The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Eclipse is the daily deal at CSI for $54.95. Shipping was about $8.50 to California. Pretty good deal for that game, I hear its fun. Now, I just need to find a group willing to play it.

Maori is likely not going to see a reprint for awhile, if at all, so snag it if you see it.

BassMadMadoo wrote:

Eclipse is the daily deal at CSI for $54.95. Shipping was about $8.50 to California. Pretty good deal for that game, I hear its fun. Now, I just need to find a group willing to play it.

Damnit. Checking out from CSI with $101.97 in the cart...

McIrishJihad wrote:
BassMadMadoo wrote:

Eclipse is the daily deal at CSI for $54.95. Shipping was about $8.50 to California. Pretty good deal for that game, I hear its fun. Now, I just need to find a group willing to play it.

Damnit. Checking out from CSI with $101.97 in the cart...

Well, at least you get free shipping

A Castle for All Seasons get! It looks fantastic. Mrs. Gravey suggested she might play it tonight, but she's been on the phone for ages. Hmmm.

So instead I've spent the evening taking pictures of the also-get Wings of Glory city mat, which is just beautiful. It's like a giant (39" x 27") thin mousepad: lays flat on a rubber back, rolls up easily, and looks amazing doing it. Almost completely covers our coffee table.

IMAGE(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42351335/WoG%20map%201a.jpg)

Detail with some planes:

IMAGE(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42351335/WoG%20map%202a.jpg)

And here it is with two WWI planes (the Red Baron and Roy Brown, woot ) from the Duel Pack I won on BGG:

IMAGE(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42351335/WoG%20map%203a.jpg)

With this level of quality that Ares Games has been at since its inception, I'm envious of you Sails of Glory backers. Those are going to be some damn fine stretch rewards accessories.

Damn that's nice looking. Although I will admit, all it makes me want to do is play a game of X-Wing Miniatures over a forest map with a giant castle in the middle.

Played Sentinels of the Multiverse last night for the first (and second and third) time last night. Really not impressed. The rule stacking got really out of hand at certain points and it seems really "swingy" depending on draw luck, especially for the boss and environment. We had two stomps and one time where we got beaten without doing much damage to the boss at all. Thematically it was fun (who can turn down blowing up a volcano with a rocket propelled grenade) but it didn't satisfy me like Flash Point or Pandemic do from a co-op perspective. I guess it's more up the alley of ccg/lcg fans and I'm not really one of those.

So for tabletop day this weekend I am going to force my family to play non-parker brothers games.

I have played Settlers of Catan (played back to back... first game was fun... second one dragged on for some reason) and Last Night on Earth with them and got mixed results. I purchased Dixit recently though and had fun with the in-laws and a little booze.

It seems as if booze is required to get my wife, sister, and mother to enjoy the games. Us guys (me, dad, brother) all just enjoy the games straight.

Anyone else see similar things when drafting non-gamers?

Also, any suggestions on other games that might work better? I have 8 people at gatherings now but not everyone likes to play all the time. (Joust might go over very well.... but I'm not sure if it counts for this thread and I'm not on the kickstarter.)

High/flexible player count games I love: 7 Wonders (2-7 or 8 depending on expansion), The Resistance (5-10), Saboteur (3-10), Citadels (2-7). Those are all easy to learn/teach and will get the backstabbing fun going (except for 7 Wonders).

carrotpanic wrote:

Played Sentinels of the Multiverse last night for the first (and second and third) time last night. Really not impressed. The rule stacking got really out of hand at certain points and it seems really "swingy" depending on draw luck, especially for the boss and environment. We had two stomps and one time where we got beaten without doing much damage to the boss at all. Thematically it was fun (who can turn down blowing up a volcano with a rocket propelled grenade) but it didn't satisfy me like Flash Point or Pandemic do from a co-op perspective. I guess it's more up the alley of ccg/lcg fans and I'm not really one of those.

Which villains were you playing against? From what I've played it's certainly lighter than other co-op games, but I thought that was part of the fun. It really evoked the feeling of fighting a boss moreso than Legendary did.

carrotpanic wrote:

High/flexible player count games I love: 7 Wonders (2-7 or 8 depending on expansion), The Resistance (5-10), Saboteur (3-10), Citadels (2-7). Those are all easy to learn/teach and will get the backstabbing fun going (except for 7 Wonders).

Dixit definitely goes in this category, sans backstabbing.

carrotpanic wrote:

High/flexible player count games I love: 7 Wonders (2-7 or 8 depending on expansion), The Resistance (5-10), Saboteur (3-10), Citadels (2-7). Those are all easy to learn/teach and will get the backstabbing fun going (except for 7 Wonders).

I'll second these. There's also nothing wrong with playing some straight up party games with non-gamers. I have a big collection of those to complement my "real games". The point is to have fun, right? I'd suggest Time's Up, Snake Oil, and Telestrations.

carrotpanic wrote:

High/flexible player count games I love: 7 Wonders (2-7 or 8 depending on expansion), The Resistance (5-10), Saboteur (3-10), Citadels (2-7). Those are all easy to learn/teach and will get the backstabbing fun going (except for 7 Wonders).

I'll second these. There's also nothing wrong with playing some straight up party games with non-gamers. I have a big collection of those to complement my "real games". The point is to have fun, right? I'd suggest Time's Up, Snake Oil, and Telestrations.

shoptroll wrote:
carrotpanic wrote:

Played Sentinels of the Multiverse last night for the first (and second and third) time last night. Really not impressed. The rule stacking got really out of hand at certain points and it seems really "swingy" depending on draw luck, especially for the boss and environment. We had two stomps and one time where we got beaten without doing much damage to the boss at all. Thematically it was fun (who can turn down blowing up a volcano with a rocket propelled grenade) but it didn't satisfy me like Flash Point or Pandemic do from a co-op perspective. I guess it's more up the alley of ccg/lcg fans and I'm not really one of those.

Which villains were you playing against? From what I've played it's certainly lighter than other co-op games, but I thought that was part of the fun. It really evoked the feeling of fighting a boss moreso than Legendary did.

We crushed Baron Blade, got reamed by The Chairman (with Rook City), and then easily downed Voss. (5 Heroes)

carrotpanic wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
carrotpanic wrote:

Played Sentinels of the Multiverse last night for the first (and second and third) time last night. Really not impressed. The rule stacking got really out of hand at certain points and it seems really "swingy" depending on draw luck, especially for the boss and environment. We had two stomps and one time where we got beaten without doing much damage to the boss at all. Thematically it was fun (who can turn down blowing up a volcano with a rocket propelled grenade) but it didn't satisfy me like Flash Point or Pandemic do from a co-op perspective. I guess it's more up the alley of ccg/lcg fans and I'm not really one of those.

Which villains were you playing against? From what I've played it's certainly lighter than other co-op games, but I thought that was part of the fun. It really evoked the feeling of fighting a boss moreso than Legendary did.

We crushed Baron Blade, got reamed by The Chairman (with Rook City), and then easily downed Voss. (5 Heroes)

If you look in the manual, the villains have difficulty ratings. Baron Blade is the easiest, not sure about the other two. At the PAX East demo, we trashed Baron Blade (difficulty 1) with 4 and barely squeaked out a win against Citizen Dawn (difficulty 3) with 5.

Yep, we took that into account and then overcorrected. I played Ra, Ra again, and then Expatriette. Perhaps those characters were too boring. SO MANY stacking rule modifications, though. Chairman and Voss constantly had a ton of minions out, too. Just a slog, imo, and I wasn't even running the game.

Cool stuff. My local gaming group asked the devs of Power Grid a question and in doing so alerted them to a misprint. I've removed some personal information.

On Wednesday, March 27, 2013, E wrote:
Got an answer back on the replenishment rate for oil with 5 players on the UK map. It should be 4-6-4 (4 instead of 6 for step 3). You can see the answer from the designer below.

L

From: "Henning Kröpke"
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 1:10:54 PM
Subject: Re: WWW Form Submission

Ohhhhh, wow!

Thanks for showing us that (tiny) mistake, you are the first noticing this after five months of sales.

Yes, this should not be 4 - 6 - 6 for the three steps, but 4 - 6 and 4 for oil in a 5-player game.

Let me go to BGG...

Have fun with this expansion, it is now even tougher to play

Best regards,

Henning

Am 26.03.2013 um 07:34 schrieb [email protected]:

Unten finden Sie den Inhalt des Feedback-Formulars. Es wurde abgesendet von
([email protected]) am Dienstag, dem 26 März 2013 um 07:34:39 Uhr
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name: E

vorname: L

comment: Hi, We love Power Grid and play it all the time at our game group. We have a question about the UK/Ireland map replenishment rates. The oil refill for 5 players is the same in both step 2 & step 3 - at 6. In all the other player amounts the oil refill rates go down in step 3. Was this a misprint? Thanks, L

carrotpanic wrote:

Yep, we took that into account and then overcorrected. I played Ra, Ra again, and then Expatriette. Perhaps those characters were too boring. SO MANY stacking rule modifications, though. Chairman and Voss constantly had a ton of minions out, too. Just a slog, imo, and I wasn't even running the game.

