The next time power goes out in my house I’m lighting my giant pile of Dominion cards on fire to keep us warm while we play Core Worlds. I really wish that game would get a good iOS app because I’d love to play a lot more of it.
Much how I really like the art style for ascension, I love Core Worlds art too. It makes me think of Homeworld the whole time I play it.
Yo_Rudy
5883
I played Mice and Mystics! It’s a cute cooperative game where you’re mice with swords and magic and stuff. Very simple mechanics, fun little characters, and a cute story. You fight a cat! I would recommend this to parents to play with their kids if they want to lead their children down the path towards D&D and Descent (aka being Ultra Cool).
I also played Chaos in the Old World! Holy complexity! Might be the most strategic competitive board game I’ve ever tried. Good fun, but learning the rules tacked another hour on to our play time. Blood for the Blood God!
I also picked up a Sherlock Holmes Detective Game, which has you and your friends trying to solve a Sherlock Holmes mystery either as one team or against each other. Anyone have any experience with that?
Played 3 games of Zombicide. Enjoying that one more and more every time I play it. But now that the table is cleared of that game, now I can go back to Sentinels of the Multiverse!!
Oh, and I finally went ahead and purchased Conquest of Planet Earth (plus the expansion), and that should arrive Friday.
Upcoming games that I want us (my kids and I):
- Battlestar Galactica (was not really done with that one when I put it away)
- King of Tokyo (just a fun easy game to play)
- Wallenstein (not sure my kids would really be able to get into this one…but I know that my official group would, plus, I have yet to play it)
- Asgard (Another game that I am not so sure my kids would be able to get into…but, my official group would)
- Kemet (we have only played about half a game of this…but everyone loved it when we did.)
ioticus
5885
The rules for Bioshock Infinite are up at Plaid Hat. I read them and am really impressed. The game looks like a lot of fun!
By the way, has anyone played City of Remnants yet? I bought it but it looks like people either love it or hate it.
Whoa! Didn’t even know this was in the works!
MythicalMino: Which version of Sentinels do you have? I’ve got the original box and like the game, was considering buying the deluxe edition and one of the expansions. Any recommendations?
Not that you were asking me, but all of the expansions add pretty much the same thing - two new heroes, two new environments, and four new villains, and all of them are excellent. For my taste the Infernal Relics characters are slightly more interesting but ultimately I’m happy to own them all.
I picked up Sentinels recently due to this thread and like it a lot. One of the really cool features of the game is how modular it is. Each update pretty much adds more of everything which adds to the random pool for setting up a game; the whole ‘I wonder who I am gonna get’ and ‘oh no we are fighting Plague Rat’ at setup kind of fun. It’s not that I like Infernal Relics over Rook City, but rather like having a deeper pool when I randomly pick heroes, villain, and environment (with the sidekick iOS app) so having both works for me. So my advice is “all of them”, but that is more up to your wallet.
If you really need to trim, consider the single promo items that seem to be in circulation now due to the kick starter (Unity, oversized villan cards, etc).
Anyone interested in this Teramyyd: Earthsphere thing? It looks like a sort of Guns of Icarus boardgame, with all the usual steampunk stuff. They’re going to fund their Kickstarter (asked for $20k, got over $100k) on Monday. I found out about it because it was at the top of the “New Hotness” list on Boardgamegeek, which is a spot that recently has been reserved for Android: Netrunner.
The initial movie was heavy on concept art and light on actual game, but they do have three gameplay videos posted now (although the first one doesn’t have any actual gameplay). I like that they’re trying to develop a world with a rich backstory, and that the characters don’t look like little kids. It’s heavy on the minis, which don’t interest me much but I know a lot of people enjoy them.
Anyway, it is going to get funded, so hopefully at some point it will be an actual retail product.
I’ve only played once so far, but I really liked it. It’s sorta like a boardgame version of Chaos Overlords, but with deck-building and more strategery.
rowe33
5892
I really liked the concept of this one so I jumped on it early on. The KS has been interesting to follow because the makers were clearly new to this sort of thing. They’ve been accepting backer feedback & ideas all the way through but I’m not sure if it’s a really good or really bad idea so far. I’m at the $60 level but might add more if they hit more of the stretch goals.
Case
5893
They have pubbed the rules in PDF format. Looks like a fun game. I’m in at the $110 level, which is the minimum to get all the minis.
I was literally a mouseclick away from the be-an-ingame-captain $750 level before I came to my senses. Who knows if the game is going to be any good? After ponying up to name a soldier in Up Front, I figure I’d reached my quota of vanity Kickstarters for a while.
I have the Deluxe Version…along with each expansion. One of the best games I have ever played.
It seems I am a sucker for Kickstarters that feature miniatures. What saved me in this case is that there are only about 10ish miniatures involved, and some of those don’t do much for me. They’re not bad, just not OMG I must have that. I do like the steam punk VTOL with the ducted fans, though.
I played Terra Mystica today, which I don’t think is being talked about much here, but another group I listen in on seems to love it. It’s also ranked 24 all time at boardgamegeek right now.
I should have known right as the owner was unpacking it that I would find it uninspired and tedious. For example, there are four tracks which serve no great thematic purpose up which one bumps ones markers in the attempt to come in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. That’s pretty much the kiss of death as far as board games and me go. I can’t give less of a shit for keeping track of who has what doodads in front of them that will allow them to jump past me from 3rd to 2nd place, etc. etc. I’m making myself fall asleep even discussing it.
And several of the upgrades you can make to your buildings and such have victory points associated with them. That always strikes me as being lazy on the designers’ part. Why not have upgrades further your purposes only? Why would an upgrade bestow points?
I blame Puerto Rico.
If anyone has a dissenting opinion, I’m all ears. Those are just two of my complaints. I have to stop playing games that are anything like this.
The saddest thing is, I had asked someone to bring it, and also Sentinels, and we only had time for one. I chose Terra Mystica. Damn it!
It’s apparently hugely popular. Seems a bit out of my wheelhouse, personally. The only Euro-y worker placement type game I’ve ever found terribly engaging was Agricola, and a good part of the appeal with Agricola lies in the random Minor Improvement and Profession decks.
JoshL
5899
Terra Mystica is very abstract. Even though there’s a bit of flavor around the various factions, it’s all about figuring out how to exchange various resources for various other resources in the way that gets you the most VP, while making sure you grab the limited actions before your opponents do.
I like it, but it’s far from perfect. There is no randomness after the setup, and there is no hidden information, so it is an analysis-paralysis nightmare. And it’s certainly possible to get into a bad position you can’t get out of in the first couple turns and have hours of doom in front of you. In fact, I’m fairly sure that if you pick the wrong faction (the first decision you make in the game), you’ve already lost.
Oh, it’s not worker placement. There are limited actions, but you pay resources to use them, there are no workers.
For various reasons, it doesn’t work well with less than 4. Which, combined with the analysis-paralysis issues, makes it potentially a very long game.
If you’re talking about the reprint of Consulting Detective, it’s a classic that won the Spiel back in the day. Imagine a super challenging Choose Your Adventure book with hundreds of places to potentially visit. Works well solo, or with 2 or 3 who are into it. Can be frustrating and awesome. Some cases are brutal.
Downtime hurts the competitive style.
