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What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?
I wish it had a bit more drama or surprise. It's also very short in terms of game length so you don't get to really spread out and it's more about a couple really big moves that either work your way or don't.
Again, I think it's good, just not fantastic. It's also much better with 4 in my opinion.
Codenames: Pictures continues to be great fun just like Codenames.
Secret Hitler is a little bland at 5. I'm thinking I only want to play this at 7+.
We also playtested the Champions of Midgard expansion, which is in development (still quite aways off). It was pretty fun and some good ideas.
More Cry Havoc and Star: Trek Ascendancy next.
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Last night I also had an opportunity to try Princes of the Renaissance. I’m quite relieved I didn’t back it on Kickstarter. Between Wallace’s own Struggle of Empires and CoolMini's Dogs of War (which is pretty underrated), I think every similar mechanic this game inspired is better implemented elsewhere. It didn’t have a sense of theme. Dice weighed far too heavily in combat. A single d6 role could add as much as a handful of purchased units. With a slight tweak to the system (like Struggles’ 2d6 system) the spread could be tempered a bit, while making Treachery Tiles, the Pope and other battle modifiers more significant and attractive. The remainder of the game is a tedious auction of dull tiles that come in six colors (representing cities), but you can only diversify in three different colors. That limitation seems arbitrary when one considers what the game is supposed to be about. The houses of Aragon, Sforza, Medici, etc. were families spread throughout more than three countries in many cases, nevermind more than three cities in Italy (by investment, patronage, marriage, etc). Buying more than three colored tiles would dilute your investments (and ability to protect them), but subpar strategies should be allowed because making meaningful decisions can be fun.
I had hoped this game would be about empire building, not trying to win bids on three colors of tiles. I did awful, btw, really awful, but I wish there had been a way to play even more awful while enjoying some aspect of the game more. Auction games just aren’t my bag. Auctions give designers a shortcut to creating a functional economy in their game while creating a relatively superficial layer of interaction, but they’re pretty terrible for first-time players. Imagine me giving you 3000 rupees and sending you to a store to shop. What do you buy? What can you buy? Is that fun?
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- Legomancer
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- Dave Lartigue
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I always approach Phil Eklund games with some trepidation. Will there be some content thrown in with the game that I'm going to have a problem with, like being lectured about how colonialism was great for all and unfettered capitalism is the best thing ever, even if there's no reason to include it? Will I once again start to regret the purchases I've made?
And there's always the fact that Sierra Madre rulebooks are often...whimsical...in their presentation, and usually out of date from the moment they arrive, thanks to the concept of "living" (aka, unfinished) rules. His games tend to be puzzle boxes with a number of interlocking parts that are difficult to explain and learn, yet work fairly well once you get going.
One game of his I played in the past was Origins, in which the first part of the game is evolutionary biology and then you get dumped into a fairly rote eurogame. This game, Neanderthal, expands on that first, more interesting part more.
The thing people will hate the most here is the amount of dice rolling involved, with very little means to mitigate it. In fact, there's a whole lot of randomness; if you are someone who likes setting up a plan and just seeing how it plays out, this is not the game for you. Personally, I like a game that includes dice and doesn't try to feel ashamed for doing so.
As with other Eklund games, I liked it a bunch, but it's going to be a bear to get to the table regularly, since learning and retaining the rules (which, since I started this sentence, have changed three more times) is so tough. Hopefully I'll get to see more of it.
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Rolled a six, killed my elder again!
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- Legomancer
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- Dave Lartigue
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TLDR I SUCK
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- Michael Barnes
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Convinced my wife to play with some buddies and when that happens she pushes the trend of games toward euros. A fantastic game of Puerto Rico with three really close scores all with vastly different strategies. A game of Ra where I got fuckin crushed, perhaps one of my worst defeats in all of my time playing board games. I think I managed to have gained like 3 points when it mercifully ended.
A few days later I got to play the 4th and final round of our current Blood Bowl tournament. This tournament is being played online via fumbbl as it includes some old friends/coaches who reside out of the country. It was all new teams, who will be eligible to enter in the next league season with a few game head start on development. My Dark Elves took on a strong Orc team as the top two seeds after three rounds, both teams with a 2 win, 1 tie record and being undefeated. Basically this became a play in game for the championship match, with the winner being the top team from the swiss group rounds. The orc team had two level ups, both being doubles rolls on blitzers who took dodge. Knowing my likely opponent after round 3 I took wrestle on a lineman to try and neutralize the strong blodge advantage.
