The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Igneus wrote:
polypusher wrote:

quick question for those of you who recently got Gloomhaven from the 2nd Printing kickstarter, did you get a shipping notice or did it just arrive by surprise?

I got a shipping notice as well with tracking info.

same here - shipping notice and tracking were sent before I received the game (in Canada)

lactose wrote:
Igneus wrote:
polypusher wrote:

quick question for those of you who recently got Gloomhaven from the 2nd Printing kickstarter, did you get a shipping notice or did it just arrive by surprise?

I got a shipping notice as well with tracking info.

same here - shipping notice and tracking were sent before I received the game (in Canada)

I did not receive any notice. The giant box just appeared. (in US)

I did get notice, and it arrived on the day expected. Have not played yet, hoping for this weekend or next week.

bhchrist wrote:

Finally, got another game of Clank in Space in with 4 if us. If you don’t own Clank and and are thinking about buying it, I would be hard pressed to recommend to original over CiS unless you really want the fantasy theme over the Sci-if one. Tougher to say if you should buy CiS if you already own the original + expansion. Probably try to play it and decide.

Thanks for the mini-review! I have never played Clank, but I was looking at it as a potential purchase. Good to know that I should just skip straight to the Space edition, when I eventually pick it up.

trichy wrote:

Got the chance to play Illimat, the board game the Decemberists promoted through Kickstarter. It's an abstract game that looks like a mixture of Tarot cards and a Ouija board, and it's... fine? I guess it's fine. It's a horrible example of a board game making up terminology because it sounds mysterious, but it's okay.

I've read the rules now and I'm waiting to get it onto the table. It seems like (and was designed to seem like) an old style card game with a handful of light strategic back and forth options to allow for a lot of replayability and a couple added point earning options on top. To me it calls to mind classics like Cuarenta, which I played dozens if not hundreds of games of with a friend traveling abroad. I do like that it fits into a small box which is used in the game itself.

edit: regarding terminology it seems like a TERRIBLE choice to have the fields named after the seasons as well as the (totally independent) card suits named after the seasons. And the bit about stockpiling requiring an additional 'passive' card in the hand. But even that stuff should be cleared up after 1 game (2 at most) so I could see it flowing really smoothly after that.

I played my first game of Terraforming Mars with the Hellas and Elysium expansion board last night. I think it was a great addition if you like the base game. We played on the Hellas side, which takes place in the southern hemisphere and includes the south pole with some special tile placement rules. It also adds heat as a resource from some tile placements and more steel and titanium placement bonuses.

In addition to the new maps themselves, each side of the board has a new set of awards and milestones that change the game up quite a bit, and give you incentives to try out different strategies.

I can't wait to pick up the Venus Next expansion in January.

merphle wrote:
bhchrist wrote:

Finally, got another game of Clank in Space in with 4 if us. If you don’t own Clank and and are thinking about buying it, I would be hard pressed to recommend to original over CiS unless you really want the fantasy theme over the Sci-if one. Tougher to say if you should buy CiS if you already own the original + expansion. Probably try to play it and decide.

Thanks for the mini-review! I have never played Clank, but I was looking at it as a potential purchase. Good to know that I should just skip straight to the Space edition, when I eventually pick it up.

On sale for $43 on Amazon: LINK

EriktheRed wrote:

I played my first game of Terraforming Mars with the Hellas and Elysium expansion board last night. I think it was a great addition if you like the base game. We played on the Hellas side, which takes place in the southern hemisphere and includes the south pole with some special tile placement rules. It also adds heat as a resource from some tile placements and more steel and titanium placement bonuses.

In addition to the new maps themselves, each side of the board has a new set of awards and milestones that change the game up quite a bit, and give you incentives to try out different strategies.

I can't wait to pick up the Venus Next expansion in January.

Totally. I didn't realize how much the original milestones/awards were driving the largest part of my strategy until they were changed up and I felt totally different. Between the new milestones / awards and the new board layout the new board makes those games feel VERY new.

bhchrist wrote:
merphle wrote:
bhchrist wrote:

Finally, got another game of Clank in Space in with 4 if us. If you don’t own Clank and and are thinking about buying it, I would be hard pressed to recommend to original over CiS unless you really want the fantasy theme over the Sci-if one. Tougher to say if you should buy CiS if you already own the original + expansion. Probably try to play it and decide.

