OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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

Post by coopasonic »

Daveman wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 7:44 pm Also still in love with Heat: Pedal to the Metal. For those who have been looking, the reprint has started showing up in Europe and it's assumed it'll be in the US in the near future. Might want to start looking around as the game has been a big hit.
This is pretty much the only game I have on my wishlist currently. Very excited to see it become available.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

Sadly, I packed up ISS Vanguard and listed it for sale this afternoon. After spending about 5 hours reading the manual (over and over again) and watching gameplay videos, I simply still couldn't grok the game. It's one thing to wrap your head around a complex game (more on that in a sec) but it's another when the entire game feels like nothing but...work. Even the bits I could piece together simply didn't feel very fun. I'm sure it's great for others, but definitely not me.

My FLGS had a copy of base Too Many Bones on the shelf, so I came home with that today. I've been leery about it due to a) the price and b) the complexity, but figured I'd give it a shot. I knew it had cool components, but I was not really ready for this. I absolutely love the tactile feel of the chips and the dice and the mats and the cards and everything. It's really amazing. I have it set up on the table, spent a couple hours reading through the manual and getting familiar with how it works, and will jump into the game proper tomorrow. I think I mostly get it, although my well-laid plans could go to well-laid shit once I actually start battle. LOL

The only major question I have is whether I reroll the Initiative dice for my Gearlocs every round, or if I'm just stuck with whatever I roll at the start of the battle. Didn't see that clarified (I probably just missed it.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Fishbelly »

Skinypupy wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2023 12:26 am The only major question I have is whether I reroll the Initiative dice for my Gearlocs every round, or if I'm just stuck with whatever I roll at the start of the battle. Didn't see that clarified (I probably just missed it.
Initiative dice stay in the same order each round. There are skills, events, etc. that can affect that order, but generally they stay where they begin. It truly HURTS when bad luck leads to your band of gearlocs, impatiently waiting at the end of the ini track on round 1! :evil:
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

Just finished my first game of Too Many Bones with Patches and Boomer up against Drellen. We managed to burn him down in three rounds with a couple lucky rolls. Boomer stunned one of the 5 point adds so he couldn't signal in more mobs and Patches dropped a nasty poison on Drellen's head in Round 2, and Boomer blew everyone to hell with three grenades in round three. It was hilarious and I absolutely loved it.

The game is probably more complex than I typically like. I spent half the game looking up symbols and rules on the sheets. I'm 100% sure I completely screwed up some of the rules. But I don't know that any of that matters much much matter because I had an absolute blast. Looking forward to giving it another run tonight.

I know there's about a bazillion xpacs for this. Any that you would consider "must have"? I watched Ezra's lengthy review over at No Pun Included yesterday and it sounded like most of the extra stuff was skippable. Curious about other's opinions.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Fishbelly »

Skinypupy wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2023 4:37 pm
I know there's about a bazillion xpacs for this. Any that you would consider "must have"? I watched Ezra's lengthy review over at No Pun Included yesterday and it sounded like most of the extra stuff was skippable. Curious about other's opinions.
I'd focus on adding encounters and baddies to reduce seeing the same critters and events every game. 40 Days in Daelore adds a lot of content in those areas. A couple extra gearlocs add to the variety of play--I think both Ghillie and Nugget work great for newer players.

After that, whatever catches your attention. Of the big box expansions, I feel Undertow is the best of the lot. I wasn't a fan of Splice and Dice, and Unbreakable hasn't quite made it to backers yet. I was not a fan of Age of Tyranny and the campaign system--I thought Undertow's approach worked better.

It's easy to grab too much and become overwhelmed. Play the base game a few times, and by then you'll have a feel for what you want the most.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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I thought I’d go for the completionist in me and get High Frontier 4 All with the last of my gift certificates from Christmas.

After two hours of struggling to find any fun in at all, I give up. This is not for me. I’m a longtime fan of Eklund’s pax series, as well as most of his bios games; but man, HF4A is just everything I hate in a game. It’s math without much of an attempt to hide that. I know almost all board games are basically math problems, but a good game hides that fact behind a compelling theme that’s married to the mechanics.

This one though? I could see the math immediately and it never struck me as thematic in nature. I’m sure it’s a great game for hardcore science fans, or people who just enjoy doing math problems for fun, but it’s going straight to my auction pile for Gencon. It’s probably one of the fastest games to hit that pile that I own.

In regards to Too Many Bones, listen to fish. He knows his gearloc stuff.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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AWS260 wrote: Sun Apr 23, 2023 11:28 pm I've been playing a lot of Pax Pamir online with friends lately, via Rally the Troops!, a free website with a handful of well-regarded board games, all very nicely implemented.

