What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Sevej wrote:

charlest wrote:

Sevej wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: "Other" than that, it's another co-op monster bash like we see come out about 20 times a year. Zombicide Black Plague is way better on every level.

Barnes, have you checked Project Elite? It's also co op monster bash but utilizes real time dice mechanism like the Escape games. But the most interesting thing for me is that the monsters are weak. It's more like Deathwatch Overkill, unlike most games of this genre which have *gasp* hit points.

I know you were asking Barnes, but I just reviewed Project ELITE.

boardgamegeek.com/article/24103906

Most of the chaff doesn't have more than one hit point, but the bigger guys do.

Interesting points. I'm especially surprised that you find it flatten out due to the repetitive, real time action... just like XCOM.

Honestly, I'm kind of negatively biased toward the game because of the bullshit that Artipia/Drawlab/whoever-the-fuck-wins-the-bus-roadkill-battle pulled with this campaign. The minis are lame, but not as lame as they could have been (ridiculously enough). The graphic design is weak. The fulfillment has been a total joke. I'm glad the game is kind of fine, but Artipia and Drawlab are both on my shitlist moving forward.

I think Charlie's review has been generous in focusing on the design which at the end of the day would have been fine if unremarkable if the publisher hadn't run the campaign like a horde of gibbering monkeys in such an amateur manner.

I only played The Others once, but I did come away thinking it was going to be best with 2, which takes it out of Zombicide comparisons (which it doesn't really belong with anyways) and into Claustrophobia (an arena in which it will lose every time). I got more of an abstracted Space Hulk vibe from it. I did think the turn structure was interesting and I like the corruption mechanics because it can lead to these great self-sacrifice moments with a character going out in a blaze of glory to kill a tough monster.

Theme....yeah. I wasn't so hot on it. It's like looking at BPRD/Hellboy comics through Wal-Mart tinted glasses.

Sevej wrote:

charlest wrote:

Sevej wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: "Other" than that, it's another co-op monster bash like we see come out about 20 times a year. Zombicide Black Plague is way better on every level.

Barnes, have you checked Project Elite? It's also co op monster bash but utilizes real time dice mechanism like the Escape games. But the most interesting thing for me is that the monsters are weak. It's more like Deathwatch Overkill, unlike most games of this genre which have *gasp* hit points.

I know you were asking Barnes, but I just reviewed Project ELITE.

boardgamegeek.com/article/24103906

Most of the chaff doesn't have more than one hit point, but the bigger guys do.

Interesting points. I'm especially surprised that you find it flatten out due to the repetitive, real time action... just like XCOM.

I think it's better than XCOM, which suffers a similar problem. XCOM is very repetitive in my mind. We enjoyed it but I sold it off after three or so plays.

Escape and Captain Sonar are the kind of real-time games for me. Escape mainly survives due to its large amount of expansion content, it means the game is pretty unique every time we play with lots of different things included. Captain Sonar attains that rank because it feels extremely tense based on competition. It feels like playing a sport moreso than interacting with a board game.

We've played Churchill at my weekly game night two weeks in a row now. I was the only player who played both times. I'm liking this game a lot more now that I have some time between my initial reaction where I felt there were some opaque rules. I can have a pretty bad reaction to rules that I perceive as poorly written...

Anyway, it was the most interesting game yet. I played Roosevelt, who died in turn 4 or so, and I didn't finish the A-Bomb until turn 8 so was at a bit of a disadvantage with Truman at the helm. Stalin was a 1st time player and basically ignored pol-mil stuff, focusing on Japan. Japan fell in turn 5. No points for US or UK on their fronts. I was really focused on the pol-mil stuff. Most turns saw Churchill win the 2/2 and I won the 1/3, so I had a big advantage in the number of countries with clandestine networks. Eventually was able to turn that into an advantage of political alignment markers where there was a turn that I won both. The western front wasn't doing so hot, but we had a shot into Germany on the final turn and failed. Stalin did force Germany's surrender. So with both Axis powers surrendering, final score saw the US up by exactly 15 for a straight up victory. If I had made the final push into Germany then I would have been up by 22 and 2nd place would have won. Woah! So it was a pretty close thing at the end.