Thanks for the mini-review! I have never played Clank, but I was looking at it as a potential purchase. Good to know that I should just skip straight to the Space edition, when I eventually pick it up.

On sale for $43 on Amazon: LINK

Looks like a good price, but I’m past my board game budget for this season.

If anyone cares, I ended up getting Stone Age, Cottage Garden, and King of Tokyo for my kids. I think this is a pretty good spread of new mechanics and themes to play with.

EriktheRed wrote:

I played my first game of Terraforming Mars with the Hellas and Elysium expansion board last night. I think it was a great addition if you like the base game. ...I can't wait to pick up the Venus Next expansion in January.

I've been playing the crap out of TM with my family. It's the perfect "not really cooperative" game for their temperament. The extra boards -- esp hellas with diversifier -- add a lot more variation, and make new strategies really viable.

My concern with Venus is that it will make a beutiful engine too complex. THat's my beef with, for instance, ALL of the expansions of Space Yahtzee (Alien Frontier).

merphle wrote:

If anyone cares, I ended up getting Stone Age, Cottage Garden, and King of Tokyo for my kids. I think this is a pretty good spread of new mechanics and themes to play with.

I'm always keen to see what family games people like ... get some ideas for the non screen times...

For his upcoming 7th birthday / Christmas have ended up buying the boy Ticket to Ride Europe: My First Journey, Cockroach Poker (or Kaker Laken Poker as it says on our copy) and Barenpark.

rabbit wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

I played my first game of Terraforming Mars with the Hellas and Elysium expansion board last night. I think it was a great addition if you like the base game. ...I can't wait to pick up the Venus Next expansion in January.

I've been playing the crap out of TM with my family. It's the perfect "not really cooperative" game for their temperament. The extra boards -- esp hellas with diversifier -- add a lot more variation, and make new strategies really viable.

My concern with Venus is that it will make a beutiful engine too complex. THat's my beef with, for instance, ALL of the expansions of Space Yahtzee (Alien Frontier).

Great to hear both your experiences about the new boards. Have them, but not played on them yet. Pulled them out of the closet, but wound up playing Kingdomino, Roll Player, Photosynthesis, and Clank in Space.

merphle wrote:

If anyone cares, I ended up getting Stone Age, Cottage Garden, and King of Tokyo for my kids. I think this is a pretty good spread of new mechanics and themes to play with.

Three great games and all quite different, as you note!

rabbit wrote:

My concern with Venus is that it will make a beutiful engine too complex. THat's my beef with, for instance, ALL of the expansions of Space Yahtzee (Alien Frontier).

I love the crunch of the engine building in TM. I love other engine builders like Roll for the Galaxy, but it always feels like the game ends just as my awesome engine comes online. In TM, I usually get at least a generation or two of watching my strategies pay off, which feels really good. I look forward to having a bunch of new cards, corporations, and strategies to try out. I could see not including Venus Next in a game with new folks, but my wife and I are all-in on expanding this game.

Fredrik_S wrote:
polypusher wrote:

quick question for those of you who recently got Gloomhaven from the 2nd Printing kickstarter, did you get a shipping notice or did it just arrive by surprise?

I got a shipping notice.

Also seriously considering picking up a broken token organizer for the game. I think it'd be worth it to go from 30 minutes setup time to 10.

10 Minutes is a stretch unless you prep for the next game after you last game even with the organizer. 15-20 is more on par, though that is better than 30 minutes.

EriktheRed wrote:
rabbit wrote:

My concern with Venus is that it will make a beutiful engine too complex. THat's my beef with, for instance, ALL of the expansions of Space Yahtzee (Alien Frontier).

I love the crunch of the engine building in TM. I love other engine builders like Roll for the Galaxy, but it always feels like the game ends just as my awesome engine comes online. In TM, I usually get at least a generation or two of watching my strategies pay off, which feels really good. I look forward to having a bunch of new cards, corporations, and strategies to try out. I could see not including Venus Next in a game with new folks, but my wife and I are all-in on expanding this game.

The problem with competitive games ending a turn or two after your engine starts humming is this can be where the winners are feeling awesome as their lead just magnifies and the losers feel bad as they realize they have no hope. Fortunately both are essentially competitive solitaire, but losing in RollftG does tend to become apparent and then suck, especially if you never really got things going the way you envisioned.

polypusher wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:
rabbit wrote:

My concern with Venus is that it will make a beutiful engine too complex. THat's my beef with, for instance, ALL of the expansions of Space Yahtzee (Alien Frontier).

