OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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

Post by Skinypupy »

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Jan 03, 2024 10:58 pm
Skinypupy wrote: Wed Jan 03, 2024 10:42 pm Is there a limit to the number of ability cards a character can carry? I just finished the first mission and it told me to pull new abilities and items from the vault, but it doesn’t give any indication of any sort of limit on them.
I don't believe so, no. You'll notice that the new cards you just added will likely have limited uses (charges) or they require a cooldown (the hourglass tokens) before you can use them again. So you're getting more powerful, but you still have your core/basic moves you can do on your character card and whatever you started the intro scenario with. I don't know anything for sure, but I suspect cards are going be "leveled up" as the campaign progresses and you won't have 37 cards out in front of you for each character - you'll be instructed to replace and remove certain cards when the time is right.
It does actually confirm this on the next few pages of the Walkthrough guide, I just hadn't gotten to them yet. :) 4 cards and one item per hero, and they'll be either swapped out or upgraded at some point.

I'm playing solo with two characters, and I think the "half-turn" mechanic is a really great way of handling it. I also love that you can very quickly and easily swap new characters in and out whenever you want with hardly any bookkeeping or complex setup. I've been running the early quests with Fiona (Fighter) and Dierdre (Cleric-ish) to get the hang of the game systems, but will start mixing it up once I finish the tutorial.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by wonderpug »

Skinypupy wrote: Wed Jan 03, 2024 10:42 pm Stupid rules clarification on Tales from the Red Dragon Inn.

Is there a limit to the number of ability cards a character can carry? I just finished the first mission and it told me to pull new abilities and items from the vault, but it doesn’t give any indication of any sort of limit on them.

Probably just missed it in the scenario guide or walkthrough booklet, but I read them both twice and didn’t see anything.
Yes, there's a limit. I wasn't the rulebook reader so I don't know where to find it. I'd start with checking the storybook when it gives instructions on opening up the new ability cards. I do remember it being a little buried.

It's possible that you aren't told a limit on the first card unlock, but then it comes up the next time. In other words, the first unlock maybe just increases your number abilities with the cards given, but the one after that might give the rules for how you have to pick and choose to stay within the limit.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

I wish the rulebook had been a bit clearer on the way items work. The early ones just give their setup token and can then essentially be put back into the box. But later ones are more actual use cards. I had to do some BGG forum digging to figure out exactly what was going on there.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

I played a weird one last night. Yaburo Quest, a dexterity game that's not about flicking, tossing, or balancing, but about precisely tearing a piece of paper.

Every player gets a small sheet of paper, about the size of a large postcard, covered in small icons. A card is flipped, showing what combination of icons will score that round. Then everyone scrambles to tear out that combination - but the icons required are never close to each other, and you can't include other icons. So you end up tearing out weird, barely held-together shapes in order to max out your score.

Oh, and there are bonus icons on the back side of the paper as well, and if you manage to include one of those in the piece you tear out, you score extra points. But only if you include the whole icon - if you accidentally leave a bit behind, no points for you.

It's very silly and ridiculous, and I don't think there's anything else like it. We had a great time.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

Last night I played SpaceCorp: 2025-2300AD, the game of space exploration, exploitation, and colonization. It's played over three eras: first takes you out to Mars, the second reaches the outer Solar system, and the third goes interstellar. Essentially, each era is a separate game, with certain abilities and advantages (and all your victory points) carrying over from one to the next.

This feels like a game that could attract a large audience if the publisher went the Kickstarter route, blinging it out with plastic spaceships, linen-finish cards and neoprene. Instead, it's a GMT game, with cheap-feeling cards, cubes for spaceships, and cardboard tokens for spaceports. Charming in its own way.

The core gameplay is pretty straightforward: "research" (i.e., take from a market) technology cards, then spend them as either permanent infrastructure upgrades or one-time abilities. Things get a bit more complex in the later eras, as new technologies appear (including genetically engineered humans) and you have ever-greater distances to travel.

