Boardgaming in 2018!

It’s the Non-Aligned Bloc, which is basically China, India, Yugoslavia, and a bunch of other nations around the world that weren’t firmly in lock-step with either of the major players (even if said nations didn’t really get along with each other all that well historically).

Yeah same here with the card game modules. $15 per scenario we would only likely play once? (same with Mansions of Madness).

I’d consider it if I had a hardcore group of 4. Split the cost, and treat a night of a new campaign as a one shot deal similar to an Exit game.

TI3…I felt like it had enough content, but some mechanics and balance needed another playtesting pass. I have no clue what they were thinking with the Winnu. There are way too many tech based objectives (god those are boring crapshoots). And they had an interesting idea with the new agenda phase, but the voting usually turns into boring rounds of abstaining (to say nothing of the even more boring Rider agendas). I think they need an expansion redoing some of those rules.

I can’t imagine it being worth it with only one play, but I think you’re underestimating the replay value of scenarios for all of these games. If nothing else, using different investigators & decks really changes the experience for Arkham LCG, and there’s randomized elements of the Mansions scenarios. I get that you don’t like deckbuilding - neither do I - but there’s deck databases online.

After struggling with a ton of scenarios in Mansions of Madness (which we did 2 player), we switched to doing two investigators per player for 4 total.

WOW what a difference that made. Scenarios that seemed impossible were now cakewalks.

I don’t think FFG has been able to properly scale any of their co-op games since 2nd edition Arkham Horror (where a 2 player game was totally different from an 8, but still relatively balanced, and scaling is the ONE mechanic I think it did better than Eldritch). They need to get that guy back.

I’d been sort of idly wishing to find the old World of Warcraft Boardgame for sale for a long time but didn’t want to pay the $200+ eBay prices. So a friend of mine this week found a copy in extremely good condition at Half Price Books here in Sacramento for $100. Best of all, they had a big sale this week so I got 30% off. I got it all sorted and ready to play today and it’s really in very good condition. The box has a bit of wear but the components are close to pristine. For $70 plus sales tax. I am absurdly pleased.

Mission accomplished! I’ve found the 2 boardgames I’m buying for family members at Christmas (well, 3 if you count Loopin’ Louie, bought for my 5 year old nephew. Always wanted to try that one :) ).

For my niece, Magic Maze:

The stressful co-op where you can’t speak and can only bang the wooden token in front of a player should make for some fun times.

And for my mum, a game I just discovered that sounds just plain fun to play repeatedly during Christmas week: The Quacks of Quedlinburg (originally Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburg):

2 to 4 players play charlatans trying to sell their amazing potions to unsuspecting punters during a 9 day market. Over those 9 rounds, the game mixes bag building and push your luck as you try and make the potion without your cauldron exploding (by pulling a certain number of bad tokens).

It seems relatively easy to learn; while the bag building lets you work towards a strategy that mitigates the bag pulling luck. And the presentation is really engaging.

Video overviews:

I’ll likely bring along my pre-ordered copy of Treasure Island. See review linked here:

Can’t wait.

Dude. You interviewed him. Ya gotta spell his name right!

So, is Shadi Torbey’s Nautilion part of the Oniverse? I didn’t know roll-and-move existed in the Oniverse.

Magic maze is great. My sister was quite pleased because it made the eight year old stay quiet. It is good with casuals because it’s easy to teach.

It is surprisingly difficult. I played with a bunch of nerdy engineers and they failed.

One rule I like is how you can put the big pawn in front of people to tell them to MOVE. I keep slamming that piece in front of people. I think it makes them nervous.

I hate Magic Maze as much as I hate Mage Knight. Good lord, I hope to never play it again. However, I heartily recommend it to others. What a nifty little design, and utterly unique!

-Tom

Hollandspiele is releasing this soon, @tomchick, a really interesting topic. Kind of a neither fish nor fowl in terms of Wargame/Political game/Historical game. The theme speaks for itself, and he mechanics look really interesting.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/250488/guilty-land

You know, there is no better way to appreciate people’s discomfort playing Magic Maze than in person. Some sacrifices are worth it.

Oh, I agree. I love watching other people’s despair, anguish, suffering, insecurity, and doubt bubble up to the surface while they play Magic Maze. I just hate it when I’m one of them.

And I will say in its favor that it’s one of the few legit co-op games. It’s not just solitaire dressed up so that you can make your friends play it with you. It’s bona fide, no foolin’, honest-to-goodness co-op gaming, and I’d encourage anyone who’s interested in co-op to check it out. And please let me watch when you play.

I also like how it scales, which is partly what makes it good for different types of groups. When you’re playing with all the rules, Magic Maze is not fooling around.

-Tom

Played Steam Works today. Very interesting game to me in that combines design elements (build your own worker placement slots), worker placement and engine building aspects. I liked it but I’m still trying to decide if I really liked it or just liked it OK.

My one concern is that the game looks tailor-made to be the kind of gaming experience that invokes massive analysis paralysis, even in players typically not prone to that, due to the fact that not only are you making choices for this turn but your choices create options for future turns, in a multiplicative/cascading fashion. I’m not one of those gamers who hates all AP 4-evar and evar, but I am a bit concerned this game would bring out the worst in some players.

On the other hand, the game does hit all of my gaming sweet spots. I’ll probably play it again before deciding whether to buy it. On the other other hand, it appears to be available quite cheap…

Went crazy last night…ordered:

Deep Madness
A Distant Plain
SpaceCorp
Pavlov’s House
Nightfighter Ace: Air Defense over Germany.

Now, I gotta decide which to play first…and NOT JUST SET IT UP AND PUT IT AWAY FOR THE NEXT GAME…I do that way too often.

New games this week:

carcassonne dnd_5e_coregiftset_ce_05 visioo

I’m a little late to the whole “old games suck!” argument, but I maintain that El Grande, the game that invented area control (at least in Euros) is still the best at it. Although I haven’t played Blood Rage yet.

If you ever stop doing this Vesper, you have to pass on the knowledge of how you generate these lists! :) I can normally find some resource to track new releases, but a board game one has eluded me!

The board game industry is not known for being very accurate on release date predictions. The only way I can do this is by actually watching what ships out on Mondays.

Ooooo, what’s up with those D&D covers? I kind of want them just for that…I doubt I’ll ever actually play, but those is pretty!

I am not sure that’s just the cover. I think that’s the $170 gift set, with the books, in-store only limited edition.