OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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AWS260
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

I just wrapped up the first scenario of Forgotten Waters with my family (including my mom - we're on vacation at her house). I thought it might be a good choice for getting the whole family involved, and in retrospect, I am a genius.

We had so much fun, and it's pretty great to see my 78-year-old mom laughing uproariously at a board game. The voyage of Gumbo McRib, Coco Firebug, Stabby McMuffin, and Princess Pirate Star will not soon be forgotten.

The companion website is easy to use, with excellent voice acting. The writing leans very heavily toward humor, and I'm curious to see if any of the other scenarios take a more serious tone. The actual gameplay mechanics are pretty unremarkable - you're picking actions, making skills checks, and tracking your ship's resources. But they move along smoothly and do a great job of giving you some agency as you move through the story.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by LordMortis »

I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.
I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.
I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.

That's nearly two months away but I can't concentrate on work because I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by coopasonic »

Finished up Pandemic Legacy Season 0... sort of.

My son lost interest after around August. I played some solo. I pulled him back for another game around October where we played on "easy" mode. went back to solo for November continuing easy mode to just get through it. Didn't even play December, just read the entries and the story bits and then threw the whole thing away. It seemed like it might even be better than Season 1 in the early months, but it didn't hold up. There is a mechanic introduced in the second half that was cool but kind of felt impossible in the end game. Kiddo got tired of the repetition. Not enough was changing from game to game.

Since we were going so strong on season 0, I bought season 2 and then everything started falling apart so now I am scared to break out season 2.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

LordMortis wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:57 am I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.
I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.
I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.

That's nearly two months away but I can't concentrate on work because I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by LordMortis »

I don't even do that. I just play video games. I also do BGA with with mostly strangers.

I'm caught between euphoria and anxiety. I realized where the neighborhood the CVS is in that is offering so many shots. It's... not good. One friend had a van stolen in that area. Another lost an eye to a robbery. The crime map for that corner shows multiple violent crimes a day. :shock: But it's a vaccine and it's literally the first one in state available to me. I guess if others have that as their choice then it ought to be good enough for me.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

i don't even know when Illinois is going to start offering the vaccine to my group (under 65/non essential worker). :(
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by RMC »

hepcat wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 12:54 pm
LordMortis wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:57 am I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.
I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.
I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.

That's nearly two months away but I can't concentrate on work because I estimate on May 22nd I will be able to play games at a table with people.
"Why yes, Mr. Duck, you may land on my property."

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This is from this past Sunday when Hep and I were playing in Ohio. :D
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

True...as I just noticed that Mr. Cow has a pentagram around his neck.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hentzau »

hepcat wrote:i don't even know when Illinois is going to start offering the vaccine to my group (under 65/non essential worker). :(
Not to make this drift off topic, but I got my first shot today downstate.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

I know in the Chicago area I’m not eligible yet. I heard some folks are going to Wisconsin to get theirs.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by baelthazar »

hepcat wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:09 pm I know in the Chicago area I’m not eligible yet. I heard some folks are going to Wisconsin to get theirs.
You could come down to Indiana. Some of the areas North of West Lafayette have openings for appointments. I don't think you have to be a resident to do so.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Shoot, I should have asked before I left for Ohio last week. I just drove through Indiana on my way back Monday.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by LordMortis »

hepcat wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:30 pm Shoot, I should have asked before I left for Ohio last week. I just drove through Indiana on my way back Monday.
You could have vaccinated in Ohio if you had the time to stay for both shots. I saw all kindsa openings at Rite Aids in Toledo/Sylvania. I was trying to figure out if the hassle of vaccine tourism was worth the effort before deciding (or later realizing) an opening in a mugger's alley was better than no vaccine at all.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

I tried but the reservation process i used wouldn’t let me because my home address was in Chicago. And, as you note, it would have been a 7 hour drive to get the second one if I couldn’t get the one shot version.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

YellowKing wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 8:24 pm I love Hogwarts Battle. While it is sometimes criticized for being a beginner's level deck builder, the game can get downright NASTY in the later levels, and even more so with the Book of Monsters expansion.
hentzau wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:41 pm Yeah, years 5+ are downright evil.
Holy crap, you guys weren't kidding. We ran through the first three years without losing a single location. Played Year 4 three times now, and the best we've done is getting through 4 (out of 9) of the villains before losing.