We played with two players, and I think it might be a little better with 3-4, which would create more competition for sites to explore. With just two, we mostly had huge swathes of the solar system to ourselves. For example, in the second era I focused on mining the asteroid belt and Pluto, while my opponent built bases on the moons of Saturn.

Still, a good time was had. We made it through the first two eras, and took pictures to preserve the game state for a future play of the last era. I'm eager to see how the interstellar age shakes things up.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

I played my first game of Dawn of the Zeds and it turned out just like me in an actual zombie apocalypse - dead within minutes. :lol:

I started with the most basic level which eliminates most of the ruleset, after watching a really well done playthrough so I'm pretty confident I was playing everything right. But not knowing strategy I found myself desperately low on ammo the whole game and finally succumbed to the hordes at the end (in my defense, I did manage to make it to the next to the last event, so it wasn't a horrible showing for my first game).

I felt a little better when I went searching for strategy on the BGG forums and found a lot of people saying Basic (or Level 0) is in some ways harder than Level 1 because they don't give you some of the survival tools right off the bat in order to keep complexity down. A lot of people recommended not worrying about trying to beat Level 0 once you had a grasp of the rules, and instead just jump right into Level 1. So that's probably what I'll do.

At any rate, I thought it was a ton of fun and I'm looking forward to moving up to the next rule set. I was a bit worried going in about the theme since I'm so burned out on zombies in other areas of entertainment, but I got so engrossed in the puzzle (and my inexplicably horrible dice rolling), that zombie fatigue never entered my mind.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Smoove_B »

I love Dawn of the Zeds - with all the randomness and variables, for me it's always about telling a great story, win or (mostly) lose. :)
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

The state of siege line of games are about managing a disaster. you're never going to have a clear win. you win if you survive.

That being said, there's nothing like allying yourself with a group of roller derby women and watching them tear through a zombie infested location.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

An older game, but new to me, this weekend: Three Kingdoms Redux. I kept describing it as the Dynasty Warriors board game, but that's my imagination more than the game itself. It's combative for sure, but the combat is "my strength 5 worker beats your strength 4 worker," and not "Lu Bu destroys an entire castle with one swing of his enormous halberd."

Very fun nonetheless. I love the worker placement: multiple workers can go to the same spot, but only the player with the highest-value workers gets to take the action. So the action selection can look something like this (but this example assumes 2 workers per player, when in reality you'll have 5 or so):
  • Player 1 places lvl 4 worker on Recruit Armies
  • Player 2 places lvl 5 worker on Recruit Armies, beating Player 1
  • Player 3 places a worker on a different action
  • Player 1 places a lvl 3 worker on Recruit Armies, bringing their total strength to 7, beating Player 2
  • Player 2 places a lvl 4 worker on Recruit Armies, bringing their total strength to 9, beating player 1
  • Place 3 places a worker on a different action
  • Resolution: Player 1 does nothing, Player 2 just Recruits Armies, and Player 3 gets to do two actions.
All of this is in service of re-creating the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, with three (no more, no less) players representing the Wei, Wu, and Shu factions. Your workers are all named generals from the period, with varying strength and unique abilities.

The key tension in the game is how you use those generals. They are the workers you use for action selection, but you can also choose to station them on your kingdom's frontiers, leading armies. This is a huge point generator, because armies on the frontier provide a steady flow of points every single turn. But you can never call those generals back, which means you have one less worker for the rest of the game.

Three Kingdoms Redux is a complicated games and mistakes were made (both strategic and rules-wise), but I think I loved it. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get to play again.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Blackhawk »

I've spent the last several weekends playing Mr. Torgue's Arena of Badassery. I've really enjoyed it - in fact, my entire group has really been enjoying it.

Glossary for those not familiar with the series: Vault Hunter = player character.
Note: I'm playing with the Box of Badasses, which is the KS stretch goal content. It's supposed to come to retail (although possibly split up), but isn't available just yet.

The game is what you'd expect from Borderlands - taking on huge numbers of enemies, collecting loot, building a character with skill trees, and trying to achieve objectives while the world keeps throwing chaos at you.

