1645

I hope I am not the only board gamer out there that sees what looks like 3lbs of minis and says… no. Zombicide pretty much hits my mini limits…

1646

There’s actually way fewer minis in Cthulhu Wars than Zombicide, if that’s the issue. They’re also way more excessively huge, though.

1647

I played Massive Darkness today and it’s interesting to contrast it with it’s cousin, Zombicide: Black Plague. Similarly streamlined mechanics and scenario layout, with Zombicide having more feeling of pressure from the Zombie hordes but Massive Darkness having more tactical variety and (slightly) deeper character progression. Similar in many ways, they scratch somewhat different itches IMO.

I think all things considered I prefer Zombicide, but my friend and I are now planning to play a whole campaign of Massive Darkness, and that’s going to be fun.

I think between all the many minis on a map games floating around amongst my friends and I, I am going to restrain myself and purchase Cthulhu Wars. As a consolation prize, I might pick up the Wulfsburg expansion to Zombicide Black Plague. I’ve heard the move-3 wolf zombies are pretty nasty to deal with.

1648

You made the right call. It’s a horrible design. Next time you’re in the area, I’ll blow the dust off my copy and we can play so you can see firsthand!

-Tom

1649

Recently got my kickstarter copies of Brass: Lancashire and Brass: Birmingham. They are such beautiful games, though Lancashire’s board is a tad bit dark. I’ve played both already, and its hard to decide which is better. Lancashire is tighter and reminds me of Martin Wallace’s train game Steam. Birmingham is more like Railways of the World – more open and forgiving, though just as fun. The poker chips that came in the kickstarter version are also amazing and certainly improve the experience. These were my most anticipated games this year, and so far they haven’t disappointed.

I also got the reprint of Dominant Species, another awesome heavy game. Probably the best area control game i’ve ever played, but certainly a brain burner. A tad bit long as well, which makes it hard to get played.

1650

I just got to play Root last night and I relate to this part of Pharaoh’s description:

… but mostly thought it was pretty fun. I’m playing again with a different group on Wednesday and am looking forward to it. It does have a much more solo-feel than my favorite dudes-on-a-map games, except when you’re flipping someone’s table.

I played the Vagabond, who gets points for helping the other players and doing random tasks. I was running around trying to give boosts to the person most behind, sniping at the player most ahead, and hoping the game went on long enough that I won by default from completing quests while everyone else fought. I was playing Yojimbo the board game. Which conceptually won me over so much I don’t know how much you can trust my opinion on any other part of the game. I liked the theme so much I want to play the Vagabond again purely for thematic reasons.

1651

The big problem with Pharaoh’s negative review is that it made me want to play the game, which I absolutely don’t want you to take as any kind of insult to your game chops, Pharaoh. The stuff you didn’t like sounded intriguing to me, is all.

1652

Yeah, I guess you are right about that. When I see Zombicide I see a board game with some minis. When I see Ctuhulu Wars it looks like someone made some minis and kind of threw some terrain under them.

1653

Based on what I hear about the game, it sounds like they made some minis and just threw some gameplay under them, as well.

I haven’t played myself and wouldn’t turn down a game but I’m not about to pay $100 to find out when people I trust aren’t too hot on it.

1654

Ooooh, that’s a great line, Nesrie. I might steal it when no one’s looking! :)

-Tom

1655

Haha. Go for it. You can even use it while I’m looking. ;)

1656

I always considered Cthulhu Wars a better, less fiddly Chaos in the Old World.

The base game anyway. The expansion factions are all imbalanced, fiddly garbage.

Try a PnP game to see if you like it. You can just print the board and upgrade cards then play with whatever pieces.

1657

We’ve all seen this, right?

A game about exploration like that has me pretty excited but I do wonder about the random components you get. Are we doing collectable board games now? This makes discussions of balance tricky as the answer to that seems like it can now vary between individual copies.

1658

Something about this really appeals to me, but then I think about my experience with procedural generation on the PC and realize that it makes for some big and shallow worlds. Maybe that won’t be an issue with a boardgame… but, it doesn’t give me the warm feeling.

Additionally, the price point of $60 is steep. Are people going to be collecting a $60 game like that?

I could see something like selling packs of territory tile packs for like $5/ea or item packs or whatever, but $60 for a random box seems painful.

1659

I think the real problem with these “Unique Games” is going to be the inevitable disappointment a buyer might have with the particular set of parts they get. Maybe they don’t get any female characters, or they really like deserts and don’t get any of them in their set. Or there’s always the danger that it literally just doesn’t PLAY as well as another set.

With KeyForge, at least it’s $10 to gamble again. But $60? Maybe they have the design of it down so they can avoid these things, but I can’t see how they could do so entirely.

1660

I feel like I would be more excited if a different company was going it. I like the idea though.

1661

Hey, Fantasy Flight, maybe tell me if it is a cooperative or competitive game?

This sounds terrible, but my daughter likes adventure games, and there are so few good ones.

1662

Have you played The Adventurers? It’s a Indiana Jones styled pulp adventure treasure hunt game. My group loves it.

1663

Do you mean the theme of the game or the Unique Game piece of it?

1664

I don’t think the Unique-ness of it will have much bearing. This looks like a fairly typical “draw a card and see what happens” game, which are generally awful anyway. The fact that you get a different set of random things that happen than other people who buy the game doesn’t really make any difference.

The “Andor” games seemed to have an interesting take, in that the adventures were somewhat programmed, so at least they had theme and narrative. I only played it once, though, and then my friend who owned it decided he didn’t like it and sold it. A game with a random set of cards isn’t going to have any theme or narrative at all.

Haven’t tried Adventurers, although I’ve heard of it. Maybe I’ll pick it up if I see it at the flea market.