In-person, this weekend I played Stationfall, Hanamikoji, and Magic: The Gathering with my family. I'd never played Magic before! My son briefly mentioned an interest, so we picked up a starter set for Christmas and finally got it to the table today. First impression: it seems pretty good, and there's clearly a lot of depth to be plumbed. I don't think I can offer more than that after a single play, in which we surely got some rules wrong.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

It's probably a good thing my first game of Too Many Bones went so well, because I've gotten absolutely wrecked in the three games I've played since. :lol: I did make it back to the boss once, but haven't won since that first game (which I probably shouldn't have won anyways, since I messed up on a couple rules). JFC, this game is hard as balls, man. It's fun, but I'm not sure how often I'm gonna be up for that level of challenge.

Quick question. If a Baddie has the Flight + Dive abilities but you don't have any ranged weapons (or any ways to stun or disable their skills), you're basically just fucked, right? I was playing Picket and Tantrum and Tantrum got KO'ed (so no Throwing Axes). Since the Flight ability goes back onto the Baddie after every attack and Picket didn't have any ranged skills, I didn't see anything I could do to ever hit him. Maybe there's something I wasn't considering.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

I think you’re overlooking a crucial part of the flight rule that tells you to remove the flight die if it’s already there.
"After this unit attacks, place the Flight Effect Die on it. If this effect is already there, remove it. While in Flight, this unit is Untargetable
So it should be in flight every other turn, not every turn. I believe. So it dives, attacks, then puts the flight die on itself. Next round, it attacks, you remove the die after that attack as it’s already there, and you can target it for one round; then next round it attacks and you put the flight die back on after it attacks. It’s an on and off cycle.

Also, poison is great for attacking these punks.

P.s. I don’t have the rules in front of me, but according to someone on BGG the latest version has changed the wording on flight to make it more clear.
At the end of this unit’s turn, place a Flight Effect Die on it; if this effect is already there remove it.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

Got it, thanks. I definitely misread that, makes much more sense now.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

My local store had a copy of HeroQuest on sale yesterday, so I took the plunge. I know it's an older game that doesn't hold up particularly well, but I really liked the aesthetic and was curious. We played our first game today using the companion app. I thought it was ok. I generally enjoy simpler games, and this one hit somewhat of a sweet spot for me. I don't know that it'll have a ton of legs, but I can certainly see it getting a number of plays. The companion app does an excellent job of replicating the GM as well, kudos to that great design.

But you know who liked it? I mean, really, really, really loved it? The 9 year olds. They thought it was absolutely fantastic. It was simple enough that they had no trouble immediately getting their heads around the mechanics, and they loved all the minis and how the level built out as you played. They honestly had a blast and immediately wanted to play again once we finished the first quest.

Reminded me that there's still a space out there for games that don't require you to melt your brain on every single turn and just chuck some dice. If you're looking for a "gateway" dungeon crawler to get kids into games, you could certainly do worse. It's also a good D&D'ish game for them, as they struggle with the complexity and myriad rules for actual D&D (they do love the D&D adventure games as well).

I'm even kicking around the idea of getting one or two of the xpacs.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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I actually have an original copy of HeroQuest from when I was a kid, fully intact and in great shape. I never really thought about pulling it out to play with my 9yo son, but that's actually a good idea. I haven't touched it in decades, but I think the rules would be basic enough for him to understand and enjoy (was only a couple years older when I played it). If we can use the app with the original version, that would be awesome. I'll definitely have to look into this more!
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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disarm wrote: Wed May 10, 2023 10:02 pm If we can use the app with the original version, that would be awesome. I'll definitely have to look into this more!
From what I understand, the new version didn’t change anything from the original other than adding actual minis instead of standees. Could be wrong tho, I never played the original.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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That's all interesting to hear. Somehow I completely missed out on HeroQuest when it was originally released - like I have zero memory of it ever being around. No cousins that owned it, can't remember a commercial, never saw it (that I remember) in stores. To hear people speak of it in hushed reverent tones, I've felt quite confused as I didn't even know it existed until a few years ago.

I can only assume it was released at a specific time in my life when all gaming was sidelined for girls. Stupid hormones. :oops:
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Smoove_B wrote: Wed May 10, 2023 10:15 pm That's all interesting to hear. Somehow I completely missed out on HeroQuest when it was originally released - like I have zero memory of it ever being around. No cousins that owned it, can't remember a commercial, never saw it (that I remember) in stores. To hear people speak of it in hushed reverent tones, I've felt quite confused as I didn't even know it existed until a few years ago.

