- Posts: 182
- Thank you received: 158
Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)
Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.
Please consider adding your quick impressions and your rating to the game entry in our Board Game Directory after you post your thoughts so others can find them!
Please start new threads in the appropriate category for mini-session reports, discussions of specific games or other discussion starting posts.
What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?
I used this strategy and, as expected, everyone leaped ahead in points. I doubled down knowing I could turn the tables in the later turns. Sadly it didn't happen. My York ally turned on me, then I on him and soon we were spiraling downward. Once we dropped the infighting and focused on taking territory from the Lannisters... er Lancasters... we did better. In the final turn, I made an impressive run picking up a special bonus, flipping two territories and consolidating a hold the Midlands. But all too late. We Starks... er Yorks... did win, but I finished last. I liked the game. A lot. My favorite aspect is planning the turn behind the player screen and then, in the reveal, seeing what everyone else is plotting. Sometimes your bets payoff.. often they don't. Either way, it makes the game exciting and there's very little downtime.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Legomancer
- Offline
- D10
- Dave Lartigue
- Posts: 2944
- Thank you received: 3873
The other night I played 3 player Mecanisburgo. This is very similar to Argent, in some ways, in that it's a worker placement game in which you battle over control of the spaces when you resolve them. You can also seduce characters, assassinate them, sabotage stuff, and do all kinds of other stuff. There's a ton of randomness to be had and the rules are badly translated and it's full of underexplained euroglyphics but it's a unique, grabass, fun experience. Lots of trash talking and bitching and swearing. In the first round one of my main dudes got seduced away and that just fucked up my situation. (I also did some poor planning in that round). I recovered in the second round, but only at the cost of nearly bankrupting myself, which hurt me bad in round 3. The final round I snapped back only because the other two guys were in a pissing match and left me alone. Still came in last, though. It's a good time.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
If you did not like Mage Knight, this isn't going to change your mind. But if were under the impression that the Star Trek theme was just pasted on, that is not the case. Not entirely, anyway. Many of the cards will seem familiar to MK players, but some are entirely new and some of them have been tweaked (directly or indirectly by other details in the game...kind of hard to explain without getting too longwinded).
As far as rules go, it's almost identical. Combat, both regular and PvP has been changed a little bit so that they more closely resemble each other. I appreciate this, not sure if I'll use PvP, but part of the reason why I never did was because it worked quite differently from regular combat. The major bridge between the two is partial blocks. Yes, you can now partially block damage in regular combat. That sounds like it would make the game less lethal, but it's offset by away missions.
Away missions replaces the dungeon/tomb/etc encounters and adds a big dose of Trek flavor. There's class L and K planets that you can send an away team down to, so before you flip the encounter token you decide who will come with you (before your allies simply would not go) and whether or not your captain will go (you have a powerful captain card in your deck which could be useful in those situations and committing the captain is the only way to play that card). Once you flip the encounter token, you can try to negotiate with whoever is on the planet. Diplomacy, which in MK was only used for recruiting allies, will automatically pass the encounter if you have enough. If not, you are attacked. You get one shot at taking them out quickly, if not, the crew takes it on the chin. NO BLOCKS. This is what I was talking about with offsets in difficulty. I had a single Ferengi cause an awful lot of trouble for Lt. Worf last night when peaceful talks fell through.
There's a few other little things here and there that essentially add up to a game with less frustrating moments than MK. It's still a puzzle figuring out how to accomplish what you want to do, and despite the day/night cycle, only one set of turn order cards, and the artifact deck missing (all of which I surprisingly don't care about being gone), the game is no less complex than before. Will I be parting with MK? Not sure yet, but my gut says yes. The Trek theme is there (what combat is there is with races the Federation almost always fought with in the shows, everyone else CAN be negotiated with, and if you really have a problem with the combat just play one of the Klingon ships included), the game is just as good as it ever was, and call me crazy, but I think the physical product itself is nicer. WizKids gets a bad rap for quality, deservedly so most of the time, but this game is nicer looking than I had anticipated. Mage Knight has always been a contender for being my favorite game, and this is just as good with the added bonus of having some nice Trek flavor. I love it.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- SuperflyPete
- Offline
- Salty AF
- SMH
- Posts: 10733
- Thank you received: 5119
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
aaxiom wrote: Do you have any interest in sharing the configuration and your time(s) by chance?
