OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

All discussions regarding Board, Card, and RPG Gaming, including industry discussion, that don't belong in one of the other gaming forums.

Moderators: The Preacher, $iljanus, Zaxxon

Post Reply
User avatar
Zarathud
Posts: 16433
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:29 pm
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Zarathud »

"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
User avatar
hepcat
Posts: 51301
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:02 pm
Location: Chicago, IL Home of the triple homicide!

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

MythicalMino wrote:Hey, Hep...you coming through Coldwater on your way back home, by any chance?
Sorry man. That's a bit out of the way I normally take. I already have my trip planned out so I can get in the most games and still be back at a decent hour Sunday night as well. You're welcome to drive down to Ft. Wayne and join us Saturday at the convention, though!
Covfefe!
MythicalMino
Posts: 969
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:01 am

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by MythicalMino »

ah, too bad....

I would love to go to Ft. Wayne, though....BUT....I have to work both Friday night and Saturday night (I work 3rd shift).

Chris
My boardgames for sale:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=90573
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4364
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by baelthazar »

Man, I wish this weekend wasn't so busy for me too, Ft. Wayne is about four hours away!
User avatar
SpaceLord
Posts: 7242
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Lost in Time and Space
Contact:

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by SpaceLord »

So yesterday, at the local gameday, I got to play my new copy of Urban Sprawl. We had a 3-player game, and even though it was our first play, we had an amazing experience. Ever play a game, and it gets stuck in your head? That was Urban Sprawl for me.

The theme shines through: smaller buildings get placed, and some parts of your city go up, then down in value. The players are elected Mayor, District Attorney, Union Boss, Police Chief, Treasurer, and finally Contractor. Larger, more "powerful" buildings are built. Your city can have earthquakes, scandals, floods, and riots. The effect of many of these disasters can be avoided if one spends some of their Prestige or money. Another great mechanic is the three varied decks: There's a Town, City, and Metropolis deck, each with different events, and buildings. Most of the early value markers will be cash, and, slowly, players will get to place Prestige(VP) markers.

As a cool example, I built a Police Station(red civic building) near the center of town, next to the Fire House, Courthouse, etc. It was expensive, and I was nearly broke. The next player built the Bakery right next door, and so, of course, the cops had to have donuts, and I gave them my last two bucks. :roll: I focused on Vocations, an awesome mechanic. They are stuff like Factory, Energy, and the dreaded Media. As an example, at the beginning of the game, he who has the most cash, controls the media. (That doesn't mirror real life, or anything...) :ninja: Several buildings give out Vocations. When you hold a Vocation, and anyone(including yourself) gets a vocation building, everyone with a matching tile scores Prestige or gets money(or both, if they're the Police Chief.) The player with the most Vocations gets the incredibly powerful and desirable Mayor tile. Each time you're elected Mayor, you place, for free, a small park somewhere on the board. Because it's an area control game, that's very important, and can solidify your dominance in a swanky neighborhood, for example.

Many events are good, giving certain leaders money or Prestige. Others, however, are disastrous, like Earthquake. It strikes the center of the city, and can destroy buildings there. The owners of said buildings can pay money to keep them. If any buildings are destroyed, the Mayor loses prestige. Typical.

Finally, I have to mention the Contractor role. At the beginning of the third deck(Metropolis), the player with the lowest prestige is given the Contractor tile, which allows them to raze buildings when building their own. In our game, my friend James was lowest in Prestige, but the Contractor allowed him to replace a few key buildings, which quickly got him back in the game. It's a brilliant mechanic.

