What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

charlest wrote:

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.

Just busting your balls of course. But totally jelly at you getting a crack at them already. They sound interesting.

Played a couple games:

High Frontier was fun, but I did see the flaws of the design more clearly this time. We played with the Support modules, which are absolutely required and fun. They add a lot of pieces to each rocket, making it less likely all of them are great and making you work under less than ideal conditions. It also reduces the weight of each piece to compensate, which means you can build rockets with several thrusters or with several "tricks" that are fun.

Anyways, the first issue I had is that this increases the already too long "setup phase" of the game. At the beginning of the game you have about 40-50 minutes in which no player can launch a rocket because they need to get money and cards. And this auctioning and selling and trying to get a rocket going is fun, it's jut not as fun as an actual engine-building or drafting game yet lasts about the same time. I think you could greatly improve the game here.

The other issue, which is more important, is that the end-game goal of "build X factories" is not really that great. It doesn't promote doing interesting stuff or going to the outer rings of the solar system or anything of the sort. I'mt old the Futures module/expansion fixes this, though.

I would like to play this game on my own, just relaxing and starting at the huge board.

Terraforming Mars Prelude seemed like a terrible expansion. What's the point of starting halfway through in an engine-building game? Well, it doesn't actually start you two generations ealier, it just gives you a powerful early-game boost that is not quite powerful to coast on. I've found that, in the base game, the early turns are pretty straightfoward because all the cool cards get sidelined for money. Now, money is still a concern but all the cool stuff is much more viable so there's actually more vairety and more decisionst o be made. I like it so far.

I only played High Frontier once, many years ago, and I found the setup phase terribly long.

Just played Dino Dunk with my brother. Believe the hype. It’s really, really solid.

Andrew's review finally convinced me to purchase Modern Art and get it to the table.

I don't know why I've been so slow to pick up evergreen games like this when I'm now certain that these are the types of games that belong on my shelves rather than whatever dungeon crawler has been barfed out of Kickstarter. Two of the latter are currently eating up two entire shelves, while this modest box of cards has more gameplay & dynamics residing inside of it than anything that could be produced by either of those corridor generators.

I don't think I have much to add to Andrew's own very well written assessment of Modern Art. It's just a damn fine game; definitely the strongest and most cynically thematic auction game that I've played.

Jesus. I got a corner rounder for my birthday and I'm now clipping my countless wargame counters.

Gary Sax wrote: Jesus. I got a corner rounder for my birthday and I'm now clipping my countless wargame counters.

About time! Now your counters won't be all raggedy-assed and civilized men won't be ashamed to play with them.

Ha! Seriously, it can be a quite soothing activity. Put on some audio books or a sporting event on the TV and clip away. Your games will thank you.

Last night, a friend and I played probably the best game of Kill Team yet. It was me playing a 100 point all Scions (Astra Militarum) squad versus his all Genestealer squad. Yes, the elevator pitch was Aliens. The killzone was Sector Munitorium, which I really like for CC heavy games- and it is the easiest to set up and get going quickly.

The mission was Infestation, which requires a Tyranid KT. They get to put out tokens equal to 2+ number of models so he got to put out 11 and they can go anywhere with some spacing restrictions. At the beginning of each movement phase, the Tyranid player rolls for each model and on 4+, they come out at one of the spawn points. The attacking player sets up in a perimeter around the map. I stupidly posted up men in squads on all four sides. The objective is just to break the other team.

So turn 1, he spawns three “regular” Genestealers and they charge my group with 2 hotshot lasguns and plasma rifle. I use a Command to get the plasma dude to hit on 4+ instead of 6 to break the charge and stay out of melee. Still whiffs it. So this whole group misses all their Overwatch shots and gets hemmed in at the edge, locked in CC. The other Scions are kind of useless since they can’t shoot into melee but they angle around with some Advance actions. With the spawn tokens and the Genestealers’ movement, there really isn’t a safe spot on the board. In the CC phase, chargers go first and somehow my three guys make it through a combination of misses and saves, but plasma dude takes a flesh wound. We fight back, but do no damage. Plasma dude makes his morale check and doesn’t get shaken.

Turn 2 he gets the initiative, brings out a Genestealer with Scything Talons to tie up the to Hotshot lasgun Dudes on the West side and two, one with Flesh Hooks (basically a biomorphic pistol) that head for my Tempestor (plasma pistol and power fist) Meltagun dude, and Plasma dude 2 coming around some containers to help the guys pinned down at the south side. Charges are made, including one flying leap over some crates thanks to a Command card, and the Tempestor group gets tangled up. I move this Hotshot Volleygun guy behind some barrels in the middle of the board we’ll get back to him. Tempestor and Flesh Hooks can shoot even if within 1”, but both miss.
On the south the first three dudes charged fight hard and even put a flesh wound on one of the Genestealers, but one guy goes OOA and the other gets a flesh wound.