I find myself addicted to time-attacking (in that I seriously don't want to stop, consequences be damned) once I start. I have to really use it judiciously when I do, but I certainly get the feeling for rolling those dice like a boss.
We are using the base set rules.
Three Special Stages
Assistance between stages: on
Tires: 1
SISU: 1
*SISU cards are discarded when used and are one-time use for the entire rally.
**Spare tires are recovered during the assistance interval.
Special Stage #1: J4-J1, L14-L17, V15-V10, C2-C1, V11-V14
Special Stage #2: L4-L7, C3-C8, V4-V1, J6-J6, V0-V5
Special Stage #3: L12-L13, C12-C11, L14-L17, J5-J6, L16-L15, J7-J8, C10-C19, V8-V7, J9-J0[/i]
My times : 6:10 --- 3:43 -- 10:15 --- 20:08
The best overall time: 5:51 --- 3:28 --- 7:10 ---- 16:29
I did make an error (not in my favour) in that I could still have used one white die even with a flat snow tyre on tarmac.
This weekend- no COIN games, but another guy at the meetup who owns Cuba Libre and generally seems interested in those types of games, so that's looking up. I couldn't get four players together for Liberty or Death but we did celebrate Independence Day with another game of 1775. The Colonials won in the fourth turn with 4/3 territories and the help of early truce cards. Possibly also due to some truly bad dice rolls on the part of the red coats. I think I've lost the last three games now as the royalists.
After that we played Discoveries, the Lewis and Clark themed dice rolling/assigning game. I was pretty terrible at it- every turn trying to get myself in position to achieve something, while another player was seemingly chaining double missions every other turn. I'd play it again, though it's not the kind of game I'm good at, I suppose. It seemed like a lot depended on where the natural cycle of the game landed in terms of players either assigning or recovering dice) and whether it synchronised with your turn or not.
I hadn't played Machi Koro before, and I'm not sure I'd want to again. We were playing with some expansion or other, so the cards available could change from turn to turn (not sure if this is how it's meant to be), so maybe a really nice, cheap blue card appears, and is taken before your turn comes around. Too bad for you. This kind of thing happens in those trade row deck builders but it seemed more crucial here. Also one player rolled a statistically improbable amount of 8s which triggered his tax office every turn and took everyone else's money. Well played by him I guess- he won effortlessly.
Four of us played one special stage of Rallyman which seemed to go over well. I don't think they would have stuck through a full three stage rally. I spun out crossing the line like a boss, and the lowest time was scored by the guy who took the most turns- just some canny gear management. I liked how you can just throw together a stage using two or three tiles (I threw a snow tile in the middle) and go for it.
Chaos in the Old World was the last game of the evening, with two new players taking Khorne and Nurgle. Nurgle groused most of the game about it being unfair that dial ticks beat scores, before easily winning the game on turn five with exactly 50 points with only two regions ruined. I still enjoyed the game a lot. We used the original cards, I keep going back and forth on whether to use the Mordsleib set.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Afterwards we played a couple of games of Bohnanza. My brother is hooked on it, and demands that it be played. I usually do alright at that, but for some reason I was fairly horrible in those two games.
We wrapped up afterwards with a game of Fluxx. I thought they had played it before, and kind of liked it, but evidently that was alternate universe me. They panned it pretty hard. Evidently they want a little decision making in their games.
I had Tuesday off, so I met the coworkers. We ended up playing Castles of Mad King Ludwig, with an expansion. Some games I like (ex: 18xx), but suck at. This is not one of those games. I suck at it, but the game makes up for that by being boring. On the plus side, the owner is a big fan of Broken Token game trays, I liked it for that game, and I might spring for one for Dead of Winter.
