OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[Skinypupy]

I’m hoping the kids will be able to figure it out, since it’ll be one of the few I own that isn’t solo-able. It’ll be their first worker placement game.

Little B 11.4 has watched me play the app version a few times, and I think she’ll pick it up pretty easily. She was very excited when I told her it was on the way. The Wonder Twins 7.0 will love the D&D theme...we’ll see how well they do with the gameplay. They surprised me by jumping into Tiny Epic Galaxies with no issues, so who knows.

[Anonymous Bosch]

You made a good choice. LoW is a fantastic worker placement game.

Absolutely. It makes for a superb gateway game, too. So your kids shouldn't have too much difficulty learning how it plays.

If you enjoy the game and play regularly, I highly recommend adding these terrific wooden DnDeeples if you possibly can:



They provide a significant thematic boost, and go a long way towards making the otherwise mundane 'character cubes' feel more akin to the adventurers you're supposed to be recruiting to help your guild out.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

LoW is great and one of the main games I bring out when friends who are just starting board games want to play something. I highly recommend playing with the expansion that adds corruption to the game. It makes the game just barely more complicated, so you can start with it from the outset, but adds a nice strategic layer to the game. When I play, I always use that expansion, even if the people I’m playing with are new to board games.

[Skinypupy]

You made a good choice. LoW is a fantastic worker placement game.

Absolutely. It makes for a superb gateway game, too. So your kids shouldn't have too much difficulty learning how it plays.

If you enjoy the game and play regularly, I highly recommend adding these terrific wooden DnDeeples if you possibly can:



They provide a significant thematic boost, and go a long way towards making the otherwise mundane 'character cubes' feel more akin to the adventurers you're supposed to be recruiting to help your guild out.

Dammit, man...you're not helping.

LoW is great and one of the main games I bring out when friends who are just starting board games want to play something. I highly recommend playing with the expansion that adds corruption to the game. It makes the game just barely more complicated, so you can start with it from the outset, but adds a nice strategic layer to the game. When I play, I always use that expansion, even if the people I’m playing with are new to board games.

I've been debating whether or not to start them with the base game and work up to the "corruption" xpac, or to make that a part of the game from the get-go. Will have to read up a bit more on it today to make sure I understand it. Nothing kills their interest faster than dad explaining the rules poortly.

[Anonymous Bosch]

LoW is great and one of the main games I bring out when friends who are just starting board games want to play something. I highly recommend playing with the expansion that adds corruption to the game. It makes the game just barely more complicated, so you can start with it from the outset, but adds a nice strategic layer to the game. When I play, I always use that expansion, even if the people I’m playing with are new to board games.

I've been debating whether or not to start them with the base game and work up to the "corruption" xpac, or to make that a part of the game from the get-go. Will have to read up a bit more on it today to make sure I understand it. Nothing kills their interest faster than dad explaining the rules poortly.

Since you'll be playing with kids, I'd suggest starting out with the base game and perhaps later adding Undermountain to keep things simple.

The Undermountain expansion provides a small additional board that sits next to the main board, with extra spaces to send your agents. It adds some epic quests that award you with 40 points (the base game maximum is 25), intrigue cards, buildings, and lords, but none of them require much in the way of further explanation. It does add an interesting new mechanic that has players assign extra resources to different spots on the board so that the next time that space is used, it yields something extra in addition to the regular rewards. So it's essentially a "more of the same" style of expansion, but with higher stakes and heftier rewards that make for exciting and substantial point swings.

Skullport's corruption mechanic instead adds risk and reward elements that can be more difficult for kids to grasp. Younger children can easily understand the base game and Undermountain, but corruption tends to be harder for them to visualize and plan for, and more directly adversarial. So I'd suggest holding off on that module and adding it last when you feel your kids are ready for it. They'll likely get more out of it that way, and will have the necessary experience to better understand how the overarching theme of "get more stuff, but get corrupted and risk possibly losing a mess of points at game's end" changes things up.

