OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[Chrisoc13]

Crokinole board has been here. A few days, with a few games played on it. I'm loving the board, it plays fantastic.

[hentzau]

Nice looking board!!!

[Chrisoc13]

Nice looking board!!!

Thanks! I'm really happy with it. Took me a long time to finally pull the trigger but I'm glad I did.

[Chrisoc13]

Well my copy of Carson city (kick starter edition) arrived this week and I had a chance to get it to the table. What a great underrated game. Worker placement with duels. Some elements of area control. What's not to like? Nothing, it's a great game.

I especially appreciate the multiple variants that come with the kick starter edition. Should provide some variety in the future. Looking forward to more plays.


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[Zarathud]

I liked Carson City but never played enough to buy it again. Really fun take on worker placement, though.

[YellowKing]

We played a quick game of Pandemic: The Cure and Castle Panic after our Pandemic Legacy game the other night. The Cure kicked our ass twice, but we managed to (narrowly) win Castle Panic.

Castle Panic is not one I bring out often because I find it too simple, but the game group (two of which had never played it before) really liked it. When I got into work the next morning, one of the guys had a bag sitting on my desk with a note that said, "Merry Christmas." Inside was the Wizard's Tower expansion and the Dark Titan army expansion!

Those should up the difficulty quite significantly, so I'm actually looking forward to breaking it back out this week.

[Zaxxon]

Wizard's Tower is a great improvement on the base game. And I didn't know there was a 2nd expansion!

[Daveman]

I've said it before, but I think the Wizard's Tower is one of the best game expansions I've ever bought. It took a good game and improved it significantly. I'd never play without it. I do have Dark Titan as well but haven't tried it yet.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I still can't make up my mind what Civ game I'm going to get. I'm leaning towards Nations because it is a quicker play than Through the Ages or Clash of Cultures, but, by most accounts, TTA is the best Civ game. And it seems like (?) Nations isn't as recommended with 2 players? Another possibility I suppose is Imperial Settlers, but I'm not sure that has quite the depth I'm looking hoping for (but, of course, more depth usually means longer play times). I've got this Amazon GC just sitting in my account but I have analysis paralysis!

[Smoove_B]

Have you considered Roll Through the Ages? I've learned the last few years that there is a world of difference in many games between 2 and 3 (or 4) players. I've found many that say they play 2-4 but really work best with 3-4 players, and that's unfortunate. I guess what I'm saying is that if you're going to get a game, make sure it really supports 2 players...otherwise it will collect dust. Anyway, it's probably not as heavy as you're looking for, but I figured I'd mention it as I've seen it referenced many times as a shorter, fewer player alternative that still provides that "Civ" feeling.

[hepcat]

Another possibility I suppose is Imperial Settlers, but I'm not sure that has quite the depth I'm looking hoping for (but, of course, more depth usually means longer play times). I've got this Amazon GC just sitting in my account but I have analysis paralysis!

Imperial Settlers is an engine building game first and foremost. It's not really a Civ game. I love IS, but if you're looking for a Civ game, I would look elsewhere.

I would say the complaint that Nations isn't a great two player game is valid. But to be fair, neither is TTA. Any complaint that Nations as a two player game has could probably be leveled against TTA with equal fervor.

By the way, have you ever tried Boardgaming Online's implementation of TTA? I've wasted many an hour with it. It's quite good.

In other news, my copy of Falling Sky: Gaelic Revolt Against Caesar arrived today. It's the latest in the COIN series. Can't wait to give it a go!

Oh, and I played a bit of the solo game of the new 51st State of America. I'm still not a big fan of the solo variant, but it did give me a chance to check out the mechanics in play. I have to say, it really does keep quite a bit of the old feel. Hopefully I'll get in a game with other humans next weekend.

[Chaosraven]

Really? I loved the one rainbow draft I played. What didn't you like about it?

As for the wording in the rulebook, I thought I'd read "up to 8" in earlier versions as well? I'd always assumed you could play 5 characters with 4 dice each, if you so choose.