Fantastic all the way around. :wub:
They're going to send you back to mother in a cardboard box...
User avatar
Zarathud
Posts: 16433
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:29 pm
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Zarathud »

I picked up Ankh-Morpork the board game. While I haven't played yet, the manual makes clear that it's a very light territory control that should play in 30 to 60 minutes. Use a hand of cards to take actions, place minions, take territory bonuses, and interfere with other players. There are incentives to spread out (immediate game victory based on presence), but also to control an area (to resist attacks). I expected something more complex from Martin Wallace, but I'm pleased with how approachable it appears to be for a territory control game.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
Jow
Posts: 2921
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 2:15 pm
Contact:

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Jow »

Tonight: Elder Sign and Cutthroat Caverns for the first time.

Elder Sign: Drew Cthulhu, had some problems at first but eventually got up a head of steam and wiped him out 4 or 5 doom tokens before he was to wake up. Still hasn't felt like we've been really challenged by this. However, the guy who owns the game is still making rules mistakes I keep catching so I think I need to read the book cover to cover to make sure we're doing everything correctly.

Cutthroat Caverns: We played with several of the expansions mixed in. Basically, I felt like this was Cosmic Encounter in a fantasy setting with all the huge random swings of luck, incredible variety, and lots of screwage that CE is known for. It was fun, but the same things which get my temperature up about Cosmic Encounter do the same in Cutthroat Caverns. We ended up calling the game after drawing the Greed creature and playing the encounter for over half an hour with no light at the end of the tunnel. Basically, Greed's primary attribute is she allows all players to cancel any other player's attack cards by playing a single attack card of their own (which functions as a 'Critical Miss' action card). Thus, unless players have ways of making themselves completely immune to action cards, you end up with round after round of fumbled attacks and all sorts of other nonsense. With it being the seventh encounter of the game and Greed being worth 8 prestige, no one wanted to just give it up as the game was close all the way around. The guy who owned the game swore at the end he was going to remove that card from ever being in the mix again. :roll: Like CE, I'll add CC to the list of games that are sometimes entertaining but I think would be significantly more fun while drunk or stoned. :)
MythicalMino
Posts: 969
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:01 am

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by MythicalMino »

I recently bought Pandemic and the expansion for it. Been playing that (solo) quite a bit, and really enjoying it. I can see where Defenders of the Realm was copied, and quite blatantly, from Pandemic. I enjoy the setting of Defenders better, but the ease of set up of Pandemic makes it good, also.
My boardgames for sale:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=90573
User avatar
hepcat
Posts: 51301
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:02 pm
Location: Chicago, IL Home of the triple homicide!

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Okay, big weekend of gaming:

Friday night: Star Trek the Deck Building Game. While I love this game the more I play it, it still should come with the caveat that it can be a looonngggg game for a DBG. Friday night's game was a little over 3 hours. Granted, I was teaching 3 new players, but even with that it shouldn't have taken that long. Eventually, we dropped the winning goal to 300 points from 400 and ended it about an hour after that. Still, I love this game and it just gets better with each play.

Saturday morning/afternoon: Redwarlord, his wife and I headed over to Pentacon at the Ft. Wayne convention center and encountered what may be the most pathetic gaming convention I've ever come across. Honestly, there's no reason for anyone to travel for this convention if it means being in the car more than 10 minutes. I think attendance was less than 75 people total. There were about 4 vendors, but 3 of them seemed to be just folks who set up tables and were selling old stuff from their garage. We were drastically overcharged 20 bucks each for a 1 day pass and I still kick myself for not turning around and walking out. Still, we had said we would go....

We played a game of Eaten by Zombies (another game that just gets better each time I play) then I saw that Dominant Species was being offered. I hastily bought tickets for the three of us and we headed over to that. I've always wanted to play, so it was a no brainer.

While I enjoyed it a great deal, it's just a little too long to add to my collection. I don't think I would be able to convince anyone to play enough to warrant the hefty price tag. Still, I had fun and we actually finished the game in a little over 4 hours. The guy playing reptiles was living up to the stereotype for his namesake as I caught him "interpreting" some of the rules in a unique fashion that helped him quite a few times.