So it's pretty nice that we can crank through a full 10-turn game in 3 hours with experienced players or 4 with a newbie where you need to do rules explanation and there's a bit of world series distraction. The key is definitely to not count points at all, ever, until the end. Also to use the 5-Mississippi rule if it looks like it's going to drag. Without counting points throughout you have a pretty good idea of how you're doing, but not a definite idea. I thought I was ahead by just a little bit, or else I wouldn't have tried to push into Germany.

With these last 2 plays(5 total I think) I'm finally to the point where I feel like I can begin to effectively think about strategy and tactics in the game. That's pretty cool, and all on a weeknight too!

SuperflyTNT Pete (who it was great to see again after 7 years) joined us for FAT Thursday last night where got to play my absurdly large copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Folks, Charlie is not shitting you one bit when he says this is one of the best released in a year already filled with great releases. I've always found that minis combat, 1 vs All, and Descent style games have shortcomings that are hard for me to overlook. All of those issues are nowhere to be seen in this game. That's not to say there aren't issues (reading and fully grasping the board situation is the only one I can find so far, but it's not a deal breaker by any stretch), but actual teamwork and planning between the heroes, solid scenario design, and a villain that's just as fun to play as the good guys are all huge hits with me and this game does that perfectly.

I'm kind of obsessed with this thing. I'm having a big game party tomorrow and I think I could be content to just play TMNT all day.

I love the idea that the scenarios are like 30-40 minute ass kickings. That's what I loved about the manageable scenarios of Gears of War. No bullshit. Just fucking up aliens (or foot, in this case).

There's a ton of shit in The Works box, so uploading it all takes time, but I really love how the maps are just two tiles, a few terrain pieces and figures. If you play two games, your first game might take a little tim to set up as you also have cards and whatnot to dig out, but your second game will be ready to go in a snap.

Just to elaborate a bit, I find far too many co-ops, especially minis based ones like Descent, to be lacking in actual cooperation. There's often very little helping each other out, and the game feels more like a group of people acting on their own that just happen to share a common goal. Not here, Kevin absolutely *nailed* how the Turtles fight, helping each other out while still letting each Turtle have their own personality. And then you have Raphael, who's always been my favorite Turtle, still lending a hand to his brothers when they need it but is the lone, solitary badass on his turn. We reserve special praise for games where mechanics, theme, and setting are inseparable. This is one of those games.

I also really love that the villain action system is the exact opposite of the Turtles. The Turtles will activate, no doubt about it, but the actions they take are (somewhat) left to chance. The villain actions are more definite as they're printed on the cards, but who is able to activate is not guaranteed. I love asymmetry and it works really, really well here.

So... how much has been taken out of the retail edition?

Edit: After poking around on BGG, looking at older threads, it doesn't look too bad. Some chrome stuff, some exclusive "enhanced" enemies (kind of reminds me of the extra Abominations in Zombicide), a scenario/campaign with exclusive characters and a broken fourth wall (Eastman is in it), and some extra characters that seem like they'll hit retail eventually (e.g. Bebop, Rocksteady, Splinter), especially if they have expansions planned which seems to be the case.

I actually think that the retail version this is going to be fine. You have about 12 scenarios to play through, and each scenario seems pretty replayable and the story itself has branching paths. You're missing Eastman style sculpts of the Turtles and a maybe an expansions worth of stuff, none of essential. I'm sure there's more game to come, too.

I appreciate the book keeping in the campaign, it's a simple as putting a double sided bookmark in the book with the side who won last face up. Plus, you can easily just pick a scenario and play a one off just fine for the most part, which is nice.

Played A Most Dangerous Time again. This time the game wasn't as tense as the first because I, the Anti-Oda, made several big mistakes and suffered the brunt force of some misunderstood rules but it was very fun, to the point we didn't stop until the end of the 30-turn game instead of playing the 10 turn one as a way to understanding the game.

The more I play this game, the more I realize the impact of luck in the game is small. It exists, it visibly changes the game state, but the game is so long turn-wise and so many dice are rolled that it doesn't really matter that much. A castle may fall in two turns or four, and it matters, but you are not going to win or lose based based on that. Or, at least, you shouldn't! If your plan requires that kind of precision, it not only means you don't understand the game, but also that you don't understand warfare in the Sengoku period.

When MMP brought the game over from Japan, they also added an optional rule: A "good luck" token that lets you repeat dice rolls, put event cards in the bottom of the deck and more importantly, choose what chits will come out this turn. And, at first, it seemed like a good thing and quite balanced, since when you use it you give it to your opponent. But ultimately, it seems to have way too much weight in the game and decided to remove it from the game.

