Boardgaming in 2017!

I know there was a real old version (80s) and a recently redone version. Have they released a 3rd new version?

Think the new release was yesterday but Iw as out of town - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/204305/sherlock-holmes-consulting-detective-jack-ripper-w

Oh, yeah that’s totally a new thing.

Still, screw The Mystified Murderess case!

I have it, but I haven’t really delved into it because I need to get off my butt and finish making an organiser for the whole bloody game so I can make it playable. From what I can tell, it is basically along the same vein as the other big box expansions - more investigators, 2 Ancient Ones, an adventure deck, too many unique asset cards, specialised condition cards etc. More bloat, but too early for me to say if it did add anything unfortunately.

I’ll keep you message in mind next time I put it onto the table and do a dreamlands run, the only thing holding me back is making two more organisers for the games, and especially one to organise all of the smaller cards to be a little more manageable. The Unique Assets deck for instance is just too unwieldy, and I don’t understand the decision to create that deck on top of an artefacts deck plus a normal assets deck.

Well all the side board things for EH are optional and come with just “more stuff” though you’re certainly paying a premium for said board at the end of the day if you aren’t really interested in it.

That didn’t take long.

Not surprised, how did I forget Talisman on my worst games of all time list?

Now please reprint Eric Lang’s Chaos in the Old World and a proper version of WHFRP!

Pretty sure Chaos in the Old World will never come back because it was originated by Fantasy Flight, so GW wouldn’t be able to reprint it without them.

I have played a lot of games lately, after buying some at a used game event.

Carson City It terms of enjoying playing it and wanting to play it again, I think this is the winner. However, I have to say its had some very lop sided scoring. This is a worker placement game, somewhat reminiscent of Caylus (the first worker placement game, holds up very well, try it). You place your worker on a track, and after everyone places their workers, the actions get resolved in the order it appears on the track. The catch is, multiple players can put their workers on the same space… and then who gets to use the space is solved by a duel! Hence, the Western theme. In addition, there is an 8 by 8 grid, where players will be building their own town. Buildings then make players money, which they can turn into more buildings… or VP. Finally, everyone round players can choose a new “helper” from one of seven (or eight with an expansion) roles. These helpers include the Sheriff who gives you an extra worker who can never be dueled, the grocer who doubles the income of a building type for you, and the Settler who instantly gives you a plot of land. Interestingly, every helper you chose has a money limit. At the end of the round, if you are over that money limit you are forced to discard down below it. The final piece of the puzzle are spots on the gameboard where a player can buy VP. Time the game right, a player can score a lot of points, leading to the lop sided scoring. Plus, sometimes luck definitely plays a factor. Winning those duels early can really set a player up for the rest of the round. So, fun to play, maybe some bad mechanics behind the scenes.

Ulm I thought this was a faction in Dominions? Now, it is a city in Germany? So, this game has an innovative mechanic. One draws tiles out of a bag, and uses it that tile to push a grid of other tiles, pushing one tile “out of the grid.” Hard to describe in words. Then, players take 3 actions corresponding to the tiles they just pushed still in the grid. The most basic action is to just get a coin. A more advanced action is to place a seal in a city section which gives the player an immediate benefit, such as moving their barge (which is basically points) or drawing a city crest to score some VPs now and throughout the game. While it is unique, well balanced, and the mechanic is generally sound if a bit random because of the blind tile draw, it suffers from players not being able to plan their turns until their turn starts. Interesting, unique, good components and price tag, but ultimately kind of meh.

City of Spies - I described this one up above, and I’ve only enjoyed it more as I played it more. Very tactile game, about placing your spies in the right place at the right time to win the right spies. So, every round you place spies to win spies, but after each round you can only keep 6. Every game has four randomly chosen unique objectives, which are having spies with certain attributes, such as the Diplomacy ability or being from a specific country. Hence, the game is about going for the spies with nice abilities, or who could help you score end game victory points. With 4 objectives and only a hand of 6, you can’t win them all, so its a matter of figuring out which spies to go for. Big winner for me.

City of Iron - This is like City of Spies in that the title starts with “City of…” Other than that, there is very little in common. This is a Ryan Lauket game, who is the guy who both designs, provides artwork for, does the graphics, and ultimately publishes his games all by himself. Here, you buy buildings to give yourself goods for VP or some other special ability. Yet, your starting city/land can only hold so many buildings. Eventually, you need to buy expert cards, which give you a post of other option, such as expanding your starting city or acquiring new land/cities so you have more buildings slots, or attack independent towns. Independent towns don’t let you build more buildings, but just outright give resources and income… but other players can attack your conquered towns and take the income/resources. In addition, the game has a “science” resource, important for hiring more experts and buying more advanced buildings. This can be scarce. So, playing this game is about soon hitting a wall, and figuring out how to expand in advance of it. One last think to note. Those expert cards go into their deck (or rather decks, but lets keep it simple). When there are no more cards to draw, instead of shuffling the discard, the player just flips them over. Hence, cards played sooner come back sooner.

Do I like it? Yeah, I think so. The catch? Players are going to get a lot of information in the onset, meaning first plays can be very slow.

You have a strange city fetish.
:P

Maybe, but my copy of Forbidden Space is only copy righted to Games Workshop. It’s possible the contract says that ownership of all derived IP reverts to GW on termination. That’s certainly true of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings licensing.

Just had several days of great boardgaming with my friend Tony Carnevale visiting from New York. Let’s see, we played Tragedy Looper twice. I totally blew it both times. It’s really hard to keep everything straight running a game once you’ve moved past the beginner’s rules. And it’s really frustrating, because a game of Tragedy Looper is only as good as the mastermind player. I had a great group, and in both instances, I screwed up an important detail that basically scuttled the game and wasted hours of gameplay. Urk. At least I’m learning what NOT to do in terms of running a game. But, really, I’m bummed that I didn’t get to show off what makes Tragedy Looper cool.

We got in two full-on five-player games of A Study in Emerald, which is how it really shines. One of them involved a zombie apocalypse. Those are always fun. A series of unfortunate setbacks had beaten down one of the better boardgamers at the table, so he decided to just go a scorched earth route with zombies. He actually got pretty far and almost ended the game. I managed to win one of the games by doing something I rarely see: tricking the table into thinking I’m the other faction than the one I’m really playing. That was pretty gratifying. The team scoring dynamic in Study in Emerald works especially well when you’re playing with people who understand it, which was the case in both our games.

Troyes is sooo good. Bruce Geryk made a disparaging comment about the theming in Troyes, as if it was some abstract Euro game. It’s so not. It’s about participating in the interlocking systems of religion, politics, and the military in a Medieval city, all represented with distinct mechanics. The concepts of citizens as dice involves some abstraction, sure, but what you’re doing with the dice is vividly themed. And the “activities” that power these systems vary every game. We had Saint Augustine, a liquor maker, archers, a religious parade, and woodcutters as prominent activities. In terms of events, a bandit leader (one of the cards from the Ladies of Troyes expansion, which is cool mostly for all the activities and events it adds) terrorized us throughout the game. Since I’d thrown my lot in with (expensive) military power from the very beginning, I was able to stave him off most efficiently, even if I wasn’t quite able to muster the power to beat him. Christien Murawski played a great bluffing game with the secret scoring – one of my favorite parts of Troyes’ game design – but it wasn’t enough to compensate for my advantage with the bandit chieftain’s predations.

I got a couple of games with a weird set collection cardgame called Portal Heroes, where each creature you summon from the deck is unique. Each one requires a specific set of numbered cards and confers specific powers. It’s one of those games that supports up to five players, but probably shouldn’t be played with more than three in order to ensure some degree of interaction.

Battle for Olympus is a better game along those lines, and much more interactive given that it’s a two-player only direct card battle. Unique heroes drawn from a deck to fight over a small board for either cards, resources, or victory points. The theming is awfully haphazard – why does Odysseus do what he does??? – but it’s a really nice short and pitched two-player battle.

Tides of Madness is a Cthulhu variation on the Tides of Time card-drafting game. I won a lot. And then realized we had played wrong, specifically in regard to the madness mechanic I had been using to win. Oops.

Got in a game of 13 Days, the Cuban Missile Crisis that shaves every ounce of fat from the fatty Twilight Struggle.

Lost a game of Inis, which I’ve recently reviewed. I think that’s going to displace Kemet and Cyclades for me.