This game does seem to be more heavily luck-based than most deckbuilders I've played. If you get a bad combination of villains or a tableu of expensive market cards to start with, you're basically screwed from the start.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hentzau »

Skinypupy wrote:
YellowKing wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 8:24 pm I love Hogwarts Battle. While it is sometimes criticized for being a beginner's level deck builder, the game can get downright NASTY in the later levels, and even more so with the Book of Monsters expansion.
hentzau wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:41 pm Yeah, years 5+ are downright evil.
Holy crap, you guys weren't kidding. We ran through the first three years without losing a single location. Played Year 4 three times now, and the best we've done is getting through 4 (out of 9) of the villains before losing.

This game does seem to be more heavily luck-based than most deckbuilders I've played. If you get a bad combination of villains or a tableu of expensive market cards to start with, you're basically screwed from the start.
One way we worked to mitigate the problem of bad guys you are not yet ready for is to put them in the deck randomized but in year order. Like all if the first year villains are randomized in the top of the deck followed by year 2, and so on. Doesn’t help a whole lot, but it does make the game a bit more fun.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by TheMix »

hentzau wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:09 pm
Skinypupy wrote:
YellowKing wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 8:24 pm I love Hogwarts Battle. While it is sometimes criticized for being a beginner's level deck builder, the game can get downright NASTY in the later levels, and even more so with the Book of Monsters expansion.
hentzau wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:41 pm Yeah, years 5+ are downright evil.
Holy crap, you guys weren't kidding. We ran through the first three years without losing a single location. Played Year 4 three times now, and the best we've done is getting through 4 (out of 9) of the villains before losing.

This game does seem to be more heavily luck-based than most deckbuilders I've played. If you get a bad combination of villains or a tableu of expensive market cards to start with, you're basically screwed from the start.
One way we worked to mitigate the problem of bad guys you are not yet ready for is to put them in the deck randomized but in year order. Like all if the first year villains are randomized in the top of the deck followed by year 2, and so on. Doesn’t help a whole lot, but it does make the game a bit more fun.
We used your method as well. Though I think we only got as far as chapter 4. And I don't remember if we ever beat it.

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

Post by YellowKing »

I messed around with STARDEW VALLEY: THE BOARD GAME on TTS since I missed out on getting one before they sold out. Wanted to determine if it's something I wanted to pick up when they do the reprint.

I played the video game, but not to a significant extent. Still enough that I was very familiar with the mechanics and theme. And in that respect the board game does a fantastic job of converting the fundamental video game actions (farming, mining, fishing), etc. into board game form.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, given the theme and art style, is how full of decision points the game is. While the rules are fairly simple, there is a LOT going on in this game and tons of player choice in how to achieve the (many) goals you need in order to win. In that respect it feels significantly heavier than I expected. On any given turn you can water crops, fish, forage, mine, try to make friends with villagers, buy/sell, build, upgrade - and every one of those options are going to help you in some way to achieve one of the 6 town center tasks you must complete and 4 grandpa objectives you must complete. How you go about that, and in what order adds a tremendous amount of "open world" complexity.

Replayability seems to also be very high. With randomized objectives, resource tiles, and some occasional dice rolling for mining and fishing, I can see where no two games will play out exactly the same.

I'll have to play some more to determine challenge level, but based on my playthrough it seemed to provide a fun "sweet spot" medium challenge, and I'm interested to see how it scales with player count.

From a personal perspective, I liked it enough that I'm definitely interested in the reprint. Really the only debate I have is whether it's worth it just for solo. I would be laughed out of my gaming group if I brought this to the table, because I just know they'd take one look at the cutesy theme and dismiss it. And on the flip side, I think while my kids would love the theme, it's still a bit too heavy for them (at least right now).
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

TheMix wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:00 am Though I think we only got as far as chapter 4. And I don't remember if we ever beat it.
Sadly, I don't think my kids are going to have much more patience with it after losing three times now. The HP theme only goes so far for 7 year olds when they keep getting their butts handed to them by the game. :(
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hentzau »

YellowKing wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 11:07 am I messed around with STARDEW VALLEY: THE BOARD GAME on TTS since I missed out on getting one before they sold out. Wanted to determine if it's something I wanted to pick up when they do the reprint.

