The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Finally got a game of Eclipse in tonight, and I'm totally hooked.

Was only 3 players, and we stopped at round 6, but I'm loving this thing.

Got the college gaming club to pick up a copy, and now I'm responsible for piece management - gonna grab two Plano 3500s and 6 Plano 3448s, and someone posted an svg file that you can upload to outfab.com to print out 15 cube trays for cheaper than all the other options out there.

McIrishJihad wrote:

Uh...so now I feel like an ass, because all my posts in this thread today were from my time at Unity XIX, and I didn't post anything in the Boston Area GWJers thread...

*shakes fist at the sky*

I wouldn't have been able to go because I had to do work stuff that morning

*shakes fist at the sky even harder*

shoptroll wrote:
McIrishJihad wrote:

Uh...so now I feel like an ass, because all my posts in this thread today were from my time at Unity XIX, and I didn't post anything in the Boston Area GWJers thread...

*shakes fist at the sky*

I wouldn't have been able to go because I had to do work stuff that morning

*shakes fist at the sky even harder*

Eh, we showed up at 3:30 and still got three solid games in before midnight. The place was still about 1/4 to 1/3 packed at 11:30 when they made last call.

For those that need a little nudge of things that can be made a artscow, here is a geeklist of pre-made decks that others have done the heavy lifting for you.

MonoCheli wrote:

For those that need a little nudge of things that can be made a artscow, here is a geeklist of pre-made decks that others have done the heavy lifting for you.

Oh yeah I meant to respond to this. I bought the Forbidden Island cards a while back and they're wonderful. This is a great deal and a great way to either add life to an existing game or build your own game.

Picked up Flash Point a couple of days ago; wow. Good game. I've played a couple of rounds solo and almost a full round with my 3 and 5 year old sons. We all like it, and my 5 year-old picked up almost immediately. Heck, so did my 3 year-old - he just doesn't have the attention span yet.

We're still playing the family game, but I'm going to try the advanced rules and see how that goes.

MonoCheli wrote:

For those that need a little nudge of things that can be made a artscow, here is a geeklist of pre-made decks that others have done the heavy lifting for you.

Thanks! I meant to see if I'd saved that somewhere, but you've saved me the trouble! The one time I used artscow cards (for Railways of Mexico,) they were great!

In other news, I'm finally starting to play board games with my 3 year old daughter. So far it's just been Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, and Loopin' Louie, but I'm hoping for years of gaming in the future. We'll see!

Reading this over, I see the punctuation of the day is the exclamation point! Yes!

So finally got a chance to do a couple of turns of Netrunner with a friend last night. I came to realize that it could be pretty easy for the Runner to kill himself if he falls into a trap and doesn't have sufficient resources on hand. The game seems to be all about resource management for both sides, but I believe that it is particularly critical for the runner. Unfortunately we didn't have more time to finish a game (hopefully this weekend).

So can someone explain the whole deckbuilding aspect of Netrunner? I mean, I get you can pick different corps and runners (the "pre-made" decks). But am I right in assuming you can put together a deck with whatever cards you like as long as you conform to the size and influence rules? Are there strategies or themes that can be implemented through deck customization? I get the concept in magic (burn deck, hand destruction deck, creature control deck, etc.) but can that idea be applied to Netrunner. I just don't know the cards well enough yet to see those kind of trends.

Nevin73 wrote:

So finally got a chance to do a couple of turns of Netrunner with a friend last night. I came to realize that it could be pretty easy for the Runner to kill himself if he falls into a trap and doesn't have sufficient resources on hand. The game seems to be all about resource management for both sides, but I believe that it is particularly critical for the runner. Unfortunately we didn't have more time to finish a game (hopefully this weekend).

Yes, it's very easy for the Runner to die by no fault of their own: running a fort with no information, no protection and no cards in your hand for instance and running into a nasty piece of ice or ambush agenda/asset. We almost had this happen this weekend when Demyx made a near last ditch effort to run a fort I had been using for advancing agenda. Much to her surprise I had parked a Snare! card there, and managed to flatline her with it.