Saturday night: After a nice Indian dinner, we decided not to go back to the convention center since they were closing at 11pm and it was already 9. We were all a bit disappointed in it anyway.

We played a game of Arcana that was met with a little hostility after some rules were misunderstood and resulted in some grumpy protestations when the player(s) found out they had bid the wrong card a few times. Arcana's one of those "love it or hate it" type games, I've come to believe.

Then we played another game of Eaten by Zombies. I really like that the first few games you just have no clue as to the tactics needed. It's just so very different than any other DBG. Eventually, after a few games, you start to see how it's played and the game begins to shine.

Sunday morning/afternoon: Sleeping in due to the time change and a late night of gaming, we didn't start the final day's gaming until almost 11am. It didn't help that the setup for Mansions of Madness takes about an hour sometimes. We broke about two thirds of the way through the game for lunch and by the time we got back it was almost 4pm. Since our intrepid investigators we're probably going to lose due to the imminent final event card looming so close and numerous set backs thanks to yours truly, we decided to call it and I headed back to Chicago around 5.

Overall, it was a great gaming weekend.

P.S. Issie, the second expansion for Nightfall, Blood Country, is out. I picked up a copy at the convention after seeing it. It appears to add quite a bit of additional work on the wounds mechanic, but I haven't had time to peruse exactly what.
Covfefe!
User avatar
Isgrimnur
Posts: 82085
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:29 am
Location: Chookity pok
Contact:

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Isgrimnur »

hepcat wrote:P.S. Issie, the second expansion for Nightfall, Blood Country, is out. I picked up a copy at the convention after seeing it. It appears to add quite a bit of additional work on the wounds mechanic, but I haven't had time to peruse exactly what.
Cool. I'm going to have to work on getting the base game out to a gaming day with me so I can actually play it. If it gets a good enough general reaction, I might commit some funds to the exps when funds availability opens up.

I know it wouldn't go over well with the family at Thanksgiving.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
User avatar
SpaceLord
Posts: 7242
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Lost in Time and Space
Contact:

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by SpaceLord »

hepcat wrote:I saw that Dominant Species was being offered. I hastily bought tickets for the three of us and we headed over to that. I've always wanted to play, so it was a no brainer.

While I enjoyed it a great deal, it's just a little too long to add to my collection. I don't think I would be able to convince anyone to play enough to warrant the hefty price tag. Still, I had fun and we actually finished the game in a little over 4 hours. The guy playing reptiles was living up to the stereotype for his namesake as I caught him "interpreting" some of the rules in a unique fashion that helped him quite a few times.
I loved DS, but after just one play, I think his next game, Urban Sprawl, is better. It's shorter, for one. In DS, you can be screwed over early, and not be able to recover. I like the theme of both games, but what really pushes US over the top is the vocations, and especially the role tiles: Mayor, DA, Treasurer, Union Boss, Police Chief and Contractor. With careful planning, you can set up a situation where you have the roles you want at the right time. Then, some players will be trying to end the game quickly while they're mayor while the other players try to force elections so they can get the role cards, and score lots of Victory points. Three different decks of buildings, fun, dramatic Events, watching neighborhoods rise and fall, it's just genius.

I can't wait till this weekend to play again!
They're going to send you back to mother in a cardboard box...
User avatar
Boudreaux
Posts: 2816
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:18 am
Location: St. Louis

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Boudreaux »

So here's a new one: has anyone played Cave Evil? It's published by a small game company, and has somewhat low production quality, but the art is neat and the concept is...different. Each player is a necromancer trying to kill all the other necromancers, or trigger and "win" the endgame condition. The various creatures and events that come into the game run from annoying to ridiculously deadly, and...well, here's an example of how gameplay can work. At one point, one of the players attacked a minion creature controlled by another player, killed it, ripped it apart, and built a suit of armor out of its bones.

Yeah.