Actually upon further inspection it is 8 cards, period. UP TO is included for the Character/Action designation, meaning a combination of the 2 types that ADD up to 8 cards.

So my Titans deck with 5 TT and 3 Action cards is correct.

[Chaosraven]

And what we didn't care for in Rainbow Draft was having a crapload of cards on the table with 1 or 2 dice on them trying to figure out what the hell everything did.

[hepcat]

If most of your enjoyment of these types of games comes from meticulously planning your deck and tweaking it until perfection, I could see how the rainbow draft wouldn't be your cup of tea. It's more about planning on the fly with what you're given. I rather enjoyed the spontaneity of it, myself.

But then again, I'm not a guy who plans his decks with much thought to begin with.

[coopasonic]

Yeah, I'm on the hepcat side of that fence. I am better at making do with what I have than figuring out the perfect deck/dicebag. It was the same with Magic.

[hepcat]

I was trying to build a crew for a Malifaux campaign with Seppe recently. Instead of going with what figure worked best with others, I went purely with a thematic group I built after rewatching The Good, The Bad and The Ugly recently.

...we're restarting that campaign.

So yeah...I'm not a terribly good strategist.

[Chaosraven]

Yeah, I'm on the hepcat side of that fence. I am better at making do with what I have than figuring out the perfect deck/dicebag. It was the same with Magic.

With only 5 colors and a draft pool of 40+ cards that you are choosing out of a large selection where you end up using roughly half for your deck, I love Limited Draft. Same for Limited Sealed.

But Dicemasters being 2 dice per pack? Way too limited for "choice" as well as the collection being all over the place while played.

[Chaosraven]

And none of my dice decks are of the "perfect" variety (meaning those ridiculous 8 card combo things out there that make some cards/dice expensive as hell).

Almost all of mine so far (until tonight) have been simple Team Themed.

Tonight I finished an All Lightning deck and played it a couple times.

[Chaosraven]

I think a different draft idea would work for me... Rochester Draft with 15 packs per player.

[Smoove_B]

I was trying to build a crew for a Malifaux campaign with Seppe recently. Instead of going with what figure worked best with others, I went purely with a thematic group I built after rewatching The Good, The Bad and The Ugly recently.

...we're restarting that campaign.

So yeah...I'm not a terribly good strategist.

I know you told me to get it a looooooooooong time ago, but I've finally come around. My buddy is still totally not into it, but Wyrd released a 2E starter pack (with 8 miniatures) and everything you need to just skirmish (quick start rules, decks, measuring tape). As an all-inclusive option I'm hopeful it sparks more interest as I really like the general theme.

[hepcat]

Starter sets are a great way to jump into skirmish level games like Malifaux. And the game is relatively inexpensive to begin with.

I had taken a break from miniatures for a while, but then Wyrd released a Mordheim style campaign system that turns the game into an even more addictive experience. I don't think I can ever go back to vanilla miniature games again after agonizing for hours over one of about 60 upgrades for my exorcist after a game...a game I even lost.

p.s. Pull My Finger wiki is your friend.

p.s.s. Full rules (without the fluff) are free, too.

[YellowKing]

Half our gaming group is going to be out tonight, so me and another guy are going to get together and attempt Castle Panic with the Wizard Tower expansion. If we manage to beat that we'll try to beat Dark Titan by itself, then once we beat that we'll try the ultimate challenge with both expansions together.

[UPDATE]:

So we played two rounds of just the Wizard Tower expansion tonight, and here's what happened!

The first game got a little dicey in spots. Things were touch and go for awhile as we managed to lose half our towers, but found ways to rebuild walls and hang on. Towards the end we had one arc (the one with our wizard tower) with a Mega-Boss and a couple of high HP monsters. As we were contemplating what to do about the impending doom, my co-worker says, "Would it be crazy to teleport that Phoenix into the same space as all of them? Then all you have to do is kill the Phoenix and set all those bastards on fire." GENIUS. So that's exactly what he did.

