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Mycelia Board Game Review

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Outback Crossing Review

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12 Aug 2018 22:44 #279629 by Colorcrayons

Jexik wrote: There aren't a million pieces, but it felt like a deal for $40, given that we already played it for multiple hours and he asks for it more than any other non-digital game.

*I misread your comment to mean that he sold out. Found your post to see that you found out about the game too late. I hope he gets decent distribution on it. The interesting thing to me is that if he pushed hard enough, he probably could have gotten PHG to make it if they felt it fit in their catalog, but he felt strongly enough about his game to self-publish. He knows Colby and all the rest of those guys, although I'm not sure how much that matters now that they've been sucked up by ANA.


He may have sold out. I only found out about it while going through the Marriott lobby to my room.

This is the game fun tourneys like Battling Tops and Rattlesnake help create. Grown men acting like kids again. It's truly a beautiful thing.

I agree on the price. For the amount of play it got, it's very competitively priced. I hope the guy somehow gets big box distribution. Because I've bought much worse for much more.

I better look up his email soon and see if I can wrangle one up.

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13 Aug 2018 00:27 #279632 by SuperflyPete
I heard people talking about it but it was fully Bigfooted. I never even saw a copy.

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13 Aug 2018 09:07 #279643 by charlest
Anyone who's played Dino Dunk have a meaningful comparison to Zoo Ball? Wondering if it's worth checking it out if we already adore ZB.

Glad you're digging Street Masters Mark, it's one of the best games of 2018 IMO. Also, My win rate has climbed to around 40%, but solo does seem slightly harder at times.

Nyctophobia is continuing to entrance me. I wrote about it today: playerelimination.com/2018/08/13/nyctoph...rrative-of-the-dark/

The other game coming out of Gen Con that has blown me the fuck away is Root. Cole Wehrle may be on his way to becoming my favorite designer. This and John Company completely have my soul.

The absolutely addictive element of Root is its combination of a very simple framework with wild yet digestible asymmetry that gives way to tremendous depth. The game successfully takes some of the core faction concepts of COIN and pares them down into very easily understood segments. It's a fast game too, and one you want to play again before you've exhaled at the end of the game.

We also got in a couple of plays of Shifting Realms, the first game from Soaring Rhino. This is a new company from Craig and Jeff Van Ness, which had me totally stoked mostly on Craig's pedigree.

This is a light Euro-style game with some resource gathering and building, but it's kicked up a notch due to the three segments (realms) of the board being randomized. So some games you'll have the dwarves and their dragon, others you'll have the pirates, etc.

Each board has their own set of buildings and a story deck you can push as one of your actions. This results in interesting interactions and narrative bits that help elevate the kind of lukewarm main engine.

Overall I'm a fan of the game but it's not going to blow your hair back and it's pretty simple overall.

I introduced my game group to Mars Open and it was stellar. So many high fives, unbelievable shots, and just general joy. I won by a single stroke and everyone was within a couple at the end.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Gary Sax, hotseatgames, Colorcrayons, stoic

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13 Aug 2018 10:27 #279647 by stoic
Last night my son and I played Wiz-War, our favorite game. It resulted in a hilarious scenario and his victory when I cast a 5 time energized lightning bolt into his counter-spell of a Wall of Earth--I thought that I had him for an instant victory! Instead though, my lightning bolt bounced off of his dirt wall and electrocuted me! The look on my face was priceless.

We followed up my loss by cracking open Ghostbusters: Protect the Barrier Game and playing it with all of the advanced rules--we lost and the ghosts busted us! This was purchased in the discount bin at Tuesday Morning. This is a nice light coop with scaling rules of difficulty. While playing it with all of the advanced rules, you have a very quick-playing coop, like Pandemic. "Too easy" and "traded away" seem to sum up the comments about this one, but, if you properly apply all of the advanced rules, it's difficult enough. It's a very tight, clean design and it's easy to learn. It has a push-your-luck feel and a nice level of intensity with the advanced rules. I'm not sure that I'd choose to play this one over Flash Point: Fire Rescue.
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13 Aug 2018 10:48 #279648 by Gary Sax

charlest wrote:
The other game coming out of Gen Con that has blown me the fuck away is Root. Cole Wehrle may be on his way to becoming my favorite designer. This and John Company completely have my soul.

The absolutely addictive element of Root is its combination of a very simple framework with wild yet digestible asymmetry that gives way to tremendous depth. The game successfully takes some of the core faction concepts of COIN and pares them down into very easily understood segments. It's a fast game too, and one you want to play again before you've exhaled at the end of the game.


I think this is a really important observation. One of the problems with these asymmetric games is that you need reps to understand each side's rules in order to actually play to win with any side. For long games with this kind of asymmetry this is can be a super tall order.
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13 Aug 2018 10:54 #279649 by charlest

Gary Sax wrote:

charlest wrote:
The other game coming out of Gen Con that has blown me the fuck away is Root. Cole Wehrle may be on his way to becoming my favorite designer. This and John Company completely have my soul.