The endgame came about after a certain game milestone had been reached. At that point, a super-powerful demon appeared, traveled around the board, and killed all the necromancers except the one who was in first place. It was admittedly a scenario designed to teach the rudiments of the game and not last too long, but still. Ouch.
User avatar
YellowKing
Posts: 30125
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:02 pm

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

We broke out an oldie last night - Lord of the Rings, the original Reiner Knizia co-op one. I had not played it in years and the buddy of mine who came over had never played it at all.

We failed three times, but got closer to destroying the ring each time. The first game we just had horrible luck picking tiles which screwed us, but the second two games we understood where we had went wrong. All in all it was a fun night and a little off the beaten path for us which kept things interesting.
User avatar
Zarathud
Posts: 16433
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:29 pm
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Zarathud »

Gaming with the Kids:

Richard Scarry's Busytown: Eye Spy It. It's a cooperative race game to a picnic. When you get a "spin again" the pigs eat some of the food. When you spin a gold "search" bug, you all look around the 6 foot long board for objects so everyone can move a space for every object (up to 10) found. Even the 2 year old was getting into the game shouting "I found it!" and stopping the spinner on the bug.

Earlier in the week we played the Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy Airport where the kids place little guys into airplanes and fly them to their destination. For each passenger delivered, you get a souvenir worth 1-4 points. The kids loved putting the guys into the airplanes and the radio "dice" tower.

We played a game of Chicken Cha-Cha ending in the weeping of the eldest that her sister would pluck her tail feathers and win the game. The sister was being played randomly by mom, who was doing better with random picks to move than using her memory. She was a little too entertained by using the bird poo from the "Ducklings Dancing" expansion. And my wife kept getting laughter when she kept saying "So what do you do with that poop?" Once the 4 year old realizes that her memory is much better than her parents, I expect she'll be doing victory dances again.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
User avatar
Boudreaux
Posts: 2816
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:18 am
Location: St. Louis

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Boudreaux »

Lots of games for me over the weekend. Had a friend teach me Troyes, an apparently hot euro that I picked up for super-cheap due to a damaged game box. I was a little leery when I heard it favorably compared to Caylus (which I hate) but it has dice, so that intrigued me. It's okay. Interesting concept but the money/dice/influence/points conversion mechanics are a little convoluted.

Also played Biblios, a nice little filler, and then a game of Sylla, a completely forgettable euro.

Later in the evening played several games of King of Tokyo, a game I recommended to a friend who was pretty pleased with that purchase. That's a pretty fun 30 minutes. After that was two games of 7 Wonders, which I'll admit I am extremely late to the party on. Wow, that's a pretty decent little game.
User avatar
Zarathud
Posts: 16433
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:29 pm
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Zarathud »

Add the Leaders expansion to add additional brain burn to 7 Wonders.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4364
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by baelthazar »

Boudreaux wrote:Lots of games for me over the weekend. Had a friend teach me Troyes, an apparently hot euro that I picked up for super-cheap due to a damaged game box. I was a little leery when I heard it favorably compared to Caylus (which I hate) but it has dice, so that intrigued me. It's okay. Interesting concept but the money/dice/influence/points conversion mechanics are a little convoluted.
Troyes looks deceptively simple and ends up being fairly brain burning. My wife actually likes the game, and it's probably the most complex game that she will play with no problem (I'm trying to put together a time for her and I so play Urban Sprawl). Although nothing like Le Havre it has about the same complexity level, even if the dice make it look less so. I think that many players go in with ideas of Kingsburg and Alien Frontier in their minds, and find out that Troyes requires a lot of forethought to really set up an economic engine efficiently, while still mitigating some of the random elements like die throws and card draws (not to mention the dreaded Events).

But it all comes together well. My wife tends to forget that she can buy other player's dice and that really makes a huge difference. Even so, she has won a few with neat uses of military dice. What I like about Troyes is that, no matter what cards are drawn, it always ramps up in a similar way (although the specifics are highly variable). You get initial small prestige or money generators and dice manipulators in the beginning, followed by much heavier generators, and then capped off with a Victory point factory that relies upon your ability to generate prestige or money (among other things). Not being able to predict exactly what is coming prevents using the same strategy each time.

