The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Jow wrote:

I was the biggest Lang fanboy back in the Chaos in the Old World days. CitOW was probably my favorite tabletop to whip out back then and I even got to play a game with Eric one year at GenCon many moons ago.

Because of my delight with CitOW I backed both Blood Rage and Rising Sun at the top tiers. Blood Rage got 5-10 plays, Rising Sun quite a few less than that, and I didn't even look at Ankh. Those designs just didn't hold up for me like some of my other favorites because I felt like they try to do too many things while doing none of them particularly well, with the high-quality minis being the selling point above gameplay. Aeoringas said it well: the first two games suffered identity crises and it sounds like Ankh is in the same boat. I'd definitely look at his future designs but they're no longer immediate Kickstarters, minis/loaded stretch goals or not.

Exactly so. I really do think the minis in Lang's later games got out of control, and as Trichy says, they really don't do much on the map board. That has to be one of the biggest mistakes of this series; the onis for Rising Sun were gorgeous, but they barely did anything. And then getting the minis in and out of their specialized boxes was a chore in and of itself.

CitOW totally still holds up in a way Blood Rage and its brothers doesn't, but that seems to have been Lang's high water mark. Still, we should all be so lucky to have designed a game like that.

Natus wrote:

Exactly so. I really do think the minis in Lang's later games got out of control, and as Trichy says, they really don't do much on the map board. That has to be one of the biggest mistakes of this series; the onis for Rising Sun were gorgeous, but they barely did anything. And then getting the minis in and out of their specialized boxes was a chore in and of itself.

CitOW totally still holds up in a way Blood Rage and its brothers doesn't, but that seems to have been Lang's high water mark. Still, we should all be so lucky to have designed a game like that.

Until you mentioned the specialized boxes I'd completely forgotten about that - what a pain. I considered getting the broken token organizer to remedy that issue but with $200 already socked into a game I wasn't playing, it didn't make sense. Ultimately I really don't want to get rid of it because the components are consistently gorgeous across the board... just a shame it wasn't a better game.

CitOW - it absolutely does hold up, nearly 15 years (!) later. My copy is vy far the most beat-up/loved thing in my collection: box falling apart, most of the cultist symbols broken off the figures, etc yet I'd still gladly play it again in a heartbeat.

I do wonder what he's up to now that he got that trilogy out of the way.

Natus wrote:
PuzzleBound wrote:
trichy wrote:

Memoir44: Enough people have called this a classic that I decided to finally give it a go, but man, what a letdown. One player plays the Axis, the other the Allies, in stripped down recreations of D-Day battles. In addition to the obvious discomfort of the theme, this was so simplified that it felt like a war game designed for twelve year old kids. Nothing was interesting, games ended without anything really challenging or thoughtful happening, and it just felt so very, very dated. Big flop.

I had the exact same experience at a con a few years ago. Based on the public perception I've always assumed we were playing it wrong or there's a lot of hidden depth we didn't pick up on. Glad to hear I'm not the only one befuddled by this one.

Honestly, I think Memoir '44 has been obsoleted by other games, especially Combat Commander. Yes, if you want some thematic granularity, the Middle East and Russian expansions help, but I haven't played my copy for years and years, whereas I play C&C: Ancients and Medieval as often as I can.

I like memoir '44 because it's a game I can play with my dad, not usually a gamer and it's simple enough that he gets it and enjoys. That's enough for me. It is simple enough for my lad (11) too, though I might pick a cheap copy of first edition Battlelore for that purpose, memoir '44 with fantasy theme by the looks. Then bonus... my dad and my son will have a choice of game to play together. Awww.

Saying all that the new C&C Samurai version is in convention bring n buy for 40 quid, not a bad price... Tempts...

Also played Nemesis Lockdown yesterday, more later on that. Basically for me it's good and bad in pretty much equal measure.

Spirit island, played properly for first time, brilliant, want to play asap again!

Re: Lang:

My friends and I enjoy Blood Rage and play it at least once a year, either in person or on TTS. It's fun, but I do dislike the victory point formula for winning a game where you could feel like you dominated the battles but somehow lost the war.

I backed Rising Sun for all gameplay options but I've only played it once, at 4p. It didn't do much for me, or any of us as I recall.

Didn't back Ankh. Played it once, left me cold.

Mr. Lang was at BGGCon in November so I spotted him in the flesh a couple times.

I played New Angeles at the Bad Moon Cafe today after a 2+ year break from doing so. It's a negotiation game with a traitor mechanic built in. It's certainly not for everyone and plays best with 5-6 players, but if you like subterfuge within the confines of a board game then I'd recommend you take a look if you get the opportunity to play it.