On turn 3, we lost initiative again and I start feeling like it’s hopeless. Most pieces are in melee, but I move a flamer guy down from the north side to try to bring that “always hits” and D6 attacks firepower to bear- especially since a flamer is the ideal charge-breaking weapon. The second Hotshot on the west manages to kill the Genestealer harassing his buddy in CC using a Voice of Command ability. The two guys at the south both die horribly with 6 pairs of arms tearing them to pieces. The Tempestor’s group falls back and manages to avoid getting charged because my friend missed on the rolls -and- the rerolls. Kind of a miracle.

Turn 4 we get the initiative! With my shooters broken away, I’m able to move out of charge ranges. He spawns a couple more Genestealers one of which charges my flamer but the Genestealer makes his saves.That guy behind the barrels gets his “LET’S ROCK!” Vasquez moment- he blasts the volleygun at the three that offed his buddies and kills- not wounds- all three of them. The Tempestor supercharges his plasma pistol (a huge risk) and completely evaporated the flesh hooker. Meltagun guy wounds his mark, and the lasgun guys manage to get one wound on another. Flamer guy winds up getting shaken, which shuts down my mid-board coverage

Turn 5 we completely blow it. Lose initiative. The charges bog us down, and the Genestealers’ stupid 3 attacks each are brought to bear, enhances by some Command cards. Somehow my buddy rolls 6s every time on the Scything Talon guys, which pretty much make them murder machines with their AP. I lose two guys to them, and despite some spirited shooting as a last ditch effort, we break in the morale phase.

This game was really fun- it was super fluffy and narrative, and we had two KTs with very different and very focused styles. Luck was a big factor, but it was FUN luck- the miracle turnarounds and counter-turnarounds are only possible with it. It was about an hour all told.

Next time, we are doing Space Wolves versus Thousand Sons- a classic matchup!

Michael Barnes wrote: Last night, a friend and I played probably the best game of Kill Team yet.

Had a game last night of Harlequins vs Tau. After losing half my squad, after spending my CP to finally get my combat specialist past his gun line I rolled 5 attacks... and instantly rolled a result of 1, 1, 1, 2, 2. Immediately rage quit. Honestly, I think he rage quit on my behalf.

Are Tau actually good in Kill Team? I haven't looked at them or played with them yet. They sucked in Shadow War: Armageddon.

charlest wrote: Are Tau actually good in Kill Team? I haven't looked at them or played with them yet. They sucked in Shadow War: Armageddon.

I think they took seriously some of the complaints about Tau in Shadow War. Drones seemed to be buffed in this version, and they were already decent medium-range fighters. Plus, they get stealth suits now. I found them formidable.

Definitely an improvement. They can take Fire Warriors now, not just Pathfinders. Still, maybe don’t charge Harlequins or Genestealers with them.

New gaming group last night. Counter-culture basement bunker in the artsy section of town that is gritty but turning trendy. 125 invited, and 11 showed up. Not much in the way of snacks, but several people brought excellent local micro brews to share.

Game #1: Forgot the name, but it was darkly sarcastic quiz game from Jackbox Games, the people who did You Don't Know Jack. I forgot my smart phone on the charger, so I sat out while Mike and Rose played on the big screen. Rose wanted me on her team, but it turned out that she is smarter than me and only asked for help on two questions. Mike won.

Game #2 - #4: More guys showed, so we played four-, five-, and six-player games of Spaceteam, a frantic, shouty co-op game. Every play has a hand of cards which represent tools and devices needed to repair our spaceship before we get sucked into a black hole. We each got a small deck of other cards which is mostly equipment that needs to be repaired. So you are shouting at the other players the names of the parts you need to fix something, and so are they. Sometimes you aren't given the name of what you need, so you are describing the picture instead of naming it. The decks also include anomalies, which are random weird obstacles that must be addressed by other players before you can move on to your next card. There was one where Rose couldn't speak and had to simulate choking, and at another point, everybody had to touch an anomaly card and all yell CLEAR! There are also six sections of the spaceship, and ultimately our goal is to get to those ship parts, and put them in the center of the table before the five-minute (!) sand timer goes off. Fun, but stressful, and sort of like a bad day at work condensed into five minutes.