Afterwards, we played a couple of games of Circus Flohcati. I had never played it before, but I was sold, and ordered a copy for myself. It seems like a game that the family gamers would like.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
The Cursed Idol adventure is fairly straightforward "find the gate, find the map tile" romp with the added bonus of instructing you to skip any corridor tiles in Jargono (SoB players will know how good that feels). On the other hand, two Growing Dread cards are added from the start, and all Hold Back the Darkness rolls are at -1. Bah. Jessica (nun) and Patsy (lawman) are level four, so we roll two elite abilities per enemy which helps to make each combat that little bit different in terms of tactics.
We found the gate to Jargono fairly quickly, dealing only with a roaming Slasher and some hungry dead along the way- as it turned out, in spite of all the mixed boxes and expansions, we only encountered Swamps of Death enemies through the adventure, appropriately enough. We snubbed our noses at the Bog Bats in the other world- Jessica having taken an anti-venom shot in town, and Patsy having her string of rattlesnake fangs wrapped around her glove somehow resisting their poisonous bites.
In spite of the often mentioned linearity of SoB procedural maps, we found ourselves back-tracking out of dangerous tiles with ongoing, punishing (such as four horror hits per turn) effects, seeking quieter groves down alternative paths. Still we couldn't avoid falling to bursts of corruption- Patsy sprouting a fine pair of horns, while Jessica gained a second head. The latter proved to be handy when she found an ancient helmet, being able to wear both it and her weathered hat mightily improved her defence capabilities. Still she is determined to sell the armour in town, because she really, really wants that Book of Armageddon.
The final room was filled with undead and corpse piles. Jessica's Smite judgement gave us the range we really needed to fry those from a distance, while Patsy's futuristic gun was doing little to cut down the shambling hordes. A finely lobbed bundle of dynamite cleared the room more or less, and the rest of the adventure was a race against the doom clock to find the right grave.
With the idol interred, the angry spirits appeased, we at least will have a town to visit on Friday, and it looks like Jessica is going to get that book she has been eyeing hungrily...perhaps too hungrily. Hungrier even than the mouthing, pulsing maw of Patsy's fresh new Soul Parasite, writhing out from her shirt.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Even with the just the base set, the game is shit unless you use the variant (required with the expansion) where cards cycle in and out. Well, the game is still kinda shit even then, but I can tolerate it. I only keep this game around because I have some friends that like it.JEM wrote: I hadn't played Machi Koro before, and I'm not sure I'd want to again. We were playing with some expansion or other, so the cards available could change from turn to turn (not sure if this is how it's meant to be), so maybe a really nice, cheap blue card appears, and is taken before your turn comes around. Too bad for you. This kind of thing happens in those trade row deck builders but it seemed more crucial here. Also one player rolled a statistically improbable amount of 8s which triggered his tax office every turn and took everyone else's money. Well played by him I guess- he won effortlessly.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Well....the game is clumsy, messy, and pure fucking Ameritrash to the core. And I sort of love it.
FaNG is essentially the most overblown, over produced, "push your luck" style game in existence. Everything you do is like dicin' with the devil. It's rough around the edges and about as "elegant" as a donkey wearing high heels, but fuck almighty, it exudes this palpable charm that's hard to dismiss. The competitive style game is a race against your opponents and the temptation to keep pushing your luck is very real. One minute you're riding high with an artifact within your grasp, the next moment it all comes crashing down as you wait to see how your cliffhanger adventure pans out. It's all rather ridiculous, but exciting at the same time. You roll handfuls of dice and love that you don't need to succeed "tests" all in one shot. Say you need to roll three 4+ results with your five dice, well as long as you get at least one success you can roll again. It makes it feel like you always have a chance to succeed. In most games you get one chance and then it's kaput.
