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17 Jun 2016 08:42 #229054 by Josh Look
More Ashes this week.

I'm starting to learn both the basic strategies and the individual strategies for a few of the Pheonixborn. I'm finding myself having to unlearn what I know from Magic because it does not apply here. Attacking is risky and I'm still trying to recognize when those ideal moments to do so are.

I'm really loving the "one main action, one minor action" of the turns. It feels so restrictive and you always want to do more, but setting up a good main/side action combo is insanely satisfying. Still loving the mana dice thing, too, though I did have a full game of crappy rolls last night. It's not game breaking by any stretch, but it does force you to prioritize well.

I initially said I was a long way off from building my own decks, and I'll likely stick to that, but I am starting to see a few cards I'd like to put in other decks that I've played before.

Still calling it best in class as far as non-collectible CCGs go. By far more accessible than Netrunner, just as tactical and deep, and way more impressive from a design standpoint than everything else. So many of these games seem to stick to what's been accepted as conventional wisdom due to how Magic did things, and Ashes is the first game since Netrunner that I've seen to disregard so much of that and still manage to work so well on every level.
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19 Jun 2016 09:46 #229116 by Josh Look
Repo, Egg, and another dude came over yesterday to give the Age of Conan expansion a go.

It was Egg's first game but the rest of at the table like the game and agree that it's one of the most undeservedly maligned games of the last decade.

In hindsight, we probably should have played without the expansion to make teaching it easier and refresh everyone else's memory on it. The game has always been a bit unwieldy, as that does seem to be Nexus/Ares's MO, and this expansion does add one new major system into a game that probably could have used one less in the first place. That being said, that new system is really cool, that being Conan's career as an adventurer being more pronounced. The deck that used to represent his adventures has been replaced by one that gives on his destination. Players not in control of Conan can play story cards on him now when he's in specific locations, those cards representing his adventures. The story cards give him experience points, which advance him through the different stages of his career, change his mood, and could open up a new bid for control of him mid adventure. His presence on the board is by far more dynamic now and I saw Conan involved in more battles than I ever did in the dozen or so games I played without the expansion. As much as I like that he can switch hands more often, the break in the pacing for more bidding is kind of a downer.

There's also spies, which the verdict at the table was still out on. We played a few things wrong, so I do want to try it again. As it stands this expansion has some really cool stuff, stuff I would have a hard time playing without, but these additions come with their own shortcomings. I was hoping this expansion would be what really brought the game up from "good" to "great," and while I definitely need to give it more time, I can say that what made it a 2008 Nexus design is still present and more obvious.
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20 Jun 2016 08:43 #229136 by Legomancer
After playing Wir Sind Das Volk!, Matt (my opponent there) and I were eager to play 1989: Dawn of Freedom, which we'd played once a few years ago. We dug it out and had at it on Saturday. First of all, I deplore the pasted-on theme; the game shares very little with the Taylor Swift album it was based on. Once you get past that, you can start to compare to WSDV.

It's a tough call. Both games approach the same theme, but in different methods of scope and attention. WSDV is drier, with its events being expressed purely in icons versus 1989's text. Both have some strong elements and then some elements that don't quite click with me. The "power struggle" in 1989 still just kind of turns me off. It feels very disconnected from the "main" game and more like one of those weird FF card combat things that people houserule out. On top of that, having the result of that be determined with a die roll...that whole process doesn't work well for me.

In both cases the really interesting thing is how *little* the Berlin Wall does. It's such an iconic symbol of the struggle, yet in both games it doesn't do a whole lot. In the case of 1989 obviously by that time it had lost its punch. In WSDV the penalty for building it is so negligible as to wonder why any East player wouldn't. And if it comes down, it comes down purely by choice of the East player, which is a very strange element in the game. Matt thought, and I agreed, that thematically there should be pressure on the East to force them to take it down.

In any case, the two games are different enough, and play in different ways, that I don't mind the choice between them. I want to play both more.

Also played American Rails, which is a nifty, stripped down railroad stock game. Some of the companies have only two or three shares, for example. Super easy to learn, engaging all the way through, and tense. The word "elegant" gets thrown around a lot, but this is a really lovely design with no extra fluff. Suffers a little from a highly calculable last round, but not a huge deal. Three players is not optimal, but works. Probably best with four. And this could easily be expanded with different maps a la Steam.

