What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

FWIW, I loved Vast and it's been a huge hit with every group I've brought it to.

Michael Barnes wrote: Root. God damn. There’s a reason it was THE game of Gen Con ‘18. Full review coming.

So.... is Root a serious game in kids' game clothing, or is it on the lighter side?

Not a kids game at all. Definitely a more complex design, not in the family game genre so much.

It sounds like COIN lite / Cuba Libre fused with Redwall. Dan Thurot wrote a good piece for it & I definitely want to check it out.

Gonna wait till I can get it and the expansion, expansion sold out right now. Vagabond sounds like a weird one, having something to sub in would be nice.

Huh, I ordered it last night because I had a FOMO moment when I saw that it was going to be November for the next printing at the earliest...guess my instinct was right!

We played several games of Vast when it came out and I ultimately came down negative on it, mainly due to the effort it took to teach and internalize it.

Root is very different. There's a baseline of mechanisms to rest everything on and the factions simply add their asymmetry on top. It's much more COIN than Vast.

You can still order the expansion direct from them. I did it a few days ago and I'm looking forward to the new factions, as well as the Mechanical Marquise.

Vagabond rock by the way.

The Root expansion isn't all that necessary unless you regularly have 4+ players, or want the Mechanical Marquise bot rules. It adds two new (more subtle) factions and a second vagabond. These can be added or swapped in for the main game factions, but...

Not every faction is equally swappable, and especially at 2 or 3 you should probably choose your factions carefully. Cats vs Birds is a good base to hang anything else on, and is really the main 2p game. Tread carefully if you think about dropping in that second vagabond. I wouldn't do it unless there's more than 4 players.

I had more faith than the rest of old F:AT and kickstartered this thing, and I'm pretty happy with it.

charlest wrote: You can still order the expansion direct from them. I did it a few days ago and I'm looking forward to the new factions, as well as the Mechanical Marquise.

leder-games.myshopify.com/

Nope.

Blame Barnes, he must have gotten the last copy.

charlest wrote: 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.

I hadn't heard of Zoo Ball until now, but I checked out Joel Eddy's video to get a sense of it.

boardgamegeek.com/video/144607/zoo-ball/...review-603-disc-golf

Zoo Ball seems MUCH simpler. Even the kids' exhibition mode in DD is a little more complicated. I do like the idea of moving 1 or 3 guys, but the big difference here is that Dino Dunk is clearly basketball. You move/activate two guys on your turn, there's a shot clock, there's a small disk (like the ships in Ascending Empires) as the ball which is shared between the players and can be turned over, stolen, etc. In addition to doing the movement action, you can either pass or shoot the ball if a dino has possession. If your flick misses a dino on a pass, or you miss a shot, it's a loose ball and the other team can take it. Defenders can also steal possession if you can hit the ball during a move action without hitting the dino in possession of the ball. Striking the dino that has the ball is a foul.

They also do some interesting mechanical things with just the length and width of a card. You can perform a short pass (one card length) without even needing to flick. The triceratops is a skilled bounce-passer and ranged shooter for example, he can place the ball a card length away from himself before taking an action. The Velociraptor, a small dino that can't shoot, is the point guard- he can move a card length before passing, or move a card width before moving when on defense to try to steal. The T-Rex can do a give and go where after he passes the ball, he can immediately move. The pterodactyl can place the ball on himself so he can't be stolen from for a turn, etc.

The 4 player game is 2v2, where each player takes one action per round.

Thanks, going to try and track down a copy as it sounds fantastic.



I've gotten in a few games of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Champions the new CCG that Barnes mentions in his recent Barnes on Games post. This game rocks, it's a fantastic little CCG that feels complete and totally enjoyable from just the starter decks. I'm tempering my excitement to not get suckered in to buying a whole mess of boosters, but I am absolutely keeping this one.

I really dig how it has you place champions and units in lanes, reminiscent slightly of a MOBA. It adds a formation feel to the game that makes positioning matter somewhat. It seems to have just enough depth and complexity while still remaining straightforward to keep your interest.

We also got in a game of Cthulhu Wars with the new Ancients faction. This is the only faction that doesn't have a Great Old One, instead they build these odd Cathedrals all over the map and draw power and elder signs from them. They can also blow them up to kill a GOO in the same area during battle. This, combined with their 7 dice monsters are pretty scary.

These guys are much better than the Tcho-Tcho. For one, they're a negotiation heavy faction as you want Cathedrals in spaces with gates, and you also often give stuff to other players to unlock spellbooks. Very interesting.

I jumped out to a huge lead with errata'd Cthulhu and then was summarily stomped down by Sleeper, Opener, and Windwalker focusing on me. Windwalker ended up winning, riding that coveted second place spot for most of the game.

Closed it out with some Werewords Deluxe, which is basically just Werewords with some bigger tokens and a few new roles. The new roles are mostly for larger player counts unfortunately.

Got my third play of Root schedule for this weekend, along with some other gaming.

Charlie, it appears to be sold exclusively through the Twin Citie Games website. That’s where I got mine, order #11. Should be here tomorrow!

HOW DOES CHARLIE ALREADY HAVE THE ANCIENTS



Lol...yeah man so excited for when the OS3 stuff finally arrives.

Ken B. wrote: HOW DOES CHARLIE ALREADY HAVE THE ANCIENTS



Lol...yeah man so excited for when the OS3 stuff finally arrives.

You could pick them up at Gen Con if you were a backer. I didn't do this, but a buddy did. Still waiting on my own stuff.