OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[hepcat]

Both of those games are fantastic. Imperium probably more so for me. I say give them a shot.

[gbasden]

I just finished my 2nd campaign playthrough in Sleeping Gods. This game went much smoother than the first time! I really enjoyed it.

It's time to move to something else for a bit though. So, here comes Roll Player Adventures. I got everything sleeved and set up this evening. I'll begin the adventure tomorrow!

My gaming group just finished Roll Player Adventures and really loved it! I hope you find it equally enjoyable!

[gbasden]

I went into a Barnes and Noble earlier this week and they were selling new board games for 50% off. What I really wanted (Wingspan, Dune Imperium) were gone but I impetuously walked out with NIS half price copies of Lost Ruins of Arnak and Imperium Classics.

Now, I have a bit of remorse because a) neither game has ever really interested me - I chose them because they are well-reviewed and popular, not because I really wanted them; and b) backlog.

So... should I return them? I still can, I have the receipt. But such a bargain!

My gaming group plays a lot of Lost Ruins and we quite like it. There's a lot of choice as to which victory path to pursue and which items and artifacts will help.

[YellowKing]

I grabbed Imperium Legends Classic in the B&N sale. It's been on my list for some time. Fortunately most of the selection was picked over by the time I got there, or it could have been dangerous for my wallet.

[tylertoo]

Both of those games are fantastic. Imperium probably more so for me. I say give them a shot.

My gaming group plays a lot of Lost Ruins and we quite like it. There's a lot of choice as to which victory path to pursue and which items and artifacts will help.

Thanks, appreciate the nudge!

[hepcat]

Imperium is great because it’s a deck builder, resource manager and engine builder all in one. Every faction plays differently too…sometimes wildly so. And the solo AI is by Turczi. Imperium and Undaunted are two of my surprise hits of the last few years as I’ve gotten a bit stale on deck builders in general. These two games helped me fall for them again.

[coopasonic]

Imperium is great because it’s a deck builder, resource manager and engine builder all in one. Every faction plays differently too…sometimes wildly so. And the solo AI is by Turczi. Imperium and Undaunted are two of my surprise hits of the last few years as I’ve gotten a bit stale on deck builders in general. These two games helped me fall for them again.

I was about to post something like "Beware, just because a game is very popular with a specific group doesn't mean it's for you" and then I see your post and now I'm wondering if I need to take a closer look.

[hepcat]

I can't remember if you like longer games. Because Imperium is definitely not a game you finish in 60 minutes.

[coopasonic]

I mostly play shorter games because that's all I can get people to play with me consistently. My fave often takes 3 hours or so and they are generally hours of pure joy, though now I have a couple shorter options that are easier to get played.

I usually shy away from longer/complex/point salad games because they usually take a few plays to really understand and I get to play that type of game very infrequently. Maybe when we set up our retirement board gaming enclave I can dig into some more complex games.

[AWS260]

Some good gaming this week while I was visiting family:

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer - This is an ancient deckbuilder that everyone has played, but it was new to me. It's a solid deckbuilder. I don't know if there's much more to say than that.

Ascension: Realms Unraveled - A standalone expansion to Ascension that's much more swingy. Too swingy, in our opinion.

Imperium: Legends - It took three tries for my brother-in-law and I to finally get the rules right. So many keywords. So many symbols. Such asymmetric factions. It's a probably a very good game, but I'll need to play it properly a few more times to be sure.

Tyrants of the Underdark - I will always enjoy playing this one. Deck-building and area control that go together like caramel and chocolate. My son leaned hard into thinning his deck and beat us by a country mile.

[Skinypupy]

Finished the first Skyrim campaign tonight, took me around 9 hours (plus another 2 to replay the first chapter). I think my final verdict is that it's a pretty fun game, but is just so incredibly overpriced for what you get. There's two campaigns with 3 Chapters each in the box. Each chapter probably takes between 2-3 hours to complete (at least in the first Campaign). So you're probably looking at around 12-18 hours to finish the whole thing. There is certainly some replay value in trying it again with different classes and getting a bunch of different sidequests. However, when compared to other big box campaign games that are around the same price point or lower (i.e. Gloomhaven, Middara, etc.), this whole package just seems woefully lacking in both components and content. They've obviously created lots more content, but are charging $70-90 for it as expansions. Yeah...no thanks.

It's a decent game that I would probably recommend strongly at $80-100 for Skyrim fans, but it absolutely isn't worth the somewhat absurd amount they're asking for it. If cost is no object, then thumbs up.