You get colored tokens, red, yellow, and green, which correspond to the dice - red d6, yellow d8, green d12.
ImageImage

Most characters start with 3-4. Those tokens are used for everything. Want to make a skill roll? Pick the token you want to use, exhaust it, and roll the same colored die. Want to make an attack? Pick a token, exhaust, roll a die. Want to move? Red tokens = 1 space, yellow = 2, green = 3. The enemy turn comes around and one of them 'puts you down?' If you saved any tokens after your turn, you can spend it to try to get a kill. Succeed, and you're back on your feet (the Fight for Your Life mechanic from the video game.) That makes the tokens a resource that you really have to make decisions about. The more you move, the fewer actions you have, or if you spent your big dice to move, the less likely your actions are to succeed. Go stronger on offense, and you may not have as many options on the enemy turn.

The tokens represent health, too. Players always start with green and yellow tokens. Get attacked, pick any token to defend with (even an exhausted one), rolling the appropriate die. That means that you can roll your green D12 over and over for every attack. But if you fail the roll, the green token becomes a red token, and now you're rolling D6s. Fail a defense roll and a red token, and you're down. Die, and it's $500 to respawn ("Hyperion thanks you for using our New-U station. Your personal quest for vengeance has netted us millions of dollars.") Don't have $500? That's how you lose.

Enemies are the same as the video game - a horde of weak, easy-to-kill enemies mixed with the occasional Badass or named enemy. Their AI rules are straightforward, using a sort of aggro system. One player has the 'Spotlight.' All enemies will always focus movement and attacks on that player if possible (if they can't get into position to attack them in one turn they'll go for someone else.) The thing that makes it interesting is that each player draws a card every session that determines when they get the Spotlight. Maybe it's collecting two or more loot tokens. Maybe it's getting a critical, or not killing an enemy. It adds another layer to the strategy each game, letting you choose how to manipulate the enemies - but also making it risky to do certain things if you really don't want to end up being the target.

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The map is covered with lootables (chests, skag vomit, mailboxes, etc), loot tokens. Loot tokens can let you reload your weapons, heal, swap inventory for free, or draw a card from one of four huge decks of equipment cards (ammo, meds, weapons, and legendaries.) Some can be saved and used as cash later. The rarest token allows the entire party to level up. Kill an enemy, draw a loot token. It's constant, and it's an extremely satisfying mechanic.

At the end of the session, you can sell any extra equipment, sell any unused loot tokens, and add that to the money you didn't spend respawning. You then draw a set number of cards from each equipment deck which you can then spend said money on. This is surprisingly important, and the loss of $500+ here is the real penalty for a death.

Image Image Image Image Image

Once you've chosen which loot you'll keep (each Vault Hunter can carry a grenade, a shield, two class mods, and two weapons, plus three unequipped cards), you may get to level up (in addition to the loot token, the scenario can grant you levels.) The real benefit there is that you gain a token that you can place on your skill tree, granting you a new skill or tweaking an existing one (every Vault Hunter gets three different skill trees to choose from, and can switch between sessions.)

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Then you move on to the next scenario in the campaign. And that's another nice thing they did - the campaign is set up like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. You do mission #1. Win, and you're given two options, described only in announcer-speak. Choose, and move on to that scenario. Win, and you're given another choice. Or lose, and you're shunted to a 'Make Torgue feel better about you being a loser' scenario. Win, and you're back in the main narrative. Fail the 'lose' scenario, and Mr Torgue sends you directly to the finale - enjoy the final boss without having leveled up and gotten enough gear. One rare loot token can also give you bounties. Bounties are quick mini-missions based on various Borderlands quests. You draw a card from the bounty deck, roll one of ten random map setups, and go. You cannot level up in bounties, and failing brings no penalties, but you get to keep any gear you find, and you're guaranteed at least one legendary. And with the Box of Badasses, there are a ton of bounties - the deck is probably an inch and a half tall.

