I think this is why I like Captain Sonar. I think it’s fun to lose horribly due to one person’s mistakes (in most of our plays it’s been a different person each time). It reminds me of Space Alert where the manner in which you lose is often comedic. Like an overexcited captain ignoring their engineer and accidentally sinking the ship. Or an overexcited first mate who convinces the captain to detonate a direct hit mine, only to sink their own ship with an indirect hit. One time we had radio operator who mixed up east and west for a whole game.
I like when the game falls apart in these ways, always exacerbated by the real-time pressure. What I don’t like is when anyone at the table isn’t trying. You have to have 8 people invested. If someone failed earnestly, it’s fun. If they failed due to lack of effort, that really does kill the game for me. I’ve played it 14 times now and so far only twice with a player who just wasn’t invested in the experience, which may just be luck. If you’re not in it for the silly shenanigans at all, though, I can absolutely see why it would be a negative experience.
I like how it plays with 6 or 7 players. Dropping the First Mate job is relatively painless. It can make the game a bit easier since it cuts down on one level of communication, but also a bit harder because the captain can sometimes forget to fill in blocks (we rule you can’t retroactively fill them in so if you forget you lose them). That said, I tried 5 player once and did not like it. Losing the Engineer is just too much.
CraigM
3025
We also really like it. My wife is a crack first mate, and I have complete confidence in her ability to find enemy subs.
She hates being captain, however. Too stressful for her. Meanwhile I love being captain. The navigation makes intuitive sense for me.
My brother also loves being captain, and his wife also prefers first mate. And we have had many epic battles. My favorite being the time where i fired a torpedo, needing a direct hit to kill. But I would take splash damage from being too close. Miss or indirect hit? And they probably win immediately after. My wife gives me the location, and boom.
z22
3026
Niche Kickstarter game, but War Room is arriving and after some plays of the Global War scenario I give it TWO THUMBS UP!
The designer is Larry Harris, of Axis & Allies fame, and is a WW2 6-12 hour game with simultaneous move plotting. Super fun and quite easy to learn and play. We love it.
It does up an enormous amount of “table” space. The big map by itself is 4x4.
We’ve done three chapters of Betrayal Legacy. I like it so far, being a fan of the base game for social gaming. I feel like we’re now at the point where it is starting to opening up, but so far the traitor hasn’t had much chance to win. Looking forward to seeing what surprises are ahead. It really feels like Betrayal at the House on the Hill, but having played some other of Rob Daviau’s legacy games, I expect some twists to the format.
Tatiora
3028
I enjoyed both Captain Sonar and Magic Maze, but I am fully able to recognize that the enjoyment of those games depends entirely on who you’re playing with.
Wow. It’s been 2 years since the kickstarter right? I really want to play it, but I’m worried it’s too Axis & Allies which is why I didn’t end up backing.
Jeez…I told my kid last week it was time to stop buying games for a few months and what did I get this week:
Tank Duel: Enemy in the Crosshairs
Warfighter WW2 Pacific
Night fighter Ace
Everdell
Parks
Nusfjord
Tesla vs Edison
I need to be restrained…heavily.
I decided to back 1861/1867 based on some strong recommendations:
The merger mechanic and the large companies that absorb the smaller ones seem like a good variation from the 18xx-games I already have.
Wasn’t that Minecraft boardgame supposed to be out this week? I’d like to try that, it sounds nifty, and something my girlfriend’s kids might like.
There’s a few games in there I’ll have to look up.
Not sure when it’s out, but if you want to find out how it plays, I recommend the new Watch It Played video about it:
Thanks, but I can’t stand watching boardgaming (or even video gaming, really) videos. They just really annoy me.
I read the Ars Technica article last month, and it sounded interesting. I thought it said it was out already in Europe, and in the US sometime mid-November (the 15th?).
Rodney Smith is the goto for our boardgaming group when we are bringing new games. His videos are the best at explaining the rules in a concise manner. It’s not a play through. It allows us to start playing without lengthy rule explanations.
It’s also a good way to get a feeling for the actions and turn structure of a game before buying it instead of downloading the manual.
But totally understand if you really can’t stand videos.
I don’t see the game available from my favourite retailers here in UK. So doesn’t seem to be out here yet.
McCrank
3037
Heard good things about Nemesis. Looking forward to it.
Vesper
3038
Me too. Excited to pick this up for myself.
Good game. Played twice, once solo and once with my kiddo. Lost both times, once to not fixing the engines and once to the Aliens. A keeper for sure.
Dragging myself out of lurking to mention that Chip Theory Games (the only place to get Too Many Bones) has free shipping for a few days. Since the shipping cost of their games is often pricey this might be an optimal time to jump on…which has me thinking about it again since it’s close enough to my birthday.
So, @tomchick or others, any opinions on how this game held up since the initial flurry of activity would be appreciated.
Thanks!
*on USA orders of $150 or more. $20 max shipping on EU order. I guess ‘Rest of World’ and ‘Canada’ are out of luck!
Good points, thanks for the corrections. Clearly my bias shows!
They have games under $150? :P