Finally, yet another game of 51st State Master Set. We've been playing with only the base cards, as the "Winter" and "New Era" decks are supposed to tilt the game into different areas and I wanted an idea of what the game was like without them so their effect when I played with them would be more noticeable. I'm enjoying it a lot and I'm pretty sure it's the death knell for Imperial Settlers, which has expanded itself out of my area of interest. Guy in my group prefers IS, so he'll probably get my copy and I'll still get chances to play it, should I want to.
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20 Jun 2016 09:06 #229137 by JEM
Friday was our second somewhat monthly session of Shadows of Brimstone over at a friend's house. Most of us didn't remember everything our characters had, and I was starting a new character anyway so for the most part it was back to basics with all level one characters. There were five of us, so we were playing at the 5/6 player difficulty and... it was less of a challenge than the 1/2 player game.

In the last session I played a second rancher, but since then I got the other base game box with its additional characters and made a saloon girl. Her "comforting presence" was gifting back sanity/health to most of the party every turn which likely helped a lot. The rancher was less of a murder machine after we corrected the rules on that (no bonus kills/damage on swinging the rifle). Everyone seemed to get something to do, and we collected some useful items (except me, I got no gear or artifacts on any loot round). In the final encounter, the team shredded the 24 health goliath before it even got within striking distance. On the other hand, we finished it off with the darkness track at one-from-DOOM. We rolled that Hold Back the Darkness roll just to see, and found we would have lost on time if we had not dropped the boss so quickly.

There were plenty of times where situations could have gone the other way, and every side-bag token was expended, but it never felt like the seemingly inevitable cripple-fest that two players can get like. At least at low levels. Combining the sets also makes the game easier- a Darkness card stating all Undead have increased stats is basically a freebie when you don't draw any undead threats in the game.

Everyone got plenty of corruption, someone lost a nose, I grew a tentacle for a leg, and our shotgun toting nun I think may be secretly in league with The Great Old Ones and determined to be Eaten First, sprouting a tail that was both mouthy and handsy as well as rock-melded skin. When she finally saves enough for that book of Armageddon we may all be in trouble. Our Indian Scout managed to turn into the Ready-Brek man* with glowing skin that meant most monsters would hit him on any die result other than a "2", so he was first in line at the doctor's tent (no doc office in this town). Unfortunately the botched surgery left him still glowing and crippled (-6 health down to 4) so he'll be picking a new character for next time.

After slogging through the mines and swamps, doing the town visit seemed to add maybe too much time to the evening, though it also brought the hilarity of botched surgery, surprise dunking in mutating goop to the chants of "gooble gabble gooble gabble" in the mutant quarter, and I got some nifty gloves.

Saturday's meetup was a good time. We seem to get a few more new people showing up each week and coming back even. Us early birds wanted to pass some time while others showed up so we had a quick game of Wurfel Bohnanza. That came down to one turn between two players, with one of them grabbing two thalers for the win with the other stuck on 12. No thanks came next, and I am The Worst at this game, ending with well over 100 points. As always it seemed like the player to my right takes the card and its chips just before I was going to.

My first "proper" game was Mythotopia with two new players and two of us knowing the game. I had a nice setup in the hills, and grabbed the Ranger thinking this would set me up for a nice game. I also got two upgrades that let me draw more cards- I was able to draw my entire deck almost each turn, but... didn't have the armies I needed to make progress on the board. After drying up on building points, I was behind the curve on claiming territories for points. One of the new players won the game by a point. I really enjoy this game, including or perhaps especially the end-game that I read such negative comments about.

The four of us in that game were going to play La Granja, but another person showed up, so we looked for a five player game, and I suggested Betrayal at House on the Hill. Another player wanted to play his copy of Rococo and I was happy with that but apparently tailoring to the French court was not as appealing to the others. Once again, BaHotH let me down. It's bad enough when another player triggers the haunt (it's always your fault if you rolled the dice!) but to find that after sitting out 10 minutes waiting for the rest of the group to be ready, and finding they had the McGuffin they needed to win before the haunt started... Still not as bad as the next group to play the game later in the evening, who lost so quickly it took more time to box the game up than to play it.