Aeoringas wrote:

I played New Angeles at the Bad Moon Cafe today after a 2+ year break from doing so. It's a negotiation game with a traitor mechanic built in. It's certainly not for everyone and plays best with 5-6 players, but if you like subterfuge within the confines of a board game then I'd recommend you take a look if you get the opportunity to play it.

Is it out of print? That description does sound quite good.

Edit: Looks like it's in stock at several stores.

I haven't done a kickstarter in a long time, but Tang Garden's expansion broke my streak. Absolutely love that game and eager to get my hands on the new stuff.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Re: Lang:

My friends and I enjoy Blood Rage and play it at least once a year, either in person or on TTS. It's fun, but I do dislike the victory point formula for winning a game where you could feel like you dominated the battles but somehow lost the war.

I backed Rising Sun for all gameplay options but I've only played it once, at 4p. It didn't do much for me, or any of us as I recall.

Didn't back Ankh. Played it once, left me cold.

Almost Identical experience. I dig Blood Rage and it gets at least 1 play a year but it's not perfect and I often find i make sure to tell people what things they should look for in the draft to thwart me.

I've played Rising Sun twice and it's probably my biggest Kickstarter dud and I steered well clear of the Ankh KS.

A friend backed Ankh, I played it once and don't feel the need to play again.

I finally got around to playing Ark Nova and I found to be a very entertaining game, if a tad long. 3 hours with 10 minute rules explanation, which is quite a period of time. Nevertheless I did not think it outstayed its welcome at all and I had a lot of fun with making an impressive zoo that featured such delights as a donkey, pony and, wait for it, a dingo! Yes, hordes of people were lining up outside to see these ever so exotic animals. Oh I did have an alligator enclosure as well to balance things out.

I also played Dead Reckoning, a game I was Kickstartled by last week. It's essentially a 4x game with players sailing the high seas trying to gain reputation by doing exceptional things. Not bad, but not so keen on the combat system that uses tumbling cubes to determine the outcome of combat. No I'm not referring to dice here, I am actually talking about cubes.

It does, however, use the deck building system that I believe first appeared in Mystic Vale in that you create sub-abilities within cards to building ever more powerful ones. It works to a point until you realise that some cards become thicker than others, leading to some issues when shuffling a deck honestly.

bhchrist - Your reviews got me looking at Roll Player Adventures. You said something about a personal backstory add-on? Which one is that? But I think you also recommended picking a pre-made character. Would love to hear more.

Had a friend over this afternoon and we played another game of Tang Garden, this time with the ghost expansion. It's good stuff. Really looking forward to the new expansions in Seasons. One of my favorite games.

We also had time to squeeze in a couple of rounds of Undaunted. This time with Snipers and Mortars. The game definitely got more interesting the further in we got in the missions. The first couple of missions are kinda barebones but the new scenarios are more interesting and spicy. Good stuff.

He also brought over his copy of Under falling skies which I am really looking forward to trying.

So... this arrived.

I've played one solo and one two player game so far. I REALLY like it.

IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/725379353117982731/955145095747862678/IMG_6859.jpg?width=1720&height=1290)

Got back into board gaming after a long absence - concentrating on solo games for now as I don't really know anyone else who plays.

Thought I'd start with some flight, so started a Target for Today campaign with a test run. It's a chart heavy WW2 bomber game, and there's also simple(ish) calculations involved, but it had a story to it...

Hit target in Rouen, but copped some flak on the way back knocking out my radio operator's heated suit. This gives him a chance of frostbite, so dropped out of formation to fly back under 10,000 feet, keeping him warm but also greatly increasing chance of interception. Got back to England with 3 working engines and a wounded tailgunner.

Should play a lot smoother now I know more of what I'm doing, so back to the skies for a full campaign !

Orphu wrote:

So... this arrived.

I've played one solo and one two player game so far. I REALLY like it.

IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/725379353117982731/955145095747862678/IMG_6859.jpg?width=1720&height=1290)

I still have an original Dark Tower board game but it doesn't work properly.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I still have an original Dark Tower board game but it doesn't work properly.

... I have spare parts, and I think you're local to me.

My Return to Dark Tower is due to arrive on Saturday. Very excited.

merphle wrote:

My Return to Dark Tower is due to arrive on Saturday. Very excited.

I'm having a ton of fun with it. I think it's a bit easy for solo play, but there are ways to make it harder.

The component quality is over the top. Luxurious!

Orphu wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

I still have an original Dark Tower board game but it doesn't work properly.

... I have spare parts, and I think you're local to me.

I wouldn't know what to replace though. It's all good, not like I'd put a lot of time into playing it if it did work.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I wouldn't know what to replace though. It's all good, not like I'd put a lot of time into playing it if it did work.

