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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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What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

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30 Jan 2021 13:51 #318576 by hotseatgames

DarthJoJo wrote: My first game of SEAL Team Flix after buying it two years back. Got pinned on one corner for way too many turns because every tango spawned at the end of the adjoining hallway. I was trying a sneaky build with a suppressor on my sub-machine gun, but the pile of bodies probably should have tipped someone off that I was right there. Did find the hard drive on a single health. On to Mombasa.


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30 Jan 2021 23:19 #318601 by Gary Sax
I have just been paralyzed with board games (HI EVERYONE I USED TO PLAY TTS WITH <3). I finally played some spirit island with my wife and it was good but just overall I'm in a weird place with playing games. I really want to but it feels like a big commitment or something.
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31 Jan 2021 01:01 - 31 Jan 2021 01:02 #318609 by hotseatgames
After years of wanting it and not pulling the trigger, I finally got Volt, the Emerson Matsuuchi game about battling robots. I got the 2018 FFG version, but it's functionally the same as the original 2014 version. Actually, there is probably a lot extra in it; you see, this is a programmed action game, and it has the "training mode" and "advanced mode". I have never explored the advanced mode because training is so good!

I played twice today with my girlfriend. She was new to it, and I had played a couple of times at PAX Unplugged in 2019. The game is pretty easy to learn and only takes 30 minutes tops for a game. You program 3 actions per round. Each action is either a move or a fire action. Kill your opponent to score a point, or end the round on a victory point token.

This game shares that exciting bit with Theseus where you not only have to think about your own turn, but what your opponent will do. You want to fire on the other robot, but where will that robot be?

It plays up to 4, but I have only tried with 2 so far. I expect, much like Theseus, going beyond 2 makes the decision space impossible to deal with. Still, this game is only $20 right now on Amazon. Well worth it.
Last edit: 31 Jan 2021 01:02 by hotseatgames.
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31 Jan 2021 12:49 - 31 Jan 2021 12:53 #318619 by southernman
Does Mr Mark Thomas want to get into the hotseat and give us some more info on his new game - at least one channel is looking forward to it B) ? (at 62s)

Last edit: 31 Jan 2021 12:53 by southernman.

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31 Jan 2021 13:23 #318620 by hotseatgames
Cool! I had not seen that video before. I am currently awaiting a prototype of the maps, after which I will be talking about it a lot more. But I will highlight the game here, often in comparison to SEAL Team Flix:

1. no campaign, instead you gain XP and spend it on your character to purchase "Augs".

2. There are 4 difficulty levels, and any mission can be played at any difficulty.

3. It includes some brief tutorial missions, a small set of handcrafted missions, and a mission generator, which makes up the bulk of the gameplay.

4. It has more side boards than STF did, and only 2 of the boards from STF are returning.

5. The "boards" are neoprene mats this time. This results in a few major changes:
- larger (12 x 24)
- you have to assemble them every time, but this is revamped to be as painless as possible
- doors are no longer fixed, and to some degree, neither are walls

6. STF sometimes got called a dungeon crawler. I didn't care for that because it doesn't fit my key rule, the existence of loot. Phantom Division has loot. You can get one-of-a-kind weapons that are pretty cool.
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01 Feb 2021 05:25 - 01 Feb 2021 06:18 #318636 by Ah_Pook
Quick Bloodborne impressions after playing a few games last night. It's a fun lighter dungeon crawl with narrative elements (complete a quest, read a card, make a little choice, get a reward one way or the other, that kind of thing). I'd say it's a step up from the D&D system so far, but in that same realm of complexity. The way it evokes things from the video game without just copying them over is very smart. I love the Hunters Dream, and the way stamina is handled. The timer I can see people hating, but the boardgame needs a fail state and one doesn't really exist in the video game. The timer is a solid way to put pressure on the players and force the game forward. The card system is fun, and leads to interesting turn to turn decisions re what cards to use in combat and what cards to toss for other actions (this is informed by what enemies you're facing and their specific attack options, your weapons specific attack options/which form your weapon is in, etc). The XP/leveling up deck building/upgrading is cool. On the whole, it seems pretty rad so far.
Last edit: 01 Feb 2021 06:18 by Ah_Pook.
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01 Feb 2021 05:30 #318637 by Andi Lennon
Are you playing with just the base game? I have a chance to pre-order it but was wondering if it works as a standalone considering the ungodly amount of expansions

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01 Feb 2021 05:32 #318638 by Andi Lennon
Also, just had my first few games of Canvas and it's absolutely delightful. Tactile, whimsical, satisfying and unique. Review to follow :)
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01 Feb 2021 06:09 - 01 Feb 2021 06:11 #318639 by Ah_Pook
I've got the core Kickstarter pledge, which is plenty for any rational human. The 3 Kickstarter bonus boxes that came with it have cool looking stuff in them, but I haven't messed with any of it. Mainly they add a ton more playable hunters, which seems big. There are tons of monsters and stuff in there too, and the random Chalice Dungeon stuff which might be cool but I haven't even looked at the rules for it.

The giant stack of optional buy stuff seems completely superfluous, to my eyes. More campaigns and more monsters, I mean fine but there are plenty already.

I should also clarify that the D&D adventure system is my personal favorite dungeon crawl boardgame, so that can give you some insight into my tastes for this kind of thing. Low rules overhead, high running around tiles and punching monsters and getting loot etc. The deeper you get into the rules weeds with these games the more you lose me.