We almost got to play Chaos in the Old World, but one of our players did not have the possible three hours (having to ride back to East Atlanta on a 50cc scooter) so we played Dogs of War. This used to be my copy- I swapped it with a friend for Flip City because I'm kind of dreadful at it, and also the gross overproduction kind of offends me. I made a determination to pay attention to what each action's cost/benefit was this time- for example, committing a footman to a 1 VP slot nets you... 0 VP, because each troop card is worth a point. In my last game I finished on 3 points. I would have more than quadrupled that score by doing nothing but mustering footmen with my annual income.

This time I played to the immediate benefits and battle rewards, while keeping an eye on my favoured house's fortunes. One player was obviously grabbing blue shields, which we were all happy to point out. In the final round that house's battle card showed a tasty looking War Machine reward. I suggested to the obvious Blue Sympathizer that if he left that slot open, someone might actually help his house win just because they wanted the prize. He left it open, and I joined on his side, but playing the "Opportunism" card to take the reward twice while contributing nothing to the cause. That left me with three War Machines in that final round, and with a Temporize card I got to play the last of them wherever I wanted as the final move of the game. I helped another player boost his house, but it worked out. With the points acquired during the game and the house victories I got 54 points, my highest ever score and the win.

Overall it was a really nice weekend for gaming. I wasn't even all that bothered about the Betrayal game after I had done my grousing in the moment. It was just a nice crowd and some good gaming time.
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21 Jun 2016 11:52 - 21 Jun 2016 17:06 #229175 by RobertB
I didn't get nearly the game playing in at Origins that I had intended, so I guess I'll have to make it up at the local convention come September.

I met up with two of my coworkers on Saturday, who talked me* into buying a copy of Dead of Winter, which we then played. We didn't have nearly the survivors on the board that we needed; I had two, and the other two players had one apiece. We died miserably. One of the players was a Betrayer, but he didn't get close to pushing the morale to zero. While we were playing, one gentleman comes up and says, "Did you get the Dead of Winter expansion?" Our reply was, "Whut." It turned out that Plaid Hat was sold out anyway, but as explained to us by one of their reps, it sounded like DoW on steroids.

Afterwards, my coworkers left, and I played a three-player game of Firefly with some CABS members. We did the intro mission, and I was on my way to winning until the Alliance cruiser came and took all my contraband. One of the players wanted to play again, and so we found another player and played another game of Firefly, with the intro mission. In that one, the new player got the crew expansion, got nine crewmembers, and Misbehaved his way to the win. I think I've come to the conclusion that Firefly players need to enforce speeding up the game by doing as much in parallel as possible, or the downtime at 4 players would be painful.

*didn't take much talking. Happy Fathers' Day!
Last edit: 21 Jun 2016 17:06 by RobertB.
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21 Jun 2016 13:01 #229177 by Frohike
Played Defenders of the Last Stand on Sunday.

My assessment copy/pasted from elsewhere because I'm lazy:

This has some production funkiness & sloppiness that reminds me of Earth Reborn in so far as the graphic design, manual & card layout, & straight up typos can blur the line between being thematically faithful to the trashy material but also just looking a bit amateur and interfering with learning & absorbing the game.

But what a game!

Underneath the funky layer and the kaleidoscope of Eklundesque typography is a very smart, evocative mashup of Pandemic (or Defenders of the Realm) and a Runebound style adventure system tied to a strongly implemented and well written post apocalyptic theme.

I think the Pandemic framework can come close to feeling like a chore at times, interfering with (rather than fueling) the rest of the interesting pieces of the game, sort of outwearing its welcome, cracking under the weight of the more interesting material bolted onto and around it.

But I'm a Runebound fan, so I may be more interested in the "adventurey" parts of this game than was entirely intended in the design. The whack-a-raider certainly lends urgency to the game, and wiping enemies off of the board while making your way to a mission or boss and blowing up weapon depots along the way hasn't gotten old yet, but it often feels like a noose that chokes off the exploration aspect of the game.

I'll probably get to explore more of the adventure side of it once I get comfortable with gauging the urgency of the Pandemic layer, knowing when I either have some breathing room or can work with both systems more effectively.

Strong game. One I can get lost in for an afternoon and come away with a cool story. I think I'm going to be playing this quite a bit, and I'm glad I contributed to making it a reality.

Well done, Richard Launius.
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21 Jun 2016 22:02 #229197 by Hex Sinister
So you think it's better than DotR?

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22 Jun 2016 01:34 - 22 Jun 2016 17:05 #229199 by Frohike

Hex Sinister wrote: So you think it's better than DotR?