So can someone explain the whole deckbuilding aspect of Netrunner? I mean, I get you can pick different corps and runners (the "pre-made" decks). But am I right in assuming you can put together a deck with whatever cards you like as long as you conform to the size and influence rules? Are there strategies or themes that can be implemented through deck customization? I get the concept in magic (burn deck, hand destruction deck, creature control deck, etc.) but can that idea be applied to Netrunner. I just don't know the cards well enough yet to see those kind of trends.

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: I'll get back to you when I'm not at work and have more time to explain. Unless Natus or someone else jumps in

shoptroll wrote:

Much to her surprise I had parked a Snare! card there, and managed to flatline her with it.

I think it was actually Junebug because you had counters parked on it. I knew it might be a trap but didn't have a choice because given the amount of counters you could've won the next turn it if had been an agenda :p

I'm a total newbie to this whole Netrunner thing but I think the basic idea is just to pick cards that work well together! If you're going to put in expensive ice you'll want Priority Requisitions and good economy cards. Ice that tags and cards that depend on the runner being tagged (like Scorched Earth) obviously go hand in hand. Traps go along with cheaper and less protective ice since the threat of a trap provides additional protection and sometimes you'll want the runner to break in. Right?

Demyx wrote:

I think it was actually Junebug because you had counters parked on it. I knew it might be a trap but didn't have a choice because given the amount of counters you could've won the next turn it if had been an agenda :p

I was parking advancement counters on a completely naked Junebug (1 damage / counter) because I knew you wouldn't run that once you exposed the trap :p You bit on a Snare that I had just installed instead of one of my last agendas sitting in my hand. I was terrified you weren't going to call the bluff and run HQ (my hand) repeatedly.

Amusingly, that was the third Snare you ran into that game, and the only one I actually had bits to trigger the ambush.

Hey, so, since Monocheli finally convinced me (by just sitting there silently mocking me since March) to build my own Dune, has anyone found a good, active PBEM system? Anyone down for a PBEM game if there is?

rabbit wrote:

Hey, so, since Monocheli finally convinced me (by just sitting there silently mocking me since March) to build my own Dune, has anyone found a good, active PBEM system? Anyone down for a PBEM game if there is?

Get your revenge by convincing him to build me one. That'll teach him.

shoptroll wrote:

Long answer: I'll get back to you when I'm not at work and have more time to explain. Unless Natus or someone else jumps in :)

So with NR here's the gist of deckbuilding...

How do you want to win? With the corp this is either via advancing+scoring agenda or killing the runner. For the runner, you're mostly deciding which forts you want to score agendas from: central servers (if so, which one(s)) or remote servers. You can also try and "mill" the corp which triggers their loss condition (corp automatically loses if they have to draw and don't have cards in their deck), but that wasn't terribly viable in the CCG and I don't think it's viable in the LCG yet. This is usually the core decision for a deck as you then pick cards to assist your goal.

The neat wrinkle about A:NR is they added the faction concept. Each faction is tailored toward specific strategies. For example, Haas-Bioroid is about big Ice cards which buys them time to advance their agendas slowly while Weyland is more about big money and fast advancement. You should pick a faction that goes well with your strategy and then pull in cards from the other factions to help augment it. For example, if you're playing NBN you're going to be doing a lot of tracing and tagging, so you'll probably want to bring in Scorched Earth from Weyland to smack the Runner around a bit.

The nice thing about NR is that credits are not faction specific, so unlike M:tG, it is a lot easier to use cards that aren't part of your primary faction.

As for general strategies, here's a few archtypes that I remember from the CCG. It's not as easy to make a really well-oiled deck due to the 3 card limit, but these should be viable strategies in the LCG.

Corp:
Tag n' Bag - Get tags, blow up runner and their resources
Fast Advancement - Really efficient decks geared toward accelerated agenda advancement usually through events, assets, and abilities on scored agendas. (Not sure how viable this is currently)
Ambush - Extensive use of ambush assets/agenda to passively cripple or kill the runner

Runner:
Big Dig - Primarily attack R&D, using cards that allow you to either access more cards than normal or to trash ice and event cards from R&D in order to dig further into the deck. Occasionally hit the discard pile (archives) if there's any blind trashes (ie. via Noise's identity ability).
HQ Attack - Similar to Big Dig, but focused on the corp's hand. Increasing the number of cards accessed is a plus here. Can be fairly disruptive and lets you know what's coming up.

