What board games are you BUYING?

Temptation got to me and I bought Coma Ward again. Last time, I ordered it from an Amazon seller, and it got so damaged during shipment that the shipper sent it back instead of delivering to me. The seller refunded me, no questions asked. At the time, it seemed like an ill omen, but I bought Coma Ward anyway.

The concept is cool. The characters wake up with amnesia in the coma ward of an oddly vacant mental institution. They explore the building and scrounge for useful items while trying to cope with specific mental disorders and hallucinations. After three clues are found, the combination of clues triggers a specific scenario. This setup pleasantly reminds me of Legion, American Horror Story: Asylum, and the first chapter of Nine Princes in Amber.

Coma Ward is basically Betrayal at House on the Hill, only taking place in a mental institution instead of a haunted house. Only 12 scenarios in the base game, and some are co-op. The components look cool and do a nice job of reinforcing the setting. The box is excessively large, but only because they made space in the insert for the expansion scenarios. The rules look okay, but there is a full page of errata in the box, indicating a Kickstarter level of professionalism from Everything Epic Games. One interesting design choice was to use a fixed board layout with specific blank rooms on every level for random room tiles. An unusually small or large house layout in Betrayal at House on the Hill was often the reason why individual scenarios fell flat about half the time, so maybe the semi-fixed layout of Coma Ward will be an improvement.

Bought a thing and have another one in the mail. I know, sinful, but sometimes you need it.

Burned some store credit on a copy of Relic. I've always liked Talisman. Not enough to lie to people and call it good, but nostalgia is a powerful thing. 2 games in (I know this is the buy thread but I don't wanna cut this up), and god damn this is the game I remember Talisman being. There's actual choices, less player VS player fuckery while still being super interactive, shorter overall playtime, still random and fun as all hell. The characters are all over the place in terms of capability and probably balance too, I can't wait to run a full table of this.

Other game is Ponzi Scheme. I've hemmed and hawed on it since it came out and found a sale, decided to finally pull the trigger. Weirdass economic games are my jam so this should suit me fine.

I have played Talisman and Relic once each. I keep hearing that the games are very similar aside from setting, and that is probably true. But my personal experience with the two games was dramatically different. My one and only play of Talisman was about 20 years ago, so it was the GW edition. We had maybe five players. The game moved along at a good clip, and luck brought me to the Crown of Command first. I used it to pick everyone else off, one by one. The one time I played Relic was awful. We only had four players, but the game dragged on for five hours before we pulled the plug on it. We were nowhere near finishing, though that might have been partly due to one player functioning as some kind of adversarial hunter of the other characters. My character encountered more powerful opposition nearly 100% of the time, and also got beaten in the rare fights that were more like even odds. I wish that there had been player elimination to set me free, or at least character elimination so I could get a character with an actual pulse. Talisman remains a vaguely pleasant memory, but my super-hate of Relic is still vivid.

I had a complete set of 2nd Edition Talisman and we played it to death in college. But then, board game development started improving...

Relic is an improved version of Talisman. There's a bonus for a long-time 40K player like me because of the theme, but the mechanics and encounters and gear are simply better because they have more depth and interest to them. The one thing that stood out to me as a former Talisman player is that there is no PvP in Relic. Given the game it's based on and the theme they drew from, that's kinda awful. And, in the end, it's still just roll-the-die-and-move-around-the ring that is Talisman. I liked it, but I'd been there, so I sold it. If I want an adventure game that's a roll-and-move, I'll play Runebound, which at least lets you move in six different directions, rather than two.

On topic: JFC, I let Wade talk me into picking up the Jarl edition of Champions of Midgard because it and the expansions had been on my trade list forever and I hadn't been able to swing anything. I told him I was pretty sure I already had worker placement covered in my current collection, so I'm gonna be irritated if it's not as good as he (and everyone else around here) constantly says it is.

All part of my plan to get you to send me the Jarl edition when you hate it.

Jackwraith wrote: there is no PvP in Relic

Perhaps this was added in one of the expansions, but there IS PvP in Relic. Certain gear is marked as apostate gear. If you have that, you are free to be attacked. I don't remember, but it probably also meant you could openly attack others.