Problem was, I had no way to hit the Phoenix. I had to draw an archer, or somehow discard cards and hope to get something that could kill it. First card I draw is a red archer. BOOM! I could envision it in my mind playing out on a movie screen. Wizard teleports the phoenix, a brave archer takes one desperate shot, phoenix explodes, and the surrounding army is bathed in flames!

With the enemy army weakened considerably, we managed to mop them up fairly easily - even managing to rebuild all of our walls in the process.

Game two started out terribly. We lost four walls almost immediately, and were left completely exposed. Fortunately we managed to draw some wizard cards that allowed us to rebuild cheaply, so we weathered the storm. Throughout the bulk of the game we kept things under control, and were in fairly good position heading into the end-game.

Then doom struck. Much like the first game, we somehow managed to get a group of high HP monsters on the same freaking arc. Nearly 10 HP worth of monsters, headed for a single exposed tower. In a desperate move, I played a Wizard Quake, sacrificing the tower in order to kill the entire encroaching army in one fell swoop.

Confident that we were now out of the woods, tragedy struck again! We spawned both a Hydra (which spawns imps every time she's damaged) and an ogre (4 HP) on the same space...the space vacated by the tower I had sacrificed. They basically had an open door directly into our castle. However, we started getting miraculously lucky with card draws. We kept getting card after card designed to push monsters back, so that's exactly what we did. For three full turns we would just keep them from advancing - not even doing damage, just buying time. The strategy paid off - after three times of pushing the Hydra back, we finally pulled a card to slay her outright, thus preventing even a single imp from spawning from her. The rest of the game was a mop up after that, and we declared victory once again.

The expansion is incredible, and we had a blast playing it even though we did find it fairly easy (though not as easy as ordinary Castle Panic). The biggest change is that it felt like there were many more strategic decisions to make, vs the base game which sometimes seems like every move is obvious. We were playing it two-player, however, so I'm curious to see how the difficulty changes with a full group. We're also looking forward to playing just Dark Titan alone without the insanely powerful Wizard cards to fall back on. I'm totally on board with why everyone says it's a must-buy; it definitely took a game that I almost never play except with the kids and turned it into something that the entire gaming group can enjoy and be sufficiently challenged by.

[YellowKing]

I played a solo game of Sentinels of the Multiverse last night and got royally screwed.

I happened to draw an environment card that blocked heroes from using powers, and one that blocked heroes from drawing cards....at a time when one of my heroes had no cards in her hand, and the only way to get rid of one of those environments was for BOTH players to discard a card. So I got to a point where I literally could do nothing. Needless to say that did not end well.

I can see where people say the game can be fiddly to keep up with - it can be tough to keep up with all the various ongoing powers and things, even with the included markers. The order in which things resolve is also incredibly important, so I found myself having to pay very close attention to that.

However, I still thought it was a lot of fun and can't wait to try it with a group. I'm also already wanting the expansions since the expanded edition contains all the divider cards for those decks!

[hentzau]

We took our first swipe at September in Pandemic: Legacy on Monday, and got boned pretty badly by the events. We still put up a gallant struggle, and didn't do horribly...we were pretty much in damage control mode rather than trying to win after about the second turn. Next week we'll give September a try again, this time with 2 event cards in the mix to help out. But this may be the time that we completely lose out on a month.

[Chrisoc13]

Played a couple great games this week. Played viticulture for the first time. Really enjoyed it as a worker placement game. Took some real planning to get closer to the win. I delivered a nice sparkling wine at the end and thought I had it but fell short by one point.

Then last night had a nice four player game of caverna. Interesting thing about it this time is that although three of us expanded our families pretty full the winner never expanded. She won the game with two fully leveled up dwarves. Still love me some caverna.


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[TheMix]

I happened to draw an environment card that blocked heroes from using powers, and one that blocked heroes from drawing cards....at a time when one of my heroes had no cards in her hand, and the only way to get rid of one of those environments was for BOTH players to discard a card.

Did you only play with 2 heroes? The game is really designed for 3-5. Playing with only 2 is going to make it a LOT more difficult. The digital version of the game doesn't even allow you to play with that few.