In addition, general things like choosing cards that work well together, a good amount of economy cards, and overall efficiency are good things to do as well.

Thanks for the tips. We're still learning the core game but I'm sure we'll want to dive further into the deck building mechanics.

Speaking of Netrunner, the Geek Nights guys just did an impression episode a few weeks back.

Rym and Scott aren't for everyone, but I like them (especially at 1.5x speed as podcasts on my phone).

Cross post from the Michigan S&T thread:

We played:

Lords of Waterdeep
----
Cpt, Jow and I played this one, which ended up being decided by literally one point in my favor over Jow. There may have been a series of manuevers Jow could have accomplished on the last turn that would have led him to victory...but he didn't see the path forward at the time. It was only his first time so I think he'll crush us next time. There were a lot of intrigue cards acquired and played this time around, making it a bit more flavorful and interactive that the usual Waterdeep game.

Reiner Knizia's Modern Art
----
Jow taught myself, KingSolKanar, Cpt and Mrs. Cpt this fun auction game. I haven't played a Knizia game I didn't like, and this was definitely no exception since I also love auction games. I ended up pulling this one out in the end by a narrow margin over Jow again fueled by THE RISE OF KRYPTO and mainly making my money by being a seller, not a big buyer throughout the game.

Libertalia
----
Finally got this to the table after getting it for Christmas. The four of us (minus Jow who had to duck out) had a great time playing this, and it went by a lot faster/smoother than I thought based on the aborted game Cpt and I were a part of during PenCon (I think that one took over an hour for the first week, and this one took an hour for the entire three weeks including 2 completely new players). I got an early lead with careful use of night power cards and ended up coasting to a victory since the last round didn't yield many points for anyone due some weak booty and low yield characters.

After tonight, I think a chess clock or that cube is in our future for the next game night.

Played Android: Netrunner for the first time last night at Johnvanjim's board game night. And now I own it. And Flash Point. Beginning to think about heroin as an alternate habit; it would help with weight loss, plus would probably be cheaper.

rabbit wrote:

Hey, so, since Monocheli finally convinced me (by just sitting there silently mocking me since March) to build my own Dune, has anyone found a good, active PBEM system? Anyone down for a PBEM game if there is?

This is a great idea. The only issues would be a clean rules set and exactly how to run it PBeM. I know there are some PBForum games going on. The problem is that they all seem to bog down. I wonder if it's just easier to do this sort of thing in real-time?

carrotpanic wrote:

Libertalia
----
Finally got this to the table after getting it for Christmas. The four of us (minus Jow who had to duck out) had a great time playing this, and it went by a lot faster/smoother than I thought based on the aborted game Cpt and I were a part of during PenCon (I think that one took over an hour for the first week, and this one took an hour for the entire three weeks including 2 completely new players). I got an early lead with careful use of night power cards and ended up coasting to a victory since the last round didn't yield many points for anyone due some weak booty and low yield characters.

Really? I missed that one. We played it Saturday morning at PenCon, 5-player game, no one had played it before so I read the rules aloud, and it still only took us an hour for the full trip. I love this game; it's one of my new faves.

Yesterday we played some games but not really anything new. I did get in my first five-person game of Small World though. It was fun, but suffered from some players' analysis paralysis, especially since the most AP prone of the players picked the Sorcerer race and didn't understand how it worked.

Also, 7 Wonders with leaders which I really like now that I've played it a few times.

Minarchist wrote:
carrotpanic wrote:

Libertalia
----
Finally got this to the table after getting it for Christmas. The four of us (minus Jow who had to duck out) had a great time playing this, and it went by a lot faster/smoother than I thought based on the aborted game Cpt and I were a part of during PenCon (I think that one took over an hour for the first week, and this one took an hour for the entire three weeks including 2 completely new players). I got an early lead with careful use of night power cards and ended up coasting to a victory since the last round didn't yield many points for anyone due some weak booty and low yield characters.

Really? I missed that one. We played it Saturday morning at PenCon, 5-player game, no one had played it before so I read the rules aloud, and it still only took us an hour for the full trip. I love this game; it's one of my new faves.

I think it can be explained by the general pencon chaos.