[hepcat]

No, that's the green (extra thin). I use this. I like it a little "gloopy" (technical term), not runny or thinned out (green cap bottle). It all comes down to personal preference. Also, make sure you're using this in a well ventilated area. Do not hotbox assemble your miniatures in a closet.

Couldn’t find the tamiya with a decent shipping time, so I just grabbed some testors master liquid cement and it has been fantastic so far. I put together 4 of the 5 minis in the elder scrolls stormcloak set in about an hour. With zero issues and no stuck together fingers. I’m definitely sticking with this...

...see what I did there?

...god, I’m sorry.

[Skinypupy]

Since you'll be playing with kids, I'd suggest starting out with the base game and perhaps later adding Undermountain to keep things simple.

We went this route tonight, and LoW was very well received. B picked up the strategy very quickly, especially for her first worker placement game. After the game, I showed her the xpac, and she's excited to use it next time.

Two other random observations:

1. I love, love, love the insert/organizer that this game comes with. I want something like that for every game.
2. I'm guessing my copy of Scoundrels of Skullport had been sitting on a shelf for while, considering the box had an insert ad for a series of new RR Salvatore books...coming in 2013.

Now it's time to dig into the big Sword & Sorcery rulebook. Wish me luck.

[Smoove_B]

...see what I did there?

Heh. I only have experience with the Testors model cement every kid seems to have used for building model airplanes. I'm guessing what you found is functionally equivalent to the Tamiya. The bottom line, as long as it has toxic chemicals that get you high, that's all that really matters. Oh, and that it keeps your minis together.

[hepcat]

Hentzau stopped by while I was working on the figures from the Elder Scrolls set and was able to witness my weird obsession with what I considered "too wide a stance" on one of the miniatures. Finally I just decided to name the character Captain Larry Craig of the King's Guard.

I hope to finish the monster set over the next day or two so I can try my hand at a solo delve this weekend.

[Tao]

My copy of Call to Arms just showed up, that's a lot of little pieces to glue. I recently purchased this; Super Glue for another project so hopefully it will work well. Should be a busy weekend.

[hepcat]

Trust me: DITCH the super glue and grab some liquid cement for plastic models.

I'm using this and it's been fantastic with these models. But Smoove and some others really recommend the Tamiya line of liquid cement.

But seriously, use liquid cement of some type. It's SO much easier. You can find them at any hobby store too.

[Smoove_B]

And he's not just being extra enthusiastic because he's high as a kite (but it's helping).

[hepcat]

It has been almost revelatory. I spent 3 months with crab like claws for hands after super gluing my fingers together during what I call "The Great Glue-en-ing of 2019". To this day, the neighbor children still claim that if you say "idiot" into a mirror 3 times, I will appear with my crab like claws and demand a frozen coke and their mom's phone number if she's single.

[Isgrimnur]

What do you ask for if she’s not single?

[Smoove_B]

I can relate. It was kinda the same for me when I switched. So much of my frustration with plastic model assembly was directly related to using CA glues.

[hepcat]

What do you ask for if she’s not single?

leniency

[hentzau]

Hep, I'm pretty sure I've been giving you this advice going back to our Shadows of Brimstone days.

Next time I'll PM Smoove when I have some advice I really want you to follow and have him post it.

[hepcat]

The only advice I remember you giving me is "if this van's a rockin', don't come knockin'...which I found odd since you don't own a van.

[coopasonic]

The only advice I remember you giving me is "if this van's a rockin', don't come knockin'...which I found odd since you don't own a van.

It takes a long ass time to 3d print a full size van!

[hentzau]

The only advice I remember you giving me is "if this van's a rockin', don't come knockin'...which I found odd since you don't own a van.

2010 Chrysler Town and Country...

[hepcat]

I stand corrected. And I will have some of that candy now, thank you.

My copy of Call to Arms just showed up, that's a lot of little pieces to glue. I recently purchased this; Super Glue for another project so hopefully it will work well. Should be a busy weekend.