The game also plays very well (like other Euros) with 2-players. This is a big plus for me.

I'm still looking forward to the upcoming Eclipse. Given all the buzz, I broke down and ordered it from CSI. According to European players, it is the Next Big Thing (tm).
User avatar
SpaceLord
Posts: 7242
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Lost in Time and Space
Contact:

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by SpaceLord »

Urban Sprawl is amazing, imho. It's not too rules-intensive, and it's fun. The biggest hassle is determining the value of buildings, which is why I heartily recommend using the valuable building markers to point at expensive blocks.

I'll probably try out my buddy's Essen-purchased copy of Eclipse sometime this week. :wub:
They're going to send you back to mother in a cardboard box...
Bruce
Posts: 566
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:05 pm
Location: Down Under

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Bruce »

I'm starting to wish I hadn't got rid of my old Shanghai Trader game.
User avatar
Daveman
Posts: 1757
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:06 pm
Location: New Jersey

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Daveman »

My copy of Kingdom Builder arrived today and I had a chance to play a game with my son tonight. It didn't seem to get much of a reception on BGG, especially once the rules were released, but I was intrigued enough to order it.

Just one game in, but I'm very glad I did. Other recent reviewers have said it's in the "simple to learn, hard to master" category and I agree with them. The rules are simple. Each turn you have to place 3 buildings on the board. You have to place them on terrain according to whatever terrain card you've drawn that turn, and wherever possible you have to place each building adjacent to an existing building of yours. As the game goes on it's possible to earn additional, extra actions to use each turn as well... but that's really just about it.

The trick is that at the end of the game you earn points based on how and where you placed your buildings. There's a deck of 10 victory-defining cards and at the start of the game 3 are dealt face up. Players then try to place their buildings to best suit those 3 cards. Some are pretty simple... the Fishermen card awards 1 point per building placed next to the water, Miners 1 point per building next to a mountain. Other cards get more exotic. The Merchants card awards 4 points for each castle/location you're able to connect with a string of your buildings, Hermits awards points for each separate cluster of buildings you have on the board, etc.

You get 8 map boards and randomly fit 4 of them together to make the game board. Each board has a number of castles that award points for any player who has a building next to them, and "locations" that offer players optional actions each turn, like being able to move one building elsewhere, or place another building each turn, etc. Between the random board setup, variable locations, and 3 of 10 different victory-defining cards each game it'll be different every time you play.

Our 2 player game was over in about 30 minutes. Interaction was a little low and we each just tended to stay on our side of the board but it was our first game, though I can certainly see more conflict in 3-4 player games. We were pleasantly surprised with the game and the playing time. It really flew by even though we each took our time trying to figure out the best way to place our buildings each turn. Can't wait to play it again!
User avatar
El Guapo
Posts: 41243
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:01 pm
Location: Boston

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by El Guapo »

Played a game of Battlestar Galactica with the Pegasus expansion last night. That really is a fantastic game. I played as a human Chief Tyrol, with the rest of the line up being Saul Tigh, Ellen Tigh, Tom Zarek, and Apollo. Sadly Admiral Tigh wound up starting as a cylon, with President Tom Zarek as our sleeper cylon. Team Human pulled it out though. First off the bat then human President Zarek played "Assign Mission Specialist", so that human Apollo made the first destination choice. Admiral Saul made a questionable second destination choice (Desolate Moon), which combined with some other shady choices put him under suspicion as we went into the sleeper phase.