I love the crunch of the engine building in TM. I love other engine builders like Roll for the Galaxy, but it always feels like the game ends just as my awesome engine comes online. In TM, I usually get at least a generation or two of watching my strategies pay off, which feels really good. I look forward to having a bunch of new cards, corporations, and strategies to try out. I could see not including Venus Next in a game with new folks, but my wife and I are all-in on expanding this game.

The problem with competitive games ending a turn or two after your engine starts humming is this can be where the winners are feeling awesome as their lead just magnifies and the losers feel bad as they realize they have no hope. Fortunately both are essentially competitive solitaire, but losing in RollftG does tend to become apparent and then suck, especially if you never really got things going the way you envisioned.

This is actually something that can be addressed within the game. If you are paying attention to your opponents' engines and you know they are going to be raking in points if given a few more generations (maybe they have a strong animals strategy), you can focus on raising the global parameters to end the game before that happens. I've managed to win this way a couple times, despite having a "weaker" engine.

merphle wrote:

If anyone cares, I ended up getting Stone Age, Cottage Garden, and King of Tokyo for my kids. I think this is a pretty good spread of new mechanics and themes to play with.

I was 80+ posts behind on the thread and just saw the recommendations people had for you. I have a Stone Age that has been played only one time I was going to see if you wanted to buy or trade for then I got to this page. That's what I get for being slow catching up on my GWJ!

My wife and I really like Patchwork and Cottage Garden looks similar and probably better. King of Tokyo is always a good buy. Looks like you got you some winners.

-BEP

I was looking for a coop campaign game I could play to supplement Gloomhaven. Reason being, our group has three people with very flexible scheduling and one person that will be able to meet once a month. I eventually stumbled upon Kingdom Death Monster, which I'd remembered looking into a while back. Turns out it was just what we were looking for. Big campaign, settlement building, crafting, giant monsters. I snagged a copy of the core game off the pre-order they opened up and it showed up a couple weeks ago.

Since then, I've assembled the miniatures, started dabbling with basing and painting, and tried the prologue game on my own to stay tackling the rules. That first monster fight is pretty neat, and the AI deck works really well. Fighting the bosses in the Dark Souls board game was fun, but the node system was a bit wonky. This feels a lot like that, but tying the monster's health to its AI cards really makes it feel like it is getting worn down as it gets hurt.

So far I'm pretty impressed. The minis are gorgeous and the game feels like it has a lot of surprises in store for us. I'll be kicking it off next month.

Anyone have a chance to try out Photosynthesis? I saw it for sale at Pax, but had never heard of it so I figured I'd pick it up a little later. Not really sure what type of game it is, but you place tree's around a forest so that they get light to grow while you try and block your opponents tree's from getting light. I think it may go on my Christmas list.

Mr E.B. Slugworth wrote:

Anyone have a chance to try out Photosynthesis? I saw it for sale at Pax, but had never heard of it so I figured I'd pick it up a little later. Not really sure what type of game it is, but you place tree's around a forest so that they get light to grow while you try and block your opponents tree's from getting light. I think it may go on my Christmas list.

Ordered it just the other day, but won't be opening until Christmas. It looks pretty brilliant and off the wall based on seeing it played a bit here and there during PAX. I also think the trees are cool. When I say that I mean it in a "I am so totally cannibalizing those for forest encounters in D&D" kind of way.

merphle wrote:
bhchrist wrote:

Finally, got another game of Clank in Space in with 4 if us. If you don’t own Clank and and are thinking about buying it, I would be hard pressed to recommend to original over CiS unless you really want the fantasy theme over the Sci-if one. Tougher to say if you should buy CiS if you already own the original + expansion. Probably try to play it and decide.

Thanks for the mini-review! I have never played Clank, but I was looking at it as a potential purchase. Good to know that I should just skip straight to the Space edition, when I eventually pick it up.

CRAP I just ordered the original (Clank) yesterday and it is en route. Ah well, if we love it maybe we'll just own them both.

