easy structure on your second attempt because you now have less cards in your hand to help modify the dice? Do you feel like you've fallen behind and need to go for two big constructions?

It's a very pleasant game that appeals to a wide range of taste. Something everyone can agree on and feel good about, even playing multiple times due to its 40 minute playtime. Definitely not something I love or will likely hang on to long term, but interesting and solid and better than average I'd say.

Another Wizkids game is better, and continues to see regular play. Sovereign's Chain is simply gnarly. New strategies and decision spaces keep opening up as you grapple with the wild events and whether you should be playing cards on opponent's tableaus or your own. It's a very satisfying game and definitely Wizkids' Fantasy Realms of 2019.

We also tackled the Sherlock Holmes case in the last wave of Unlock. Entertaining as always and we had an Unlock newbie who loved it. We did well and didn't really get stuck for any inordinate amount of time.

Also got Mars Open back out as it's been awhile. I crush at this one as I've won the past three games of it with my group. It was pretty close here and I had an awful third hole, but I rebounded nicely and remained consistent (usually taking 3 flicks). The guy who was winning is a solid player but he needs to work on his short game. I caught him in the last few holes and he just completely jacked up the final one, his ball sailing off the table twice.

The biggest game we played was Van Ryder's Detective: City of Angels. This is a big Kickstarter release they had that I picked up second hand at Gen Con and have been waiting to play it outside of solo. It's basically LA Noir the board game. There's touches of LA Confidential and The Maltese Falcon and every other reference you can think of. The main mechanism though is questioning suspects and it mimics the dialog structure of LA Noir relatively closely.

I played the Chisel (DM kinda) and ran things and had a great time. Downtime is the game's biggest issue as the pacing is slow and more contemplative. You do need to pay attention to some degree on other player's turns, as the structure is similar to Treasure Island (one vs. many but the many win individually and you can deduce certain things from their behavior). I think though we will need to try a more difficult case to determine the long-term prospects, as this was a relatively easy one and the players didn't have to spend a great deal of time theorycrafting or rummaging through their notes, which made the down time feel more exaggerated. I'm also wondering if it may be better with 3 players instead of 4.
Last edit: 29 Aug 2019 09:56 by charlest.
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