Also played Dragon Prince Battlecharged with the kids. It's a quick arena combat game that pits teams of two characters from the show against each other. It didn't knock my socks off, but was decent fun (which is pretty typical for Brotherwise games). It plays very quickly (around 30 minutes) and sets up quickly, which was a big plus for the kids.

Might try to get Horizons of Spirit Island to the table tomorrow. I wasn't crazy about Sprit Island when my brother and I tried it over the summer, but I've heard this version is a bit simplified. That would be good, as the base game pretty much broke my brain.

My gaming group just finished Roll Player Adventures and really loved it! I hope you find it equally enjoyable!

I think this is going to be the next campaign game...that I never get around to finishing. I love the original Roll Player (and the xpacs) and RP:A just looks really solid.

[hepcat]

Thanks for the honest review. I was interested in Skyrim, but the complaints about the pricing vs play time and quality have warned me off. I’m glad I held off until you weighed in!

[Skinypupy]

If one is looking for an insanely expensive Elder Scrolls game, it seems like waiting for this one may be the better choice.

[Fishbelly]

If one is looking for an insanely expensive Elder Scrolls game, it seems like waiting for this one may be the better choice.

Definitely. I'm curious how CTG will work with an established IP. I'm an unabashed fan of all things Chip Theory--my wallet (and wife) are already complaining about the upcoming crowdfunding campaign this year.

[paulbaxter]

We fit in three scanarios of Frosthaven over the weekend.

Gloomhaven folks will appreciate this one. On our second scenario for the weekend, the goal was to kill all the baddies and also keep two critters alive that we were escorting. The baddies were pretty tough, and our escorts kept jumping up and getting into the fray. Middle son got exhausted about 60% of the way through. I used my final turn to heal up our escorts as best I could. I just assumed all must be lost though. Oldest son gets a good blow in before becoming exhausted. Youngest son is doing his very last long rest action and has to lose both of his cards to prevent damage to the escorts (special rule for the scenario allowed this), and the escorts kill the last baddie on their own on that very last turn.

That's the kind of stuff that keeps us all playing. Also, Frosthaven is hard.

[Skinypupy]

Found a copy of Ascension Tactics today, which is one that’s been on my list for a while. Once I got past the mental block of it being a “Miniatures” game with no minis, I’m really quite impressed. It does an excellent job of melding the rock-solid Ascension deck builder with a tactical strategy game. Think deck builder meets chess.

It’s really easy to understand, but there’s a ton of strategy with the various Champions and the large market deck. Games move very quickly, with my three solo games all taking about 1/2 hour each. The solo AI is excellent, scaling almost perfectly with you as your deck gets more and more powerful. I won all three games, but only by a point of two.

Only downside was the quality of some of the components. Many of the standees don’t fit in the stands (they just fall out), the insert feels really flimsy, the board has a weird crease in it, and both copies at the store had a tear in the lid (which apparently a common issue). That’s disappointing. That said, the cards are fantastic, the chunky scoring jewels are awesome, and I think I actually prefer standees instead of minis. Unless they were really unique, it would be tough to tell some of the heroes apart.

Plus, it’s only $50. Definitely a no-brained at that price. Includes a bunch of stand-alone scenarios and also a campaign.

Definitely a thumbs up so far.

[AWS260]

A couple of two-player games with my wife this weekend:

We played a learning game of 3000 Scoundrels, a Christmas present. The theme is weird - it's the Wild West, and you're trying to collect pieces of futuristic technology left behind by a time traveler. The game play is an odd (but not bad) blend of tableau-building and bluffing. I think it would be more fun with 3 or 4 players, where there's more opportunity for calling bluffs and talking smack. In our game, no one ever called a bluff successfully. I also think the short version, which the manual recommends for first-time players, doesn't let the game shine, since you can't build up as much of a card tableau. Hoping to get this to the table with a larger group soon.

Then we played our first game of Lewis & Clark, which I picked up in a trade at PAX in 2021 and has been sitting on my shelf ever since. It's a race from St. Louis to the Pacific Coast, powered a deck of cards representing your expedition members and a pile of meeples representing indigenous guides you can recruit temporarily. Very engaging, and it played great with 2 people.

[coopasonic]

I've been playing the Daily Challenges for "Turing Machine."

I am getting better at using non-obvious information to deduce information. It really is a great experience, much more of a logic puzzle than a game really.

[LordMortis]

Both of those games are fantastic. Imperium probably more so for me. I say give them a shot.

My gaming group plays a lot of Lost Ruins and we quite like it. There's a lot of choice as to which victory path to pursue and which items and artifacts will help.

Thanks, appreciate the nudge!

