Front Page

Content

Authors

Game Index

Forums

Site Tools

Submissions

About

KK
Kevin Klemme
March 09, 2020
35156 2
Hot
KK
Kevin Klemme
January 27, 2020
20835 0
Hot
KK
Kevin Klemme
August 12, 2019
7426 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
December 19, 2023
3980 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
December 14, 2023
3505 0
Hot

Mycelia Board Game Review

Board Game Reviews
O
oliverkinne
December 12, 2023
2078 0
O
oliverkinne
December 07, 2023
2586 0

River Wild Board Game Review

Board Game Reviews
O
oliverkinne
December 05, 2023
2256 0
O
oliverkinne
November 30, 2023
2498 0
J
Jackwraith
November 29, 2023
3019 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
November 28, 2023
1973 0
S
Spitfireixa
October 24, 2023
3696 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
October 17, 2023
2625 0
O
oliverkinne
October 10, 2023
2462 0
O
oliverkinne
October 09, 2023
2291 0
O
oliverkinne
October 06, 2023
2508 0

Outback Crossing Review

Board Game Reviews
×
Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)

Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.

× Any events, cons and meetups can be posted here. There is a link to our Member Map in your PROFILE menu.

Gen Con 2014

More
18 Aug 2014 10:34 #185229 by Msample
Replied by Msample on topic Re: Gen Con 2014

SuperflyTNT wrote:
Really not looking forward to quitting GenCon, but next year will be my last. I'm changing my brand of choice to WBC, probably. I think there's a less-commercial vibe there, and I'm just kind of sick of seeing a sea of shit to buy but only playing 4-5 games in a 3-day span. I'm still on the fence. I have a LOT of friends at GenCon, and I will likely almost never see them if I don't go. I'm talking "lifetime buddies", too, so it will be hard. Maybe alternation is the key.


WBC is definitely about the gaming and not the buying of such. That said, the dealer room for wargames is pretty much the best one out there these days. I do fear that the move to the new venue may cut out some vendors.

That said, I do want to check out GenCon one of these days, if only for the spectacle. Kind of a bucket list thing . I've never had any illusions that it was the place to get in a ton of actual playing of games.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 10:36 #185230 by charlest
Replied by charlest on topic Re: Gen Con 2014

VonTush wrote: I just watched the Shadows of Brimstone off the BGG Live Stream on the page now. It starts around 1:45 or so. The game looks pretty promising.

It is the DM-less dungeon crawl game set in the late 1800's mashing cowboys with Lovecraft style stuff, I think the second core set and future expansions though will have other types of monsters and bad dudes to fight.

The game does have the look of a very random game, the dungeon is laid out randomly from a deck of cards, enemies are random, dice based combat. All very trashy. The AI seems pretty straight forward also.

What jumped out at me is that it seemed intuitive without creative or fancy stuff shoehorned in to seem clever.

A neat feature is you can come across a portal to another world, for example the core set highlighted has you diving in an old mine and the other world takes you to this frozen region in another solar system. If you get the second core set when you come across a portal you can draw randomly and possibly end up from the mine in that other world.

Also each monster has a list of "specialties" so when you encounter a group you roll to see what the skill is so the same monsters have slight tweaks each time you come across a group. Straight-forward d6 based combat with the target "To Hit" number and then roll for damage. Rolling a '6' causes a crit.

This one I think I'm going to follow a bit closer. And solitaire play is a plus.


It's a kickstarter miniatures game. We are only allowed to speak ill of those around here.
The following user(s) said Thank You: DukeofChutney, Bull Nakano

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 10:50 #185232 by VonTush
Replied by VonTush on topic Re: Gen Con 2014
Hell...It's getting to a point that we can't talk any games here unless it is a non-FGG, non-KS game without any potential for expansions.

And the shame of it is that I think the most AT stuff that is coming out are KS games: Rivet Wars; Super Dungeon Explore; Dreadball; Shadows of Brimstone and others.

charlest wrote: I don't know if I'm just trying to be negative to convince myself to not buy it but Armada did not impress me. Each capital ship has four dials, the manuever tool was clunky, and I hate the little wheel/click bases which are very hard to read (and I have 20/20 vision). Miniatures were beautiful though and I don't mind the unpainted fighters. I'm thankful FFG announced Imperial Assault though as it lets me completely ignore Armada and focus on that instead. I'm all in on that.


