1621

The veterans from my board game group back in Wisconsin unilaterally warned me to never waste a second of my life “playing” Fluxx. They also declared it to be about the worst travesty of a game ever designed. I’ve never actually even seen an opportunity to play it come up, but it sounds like they were not exaggerating.

Thanks for taking one for the team though, LK.

1622

It was one of those things when you first show up and you are not sure about etiquette that could have easily been avoided. I thought it was “__________ Monty Python game”, which I knew nothing about, and once I saw the cards and the FLUXX I knew I was in deep shit. My gameplan was to drink heavily and use it as an opportunity to check out the ridiculously tricked out monster-size meeples Agricola game behind me. Tragically, it was the game I came closest to winning that day.

1623

Board game purists tend to despise Fluxx, but for those of us with kids, cruel friends, and fewer than 5 sequential hours to devote to a board game, it’s great, silly fun.

Of course, I generally prefer shorter games to longer ones in general (Carcassonne, Hive, Lost Cities, Aton, Citadels, etc.)

1624

The problem with Fluxx is sometimes it can go on forever. Then even kids don’t find it fun.

1625

I’m not sure if its been mentioned yet, but Heroscape has been canceled by WotC. The last expansion is released on Nov. 16 and then that’s it; No more Heroscape.

The game itself is better than average, but the components themselves are amazing. I have used their components in other board games and even a few games I designed myself. It will be sad to see the series die out.

There seems to be a lot of stock left at most places I’ve checked, but in 6 months or a year I wouldn’t expect there to be much left at all.

1626

I wonder if the piles of unopened Heroscape starter sets I bought on clearance will actually be worth something now.

1627

I got to play Cyclades this weekend and I really enjoyed it. I misread a few minor rules, but overall I’m impressed and will probably end up purchasing it soon enough. Rattus is another new game which I played and it’s a fun, though light, little game about trying to preserve more of your population tokens from the Black Plague and the rats which spread it about.

We have a weekly board game night at the local game store in Burlington, VT which is the only way I’d get to play games besides the odd convention or organized weekend play. There’s a good mix of players normally, but most of us are between 20-40 and either attending college locally or gainfully employed. It’s hard to start up and it took a while to get up some momentum, but there are usually 3-4 games running concurrently at each session.

1628

If any of you Vermonters are ever down in White River Junction on a Sunday with nothing to do, let me know. I run a boardgame night in a classroom space there from 7pm to midnight most Sundays.

1629

I pitched in to the kickstartof Eminent domain after hearing a lot about it, as I’m a huge fan of the concepts of Race (which it somewhat resembles) and Glory to Rome (which it very nearly resembles, but with a different core direction from the rule-breaking). Looks like this one’s already going to get printed with the current backing, but I was wondering if any of you had heard much about it.

1630

Just what I’ve read on the BGG. You can read a review here. I agree with you on both Race and Glory to Rome and am looking forward to playing this once it comes out.

1631

I spent the last weekend (Thurs.-Sun.) at a small, local, invite-only ‘mini con’ that an acquaintance is putting on. She basically rented a big mansion on the edge of Lake Washington here in Seattle, and sent out invites, capping attendance at 50 people per weekend. She’s running the con all four weekends of the month- I’m attending the first two. The big draw is the diversity of people (without being a huge crush), combined with the huge table full of games just released at Essen.

New games I got to play over the weekend: 7 Wonders, Caravelas, K2, Phantom League, Last Call, the Space Alert Expansion (!!), and taught a few groups to play Haggis.

My favorite thing was the Space Alert expansion. SA is one of my favorite games in the last few years, and more of it is always a good thing. We played with everything except the new campaign system (keep your characters (or their clones, natch) and get new skills!), and it all was awesome.

The worst was Phantom League. This game is supposedly based on David Braben’s Elite game, and I’ll have to admit that it really is pretty faithful. Unfortunately, the rulebook is horribly written (leaving whole sections out), and the game design is rooted firmly at around the time that the video game came out. Ok, so maybe it’s not that bad- there’s no “Roll a die and consult this table: on 1-3…” (aka the laziest game system ever), but still, it’s crazy random and convoluted and just not fun. Being a fan of Elite, I had high hopes, but was sorely disappointed.

Also played a game called “Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space” that was a cute little team-based hidden-movement cat-and-mouse deduction game. I’m wondering how to get a copy.

This weekend is the Tichu tournament on Friday night, and I pretty much rock at Tichu, so I have high hopes. Saturday is the simultaneous-play Space Alert tournament, which is going to be glorious chaos. I can’t wait.

Anything new/interesting I should be on the lookout to play?

1632

Only after you’ve sent them to me. I need all your 4th Mass., Zombies, Gladiatrons and Knights please.

kkthx!

As for the game, there’s some small hope. I heard in a podcast that a couple of companies are interested in acquiring the Heroscape IP.

1633

That does sound excellent. I need to give that more of a try.

Also played a game called “Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space” that was a cute little team-based hidden-movement cat-and-mouse deduction game. I’m wondering how to get a copy.

I’m curious about this one as well. I’d also mention that it has a traitor/bluffing component that I really like, at least in the abstract. AFAIK it has a US release pending for the coming year but no UK distributor, and it’s already out in final form in Italy.

1634

The Essen releases that I’ve played: Lords of Vegas, Baltimore & Ohio, Merkator, London, Dominion: Prosperity, and Alien Frontiers although Alien Frontiers technically is not an Essen release. I liked all of them except London, which feels very very gamey. I will be playing Troyes and Key Market later this week.

1635

Unless they’re big companies I wouldn’t hold my breath. The cool thing about Heroscape is that it’s done in Hasborg-sized print runs that mitigate the costs of new molds, prepainted minis, sticker application, and other goodies that are prohibitively expensive to smaller companies that print stuff in smaller batches.

I thought it was bizarre that the Marvel Heroscape line never took off. They had that one starter and I braced myself for a flood of expansions that never materialized.

1636

I got to play AF, too. It was fine, but not mind-blowing. I do hate to make judgments after only playing one game (and watching a few more), but it seems like it may have a strong first-player advantage. I’m guessing that giving extra money to the other players is supposed to mitigate that, but the games I saw had either the first or second player winning- and since the game ends immediately, they had one more play than the others. Similarly, if the other players had gotten another turn, they would have been able to out-score the leader. Perhaps I’m just seeing things, though.

I know there’s copies of lots of other Essen stuff- Troyes, Merkator, London were all played- just not by me. Perhaps this weekend, though.

1637

There’s no way for the first player to get a ship on their initial turn, while the other players have a chance to get a ship. Now whether or not that enough mitigation for going first, we’ll have to find out. I didn’t win in our last game and I went first, although I’m not known for winning games anyway :)

1638

Anyone know if Castle Ravenloft might go on sale somewhere soon? I swear at one time it was ~$42 on Amazon, but has since jumped to $55. And I’m a cheapskate. (Also, it is intended to be a gift for my son, and it is a somewhat pricey experiment… )

1639

It’s $43 on coolstuffinc.com.

1640

Also, there’s this if you order it from CoolStuffInc: