6481

Picked Pakistan (average) with Show of Force (2 days with bonus VPs for first day battalion destroys.) I drew some pretty decent battalions - nothing too bad. Worst was a support that drained 2 loiter turns from each combat so I went after him first.

Decided to buy 2 A-10A’s and 2 A-64A’s and 3 scouts leaving me with exactly 3 SO points for ammunition.

Sent first A-10 after the other support (I forget what it did).

Sent a second A-10 after an assault.

Sent the A-64’s after that support with the -2 loiters.

Condition card was move one battalion of my choice 1 step closer to my base - easy decision - I moved that support

For reference, all 3 missions had a LOT of baddies so with only 2 days, and with the bonus on turn 1 I was arming with as much weapons as I could carry within my weight and without going over 1 SO per mission.

For the first mission I brought A lot of LAU-61’s in the hopes I could use them but not expend them. Since the field was going to be very target heavy I also brought a cluster bomb hoping for a bunch and a couple of independent missiles knowing I might need to hit multiple hexes a few turns since I was at a -2 loiter and I was going for wiping them out for the bonus XP. I hemmed and hawed over bringing an A-9 in case of a heli pop-up knowing to use the independent I would need to fly high. In the end I decided to risk going without one.

Day 1:
Mission 1: In-bound card wasn’t anything special. Map laid out poorly for me, even though this tileset didn’t have a ton of ridges they were put in really bad spots and the enemy was very spread out. Place my A-10 and roll for enemy cover. Bad roll - 1 unit from each hex. This is starting out badly…

I shrug off some light fire turn 1 and take out my targets. So far so good.

Turn 2, Cover roll sends some more baddies in hiding. I need to take out multiple hexes to avoid some fire so I decide to go high. I take out the targets I need to and I’m doing pretty well on ammo. I might pull this off.

Turn 3 - Pop up time - Enemy Helicopter - CRAP. For those who have never played this game - that’s pretty much the worst possible thing you can draw (almost…keep reading).

My pilot is slow and the heli starts off in range of me and since I’m flying high I’m an easy target - I wish I brought that A-9… He shoots for 3 red damage - I draw some chits. Bullet holes - no problem. Pilot Killed - CRAP (that’s the worst draw in the game…).

Well that mission is a bust and it’s already looking like I’ll be lucky to get a decent score in this game but it’s only 2 days so I might as well keep going.

Score: -2

Mission 2: Same plane, different battalion. This time I learned my lesson and swapped an independent for an A-9. This mission went pretty routine. I took no damage but ran out of turns before I could decimate the battalion though so I only got half of the 6 point and no bonus. No helicopters thank god.

Score: 1

Mission 3: This is my 2 AH-64A’s. I load them up similarly to the A-10’s (lots of LAU-61’s). On one of the Helicopters I take an A-9 knowing I’m only going to fly high if I absolutely have to. I get a great scout roll and some great cover rolls. The in bound mission let me ignore enemy fire for the first turn. There was a lot of infantry and things that caused small arms fire but both pilots also had evasive so while the sheer volume of fire meant I was taking a hit or 2 here and there it was all yellow so I only sustained light damage. I’ve got 2 tiles to clean up to get the battalion destroyed and I’ve got plenty of weapons and my Aim-9 left to do the job. I only had 3 loiter turns left so I needed to bring on AH high (I wanted to avoid the evasion roll).

Time to check for pop ups - guess what I pull - ANOTHER FREAKING HELICOPTER. He starts out of range but can see me so he moves one tile closer which brought him in range of BOTH of my choppers - which were hovering so I had to fight it out. Helicopter gets to shoot first but with evasive I get to reduce one of the 3 reds to a yellow so with the helicopter and the one baddie in the tile I’m in I need to pull 2 yellow and 2 red. I go red first - second chit is ANOTHER KILLED PILOT %^&$^%&$%^$!!!

Well At least the chopper left had the A-9 and with my bonus for standoff I get a +1 to hit which means I need a 2 or better to take the chopper out from my position, I shoot and roll a FREAKING 1. UGH.