[Chrisoc13]

Well I couldn't help myself, I pre ordered seafall. I've just really enjoyed legacy experiences and this one looks particular interesting. It'll be hard to get to the table often since it requires 3 players but it should be pretty fun.

Also really eagerly looking forward to learning more about charterstone. A euro legacy game for 1-6 players by the designer of viticulture. It's on my list of most anticipated games for sure.

[YellowKing]

Did you only play with 2 heroes? The game is really designed for 3-5.

Duly noted - I'll give it another shot tonight with 3 or 4.

[hepcat]

Stopped by my FLGS yesterday morning after running some errands and ended up playing until almost 8 that night. I had the new version of 51 State with me and wanted to play anyway, so Zarathud met me there for a game.

I think they've captured the core of 51st State, but I also think it moves too fast at times. And it all comes down to the elimination of the Rule of Three. Previously, cards could generate 3 VP chits (although cards that generated 3 VP chits per production/action could generate 9, as opposed to cards that generated 1 VP chits generating a max of 3), and then you wanted to redevelop them so you could get something else in place that would fire up your engine again. It was a great way to force players to continually evolve their engine. However, it was also the most confusing and fiddly thing to teach new players. I eventually just gave up recruiting new players because it inevitably caused too much teeth gnashing.

Without that rule though, it just seems that the engine building is...well... a little less thoughtful. Don't get me wrong, this is very close to the original in terms of theme, mechanics, etc.. It's just that that one thing, that one rule that drove me nuts? Well, I kind of miss it now. I think I'll hang onto my old copy and play it with the die hard fans, but this new version will probably hit the table more often as it really is much easier to teach, while still giving me that 51st State feel (for the most part). I don't regret the purchase at all, though. Plus, I can now play a 4 player game of 51st State in under 2 hours!

While I was at the store, I felt a little bad about sometimes bringing in some games that I'd bought elsewhere (kickstarters, preorders, online retail...although to be fair, when I mentioned that to one of the store owners, he laughed and told me I was nuts and not to worry about it as I did buy quite a bit there any way), so I decided to drop some coin on a game I've danced around for ages. Argent: The Consortium is a heavy, Euro style worker placement that feels like a thematic Ameritrash entry at the same time. That's a rare combo, in my experience.

You play one of a group of wizards vying to lead a magic school. There are a group of deans/chancellors/etc. that will vote at the end of the game for the player with the most of whatever they favor (resources, influence, the number of spells within one of the 5 schools of magic, etc.). However, only two of the twelve are actually revealed at the beginning of the game. You need to acquire "marks" which allow you to secretly look at one or more of the hidden agendas. At the end of the game, the voters are revealed and if you have the most of whatever they favor, you get their support. The player with the most support wins.

Simple? Absolutely not. You have 5 different types of mages you can assign to the tiles that make up the school map. Each of those 5 workers have different powers. Purple mages can be placed as a fast action (each player gets a fast action and normal action...normal action being the one most commonly used to place workers), red mages can wound other mages (except green), grey mages can be placed as a reaction to performing a spell on your turn, etc.. The base game comes with an extraordinary variety of tiles for the school map, and an insane number of different characters you can play, spells you can learn, supporters you can acquire and treasures you can buy. The replayability of this game is through the roof. So much so that some reviews count that as a negative. It's just overwhelming and can be tough for new players. But if you stick to the learning game to begin with, it's not too bad.

This game is VERY confrontational. If you don't like backstabbing in your games, this is not for you. This game also has a rather steep learning curve. But after a couple of turns, you'll start to see how things work. It's incredibly thematic, as I mentioned earlier. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing your character learning new spells, acquiring new items, and buying new mages to place.

Anway, check it out if you want a heavier worker placement game with a lot of unique mechanics I've not seen elsewhere.

[Chrisoc13]

Interesting. I'm intrigued by it now. I'll have to look into it.

[hepcat]

i loved it even though it's full of anime style art. That's how fun it was.