I won the coin flip and elected to play D first. Even my kick skill couldn't stop a touchback and the cage set up early. The slow roll was effective at keeping the elves from the ball for most of the first half, but when the chance in turn six popped up, they pounced and with a nice lucky bounce away from the bulk of the orcs, their speed flipped the field for a DE score on turn 8. Confident in my play but knowing that my offense is always weaker than my D. I set up for a mid half score that should seal it. The orcs made sure that didn't happen and with 4 turn remaining a Black Orc held the ball, with casualties mounting for the elves. The Black Orc rumbled toward the goal line, and as the final turn came about. he was in a single elf tackle zone and 5 spaces away from the endzone. A blitz that pushed away the only tacklezone on the ball carrier went off without need for reroll. So with reroll in hand the Black Orc marched forward to tie the game on the final turn. My oppoenent tripped on the first GFI roll, which made him awful happy he had coached well enough to save his reroll for the final turn. He was less happy when the reroll also came up "1". Game Over - Dark Elves await an opponent in the tourney title game.
Game and Replay here for anyone into that sort of thing: fumbbl.com/p/match?id=3828368
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Not personal, you understand. But in sport you gotta take sides.
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Great game, though. Fits into JUST the right amount of time. Totally satisfying 2 hours but no more vs. probably a few X-wing games. Only beef I have with the game is that with 6 rounds (no objectives, again we hadn't played in ages) it can really be 3-4 turns of sides passing/jetting by one another and then inconsequential maneuvering behind the lines. Wish there was a bit more melee a la Nelson, that may be an issue with movement decisions/speed, though.
Expensive, but would recommend the game to anyone with cash to spare.
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- san il defanso
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- ENDUT! HOCH HECH!
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Without spoiling anything, there was a big twist in the overall story last night, and it gave the game a much-needed shot for me. Before this, I confess that I was kind of tired of Pandemic Legacy. There had been a stretch where the game had become incredibly difficult for us, and it was starting to feel more and more like a grind. Thankfully last night I feel like I found the energy to make it through the last couple months. The truth is that I just don't like Pandemic in its original form all that much, and the Legacy version is always kind of pushing against me not wanting to figure out when to use One Quiet Night to survive one more turn. The fact that I actually quite like Pandemic Legacy says a lot about what the legacy mechanic does for it.
But I still have this little bit of frustration with the game, and that's with the story and how the players are involved. I LOVE defacing the board, and I love that our game is messed up in its own unique way. Also in the later game there are some interesting plot developments that do hinge on the player performing certain actions (I'm being vague to prevent spoilers, but bear with me). But I'm having trouble escaping the feeling that I'm kind of along for the ride, like all of these plot beats are going to happen no matter what. I'm not sure that's necessarily true, and I'll know better at the end. But it still feels like the narrative itself is not tied as strongly to player actions as I want.
It's possible that I want something out of this game that it can't offer, but the thought that I'm getting basically the same story as every other group is kind of a bummer to me, since board games have such potential to craft emergent narrative. There's plenty of narrative in Pandemic Legacy, but very little of it is emergent. I'm also wondering if part of this is just a matter of the game being cooperative, but I don't know since I've not played Risk Legacy or Seafall yet.
For that matter, this annoyance might also be my problem with campaign games in general: it doesn't allow the story to originate with the players, and it never really can.
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- Michael Barnes
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After spending half the night building the scenery, I tried Deadzone last night. Just a starter fight with pre-gen 100 pt squads. It's REALLY good, it could be of the better "miniature skirmish as a board game" titles. It has the same, loose area movement as Deathwatch: Overkill. Tests are generally 3D8 vs. a target number with some circumstances adding dice rather than adjusting stats or results. One roll to hit, target makes a survive check, if there are more hits the difference is damage, which goes against an armor value and the model's size to determine an injury or wound. It's very easy to grasp, the actual rules are just a couple of pages with the remainder being abilities, items and army list stuff.
I love the item pickups- you seed the board with eight random crates. Move on to one and you see what it is. But it could be a booby trap!
Very fast, very fun and I felt like it may be more approachable for board game players than many miniatures games are. No measuring- everything is on a cube-based grid that allows for vertical movement.
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