In our game there were daring covert missions on a Nazi Zeppelin, a successfully plundering AND escape of a temple before it collapsed into dust, many daring chases, survival of a plane crash, a mobster showing up and stealing an artifact out from under our noses, the savage beating of a yeti by a photographer and her Short Round-esque sidekick, and much more. Ridiculous, high adventure was the order of the evening and the game certainly delivered. I can't wait to try this one again. There are rumblings that FFP will eventually get the long out of print expansions back in stores this year. I hope that's true. I'm pretty confident I'd go all in on this game if able to.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
I did have Universal Head's rule cheatsheet on hand and it wasn't until the adventure was just about over that I felt I had a firm grasp upon things. The basic rules are dead simple. It's just that there are little chrome rules for a variety of situations. When they come up you're like, WTF happens now. It was certainly a game where I was thumbing through the rules and just kind of "muscled" through the game. I'm hoping next time I play it's a lot smoother.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- metalface13
- Offline
- D10
- Posts: 4753
- Thank you received: 701
Josh Look wrote: Got my copy of Star Trek Frontiers yesterday and already got two solo games in.
If you did not like Mage Knight, this isn't going to change your mind. But if were under the impression that the Star Trek theme was just pasted on, that is not the case. Not entirely, anyway. Many of the cards will seem familiar to MK players, but some are entirely new and some of them have been tweaked (directly or indirectly by other details in the game...kind of hard to explain without getting too longwinded).
As far as rules go, it's almost identical. Combat, both regular and PvP has been changed a little bit so that they more closely resemble each other. I appreciate this, not sure if I'll use PvP, but part of the reason why I never did was because it worked quite differently from regular combat. The major bridge between the two is partial blocks. Yes, you can now partially block damage in regular combat. That sounds like it would make the game less lethal, but it's offset by away missions.
Away missions replaces the dungeon/tomb/etc encounters and adds a big dose of Trek flavor. There's class L and K planets that you can send an away team down to, so before you flip the encounter token you decide who will come with you (before your allies simply would not go) and whether or not your captain will go (you have a powerful captain card in your deck which could be useful in those situations and committing the captain is the only way to play that card). Once you flip the encounter token, you can try to negotiate with whoever is on the planet. Diplomacy, which in MK was only used for recruiting allies, will automatically pass the encounter if you have enough. If not, you are attacked. You get one shot at taking them out quickly, if not, the crew takes it on the chin. NO BLOCKS. This is what I was talking about with offsets in difficulty. I had a single Ferengi cause an awful lot of trouble for Lt. Worf last night when peaceful talks fell through.
There's a few other little things here and there that essentially add up to a game with less frustrating moments than MK. It's still a puzzle figuring out how to accomplish what you want to do, and despite the day/night cycle, only one set of turn order cards, and the artifact deck missing (all of which I surprisingly don't care about being gone), the game is no less complex than before. Will I be parting with MK? Not sure yet, but my gut says yes. The Trek theme is there (what combat is there is with races the Federation almost always fought with in the shows, everyone else CAN be negotiated with, and if you really have a problem with the combat just play one of the Klingon ships included), the game is just as good as it ever was, and call me crazy, but I think the physical product itself is nicer. WizKids gets a bad rap for quality, deservedly so most of the time, but this game is nicer looking than I had anticipated. Mage Knight has always been a contender for being my favorite game, and this is just as good with the added bonus of having some nice Trek flavor. I love it.
Hmm ... I'm kind of intrigued. Mage Knight has long been my favorite adventure game until Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game came out, but I still really like it. I've never been a trekkie though. What Star Trek time frame does this take place in? What are the ship options, just Federation and Klingons?
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
My entire group is big fans of this one. It plays in about 2-2.5 hours, is relatively simple from a mechanical standpoint, yet features lots of interaction and double-guessing. In three games we've seen two wins via Pyramids and one win via Conquest. Seems to play well with 4 or 5, not sure I'd choose it for 3 players though.
The trading system is top notch and I love the leader board and how that determines player order in each phase. Very cool, unique stuff going on. Haven't even cracked the expansion yet.