My family played Unearth last night for the 2nd time. The die mechanics are really cool. It feels like they purposely limited the named relic and (more to the point) the end-of-game stacks for the potential of expansion sets maybe? Seems like (at its current number of cards) it will feel "done" in a few more plays, to gather dust. Otherwise it is fun - again those die mechanics make for some interesting tactical problem solving. Unearth reminds me - my family is hilarious in that when it comes to a game that clearly is competitive in nature, they try to cooperate. (My kids do this with Labyrinth as well... "This is to help Daddy." "Wait, don't!" If I haven't mentioned it, I figured out a way around that for Labyrinth in particular: teams of two. The team can help each other out, while screwing over the other team. That'll teach the kids a little of both.)

Mr E.B. Slugworth wrote:

Anyone have a chance to try out Photosynthesis? I saw it for sale at Pax, but had never heard of it so I figured I'd pick it up a little later. Not really sure what type of game it is, but you place tree's around a forest so that they get light to grow while you try and block your opponents tree's from getting light. I think it may go on my Christmas list.

I have posted a few times about it here. Highly recommend it and I doubt you would be disappointed. It is wonderful, strategic, breezy, cutthroat, and beautiful all at the same time. Thematically brilliant.

Your trees absorb sun (currency) that is used to plant new seeds, grow existing trees larger, or harvest your largest trees (3rd level) for victory points. The small level 1 trees produce 1 sun, medium 2, and large 3. However, trees cast shade and can block sun from equal or smaller sized trees behind them, denying your opponents (and often yourself) sun that round. Shade is cast based on tree size. A level 2 tree blocks sun from a level 1 and 2 that are one ore two spaces behind it, but never shades a level 3.

The trick is, the sun rotated around the board each turn and you can only do one action on a board space each turn. Seeds planted in one space cannot grow to a level 1 tree until your next turn. Also, the closer you are to the center of the board, the more points your level 3 trees are worth when you cut them down.

Cool strategies arise: do you leave your level 3 trees out longer to generate more sun and shade others or do you cut them quickly to grab higher value victory tokens?

With 4 players and the board full of differently sized and colored trees, it is one of the prettiest and peaceful games visually.

Can you tell I love it?

mumford wrote:

I was looking for a coop campaign game I could play to supplement Gloomhaven. Reason being, our group has three people with very flexible scheduling and one person that will be able to meet once a month. I eventually stumbled upon Kingdom Death Monster, which I'd remembered looking into a while back. Turns out it was just what we were looking for. Big campaign, settlement building, crafting, giant monsters. I snagged a copy of the core game off the pre-order they opened up and it showed up a couple weeks ago.

Since then, I've assembled the miniatures, started dabbling with basing and painting, and tried the prologue game on my own to stay tackling the rules. That first monster fight is pretty neat, and the AI deck works really well. Fighting the bosses in the Dark Souls board game was fun, but the node system was a bit wonky. This feels a lot like that, but tying the monster's health to its AI cards really makes it feel like it is getting worn down as it gets hurt.

So far I'm pretty impressed. The minis are gorgeous and the game feels like it has a lot of surprises in store for us. I'll be kicking it off next month.

Kingdom Death is super interesting. This game design is fascinating. I was never able to get a copy of the game but I played a number of hours of it solo on Tabletop Simulator. A version of the boss mechanic of having a deck of cards represent both its health and its set of actions is something I've adapted for a VR 'board' game I'm working on. I think it does a great job, as you say, of doing away with a basic health bar and instead actually crippling the monster as you fight it (just as it can cripple you).

That first time the lion pops one of your guys' heads off in one swipe. Wow.

Picked up Civilization: A New Dawn, the latest FFG Sid Meier Civ game. I was a big fan of their previous Civilization game in spite of its flaws, but it was a little bit on the longer side and given the choice for that time frame I'd rather play something like Runewars. A New Dawn promised a shorter playing time and I love Civilization-style board games so I was very interested in giving this a go.

I've only managed a single play so far but I thought the game was fantastic, as did my other two friends. They've abstracted away some concepts like military and the technology tree but managed to keep the feel of both while compacting it down into ~30-40 minutes per player. Some takeaways from our first play:

* The game's central mechanic is your "focus bar" which is a row of the five actions you have available each turn, ordered under a track numbered 1-5. On your turn you pick one of your actions to execute (e.g. add control markers on the board, level up your technology, send out caravans). The action's strength is based on the slot it is currently in, so actions under #5 are stronger than those under #1. Then you pull out that action, shift your remaining actions to the right (higher up the track) and put your selected action in the #1 spot. There's a fantastic tension between choosing the action you need right now and choosing actions that will get the actions you really need to be more powerful. Incredibly fun and it felt like a very unique mechanic.

