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Kevin Klemme
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Mycelia Board Game Review

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River Wild Board Game Review

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Outback Crossing Review

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14 Nov 2018 14:38 #286157 by Legomancer

Erik Twice wrote: Also, if you don't mind getting Reign & Reverie I can't recommend it enough.


I'd love to get it but the prices are insane.

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15 Nov 2018 09:41 #286199 by Erik Twice
I can find you copies at retail price or close to it, but you would need to pay shipping to the US.

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15 Nov 2018 09:47 #286200 by Legomancer

Erik Twice wrote: I can find you copies at retail price or close to it, but you would need to pay shipping to the US.


Any idea how much that would be?
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15 Nov 2018 09:48 #286201 by Legomancer
BREAKING NEWS:

Tigris and Euphrates is still the got-dang sheez.
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15 Nov 2018 09:55 - 15 Nov 2018 09:56 #286202 by charlest

Legomancer wrote: BREAKING NEWS:

Tigris and Euphrates is still the got-dang sheez.


I was surprised Dave when you suggested Y&Y could be better a few weeks ago. I think Y&Y is a damn good game and worth owning, but for me, the more forgiving nature does not make up for the loss of huge dramatic shifts in board state.

Yellow & Yangtze though is a much easier teach and I think a more appealing game for people to ease into.
Last edit: 15 Nov 2018 09:56 by charlest.
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15 Nov 2018 10:06 #286203 by Erik Twice

Legomancer wrote:

Erik Twice wrote: I can find you copies at retail price or close to it, but you would need to pay shipping to the US.


Any idea how much that would be?

I'm going to ask around, but I don't know how much it would cost to ship.

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15 Nov 2018 10:28 #286204 by Legomancer

charlest wrote:

Legomancer wrote: BREAKING NEWS:

Tigris and Euphrates is still the got-dang sheez.


I was surprised Dave when you suggested Y&Y could be better a few weeks ago. I think Y&Y is a damn good game and worth owning, but for me, the more forgiving nature does not make up for the loss of huge dramatic shifts in board state.

Yellow & Yangtze though is a much easier teach and I think a more appealing game for people to ease into.


The two games are doing different things with similar engines. T&E is more epic sweep of rising and falling empires. Y&Y is more shifting powers of rival factions on a smaller scale. Still a great game, and if you don't like T&E there's a chance you will like Y&Y. I think T&E edges out Y&Y but they're both super and both worth keeping.
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16 Nov 2018 23:04 - 16 Nov 2018 23:52 #286311 by stoic




I finally got to play Space Freaks, an Ameritrash darkhorse hailing from Finland. I had my doubts about this game because of the mixed reviews and the fact that the prices for this game have dropped like a rock from $69.95 to as low as $20 in a short amount of time--I picked it up for $20. Believe me, though, the decrease in price for this game has nothing at all to do with the game's quality of play. Man, I love this game! It mixes Wiz-War and Nexus Ops together, creating an innovative, if not freaky love-child.

Getting in the way though, and probably responsible for folks dumping it and giving up on this game too soon, is its high-quality glossy rulebook which includes a cool flavor inducing comic strip, but, a rulebook which desperately needed a rewrite and reorganization before publication. These rules almost acted as a barrier for learning how to play this game. Fortunately, although some details are left out, most of the game is easy to grasp and intuit thanks to an excellent graphic design and the clear iconography on the game's components--you'll soon get squared away and onward toward killing other freaks, like I did, after only a quick learning round--the game is much simpler than its rules would suggest.

Once you grasp the rules, the game play flows quickly over its six rounds, during which each player takes turns at combat, construction, and/or movement. At the beginning of each round, the Arena Master, an alien referee of sorts who is responsible for tormenting combatants in this Arena of Annihilation, also tosses in a chaotic mix of havoc, thereby changing things up for each of the six rounds; and, you never know what will happen that might affect your team of freaks when he draws something out of his bag of tricks. You win the game by having the most victory points earned for killing and destroying other players' freaks, aliens, droids, turrets, bunkers, and home bases, and for completing missions assigned by mission cards that you draw and select from a pool of three in your hand--you'll want to complete missions if you can because it's an easy way to get more lethally cool stuff from sponsor cards. Perhaps, my favorite way to earn victory points was the inclusion of a central "king-of-the-hill" location, where, if you occupied that deadly central ground until the end of your turn, you earned victory points for surviving. Completing a mission on your turn also earns you a sponsor card. These sponsor cards give you special powers or cool instruments of death to use, the power to summon an alien or a droid to add to your team, or, you can use them to build defensive turrets and a neat safe-haven bunker where an your freak can retreat. For example, I remember that one of these sponsor card gave me an "Antimatter Detonator" which, in one blow, I used it to kill off a gaggle of other players' freaks, aliens and droids, all who had stupidly crowded together unknowingly awaiting their deaths at my hand.

Perhaps, however, the best feature of Space Freaks, is that every game is truly unique since you choose and craft your team of three freaks' body parts. Each of the arms, torso, and legs that you can choose for your team all offer special powers, such as ranged attacks, movement, melee bonuses, extra hit points, defenses, and more. But, your head is especially special. As one of my friends said while we were playing, "don't forget to use your head." I often did. Whereas you get to choose your freaky body parts, heads are randomly selected in the beginning of the game. A Head, of which there are many in the “head deck,” allows your team of three freaks to break game rules even further and add in even more special powers. Sometimes, the game even introduces mid-game head changes where you'll literally lose your head, and must exchange it for another one, requiring a new strategy.