There does seem to be some usability and functionality issues with Armada that do bring it into the clunky range. I'm hoping that gameplay makes up for that which for me it looks like it will, but I don't know if I'll find opponents. I may wait a little bit on this one and maybe find a cheap copy form someone because I have a feeling this one will have a quick start out of the gate, but lose momentum quick once people start playing more once more people realize it is not XWing with Capital ships (which is a selling point for me by the way).

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 11:32 #185236 by Gary Sax
Replied by Gary Sax on topic Re: Gen Con 2014
I am still intrigued by the Witcher adventure game. Was it playable?

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 11:45 #185237 by Bull Nakano
Replied by Bull Nakano on topic Re: Gen Con 2014

VonTush wrote: Hell...It's getting to a point that we can't talk any games here unless it is a non-FGG, non-KS game without any potential for expansions.

And the shame of it is that I think the most AT stuff that is coming out are KS games: Rivet Wars; Super Dungeon Explore; Dreadball; Shadows of Brimstone and others.

Well you can't be an iconoclast AND like what's new and popular.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 11:51 #185238 by Gary Sax
Replied by Gary Sax on topic Re: Gen Con 2014
The reason I don't talk new kickstarter much is I have no idea how I would sort through what is good and what is bad. Most stuff sort of *looks* good...

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 11:52 #185239 by RobertB
Replied by RobertB on topic Re: Gen Con 2014
charlest wrote:

Played two rounds of Sons of Anarchy and really enjoyed it. It has the full-fisted negotiation and screwage of Spartacus and the theme feels well integrated. A little sad that this wasn't really selling at the Con (and surprisingly neither was the Blue Sun Firefly expansion). I have a copy of SOA on its way to my house.


I saw the Blue Sun expansion, and _bought_ a copy of Sons of Anarchy. This was Friday afternoon.

My take on GenCon will be a lot less awesome than Superfly's. A couple of friends and I went on Friday, from Columbus. That's a six-hour drive, total. So we had to cut a few things short.

I've been to Origins a few times, since it's been in Columbus for 15 or so years. Their dealers' area has been going downhill for a while now. It looked like a garage sale next to GenCon's. GenCon's is five times as large, easy. 'Awestruck' is a good word.

We went up and down all the aisles, and it took us three hours with no demos and only short visits to each booth. By the time we got to the Paizo section it was more of a slog than enjoyment, but we did finish.

Afterwards, we took a break, then went back for two-hour separate shopping journeys. I did the Sons of Anarchy demo, and Superfly and Barnes have hit the nail on the head. It's a worker placement with negotiation and teeth. The demo guy called the little white bags, 'dope', and I wasn't particularly offended. I was planning to buy a copy of Sons anyway, so I did.

I skipped anything with a line to get into their area. I grumbled a little bit, "Who the hell wants to get in a line to go buy stuff," but I was just bitching for bitching's sake. That hall was a zoo, and there would've been rioting in the FFG area if it was free-for-all.

That took us to an early supper, so we went to Fogo De Chao, and ate meat until we were on the edge of bursting. If tres leches was on the dessert menu, I'd have eaten it and then burst like the guy in The Meaning of Life.

After supper, we went back and looked at the gaming areas. We were suitably impressed. The miniatures were mostly trademarked stuff like Warmachine, etc, but there was plenty of it. All of the big outfits like AEG, FFG, etc had fairly large areas for their games and demos. The M:tG area was big, with two or three hundred players in the area.

But for me at least, the craziest thing was the Pathfinder RPG area. We showed up while some event was going on, and there were (by our estimates) at least 1500 or so players at the event. One friend is a Pathfinder player, and he was just dumbfounded. Heck, I was too, and I don't give two shits about Pathfinder.