Shortly after the sleeper phase the cylon fleet came after us with a fury, with a number of attack cards putting us in a rough spot, including dropping a total of three boarding parties on Galactica. Fortunately they didn't move too fast once on the ship. Also a good break was that we drew the "Assassination Plot" crisis card, the player chose to execute Tigh, and our admiral skipped over to the rez ship while human apollo assumed the title. Similarly, shortly after we escaped the cylon fleet a failed "missing c4 explosives" crisis put our now cylon President into the brig; he had been acting suspiciously, though not quite as much as the Admiral to draw lots of suspicion.

Our escape jump from the cylon fleet had put us at 8 distance (jumps of 2, 3, and 3), and we cranked the engine room to escape before the boarding parties hit the end of the track.
Black Lives Matter.
User avatar
YellowKing
Posts: 30125
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:02 pm

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

Played about 6 games of Pandemic before finally beating it. Was only playing 2-player and man was it tough with just the two of us trying to cover the whole map.

The last game we managed to get some good draws (Medic & Operations Expert), so we were able to drop some research stations pretty quick and keep things under control. Even with those advantages, the game literally came down to the last two cards in the deck. Even one more turn and we would have lost. It was a real nail-biter, but a thrilling and victorious end to an evening marked by a bunch of (fun) frustration.

Think I'm going to pick up the expansion soon, as of all my games it seems to be the one we tend to keep coming back to the most often.
User avatar
Daveman
Posts: 1757
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:06 pm
Location: New Jersey

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Daveman »

Pandemic: On the Brink is a great expansion, I'm sure you'll like it. It adds a bunch of new roles, a revised Operations Expert, new special actions cards, 3 new rule sets that alter the game in various ways (one of which puts one player against the others, making it a competitive/coop game), smaller player tokens and a nice set of petri dishes to store everything in :)

Speaking of expansions, I got Quarriors: Rise of the Demons and played several games with my son. I love Quarriors and it gets a lot of play here with my son... it's not the 2nd coming of board gaming but it's just fun buying and rolling lots of dice but there's just enough decision making to make it all interesting. The game's best described as Dominion-like deck building game, only with dice instead of cards... with some light Magic: The Gathering style creature and spell combat thrown in. Anyway, the expansion is fantastic. It adds 3 new sets of dice (1 set of 5 creature dice, 1 set of 5 spell dice, and 1 set of 10 corrupted quiddity dice). The new creature (Demonic Overlord) and spell (Corruption) are nice, while the "corrupted quiddity", to follow the Dominion example, are sort of like Curse cards... they're dice you generally get stuck with as a result of new abilities/effects that aren't very useful at all (3 sides give 1 quiddity, 2 sides give nothing, 1 side forces the player to add another corrupted quiddity die to his bag). There are cards for 4 different versions of the Demonic Overlord and the Corruption spell... plus 1 new "corrupted" version of the original sets 10 creatures. They're all generally much more interesting and make use of some new rules additions like forcing your opponent to lose Glory, to remove die from the game and so on.

I'm kind of rambling now... suffice to say it's a game I like a lot as a fun, relatively fast playing game, that now has a really solid expansion to it. I hope the games gets some more... one is slightly hinted at in the manual. Oh... on the more technical side of things the casting for the expansion dice is much better. The Demonic Overlord dice have much larger and clearer numbers than in the base set.
User avatar
Boudreaux
Posts: 2816
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:18 am
Location: St. Louis

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Boudreaux »

Played two new games over the weekend - first up was the new Z-Man release Ninjato. I had high hopes for this one, mainly because I'm a sucker for anything with a medieval Japanese theme. The artwork looked great, and the original teaser info about raiding enemy houses for espionage and honor sounded like a great game was in the works. Turns out it's a decent game, but it's really just a light set-collecting Euro. It reminds me of Shadows Over Camelot - you have this great theme, awesome artwork, tons of quests around the board - but in the end, really all you're doing is collecting a hand of cards. Not sure if it's one I need to add to the collection, at least not without ditching something similar in exchange.

