Barnes on Games- Tanks and Cuba Libre H2H Reviews, Space Hulk, Betrayal at Calth, Zombicide: Black Plague

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I think the Zombicide games improve when there's a variety of zombie types in terms of their powers. Black Plague doesn't really have anything comparable to berserkers and toxics (yet) which is where the really interesting gamey parts of the system come to the fore in terms of tactical play. Black Plague disappointed me with its level minimums for the really cool weapons- it meant players already behind on experience points did not have that option to bring themselves up to par with the group xp leaders. I think the archers will add some knots to the game play that will improve Black Plague, though.

I've played Cuba Libre one time, and the only reason I didn't buy it is because the two other people I know who like COIN games each own a copy. I've just about got my head around Liberty or Death and just got Falling Sky for the very different approach to the system. These games epitomise the potential of area control games for me.

Check out Fire in the Lake. It has the best soundtrack.

Fire in the Lake was the first COIN game I bought, because it was the only one in print at the time. I put it away after learning the subject matter was painfully close to home to a housemate.

Battle of Prospero? Now we're talking! Even though the Thousand Sons weren't corrupted by Tzeentch yet.

Check out Fire in the Lake. It has the best soundtrack.

It also, sadly, has the longest play time.

I hated Zombicide until recently. What made the difference was playing it with 6 players. Chaotic and awesome.

Really jazzed about Black Plague because it's ~more~ than Zombicide and the setting is certainly cooler.

MattDP wrote:

Check out Fire in the Lake. It has the best soundtrack.

It also, sadly, has the longest play time.

When it came out and we played it several times, we had playtime down to 2-2.5 hours for the medium length scenario.

Cuba Libre sounds fucking great. I've sort of had my eye on that for a few weeks. I just figured it was gonna be fairly complex and I wouldn't know anyone else who'd be interested in it. I still think that might be the case...but I kinda want it.

I've got all the kickstarter shit from Zombicide Black Plague just laying in a pile at my house. It arrived when I had a bunch of shit going on and it a few other kickstaters showed up near or on the same day (Last Stand and Tokaido), so I just haven't had a chance to dig into it.

To be honest I thought about ebaying the whole lot because I went all in and have some of the rarer minis from the kickstarter. Plus, I REALLY didn't like vanilla Zombicide at all. However, I'm glad to hear that it's worth while. I think the thing that I appreciate most is that each time you play it the scenarios are self contained. There is no campaign to worry about. That means the thing will actually get played. Also, I just like the medieval/ Army of Darkness setting MUCH better than the Left 4 Dead bullshit that they went with for regular Zombicide. I think I'm gonna crack it open, punch the tokens and read the rules this weekend. Hopefully I can try it out next week.

Massive Darkness takes the Black Plague formula and goes high fantasy with it. It is set for campaign but you lose your gear in each mission so it's really just checking off skills on disposable class sheets. Shouldn't be a big deal to do one-off sessions or swap people in/out or artificially advance their level as needed.

Honestly I don't really like campaigns in games. If I was into that I'd just play Pathfinder. That said, the legacy concept in Seafall sounds very neat to me.

It's because you've never had the ability to do a campaign where you play a skirmish 2x a week for 3 months, tracking progress on a Mighty Empires set as the forces of anarchy set their eyes on your territory.

Seriously, every person should do that at least once. It changes your view of what games can be. Strange Aeons is still my favorite game of all time when it comes to campaign play.

Or at least a Descent campaign . Still the best board gaming experience for me. I've learned with the right stuff, more (time) investment = more reward.

I'm sure it's cool with the right opportunity. My group meets maybe twice a month and not always with the same people. Assuming Seafall is a hit, it will probably take us a year to resolve.

charlest wrote: Check out Fire in the Lake. It has the best soundtrack.

Pop in the Cambodia Rocks compliation, go!

COIN games aren't so complex, but they kind of have that Napoleon's Triumph thing going on where they are just so different than what came before. You can't really reuse anything you've learned from other games to help you learn how to play these. Throw in that each faction operates pretty differently and I think most people I've played with struggle a bit at first. Luckily, once you learn one COIN you do have that background knowledge and can pick the others up pretty quickly. And by others, I mean Fire in the Lake cuz it's the best one.