The absolutely addictive element of Root is its combination of a very simple framework with wild yet digestible asymmetry that gives way to tremendous depth. The game successfully takes some of the core faction concepts of COIN and pares them down into very easily understood segments. It's a fast game too, and one you want to play again before you've exhaled at the end of the game.


I think this is a really important observation. One of the problems with these asymmetric games is that you need reps to understand each side's rules in order to actually play to win with any side. For long games with this kind of asymmetry this is can be a super tall order.


Yes, this was my main criticism of Vast coming out of Gen Con when it was released a few years ago. We played that three times at the convention center I believe, and it was very rough trying to teach.

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13 Aug 2018 13:34 #279664 by Josh Look
Thanks, guys, just ordered a copy of Dino Dunk after reading up on it.
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13 Aug 2018 13:54 #279666 by Colorcrayons

Josh Look wrote: Thanks, guys, just ordered a copy of Dino Dunk after reading up on it.


And Josh says ameritrash is dead... XD

I hope you like it.

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13 Aug 2018 20:19 #279698 by WadeMonnig
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14 Aug 2018 02:16 #279714 by Michael Barnes
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14 Aug 2018 05:52 - 14 Aug 2018 10:31 #279715 by repoman
Spent the weekend at a small ASL tournament in Manchester New Hampshire. It was quite fun.

Round 1:

I played Australians attacking some hills occupied by the Japanese in Papua New Guinea. The terrain was atrocious. The heat oppressive. And my tactics deplorable. It seems running up a steep hill yelling "We're coming to git ya!" at guys at the top with machine guns is a good way to get shot.

In a moment of weakness, I lost.

Round 2:

This time I was the Russians attacking some Germans trying to defend a village. Things looked good for me because I had a couple of T34 tanks and the Germans had no anti tank weapons to speak of other than a few panzerfausts (German bazookas) and some anti tank magnetic mines. Both of these things required them to get all up close and personal with my rolling death machines.

So my path was clear, keep my tanks out of his reach and blast away. Victory assured. Alas, this I failed to do.

In a moment of weakness, I lost.

Round 3:

I was on the attack again. This time as the Germans trying to take a village in France defended by Senegalese troops working for the French army. Thus, they were probably less likely to run away than most other French units.

Things worked out pretty well. The Senegalese were slowly crushed into a small group of buildings and were systematically being annihilated when my opponent threw in the towel. Up and surrendered.

Sweet sweet victory!

Round 4:

Back to the attack for me. This time as the British in Tunisia against the Germans. The terrain which I expected to be just sand and rocks was actually filled with vegetation. Ahh life continues even in times of war. Of course what that greenery concealed was a deadly anti tank gun. Now I'm not saying the M3 Lee tank is a frankensteined together piece of crap made out of tinfoil and bailing wire but I'm not NOT saying it.

In a moment of weakness, I lost.

Round 5:

In this scenario the Americans along with a couple of Sherman tanks and an M8 self propelled gun are racing across the island of Tinian in order to take some worthless huts. The Japanese are determined to stop them.

I learned a thing or two on the lead up to this one so used my armor a bit more wisely. However that caution used up too much time and I was unable to secure the victory locations before the scenario ended.

In a moment of weakness, I lost.

So the record for the weekend was 1-4. But even if the stats brand me a MASSIVE LOSER, I consider myself a winner just for showing up. Yes, I'm identifying as a millennial in order to sooth my bruised and battered ego.

In truth it was a lot of fun and even tough most of the guys had a much better handle on the rules than I do, they were all welcoming, friendly, and helpful.
Last edit: 14 Aug 2018 10:31 by repoman.
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14 Aug 2018 07:28 #279716 by Sagrilarus
Congratulations on your stunning victory!
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14 Aug 2018 09:39 #279728 by Josh Look
I played Master of the Galaxy last night, a new bag building game from Ares that isn’t dissimilar to Hyperborea. It’s not the kind of game that you can pass judgment on after one play. Even though it distills all strategy games down to its more core element, which how you allocate your resources to various tasks, and it all runs on the same mechanic, everything you’re doing manages to feel different. It’s a strange experience for sure, but we all came away with generally positive impressions and want to explore the game more. We all were quite fond of Hyperborea, but our initial suspicious are that this is the better game. Certainly not for everyone, but if you liked Hyperborea there’s a very good chance that this is for you.
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14 Aug 2018 10:56 - 14 Aug 2018 10:57 #279735 by Michael Barnes
Review it Josh.

Root. God damn. There’s a reason it was THE game of Gen Con ‘18. Full review coming.
Last edit: 14 Aug 2018 10:57 by Michael Barnes.
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14 Aug 2018 16:52 #279776 by Legomancer
I've heard good things about Root, but I played Vast and found it a good idea that was extremely poorly executed. It sounds like some of the issues with Vast have been fixed (and I think we learne Vast poorly -- though I think it was designed to be taught poorly).

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