After that was a quick half-game of the new Gears of War board game. I was actually fairly impressed - for a tactical, squad-based co-op game it was pretty good. They really captured the feel of Gears - running from cover to cover, having enemies spawn all over the place, constantly running out of ammo, bleeding a lot. I'm not a huge Gears fan, but if you are I'd say Corey Konieczka has another winner for you.
User avatar
Chaosraven
Posts: 20235
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:26 am

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Chaosraven »

Played Dominion with Hinterlands all day Sunday, then stayed up all night playing edh.
"Where are you off to?"
"I don't know," Snufkin replied.
The door shut again and Snufkin entered his forest, with a hundred miles of silence ahead of him.

Sweet sweet meat come. -LordMortis
User avatar
Isgrimnur
Posts: 82085
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:29 am
Location: Chookity pok
Contact:

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Isgrimnur »

I picked up Ticket to Ride at my FLGS last night to take home to the family for the holidays. I may pack everything else into a Gamer bucket and take it as well, so we'll have the Dominion bundle, Nightfall (which I'm sure NO ONE will want to play due to the setting), Cthulhu Gloom (ditto +mechanics), Catan, Formula D.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
User avatar
hentzau
Posts: 15092
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:06 am
Location: Castle Zenda, Ruritania

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hentzau »

I'm trying to decide what games to bring down to my folks. Besides our usual D&D game, I'm thinking I'll be bringing down Merchants and Marauders, Alien Frontier, The Resistance (see if I can't get my whole family yelling at each other), and maybe one of the D&D adventure games. I always over pack on games, but I want to be sure I have something to play.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4364
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by baelthazar »

hentzau wrote:I'm trying to decide what games to bring down to my folks. Besides our usual D&D game, I'm thinking I'll be bringing down Merchants and Marauders, Alien Frontier, The Resistance (see if I can't get my whole family yelling at each other), and maybe one of the D&D adventure games. I always over pack on games, but I want to be sure I have something to play.
I always over pack too. The folks are coming up this holiday, so likely no gaming. Next weekend, however, I'll go down there. Hopefully, Eclipse will be out by then, but of it is not, I plan to take Urban Sprawl, Runewars, and maybe Gears of War or Legend of Drizzt. For Christmas, I will certainly over pack.

Speaking of Christmas, I hope the new Nexus Ops comes out by then. It looks mighty cool!
User avatar
Chaosraven
Posts: 20235
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:26 am

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Chaosraven »

Played Small World: Underground with the kids yesterday. The Places of Power and Relics give a great twist to the game, and can severely modify what your strategy would have been otherwise.
"Where are you off to?"
"I don't know," Snufkin replied.
The door shut again and Snufkin entered his forest, with a hundred miles of silence ahead of him.

Sweet sweet meat come. -LordMortis
User avatar
Isgrimnur
Posts: 82085
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:29 am
Location: Chookity pok
Contact:

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Isgrimnur »

Ticket to Ride seems to be a big hit. We played a 4-player game last night, my sister wanted to play this morning when I got up, and she and Dad are currently playing in the other room.

We got one lap of Formula D in last night, but it was getting too late to run a second. But we've got all night tonight and tomorrow to see if it hits the table again.

Nightfall, as anticipated, has had no interest. Catan and Dominion sit untouched as well, but they've had their runs on earlier holidays.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
User avatar
Zarathud
Posts: 16433
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:29 pm
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Zarathud »

Played my first complete game of Candyland with the 4 year old today. She finally has enough attention to sit through a game, take turns and move the right amount of spaces. It was entertaining for her, but for me it was just a step above Pretty Princess.

Since her attention was so good and she announced that she was looking for the Island of DOOOOM! on our Thanksgiving trek, I pulled out Forgotten Island. We were able to get through a complete game with me making her decisions. She was happy just to arrange the cards, flip the pieces of the Island that were sinking. It was clear after a few turns she was playing only to get the cards for the flying creature so I made that happen before we left the Island.