Also got in a couple plays of Via Nebula, a new Wallace Euro which is not normally something I'd gravitate to. This one looked interesting to me as its light with a bit of theme and has an interesting blend of route building/exploration, with race. We all liked this one as well and it plays very fast and is very enjoyable. Felt in that same space as maybe Five Tribes but I liked it quite a bit more (far less analysis paralysis).
Also played this really clever dexterity game called Dr. Eureka, which I can't help but smile at but I'm so terrible. It's the first time being bad at a game really sapped my enjoyment as there's nothing else to hang onto here if you're not doing well. It's not very forgiving and you accomplish nothing if you aren't the one winning each round (much like SET).
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
metalface13 wrote:
Josh Look wrote: Got my copy of Star Trek Frontiers yesterday and already got two solo games in.
If you did not like Mage Knight, this isn't going to change your mind. But if were under the impression that the Star Trek theme was just pasted on, that is not the case. Not entirely, anyway. Many of the cards will seem familiar to MK players, but some are entirely new and some of them have been tweaked (directly or indirectly by other details in the game...kind of hard to explain without getting too longwinded).
As far as rules go, it's almost identical. Combat, both regular and PvP has been changed a little bit so that they more closely resemble each other. I appreciate this, not sure if I'll use PvP, but part of the reason why I never did was because it worked quite differently from regular combat. The major bridge between the two is partial blocks. Yes, you can now partially block damage in regular combat. That sounds like it would make the game less lethal, but it's offset by away missions.
Away missions replaces the dungeon/tomb/etc encounters and adds a big dose of Trek flavor. There's class L and K planets that you can send an away team down to, so before you flip the encounter token you decide who will come with you (before your allies simply would not go) and whether or not your captain will go (you have a powerful captain card in your deck which could be useful in those situations and committing the captain is the only way to play that card). Once you flip the encounter token, you can try to negotiate with whoever is on the planet. Diplomacy, which in MK was only used for recruiting allies, will automatically pass the encounter if you have enough. If not, you are attacked. You get one shot at taking them out quickly, if not, the crew takes it on the chin. NO BLOCKS. This is what I was talking about with offsets in difficulty. I had a single Ferengi cause an awful lot of trouble for Lt. Worf last night when peaceful talks fell through.
There's a few other little things here and there that essentially add up to a game with less frustrating moments than MK. It's still a puzzle figuring out how to accomplish what you want to do, and despite the day/night cycle, only one set of turn order cards, and the artifact deck missing (all of which I surprisingly don't care about being gone), the game is no less complex than before. Will I be parting with MK? Not sure yet, but my gut says yes. The Trek theme is there (what combat is there is with races the Federation almost always fought with in the shows, everyone else CAN be negotiated with, and if you really have a problem with the combat just play one of the Klingon ships included), the game is just as good as it ever was, and call me crazy, but I think the physical product itself is nicer. WizKids gets a bad rap for quality, deservedly so most of the time, but this game is nicer looking than I had anticipated. Mage Knight has always been a contender for being my favorite game, and this is just as good with the added bonus of having some nice Trek flavor. I love it.
Hmm ... I'm kind of intrigued. Mage Knight has long been my favorite adventure game until Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game came out, but I still really like it. I've never been a trekkie though. What Star Trek time frame does this take place in? What are the ship options, just Federation and Klingons?
TNG/DS9 era. You can play as Federation or Klingons, 2 different captains each. You fight Romulans, Dominion, and Borg.
I played again and if anything, it might be too easy for seasoned MK players. It's not the partial blocks that does it, it's the starbases not having immunity to long range attacks like the strongholds and mage towers did. Though taking the -1 reputation hit in this game has much more weight to it since the away missions give you another use for influence (now diplomacy). I can't tell you how many times I've had to pick between an away mission and getting a new crew member.
It's certainly more forgiving than Mage Knight, which could be a good thing if you have new players. Plus, there's nothing to stop you from using the old rules.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.