Boardgaming in 2019!

[Brooski]

Yeah, true. Cards are dirt cheap to manufacture.

You can thank Magic: The Gathering for that.

[JoshoB]

I do, by continuously giving Richard Garfield money. ;-)

(I regret nothing.)

[Sharpe]

So, was unable to get a game of Outer Rim going with people this weekend, so I ended up playing solo, and you know what? It’s pretty good solo (no pun intended, Han was not in this game.)

I played Jyn Erso and randomly selected the insufferable Billie Dee Williams, er, Lando Calrissian as my foe. Lando was controlled throughout the game by “Droid” cards, which are card-based AI similar to automa cards in Stonemeyer games (although I thought this AI system was easier to grasp.)

We both started out in crappy little light freighters with no crew and no gear. Lando had the awesome ability to re-roll dice and Jyn had the situationally useful ability to turn a focus result into a critical.

Off the bat, Lando had a better start. His special ability had more frequent application, and he had a run of good luck with the AI and market cards. He got to 5 fame (10 is victory) while Jyn was still at 1. Jyn was struggling with some poor-ish luck in the market and dice, and also with a weird mismatch in her character: her special goal requires her to test the Stealth skill, but she doesn’t have that skill, which means she has a hard time passing the test, and her special ability only helps 2 rolls out of 8. I tried to remedy this by encountering crew but ended up with a beefy crew of mightiness ( Pandu Baba, then I added Chewbacca and eventually Sal Gerrera) but no stealth. I did manage to buy an updated Heavy Lifter Ship and meet its goal so I flipped it to its special ability side, which was really good (+1 movement for each job you are undertaking so that’s typically +1 or +2 movement which is very good). Eventually I managed to complete Jyn’s special goal by brute force rolling of the dice and her special ability of redirecting patrols is pretty awesome.

Meanwhile, Lando’s luck with the AI cards went bad: he needed 2 smuggling missions completed to get his special goal but he only ever got 1 during the whole game.

So I was closing in on him and even played a secret card on him when I had 5 fame and he had 8 that let me steal one of his fame so it was 6 to 7.

Alas, close was as far as I got. My flaunting of the Empire caught up with me and I got beat by an Imperial Patrol, letting Lando get a turn ahead of me. Lando on the other hand used his special re-roll to beat a Syndicate Patrol and cruise on for the win. Lando’s luck with the AI cards evened out and he got enough mission successes to hit 10 while I was still at 9. I was only 1 turn from Naboo and my own 10th point when he won. Bastard.

Overall, very clean game system, elegant IMO, much less fiddly than Firefly, with very good Star Wars flavor.

Even solo (or Solo if you roll that way) it had excellent flavor. Will play again.

[Vesper]

Thanks for the recap. I think I’m going to have to pick this up. Sounds fun!

[tomchick]

I ended up playing solo

Wait, what? I wish you hadn’t told me that.

What, if anything, is lost by having a deck of cards randomly decide what the AI does every turn? Is there any meaningful player interaction when there’s another human playing?

-Tom

[Sharpe]

Not having played it with people yet, I can only speculate but I believe there are probably two levels of player interaction:

1)the typical level of indirect interaction you see in many Euros “Damnit you took the cargo I wanted from the market!” - and also it is possible to move the patrol ships in such a way to affect other players.

2)There is some direct interaction: you can get a bounty on a character on someone else’s crew, and if you attempt to capture them, that player can defend them. There are also some cards that allow for direct player to player combat in certain circumstances.

I feel about this solo game the way I feel about Terraforming Mars solo, except the Star Wars license adds a lot of flavor. TM solo and Outer Rim solo both seem like good ways to learn the systems of the games, and to get a sense of the various decks, cards, etc. However, playing with people is almost certainly better.

Solo play was not my first choice, and in fact I had no plans to play it solo when I bought it. But, needs must, etc. I feel like when I do get it on the table I’ll be able to both play and teach it better due to solo experience.

[Infested_terran]

We tried diving into that King in Yellow Mysterious Package Company thing yesterday.