I can only assume it was released at a specific time in my life when all gaming was sidelined for girls. Stupid hormones. :oops:
Same. It came out in 1989, which was about the time I was heading into high school and lost my fascination with games for a while. I have no nostalgia for it at all.

It’s certainly not a great game. Heck, I don’t even know if it’s a good game by todays standards. But it does bring back a simplicity that seems entirely forgotten in todays complex systems. I enjoy that on occasion. Reminds me a bit of the Dungeon! game from back in the day. Super simple, kinda rudimentary, but still quite fun if you’re in the right mood or have younger kids to play with.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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I was 11yo when it was originally released and got it as a birthday gift from my parents. Unfortunately, I only had a couple friends that were even remotely interested in playing and it's not a quick game, so I never had the opportunity to get very far in the original campaign. It was not like anything else I had ever played before (no D&D in my tiny, rural Indiana town) and was fun enough at that age to hold our attention.

Maybe I'll pull it out of storage and see how it goes...
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Those really are the best things about HeeoQuest.

I traded my copy on OO more than 20 years ago, and still regret it.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Blackhawk wrote: Thu May 11, 2023 12:47 am Those really are the best things about HeeoQuest.
No, the best thing about HeeoQuest is that when you win a battle, you gotta yell “HEEO”.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Daveman »

I always thought the best thing about Heroquest was this review of Heroquest...

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

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

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Blackhawk wrote: Thu May 11, 2023 12:47 am Those really are the best things about HeroQuest.
To which this was a reference. ;)
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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

Post by Skinypupy »

Daveman wrote: Fri May 12, 2023 6:19 am I always thought the best thing about Heroquest was this review of Heroquest...
“Oh no…Mormons” :plonk: I literally lol’d.

The “Frozen Horror” xpac was on sale on Amazon, so I grabbed it to get another hero class. Eyeing the others as well.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

Heroquest continues to own our gaming world. The Wonder Twins have figured out how to play Zargon (the GM) without the app, which has opened up a whole new world of excitement and enthusiasm about the game. I’ve had to pretty much drag them to the table to play anything the last couple months, but they’re begging me to play this one. We spent nearly 3 hours playing together this morning. I don’t that’s ever happened before.

From a sheer “family fun factor” perspective, this might be the best board game investment I’ve made, tbh. Fully unexpected, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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After working my butt off for about 2,5 months I finally finished the top 100 videos and will be releasing one every 3 days. This is the first one!
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I can finally go back to regular video stuff, this was way more work than I expected :ninja: .
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Nice video! Quite a few games on the list that weren't on my radar before.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

Thanks for sharing EzeKieL - I love these list types of videos. It's always interesting to see where people rank certain games, and I'm almost always sure to discover something new.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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This weekend I played Trickerion with my better half. It's our second time playing since I got the game for Xmas. Once again, she kicked my butt, although we both had better scores this time around.

I really like this game. The worker placement is tight (if you use the two-player mini-expansion), long-term planning is crucial, and I am guaranteed to make at least one dire mistake per game. This time, I erred by confusing the symbols for cloth and glass. The iconography is this game is not great.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Ok, has anyone actually beaten a game of One Deck Dungeon. Like, ever? This game is insanely hard and feels basically impossible to win unless you get lucky and just roll all 6’s all the time.

Picked it up today to take on the cruise next week (trying to find some smaller games to pack in what will be a very full suitcase). I’ve played three games now and yet to even survive past the first floor.

Seems to me that you’re pretty much required to play with two characters, right? There’s just no way to survive with one because you have no ways to mitigate incoming damage of the types you’re build is low on.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Yes, play ODD with 2 characters or you’ll never cover the colors. It’s not too hard if you can build each up in 1 color then get enough black die or skills to get by in the last color.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by paulbaxter »

Finally got around to a game that was loaned to me months ago. Steampunk Rally.

The components and the rules looked a little intimidating, but it really turned out to be fairly intuitive once we got going. It's a hilarrious engine building game, and part of the fun was just realizing that my machine REALLY sucked compared to the ones my kids built.

We managed to hit a surprisingly easy Frosthaven scenario, which was a pleasant break from the insane ones. Just flipping through the scenario book, there appear to be quite a lot of rather complicated scenarios. Should be interesting.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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paulbaxter wrote:We managed to hit a surprisingly easy Frosthaven scenario, which was a pleasant break from the insane ones. Just flipping through the scenario book, there appear to be quite a lot of rather complicated scenarios. Should be interesting.
Yeah so far Frosthaven has been a significant step up in both difficulty and session length for our group. We used to get through 2 scenarios a night in GH, but we haven't come close to getting 2 full scenarios in with FH. At this rate it could literally take us 3 years to finish the campaign.