Sad I wasn't paying attention to this thread. I would have hopped up to B&N locally to see what was up. I played a bit of Lost Ruins on BGA and I really dug it. The game took a few plays to comprehend. I am not very good at it but I really like it. It's a game of balancing three distinct areas of play. Hand management (card shuffling/trashing), ladder climbing, and defeating challenges. Pay too much mind to one aspect and you lose. I would have picked that up quickly at 50% off to try and get people at my gaming group to play. I thought the game had some good legs.

Hope it's working out for you.

[tylertoo]

Hope it's working out for you.

Honestly, I haven't touched either game, they sit in a shopping bag, still in shrinkwrap. But that's only because I'm playing Starforged, which is occupying my time. Still not feeling great about my impetuous purchase, but the only way to overcome that is

[Skinypupy]

So, I picked up Call to Adventure: Epic Origins last weekend. I liked the idea of the original Call to Adventure, but felt like building a character just to tally points at the end and not do anything else with it was very anti-climatic (I had the same issue with Roll Player, until the M&M xpac). I read that "Epic Origins" added Adversaries (mini-bosses and bosses) as well as a campaign structure, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I can appreciate what they're trying to do here, but this feels like a fundamentally broken game to me. Mainly because of two things:

1. The whole cool idea behind the game is that you build this unique character by taking on challenges and gaining traits via a market of Story cards. You fight the Final Adversary - which determines if you win or lose the game - by casting a number of runes (rolling dice, basically) based on how many specific stats symbols (strength, con, dex, etc.) you've collected from your adventure via Story cards. This leads to the game requiring you to build your character only around those couple specific stats that you need to fight the boss. I.E. If the Adversary requires Strength and Dex runes to fight him, then I have to max out those two symbols specifically to have any chance of winning.

However, if you draw Story cards from the deck that don't happen to have those symbols, you either have to pay to discard them or simply fail the quests (when you run out of XP to pay for discarding them) to draw a new one. And every time you fail a quest, you add another "influence" (HP) to the boss. So if the symbols you need don't come up on the Story cards you have to just keep failing over and over, adding more and more HP to the boss until the one you need finally comes up. Depending on your luck of the draw, this ends up making the Final Adversary nearly impossible to defeat at the end of the game because he has SO much HP. Which leads to the next issue...

2. I played three games tonight, and I knew with 100% certainty that I was going to lose (i.e. defeat the Adversary or not) by midway through the game. If I happened to draw the right cards and my runes happened to roll well, I stood a chance. If I didn't, I was screwed and there wasn't a thing I could do to change that. I started playing a fourth game, got midway through Act II, had a market of Story cards full of stat symbols that were of no use against the boss, no XP remaining to pay for cycling the cards, so I simply quit. I knew that I would have to add SO much HP to the boss just for the Story cards I needed to show up that there's no way I could win.

I feel like there must be some fundamental aspect of the game that I'm missing here, because it feels nearly impossible to win when the boss gets exponentially stronger every single time the card draw or dice roll doesn't happen to go your way. That can't be the way it's intended.

I need to go watch a couple playthroughs, apparently.

[Daveman]

Played a lot over the holidays, but the new standout has been Heat: Pedal to the Metal. It's a card based racing game from the same designers as Flamme Rouge but it's different enough and slightly heavier to keep both. Heat is packed with optional modules that are easily integrated and is clearly planned to have an expansion (box insert has empty slots for 7th and 8th player pieces, race tracks have 8 numbered starting positions).

The real surprise to me is that it has an elegant and fast system for including AI cars to fill in for missing players, or to simply make it an engaging solo game. Figuring out where 5 AIs move takes maybe 15-20 seconds and then it's my turn again. The mini-campaign system for stringing races together and unique car upgrades is really well done too.

The old standout has been Crokinole! I had several Amazon cards to spend and took the plunge on a fancy board and it's been a blast. Our first few 2 players games were a little flat... oops, I missed the center ring, oh you did too? Over and over.
Or someone put their disc just right behind a post and was never hit. 4 player games have been much more fun and now that we've had practice my wife and I have had some good 2 player games.

[coopasonic]

Played a lot over the holidays, but the new standout has been Heat: Pedal to the Metal. It's a card based racing game from the same designers as Flamme Rouge but it's different enough and slightly heavier to keep both. Heat is packed with optional modules that are easily integrated and is clearly planned to have an expansion (box insert has empty slots for 7th and 8th player pieces, race tracks have 8 numbered starting positions).

