I would be up for that, though, as discussed, I haven’t played before.
If you’ve got the base game and all the expansions, at least 40 lbs. of that is the map tiles. So. Many. Tiles.
Yeah and that’s been pushed probably 4 to 6 months with the corona virus. Speaking of inserts. I have an amazing wooden insert from Etsy that I got for the game. I should probably sell it now since I’m guessing I won’t need it for the new Collectors version from Mindclash.
Teotihuacan has another expansion?
Indeed!
I’m not going to lie. I’m intrigued. The completionist in me needs this, but I’m still playing the base game.
Vesper,
How worried should I be about getting a Super Star Destroyer for Armada? I know it’s a weird question, but Asmodee seems to be on warpath right now and I can just see that going away.
Worried in what way? Like, the ability to get one ever? Or problems if it breaks? (For those who didn’t see the news, Asmodee announced this week they are no longer providing replacement parts for games - they are shifting the burden onto store owners to do game swaps. Ugh.)
Actually both. I’ve been holding off due to high price point and my lack of time to play, but it’s on my list of things to pick up. I know Armada is still getting support, but I also know that the bigger ships for x-wing tend to disappear after a run. I’m doubly concerned with the announcement from Asmodee. I like my FFG stuff, but I buy a lot of games and typically have something that ends up missing or broken.
As of right now the SSD is out of stock at Alliance (Asmodee’s distributor) so if you want it I would grab it. Might be awhile before it’s back.
This is a different sort of thing, but if people wanted to try to schedule a live game, it’s on Tabletopia, as well. This works much like Tabletop Simulator, but it’s in a browser, and it’s free (I’ve never used the service, though).
And Elizabeth Hargrave gets an NPR Podcast!
Better late than never. Brew Crafters finally made it to the table, and I’ve played four games this week (3P, 2P, 4P and 4P). I like it - it is clearly inspired by Agricola, but like Dinosaur Island it has several phases where you place workers on different boards. I’d say it is somewhere close to in between Agricola and Dinosaur Island in mechanics. It is very thematic, and it feels like you’re running a small craft brewery that wants to make unique stuff, before you start chugging out as much product as possible to pay the bills. Everything is a common supply, and all players can get all the upgrades to the brewery, but there are local partnerships and specialist workers (randomized supply) that are a common pool - so it is more “choose your strategy when you can” rather than the “make a strategy from your private randomized setup” of Agricola. Except for the asymmetrical upgrade boards. There are many different paths for specializing your brewery. So far my impression is that the game feels very scarcity driven - you can’t do everything, and you need to decide what to focus on, and which scarcity you want to mitigate with partnerships, workers or brewery upgrades.
All in all, Brew Crafters is a thematic worker placement games that I think will have a place in the rotation for the time being, but will compete with Dinosaur Island for hitting the table.
Soooo… We have a meetup tomorrow at @Lykurgos 's place. And the first game we are going to play is 5 players Clockwork Wars with the Sentience expansion.
New game for me. So I watch a 3 turn playthrough that seems to date back to a KS campaign, visit BGG and it finally hits me: the designer is @hassanlopez. :D
So, Mr Lopez, any tips for a newbie to not get destroyed by the competition?
Edit; I skimmed the sentience rules which add the new race and hybrid territories to the game. Seems easy to incorporate rules wise. We shall see how much thinkiness they add to a turn.
Looks like it’s going to be a fun game to wake up to.
Tom’s glowing review led me to pick this one up and it is still my group’s favorite dudes on a map/area control game. Thank you Hassan!
As far as tips, I always focus on villages/cities to get more guys out. I also love getting the nuke (leviathan general) because a) it is awesome and b) people tend to find someone else to attack. Another good deterrent and fun way for folks at the table to say, “oh crap,” is to take the tactical ops action which allows you to win tie battles. I take this sometime even if I don’t plan to fight since again, people won’t want to deal with it and tend to stay away from me. And if there is a tech you really want, don’t be shy about using Technophilia to steal it when you don’t go first during the Discovery stage. Finally, if you are lucky enough to get the Operative (red dudes), feel free to ruin other folks supply lines. It is so much fun and you will be hated. ALERT: do not deploy next to a citadel!
So much greatness. There are also new maps on BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1393185/share-your-maps
and https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/138994/map-pack-base-game-promotional-tiles
Anyway…awesome game. Please give a report to tell us how it goes.
Be vicious and unpredictable.
I hope you have a great time!
It’s a beautiful edition of a great game. Everyone should buy it - It does require at least 4 people, and is best with 6. It’s basically a faithful reissue of the '70s version.
I was in my FLGS the other day, and asked them how it was selling. Apparently pretty well. They had sold at least 20 copies. I imagine it will sell even better when the movie is released.
It was a popular choice at the weekly gaming club I went to at our FLGS growing up in the 80s.
Thanks for The tips @joefriendgood1 and @hassanlopez.
Vicious, unpredictable, intimidating, not afraid to steal other people’s stuff. Seems like a great time for all!
Only issue is that my favourite D&D character is a lawful good Paladin. I’m going to have to learn fast. :D
Looking forward to it.
Freaking love Clockwork Wars. I think it just might be a candidate for a top 10 underappreciated game. We played a 5 player game with @Wendelius and @Ginger_Yellow using the Sentience expansion. This adds a fifth race for which the Unique Unit (UU) is an Arachnid monstrosity that can kill any one unit in an adjacent hex during the reinforcement stage that occurs prior to any combats. I was lucky enough that @Ginger_Yellow parked this next to me early on and I wasted a few soldiers and moves being adjacent to it. Better approaches were likely to either avoid it completely or attack and kill it.
After teaching others the game and playing as Purebreeds I proceeded to finish a miserable last place VP wise. I had wonderful little gambit planned out to pick up significant last turn VPs that was undone completely by an espionage card. One opponent had placed a discovery in a central ‘Nexus’ Hex and this combination delivers 4 VPs (a lot) to the owner on scoring phases. I had picked up a Guardian special unit that prevents initiation of combat in the hex it is deployed, supporting a wonderful plan.
A. Take over the Nexus hex with the discovery
B. Deploy the Guardian to the hex
C. Profit
A and B were executed wonderfully. C failed to occur. I chose to negate an espionage card played by one opponent that would have gained him VPs and cost me none. Then I watched in horror as @Ginger_Yellow played another espionage card, which I could not longer negate, that removed all my units from the Nexus hex.
One learning from this maybe is that espionage cards can be crazy gotcha swing factors. None are singly game winning, but it feels like maybe a strategy of going heavy on them and using them at key moments might be a tense and exciting way to play. Next time!
I can’t wait to play it. My friends and family know me pretty well, but don’t necessarily coordinate with each other, and I was gifted three copies of Dune last Christmas. (Two were able to be exchanged.)
I just need to have my baby take care of himself, and to gather five friends that can also put their young kids aside for an afternoon…