The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Bunny Kingdom is very good. Own it and have played it on Tabletop Sim. So well done.

My wife and I were visiting Victoria, BC this weekend and spent several hours at Interactivity killing time before the ferry home. We crashed through 5 new games in quick succession.

First was Queendomino, a version of Kingdomino (tile laying territory builder) with a bit more going on. It adds town spaces to the mix, a set of buildings to buy, money, taxes, a queen to attract and a dragon to bribe into destroying unclaimed buildings. I enjoy the base Kingdomino and I thought Queendomino messed with the formula too much. If the extra bits were optional modules there might be something to that maybe.

Next was Azul Stained Glass of Sintra. This is sort of a sequel to Azul (a clever drafting and piece placement game). It's prettier, its got a little more interaction and strategy to it. Ultimately I think its a better version of that base game with some clever mechanics to force you to make some tough choices while keeping things moving. I'd play a bunch more of this and would happily trade my copy of Azul for it. It's the better game.

The tables in the cafe are named for various games. Ours was Isle of Skye which we had never played so we tried it out. They took the core gameplay of Carcassonne (drafting tiles and figuring out the best placement for them) and added some complexity. You draw 3 tiles every turn, set a price for two of them secretly and also secretly decide on one to sell. Your opponents find out which they can buy from you, for how much, and which you've decided to ditch when everyone lifts the screen. So then you buy and place tiles on your island following some of the same strategy as Carcassonne. I didn't really like it. It was ok but Carcassonne did it better.

Then we played an archaeology game I can't remember the name of, something to do with Scarabs. It's by Blue Orange games (makers of the beautiful Photosynthesis). I think it's aimed at kids. You set up a dig grid that has scarabs printed on it. Then you reveal a Tetris piece every turn and decide where to place it on your grid. You want to surround the scarabs with these pieces in such a way that you have them 'trapped' in a 1-4 square space, with more points per scarab with the bigger 4 space area. It was simple and amusing. I'd play it again but I wouldn't seek it out.

Last was Morels a game about finding, cooking, and selling mushrooms. A deck of mushroom cards is laid out in a line that marches to the right every turn, dropping unclaimed cards off the right while drawing new ones on the left. You want to collect large sets of cards while managing a too-small hand size. It was more stressful than I expected and I wouldn't be too interested in giving it another go without some arm twisting.

Crockpot, have you played Blood Rage? I would assume you have. It also features drafting and area control.

Yep! I think I played it around 30-35 times.

Received my Batman Gotham City Chronicles Kickstarter pledge today! I'm a bit bummed that I won't be able to open it until later.

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Pax Unplugged tickets are available now.

My buddy invited me too play Batman this weekend but sadly I have to work.

Looks like i will need to practice self control with Bloodborne if I decide to get it. Everything together costs $320 (plus shipping). The game mechanics look great but that theme is just a eyesore for me. I could just buy a PS4, compound bow (getting back into archery), or a nice video tripod. I'll probably get the base and one expansion. Maybe two expansions.

Crockpot wrote:

My buddy invited me too play Batman this weekend but sadly I have to work.

Looks like i will need to practice self control with Bloodborne if I decide to get it. Everything together costs $320 (plus shipping). The game mechanics look great but that theme is just a eyesore for me. I could just buy a PS4, compound bow (getting back into archery), or a nice video tripod. I'll probably get the base and one expansion. Maybe two expansions. ;)

I'm thinking about canceling because I feel like the all-content cost is just outrageous. I love the video game, and I like some of what I've seen about this board game (though they've shown surprisingly little gameplay detail imho), but this is just crazy. And I hate how CMON markets FOMO. It doesn't scream "we love and respect our customers" to me.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Crockpot wrote:

My buddy invited me too play Batman this weekend but sadly I have to work.

Looks like i will need to practice self control with Bloodborne if I decide to get it. Everything together costs $320 (plus shipping). The game mechanics look great but that theme is just a eyesore for me. I could just buy a PS4, compound bow (getting back into archery), or a nice video tripod. I'll probably get the base and one expansion. Maybe two expansions. ;)

I'm thinking about canceling because I feel like the all-content cost is just outrageous. I love the video game, and I like some of what I've seen about this board game (though they've shown surprisingly little gameplay detail imho), but this is just crazy. And I hate how CMON markets FOMO. It doesn't scream "we love and respect our customers" to me.

I saw somebody on BGG do the math of minis plus cost and you’re still getting an amazing deal... the problem is it’s just too much!

I’m still considering backing everything because i realize if I don’t like it or don’t feel like playing everything i could easily sell and break even, maybe even for a profit!

In other good kickstarter news it sounds like the 7th Continent expansion is almost here! I stop playing 7th continent because I realize that I rather wait for everything to come out. Some of the add one can be added to the Base game.

I finally got the Gloomhaven expansion. I guess the expansion class is considered a “starter class” and can be used whenever you start the base game. According to the rules I can dive in the scenarios but I was hoping Gloomhaven helper would update with the new class probably screwing everything up!

I’ll need to finish up dunwich legacy before diving into this other stuff.

Damnit, still waiting for my Gloomhaven expansion to hit FLGS.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Crockpot, have you played Blood Rage? I would assume you have. It also features drafting and area control.

Did someone say Bloodrage?

I painted a thing the other day

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Nice!

Looks like the grand total for everything Bloodborne is $350.

Should I buy Bloodborne, PS4, compound bow, or a new video tripod?

This is hilarious.