One other bit of advice: hang onto the sheets with the assembly instructions. I didn't need them for the stormcloak faction, but when I started the Barrows delve set, it became increasingly apparent that to try to assemble those figures without the assembly guide would be folly. There are SO many parts in that one that it's easy to grab the wrong one. Thankfully, each of the parts are both lettered AND numbered, so it makes finding the right piece easy enough.

[baelthazar]

Trust me: DITCH the super glue and grab some liquid cement for plastic models.

I'm using this and it's been fantastic with these models. But Smoove and some others really recommend the Tamiya line of liquid cement.

But seriously, use liquid cement of some type. It's SO much easier. You can find them at any hobby store too.

That Testor's is what I moved to after Citadel Plastic glue (which is fine, but seems to dry slower and be more messy). That said, I am liking the green label Tamiya much better.

I agree with Hep, ditch that super glue.

[Blackhawk]

But stick with super glue for non-styrene. Plastic cement won't work right on PVC miniatures, metal miniatures, or resin.

[Tao]

So my understanding is CA works on pretty much everything and I don't need a degree in chemical engineering to figure out if the miniature is PVC, Styrene, ABS, HIPS, Resin... Cement works great but only on Styrene and if you make a mistake your basically screwed because the two parts have been fused rather than just bonded. I will pick up a bottle of the Tamiya Green, but I think I will at least try out the CA to start. So far I have been primarily buying miniatures that do not require assembly, Nolzur's and Reapers. I did however pick up a cheaper set of Stormcast Sequitors recently as part of an online tutorial that sort of went no where. These require assembly and I figure I will use them as my test.

[hepcat]

Yes, CA will work...but any hard plastic figures like the elder scrolls minis you have are going to be SO much easier to assemble with the liquid cement. Especially the delve set. Those skeletons will be maddening with CA I bet.

As for the fusing, I was worried about that too, but it’s so minor you don’t really see the melting surfaces. And another nice addition is that today I realized the Dragonborn mini had a leg that was askew. I was able to actually pull it off and then glue it back on in the right position with very little effort.

[hentzau]

In this time of social distancing, we've been doing some Roll and Write games via zoom.

The first is Railroad Ink. We've played the Red version a couple of times now, and at it's heart you roll four dice that have track or road (or both) segments on the die faces. You then draw those track/road segments onto a dry erase board, trying to connect as many of your tracks and roads into a continuous network. You gain bonus points for building into certain squares, for the number of exit points you can connect into your network, and lose points for uncompleted networks. The Red version of the game also includes optional rules for random meteor strikes and volcano eruptions.

Railroad Ink

The other one we've started playing is "Welcome To..." Welcome To...is a game of building a subdivision of 50's style houses. This game doesn't use dice, it uses a deck of cards divided into 3 decks. Each turn you reveal a new card with a number on it on the deck, and the back of the card that was just turned over will be a symbol like a pool, or a fence, or a park. Each player has a sheet with 3 streets on it. Each turn you choose one number/symbol pair and you have to add that number to one of the houses on the street. The numbering has to be in ascending order on the street, and you group the house numbers by putting them in fences. There are various ways of getting bonus points like by having pools, building parks, and manipulating the real estate market.

Welcome to...

These have worked out great for zoom gaming. I've use a clamp arm for my phone, and join up to the meeting from my phone pointing down to a table with the card decks/dice tray while I'm joined up to the meeting using my desktop to talk/video chat. While it's not a deep gaming experience, it is fun to get on with buddies and just play some stuff.

[Anonymous Bosch]

In this time of social distancing, we've been doing some Roll and Write games via zoom.

The first is Railroad Ink. We've played the Red version a couple of times now, and at it's heart you roll four dice that have track or road (or both) segments on the die faces. You then draw those track/road segments onto a dry erase board, trying to connect as many of your tracks and roads into a continuous network. You gain bonus points for building into certain squares, for the number of exit points you can connect into your network, and lose points for uncompleted networks. The Red version of the game also includes optional rules for random meteor strikes and volcano eruptions.