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Pros:
~They did a really, really good job of translating a video game into a board game, an iffy thing to begin with. They managed to capture the essence and feel of the mechanics, characters, abilities, and setting within the board game.
~Multiple short campaigns. We can sit down and play through a campaign, which increases investment as our characters grow, but we can do so without having to dedicate most of a year to it.
~They do a good job with the skills, allowing each character to play multiple ways, including (depending on the character) support and utility as well as straight up murdering.
~Cooperative, and can be played solo. And it isn't one of those coop games where it feels like four people playing solo at the same table - the abilities and builds interact, strongly favoring groups who play together and support each other.
~Great components. Miniatures, terrain, cards, tokens, etc.
~Lots of cards and unpredictable events.
~Allows for enemy substitution, meaning that you can swap those Psychos for Skags, or a Marauder for a Shotgun Tink.
~They have all of the character. If you get the Box of Baddasses expansion, you'll have access to every playable character from every Borderlands game, plus a few extras (Moxxi, Tina, and Mr. Torgue himself.) And that includes all turrets, shields, drones, pets, etc. that each character would have.
~The CYOA style campaign and scores of bounties, combined with the sheer number of playable characters and builds (again, with the Box of Badasses content) gives more replayability than most campaign-based games. You will never see every mission in one campaign, and you'll rarely see the same bounty twice.

Neutral:
~The game is mostly about player skill and strategic decisions, but sometimes luck can make a mission too easy or too hard (the one mission we lost was because we had 'spawn' cards four turns in a row before we had good weapons, which absolutely buried us in more enemies than we could clear.)
~I'm being honest here: Part of the appeal for me is the setting. It's a good game regardless, but someone who doesn't enjoy the Borderlands setting might not enjoy it as much someone who does.

Cons:
~Regardless of the number of players, the game is balanced for four Vault Hunters. That means that if you have two or three players, someone has to play multiples. And to solo you need to run the full team (which isn't a 'con' for everyone - some enjoy the coordination puzzle this can create.)
~A little high-priced. Not boutique high, but a little higher than what I'd expect.
~The manual. The rules aren't particularly heavy, but the manual is poorly organized and some rules are ambiguously phrased, the don't offer enough examples, and the rules are too wordy, which makes it slow to look things up.
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hepcat
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

That sounds fun and was not even remotely on my radar. I'll have to see if I can convince one of the Chicago crew to get it! :D
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Blackhawk »

Just make sure you check opinions other than mine. I'm well-known for having different tastes and preferences than the majority of people. ;)
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hepcat
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

If I convince Zarathud, Seppe or Archinerd to get it, what do I care if it turns out I don't enjoy it? :P
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Blackhawk »

Good philosophy.

I'm just extremely paranoid about other people making decisions based on my opinions. It's a character flaw I haven't been able to overcome.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

Last night we played CloudAge, a game about navigating a post-apocalyptic wasteland, fighting the terrorists whose anarcho-terrorism created this wasteland in the first place. Except maybe the "terrorists" are actually just poor people trying to survive, and you're beating them into submission to steal their water. That interpretation is not present anywhere in the game materials, but if you think about what you're actually doing it makes sense.

Anyway, it's a pretty good game! A nice mix of resource management and exploring a (very brown) map, with just a dash of luck - enough to add a little spice, but not so much as to be frustrating.

The designer is known for his heavy games, and this is marketed as being his lightest to date. That said, it's still pretty hefty. Resources are tight and decisions are tough. Not a gateway game by any means.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

I continue to be wildly impressed with Tales from the Red Dragon Inn. It's really the perfect blend of complexity, dice chucking, strategy, luck, theme, story, and customization for my tastes. I love how they do really creative things with a pretty simple ruleset (my favorite so far is a battle that focuses on both you and the mobs rotating energy pillars to power up a big bad). It not a brain-burner by any means, but it's just a hell of a lot of fun. The fact I can easily swap between characters on any given level and have an entirely different playstyle in about 5 minutes is a fantastic way to keep things fresh and interesting.