Played Nosedive, the Black Mirror game. I did not think it was good, and I notice it currently has a 4.2/10 on BGG. It's ok, it can still win if enough people buy it.

Spoiler:

In the game, players are competing for social score, and allegedly the people with a low social score can still win if they collect a lot of cards, but that outcome doesn't seem very likely.

Crockpot wrote:

Looks like the grand total for everything Bloodborne is $350.

Should I buy Bloodborne, PS4, compound bow, or a new video tripod?

This is hilarious.

Yeah, insane price. I could manage it, but compared to everything else I could buy for the same price, it seems insane.

Also, I kind of love RPG-simulating games like this, or at least the idea of them, which has led me to buy a bunch of them. More than I can play. I'm leaning towards dropping this one altogether and trying to focus on games I already own.

And to think I could have snagged it for free on PSN months ago.

The complete package is just silly - I wonder what the shipping cost would be for that. Guess their strategy is to make people buy everything by plastering KS Exclusive all over the place, slightly disgusting.
Still, I am looking at the base game, maybe plus Hunters Dream, which seems to be the most interesting add-on. The game itself looks like it could be fun, and it is Bloodborne...

CMON makes good minis and decent games. But, there are outrageously priced sometimes. They put everything out at once because they rarely do secondary runs putting more of a demand on the game if it's good and more fincancial pressure on the backers to get it first run.

Chimalli wrote:

CMON makes good minis and decent games. But, there are outrageously priced sometimes. They put everything out at once because they rarely do secondary runs putting more of a demand on the game if it's good and more fincancial pressure on the backers to get it first run.

We have truely entered the one print run game industry. Oh well!

On a lighter note I played...

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I've had Onitama for awhile and finally got around to play the expansion, Onitama Way of the spirit. The first one adds cards and this one adds a neutral piece, the wind spirit, that switches places with students. Adds a lot of depth for very little rules but I found myself getting the wind spirit away from me because it just add too many things to consider. I think the beauty of Onitama is it's straight forwardness without eliminating thinking too many moves ahead. Chess very the common folk! I still enjoyed it but I think I just prefer the expansion cards unless I want to change things up more.

IMAGE(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/imagepage/img/XGg1klheyWY9i-n5uDo_wQhUN8M=/fit-in/900x600/filters:no_upscale()/pic3639455.jpg)

Meeple Wars is basically a VERY euro war game. Unlike Scythe that has very little combat, Meeple Wars has a ton of combat and rewards aggression. The game is very clever in how you do your moves. You have these buildings with "tech trees" and you move your cube down the tech tree when it eventually hits an action. After that you move your meeples to capture areas and destroy the other player's ton. Very ruthless but very much a euro. I REALLY enjoyed this game and might consider grabbing a copy. The game was very streamlined and quick. The first part is slow but it ramps up very fast. I highly recommend it!

On a fun note my venue, a board game cafe, that I use for my board game group basically told me I can have any free drink on the house since I've been helping grow the community! I'm about to start a second group that meets up on a different night due to high demand. I'm debating about organizing it as a non profit and start a charity along side of it... but that won't be for awhile. I rather grow the community before I start worrying about the logistics of running a non profit. I had a small win when one of my group members told me that she basically been isolated from the world for the last three years since she lost her job and told me the group has helped her with her anxieties. She has two interviews in the next couple of days so hopefully something will turn up! It's very rewarding when people tell me how the group has helped them connect with other people.

Randomly decided to browse the used section of my local game/book store and found Pack & Stack for $12. I've been looking for a copy for years, and the last I saw it was $90 on Amazon.

Delbin wrote:

Randomly decided to browse the used section of my local game/book store and found Pack & Stack for $12. I've been looking for a copy for years, and the last I saw it was $90 on Amazon.

Nice find

Where's the best place to sell games online, BGG or Amazon? I'm looking to offload a few for some extra cash.

trichy wrote:

Where's the best place to sell games online, BGG or Amazon? I'm looking to offload a few for some extra cash.

I just do Craigslist and Facebook and post it on all local board game groups.

On the other hand, you won't find a more densely packed collection of ravenous board game acquirers than BGG.

Not a bad idea to post in the for trade/sale thread here as well. I know I am always looking to fill out my shelves a bit more.

Here's the stuff I know I'm selling right now, but I may add more later.

Eclipse (with ship models, Rise of the Ancients expansion, and Broken Token insert)
Food Chain Magnate (with sleeved cards and Broken Token insert)
Tokaido Deluxe edition
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper and West End Adventures

I'll post in the trade/sale thread as well.

My family played Sushi Roll this weekend. We play Sushi Go (and Sushi Go Party) fairly regularly so figured we'd try the dice version. Overall very similar to the card versions but plays a just little slower as you don't all select your die at the same time but each person does one after the next. This allows for a couple interesting mechanics as before you pick yours you can choose to re-roll or swap a die with another player - assuming you have the chopsticks/menu to do that. The only real down side to this over the card version is that my 7 year old has a tendancy to bump his dice while passing them to the next player and them getting changed to other sides...but he was getting more careful after the first game.

Gearing up for Geekway to the West starting tomorrow and running through Sunday here in St. Louis. I have 23 games on my "to-play" list already. Four solid days of board games have never looked like so little time.

Ugh. I wish I didn’t had to work on this weekend.

Thought some folks might find this video about the process of manufacturing a board game interesting. I did! I got a sort of Reading Rainbow vibe out of it.

It runs like an extended ad for the German manufacturer, LudoFact, but I wasn't too bothered by that.