Railroad Ink

The other one we've started playing is "Welcome To..." Welcome To...is a game of building a subdivision of 50's style houses. This game doesn't use dice, it uses a deck of cards divided into 3 decks. Each turn you reveal a new card with a number on it on the deck, and the back of the card that was just turned over will be a symbol like a pool, or a fence, or a park. Each player has a sheet with 3 streets on it. Each turn you choose one number/symbol pair and you have to add that number to one of the houses on the street. The numbering has to be in ascending order on the street, and you group the house numbers by putting them in fences. There are various ways of getting bonus points like by having pools, building parks, and manipulating the real estate market.

Welcome to...

These have worked out great for zoom gaming. I've use a clamp arm for my phone, and join up to the meeting from my phone pointing down to a table with the card decks/dice tray while I'm joined up to the meeting using my desktop to talk/video chat. While it's not a deep gaming experience, it is fun to get on with buddies and just play some stuff.

If you haven't yet tried it, I thoroughly recommend the treasure-hunting flip n' write Silver & Gold, which includes components that are a major step up from the vast majority of other roll & write games.

Throw in some suitable pirate-talk and ye're all set, y'bilge-sucking, narwhal-smelling cackle fruit!

[Skinypupy]

This weekend's goal is to wrap my head around Sword & Sorcery.

You guys weren't kidding. It's...a lot.

[hepcat]

Don't be too intimidated. Once you get the basics down, it flows really well. A lot of it is intuitive as well.

[Smoove_B]

Yes, I found it to be rather intuitive. It's just a lot of moving parts but logistically it made sense to me.

[Skinypupy]

Checked Target.com on the off chance there was a copy of Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion anywhere near me.

I live in Salt Lake, and the closest store to me with one in stock is...BIllings, Montana. 400 miles away.

[Skinypupy]

Just finished playing through the first Sword & Sorcery quest, and really enjoyed it. I actually quite like not having to move in specific squares and hexes, and freely move between areas instead. The enemy AI system seems very well done, and while I nearly got punked by the RNG gods, I managed to squeak through. Playing solo with 3 characters (tank, runemaster, and mage)

Don't be too intimidated. Once you get the basics down, it flows really well. A lot of it is intuitive as well.

Yes, I found it to be rather intuitive. It's just a lot of moving parts but logistically it made sense to me.

Agreed. It's quite intimidating to begin with (just figuring out the setup took me ages), but I'm really liking the way it all fits together. The way they mix the story elements into the map and the Book of Secrets is awesome. My only minor gripe is that keeping track of the myriad effects (especially the pluses/minuses to each attack) can be a bit of a brain-scrambler. Still, it's very well done and that prologue quest was fantastic.

[Malificent]

I've got a question for the Sword & Sorcery folks (technically 3 questions)...

My wife and I are playing Galaxy Defenders, which is also by Ares Games and from what I can gather, is a sci-fi version of Sword & Sorcery. Board Game Geek tells me Galaxy Defenders is 2014 and Sword & Sorcery is 2017, so they've likely improved on some things. My question is - have they improved these three specific things?

1. Storybook clarity - The rules are complicated but once you get the hang of them, they flow pretty well. But many of the actual missions end up adding in weird twists or strange complications and I'm not finding those to be terribly clear. I spend at least 15-20 mins every session googling about things I'm not sure about. Has that improved some?

2. Storybook imagery - In the story book, when they show you which monster(alien) cards to use in the deck, they only use the images and several of the aliens are incredibly similar to each other. Here are the images:

Monsters:


Storybook page:


You can see where it might be confusing. I spend extra minutes every time doublechecking.

Then there's the font for the events. I just did a mission where I literally couldn't figure out what they meant by a symbol:



What's that last symbol? The fonts on the storybook is not the same as the font on the cards, so I still don't know what card I was supposed to use. I just randomly chose one.

