The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I was therefore quite pleased to see that Dwellings of Eldervale, a hot new Kickstarted game, appears to be available (but momentarily out of print) from the publisher in the exact same pledge levels and blinged versions now that it's out. It's a bit more expensive, which is fair. Crucially, not one thing on their KS page has that damned "Kickstarter Exclusive" icon.

Yeah, I'm circling around for another look at that game, myself.

Keithustus wrote:

Root’s next expansion just launched on KS. Unlike CMON and other companies that use KS to build hype and stretch goals so you can get a bunch of plastic and not a whole lot of game, Leder uses KS without stretch goals and to tailor their production numbers better to demand than using just traditional retail. Great game system, I’ve been satisfied with their past KS launches, and this seems to have a lot of content. There’s a bunch of discussion of it on its BGG page if you need previews and whatnot.

I pledged at the $80 level immediately, since I'm buying almost nothing else at the moment. Not sure that justifies two expansions and some add-ons, but more Root is always a good thing (for now).

Is there an online platform for Dwellings? I assume TTS, of course, which I'm comfortable with. I'd be interested in trying it sometime.

Also, has anyone tried out the new Bloodborne game yet? I got mine recently, but not sure when I'll get around to opening it up and trying it out.

Root expansion and a new Tiny Epic game on the same day ... that got expensive fast but I guess I'm ok with that.

Anyone played PARKS? My copy just arrived.

National Parks are on my bucket list, so I'm hoping this game helps me assemble the order of that list.

Jonman wrote:

Anyone played PARKS? My copy just arrived.

National Parks are on my bucket list, so I'm hoping this game helps me assemble the order of that list.

Yep, a few games (I also only got it recently). Very pretty, very fun little game.

jigsawhc wrote:

Root expansion and a new Tiny Epic game on the same day ... that got expensive fast but I guess I'm ok with that.

I caution you to wait on Tiny Epic Dungeons. I backed Tiny Epic Zombies at the everything level, and it was a mess I regret. I may have even just given it away or maybe sold it, don’t remember. That series does fine at simple games (Galaxies) but with anything at least as complicated as Zombies, that team wasn’t up to it. They were abysmal at rules clarity/succinctness (just one reason conversely that I love love Leder and Root!) and some of the physical production turned out pretty amateurish as well. I was so concerned with Zombies that I even submitted edits to their PnP manual, but it didn’t work out helping them enough.

Maybe it will be a great game, but I’m waiting on retail-edition reviews before giving them money again. Maybe they’ll have a print and play you can access before the pledges are locked in, and can make a well-informed decision before then.

What? Stardew Valley. Available now. https://www.polygon.com/2021/2/23/22...

That's good to know, Keith, as I was eyeing Tiny Epic Dungeons. I love games that represent exploration by flipping random tiles - Betrayal being my first love in this regard. Xia does it in a completely different genre.

Wrath of Ashardalon and other D&D Adventure games did the same room, but almost every tile was a featureless, nondescript stone hallway. Have any of the latter games in that series improved on that?

Can anyone recommend other games with similar mechanics? I thought TED was looking good in that it had plenty of tiles (an issue that Scooby Doo Betrayal has is lack of variety, although that's understandable for the price) that all had unique, attractive art.

I have all the other Tiny Epic games so I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm getting into with Dungeons. Zombies is not my favorite in the series but I did not have the issues with it you did. I do recall the rules not being the best but I was probably distracted by trying to get my meeple to the motorcycle in game

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Can anyone recommend other games with similar mechanics? I thought TED was looking good in that it had plenty of tiles (an issue that Scooby Doo Betrayal has is lack of variety, although that's understandable for the price) that all had unique, attractive art.

Forbidden Sky, the 3rd in the Forbidden co-op series has a map reveal mechanic but still keeps very much in the Forbidden Island/Desert flavor. Plus it has the coolest end of game event in boardgaming

Oh, didn't know there was a 3rd forbidden game. My daughter loves forbidden island but I find it a bit boring. Maybe I should take a look at the new one. Does it add any more complexity to the series?

I would say its definitely more difficult than the first two. The mechanic it does add (basically a 1st grade electrical circuit exercise) is kinda cool but because it is an actual circuit, a bit finicky and non-exact.

If you (or your daughter) enjoyed the first two I'm pretty sure she would like this one as well. If you didn't, then this one isn't going to change your mind. Desert would probably still be my favorite but I enjoy Sky as well, both are better than Island IMO.

Carlbear mentioned it's more difficult but to confirm: It's significantly more complex. You have to juggle 2 different safety resources (health: impacted by lightning strikes, rope: impacted by wind) and there are different ways to account for each one but they will likely be a constant danger. Overall the complexity adds to the fun but you definitely feel the difficulty right from the beginning. It's a game you'll likely lose once or twice or more before really grokking the strategy which is less intuitive than the others.

Overall the play area feels more 'solid' as you discover it (since it's not sinking/getting buried in sand) but more dangerous to explore.

Also, it has really cool circuits / rocket components.

Yeah, agreed with Jolly Bill's points. I was going to add that I'm pretty sure we beat Island and Desert on the first try at least on Easy, and whatever the next level is. It took at least 2-3 tries even on the easiest level to beat Sky, and I think at least one attempt it wasn't close.

I also agree with the points above. My general opinion is the Forbidden Sky is really hard and unforgiving. It's not that fun as a result.

Just had HeroQuest The Card Game delivered! Haven’t been so excited about a board game I haven’t looked at preview material for since...ever? Just unboxing now so will edit later with some thoughts once I’ve given it a thorough look through.