Oh My Goods – terrible name – is about setting up a chain of resource harvesting and production goods. Very German, although I’m not sure if it’s actually German. Also short, quick, with a cool concept for a dynamic market. Somewhat haphazard mechanics, in that one player’s textile mill might run on ore and cotton, while another player’s textile mill runs on wood and cotton. But I like how it plays with the idea that the cards in your hand each have two different functions. And who doesn’t like setting up a run of wheat ground into flour and sent to the bakery to pay for the development of a butcher’s shop while your opponent can’t get enough coal because no wood showed up in the market and he didn’t save any wood cards? Ha ha. And I say that as the player who couldn’t get enough coal.

We played some Saboteur, in which dwarves cooperate to dig a tunnel to a gold vein, but some of them might be saboteurs. It’s a short and nicely paced game, but I think the scoring pretty much kills it. You play three rounds, but by the third round, it’s likely some of the players have no hope of winning. They can’t do anything other than maybe play kingmaker, if they care enough. That’s a gameplay problem that’s been solved in other games, so I think I’m pretty much done with this one.

We revisited Endeavor. Still so good. I love the interplay with the other players in terms of who takes what and who goes where. I won by implementing slavery and then maintaining a military hold on Europe so neither of the other players could abolish it. Very uncool, but since I was the winner, I guess I get to write history so that slavery isn’t such a bad deal.

Christien pretty much cleaned up the table during Voyages of Marco Polo by taking the character who I wanted to play. Of course, he plays online all the time, so me and Tony didn’t feel so bad. Me and Tony also got embroiled in a rules lawyering session – I seriously love rules lawyering and Tony’s one of my favorite adversaries/collaborators for that – but Christien solved with one simple question. “Is there a lightning bolt on the token?” he asked while we were furiously Googling various scenarios. Oh, no, there wasn’t. It helps to make sure you’re using a piece correctly before arguing about arcane edge cases involving that piece.

-Tom

I just backed/purchased Darkest Night (2nd ed). I know I may never get to play it MP, but it’s supposed to be a pretty strong solo game, so I’m hopeful!

Finally got a chance to open up Gloomhaven yesterday and was completely overwhelmed. Organized all the monster standees and tokens then started reading the rules. I’ll hopefully be ready to go by Friday!

So happy to see you still liking Troyes. Probably my favorite Euro-like game because the theme is so well executed (and buying other peoples dice is deliciously fun (and the random cards make the in-game economy so radically different each game (also the end-game scoring is the best method for making it unclear who’s winning I’ve ever seen))).

I’m playing online Marco Polo with Christien now and I don’t think we’ve even finished our first game yet! That’s the kind of experience that leads to guaranteed wins.

I’m looking for an easy to learn and easy to play game that kids and adults can play together for non-gamers. Previously, Ticket to Ride was big hit. I was looking at getting Machi Koro. The recommended age seems to be 10+. Would 7 and 8 year old smarty pants be able to pick it up easily?

I haven’t played Machi Koro yet. Another game maybe worth looking at is New York 1901. It’s the same level complexity as Ticket to Ride and the box says ages 8+.

Ticket to Ride is a solid choice for sure. Perhaps a bit more about the kids and adults? How important is theming going to be, and would certain themes turn people off? How long are you wanting, I’m guessing no monster 2+ hour games, but is an hour, or slightly more ok, or is under an hour required?

This is a decent place to start, though note that many games I, or others, would vehemently oppose. For example I like 7 Wonders, but despise Pandemic, both rated higher than Ticket to Ride. Stone Age is a little too ‘mathy’ IMO to be a true family fit. Carcassonne would be in my top 10 for family games, especially one of the ‘Big Box’ versions.

King of Tokyo (or New York) is an absolute must, and would really be perfect. In fact were I to give you a single game with no knowledge of your group, that would be it (get King of New York as it differentiates players more, while the expansion for Tokyo that does is devilishly hard to get these days)

Games not high on that list I’d suggest looking for? Formula D, The Adventurers, Chinatown (perhaps too gamey), Hey That’s My Fish (for a quick filler), or even something like Codenames.

The monster romp is personally appealing to me but might not be a popular theme for others. Travel or city building or other more reality based theming would be the best fit. Playing time of under 1 hour is a must.

One of the things that made Ticket to Ride a big hit was trying to get in the way of the other players completing their routes so a bit of lightweight backstabbing in the game play is a plus.

Gloomhaven tonight finally! Looks like we’ll have a Brute, Scoundrel, Spellweaver, and whatever I pick. Haven’t decided between the remaining yet but leaning Tinkerer.

I second King of Tokyo, especially if they like some backstabbing.