* Technology upgrades are represented by upgrading your action cards. You start at "Age I" on all actions and can get each up to "Age IV". There's no tech tree but I still felt like I had very interesting decisions to make when leveling up my technology, and I like how they directly impacted how efficient I was on each turn.

* Military is also abstracted away a bit. You can attack other player's control markers or cities. Your military strength is based on where on the focus bar your attack action card is, the defenders strength is based on terrain and then you each roll a d6, highest strength wins. Very straightforward and quick to resolve which I loved. Those looking for a more military-heavy game might be disappointed but I loved this level of abstraction.

* There are barbarians and they roam the map! It was awesome. They are just enough of a nuisance that you can't completely ignore them but aren't overly oppressive.

* City-states can be interacted with via your trade caravans to get additional bonuses/abilities and you can build world wonders to do the same. These abilities are incredibly strong so there's plenty of competition over each and they will really shape your strategies.

* Each game you put out three of five random objective cards and each card has two options on it. First person to claim one of each objective wins. I like that this mixes up the objectives each game; one might be more military focused, another more culture (world wonder) focused.

* My only real complaint is that at the end it got into a bit of "I can't do this because then the other player will win", or "I have to do this or the other player will win". I'm not always a huge fan of that but it was really only an issue for one player in particular. I could see the end game bogging down a little bit but it seemed like the objectives are generally easy enough to get that it'd be hard to severely harm anyone with a single action.

Overall I was incredibly impressed and can't wait to play again. It's up there with some of my recent favorites like Inis, Cry Havoc and Mechs vs Minions.

dRailer wrote:

My family played Unearth last night for the 2nd time. The die mechanics are really cool. It feels like they purposely limited the named relic and (more to the point) the end-of-game stacks for the potential of expansion sets maybe? Seems like (at its current number of cards) it will feel "done" in a few more plays, to gather dust. Otherwise it is fun - again those die mechanics make for some interesting tactical problem solving.

I really like Unearth, and I agree about the potential for expansions. It's a nifty little game with a nice art style and a healthy dose of designing around not letting people feel too screwed when plan A goes awry.

I'm looking forward to them playing with the gamespace some in future expansions.

Anyone here playing the handheld port for Through the Ages? I'd love to start up a GWJ game. I'm Kronen on their system, so feel free to add me!

Kronen wrote:

Anyone here playing the handheld port for Through the Ages? I'd love to start up a GWJ game. I'm Kronen on their system, so feel free to add me!

I have been. Never played the game before and this was my introduction, as it was with they Terra Mystica app as well. Not sure I will be of much competition, but I think I am getting better slowly. Only played vs. AI so far. Same user ID.

I'm learning the ropes slowly.

Torq has mentioned elsewhere playing too.

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:

Picked up Civilization: A New Dawn notes

Thanks for the quick review. I debated getting this but afraid I would get bit like I have with other games. Glad to hear it is a good one!

bhchrist wrote:
Kronen wrote:

Anyone here playing the handheld port for Through the Ages? I'd love to start up a GWJ game. I'm Kronen on their system, so feel free to add me!

I have been. Never played the game before and this was my introduction, as it was with they Terra Mystica app as well. Not sure I will be of much competition, but I think I am getting better slowly. Only played vs. AI so far. Same user ID.

I'd be up for a game. There was discussion about getting a game going on the digital boardgame thread. https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
dRailer wrote:

My family played Unearth last night for the 2nd time. The die mechanics are really cool. It feels like they purposely limited the named relic and (more to the point) the end-of-game stacks for the potential of expansion sets maybe? Seems like (at its current number of cards) it will feel "done" in a few more plays, to gather dust. Otherwise it is fun - again those die mechanics make for some interesting tactical problem solving.

I really like Unearth, and I agree about the potential for expansions. It's a nifty little game with a nice art style and a healthy dose of designing around not letting people feel too screwed when plan A goes awry.

I'm looking forward to them playing with the gamespace some in future expansions.

I just picked this up. Looking forward to getting it on the table.