But first, it automatically gets a big deduction: dice I need to apply stickers to myself, ugh. I spent money so some machine would do that for me.

IMAGE(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/J0oiEgjL7lmk1J4AiExffQ__imagepage/img/BcEnlL4g7jfcuLimksVqyOxNJro=/fit-in/900x600/filters:no_upscale():strip_icc()/pic5949484.jpg)

Woo! My group finished Pandemic Legacy Season 0 last night. Great fun–especially the last few games.

Fortunately we saved the world, but there were a couple of stings in the final bits of our story. We didn't get the *best* result so that's fair.

Lots of cool spy stuff happened and the connections to seasons 1 & 2 were well done.

Definitely recommend, it was a great closer to the series.

(Next up, The King's Dilemma...)

Anyone here play Cthulhu: Death May Die? I'm hoping to learn it via TTS.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone here play Cthulhu: Death May Die? I'm hoping to learn it via TTS.

I have played exactly one game. It didn't seem to complicated, it the character level up system is a lot of fun.

MikeSands wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone here play Cthulhu: Death May Die? I'm hoping to learn it via TTS.

I have played exactly one game. It didn't seem to complicated, it the character level up system is a lot of fun.

So TheWalt and I actually got someone to teach us tonight! It was fun. I'm not convinced after one play that I need to own it, but I might try it again.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

So TheWalt and I actually got someone to teach us tonight! It was fun. I'm not convinced after one play that I need to own it, but I might try it again.

Yeah, I was left with a similar impression. I had fun, and I like some of the things it did, but I wasn't immediately wanting to jump in to another game.

Anyone play Legends of Andor? I have read it is quite a good puzzle which appeals. For solo at the moment, maybe with the boy.

MikeSands wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

So TheWalt and I actually got someone to teach us tonight! It was fun. I'm not convinced after one play that I need to own it, but I might try it again.

Yeah, I was left with a similar impression. I had fun, and I like some of the things it did, but I wasn't immediately wanting to jump in to another game.

For a while now I've regretted not backing it, and have felt like it was the one that got away. Pretty much every boardgaming podcast I listen to adores CDMD, which has been torture to listen to.

I may try playing it again just to make sure, but right now I feel like I'm fine with having Mansions of Madness fill this particular role in my collection. It's longer and less streamlined than CDMD, but it also builds a lot of atmosphere using the app.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

Anyone play Legends of Andor? I have read it is quite a good puzzle which appeals. For solo at the moment, maybe with the boy.

I remember enjoying it a lot with my wife but it was many years ago so I can't really remember what about it was fun.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

Anyone play Legends of Andor? I have read it is quite a good puzzle which appeals. For solo at the moment, maybe with the boy.

I have it and liked the idea, but my group kinda bounced off of it hard so it didn't get much play. As I remember from our few plays, I'd call it more of an optimization game than a puzzle game. You have a limited about of time to meet the goal and you can't do everything the game is asking you to do. So you have to decide what to prioritize and what to let go of and hope the thing that you ignored doesn't end the game before you do.

A couple of my players were going "well if it didn't want us to go stop the goblins then why have the goblins there?"

And it's possible we had something wrong; we tried one scenario twice and that was it. And we were drinking at the time.

Cheers both, maybe more investigation needed before any purchase. I saw a dinged box copy on sale for a lil over 20 quid and wondering if worth it.

Double post, it's been a while.

My copy of Oath arrived this week, and I managed to get a first game in yesterday.

Components are absolutely lovely, a cut above Root (which is also great there).

The game was a bit confusing for everyone to get their head around. I suspect you need a couple of games to be able to understand how everything interacts. That said, I had a great time anyhow.

I played the Chancellor (as the game owner and one who had researched how to play). First couple of turns were building up capacity until enough exiles had figured out how to go for the main goal or found a vision for a personal one. I was stomping exiles close to victory, and offered citizenship to one to help shore up the empire. That worked pretty well, except that on the end of round five (the first and least possible time for the game to end)... the game ended. The empire won, but the citizen held the successor condition so my regime was overthrown and the empire continues under alternative leadership. So much for my plan in the next term to make sure the citizen wasn't getting above themselves...

I enjoyed doing the end of game chronicle step where you set up the starting condition for the next play. We rearranged the regions of the kingdom, added mostly "discord" cards to the world deck, and selected the win condition for the next game. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens!

One thing I found interesting is the way the world deck evolves: it's 54 (or so) cards, and each time you remove 6 from the discards/hands of losing players and add 6 new ones based on the winner's hand. However, I'd say we only saw about 30 or so cards in that game anyhow (although I guess that would have been more if play went longer). So the evolution of the kingdom's card deck based on games is going to be fairly subtle and gradual. The changes to the map are much more obvious: the winner's regions remain in play as the next game's empire, preserving cards in play and with the addition of a special extra picked by the winner.

Nice! We had a group of Goodjers who tried Oath on TTS during its campaign, and we had a good time. I hope my friends and I enjoy it when my copy arrives.

I've started to be concerned that it occupies a weird place where it's not exactly a game where every session is its own discrete event, nor a Legacy game with a written story of a particular length. Instead it has what you might call an emergent story, and it's likely to feel weird playing a session with different players than the previous session, especially if the winner is absent.

Still, I had fun playing it the one time I did, and the art of course can't be beaten.

I think that playing with different groups will be okay, but it will definitely mean you feel like you're experiencing just certain chapters of a history and not everything.

The notebook included in the Kickstarter edition looks like it will be a good thing for that... It provides lots of room to record what happened and what changed.