Crap, now I need to get the hell outa dodge before he wrecks me. I’m on the edge of the board and there’s one enemy left in my space - if I take him out next turn I’ll destroy the battalion - I’m stuck here 2 turns anyway because I need 1 to move to the edge of the map and the second turn to exit. This will mean 2 barrages from the stupid helicopter.

Next turn I take a barrage and it’s not too bad, 1 Structure and some other stuff that hurt but didn’t matter too much.I use the last of my ammo on the baddie in my square and take him out, mission accomplished but now I need to survive one more salvo from the chopper.

Next turn I pull the chits and get 2 Structure hits - second AH-64 goes down!! ARGH. I get the mission points and the bonus (for 5 total) but losing the 2 pilots cost me 4 victory points

Score : 2

End of day 1: 3 Pilots dead, 3 planes lost. One battalion reduced to half strength, one destroyed. I spend my 2 VP to buy another A-10 for Day 2 - Yes I’m going to finish this tomorrow and see if I can at least pull myself out of the Dismal category up to the poor category. I’ll basically need the missions to go exactly opposite than they did today.

Score : 0

6482

I don’t know what Dead of Winter plays like so I have no clue. Dawn of the Zeds is a “states of siege” style game and those all play fairly similarly.

Update on my Day 2:

Had to try to undertake 2 heinous missions (lots of guys, helicopters, etc…) in order to get 10 points and to get any rank at all (poor was the best I could possibly do).

First mission, AA’s and Helicopters were spread out in a way that I was taking a couple of red hits no matter where I started - and my pilot was rated slow. First chit draw was something like 9 yellow and 3 red hits. One of the red hits was a wounded marker (means pilot can’t attack the rest of the mission). That was mission over but I played out another round of hits just to see if the pilot would survive - he did but was wounded, unfit for duty and his A-10A was shot to hell. I didn’t bother with the second mission (the pilot went AWoL ;) ).

Final score: 0

Lesson learned - “Show of Force” is not a quick game as I’d hoped. It’s a death trap that forces you to play perfectly and under-strength. Next time I’ll play a game that has 4+ days.

6483

Arise!

Me, my wife, and a bunch of friends are going away for memorial day weekend, and I’d love to bring a cool game that is fun, unique, fairly easy to learn, and not too crazy hardcore. I despise Settlers of Catan, really enjoy Munchkin, WANT to love Arkham Horror but find it nearly impenetrable, and like Descent (the crazy D&D board game) but would rather be playing D&D. Any recommendations?

6484

Well… what other games do you like?

I mean there area bunch of options. Two I can give that should go over well are King of Toyko/ New York and The Adventurers. Shorter, lighter, but fun games that have always been a hit with any group I’ve introduced.

6485

Is there a type of game you’d like to look at? Machi Koro is a nice light engine building game, Evolution is good and not super complex. Both of those have new versions that Target carries that people seem to like.

So yeah, what kind of game are you looking for?

Tom Mc

6486

Yeah, that’s a bit tough. Saying you like Munchkin and Descent is like asking for a book recommendation and saying “I like comic books, and Pynchon. Any recommendations?”

But in an attempt to be at least at little helpful; maybe Dixit?

6487

Man I love this analogy.

Start with themes, maybe mechanics. Worker placement? Deck building? Economic games with money, shares, and the like? Abstract or direct theming? Dudes on a map?

What about randomization. None, low, high? Dice? Cards?

Give us something to work with @DrCrypt!

6488

Mage Knight is definitely what you want.

Runs to happy place where Tom cannot find him

Seriously, you might want to check out Lords of Waterdeep. I’ve had a really good time with it even setting it up and playing solo with multiple personalities.:)

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-waterdeep

6489

Have you ever tried Pathfinder the Adventure Card Game? That might trigger that I would rather play DnD but it kind of seems like you want depth but not too much depth? I find Pathfinder easy to set-up too and it is like a lite RPG. I receive the base set to review but I’ve purchased 5 expansions since it’s as close to an RPG as I can get without actually doing the RPG.

