My kid and I really enjoy the coop Nemesis…and I like playing solo with 1 and 2 players. Never played the semi coop even though most say it’s the most fun with more people.
AND, I’ve only played the base game solo…and enjoy it quite a bit…never played the Untold Stories Campaign…I have the comic, just have enjoyed the base game solo as is.
F this Machina…back to Dungeon Degenerates.
Well…bored with all my games…so I just ordered…and to pay my account back with my soon to hopefully be deposited stimulus payment:
Isle of Cats
Interceptor Ace: Daylight Air Defense over Germany
Field Commander: Napolean.
I was going to get Fields of Fire again…but I would shoot myself before trying to learn that one.
Hope one of these is somewhat fun and somewhat challenging.
I hate to threaten your wallet, but my understanding is that they will be Kickstarting a standalone (Mars-based) expansion for Nemesis soon and while they won’t include the retail base game as an addon, it will offer the previous Kickstarter expansion stuff. I’ll definitely post a link when it’s gone live.
Put everything away and brought out Terminator: Rise of the Resistance. 3rd time playing the first mission. Very underrated game IMO or at least a game not too many have heard about or looked into.
Really enjoy it. Lots of thinking involved, interesting mechanics, and with the expansion, a mission generator.
Anyone looking for a tactical dungeon crawl type game against terminators no less…Check it out.
I played the first mission once with my 12 year old. We found it really challenging! Terminators and HKs are deadly it turns out.
I ordered Aerion after seeing it on SUSD, mainly because it looks to be a lot easier to dip into than Arkham LCG, my main solo game at the moment, and I don’t have a lot of table space. It just arrived!
I feel Aerion is easily the weakest of Torbey’s games. I mean, I suppose I should cut a guy a break for running out of ideas after Onirim, Sylvion, Castellion, and Subnautica. It was quite the run while it lasted!
Do you have any of those others? If not, you’ll probably have an easier time enjoying Aerion. :)
-Tom
Never even heard of them before watching the video. I don’t really do much solo boardgaming.
Shadi Torbey is the bee’s knees. Here’s a podcast I did with him:
And here’s why I think Onirim is probably still the best of the Oniverse series:
Now that you’re branching out from Arkham Horror, I think you’re going to be delighted to find how many different kinds of experiences there are out there!
-Tom
Oh, I’m sure there are, it’s just hard to justify when my Steam backlog is so big and I have so little storage space.
Since Tom brought it up in his new video discussing game variants, I was reminded that I wanted to buy Hornet Leader, and, surprise, I can buy it direct from the manufacturer with a 20%-off coupon. However, I’m not sure if I should grab the Cthulhu expansion. I saw waaaaay back at the beginning of the thread that Tom described it as “totally nuts, and not necessarily in a good way,” but what exactly is good or bad about it? I doubt I’d be able to get it much cheaper later than the $16 it would cost me if I ordered it now, but if it’s not worth it even then, I’ll happily skip it.
Ooh, nice to see a shout out for Sol.
It’s a bunch of random “ha, imma kill your best pilot now!” nonsense. The idea is to add an insanity system, but it’s just arbitrary debuffs thrown in your way. I mean, it kind of works to model modern military hardware going up against Lovecraftian monsters, but it strays far from the core gameplay of Hornet Leader. Hornet Leader is all about planning around possible variables and then executing your mission. Hornet Leader with the Cthulhu nonsense is all about planning around an even wider range of variables stacked against you and then watching your mission fall apart.
Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it these days, since there are better horror- and Lovecraft-themed boardgame experiences. Forcing the theme onto Hornet Leader is novel and kind of funny and ultimately as frustrating as you’d expect. But in the end, you’re better off just enjoying the breadth of content Hornet Leader already offers.
-Tom
Thanks for the details - sounds like I’ll be safe skipping it.
Anything else I should be looking at from DVG while I’m there?
Nope, not really. I hate to say this, since I love some of his earlier games, but Verssen’s games get steadily worse and worse over time. :(
In fact, I prefer the earlier Phantom Leader to Hornet Leader in some ways. The later Thunderbolt Leader does some cool stuff with terrain, and it decouples pilots from the aircraft, which feels more natural than the way the earlier games basically glued the pilot to the aircraft. It also adds helicopters, which feels like a natural fit for a game set that low to the ground. But you can see any sense of tuning and balance start to fall apart once you get to Thunderbolt Leader.
-Tom
Thank you WarpRattler for linking this video. And thank you Tom. it’s cool to hear your thoughts about this.
Let me talk a bit about Darkest Night 2nd Edition. Back of the rule book includes a number of rule variants, and I think it is cool that Victory Point Games included a difficulty modifier to their variants. This is similar I believe to what was mentioned with Hornet Leader. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate the value in Darkest Night to play the game with a couple of variants that actually balance out the difficulty. One rule variant is +2 difficulty modifier, one variant is -2 difficulty modifier. The first variant makes the game easier. I play with all five basic skill cards for each character. No longer do I scratch my head deciding which 2 skills I don’t think will work within the group of characters I’ve assembled. Moreso, when I draw a new skill card, I’m now guaranteed that it will be something I didn’t have to decide I didn’t want initially. In a sense, it speeds up set up time. The second variant I play with is the increased quests. More quests on the board makes for a more active board. Now I’m playing with a greater sense of urgency and making difficult choices between the risk/reward of a quest and the overarching goal of defeating the Necromancer. Now the board has come alive. It does create a bit of extra work managing the timers for the quests, but I don’t think I could play it any other way.
And that’s the point, the variants have allowed me to tailor the game in such a way that I have increased engagement with what’s going on. This isn’t a uniform population of gamers out there where all rules must be liked by all. Different values, expectations and all that. I understand the stance of the designer not play testing the game enough and creating variants and letting the player have at it. But creating variants, and attributing a numerical value to say that this rule variant makes the game this magnitude easier or harder, and letting a player decide on ways that makes the game more enjoyable is the side of the fence I’m leaning on. I’m countering baby mode with difficult mode in the case of Darkest Night, and I don’t think I’ll ever look back.
What’s interesting is that Dawn of the Zeds was what piqued my interest in the board gaming hobby. I couldn’t find a copy of the 3rd edition anywhere. So instead I settled for games like Mage Knight. But when I could finally get my hands on a copy of Dawn of the Zeds due to a reprinting, I ended up bouncing off it. I appreciate the idea behind their gradual increase in complexity. That’s a fundamental of teaching really. Learn something, then reiterate and increase complexity. I get it, I just think maybe the rate the game ramped up the difficulty needed to be higher. Or maybe just the state of siege game style isn’t really for me. I don’t know. For some reason, the game just didn’t mesh with me initially. I should give it another go perhaps, once I free my tables up for gaming again. Who am I kidding. I have a Pathfinder ACG campaign in progress and I really want to play a bit of Feast for Odin too.
I have Darkest Night set up on my table right now! I really like this idea – going to give it a try.
I’d like to apologize in advance for the link I am about to share with you.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/awakenrealms/1897919106?ref=ek0vh3&token=dace0a50
A friend came and got donuts from me this morning, and dropped off a printout he made for me of Bargain Basement Bathysphere, a solo print-and-play roll-and-write game with Legacy elements. Apparently it starts as a straightforward push your luck game, but adds complexity (and minigames and collectibles and add and…) as it goes on. Looks like a fun way to kill an afternoon.
Oh yes. That one was mentioned in this recent SUSD video on print and plays and it sounds great: