Same here. Thanks for the link, Mike.
Pod
3062
Play something else instead ;)
Really though: Make sure you players are fully aware of the fact that they need to read all the flavour text, otherwise the game quickly becomes very boring as all you do is move around collecting things. If they’re not the sort of players who will put on silly voices, don’t play with them. Or even better, play with them when they’re drunk. For me, the effort:reward ration of Android is very low. The game goes on and on and you’re never really doing much more than moving round a board, collecting evidence and occasionally doing a little puzzle piece.
Dear God… Fantasy Flight Games just announced a STAR WARS COOPERATIVE LCG!
It’s a trap!
They can keep the cards. They are also making X-Wing, a space combat game with pre-painted minis. I guess they didn’t get the ‘fuck Star Wars’ memo. Apparently there will be more to come, including some kind of Star Wars RPG crossover with Arkham. OK, probably not a crossover, but probably an RPG at some point.
Sounds like a re-themed LOTR LCG, for better or worse.
Dean
3066
We did a 12-hour game of TI 3.0 on Saturday. 6 players, most of the optional rules from the Shattered Empire expansion (we left out space mines and anything else I deemed would slow the game down.)
I was the Mentak Coalition, dubbed the “Space Australians” by my friends and “Dirty Filthy Pirates” by those I would crush under my foot. The Naalu (telepaths) and the Hacan (space lions) spent the entire game at each other’s throats, despite everyone else occasionally suggesting that maybe they should try for public objectives instead of just killing each other. I was next to the Clan of Saar (the wandering Space Jews because they can take their space docks with them when they move) and the Yssaril (sneaky space Golems with lots of Action Cards). The Space Turtles were between the Saar and the Naalu, and spent the first part of the game, well, turtling.
Everyone ganged up on the Yssaril early and kicked them back to their home planet. I made an early gambit for Mec Rex because I had to hold it with a space dock and 4 dreaders for my secret objective (never did get all 4 dreaders there). The Hacan used the “Pull the Swtich” political card, everyone voted for it, and they pulled an unknown switch on Mec Rex. The die roll went against me, and my huge fleet was destroyed in an instant.
The turtles then went right in took Mec Rex, but it was too little too late. The Imperium Rex card came out, and I won with 5 VPs after almost exactly 12 hours of play.
This was our first game using Artifacts and their placement rules limited them to only three possible places on the board, and all three were on the same side of the board. This made 3 VP very easy to get for the Yssaril and very difficult for the turtles. I’ve got to review the board building stuff because I’m not sure we had the right mix of planets/empty/hazards even though I followed the setup rules to the letter.
This is the second game of TI3.0 our group has managed in under 6 months. I’m hoping to get the second expansion before we play again and bombard them with even more rules!
Woot!
Pics:
Rob O’Boston contemplating his next move:
A historic peace accord between the Naalu and the Hacan is signed. (Unfortunately this peace lasted less than one turn.)
The Yssaril surveying his empire in ashes:
The empty space encounters (like artifacts on planets) in the new expansion are pretty cool, I think our group has decided to make that a permanent addition. The race specific capital ships are also great.
And the minis game sounds like a re-themed Wings of War.
Heh. :)
Maybe the ships will use real lasers for LoS.
Soooooo envious. Wish I coulda been there!
Speaking of Twilight Imperium, has anyone tried the new expansion (Shards of the Throne)?
I’m mainly asking because I don’t even have Shattered Empires, but was looking to get it since as previously discussed in this thread it improves the original game. I was wondering how redundant Shattered Empires would be with Shards of the Throne, or if it’s still a must-get expansion.
I was reading a bit about Summoner Wars the other day when it was announced that Incinerator (who recently brought the awesome Ascension to iOS) are making it for iOS. I don’t like games with collectible mechanics, but we’ll see.
Holy CRAP, that’s practically enough on its own to make me get an iPhone. FWIW, Summoner Wars is not a CCG. I wouldn’t play it if it was, 'cause I hate that shit. Every SW deck of a given type is identical to every other deck of that same type, and every Faction Deck is ready to play out of the box. They do sell Reinforcement packs, which you can use to customize your decks if you want, but any Reinforcement deck of a given type is exactly the same as any other of that same type (i.e., every “Grungor’s Charge” Reinforcement Deck is identical). They give you options for deckbuilding with particular strategies in mind, but in my experience so far they don’t offer “better” cards – just more options.
Speaking of Plaid Hat, has anyone else preordered Dungeon Run? I can’t wait to give it a spin.
No, but I’d love to, as I like what I’ve read about it.
I’m still trying to convince my girlfriend to play Summoner Wars with me for the first time. For some reason, she’s been on a no-board-gaming kick for the last 2-3 months. I think it’s due to streaming Netflix, since she’s always watching it: original Hawaii Five-O, original Mission: Impossible, etc. :-(
The group I play with occasionally has played it, but I wasn’t there for it. General impressions were positive. New races are interesting.
Orsson
3077
As the poor, unwilling victim of the aggression (albeit the one who was an early economic powerhouse and threw his weight around from the start), I do agree that it was short sighted. Both me and the Naalu got focused in on the Secret Objectives rather than keeping the Public ones in mind. And then we were both too stuck in to do much good by the end of it (though I was happy to oversee the destruction of everything you had on Mec Rex, Dean).
The Promissory Notes in the new expansion look especially interesting. I haven’t seen the text for all of them, but it finally gives an attractive way of gaining extra votes in the Political stage (having them be binding was key).
tiohn
3078
I’m selling off some of my games to raise money until I find work, and Tom said I could link my list from here.
It’s mostly war games and a handful of older Euros. My prices are pretty flexible.
Hope you find work soon. I’m really tempted by the ASL stuff but there’s such a small chance I’ll ever play it I don’t think I can justify it.
These are my comments from our last session of Twilight Imperium. Do they hold up? No. Maybe. Yes.
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this session, which was fantastic, did not really revolve around technology or Mecatol Rex. There were no victory points scored based on the tech tree, and only 1 victory point total was earned by holding Mecatol Rex (although that was owned by the winner). My new theory is that the Public Objective Victory Points are what truly matter and a good player should try and grab the easiest one every turn. Screw your secret objective, and screw any public objective that will take 3 turns to complete!
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war only weakened players in this session, but most of the public objectives could have been earned by a player with a large, militaristic empire, as long as they kept it to border wars and didn’t get drawn into a land war in Asia. 10 resources for a vp, 10 influence for a vp, destroy 4 ships in a battle for a vp, and conquer 3 planets in a turn for a vp, these were all available and very attainable spread over 4 turns.
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we played at my house, which I loved. The only thing I would have done differently is provide more of a sit down meal for dinner. We ordered pizza and stood around in the kitchen wolfing it down before returning to the game, and it would have been nicer to have everyone sit at a different table and clear our minds for 45 minutes. The next time my wife takes the kids out of town that will be part of the plan.
Another cool thing about playing at home was I had access to Spotify. I present to you now my Twilight Imperium playlist. It is only 5 hours long so you’ll have to play it twice+ for a 6 player game of TI. I’ve made it a collaborative playlist so feel free to add any other Sci-Fi themes I haven’t found yet on Spotify.
