1066

Totally. That’s a highly visible number you can keep in your head. Pax Pamir is similar. A high score there is like 12 points. If I earn 12 to my opponent’s 10, we both typically know why.

Inis is fantastic. Yeah, that’s the stuff :)

Probably so :P I did mention it above when talking about Imperium, which I like when playing, but is also very unsatisfying.

It’s all murky even for me; I love High Frontier even though it has kind of an arbitrary scoring system, but in that game it doesn’t really even matter who wins. The moment-to-moment gameplay and constructed narratives are highly thematic and just a joy to experience–the point mechanic is really just a MacGuffin.

1067

As I said above, the hazy themes in some Feld games don’t bother me. I like new mechanics that fit well together. Feld is great at that and Bonfire does that.

For me, it’s like a puzzle. I don’t know if my analytical CPA mind thinks about things differently or what, but I just love learning new games (usually when someone lese teaches).

My group doesn’t play much more than a handful of times though, so the lack of theme and puzzle-like part I enjoy may change after multiple plays. However, a game like A Feast for Odin I can play solo a number of times trying to optimize and attempting a different path each time and there’s all kinds of scoring in that one. It also has a better theme though the when it came out the Tetris box seemed out of place at first, but quickly became one of my favorite parts.

1068

I played Alien Fate of the Nostromo last night. It’s a good little co op that makes good use of its IP. I’m sure @tomchick would appreciate the art on the back of the board. It’s a good light game. Though, I wouldn’t call it great. It’s competent and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

1069

Have Nostromo coming tomorrow. Played Aliens: Bug Hunt twice at work. Won one, lost one. Mostly as it’s super swingy if you place a lot of new rooms that have the tokens you need to win on them…they came out quick the game I won and slow the game I lost.

It was somewhat fun…pretty light also.

1070

I’ve been enjoying Nostromo with a player elimination variant: If you run into the Alien, draw a card. If it’s one of the Alien specific cards (like Hunt or Prowl, those ones that don’t have rooms listed on them), then your player is dead. If it’s anything else, take the usual morale hit and run away. You can do the same thing with the Ash expansion–drawing an Ash order card when encountering him means you die, otherwise take the scrap penalty.

1071

We’ve been playing Nostromo as well with houseguests that don’t often play games. It feels like a strictly better version of Horrified with just enough player immersion to encourage everyone to contribute to the solution and not just ask for direction.

I did discover that I really dislike the mechanic of constantly recycling the same handful of Alien!/Cat!/nothing hidden information tiles. Not because it doesn’t work, but because my dumb brain knows you didn’t shuffle that pile well enough, John, and the alien is definitely in that room now.

1072

That was the one stand out issue for me as well.

1073

Looking at the rules, there are 13 tiles. So just number them from 1 to 13 and whenever you encounter one just have Alexa or a random number app choose the one you get. It wouldn’t replicate the distribution of tiles in the game exactly (you can probably plan some of your strategy around which tiles have been revealed), but I bet it would be close enough.

1074

I’m using the bag from Nemesis to chuck those tiles in there and shake em up…lots of Alien games the past 3 years.

1075

Greenwashing History over on Space Biff is a really excellent piece of writing about some weird games (A Study in Emerald and AuZtralia) and generally how games combine the fantastical with history. I heartily recommend it! Reminds me of some of Bruce Geryk’s articles on wargames over here, but in this case I’ve actually played the games he’s talking about!

1076

Ugh. People are terrible.

Cepholophair posted about this and made me aware and they and many others will/should be re-evaluating their interactions with Broken Token as the CEO appears to be a deplorable P.O.S.

Warning: Abuse/Assault triggers.

Don’t want to start a new thread or ruin this one, but I figured this was the best place as the majority of boardgame activity is contained here.

1077

Ugh, they’re a San Diego company and we used to have a woman who worked there occasionally join our game nights years ago, but I don’t remember her name. People are the worst, mostly men.

1078

Wow…that’s insanely awful. Feel so bad for anyone in any kind of situation like that…there needs to be more recourse for those types of situations.

1079

This is a common refrain that I almost posted and certainly one my two daughters repeat often even though I am an example of what I think is a decent one. I generally tell them they are completely right.

1080

That stinks. Human beings are the absolute worst.

I’ve bought a fair amount of organization solutions from them in the past…but I won’t be any longer.

1081

Thanks for the heads up. I’ve been looking at it for that very reason.

1082

Jesus. I had just decided that I liked Go7Gaming more. Not a moment too soon.

Hope everyone else that works there can get out of there safely, financially and otherwise.

1083

Guh, just saw Evil Hat cut ties with them in the TTTPG space and came here to post about it. Awful stuff. Glad that it’s out in the open now, at least.

1084

I had seen the CEO’s response letter hadn’t actually seen what happened. Thanks for posting.

1085

As another alternative to BT, Folded Space inserts are really nice. We carry them at the store - foamcore that you glue together.