Had some friends over last night (quickly becoming my favorite game group as there are no rule lawyers and no decision paralysis) and we played FRAG. It's an odd little game. The first two rounds are super fun with lots of frags and respawn and just general chaos... but once we hit the third round the game slowed to a crawl. Because one of the players had won 2 rounds, which gave her extra attribute points, she became a walking tank of death that no other players could barely touch. And I can't really see that the game would change if we had played more rounds.

In summation: I did like it and so did the other players, but no more than 2 rounds of it or skip the extra attribute points.

Living in B.C. now and I'm looking for boardgaming goodjers to hang with and lose at boardgames with. Also drink beer with.

carrotpanic wrote:

Libertalia
----
Finally got this to the table after getting it for Christmas. The four of us (minus Jow who had to duck out) had a great time playing this, and it went by a lot faster/smoother than I thought based on the aborted game Cpt and I were a part of during PenCon (I think that one took over an hour for the first week, and this one took an hour for the entire three weeks including 2 completely new players).

I got this for Christmas and have played a few times - I'm still on the fence for some reason. I've heard a lot of people gush over it, and it's just not clicking. There's definitely some interesting mind games going on in what cards to play, which characters to use when, etc., but it feels like I'm always stuck with half my hand being obviously useless for the situation. Maybe this is just one of those games that is mechanically sound, interestingly themed, and well-illustrated, but just doesn't work for me. I really WANT to like it though.

Separate topic - played two games of Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery over the weekend. If you like lots of scheming, negotiation, bloodsport, and other player interaction, Spartacus delivers. It ties into the show source material really well, and is very straightforward and easy to understand and get into. There are three phases each turn. First, players draw and then play Intrigue cards which either enact or (attempt to) prevent a variety of schemes to benefit yourself or screw other players. The interesting twist is that many schemes require more Influence than a single player can have, but other players can support their scheme and lend their Influence to help, thus allowing the card to be played. Second, there's a Market where players trade assets with each other and new gladiators, slaves, and equipment are auctioned off. Finally, there is a gladiator bout in the arena, where two players are invited to participate by the host. Everyone can wager on the outcome, as well as play Intrigue cards to affect the match.

I managed to get to 11 Influence in one game (you win at 12) before the rest of the houses united to bring me down. By the end of the turn my slaves had been stolen and my favored gladiator nearly executed (only his popularity with the crowd saved him). It was agonizing, and yet at the same time awesome.

Highly recommend this game, and it's available for around $25-$28 which is a steal. It also has one of the best-written rulebooks I've ever seen.

If anyone has played both Libertalia and Merchants&Marauders, I'd love a comparison.

GrandmaFunk wrote:

If anyone has played both Libertalia and Merchants&Marauders, I'd love a comparison.

The only thing that is the same between the two games is that they feature pirates. Oh, that and the goal of each game is to win. But otherwise, they are drastically different.

Libertalia is a card game where you're out-planning your opponents using a similar set of resources. M&M is a comprehensive simulation of Sid Meier's Pirates! with ship battles, crew management, questing, trade runs, pirating, etc.

Boudreaux wrote:

Separate topic - played two games of Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery over the weekend. If you like lots of scheming, negotiation, bloodsport, and other player interaction, Spartacus delivers. It ties into the show source material really well, and is very straightforward and easy to understand and get into. There are three phases each turn. First, players draw and then play Intrigue cards which either enact or (attempt to) prevent a variety of schemes to benefit yourself or screw other players. The interesting twist is that many schemes require more Influence than a single player can have, but other players can support their scheme and lend their Influence to help, thus allowing the card to be played. Second, there's a Market where players trade assets with each other and new gladiators, slaves, and equipment are auctioned off. Finally, there is a gladiator bout in the arena, where two players are invited to participate by the host. Everyone can wager on the outcome, as well as play Intrigue cards to affect the match.

I managed to get to 11 Influence in one game (you win at 12) before the rest of the houses united to bring me down. By the end of the turn my slaves had been stolen and my favored gladiator nearly executed (only his popularity with the crowd saved him). It was agonizing, and yet at the same time awesome.

Highly recommend this game, and it's available for around $25-$28 which is a steal. It also has one of the best-written rulebooks I've ever seen.

Oilypenguin got this for us for Christmas. I am unreasonably excited to play it, but also unreasonably ashamed to have it on my shelf. Having never seen the show, it is just embarrassing.

Still, the game part looks amazing.