So, did S&S fix (or just never have) some of these things?

[Skinypupy]

So, did S&S fix (or just never have) some of these things?

I’m only one mission into S&S, but haven’t run into any of those sort of issues. Fonts are fine, pictures are clear, and the story - while not the best writing - hasn’t been confusing at all.

[Anonymous Bosch]

What's that last symbol? The fonts on the storybook is not the same as the font on the cards, so I still don't know what card I was supposed to use. I just randomly chose one.

Comparing the events deck shown in the middle image you posted with the final image, it seems safe to assume the last events deck symbol is a 'Q' (it could've been an 'O', but that's shown in the events deck of the middle image).

Having said that, I would tend to agree that font certainly does seem less than ideal.

[Tao]

I have only played Galaxy Defenders once or twice many years ago with TheMix. It actually took me a couple of sessions of playing Sword & Sorcery to have it click that they the two games were using similar mechanics and that they were from the same developer. From what I recall Sword and Sorcery is less ambiguous and more forgiving. I remember Galaxy Defenders being outright brutal at times where as Sword and Sorcery is mostly challenging. Sword & Sorcery uses a color scheme for creatures, green, blue, red and purple for specials and bosses. Spawn points are clearly designated and the game pretty clearly states which monsters to add, typically something like "Spawn #characters - current #monsters from the monster deck. So if you have 3 characters and 2 monsters on the board already you would draw one monster card. Similar to GD, encounters control monsters by color or traits, so an encounter card might say "move all green monsters 2 spaces" or move all "D" (dexterity) based monsters 2 spaces and attack the nearest character. Setting up the monster deck is pretty simple as well, general monsters are sorted by race and color and each set has basic, empowered and double empowered. The symbol to denote empowered is a triquetra and it's obvious to see on the cards and the story book does a pretty good job of laying it out during setup.

[Lorini]

So I was asked to post here and here I am!!! Afro-Euro Princess!!! Instead of LoW though I highly recommend the new game Pan Am, exclusively at Target (for awhile at least) for your awesome middleweight Euro. This review is perfect, only 14 minute long on video.

https://youtu.be/QB6USV7hBr8 My roomate and I have really enjoyed our three plays of it, definitely Euro of the year so far for us. Check it out and let me know what you think.

[AWS260]

So I was asked to post here and here I am!!! Afro-Euro Princess!!! Instead of LoW though I highly recommend the new game Pan Am, exclusively at Target (for awhile at least) for your awesome middleweight Euro.

That's good to hear! A friend of mine just picked it up and hopefully we'll get to try it soon.

[Smoove_B]

I haven't been in a Target since March, but I was rather surprised at my last trip there at all the games they had outside of what I recall seeing there. I know they've been retailing an expanded selection for a while, but there were some really (what I thought) niche titles just sitting on the shelves. I can't recall seeing any Euro-style games, so hearing they're not only doing it but they have exclusive rights is kinda weird to me. I also didn't realize it was Funko. Crazy times.

[Skinypupy]

So I was asked to post here and here I am!!! Afro-Euro Princess!!! Instead of LoW though I highly recommend the new game Pan Am, exclusively at Target (for awhile at least) for your awesome middleweight Euro. This review is perfect, only 14 minute long on video.

https://youtu.be/QB6USV7hBr8 My roomate and I have really enjoyed our three plays of it, definitely Euro of the year so far for us. Check it out and let me know what you think.

So much of my enjoyment of a game is tied into theme. Even if a game has fantastic mechanics, if the theme doesn’t appeal to me, it will never hit the table.

Pan-Am seems that something that would fall very much in that space. Great gameplay, but I have absolutely zero interest in running an airline. Wingspan is another recent one that everyone raves about (well, except for SU&SD), but I couldn’t care less about managing birds.

I’ve taken a couple flyers on games without themes I liked, and they generally clunk. It’s easily the #1 deciding factor on a game for me.