I've never played DotR, but I think I would prefer this one if only for the setting, first & foremost, and some additional twists such as mutations, which you acquire by failing radiation tests in marked zones. Some can be useful, but piling them on can cause problems when you face one of the bosses and a few of the missions & adventures (I think).

Also, in addition to missions (aka quests in DotR) there is always an adventure marker on the board which is available to all heroes and offers some good rewards but can also be risky. One that I came across killed my character in a nice Dungeonquest fashion, where I failed a roll against some creeping vines... of all things. Some of the bosses have interesting twists, such as Puke's "One of Us" which makes you trash as many cards (randomly, not player selected) as you have mutations. If you lose the battle... yep, more mutations for everybody! Krank gets hidden "ancient tech" buffs every time a red overrun happens. You don't get to see these buffs until you fight him. He has the most HP but it seems like he should be hit first or he becomes quite a pain to deal with in the late game.

One of the enemy types, the Monstrosities, are different every time you fight them since you're flipping a card to reveal the mob and the terms of the fight. They can be a risk in combat, but a necessary one since depleting them can lose the game... and there are only eight of them.

There may be analogous stuff that I just don't know about in the DotR expansions, but it looks like DotLS cranks up some of the options and adds some adventuring. That and the post-apocalyptic Fallout meets Mad Max setting amount to a good formula for me.
Last edit: 22 Jun 2016 17:05 by Frohike.
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22 Jun 2016 08:25 - 22 Jun 2016 09:03 #229202 by Cranberries
We sat down to play Black Spy for father's day. The last time I took it out we were on a high speed train in France, and everyone was bored. This time my teen son took a bad hand in the first trick, then said he was going to just take all the poison cards each round and mess with us. I told him he should play to win. My wife got involved in the argument. He is sixteen and eventually went into "Quit treating me like a child mode" and as the fun was sucked out of the room I realized that I've got some games to sell. I also flashed back to a specific episode years ago when we were playing a card game as a familly in a yurt in Oregon, and my wife and my son got in a fight, connected the dots and realized that one of them can't be at the table when we do this in the future. The oldest son is off at college so our gaming days are over.

Last edit: 22 Jun 2016 09:03 by Cranberries.
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22 Jun 2016 09:15 - 22 Jun 2016 09:16 #229205 by edulis
I got to play boggle last night... all these amazing games I have on the shelf and my 13 year old wants to play boggle. Oh and I lost.
Last edit: 22 Jun 2016 09:16 by edulis.
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22 Jun 2016 09:58 #229211 by Black Barney
the only thing that wins with Boggle is Tylenol/Asprin
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22 Jun 2016 11:06 #229216 by Michael Barnes
I loved Boggle when I was a kid. I actually really like word games...I probably could have been a world class Scrabble player.

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22 Jun 2016 11:08 #229217 by Black Barney
1v1 me on Alphajax! I'm in the top ten in the world, yo. That's my basket.

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22 Jun 2016 11:36 #229219 by the_jake_1973
Scrabble is that rip-off of Words with Friends, right?
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22 Jun 2016 13:18 #229223 by san il defanso
I like Scrabble a lot. The only real problem I have with it is that, like Chess, it's only really fun when everyone is roughly equal in ability.

So I've played the first scenario of Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game twice now. The first time was kind of a dry run to see how it worked, and then I started the campaign proper this morning. I really liked what I saw. I can definitely see the similarities to Death Angel and LotR LCG, but this feels pretty distinct still. I definitely like it better than the latter at any rate, and it does feel like the Pathfinder ACG done much better.

I think what I like best is how distinct the enemies feel without much in the way of mechanical weight. They behave in unique and thematic ways, and there's some real challenge in how best to resolve them because of it. I also like that the different characters feel so distinct. Hopefully the new POD characters will be able to continue that. The travelling is where I see Death Angel the most, though it feels much more appropriate here than it does in DA. Though there's a lot of abstraction, it really does have the feel of a dungeon crawl.

It does feel like it could use just a touch more content in the box, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that it'll have legs for a while. The campaign certainly can go a million different ways based on what cards come out when, which is pretty cool. I have yet to try the delve quest, but I wish more campaign games had something like that (looking at you, Imperial Assault). While I'm fine with something this short, I am, for the most part, campaigned out.
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