Still, the more complex scenarios have still been a ton of fun. We play every scenario on the difficulty suggested for our party's level. However, we have a standing rule that if we fail a scenario, we re-try at one difficulty level lower. This was done to keep us from wasting more than 2 weeks on a single scenario, given how long the campaign is already.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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I love the chaos of Steampunk Rally. But it never hits the table.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by paulbaxter »

YellowKing wrote: Thu May 25, 2023 10:38 pm
paulbaxter wrote:We managed to hit a surprisingly easy Frosthaven scenario, which was a pleasant break from the insane ones. Just flipping through the scenario book, there appear to be quite a lot of rather complicated scenarios. Should be interesting.
Yeah so far Frosthaven has been a significant step up in both difficulty and session length for our group. We used to get through 2 scenarios a night in GH, but we haven't come close to getting 2 full scenarios in with FH. At this rate it could literally take us 3 years to finish the campaign.

Still, the more complex scenarios have still been a ton of fun. We play every scenario on the difficulty suggested for our party's level. However, we have a standing rule that if we fail a scenario, we re-try at one difficulty level lower. This was done to keep us from wasting more than 2 weeks on a single scenario, given how long the campaign is already.
On occasion there has been weeping and gnashing of teeth after losing a scenario with my kids, so I'm definitely very conservative about scenario level. It's great when we just squeak by at the end, but they don't mind so much if it was a little easier than that.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Got TZAAR (GIPF project) for a gift yesterday and have already played it 7 times with my 13yo son who hates board games. It's so quick and easy but also so tactical. It has replaced YINSH for me in the 2 player abstract games that are not chess space. Advanced hexagonal checkers is my quick description but it is so much better than that name implies.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

In my search for a few new smaller footprint games that I can take on vacation with us, I came across Fantasy Realms, which is an absolute blast.

It's a very simple game played with one deck of cards with a theme of building a fantasy kingdom. Each card has a base value, a suite (Land, Leaders, Army, Weather, etc.), and an effect. Turns are very simple. You draw a card, either from the deck or taking one from the discard pile, and you discard a card. You play until there are 10 cards in the discard pile. Then you score. That's it...that's the whole game.

The beauty comes in how you create combos and avoid penalties with your cards. See, each card will have a specific effect or penalty that takes place during scoring. The goal is to create combos that maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative ones. For example, the Magic Wand is only worth one point by itself at the end of the game, but is worth 30 if you also have a Wizard. The War Dirigible is worth nothing on it's own (it can't fly itself), is worth 30 if you have an Army card (because having an Army on board makes it a formidable fighting vessel), but is negated entirely if you're holding a Weather card (because it can't fly in a raging storm). The Basilisk is worth 30, but negates any positive effects on other cards...unless you also have a Beastmaster, which "tames" it and removes the negative effect.

It's remarkable how everything thematically fits together, creating interesting and unique combos. No two games are the same either. One game I might be chasing specific Lands to pair with spells, and other games may have me looking for Armies and Leaders to bolster my effects. Since everyone discards a card each turn, something that may be junk for me is exactly what someone else is looking for. In our last game yesterday, I discarded a Candle that did nothing for me, but Little B 14.3 grabbed it to pair with her Book and Wizard for a whopping 100 points. You have to keep a close eye on what you're doing, as well as what others are going after.

Once you get the hang of it, the game plays and scores very quickly (20-30 minutes). It also becomes much more strategic once you know what the card combos are and start being able to see what others are going for. Kids and I played it for about 2 hours straight yesterday and they all really enjoyed it. Plus, it's only $15-20.

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

Post by AWS260 »

I've had my eye on Fantasy Realms for a while. After that glowing report, I may just have to pull the trigger.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by EzeKieL »

Fantasy Realms is great!

It also has an expansion that looks interesting but I haven't tried it yet
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Smoove_B »

I purchased Fantasy Realms in late 2019 thinking it would be great for game night. Still haven't played it, but I know it's loved and yes, it does look great.

If you have friends/kids/family that isn't into the fantasy theme, there was a Marvel version that was released in 2022. Same idea, same price point, really just re-themed for Marvel superheroes.
Maybe next year, maybe no go
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Skinypupy
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

EzeKieL wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 8:53 pm It also has an expansion that looks interesting but I haven't tried it yet
I had no idea, thanks for the heads-up.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
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