Kadath,
I just saw the game I think you’re talking about. Alien: The perfect organism. I know nothing about it other than it’s a card game of some sort. I just saw Tom V had a copy in his unboxing video.
I doubt anyone here can help, but just in case…does any have any insight on what the right set of Pokemon cards are to buy for a couple of pre-teen boys who are really in to Pokemon? My nephews have apparently been playing at local tournaments, and I was going to send them a booster box for X-mas, but their mom doesn’t know for sure which set to buy, and websites are confusing me more than helping.
IIRC, someone on here has a game store…maybe you’d know?
I’m not really a Pokemon guy but you can buy both starter/theme decks as well as what is known as “Elite Trainer” boxes. The ET boxes contain a bunch of booster packs and some guaranteed good cards. There’s new sets several times a year. The most recent set is Cosmic Eclipse and the one before that was Hidden Fates. Here’s a Wikipedia with a lot of info about the game: Pokémon Trading Card Game - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia
Sorry I can’t help much more than that! Magic I can speak to more intelligently :)
If they’re playing at tournaments they are presumable beyond the start decks and stuff, and either want specific singles or a mass of cards to build decks from.
A booster box sounds like a great option, the most recent expansion is Cosmic Eclipse. So they probably can use cards from that, and they’ll be legal for longest.
Cthulhu: death may die.
I’ve played the 1st episode twice (6 in base game) against Cthulhu (2 elders in base game) and it’s been pretty Meh.
The tiles are too small as in one turn there can be a player, a couple smaller enemies and 1 of the larger enemies plus some tokens all in this little square, so that overflows outside the area.
Also, in one turn early in my 2nd game, I had 3 enemies converge on 1 of my players and they took me out easily…game over. It was a bad mythos card draw that brought them all to me instantly so that is a possibility every game, losing very early. Reminded me of Power Rangers, where you can get overwhelmed and lose on the 1st or 2nd turn. Kind of a turn off.
You can mitigate that by gaining stress which means you can re roll dice but you also can do that on attacks and in my quick game I used stress to re roll some attack dice a turn earlier so lost my mitigation.
The whole gaining insanity to level up your talents is an interesting concept and you need to go more insane to get more powerful to defeat the elder but if you go too insane, you lose. So, there are some nice push your luck mechanics with insanity and with that stress mechanic.
Overall so far there are enough interesting ideas for me to possibly try again…someday…but for now I’m pulling out Terminator Genesys as I enjoy that one a lot more.
Thanks for the help, @Vesper and @Richard_Holt. After looking at the prices for booster boxes, I had to re-think it and downshift into something a little smaller. $110 was maybe a little much.
I sell booster boxes for $89.99 (plus shipping) if you are interested.
Just played the second chapter of Tainted Grail, which is already substantially more free-form. You’re basically told “here are a couple broad objectives you could pursue but also you might find something else that advances the story” and turned loose. We quickly totted up a half dozen or more threads to pull on, some with clear directions to go to pursue them (even if the actual location could be some ways off), others a more nebulous mystery. We also encountered terrifying creatures, chaos, plague and despair, and a few more helpful souls amidst the darkness. Also our first Guardians which were…actually not that scary tbh. (They move randomly, and fall away when the map does.) I’m still really enjoying the writing, and both combat and diplomacy continue to be remarkably thinky challenges (though I’m really glad that we’ve paired up our particular characters - my character Beor is a smashy beast in combat, and…a smashy beast in diplomacy. It doesn’t work as well in diplomacy. it really really doesn’t. Ailiel, my friend’s character, is a much more thoughtful type and so she tends to be tricky and evasive in combat but not super effective at actually progressing the encounter a lot of the time. She’s full of power combos in diplomatic affairs, though. Oh, and one final comment: some of the monster designs are really freaky. The Siren, for example…let’s just say the alluring lady part is the tongue.
New games - only a couple this week. (There’s more D&D and wargame stuff but that is outside of the scope of this thread!)
Nanty Narking is the reimplementation of Wallace’s Discworld.
The original is a lot of fun. I’m sure the theme won’t be as quirky here. But I’d still recommend checking it out.
Played one more round of Cthulhu Death May Die and 2 of the small paces were so crammed with monsters and tokens, I just got tired of it. Chucking the game but keeping the very nice monster minis…can possibly use those for KDM since I sold all those minis when I got that game.
Interesting. Drive Thru gave it a pretty good review:
Chucking the game and keeping pieces feels like sacrilege though. I’d rather sell it on for others to enjoy than bin it or part of it. Maybe it’s a weird quirk if mine, but I find it hard to willfully bin or damage games.
I bought it because of all the reviews like the one you stated. Just didnt do it for me.
I actually do feel weird dumping the game and keeping the minis…never done that but I love the minis and just have no need for the game. A bit of guilt but that’s ok.
Indeed. If the minis are worth keeping for other purposes, you might as well get something out of it. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to do it though.
We like Castles of Burgundy, but havent played it for a few years. Our two out of town sons are coming home for the holidays maybe I should drag it out then.
My wife doesn’t like games with explicit attacks, and we all like Roll for the Galaxy, so I bought New Frontiers for the holidays. Also Everdell and its first expansion. Haven’t opened either of them yet, waiting till the sons get here.
Anyone have a link to a favorite brief video of Too Many Bones that I can show my wife to see if she’ll like it? I’ve got to get her to decide one way or the other if that should be our next coop game before the free shipping deal ends. The tabletop simulator and other digital version were good so I could get a feel for it, but they are too clunky to try and play the game with her to try it out.
Question for the hive mind:
Any recommendations for boardgames, following criteria:
Can work well with 2 people, upto 6.
These people are, apart from me, not into boardgames.
That means the games must be:
- Quick and easy to set up.
- Quick and easy to explain.
- Limited downtime.
- Amusing.
Successful examples already in the collection are Dixit, King of Tokyo.
These are both easy to set up and explain, the artwork on Dixit is fun and always gets people talking, KoT is easy to grasp and it’s fun smashing things up.
Things that won’t work, also from the collection:
Merchants and Marauders. My personal favourite game, but takes ages to set up.
Gloomhaven.