There was also the expansion that had one to two players take on separate antagonistic roles against the rest of the players. I never got to try that because it seemed like it wanted a player count which would result in an insane play time.

hotseatgames wrote:

Jackwraith wrote: there is no PvP in Relic

Perhaps this was added in one of the expansions, but there IS PvP in Relic. Certain gear is marked as apostate gear. If you have that, you are free to be attacked. I don't remember, but it probably also meant you could openly attack others.

There was also the expansion that had one to two players take on separate antagonistic roles against the rest of the players. I never got to try that because it seemed like it wanted a player count which would result in an insane play time.

That sounds vaguely familiar. We only played a couple times (because it was Talisman) and all I remember was that someone found a cool weapon and I wanted to try to take it off them... and I couldn't (because it wasn't Talisman. I remain the only person I know of who had won 2nd Ed multiple times by hunting down the other players and being the only one left, rather than doing the top level of the board. The Rogue was especially good for that, as was the Samurai.)

I had the expansion but found it less than thrilling. It was shortly thereafter that I sold it.

Yeah the apostate gear thing is from one of the expansions.

Ah_Pook wrote: I failed my saving throw and bought Talon + Talon 1000 and Wings For The Baron used from a guy. Got a good deal on them so I don't feel too bad. @Sagrilarus I blame you.

I'll take the blame for the three of those. You're going to love them.

I just picked up Leaving Earth in trade for Silent Victory. I was very pleased when the trade offer came in.

Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter led me into buying all of Wildlands. I -love- that game. I like it better than Unmatched, to be honest.

I got a line on an extensive collection of Heroes of Normandie. Looking forward to playing that at work.

I picked up a lot this weekend. New games: Queendomino, Kingdomino: Age of Giants, Exit: The House of Riddles, Exit: The Haunted Roller Coaster, Adventure Games: The Dungeon, Adventure Games: Monochrome, Inc. My daughter loved Kingdomino when we played it, so she insisted we get Queendomino because queens are better. My FLGS had Age of Giants on clearance so I picked that up as well. I always grab the new Exit games (and have already played House of Riddles). I also wanted to try out the Adventure Games series as it is similarly packaged to Exit, but is supposedly more story focused and has three sessions in each box.

On the used front: 1914: Offensive a outrance (unpunched), C&C: Medieval (NIS), Normandy 44 (punched and with couple of replacement counters), Paths of Glory (current edition NIS with errata cards), and Illusions of Glory (NIS with update kit). I did sell off the Band of Brothers stuff, so I will probably be at a similar amount of shelf space.

Couple things coincidentally lined up. Some purchases, some not.

Got Unmatched because someday I'll find THE skirmish game. Early impressions: I don't think this is THE game but it's certainly a good one. Also stunningly produced, both from a functional and aesthetic perspective. I may actually buy expansions for it.

Nine Tiles Panic came in at my FLGS. Looking forward to that next time I swing by and pick it up. Other Oinks are on order (because store credit) including Moneybags. I'm not convinced that'll ever show up but I can hope.

Bottom of the 9th is being sent by Greater Than Games because they acquired Cheapass and with it, everyone who's demoed for them. They offered the Sentinels of the Multiverse RPG as well. I declined.

I bought Tumult Royale because A: it was cheap and B: I want to write about it. The game is absolutely nuts mechanically, thematically, and especially politically. Seems like no one has covered it beyond "should you buy this". Borderline auteur work from the designer of Catan of all people. Worthy of a blog post.

Too many boxes.

Tumult Royale is good. I reviewed at MM a while back.

www.miniaturemarket.com/reviewcorner/tumult-royale-review

A used book store near me randomly had a copy of Supply Lines Of The American Revolution: The Northern Theater 1775-1777 from Hollandspiele for $9 so I bought it. They also had a copy of Guderians Blitzkrieg, the first OCS game from 1992, for $15 which I talked myself out of buying. Pretty sure I would never ever ever play it, as it's hugely complicated and has 1300 counters in the box and takes a million hours. I was sorely tempted though.