At that point, it was getting late and we had a three-hour drive back. We could have stayed up later, but we're old. We all agreed to try to make it for at least two days next year, preferably Friday and Saturday. A one-day trip meant we had to cut a lot of stuff short, like planned events, lots of demos, and lines to get into large publisher areas like FFG.

One question - this is like deciding to take up meth, but one of my friends there was thinking of doing Warhammer 40K. We thought we had hunted all over the convention center, and looked in the convention guide afterwards, but we never found a Games Workshop area or third-party outfit that was doing 40K events. Do they just kind of skip large 40K events at GenCon, wass our timing off, or are we dumb? 'Dumb' wouldn't shock me, but we're curious.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Gary Sax, Hex Sinister, Msample

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 11:53 #185240 by Gary Sax
Replied by Gary Sax on topic Re: Gen Con 2014

VonTush wrote: Hell...It's getting to a point that we can't talk any games here unless it is a non-FGG, non-KS game without any potential for expansions.

And the shame of it is that I think the most AT stuff that is coming out are KS games: Rivet Wars; Super Dungeon Explore; Dreadball; Shadows of Brimstone and others.

charlest wrote: I don't know if I'm just trying to be negative to convince myself to not buy it but Armada did not impress me. Each capital ship has four dials, the manuever tool was clunky, and I hate the little wheel/click bases which are very hard to read (and I have 20/20 vision). Miniatures were beautiful though and I don't mind the unpainted fighters. I'm thankful FFG announced Imperial Assault though as it lets me completely ignore Armada and focus on that instead. I'm all in on that.


There does seem to be some usability and functionality issues with Armada that do bring it into the clunky range. I'm hoping that gameplay makes up for that which for me it looks like it will, but I don't know if I'll find opponents. I may wait a little bit on this one and maybe find a cheap copy form someone because I have a feeling this one will have a quick start out of the gate, but lose momentum quick once people start playing more once more people realize it is not XWing with Capital ships (which is a selling point for me by the way).


I get where you guys are coming from. It looks clunky from a physical production standpoint. But making it so much different from X-wing is a big sell for me, even to the extent it's a much longer, slower game.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 11:56 #185241 by SuperflyPete
Replied by SuperflyPete on topic Re: Gen Con 2014
I didn't see it.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Gary Sax

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 12:25 #185246 by Egg Shen
Replied by Egg Shen on topic Re: Gen Con 2014
Gen Con seemed a little disappointing in terms of really big announcements (for me anyways). However, it looks like some pretty cool stuff is coming out in the near future.

Here are the games that look intriguing based on videos and initial reaction from the Con:

Dead of Winter - This looks to be a big winner and will further solidify Plaid Hat Games as a major player in the industry.

Five Tribes - Yeah the theme is pasted on...but the game looks beautiful. Can't wait to play this. I like most of the stuff Days of Wonder puts out.

Abyss - Another game from Cathala - looks weird and I don't like the theme, but I bet it's a pretty damn good Euro. Reactions seem positive.

Sons of Anarchy - This sounds like my kind of game. Easy mechanics, cool components and not a ton of rules. I will almost certainly pick up a copy.

Sheriff of Nottingham - This seemed to be a pretty big hit at Gen Con. Seems to fit a similar niche as Sons of Anarchy. I could be wrong though. I've got my eye on both.

King of New York - Looks like this sequel might be the real deal. About the only thing I will definitely purchase when it hits stores.

Munchkin Panic
- I saw a demo video of this...it looks like it could be very fun.

Shadows of Brimstone - While I wasn't about to back the kickstarter, I'm curious to see how this game does. It might just be the game I've always wanted. It hits ALOT of checkboxes in terms of stuff I like.

Kingsport Festival - Anybody hear about this? From what I gather it's a psuedo sequel/remake of Kingsburg with a Lovecraft theme. Yeah Chthulu is played out, but fuck it...I still enjoy the theme.