6490

I’d highly recommend the PACG app instead of buying the card game. Much cheaper and easier to set up! Great game though.

6491

Oh, yeah, I’ll second Lords of Waterdeep. It’s always struck me as a game meant for D&D role players when they want to take a quick break from actual role playing (although I’m not a role player, so maybe I’m just making that up). It’s a pretty decent worker placement game that is relatively easy to teach.

I won’t second Mage Knight. (Runs from Vic Davis).

6492

I’ll be the counter to Lords of Waterdeep. I’m not a huge fan of worker placement games in general, so it was merely ‘ok’ to me. Wouldn’t turn down a game if someone put it on the table, but wouldn’t request it either.

6493

It’s not MP though right?

6494

You can play local MP, pass and play. They’re supposedly adding online support later.

6495

How about Welcome to the dungeon?

It’s a unique dungeon crawler that plays fast, is easy to learn, and as a bonus comes in a small box.

6496

Co-op or versus?

I’ve been playing a bit of Flash Point lately and it may suit. Supports up to six players (and nicely solo-able), easy to learn with a ‘family’ version and a more complicated version, quick to set up and play, and refreshingly themed to be more appealing to the non-nerds (everyone loves fire fighters!).

Not sure how ‘unique’ it is as I hear it’s somewhat mechanically similar to Pandemic. But worth considering!

6497

The actual campaign used in the app so far is the first and weakest, though. Skull and Shackles is a much better time and Wrath of the Righteous looks to be at least at that level if not better.

Edit: RE Lords of Waterdeep - I didn’t think the D&D theming felt much more than skin deep and although it was okay, there are several worker placement games I’d recommend much sooner. Viticulture or Euphoria would probably fit the bill here, although if a more complex game was desired Argent: The Consortium is real rad. And that’s just a couple that I own and enjoy. There are plenty of others.

6498

I have the Wrath of the Righteous set, plus the 1-4 decks and the Character Add-On. I don’t have experience with the other campaigns but this one was a favorite.

I hope they do the online play because I am likely to pick it up then. I don’t know that a single tablet passed around though or even if it was online would replace the feel of a board game session. There’s something special about that experience.

6499

Looking for some suggestions here after we took a bit of a wrong turn following Amazon’s recommendations.

Lady Bismarck and I enjoy playing games against eachother and in co-op, with a lot of the usual suspects from Talisman and Pandemic to Euro games like Thebes and Ticket to Ride.

She’s got some hidden geek on, liking superheroes, Star Wars, LotR, the Dark Tower and that sort of thing and on a whim, I bought her the DC Comics Deck Building Game. She hadn’t played a deck-based game before, but after a very slightly bumpy start she began to understand synergy and put together a combo deck with heavy card draw and smashed me to bits and then when that lightbulb went on it was all she wanted to play.

We added expansions to it and had a lot of fun and then I was looking to broaden our options and so went for the Lord of the Rings trading card game. We’ve played that a few times now and it feels like trying to hum a dirge while passing a kidney stone.

The LotR game feels so dry and like it doesn’t really have anything to do with the universe in which its apparently set. Meanwhile, the DC Deck Building Game feels quick, the decks are built during the game by your decisions, your feature hero and some luck of available cards. The game makes her feel powerful, slamming down combos from a deck you’re building as you go along which means minimal startup time and by the end when you have a deck full of powers and powerful characters you really feel like two superhumans slugging away.

Can anyone suggest something that does more of that? Requiring less/no out-of-game deckbuilding, growing on the fly as you play the game, to a crescendo where you feel like you’re throwing haymakers at the end?

It doesn’t have to be a deck game - we’re just looking for that runaway power feeling. It can be a game that can complete in a half hour, but we’re also happy to punch each other for three hours while drinking wine and making increasingly bizarre music requests from our Echo.

Thanks!

6500

The LOTR Trading game you don’t like, it’s not he Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Deck-Building Game by Cryptozoic right?