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Kevin Klemme
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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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20 Feb 2020 19:38 #307320 by DarthJoJo
Wait for retail? One Turtles box is $87 on Miniature Market with the same $125 MSRP.

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20 Feb 2020 20:03 #307321 by Ah_Pook
Favorite Oceans deep card thus far:

Draconic: 7 Attack, overpopulation is scored instead of lost.

If there are juicy targets around this card is completely nuts. Oceans is real good.
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23 Feb 2020 11:12 #307388 by Shellhead
Monthly hipster board game night on Friday. January was canceled due to a snowstorm, so there was a big turnout this time around. 14 people, including 9 women. Not everybody showed up right away, so we started with a 9-player game of Werewords. It's Werewolf/20 Questions, with the game run by an app. I was the seer, and managed to steer the group towards "fish" but couldn't quite get them to "mackeral" because a couple of players kept blurting out bad questions. Surprisingly, neither of them turned out to be the werewolf, while a couple of people thought that I might be the werewolf. The mayor was one of the werewolves, and I think that is an unbalanced combo.

Now there were a dozen people present, so we split into two separate games at different tables. Five women played Knitting: the Card Game. Our table played Seven Wonders. I felt like I should finally give Seven Wonders a try, because it's such a popular game in the hobby. I didn't enjoy Seven Wonders, at all. The language independence thing meant the typical alphabet of mysterious icons. Even though the game owner and his wife are both teachers, they did a lousy job of teaching the rules. The lack of an orderly turn structure sometimes left people confused or starting the next turn early. The new players didn't understand the importance of building certain things early on to set up later plays. And fundamentally, I like games that tell a story, and the story that Seven Wonders tells is a boring story of victory point collection procedures. If I ever get the chance to play Seven Wonders again, I will decline and read news stories on my phone while everybody else plays.

A couple of Seven Wonders players left and two late arrivals had been waiting to play something. Some started a new game of Seven Wonders, and the Knitting game continued at a leisurely, conversational pace. So four of us played Cat Lady. Like most games this group plays, it was light. There is a 3x3 grid of face-up cards. On your turn, you pick up an entire row or column of 3 cards, as long as it isn't the row/column currently being watched by the cat meeple. Food cards get discarded to obtain food tokens. You also can acquire cats, cat toys, cat costumes, and catnip. Each cat requires a specific combination of food tokens, and some cats offer bonus points based on meeting other conditions. At the end of the game, you score points for cats that have been fed, plus cat toys, costumes, and catnip. You lose points for your unfed cats and also for having the most leftover food or not having at least one cat costume. I ended the game with the most cats and all were fed, but I also had the most excess food and fell short in other scoring categories. It was a tolerable game because I like cats, and some of the cats had cute names.

On Saturday, an old friend dropped by my house as I was getting ready to head to the gym and run errands. He is only in town for a couple more days, so I dropped everything to host games. Two of our mutual friends were wrapping up a game at the nearby comic/game shop, and he summoned them. My friend wanted Arkham Horror, but my big gaming table in the basement is all set up for Magic Realm, and MR has a more involved setup process than any other game I own. Also, the other two guys only had 2 hours to spare. So I talked them into Camp Grizzly with most of the expansion material, on dining room table.

First game was brutal. I picked the hard Closed Campus scenario because I thought the expansions were skewing a bit on the easier side. But we got a lot of Tempting Fate cards, and kept inadvertently discarding weapons. We all lost our first character, and I was the only one to escape with my backup character. Then I got killed in the Van finale. I fought and beat two of Eddie's gang with my baseball bat, but fell to the third guy with a chain.

The two guys took off, so we played a second game with two characters each and no replacement characters, with the standard setup. This time, we found weapons early and often, but got the Doppleganger cameo. He murdered another cameo and killed one of our counselors before Otis killed him. Eddie showed up right where the keys were and ran off with the boat (and the Boat finale cards). We managed to get the items for the Barn finale, and one of my characters set up a bear trap at the nature trail entrance to the barn. At the best possible moment, just before we could escape, Otis showed up but stepped on the bear trap. We got the burning barn finale, but our bait single-handedly killed a weak Otis.
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23 Feb 2020 11:33 - 23 Feb 2020 11:41 #307389 by Ah_Pook
Played Taverns of Tiefenthal with all the added modules. It made the game way better, though I still wouldn't actively seek it out. It adds lots of little things that add up to players being more empowered to do fun stuff and better stuff, instead of feeling kinda like a grind like the base game. Deck thinning, asymetric start positions, more resources to juggle, and just kind of more of everything. Our average scores doubled with all the stuff vs the base game. I would say it's probably worth a try now, rather than ehhh maybe avoid which was my feeling before. If you're in the market for an overwrought modern Euro ass euro you could do worse.

