I played Tank Duel on Friday! We just played the basic scenario, two tanks per side (and just two players). I have to say the most amazing thing about it is, after we played, I re-read the rules and we didn’t make any rules mistakes (that I am aware of). We played it correctly the first time! I think that speaks well of the layout of the cards and boards (and to some extent the player aids, although we didn’t even have to use them that much), to make it clear what everything does, and what the modifiers are.
Anyway, I enjoyed it quite a bit and am looking forward to playing it again. It is a bit random (we had several shots that just insta-killed an enemy tank), but it definitely has that Up Front vibe. It plays pretty quick, too. Thumbs up from me.
Question for the Deck Box Dungeon players. If you use the ability of the Elemental Mage called Firebolt, does the target get to role to block the hit, or is the damage automatic? I believe that they count as hits and the defender gets to try to roll sixes. If that is so does their defense modifier get added?
The rules that come with the game are minimal, the rules you can download from the publisher website fill in some of the gaps but not all of them.
Regards.
EDIT: Found the answers to these and many other questions on the BGG forum. Short answer, any hit is subject to a roll to block. All hits give energy, even ones that are blocked, except hits made via an ability or item. And if a baddie has one HP left, and you roll and hit more than once, all the hits yield one energy, unless made by an ability or item.
When my kids were younger, we just always played Ticket to Ride cards up. That was the only rule change and it was enough that they could play fine, even if they weren’t great at strategy.
Oh, I’m glad to hear someone mention Pandemic: Rapid Response! I stumbled across it last week while looking around for new games to pick up, and I was curious about how it was. I read a few reviews and it seemed like something I’d enjoy, but it’s nice to see someone else’s opinion on it here.
Ah thanks — your place looks amazing! I don’t use Facebook so I couldn’t stay long at the site before Facebook kicked me off, but I saw a couple of photos. Couldn’t tell if you ship games but I think you do. Would you mind a PM asking about what you have in stock?
I played Trismegistus at a friend’s place over the weekend. If you like heavy eurogames and are looking for something new, well, this a new heavy eurogame.
But playing it, I was reminded a bit of Tom’s video about Defenders of the Last Stand, a good game obscured by slapdash production. There’s so much about Trismegistus that could have been made more legible and playable if it had gone through a more rigorous development process.
For example, the game uses alchemical symbols for resources – very thematic but difficult to parse, especially since they chose to include both mercury and copper, whose symbols are nearly identical. And perhaps someone, at some point, should have pointed out that if the green card goes in the green slot, and the blue card goes in the blue slot, then maybe the black card shouldn’t go in yellow slot. Stuff like that.
None of these are insurmountable obstacles, but they make a pretty complex game even harder to parse. In our game, three of the four players misinterpreted rules that significantly impacted our final scores, and we’re all experienced eurogamers.
That said, there is some fun gameplay in there, especially the core dice selection mechanic, which interacts with and guides every other part of the game. I would play Trismegistus again if a friend wanted to, but wouldn’t seek it out.
Yep! Shoot me a PM with what you are looking for and I’ll get you prices/availability. What I’ve done for others on QT3 is split shipping cost. Unfortunately board games are heavy and I can’t eat that all myself. No sales tax though!
Have you played Trickerion? It sounds like it probably scratches the same itch and does a better job. I’d love to try it, but yeah, probably not a buy from me.
You only have so much opportunity to play boardgames, though. If you miss something cool, you spend that time playing something else cool instead. It all works out.
Maniacal is a funny boardgame, and there are not enough of those. You can treat henchmen as badly as Jack Nicholson did when he played the Joker. However, you better be OK with a lot of dice.
It’s pretty neat, even though most of the book is copies of the rules for games I already have (and a number I don’t). There’s still a lot of entertaining James Ernest stories. I was hoping for more design insights into each game, but it’s usually a summary of the idea behind the game and the story of it’s development, if it’s interesting (a lot of them are).
One thing I have learned is that their game Starbase Jeff is named after Jeff Vogel, owner of Spiderweb Software, who is one of Ernest’s regular playtesters. According to Ernest, he got the game named after him when he completely exploited the playtest rules and made everyone else’s game absolutely miserable. Apparently he’s the “let me see how badly I can break this” playtester in the group.