Space Freaks's generous offering of game states, tactical choices, random elements, freak types, weapons, arena conditions, missions, and terrain elements is so deep that I doubt that anyone will soon exhaust its possibilities before tiring of the game--the game feels fresh for every play because of how many choices you have. One notable example of the game's many different ways to make the game feel fresh for every play is its double-side game board, allowing a terrain choice to change up game play.

Awkward in that I felt that the game was missing a dice based combat system when combat occurred, rather, combat in Space Freaks is determinative and based upon the combat stats of your freaks, the arena conditions, and/or the combined use of your sponsor cards. It also depends upon your opponent's freak's defenses. In some instances, attacking another player's freaks could even cause you rebound damage. I kept thinking where are the dice, but, as I learned Space Freak's combat system, the streamlined deterministic combat approach allowed for very quick rounds and combat resolution. It felt right because the game flowed quickly toward the end and we wanted to setup again for another game.

I look forward to exploring more of this game. It's a gem at any price and a real bargain at its current price. I'm going to keep a lookout for the upcoming expansion if it makes it over here from Finland.
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Last edit: 16 Nov 2018 23:52 by stoic.
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17 Nov 2018 00:06 - 17 Nov 2018 00:08 #286312 by Michael Barnes
Yeah, I think that one is going to have the “Black Fleet Effect”...IE it goes on clearance and everybody is like WTF we slept on a really good game.

I played Forbidden Sky tonight. It’s neat! I think Leacock must have been messing with one of those kids Snap Circuit kits and thought “hey, there’s a game here”. My son is over the moon for it, he declared it his favorite game.
Last edit: 17 Nov 2018 00:08 by Michael Barnes.

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17 Nov 2018 00:23 #286313 by Space Ghost
I like Space Freaks quite a bit -- if for no other reason, the pink box.

In other Freek news, I am almost done assembling the Speed Freeks -- hopefully can play next week.
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17 Nov 2018 13:59 - 17 Nov 2018 14:01 #286319 by Shellhead
Played a couple of games with the monthly group. First, our table played a really long five-player game of Slasher: the Final Cut. Each player is playing a victim in a small house where a slasher is running amok. The players can't attack the slasher unless enough clue tokens get played on a player to make it seem like that player is really the slasher. Nobody became the slasher in our game and I was the last one killed. A couple of the people at our table were struggling with the slightly fiddly draw and discard rules, so I houseruled on the spot that each player gets to refill their hand at the end of their own turn. That probably made the game run a little long, as people had more defense cards on hand to prevent damage. But the game was mostly dragged out to the 3-hour mark by all the interruptions. People going upstairs for snax, beverages, bathroom, or smoke breaks, in a game where every player has a chance to play a plot twist card every turn. Slasher is just a 2-hour game if every stays close to the table.

Then the host brought out his beer-scented set of Warhammer Quest 1st edition. He bought it in great condition at a charity auction at GenCon last August, for $240, but spilled his beer on it the first time we played. A couple of us played our characters from the previous time, including my wizard Jerry Potter. The second quest was somewhat easier then the first, but I nearly got whacked this time due to some sloppy teamwork.

The other table played a surprisingly long game of Settlers, and then a really loud co-op game that I posted about here a few months, featuring frantic attempts to repair a spaceship before it gets sucked into a black hole.

The host invites 125 people every time, and we consistently get 8 to 12 players, but it's different people every time. Aside from the host and myself, most people showing up have geeky interests but very limited exposure to boardgames aside from the family boardgame classics. Everybody seems to be having fun, but it might be better for the newer players if I brought shorter games next time.
Last edit: 17 Nov 2018 14:01 by Shellhead.

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17 Nov 2018 14:36 #286321 by hotseatgames
Started a campaign of the SEAL Team Flix expansion last night... the first of many campaigns I will surely run during testing. I'm playing on Operator and so far, no one has died. These new side boards... they are crazy hard. You will need a steady hand, friends.
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17 Nov 2018 15:10 #286323 by stoic

Shellhead wrote: Then the host brought out his beer-scented set of Warhammer Quest 1st edition.


Wait, they're not all beer-scented? LOL.
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17 Nov 2018 16:28 #286332 by Hadik
Taught Battle for Rokugon to some friends last night, all of them gamers. It went over great. It’s such a solid game. I’m glad I read Matt DPs review and chose it for the group.

I made a bit of an error in setting up the game, and did not realize it until the third turn. At that point I just let it go. Actually turned out fine.

Normally there’s a lot of table talk but everyone got quiet and focused intensely on placing their combat tokens. Then the flip and resolution phase was punctuated by groans and laughs. It was not as big a hit as Camp Grizzly which I taught them last month, but they had a good time.

It’s the second time I have ever taught a game and I’m happy overall with how it went. Except for my screwup. But live and learn.
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17 Nov 2018 19:43 #286340 by WadeMonnig
Jeebus. Stoic just wrote the latest edition of Discount Dive. Somebody publish that on the front page :)
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