Also I think Oceans has a turn order issue. They obviously know it, since they give out bonus points based on player order. I'm sure the amount of points given out is well tuned based on play testing, but getting some bonus points doesn't make the first player getting absolutely nuked by the entire table feel any less bad. Not at all a game breaking issue, or even one that makes me enjoy the game less, but it's definitely a clangy note in a game that I really really like otherwise. Getting better at the game feels like it's going to involve actively playing around it, so if you're first trying to end with species that don't leave lots of fish on the table, or strong defense. That's fine I guess, but it's hard to actively do that when you're beholden to the cards you draw.

Also I traded for the first two waves of Aeons End content and tried a game out last night. It seems pretty great. 2 handed solo vs Rageborne for an easy win. I can see this being a solo staple going forward. It's light enough to play whenever, but interesting enough to want to play whenever. The lack of shuffling your deck and the way the spells work provides lots of fun mini puzzles turn by turn. Plus lots of variability game to game. I've honestly never played a ton of a static market deck builder, and it gives an interesting different feel vs something like Star Realms or Ascension (which are my wife and i's go to deck builders).
Last edit: 23 Feb 2020 11:41 by Ah_Pook.
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23 Feb 2020 13:40 #307390 by Michael Barnes
AE is my favorite solo game of all time. I’ve played it at least once or twice a week for the past few months, often multiple games in a single session. It strikes a perfect balance of ease of play and complexity. It is the only non-CCG faux CCG that actually feels like playing a CCG. There is definitely depth to explore, and every setup plays out with an entirely different set of possibilities depending on the casters, market cards, minions, events, and Nemesis. Every game you’ve got to figure out the economy, the threats, and how to squeak by. There are so many modular, variable elements that after maybe 100 or so games I have not once felt like I’ve seen all the game has to offer or gotten tired of it.

Rageborne is easy mode. Some of the more complicated/complex ones will really test you. You will run into games that are -possibly- unwinnable based on the variables you are playing with but part of the fun is playing a second round with some changes to see if you can crack it.

The first two sets are great but New Age takes it just a little further. I don’t have Legacy yet but I may get it soon. There a new wave on Kickstarter but I’m just going to get it at retail.

I would definitely rate it as one of my favorite games of all time.
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23 Feb 2020 14:06 #307391 by Ah_Pook
Your enthusiasm is what put it on my radar for sure. Do you play the Expedition mode? If so, how is that? Or do you just use New Age as more cards/mages/nemesises?

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24 Feb 2020 12:08 #307408 by Shellhead
Started playing a solitaire game of Magic Realm, running six characters. Amazon, Dwarf, Elf, Witch, Wizard, and Woods Girl. I am playing very slowly because I am forcing myself to look up every relevant rule as I go, to learn the game properly. So I only completed turn one last night. But it was a big turn, because the Inn is right next to the Caves, and the Amazon managed to find the Lost City right away. However, the warning chits and the monster roll put two stacks of goblins in the Lost City, so it's a good thing that the Amazon is hiding right now. She may end up teaming up with the Elf and the Witch who are still at the inn. The Wizard and the Woods Girl may be traveling together since they started in the same location. The Dwarf got screwed over by the map and will need to travel many hexes before reaching the nearest underground location.

Before I can start turn two, I need to get a handle on the warning chits and the patrolling monsters. I've got the rules for both 1.0 and 3.1 editions, plus the Magic Realm in Plain English, but it is still confusing about the difference between warning chits and sound chits and how they work. It's also somewhat annoying that Hamblen felt the overpowering need to make these warning/sound chits so complex. I think he had a convoluted though creative mind. That might explain why he used the word Vulnerability instead of Toughness or Durability for the ability to take damage.
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24 Feb 2020 12:18 #307410 by Michael Barnes
Your enthusiasm is what put it on my radar for sure. Do you play the Expedition mode? If so, how is that? Or do you just use New Age as more cards/mages/nemesises?

I played through it once and it was pretty fun - it really just unlocks some extra cards as you go and introduces the treasures, which I think are a little hit or miss. But once the stuff is unlocked, it is more stuff, which is always good. One of the expansions in that wave, Into the Wild, adds another expedition.

Legacy has you actually creating 4 different bespoke mages over the course of the game...not sure how I really feel about that TBH, which is why I've hesitated to get that wave.

New wave sounds pretty great from what I've seen.
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24 Feb 2020 13:02 #307414 by Gary Sax
The goblin bands are real motherfuckers. Like the bats.