The real surprise to me is that it has an elegant and fast system for including AI cars to fill in for missing players, or to simply make it an engaging solo game. Figuring out where 5 AIs move takes maybe 15-20 seconds and then it's my turn again. The mini-campaign system for stringing races together and unique car upgrades is really well done too.

Interesting... I really like Flamme Rouge. A heavier version of that might be nice.

[WYBaugh]

I read about Heat: Pedal to the Metal over Christmas and it looks great but is sold out everywhere. I imagine Days of Wonder republishes often, but unsure of the time frame?

[coopasonic]

Played Calico for the first time. Kind of like Sagrada or Azul, interesting, but not enough to buy it.

[baelthazar]

Played Calico for the first time. Kind of like Sagrada or Azul, interesting, but not enough to buy it.

We have played about 6 games of this one since we got it for Christmas. I like it a TON more than both Sagrada or Azul. It is similar to Isle of Cats (the family version) but has a nice pattern creation and low-level brain-burning to it. I hear Cascadia is similar and often preferred, but the theme, inclusion of cats, and level is perfect for the expert gaming six year old we have. She regularly beats us!

[Skinypupy]

Played Adventure Mart with the kids today. Boy, that was painful. Thought it might be a cute, fun game but it was just bad. I’ll will he perfectly happy to never play that one again.

[YellowKing]

Had an interesting experience tonight getting to playtest an upcoming game called "Spirits of Christmas" by John S. Bailey of Humble Bard games. One of the guys in my gaming group signed up to playtest, so our group has been testing different player counts and providing feedback. We even assisted in developing a TTS mod so he could get more people to playtest remotely.

I'm not aware of any NDAs and there are public videos of the gameplay on YouTube, so I feel OK giving a brief overview. Spirits of Christmas is a light cooperative rondel game based on "A Christmas Carol" in which you're trying to guide Ebenezer Scrooge through various scenes from the past, present, and future. 8 cards are laid out in a row for each chapter, 3-4 of which are scenes and the rest consisting of cards that provide rewards such as coins, extra cards, or an extra action.

The tricky part of the game is that Scrooge, being the miser that he is, will only spend 15 shillings per chapter. And it costs shillings to move around the rondel to perform actions. This gets increasingly more expensives the further around the rondel you go, so repeating the same of the four actions (moving a full rotation) would cost a hefty 4 shillings. Therefore it becomes absolutely critical to plan moves carefully to make sure Scrooge is in the right position when the right player needs to play the right cards to complete a chapter.

The game seems fairly well balanced at this point, with a 3 player game resulting in a narrow victory and a 2 player game resulting in a narrow loss. My buddy Terry has played even more than me, and he's experienced similar results. Even though the gameplay is light and quick, it's certainly not an easy game. We did run into a chapter where the randomness of the card draw screwed us over big time, but we did end up eventually winning the chapter so there is some mitigation. The game also has a solo version I'll be playtesting over the next week or two.

It's a neat little game that is very thematic, and I think could be a fun family diversion particularly around the holidays. It was a really cool opportunity to test something where rules were constantly being tweaked, and I even got to submit some art feedback on the rondel design. I haven't heard of any ETAs on release, but I hope it eventually makes it to retail.

[AWS260]

Burgle Bros 2: Basically Oceans 11 The Game. You're a crew of thieves with complementary skills executing a heist in a casino. Our game was very tense, with a final round that could have gone either way as we tried to outmaneuver security and escape.

13 months later, and we finally played Burgle Bros 2 for the second time. The game comes with 9 different heists to work through, so at this rate we should be done by 2030. It was another very tense game, although this time we lost in the end.

It's a nifty heist game held back somewhat by a not-very-good rulebook. I am not sure why, but it makes the setup and the flow of gameplay much harder to understand than they should be. Once we got over the hump, however, it was a lot of fun evading the bouncers and zip-lining across the casino floor.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I read about Heat: Pedal to the Metal over Christmas and it looks great but is sold out everywhere. I imagine Days of Wonder republishes often, but unsure of the time frame?

AsgerSG, the game's designer, posted an optimistic guess on BoardGameGeek of two to three months for a reprint:

As far as I can tell it is sold out. There are three EU stores that still claim to have stock, but they will be gone from there as well within days if not hours.

https://braetspilspriser.dk/item/show/42726/heat-pedal-to-th...

Optimistic guess is 2-3 months for a reprint.

Asger

Although with continuing economic headwinds and uncertainty, it's perhaps a wee bit early to determine whether his optimism is justified.

[AWS260]

I played Oak, a worker-placement game about playing dress-up with druids. Well, not entirely, but that's one of the standout features of the game. Your druid meeples can be upgraded to powerful and unique Elder Druids by putting rubber accessories on them: a satchel, stag horns, a falcon, etc. It's pretty charming.