I think it may have overtaken Middara as the campaign game I would recommend most highly. Really the only thing I don't like about it is the art style, which I find mostly meh.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Argh, you’re killing me puppy! I’ve got a gamenerdz gift certificate queued up for Tales from the Red Dragon Inn and it’s been out of stock for about two months. :lol:
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

I shelved Tales From the Red Dragon Inn about 10 scenarios in. Not because I wasn't having fun, but because I feel like it will be more fun with my group. Playing solo I got a little paralyzed trying to figure out which character to play in each scenario. Some people really love that freedom to swap character on the fly, but it doesn't fit my playstyle - I like sticking with one character, building them up, and learning every nuance of their skills.

To be fair, there's nothing stopping you from sticking with a couple of characters through the entire campaign, but then I kept getting FOMO that I wasn't using the best character. It was a vicious circle. :D
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

hepcat wrote: Fri Feb 09, 2024 9:14 am Argh, you’re killing me puppy! I’ve got a gamenerdz gift certificate queued up for Tales from the Red Dragon Inn and it’s been out of stock for about two months. :lol:
Keep in mind that I enjoy games that are on the easier and far less complex side than most other gamers. I think the simpler systems in TFtRDI might turn off those who are accustomed to Gloomhaven levels of strategic depth, but I find it very refreshing and way more fun to play. YMMV.

There are options to scale the difficulty by adding more or more difficult mobs.
YellowKing wrote: Fri Feb 09, 2024 9:38 am I shelved Tales From the Red Dragon Inn about 10 scenarios in. Not because I wasn't having fun, but because I feel like it will be more fun with my group. Playing solo I got a little paralyzed trying to figure out which character to play in each scenario. Some people really love that freedom to swap character on the fly, but it doesn't fit my playstyle - I like sticking with one character, building them up, and learning every nuance of their skills.

To be fair, there's nothing stopping you from sticking with a couple of characters through the entire campaign, but then I kept getting FOMO that I wasn't using the best character. It was a vicious circle. :D
I'm playing with two characters. I've used Deirdre (Cleric) the whole time (because she's the only one with a healing skill), but have swapped the other character between Gog (Barbarian) and Fiona (Fighter). Leaning towards Fiona, as she feels a little more versatile than Gog. Haven't tried the Wizard, Thief, or Illusionist characters yet.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

I actually tried all of them which was probably my mistake. :lol: They all are very unique. The wizard is a ton of fun due to the pet rabbit (which has a slight chaos factor built in since you don't really control him, he acts off a monster die roll). The illusionist was probably the most complex to play because you really had to think about how to best utilize her illusions to distract enemies. And I ended up getting quite attached to the thief, even though he doesn't have any super unique mechanics.

I'll probably give it another go after I finish messing with Dawn of the Zeds. I don't have any plans to buy a lot of games this year since I have so many Kickstarters coming in.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Smoove_B »

I should probably get Tales From the Red Dragon Inn back into my mix as well. I had a similar thought - as much as I was enjoying it solo, I was imagining how much fun it would be with others. But realistically...I should probably just play it myself. :)

Instead, I've been playing something the last week that I don't see to many people talking about - Pericle - the Gathering Darkness. I wasn't a backer of the KS, but did pick it up on sale at the end of last year directly from them.

For those unaware, it's an app-driven RPG / board game hybrid with tactical combat. There aren't any miniatures - it's all color acrylic standees (~70) representing the heroes, enemies and monsters. There's quite a bit of back and forth between the app and using hex-based tiles, so if you're not into app-based games I'm guessing you should skip it. However, for me the app is taking the place of a DM - not only running a story/narrative, but controlling the enemy AI during combat. I'm still in the tutorial stages and using pregenerated characters, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

My understanding is the game originated as an attempt to create a heavily modified version of D&D that would have an app functioning as the DM for a group of friends. It worked so well they decided to turn it into an actual board game and thus the KS was launched.

Anyway, it feels a bit like a game book - you're making choices that have story impacts. Sometimes there's XP, sometimes treasure or a change with an NPC that will influence a future encounter. Because it's an RPG, your characters all have various skills and during the narrative elements the game will prompt you to check your skills and notify the app if there are successes. I know this kinda sounds like I'm describing the Lucky Duck Destinies series of board games, but it's much deeper. They included a full RPG book that allows you to make your own characters from scratch, but I haven't even considered that.