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24 Feb 2020 13:23 #307416 by jpat
My wife and I played Hammer of the Scots on Saturday. It was probably our briskest in roughly ten games, as we ended up double-eventing on the first turn of one year (which ends the year) and as she wiped the floor with my English forces.

On Sunday, we gave Viticulture a shot. I bought both the "essential" base and the Tuscany "essential" expansion, but I figured there'd be enough going on (and not a ton of reteaching) if we started with the base. I'll admit (confess?) to being initially quite pleased with the game play.
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24 Feb 2020 14:59 #307421 by Space Ghost

Shellhead wrote: It's also somewhat annoying that Hamblen felt the overpowering need to make these warning/sound chits so complex. I think he had a convoluted though creative mind. That might explain why he used the word Vulnerability instead of Toughness or Durability for the ability to take damage.


Lol -- I became so used to it, it started to make sense to me. Before long I will start to prefer it :)
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24 Feb 2020 16:30 #307430 by Ah_Pook

Michael Barnes wrote: Your enthusiasm is what put it on my radar for sure. Do you play the Expedition mode? If so, how is that? Or do you just use New Age as more cards/mages/nemesises?

I played through it once and it was pretty fun - it really just unlocks some extra cards as you go and introduces the treasures, which I think are a little hit or miss. But once the stuff is unlocked, it is more stuff, which is always good. One of the expansions in that wave, Into the Wild, adds another expedition.

Legacy has you actually creating 4 different bespoke mages over the course of the game...not sure how I really feel about that TBH, which is why I've hesitated to get that wave.

New wave sounds pretty great from what I've seen.


We absolutely curbstomped Umbra Titan in a 4p game last night, which was fun. Indira (maybe thats the name? the mage with only one breach that can cast spells out of hand) with easy deck thinning and charge generation cards in the market got real out of hand in a fun way. Everyone else was just mopping up minions and handling whatever they could turn by turn while Indira focus fired down the Nemesis (though another player put in solid work with a few 14 dmg turns as well).

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24 Feb 2020 17:54 #307433 by Michael Barnes
Indira is one of my favorites- a cool idea executed very well.

One of the neatest things about the game is that it does the notion of “Vancian Magic” even better than D&D. The breaches are straight up spell slots. I love the concept of leveling/focusing your breaches to increase spell slots. I love that the game totally plays with it all and uses it as a springboard for novel ideas with the mages.

Not to diminish your achievement because beating any of those assholes is a job well done, but Umbra Titan is still easy mode! It was the “starter” Nemesis in War Eternal, and I actually think it is easier than the Rageborne.

What you will see is that different assortments produce very different effects. Sometimes deck thinning is essential. Sometimes it’s all but unavailable. You might have a leveled-up mage firing off the 8 cost heavy damage spells or a lower mage pulling off nutty combos with low cost cards. You might have an aether rich game with great gems, or you might have three crap ones. Worst case, you wind up with a Nemesis deck heavy on Gravehold or character damage and you have nothing to recoup with.

I especially like that this game has such a strong arc every play. You start off trying to build up your spell library and breaches while mitigating Nemesis deck crap. Then you hit a stride and it tends to tilt one way or the other. By the end you are forced into making tougher and tougher decisions...like whether to try to race the Nemesis down to 0 or pick off a potentially catastrophic minion. The way the Nemesis deck is staged and seeded is so, so smart.

Best of all, it is never like a lot of co-op card games games where the whole thing can hinge on a card flip (like Ghost Stories or LOTR LCG for example). Your decisions matter every turn and in the long run.
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24 Feb 2020 17:58 #307434 by Pugnax555

jpat wrote: On Sunday, we gave Viticulture a shot. I bought both the "essential" base and the Tuscany "essential" expansion, but I figured there'd be enough going on (and not a ton of reteaching) if we started with the base. I'll admit (confess?) to being initially quite pleased with the game play.


Viticulture/Tuscany is one where you should just go ahead and use the Tuscany board from the beginning. It really does flesh out the game with the whole season/turn order bits. There's no going back once you start using that.
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24 Feb 2020 18:11 - 24 Feb 2020 18:14 #307436 by Ah_Pook
Re Aeons End, I've only played it the twice, so I figured teaching first time players we'd do an easy Nemesis (just going by the numbers on the back of them). Everyone enjoyed it a lot, but I think harder Nemeses are definitely in order next time to up the ante.

And I agree re Viticulture, the Tuscany board makes it a game worth playing imo. Throw it in there asap.
Last edit: 24 Feb 2020 18:14 by Ah_Pook.

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