[Zarathud]

I had a great time. We misread a rule in 51st State that accelerated the engines to ludicrous speed, but I think the pacing will return to normal when we replay correctly. I was able to manufacture 6 gears and turn them into enough settlement arrows that I can take over 3 territories a turn. It turns out we can only take that action once a turn. Getting rid of the Rule of 3 works for me, even though I used to make hepcat handle all the accounting on it. The streamlining while keeping the theme really worked for me.

Argent was...nothing like I expected. I like my Euro worker placement, and it was definitely a Euro with a great theme. You start out the 1st of 5 rounds feeling like an apprentice, with only 1 spell and no knowledge of the "deans" in charge. The ability to choose your starting mix of workers (with their special actions) pairs nicely with the placement options, which end up supplemented by all the supporters (1 time bonus), equipment (1 time or 1/turn bonuses), spells (powered by mana) and resources (# of spells, # of spell levels, mana and bonus actions) you acquire by the 5th turn. Once again, I accumulated an engine -- this time to acquire tons of spells underneath everyone else's noses while they all fought for the awesome equipment -- and at the end knew all of the victory conditions. Fortunately, most of the deans in our game were looking for factions of spells and supporters. So the factions in my spell acquisition engine helped me lock down most of the deans' votes. Still, it was a tense game because at the end EVERYTHING, including VP, is all secondary to getting the most votes.

The action went around the table very quickly, so it never felt like much downtime. The need to get that "prime" spot forces you to play offensively, and watch your back once you've taken that prime spot and pissed off other players. Nearly everything will assemble differently the next game. Different deans, rooms, workers, spells, supporters, equipment and even turn ending options. There's so much that it's mind-boggling until you condense all the systems to worker placement, identifying the secret objectives and acquisition. Then perhaps you add bluffing so other players can't guess (or stop) your strategy. It even felt like I went from Hermoine to Dumbeldore at the end. Big thumbs up.

[hepcat]

Favorite moment of the game for me came during the opening moments of the final round. I see the massive spell bank that Zarathud has built up. So I upgraded one of my spells to its more powerful level and immediately cast a silence spell that prevents anyone from casting a spell for the rest of the round...the entire round.

Your response was...less than enthusiastic.

Although you still won, the nice thing was that you only won by 2 or 3 votes. It's not a game where someone can just run away with it. I really love that in a game. It's so demoralizing when you're playing someone and they get like 50 victory points to your 8.

I was pouring over the various room tiles last night. There's so much variety that I honestly don't see how any two games would ever play alike.

[Zarathud]

Yea, that prevented me from casting protection spells or gaining 1 more supporter.

[Chrisoc13]

Well I'm very intrigued. I just find the artwork very off putting. Wish I could attend the next octocon so I could ask you to bring it!

[hepcat]

The anime style was what kept me from getting the game for so long. It felt too cutesy to be an adult game, I agree. If I could choose one thing to change about it, it would be that.

Still, the artwork does kind of just fade into the background after a few turns, and you will most likely start enjoying the mechanics of the game without even looking at the weird sailor moon people.

I would recommend watching some reviews or Rodney's Watch it Played video first. It's definitely not for everyone. It can be a bit daunting if you're not a fan of longer games that give you a lot of options each turn.

p.s. if you're back here visiting outside a scheduled octocon for any reason, just let us know. I'm sure we could set up something.

[Chaz]

One of the other forums I'm on has been raving about Argent for months now. It's slowly moving up on my "to buy" list.

Miniature Market sent their deal of the day email. It lands around 2am my time. This morning, it was Blood Rage for $48. It's never been that cheap before, so I went to pick one up. Already sold out. It was 5am when I checked. I don't know if they only had three copies available, or if the late night west coast folks hoovered them all up.

[Sudy]

Wizard Wars
Marvel Munchkin
Camel Cup

Camel Cup is quickly becoming one of my favourites.

[hentzau]

Wizard Wars
Marvel Munchkin
Camel Cup

Camel Cup is quickly becoming one of my favourites.

Camel Up. Horrible logo design, but the name is actually Camel Up.

[Chrisoc13]

I feel like it was a double play. Camel cup and camel up. Couldn't tell if it was on purpose.