I'm going to livestream a full bloodborne campaign later this week, if you want some actual eyes on the nitty gritty, also.
Last edit: 01 Feb 2021 06:11 by Ah_Pook.
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01 Feb 2021 16:28 #318680 by DukeofChutney
Been playing a lot of games with my house mate to pass the dark evenings;

Concordia Venus - we had 3 games of this so far, 1 with 3 players the others two. Man its good on a turn by turn puzzle basis. Rushing stone and farm settlements does seem like quite a strong strategy but Im enjoying thinking through a counter.

London 2nd ed - I continue to play this, probably played nearly 10 times in the past few months now. This might be a game where there is a best strategy and its all tactics around that to pull it off. I've got it down to running 5 card stacks at the start then shrinking down to 3 using persistent cards later.

Innovation - reacquired this in a trade. Should never have let it go in the first place. As a 2 player game it is pretty tight and suitable nasty. I was 2 tech levels behind and had scored no dominations to my opponents 5. Looked done but i had 20 science and drew the auto science win card.

Basically im playing thinky games where you need to take your time to get into the strategy and work through the depths of the game. I'm not sure where i've put my FAT card though.
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01 Feb 2021 16:33 #318681 by Gary Sax

DukeofChutney wrote: Basically im playing thinky games where you need to take your time to get into the strategy and work through the depths of the game. I'm not sure where i've put my FAT card though.


My current personal identity of the site forums is talking to people who like to play games more than once so....

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01 Feb 2021 19:56 #318699 by Msample

DukeofChutney wrote: Been playing a lot of games with my house mate to pass the dark evenings;

Concordia Venus - we had 3 games of this so far, 1 with 3 players the others two. Man its good on a turn by turn puzzle basis. Rushing stone and farm settlements does seem like quite a strong strategy but Im enjoying thinking through a counter.

London 2nd ed - I continue to play this, probably played nearly 10 times in the past few months now. This might be a game where there is a best strategy and its all tactics around that to pull it off. I've got it down to running 5 card stacks at the start then shrinking down to 3 using persistent cards later.

Innovation - reacquired this in a trade. Should never have let it go in the first place. As a 2 player game it is pretty tight and suitable nasty. I was 2 tech levels behind and had scored no dominations to my opponents 5. Looked done but i had 20 science and drew the auto science win card.

Basically im playing thinky games where you need to take your time to get into the strategy and work through the depths of the game. I'm not sure where i've put my FAT card though.


INNOVATION has this clever way of someone usually building a seemingly unbeatable engine that runs out of steam long enough for the other player(s) to somehow get back in the game.
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01 Feb 2021 20:42 #318703 by Gary Sax
It's so weirdly thematic, I think the point of Innovation is that technological development and the advantages it provides, broadly understood, are like an out of control freight train and not a slow 4x development game system.

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04 Feb 2021 16:34 - 04 Feb 2021 16:36 #318821 by Ah_Pook
I did an old school Games Workshop double header on stream last night and played Chainsaw Warrior and Dungeonquest, and it was a real hoot.

It was my first time playing Chainsaw Warrior, a solo game from 1987 designed by the same guy that designed Fury of Dracula. It somehow makes Dungeonquest look like the pinnacle of crunchy tactical gameplay. It is super simple and super dumb, and I absolutely loved it. It comes with a black and white comic book for the setup/lore, the art is incredible 2000ad/old 40k nonsense, and the whole thing is just savagely unfair and brutal. It's very much Escape From New York the boardgame, with zombies and mutants also. You have 60 minutes to get in and kill the big bad (named The Darkness), if you fail to find and kill him in that time he destroys the world. This is accomplished by flipping through a deck of room cards, fighting an endless stream of zombies and other enemies, getting pummeled by traps, and generally having a bad time. The Darkness is somewhere in the second half of the deck. My game was going alright until I found a secret passageway card about a third of the way into the second deck. Context: there's a rule that if you discard The Darkness card for any reason that isn't encountering him then he escapes. You have to reshuffle the second deck and go through it again to find him again. The secret passageway let's you roll two dice and skip up to that many cards. I rolled an 11, and pushed my luck hard. As it turns out, The Darkness was card #11 that I discarded, and that was all she wrote. Didn't find him again before my 60 minutes ran out.

After that I played 3 games of Dungeonquest. 2p, 3p, then 4p. I know I've ramble about Dungeonquest before, so I won't belabor the point beyond some stats.

1 hour 15 minutes for all 3 games, including resetting the game in between
9 adventurers
4 deaths to bottomless pit
1 death to giant spider
1 death to sunset
1 death to sneak attack (mountain troll)
1 death to champion of chaos
1 glorious escape with 2hp and 7900gp

You can find the videos here and here , if you want to see them in action for yourself :)
Last edit: 04 Feb 2021 16:36 by Ah_Pook.
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04 Feb 2021 18:03 #318828 by DukeofChutney
Babylonia - Love me some of the good Dr. Picked this up on a whim and I'm glad I did. Plays in about 30mins 2 player and I doubt it will run a lot longer unless people really count it out. Aesthetics are great too.

Hex map that you play tokens on surrounding cities and linking them to get points. Familiar ground but having never played Samurai and not linking through the desert this feels very fresh to me. Based on one game I like it a lot but I'll have to see how it develops as regards depth.

I also played hip drafting and tableu building game Villagers. It has cute art, and is paper thin on substance, skip this.
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