It's scratching a nice PnP RPG itch for me and the tactical hex-based combat is just crunchy enough so far that it's enjoyable. Concepts like range and cover, weapon reach, facing, etc... make it feel like a mix between D&D and a tactical skirmish game. It also has a really small footprint, as the maps are are ~12"x14" and you slap two together (so far). I didn't want to spoil the tiles, but a quick scan looks like a mix of indoor and outdoor environments.

It's not cheap, but if you're looking for something that's really easy to get into and gives some RPG crunch, I'm definitely liking it.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

And how many beers before I'm unable to understand the rules?
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Smoove_B »

I'd say a true pint of your favorite lager or ale and you'd be good to go. Very little to understand and since it's a heavily modified version of D&D, it feels rather intuitive.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Hmmm...I DO have some amazon credit left post holidays. :think:
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by raydude »

This past weekend I played with a few boardgames with friends.
First up was Heat: Pedal to the Metal. We had 3 players and had the AI take over the other 3 cars. The AI are controlled by a "Legends" deck. What's neat is that one card determines the actions of all the cars, and it's just a matter of looking at the colors on the card and whether or not the AI car is between a "Legends line" and the next turn or not. The car placement determines whether the car is going to try and drive aggressively through the turn or slow down prior to the turn.

My friend Wes in the red car was in the lead for most of the first lap. Then I passed him. Scott was bringing up the rear, although he was never the last car, so he couldn't take advantage of what I call the "Mario Kart" rule, where the last car gets a 1 space boost and is able to cool down its engine for free. Going into the second lap the green AI car went into first place. I wiped out going into the second turn and ending up in last place as we were heading down the straights.

Then we played a short card game called Zombie Chickens with a fourth friend who showed up. Each person is a farmer trying to build up their farm during the morning and afternoon phases and defend against a horde of zombie chickens each night phase. The number of zombie card draws starts at 1 on the first night and increases by 1 for each successive night. We made it to night 6 as nights 4 and 5 were "quiet nights" with no zombie attacks. These were from event cards drawn from the zombie deck. Then night 6 we were all annihilated by zombie chickens and I ended up being the last farmer standing. Although technically it just meant I was the last one to die as I had no defenses left and 3 more chicken cards to resolve.

Finally we played a 4 player game of Lords of Waterdeep with all of the expansions. I'm actually not very good at this game and I almost always end up last as it's an "engine building" game and I can't figure out the flow of getting workers, getting quests, and how/when to turn in quests to get points/advantages/more workers. Although since we all hadn't played in a long time - and more importantly since 4 players means you sometimes have to pivot your strategy - I ended up winning.
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tylertoo
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by tylertoo »

I received Tales from the Red Dragon Inn on Dec. 25 from S. Claus and have played nothing else solo since. I love swapping out characters, and I often play scenarios twice just to try them with different characters. When it is a Hero's turn I will sit and stare for ten minutes trying to plan the best series of moves. It is, for me, the perfect beer and pretzels solo adventure. Not too crunchy, not too simple.
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Daveman
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Daveman »

raydude wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 11:04 amScott was bringing up the rear, although he was never the last car, so he couldn't take advantage of what I call the "Mario Kart" rule, where the last car gets a 1 space boost and is able to cool down its engine for free.
It's a small detail so maybe you missed it, but in races with 5+ cars (doesn't matter if they're human or legend) the last 2 cars get the Adrenaline bonus. Might have helped your friend.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by EzeKieL »

tylertoo wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:11 pm I received Tales from the Red Dragon Inn on Dec. 25 from S. Claus and have played nothing else solo since. I love swapping out characters, and I often play scenarios twice just to try them with different characters. When it is a Hero's turn I will sit and stare for ten minutes trying to plan the best series of moves. It is, for me, the perfect beer and pretzels solo adventure. Not too crunchy, not too simple.
All of you are to blame for me ordering this right now. For shaaaaame!!
Spoiler:
:ninja: Thanks! :ninja:
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raydude
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by raydude »

