1946

Friday we played 3 games:
Eldritch Horror: Masks of somethingsomething. We did not play the campaign rules since AH 3 will be in my hands next week. We did play one of the new bosses, though. I liked this because instead of solving the usual 2-3 missions, we had to go through a scenario based on the Adventure Cards.

Chulthu Pandemic: One of my favorite games. I actually prefer it to Regular pandemic.

Ticket to Ride Nordic: We fucked up almost all the rules. It has new rules for ferry and tunnels, but what we missed is that locomotive cards aren’t wild cards for claiming normal routes. I liked this map. Usually we play with 3 people, and the maximum number of players for the map is 3, so it works out well.

1947

I’d never heard of this, but I checked it out and it looked like my kind of thing… I had a game day/evening set up for Saturday, so I impulse bought it in the morning, learned it in the afternoon, and we played it that evening.

I quite enjoyed it. It’s not quite as deep and epic as it might appear from all the tracks and whatnot, and it is very long (which is actually not that much of a downside for me). Ever since we played, I’ve been thinking of different strategies. I can’t wait to get it to the table again. Might be a while though!

1948

If anyone ever tries Meltwater, please let me know if you like it.

1949

Okay, my week of Essen gaming has officially started, and I’ll probably be periodically bumping this thread with impressions of stuff I’ve played.

Started the day with AuZtralia, the new Martin Wallace game about building trains against Cthulhu- had to try it, given my love of ASiE, though I knew it was a completely different style of game. I read the rules while my I directed my friend Todd through setup. We had two other players, one dude who was terminally distracted, and another who griped about the luck factor pretty much constantly. We got one rule wrong- that you could only buy one unit at a time per action (so we actually had it easier than the real rules). We lost, big time- made it halfway around the time track before the unlucky guy’s port got sacked, and the Elder Gods had way more points than any of us. Overall I liked it- I could absolutely see why unlucky guy had a gripe, but I felt like that would be mitigated by more experience and knowledge of the system. He kept getting in fights with the Mi-Go, using infantry- listed as “Good” against that enemy, and kept getting miss after miss and he’d be driven insane and the combat would end. Looking through the deck, it turns out that in that situation, “Good” (the best rating) meant 1/4 of the cards in the deck were hits. The other Good-rated troop had slightly better odds (12/40). I’m not saying I’m interested in card-counting, but knowing that going in would have meant something? Anyway, I think we all expanded too quickly, and that hurt us in the long run. I’ll probably try it again in the next few days, anyway.

Next we played Nemeton, a game the unlucky guy said he’d read the rules for the night before- it took us three false starts before we even got setup/first turn right. Once we figured it out we were good to go, though. It involves druids wandering around the forest collecting plants, befriending animals and brewing potions. It was fine. Doesn’t overstay its welcome, some tough decisions and choices to make (classic 'too much to do, not enough actions to do it scenario), but I feel it’ll get stale pretty quickly. Nice, middle-weight puzzle sort of thing. Eh.

1950

So anyone got their hands on Arkham Horror 3rd edition yet?

From the looks of it, it seems like they’re trying to go for the card game without the cards, including the scenario setups and agenda cards? Seems like it would limit replay value.

1951

My copy came this week, and I will play it tomorrow night. I will report out then.

1952

Received Brass Birmingham special edition. Man it is gorgeous.

1953

Yay!

I’m cautiously curious. I liked the idea of the agendas in the card game. I always thought a good change to Eldritch would be to divide the mysterious into Act 1, 2, and 3 so they feel like a proper buildup and climax instead of random interchangeable stuff.

I just don’t like everything else about the card game. Deck building was never for me.

1954

My copy should ship soon from Miniature Market. Looking forward to it!

1955

My AuZtralia showed up today. It just occurred to me that it is supposed to be pronounced “OZ-tralia” when I thought it was “aww-ZEE-tralia” like “Hit ZEE Road.”

1956

Got my copy of Arkham 3rd at the store but haven’t had a chance to play it yet. It’s so nice to have a compact board instead of the sprawling monstrosity.

1957

Yeah, and expansions will be nice. However, the map pieces stack weird and I already have storage issues with my Plano containers and deck boxes.

1958

Arkham doesn’t seem like it brings a lot new to the table? The clue stuff seems new, but the rest feels like a combo of Eldritch and the LCG. I don’t love Eldritch Horror, since it feels rather more like a ride than a game to me, should I be interested in this? Am I being unfair?

1959

I will report back tonight or tomorrow after it hits the table.

1960

I’m possibly looking into Brass Birmingham as well. Mainly for my wife and myself to play. Have you tried it yet and possibly with two players?

1961

I picked up the expansion Fallout New California for the boardgame! I love the new content and the alternative scoring system created by a fan is a must in all games!

Btw, I got the expansion at gamestop in all places! I hope this means they start carrying more board games!

1962

I haven’t played 3rd edition yet, but I kinda doubt it will be your cup of tea if you don’t like the “ride” nature of the Arkham games. the idea of a “ride” seems to pervade all the AH stuff. I have all the games (and many expansions) except for the new Mansions of Madness, and they all play kinda more like an intercative ride than a “game”. Personally I love that, but it’s not for everyone.

1963

I’m not gonna say I hate it, it’s just…I mean, it is perfectly plausible that you get “lost in time and space” your first turn, and then fail a test and get a serious affliction after you get back. It’s just not fun for me when that happens, and I don’t find it to be all that rare. A few bad rolls early can determine the chance of winning the whole thing, and after setup time and everything…blah. I hope other folks enjoy, though!

1964

It was one of my favorite games for a time, but its also the MOST TIME CONSUMING game of its type. I’ve found several narrative rides in game format that are not to intensive, that deliver nearly everything this does, except maybe Cuthulu. :)

1965

Out of curiosity what are they? I really enjoy games that “tell a story”.

I agree that Arkham Horror is pretty bloated. Eldritch Horror is better and so is the card game. I’m hoping AH3 continues that trend.