I played the video game, but not to a significant extent. Still enough that I was very familiar with the mechanics and theme. And in that respect the board game does a fantastic job of converting the fundamental video game actions (farming, mining, fishing), etc. into board game form.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, given the theme and art style, is how full of decision points the game is. While the rules are fairly simple, there is a LOT going on in this game and tons of player choice in how to achieve the (many) goals you need in order to win. In that respect it feels significantly heavier than I expected. On any given turn you can water crops, fish, forage, mine, try to make friends with villagers, buy/sell, build, upgrade - and every one of those options are going to help you in some way to achieve one of the 6 town center tasks you must complete and 4 grandpa objectives you must complete. How you go about that, and in what order adds a tremendous amount of "open world" complexity.

Replayability seems to also be very high. With randomized objectives, resource tiles, and some occasional dice rolling for mining and fishing, I can see where no two games will play out exactly the same.

I'll have to play some more to determine challenge level, but based on my playthrough it seemed to provide a fun "sweet spot" medium challenge, and I'm interested to see how it scales with player count.

From a personal perspective, I liked it enough that I'm definitely interested in the reprint. Really the only debate I have is whether it's worth it just for solo. I would be laughed out of my gaming group if I brought this to the table, because I just know they'd take one look at the cutesy theme and dismiss it. And on the flip side, I think while my kids would love the theme, it's still a bit too heavy for them (at least right now).
I have this, but it hasn't hit the table yet. I did however just finish the SUSD review of it and they were not very kind to it. Apparently the game is so luck focused that if you don't get certain draws out of the piles of stuff, you just won't win, and there's no way to mitigate against that. He also said that solo is really really hard.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

It's apparently a shark-survival kind of day, as both Jaws and Survive: Escape from Atlantis arrived this morning. Played a couple rounds of Survive with everyone, and it was a big hit. Rather hilarious to watch as the kids turned the sharks on each other's swimmers and sent whales smashing into their boats.

We tried Jaws, but it's a bit too complex for them, I'm afraid. Plus, they haven't seen the movie, so much of the theme is lost on them. Definitely seems like it could be fun with right group of people though.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Malificent »

Does figuring out where everything goes in my Too Many Bones Trove Box count as playing? No?
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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I didn’t think it was too bad. Most of the cases in the trove chest make it fairly clear what they’re meant to hold. And it really does make set up and tear down so much easier. My only complaint is that I’m seeing some splitting on the seams for the tray that holds the cards. But that’s more my fault for packing them in too tight.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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hepcat wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 10:42 pm I didn’t think it was too bad. Most of the cases in the trove chest make it fairly clear what they’re meant to hold. And it really does make set up and tear down so much easier. My only complaint is that I’m seeing some splitting on the seams for the tray that holds the cards. But that’s more my fault for packing them in too tight.
I'm not complaining, to be clear. It's a lot of stuff and without having played yet, it could occasionally get confusing what went where and what was extra and what wasn't. But the quality on the thing is amazing, really, on everything. Looking forward to playing once we finish up Forgotten Circles.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by raydude »

The family and I played several rounds of Takenoko, which I had purchased online and had arrived on Saturday. The game involves the players developing a garden for the Japanese Emperor, growing bamboo, and arranging the garden plots according to objective cards. Also, there is a Giant Panda roaming the garden that eats the bamboo. Players gain points by having plots and bamboo stalks match the patterns and colors on their gardener and plot cards. They can also gain points by having the Panda eat colored bamboo stalks according to the panda objective cards.

This was the first time my wife played a game where the objectives weren't hardcoded into the rules (a la Monopoly or Sushi Go) but instead determined by the objective cards she drew and held in her hands. Several times she kept asking "What's my objective again?" and we kept telling her it's to meet the objective cards in her hand. What's funny is that despite her confusion she managed to win the first game.

The kids loved it, especially my youngest daughter, who absolutely loves pandas. She has 10 stuffed pandas and has names for them all. It was especially cute how she focused on feeding the panda and scoring points via the panda objective cards. She came closest to winning on the fourth game by focusing on the plot and gardener objectives as well, but my wife ended up beating her by one point.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

Takenoko's a great family game. It's great to hear how much your whole gang enjoyed it!