Game #5: Mike the host was eager to play his newly-acquired Heroquest that he got at GenCon, so he set up at another table, and the other four guys followed him. They played for three hours, which seemed long, but people tended to play at a casual pace, taking times for drinks, conversation, and photo ops.

Game #6: Rose doesn't watch horror movies because she doesn't like to be scared, but she was fascinated by Camp Grizzly, so we played a two-player game. Although my past experiences made it seem like two is too hard for Camp Grizzly, this was a good game. I got killed, but Rose managed to escape with two campers for the win.

Game #7: Vermin and Juliet finally showed up, and they jumped in for a 4-player game of Camp Grizzly. This game was epic! Just by the way the dice landed and the cards fell, Otis seemed to come to life with wicked cunning. Like when there was a blackout in the camp and the only way to turn the lights back on was in the Tool Shed, Otis kept showing up at the Tool Shed. We found the first aid station early, which was huge, but then Otis started to hanging out around there a lot, which is probably why this game ran over two hours long. Then a fire broke out, so the only way to get at the first aid was to either take a chance on a nature trail or run through the fire. The game kept getting darker in tone. Rose's character died and she went home happy about having played. Another player jumped in with a fresh character. I was so injured that I had to crawl through the fire to get some first aid. In three consecutive player turns, three NPCs showed up and two died almost instantaneously. We were trying to escape by van and both Otis and Karen's boyfriend were closing, until Otis killed the boyfriend. During our escape, we were forced to commit four homicides, but we save four young kids so it was okay.

Game #8: Four-player Gothic Game, which turned into seven-player when Heroquest wrapped up. The first third of the game was slow. People moved around, drew cards, and minor stuff happened. Mid-game, Vermin became the vampire, but didn't get anybody. Matt became the vampire and killed vermin. Matt became the vampire again, and killed James and tried to get me in the same turn, but I killed him with the wooden stake and hammer. Juliet killed me with the stone club. The final third of the game got exciting. We had a three-way stand off near the vault, where Juliet, Mike and Joe were all close enough to potentially kill each other on their next turn, if they got power of adjacency. Juliet became the "vampir" (she's goth) and Mike killed Joe with acid. But Joe became a vengeful ghost haunting the space where he died, so the only way Mike could get away from Juliet was to fall into the moat. Mike nearly drowned to death, but managed to clamber out near the main entrance and got some healing in the South Courtyard. Mike later became the vampire, but Juliet did a good job of ducking in and out of rooms. With one turn left before sunrise, Mike just barely rolled high enough to kill Juliet right outside the entrance to the Vault. He would have died immediately after, except that biting somebody allows the vampire to take two more turns before sunrise. Nobody who got eliminated walked away from the table, because they were all riveted by the action.

I'm sitting in the very back, next to Rose and across from Vermin and Juliet. Mike the host is the bearded guy in the foreground:

Soloed a game of BLACK ORCHESTRA yesterday. The game is about the people conspiring to kill Hitler. You have to complete a plot (like poisining him) by finding the right items, being in the right place with him and so on. It looks great, and it also feels like a very different kind of coop. Rather than putting out fires, you mostly plan ahead. You can't murder him if your guys aren't motivated enought. But at the same time, the attempt will easily fail if Hitler's power is too strong, or if you have too much suspicion. So it very much feel like you have to create possibilites and then suddenly react when the stars are aligned.

It did seem a bit too easy on standard mode, though. But I only played with two characters, and I think having more players will increase the risk of encountering the lieutenants which incur penalties if you begin your turn with them. Time will tell.

Played a couple middling games:

Welcome to.. and Ganz schön clever were both Yahtzhee-like games. Neither is particularly interesting. If you have played Yahtzhee, you know how they are like.

Welcome to Centerville is yet another dice-driven point salad game. It's built, almost exclusively, from those mechanisms that give you points if you are the player that spent the most resources in a given area and penalizes the last player. Euro designers love that mechanism (Orleans, Ra the Dice Game, Plus Ultra all have it), but I don't see any interest on it. The rest of the game is some chrome that doesn't seem to matter nor work that well. You can get into "offices" that give you a one-time power, but they are massively unbalanced. No, the "you won't get hit by disasters" does not compare to the "get another turn" office on power level, it's absurd.

Here's a controversial take: There's nothing more boring than reading the game state. It's not interesting, it's not fun and it's the definition of busywork. No interesting nor meaningful decisions come from reading the game state, they all come from understanding it or choosing what to do based on it. But reading? No, not at all, that's just meaningless. And all these games are simply based on throwing crap at the game state to disguise the equations working under it.