Yesterday we played another game of Richard Scarry's Busytown: Eye Found It! and lost to the pigs. The 4 year old quickly learned to keep her finger on the spinner enough to help get the spin she wanted. We still lost by spinning too many Pigs that ate our picnic lunch. And playing Connect 4 with a kid who gets so excited she can't help but tell you her next move to win is difficult. Of course, I'm just happy that she has a next turn planned at this point. When did they make the plastic holder so fiddly?

Tomorrow we turn up the difficulty by meeting hepcat at the local game store.

Ticket to Ride is a great family game. With the set collecting, I think it's easier for the family to understand than Catan.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
User avatar
Isgrimnur
Posts: 82085
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:29 am
Location: Chookity pok
Contact:

OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Isgrimnur »

Just played another TtR game with sis and Dad. Managed to pull out some long routes to finish my 4th ticket, as Dad took Dallas-Houston. I triggered the last turn, got longest route, and had some of the longest stretches to post 130+ points for a strong win.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
User avatar
Chaosraven
Posts: 20235
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:26 am

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Chaosraven »

Gaming with the kids, played Small World (original board) and the Imperial Elves won pretty handily. Then on to the Suggested Setup for Dominion Hinterlands/Seaside, first game ended with a rough 7, 7, 0, -1... second game (other setup) more playable with 41, 30, 28, 19 score. Played Dungeon Lords halfway into second year before the Cat decided we were done and knocked the entire board off the table with a skidding attack. Ended the night with Trivial Pursuit which evoked giggling madness after midnight.
"Where are you off to?"
"I don't know," Snufkin replied.
The door shut again and Snufkin entered his forest, with a hundred miles of silence ahead of him.

Sweet sweet meat come. -LordMortis
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4364
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by baelthazar »

TtR was a hit during my family's labor day BBQ. We play Europe, which does add complexity but not enough to scare people off. We have played Catan once but mom wasn't thrilled. Puerto Rico used to be a favorite but has dropped a tad off the radar.

Dad will play anything - and even loves Twilight Imperium, so he gets included in game days with my friends.

Unfortunately, I don't think I played a multiplayer boardgame since early October - only a few solo games of things like Legend of Drizzt. It sucks, I have been busy and we had too many obligations. I hope to get a game day next week to try out Urban Sprawl and, hopefully Eclipse, if it ships by then. I may whip out Runewars if Eclipse doesn't make it.
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4364
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by baelthazar »

Oh, I meant to say that the TtR iPhone app is pretty good. Pass-and-play is pretty easy, and if multiple people have it on their phones then you can play over LAN. It works pretty well.
User avatar
hepcat
Posts: 51301
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:02 pm
Location: Chicago, IL Home of the triple homicide!

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Zarathud wrote:Tomorrow we turn up the difficulty by meeting hepcat at the local game store.
No...no we don't.
Covfefe!
User avatar
hentzau
Posts: 15092
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:06 am
Location: Castle Zenda, Ruritania

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hentzau »

I got my dad the GoLo golf dice game on a whim, and we've spent a bunch of time playing that. Last night my old D&D group got together and we played about six hours of 4E, 1st level characters going through one of the Chaos Scar adventures. Going to do some more D&D this afternoon.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
User avatar
YellowKing
Posts: 30125
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:02 pm

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

Got the On the Brink expansion for Pandemic for my birthday. :horse:
User avatar
hentzau
Posts: 15092
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:06 am
Location: Castle Zenda, Ruritania

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hentzau »

12 hours of D&D in a 36 hour time span. That was fun!
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
User avatar
hepcat
Posts: 51301
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:02 pm
Location: Chicago, IL Home of the triple homicide!

Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

I've fallen for Quarriors after last night. What a simple and elegant mechanic. I bought it because one of the designers also created another recent favorite of mine, Star Trek Fleet Captains. I dare say that designer has quite a future ahead of him.
Covfefe!
Post Reply