Zombie 15 - I'm with Pete on this one...looks dope as hell. I can't wait for this to hit stores. Yeah yeah, it's zombies...but fuck it I still like zombies games too!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 12:26 #185247 by black inferno
Replied by black inferno on topic Re: Gen Con 2014

charlest wrote: Quick thoughts on Gen Con:Battle At Kemble's Cascade was very cool. Played two turns before having to duck out. I think I'll need to play this a few times to solidify my opinion though as it's very unique and different. I also talked briefly with Zev and he was very friendly.


I'm curious about this one. I'd been planning on picking it up, but then I didn't see any write-ups about it in the wake of Gen Con, and its BGG page has slowed down to crickets. That's troubling for a game that already sounded kind of mechanically awkward to begin with.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 12:38 #185249 by wadenels
Replied by wadenels on topic Re: Gen Con 2014

Gary Sax wrote: I am still intrigued by the Witcher adventure game. Was it playable?


This is all I've seen of it. Just a demo with no actual game play. Looks odd. I'd like to hear more about it too.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 12:48 #185253 by SuperflyPete
Replied by SuperflyPete on topic Re: Gen Con 2014

black inferno wrote:

charlest wrote: Quick thoughts on Gen Con:Battle At Kemble's Cascade was very cool. Played two turns before having to duck out. I think I'll need to play this a few times to solidify my opinion though as it's very unique and different. I also talked briefly with Zev and he was very friendly.


I'm curious about this one. I'd been planning on picking it up, but then I didn't see any write-ups about it in the wake of Gen Con, and its BGG page has slowed down to crickets. That's troubling for a game that already sounded kind of mechanically awkward to begin with.


I was very much on the fence with this one....it's like R-Type on a board. Very odd choice, but I was over at Z-Man a lot and people were having a blast with it. Lots of hooting and hollering. I watched 20 minutes of the game and it seemed really legit. Not my kind of game, but I can totally see some people having an awesome time with it. It did look like a lot of little bits moving around, but not too terribly many. I don't think it's as "fiddly" as people might be inclined to believe.

I didn't buy it or photograph it. By the time I got around to it, I was already at -$100 from budget and my phone battery AND ITS BACKUP were long dead.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 13:06 - 18 Aug 2014 13:07 #185257 by charlest
Replied by charlest on topic Re: Gen Con 2014

SuperflyTNT wrote:

black inferno wrote:

charlest wrote: Quick thoughts on Gen Con:Battle At Kemble's Cascade was very cool. Played two turns before having to duck out. I think I'll need to play this a few times to solidify my opinion though as it's very unique and different. I also talked briefly with Zev and he was very friendly.


I'm curious about this one. I'd been planning on picking it up, but then I didn't see any write-ups about it in the wake of Gen Con, and its BGG page has slowed down to crickets. That's troubling for a game that already sounded kind of mechanically awkward to begin with.


I was very much on the fence with this one....it's like R-Type on a board. Very odd choice, but I was over at Z-Man a lot and people were having a blast with it. Lots of hooting and hollering. I watched 20 minutes of the game and it seemed really legit. Not my kind of game, but I can totally see some people having an awesome time with it. It did look like a lot of little bits moving around, but not too terribly many. I don't think it's as "fiddly" as people might be inclined to believe.

I didn't buy it or photograph it. By the time I got around to it, I was already at -$100 from budget and my phone battery AND ITS BACKUP were long dead.


Yes, it looks fiddly but it's not that bad. Some people won't like it also because it doesn't use dice, you simply make attacks and kill things which can lack tension. Energy management is important and damage is applied to your energy - if you run out I think you die and restart.

There is some PVP, but it doesn't do much unless the person actually dies, then you score. It's a neat game and I'm hoping to hear more as review copies start getting mailed out (I think I'm too far down the list to get one).
Last edit: 18 Aug 2014 13:07 by charlest.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Aug 2014 13:29 #185260 by Bull Nakano
Replied by Bull Nakano on topic Re: Gen Con 2014
The video for the X-Files game looks like it might be good. It seems like a cross between Pandemic and Fury of Dracula. One player is the cigarette smoking man and he sets up traps and destroys evidence, the agents are moving around a map of the US trying to solve cases.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Moderators: Gary Sax
Time to create page: 0.428 seconds