Daveman wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:50 pm
raydude wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 11:04 amScott was bringing up the rear, although he was never the last car, so he couldn't take advantage of what I call the "Mario Kart" rule, where the last car gets a 1 space boost and is able to cool down its engine for free.
It's a small detail so maybe you missed it, but in races with 5+ cars (doesn't matter if they're human or legend) the last 2 cars get the Adrenaline bonus. Might have helped your friend.
Thanks for the correction! I completely missed that! In any case, he probably would have still finished in 4th place.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by wonderpug »

raydude wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2024 12:01 pm
Daveman wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:50 pm
raydude wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 11:04 amScott was bringing up the rear, although he was never the last car, so he couldn't take advantage of what I call the "Mario Kart" rule, where the last car gets a 1 space boost and is able to cool down its engine for free.
It's a small detail so maybe you missed it, but in races with 5+ cars (doesn't matter if they're human or legend) the last 2 cars get the Adrenaline bonus. Might have helped your friend.
Thanks for the correction! I completely missed that! In any case, he probably would have still finished in 4th place.
Last place (or two) also get a free cooldown icon, I believe.
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Daveman
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Daveman »

wonderpug wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2024 2:26 pm
raydude wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2024 12:01 pm
Daveman wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:50 pm
raydude wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 11:04 amScott was bringing up the rear, although he was never the last car, so he couldn't take advantage of what I call the "Mario Kart" rule, where the last car gets a 1 space boost and is able to cool down its engine for free.
It's a small detail so maybe you missed it, but in races with 5+ cars (doesn't matter if they're human or legend) the last 2 cars get the Adrenaline bonus. Might have helped your friend.
Thanks for the correction! I completely missed that! In any case, he probably would have still finished in 4th place.
Last place (or two) also get a free cooldown icon, I believe.
That's what the game calls "Adrenaline". The car in last place for a 1-4 car race, or the last two cars in a 5+ car race can add +1 to their speed value (it is optional, if that extra space would cross a corner you're not prepared to handle you'd opt not to use it) and they gain 1 Cooldown.
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YellowKing
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

You guys have got me wanting to get Tales from the Red Dragon Inn back on the table. In hindsight I think part of the reason I stopped 1/3 of the way through is the overwhelming amount of bits to keep up with. I've ordered a new set of token bowls to help alleviate the issue and have some plans on reorganizing the play area to give it another go.

To eliminate FOMO about characters, I think I'm going to go 4 characters, full steam ahead. My initial party thought is Fiona (tank), Gerki (rogue), Zot (mage), Deirdre (healer). Leave out Gog (a bit overpowered IMO) and Eve (I like her, but I'll have enough to keep up with and her illusions require too much thought).

I've been in a board gaming slump for the past 2-3 weeks, but getting this back on the table is the first time I've felt a twinge of excitement about getting back into it.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

For those who have Tales from Red Dragon Inn, have your cards all started bending? This is the only game I own where nearly every card has started bending in the middle so none of them lie down flat on the table. The large character cards, the ability cards, the small cards for mobs...every single one has started to warp (the edges basically curl up a bit). It's very strange, and I don't know why it would be only this one game that does it. Not a deal-breaker, but certainly annoying.

I brought the kids into the campaign on scenario 7, and they've been having a blast with it. Simple enough for them to understand, but enough strategic depth to keep them interested. I do dial down the difficulty though (we play with the 2 player setup even though there's three of us).
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
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YellowKing
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

Skinypupy wrote:For those who have Tales from Red Dragon Inn, have your cards all started bending?
I haven't seen that yet, but they seem thin so it doesn't necessarily surprise me. Maybe a humidity thing?

My reorganization effort went pretty well and I got through Scenario 1 last night. My first order of business was wrangling all the tokens, so I bought a 10-pack of small dipping bowls and between those and my silicone token trays I put every single damn token type in its own bowl. Then I bagged every monster type separately, so at the start of the scenario I can just grab each relevant bag and go. I also bagged each obstacle/terrain tile separately.