The game itself is a tight efficiency puzzle, as you try to manage resources and actions in the way that will generate the most points. Like almost every worker placement game, other players are constantly - and usually inadvertently - messing with your plans by taking the action space you needed.

It was engaging and definitely a game with some depth. But I don't necessarily see it as something that we'll be coming back to - there are just too many really good games to play these days.

[YellowKing]

We finished Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 last night, having played the previous two seasons.

Like all of the Pandemic Legacy games, it was a blast. This one, out of all three, is probably the most different from "vanilla Pandemic." While you're still having to control outbreaks as you're running around doing other things, there are several mechanically different objectives you'll encounter.

For me personally Season 1 was the "best" only because it was the first legacy game I ever played and I have really fond memories of the surprise at all the twists and turns. However, I think mechanically and thematically Season 0 was probably the most enjoyable.

If you can find a consistent group that can play through a complete season with you, I still think all three games are among the best gaming experiences you'll ever have.

[Skinypupy]

So, the top game on my “Really want it but probably won’t ever find a copy” has been Dwellings of Eldervale. The Legendary KS version was posted in a local boardgame exchange group this morning…and is now sitting on my table.

Still learning how to play, but I will say that this has taken over the top spot as the most beautiful game in my collection. Better even than Middara. It looks freaking amazing.

[Smoove_B]

Speaking of amazing components, the "secret" Gearloc Riffle just arrived today for Too Many Bones. I'm still barely functioning with the basics of the easiest Gearlocs, so it makes total sense that I would get a limited quantity unknown solo pliability character, right?

But yeah, as you'd expect A++ components and the card deck the character uses has some kind of crazy foil embossed finish. Not sure if it's the same style as what is coming for those solo card deck games they did crowdfunding for earlier this year, but if so they're going to look amazing too.

[baelthazar]

So, the top game on my “Really want it but probably won’t ever find a copy” has been Dwellings of Eldervale. The Legendary KS version was posted in a local boardgame exchange group this morning…and is now sitting on my table.

Still learning how to play, but I will say that this has taken over the top spot as the most beautiful game in my collection. Better even than Middara. It looks freaking amazing.

It is a FANTASTIC game that I never seem to get to play. My wife and I have tried to play it several times but tend to take too long. That said, the six year old might be in a place to actually play, so we may give it a try. She will certainly get distracted by the giant monsters!

[Skinypupy]

She will certainly get distracted by the giant monsters!

My kids were in awe of the bases for the minis that have sound effects. Doubt I’ll use them when actually playing, but they’re pretty dang cool.

[Zarathud]

First game of Frosthaven. Liking my character and getting the feel of the game mechanics again.

[YellowKing]

Played a quick round of Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition which I bought to replace my original copy. I love all the improvements: the art, the tokens, the streamlined rules.

The game is still fiddly as hell with all the simultaneous conditions that can be going on, but this version at least makes it a bit easier to manage as long as you very carefully step through each phase.

Unfortunately the rulebook is still lacking in a lot of areas, and it's a shame they didn't take the chance to improve upon it more than they did. I'm talking giant gaps of information - they mention terms like Ongoing, Item, etc. but then never bother to explain what those actually mean. And list the phases of the game with a one sentence description beside each instead of fully explaning the mechanics and timing of each phase. To add insult to injury, they instead take up 2 precious pages of rulebook space for a FAQ of very specific use cases.

I'm shelving it for now in favor of learning Imperium: Classics but I'm looking forward to getting it back to the table soon.

[Fishbelly]

Speaking of amazing components, the "secret" Gearloc Riffle just arrived today for Too Many Bones. I'm still barely functioning with the basics of the easiest Gearlocs, so it makes total sense that I would get a limited quantity unknown solo pliability character, right?

But yeah, as you'd expect A++ components and the card deck the character uses has some kind of crazy foil embossed finish. Not sure if it's the same style as what is coming for those solo card deck games they did crowdfunding for earlier this year, but if so they're going to look amazing too.

I'm eager to get Riffle to the table, as the deck looks awesome! Once I finish my current Hoplo Victorum campaign, I'll give Riffle a go.

I hadn't thought about CTG's recent crowdfunding for 20 Strong, but if the cards look like this I will be quite happy indeed. I thought the card design looked great on the Gamefound page, but seeing Riffle's deck in person really amps my enthusiasm.

[Isgrimnur]

I’ve got the base Tainted Grail sleeved up. Once football is an afterthought, my Niners friend wants to play it.