The game has a lot of bookkeeping that goes a lot better with liberal use of the +1 and -1 Damage modifier reminders. There's also so much going on that having an experienced player at the table is a huge benefit. At our table, my wife or normally handle the villain and environment decks to help out with the bookeeping there.

The rules are also a little confusing at times.

But it's absolutely, hands down our favorite game with over 70 plays.

As for difficulty, it is indeed very draw dependant. On a bad day, Baron Blade can give you a run for your money. The difficulties in the book are really assuming average luck, player familiarity with the villain deck, and 4-players. Knowing all that, you can definitely aim for a certain level of difficulty.

Mitigating luck on the player's side is largely a matter of communicating with other players, and on occasion skipping a turn for that extra card draw. If randomness is a big turn-off, I suppose you *could* stack decks, or give players specific starting cards and what not. But, if you're liking Flash Point and Pandemic more, then that seems not likely to help. Personally, I prefer the immense variety Sentinels provides.

rabbit wrote:

Best new game I played at pax isn't new: Maori. Really fascinating strategy game about just picking up island tiles to fill out a board. Everythign about it should be dirt standard multi-player solitaire tile laying, but it's fantastic, with a ton of screw your neighbor and back and forth.

Yeah, I ordered a copy based on that quick game we played at PAX. I suspect it'll get a lot of play at home with the kids, and I might even be able to get my wife to try.

Also, an order of Android: Netrunner and Bohnanza should be arriving tomorrow. I haven't played either before, but from what I've seen, both look to be very fun, for very different reasons.

merphle wrote:

Android: Netrunner and Bohnanza should be arriving tomorrow

Good choices. We're going to have to get a local A:N focused meet going at some point, aren't we?

Yes, absolutely count me in.

I'm generally terrible at in-person get togethers, but I'm tentatively interested. I suppose it'd force me to build a deck or two with all these boosters I've gotten, huh?

New shipment today! Known as the Post-TNGD order. Smallworld, Rattus, Dixit: Journey, San Juan, and Skyline. Love Letter on its way via snail mail.

Man, Smallworld takes forever to punch.

Minarchist wrote:

Man, Smallworld takes forever to punch.

Protip: Keep the punched frames, and store them below the box's insert. This keeps the contents in the insert from falling out when the box is stored sideways. Yes, it tells you this in manual. No, I didn't catch that before I threw away the punched frames.

My post order: Hey, That's My Fish, King Of Tokyo, and Merchants and Marauders.

Stilgar Black wrote:
Minarchist wrote:

Man, Smallworld takes forever to punch.

Protip: Keep the punched frames, and store them below the box's insert. This keeps the contents in the insert from falling out when the box is stored sideways. Yes, it tells you this in manual. No, I didn't catch that before I threw away the punched frames.

Do you mean the plastic holder for the race tokens? For me, that thing had a terrible fit, so I got rid of it in favor of tiny bags.

Cyranix wrote:
Stilgar Black wrote:
Minarchist wrote:

Man, Smallworld takes forever to punch.

Protip: Keep the punched frames, and store them below the box's insert. This keeps the contents in the insert from falling out when the box is stored sideways. Yes, it tells you this in manual. No, I didn't catch that before I threw away the punched frames.

Do you mean the plastic holder for the race tokens? For me, that thing had a terrible fit, so I got rid of it in favor of tiny bags.

No, I mean the sheets of cardboard that are left over once the tokens are punched. The ones you would traditionally just throw away.

It's a good technique for any game with depressions for bits.

Stilgar Black wrote:
Minarchist wrote:

Man, Smallworld takes forever to punch.

Protip: Keep the punched frames, and store them below the box's insert. This keeps the contents in the insert from falling out when the box is stored sideways. Yes, it tells you this in manual. No, I didn't catch that before I threw away the punched frames.

My post order: Hey, That's My Fish, King Of Tokyo, and Merchants and Marauders.

Well, poop. A bit late now. Guess that one will stay upright.

In other news, Love Letter is here! Thanks, Mr. Postman.

Smooch cubes!

Well I just realized this weekend is TableTop Day, and there are events going on at various shops and homes across the nation. Is anybody in the Seattle area doing anything?

Wow, that was a pleasant surprise! My middle daughter (age 10) spontaneously asked if we could play "that D&D game" this afternoon, so we ended up busting out Wrath of Ashardalon for a few hours. We ended up losing, unfortunately, but regardless I was quite happy to brush the dust off that box.

I wasn't aware this weekend was TableTop Day, but I appear to be stumbling blindly right into it, arms wide.