On Saturday, we played another scenario of Forgotten Waters, "Kraken's Eye." The voice acting wasn't quite as good. The narrator's the same, but the captain is pretty bland this time around (I may just be spoiled by ProZD's performance in the first scenario).

The scenario itself is clever. You're working for an ambitious young captain who aims to kill the kraken, take its magical eye, and become the most famous pirate in piratedom. It's straightforward, maybe a little boring, but then the quest takes some interesting twists and turns that I won't spoil here. Suffice to say that we eventually triumphed.

We had three players this time, which means we used the "masked pirate" rule, which gives the player with the highest infamy a second worker to place during the action selection phase. It's a way to keep the game balanced with a low player count, and works well in that respect. However, because it goes to the player with the highest infamy, and many actions reward infamy, it stayed in the hands of one player for almost our entire game. We may have to house-rule that in the future.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Yesterday I played Shasn, a weird-but-enjoyable combination of party game (answer questions about your political beliefs!) and area control (cubes on a map).

It's intended to evoke modern political contests, with gerrymandering playing a key role, and I really liked the jockeying on the map. It's very dynamic, as voters change allegiance or are shifted between districts. The answer-political-questions phase was a mixed bag. It's a great concept: over time, your answers will define your political identity, which unlocks special powers. But in practice, we found it was too easy to tell which answers would lead down which political path, so players were just giving answers that would unlock the powers they wanted.

The production screams Kickstarter: gorgeously produced (the entire game board is dual-layered!), a handful of errors/typos on cards, way too many add-on modules and variants. The art (by this guy) is really wonderful.

It also runs quite long for what it is. Our game was 2.5 hours, not including the teach. It's a very good area control game, but so it The King Is Dead, and that takes 30 minutes or less for a full game.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

Last night I had my first in-person gaming group session in over a year. Everyone in our group is now fully vaccinated, so it was nice to get back to touching real cardboard after a year of Tabletop Simulator.

We played ATLANTIS RISING, which I really like. My buddy who owns it went all the way with premium components, playmat, and all promos, so we got to play it super pimped out.

It's a co-op game where you play Atlanteans trying to build a portal to escape your sinking island. To do so, you need to build 10 devices then the portal before the island sinks. There is a heavy worker placement angle as you must place workers to attempt to roll for resources. However, there is also some push-your-luck, as placing workers in the easier spots also leaves them vulnerable to being flooded and losing their action.

It's a tough game, particularly since resource collection is dependent on dice rolls. Because mitigation is minimal (pretty much limited to spending mystic energy to re-roll), you sometimes have to blunt force your odds by dumping multiple workers on one resource to give yourself multiple chances of success. It may sound lame (and when you're in the middle of rolling 5 failures in a row, it feels like it), but from a big picture perspective it somehow all seems to work. Even though we hit multiple "bad streak" rolls last night, we still somehow managed to eke out a win. In some way I think the ever-present danger of bad dice rolls forces you to think creatively and *really* emphasizes true cooperation at a level some other co-op games never reach.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

Atlantis Rising is a good one. I love how the island pieces collapse into the sea over the course of a game.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

It was a good weekend for boardgaming at home.

Saturday night was Seasons with my wife, who crushed me utterly. It was her first time and my second, since I tried it once on Boardgamearena last year. We borrowed a copy from our FLGS, and having the physical game in front of me helped a lot in terms of seeing card synergies. Although not enough to avoid losing badly, as previously mentioned.

This afternoon we played Just One with the kid. Always a good time. I think we're going to try to figure out how to play it with my mom on Zoom.

Tonight I unwound with the solo game Aurelian: Restorer of the World. Aurelian did not restore the world; he neglected the Danube frontier and let his empire fall to barbarians while he was fighting usurper in the East. Bad Aurelian.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Saturday I had an all day two player game day.

First up was Core Space. We played the tutorial mission. I got cocky and thought I could start a fight with the other player over the objective, but didn't expect the purge to come on strong in later turns. I wiped out everyone but one of his crewmen, then tried to make a dash for my ship. Unfortunately, a ton of purge appeared between my ship and my captain (my sole survivor after my gunfights) and knocked me out. While my opponent's sole surviving crewman made it off the station to his ship with one health remaining. It was pretty cinematic. We had a blast with it.