I've got my four characters laid out horizontally along the bottom of the table so I can quickly slide back and forth to look at each one. I've got a spot for setup stuff I need at the start but not during play (initiative decks, initiative tokens, etc.) so that I can grab what I need for a particular scenario, set up, then put them back. Spot for vault deck, bagged armory deck. Dice tower to save space. Everything else is back in the box.

I'm starting to realize that a lot of games I've ultimately given up on were not due to them not being fun, but because I was getting bogged down in upkeep. Looking for tokens, looking for cards, etc. Even for Tales I realized after this session how much time I spent previously just looking for the stupid monster standees. I really don't like chaos and disorder, so I think if a game starts to feel like that I'm subconsciously drawing away from it. So anything I can do to remove that feeling I think is going to help immensely.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

YellowKing wrote: Sun Feb 25, 2024 9:20 am
Skinypupy wrote:For those who have Tales from Red Dragon Inn, have your cards all started bending?
I haven't seen that yet, but they seem thin so it doesn't necessarily surprise me. Maybe a humidity thing?
Was my first thought, but it's generally pretty dry here.

Mostly just strange because it's the only game I own that it has happened with.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
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hepcat
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

That happens quite often to me with many games. Especially those I set up and then leave on the dining room table for a few days/weeks while I play when I can. That's why I get so excited when I find out a game I want has linen finish cards. :wub:
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tylertoo
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by tylertoo »

EzeKieL wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2024 2:50 am All of you are to blame for me ordering this right now. For shaaaaame!!
Spoiler:
:ninja: Thanks! :ninja:
Happy to help!
YellowKing wrote: Sat Feb 24, 2024 12:08 pm To eliminate FOMO about characters, I think I'm going to go 4 characters, full steam ahead.
I roll a die twice and randomly play two of the six characters. They all get in on the action at some point. Haven't tried playing with three or four at the same time, seems like a lot to track. Let us know how it goes.
Skinypupy wrote: Sat Feb 24, 2024 4:22 pm For those who have Tales from Red Dragon Inn, have your cards all started bending? This is the only game I own where nearly every card has started bending in the middle so none of them lie down flat on the table. The large character cards, the ability cards, the small cards for mobs...every single one has started to warp (the edges basically curl up a bit). It's very strange, and I don't know why it would be only this one game that does it. Not a deal-breaker, but certainly annoying.
I have this problem just slightly with one or two large character cards, but not with all of them, and not with the smaller cards. The Epic Pool card also curves. But the great majority of my cards are not doing this. Hopefully they'll stay that way.
YellowKing wrote: Sun Feb 25, 2024 9:20 am My reorganization effort went pretty well and I got through Scenario 1 last night. My first order of business was wrangling all the tokens, so I bought a 10-pack of small dipping bowls and between those and my silicone token trays I put every single damn token type in its own bowl. Then I bagged every monster type separately, so at the start of the scenario I can just grab each relevant bag and go. I also bagged each obstacle/terrain tile separately.

I've got my four characters laid out horizontally along the bottom of the table so I can quickly slide back and forth to look at each one. I've got a spot for setup stuff I need at the start but not during play (initiative decks, initiative tokens, etc.) so that I can grab what I need for a particular scenario, set up, then put them back. Spot for vault deck, bagged armory deck. Dice tower to save space. Everything else is back in the box.
I pretty much do the same. Every schemer in its own bag. Here's how I keep tokens:

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

Post by LordMortis »

Been trying to figure out if I like Vale of Eternity on BGA. Not sure yet. Also think I'm going to learn Maracaibo to see if I like that as well. Though it doesn't seem like the game I'd play with strangers and it's hard to get my little BGA corner to learn new games.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Zarathud »

I’m about to break down and subscribe to BGA.
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hepcat
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

I had a subscription for years. They have Space Empire 4X and Through the Ages. I let it expire not that long ago, but I was impressed by their library when we had a recent online session.

Edit: holy crap, they have Talon! If you loved Starfleet Battles, you’ll love Talon.
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