The main problem with it is that you can use it to get two turns in a row when you want. Which at first seems fine, it happens with relative frequency on its own. But in practice, it's very different because you actively decide when that double-turn is going to happen and can force plays you wouldn't be able to force otherwise. The result is that the games becomes more swingy and less natural play-wise. So I don't recommend using it.

Thanks for the insight, Josh. It really makes me regret waffling and missing out on the KS. I think I need to get this, simply because I require a game as an educational/recreational tool that encourages and maybe even teaches how important cooperation is. Real cooperation. Not that hackneyed shit used in games people espouse as "co-op". With an intelligent yet highly adhd child, I need all the help I can get in that area.

Played Wiz-War for the first time in many moons last night using the streamlined magic deck rules and adding the 15 card beast add on pack to that.
I've spent so much time pimping out wizwar with the hirst arts stuff, yet barely seem to get it to the table. It makes my heart sad.

Yet after being away for so long, playing on the enhanced board was like opening a game someone else made and was more enjoyable, since the burnout caused by those long tedious hours creating the board and extras were forgotten.

Just a brilliant game. So many memorable bits happen every time its played. Why this isn't more highly rated and talked about, I'll never understand. It just reminds me that no matter how long I go without playing it, it has a a safe and permanent place on the shelf.

I kinda hate the ffg designed wizard models though. I think I will just add some of the nicer gw magic user models to the game eventually. They are more fitting for a pimped out wizwar.

Might use credit card dividends for a copy... but I'd like the works edition and since a ks game is actually good it'll probably for 1000 dollars.

Might see if anyone is moving a F:AT Kickstarter copy...

I was also there playing TMNT with the F:AT crew...plus I got to meet the one, the only SuperflyTNTPete. Pete is awesome and I hope to hang with him sooner rather than later. I don't have much else to add about Turtles. It's Kevin Wilson's masterpiece. I'm still waiting for my KS copy to arrive and I'm getting a bit anxious that it isn't already here.

Josh forget to mention that the second scenario ended in the most absolutely magnificent and brutally hilarious way possible. After Donatello pole vaulted near "Old Hob" (the mutant cat villain) and punched him in the face, Michelangelo came in to deliver the killing blow. Except, in true Michelangelo fashion he did some cart wheels and cool shit across an entire building before kicking Old Hob so VICIOUSLY and VIOLENTLY in the BALLS that he KO'ed him. I don't think even Superfly himself could have scripted it any better...

So if you were on the fence before, just know that Michelangelo has a supermove where he kicks people in the dick. It's a real card. In the game. Cowabunga motherfuckers!

As a dad who grew up on eastman/laird tmnt black and white comics, I'm OK with my son and daughter seeing that scenario play out in a game.
The true humor would be seeing the look on their faces, as shock then laughter meld into each other when ze foot connects with ze balls. Its the kind of thing 9 and 10 year olds live for.

That's it. I can't wait to get this.

In the meantime we've played some more Mechs Vs Minions in between Heroscape sessions. I think both are going to be staples at our house for awhile. My son (13) is a League of Legends fan (loves to watch the tournaments) and he enjoys sharing MvM with his buddies who aren't LoL initiates. I particularly enjoy the way damage cards can actually be exploited to your advantage at times, and the hordes of 1HP Minions that function as XP when killed bring some of that "plowing through baddies" glee that you get with Zombicide. We've unlocked the 2nd pack of content, but I want to try to get Cry Havoc played again tomorrow and pace ourselves with MvM since I don't want to burn through all of the content too quickly. I'm not sure what the longevity will be once we play through the last pack, though I'm hoping that the final game is actually just an opened up accrual of everything played up to that point, like a randomized series of maps or something that could be replayed and tweaked for difficulty.

Conan arrived the other day and I'm kind of intimidated by the bulk of it and the piles of counters with no in-box organization are giving me Ogre flashbacks. The miniatures are... pretty good though I think I've been spoiled by CMON on the one hand and Games Workshop on the other. I need to stop expecting that from most of these KS games, no matter what claims are made during campaigns. The rulebook is a disaster but they're offering a revised version free of charge. The game itself looks like it could be a lot of fun, but I'm swimming in games right now, so I'm not sure how quickly I'm going to be able to dig into this one. There's just enough of a barrier with the clunky rulebook and setup that it might be on the back burner for a bit.