Ugh. I think these things are just pure atmosphere props. Just a bunch of fake newspaper clipping and journal entries that are just flavor text. And not very good flavor text either. What was that website featured a while ago on the front page? The one that was a modern take on Jerusalem’s Lot about the cursed house? That did what this King in Yellow experience did a lot better, and for $160 less. What is your friend going to do with that large heavy ugly prop? Certainly not display it where company can see it.

There was only one “puzzle” to it in the form of decoding symbols. There’s no trick to figuring it out though. It outright tells you how. But the trick is that it’s a lot of time consuming grunt work to translate it into letters even after you know the trick. We quit after an hour because it felt too much like homework. And instead of some further mystery or revelation at the end, I suspect it’s just going to be a “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine” moment.

[TheRockSal]

Just picked up Outer Rim for solo only unless i can get my kid to play. The FLGS had it for only $34.99…think they miss priced it…didnt say a word and ran out of there!

[Vesper]

Someone marked wholesale as retail price. Oops!

[TheRockSal]

Anyone in Seattle want Outer Rim for $34.99…call Wishes in Alderwood Mall…one copy left…“might” still be $34.99.

[Vesper]

New games this week:

[cornchip]

I’m surprised Inis sold well enough to get an expansion. It’s great; I just never see anyone with it and I’ve heard complaints from rubes about the excellent art. Seasons looks good, and like it could possibly make the game a little less calculating.

[Matt_W]

I own it, and I’d love to get it to the table more, but I’ve found it hard to find players. I think people just don’t know what it is at a glance. And it’s kind of unlike anything else, so it’s hard to find a comparison: it’s a card drafting game mixed with Stratego on a procedural map?

[Ginger_Yellow]

What’s up with those Cthulhu Wars expansions? Is it a reprint or something?

[Vesper]

2 are reprints 1 is new. The game has been hard to get for awhile and it just came back with the expansions.

[Tom_Mc]

I got Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It’s getting commentary on BGG and coming off as kind of ho hum. I can see the complaints. It’s a race game, where there is no real direct interaction with other players beyond grabbing the useful stuff first. The invitation, introductions and Feats of Magic are not incredibly flavorful. But, I do like the idea of being able to set this up and play quickly. Turns look to be pretty snappy and I’ll think what comes off as to simple and plain I’ll try to take as elegance of design.

I am still pretty positive on Star Wars Outer Rim after my first play through. That game is also a race but dripping with theme. I don’t know about solitaire play. What do you use as a score chase? The number of turns you complete the game in? I’m still inclined not to use the bot at all.

[Sharpe]

I am still pretty positive on Star Wars Outer Rim after my first play through. That game is also a race but dripping with theme. I don’t know about solitaire play. What do you use as a score chase? The number of turns you complete the game in? I’m still inclined not to use the bot at all.

The bot IS the score chase. The bot will be botting around the rim, under the control of Droid (AI) cards, and will be earning fame as it delivers various cargoes, completes jobs, and occasionally gets to just straight up buy a fame for credits (if it has enough). If the bot gets to 10 fame before you, the bot wins.

[TheRockSal]

Just started my first Outer Rim game solo with Lando. One of the market cards that came up on top was a smuggler mod for my ship…perfect for Lando as his personal goal is delivering 2 illegal goods and the smuggler mod helps the odds with dice rolls for dropping off those items.

Now i gotta just get my wife to stop needing me so much with her broken foot so I can become the best smuggler in the universe!

[Brooski]

For those who like Clank!

'Clank! Expeditions: Temple of the Ape Lords'

[TheRockSal]

Played some more Outer Rim last night. Han solo, the AI I’m challenging, was able to pick up a luxury good job, some jewels from Naboo, So he arrived there and had to get through 5 tests to be able to pass the job and get crazy credits. He made it to the last test with 3 damage (he has 4 max) and the last test he rolled a crit to pass, and was able to heist the jewels and get off the planet.

With that fame, he is now at 6 and I have 3…BUT, there is a mod in the market that gives you 1 extra fame each time you receive a fame but it costs a lot of credits so Lando is going for that but needs to wait until he delivers his 2nd illegal cargo so he can finish his personal goal, and then he can swap the Fame mod for the Smuggler mod he is using now to help with delivering illegal goods.

The AI is fun to play as it’s like another player and rolling for him is pretty tense in some of those tests.

I’m enjoying this quite a bit so far.