Cool, cool. DM me if you change your mind. I'd probably even fix it for fun.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

bhchrist - Your reviews got me looking at Roll Player Adventures. You said something about a personal backstory add-on? Which one is that? But I think you also recommended picking a pre-made character. Would love to hear more.

Sorry. been off the forums for a bit. It is Nefras's Judgement (the expansion, that is). Given that the designer is a local for me, I had a chance to chat with him and his wife and get a tour of Thunderworks games. His mindset is the same as my playing group has been (Me, my best mate. and my 19 year old son). All about the story. Nefras's adds personal story moments into the base games at various adventuring levels. We added it later, at level 3, but, we added my son at the same time as well, and none of our personal quests started until then.

You can run an actually Roll Player build, but personally, I think the game is balanced around a pre-gen. There has been some call for a harder version, and I think Keith is conflicted with appeasing the min maxers and continuing to develop games (Tenpenny Park looks GOOD). For us, it is all about the story and RP. We have made decisions based on prior choices and delegated to the race of the PC in certain instances (no spoilers). I think it is so well done. Would be able to say more if my buddy didn't get Covid, so our sessions have been suspended.

TLDR: I think a lot of thought has gone into the pre-gens, and I think that is the way to go. Jump into it.

Aeoringas wrote:

I played New Angeles at the Bad Moon Cafe today after a 2+ year break from doing so. It's a negotiation game with a traitor mechanic built in. It's certainly not for everyone and plays best with 5-6 players, but if you like subterfuge within the confines of a board game then I'd recommend you take a look if you get the opportunity to play it.

Really enjoyed this game the long time ago I played it. The whole mechanic of secret rivals is great. It makes semi coop work. As you all want the city to thrive but don't want anyone else to do better then you. Then add in a possible traitor and it really feels like a political knife fight

Re: all this Blood Rage conversation...

My biggest issue with the game is the drafting system that's both hidden information and requires drafting something useful before your opponent even if it doesn't work for you.

We've experimented with a Small World style drafting system where you just lay all the cards out for the round, left to right, and draft in public. Card farthest left is free, anything to the right requires you to put 1 VP on each card until you get to the one you want, and then anyone drafting a card with VP on it gets all that VP.

Helps reduce the randomness and makes it a bit harder to be sneaky (but better for bluffing). We never got to do it enough to feel solid in it, has anyone else tried that?

(BGA - Beyond the Sun & Space Base; physical Roll Player: Adventure and Earth added to watch lists)

Hey Y'all,

I'm looking for a favour.

One of the designs I'm working on is just about ready to hand off to the creatives that have the IP for art and layout, etc.

I'm looking to get some more blind playtest feedback around the mechanics and readability of the alpha manual so we can determine what sections will need examples of play added for clarity.

Anyone interested in a print and play of the greybox prototype please shoot me a PM.

Even just giving the manual a read through would be helpful if you don't have time/inclination to prep a print and play.

The game is a light point salad where Corporations jostle for control of a Dieselpunk dystopia by accumulating assets and resources and trying to fill hidden agendas to see their chosen factions in control of different parts of the city.

For a bit of flavour:

How does one join the GWJ group on BGA? Finally I'm premium'ed up and would love to play some games that I'm bad at!

Carlbear95 wrote:

How does one join the GWJ group on BGA? Finally I'm premium'ed up and would love to play some games that I'm bad at!

I've sent you an invite, let me know if you have any issues joining and I'll try and sort it out.

Neutrino wrote:
Carlbear95 wrote:

How does one join the GWJ group on BGA? Finally I'm premium'ed up and would love to play some games that I'm bad at!

I've sent you an invite, let me know if you have any issues joining and I'll try and sort it out.

Got it thanks!

Completed my 100th Beyond the Sun game on Board Game Arena, celebrating by posting a new GWJ game, new techs: https://en.boardgamearena.com/table?...

I have a Steam key for "Scythe: Digital Edition" that I don't want. If a non-grinder here wants it, let me know. First come and like that.

I'm going to offer it to my brother who plays it all the time in a couple days if no one here grabs it. He may have a friend who wants it. If he doesn't want it, then I'll put it in the Keys thread here.

-BEP

Played the first two scenarios of Vagrantsong last night. It’s good fun, and looks just lovely on the table.
We won both games, but not without tension–the way the haints act really builds fear (especially if you don’t read ahead about what they might do). Second scenario was also rather tougher than the first.

Vagrants in play are the Wayfarer, Runaway, and Songsmith. Each felt quite different in their abilities and strengths.

Looking forward to some more, although not sure when we’ll manage it.