Then we tried Siege of the Citadel. It's pure Ameritrash, which I love. However, I think next time I'd play it with the intended head to head default mode rather than the coop mode we played. The coop mode feels a bit half baked. But there's definitely a lot of fun to be had there, with tons of different enemies and characters you can choose from. As well as a level up mechanic.

Next was Ashes Reborn. I upgraded my core set and all the expansions last week so we played the new version (1.5...the "Reborn" version). I'm not sure I'm seeing the streamlining yet, to be honest. And the game ran about as long as any in the prior version, but I think I need a few more games under my belt before I can safely make a judgement. Still, it felt just like the old Ashes so I was happy.

We got in a quick game of Table Battles after that. I love this heavily abstracted, 20 to 30 minute wargame. We got a few rules wrong at first, but after we realized what we were doing wrong, we started to see how brilliant the game design was in regards to simulating warfare at such an abstracted level.

Finally, we ended the day with a game of Lost Ruins of Arnak. YK and SP have already talked this one up quite a bit, so I won't go into detail. But we really enjoyed it. At its heart it's a standard, victory point salad, euro style worker placement game. But it does a great job with making the theme front and center.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hentzau »

Glad you enjoyed a two player game of Core Space, Hep. Can't wait to get that one back on the table again.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by coopasonic »

I keep going back and forth on Ashes. I want the new version because I really enjoyed the original but never had an opponent with their own deck which kind of dulled the experience for me. I don't see that changing any time soon and I don't have the shelf space and I still want it. What is wrong with me?!? When I think about shelf space I think well I can just dump Roll Player and Steampunk Rally which have hardly even been played yet. I guess I am really good for the secondhand market. :P
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

There are 6 decks in the core box alone for Ashes. Why did you need someone who had their own deck? Unless you're talking about deck construction? If so, that is something I (and everyone I play with) have zero interest in doing considering how closely each card is tied to a specific Phoenixborn, how balanced all the decks are as is, and how many decks are available.
hentzau wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 7:25 pm Glad you enjoyed a two player game of Core Space, Hep. Can't wait to get that one back on the table again.
I'm in for First Born too. But I'm considering adding the galactic corp group and zed expansions to my base game now.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by coopasonic »

hepcat wrote: Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:10 am There are 6 decks in the core box alone for Ashes. Why did you need someone who had their own deck? Unless you're talking about deck construction? If so, that is something I (and everyone I play with) have zero interest in doing considering how closely each card is tied to a specific Phoenixborn, how balanced all the decks are as is, and how many decks are available.
Yeah I was speaking of deck construction. After a couple of plays I was pretty easily able to identify cards that weren't pulling their weight and could be replaced and since I had everything available for the game was able to make solid replacements and while the standard decks are pretty nicely balanced they couldn't stand up to a built deck so then I was faced with the choice of playing the standard decks with cards I didn't want or beating people so badly they never wanted to play again.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

For our level and frequency of playing, 2 dozen preconstructed decks are absolutely fine. I also enjoy trying to figure out the best way to use what's been given to me.

Of course, I've never been a competitive tournament player. We're mostly casual gamers.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by coopasonic »

I totally get that, but they could be better! :D I really enjoyed deckbuilding in MtG and Netrunner but there were so many cards it was hard to be good at it. Ashes has a much smaller library making it possible for a normal human to build a very competitive deck... and dammit now I thinking maybe I should have held onto Mage Wars just for the deck building. I think I have a problem.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Sounds like unless you buy everyone around you copies of these games, then teach them how to construct decks, you should probably avoid them. :wink:
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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hentzau wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 7:25 pm Glad you enjoyed a two player game of Core Space, Hep. Can't wait to get that one back on the table again.
....and galactic corp ordered.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

I spent the last week building the Diagon Alley Lego set a buddy let me borrow, so my gaming table has been consumed. However, now that I'm tearing it down I'm thinking ahead on what to play next. With Middara's impending arrival in the next 2-3 weeks (fingers crossed), I'm debating on whether I should try to knock out Hellboy, or get some painting in. I'm a little hesitant on doing either since I'll be doing a LOT of painting and a LOT of dungeon crawling with Middara.

I may just go casual with some Wingspan for a couple of weeks and call it a day. :D

Now that our gaming group is vaxxed and getting back together again, I'm not finding myself going through as many withdrawals when I take a break from the solo stuff.
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