Gedd
2001
Got my WotC set yesterday too. Can’t wait to get some play in on it.
So we did Sky-Scraper, Captain Cosmos, and Guise (me) against Progeny in Megalopolis. It was probably not the best combination. Guise has a number of effects that rely on mimicing other players’ cards in play, and neither Sky-Scraper nor Captain Cosmic have anything really worth using those on. Captain Cosmic has no equipment at all, and Sky-Scraper’s equipment is her Links, which have small effects that mostly want to be placed on enemies or environment cards. Neither have much in the way of ongoings to mimic, either. Sky-Scraper meanwhile has a Link that gives a power that (IIRC) does equipment retrieval, but since neither Guise nor Captain Cosmic have equipment…
It was a successful battle, though. Progeny seems to be threatening mostly because all the damage he generates on his starting side hits all hero targets (which would have really fucked over Captain Cosmic, except that a lot of it is energy damage and CC can make himself and his constructs immune to energy damage) and then he focus fires heroes that drop into the danger range below 10 HP. He’s a shapeshifter who swaps out combinations of four different “Scion” cards (each of which do all-hero-target damage when played and then nuke a different Scion card if he’s got three or more in play; then give him an ongoing buff - +damage, or some effect triggered the first time he takes damage each turn, such as making the heroes collectively discard 1 card or him healing 2), with a handful of really nasty ongoings (the worst ones blow themselves and a couple other cards up on his next turn, though) and cards that fish Scions or ongoings out and do some all-hero-target damage to boot.
He managed to take out Sky-Scraper, but Guise has a one-shot called Gimmick Character that knocks cards off all decks in play and then heals him for the number of cards discarded and then lets him play another, which I used three times in a fashion both disruptive to his play and healing me for a total of 15 HP, and Captain Cosmic was largely immune to his damage, so CC loaded me up with his autonomous energy blade constructs and then I poked Progeny to death for 7 points a turn on both my turn and Sky-Scraper’s incapacitated turn, drawing cards every time.
Highlight: The environment card informed us that Progeny was targeting civilians. Then Progeny promptly blew said environment card up with a one-shot announcing our impending doom (this also blew up (H) equipment and ongoings, IIRC, but hey, we didn’t have any).
Also played Viticulture. It was really neat, but this post is long enough already.
Did you use any of the add-ons? Because I’ve played vanilla Viticulture a few times and it feels like a just-the-basics perfunctory worker placement game (especially compared to the developer’s other worker placement game, Euphoria). I’m not a fan of Viticulture, but I’m intrigued by some of the add-ons.
-Tom
So this past weekend I and three others played a game of Eldritch Horror with the Forsaken Lore expansion.
It was fun, and the extra clue cards and extra mystery cards definitely added to the enjoyability of the experience.
That said, you can just feel rules creep edging in on this game. For instance, one new-ish mechanic has you placing Eldritch tokens on the Omen track as a result of various events in-game, and then those tokens can trigger in-game character hits to health or sanity if a certain situation comes up.
A few of the new mystery cards also introduce some incredibly convoluted solving mechanics, mechanics that become so involved (Get this, now do that, now add clue tokens equal to half the investigators, now click your heels together…) A lot of this stuff walks right up to the edge of being more like work than like playing a game.
Thus, the new-new expansion with the new gameboard, Mountains of Madness, sure would be something I’d view with a jaundiced eye at this point.
Mark_L
2005
Sounds neat! I can’t wait to pick up Guise, limited though he may be. Do Wager-Master next, por favor!
ShivaX
2006
Now keep in mind, the new board is very situational: basically 1 game in 6 or so will use it. It only comes up if you draw the Prelude card that activates it (basically new “setups” for the game) or play with the Elder Things, which require it. Mostly it’s just new stuff and focus. Focus is there to help bring the difficulty back a bit since Forsaken Lore swung it away from the players a bit. Otherwise it’s just more cards and a new optional board.
After I learned the board was only used rarely, I went ahead and bought it. Damn thing should’ve arrived today, but apparently my post office decided to leave it lying around on the floor for a whole day and I didn’t go down to get it since I expected it to be out for delivery (and they were closed by the time I realized it wasn’t coming).
ShivaX
2007
Oh also, learned this the other day from Shut Up and Sit Down:
Vic Davis is going cardboard. And I have an erection. Those two things may, or may not, be related.
Hope Vic is planning to go Kickstarter or has good publisher contacts. Indie publishing a boardgame is both expensive and time-consuming; it’s very easy to get burnt on this sort of thing - I’ve known a few to do so - much more risky than working in a digital medium (where you don’t need to worry about inventory storage, postage, or manufacturing costs).
No, the guys at Stonemaier recommend playing vanilla a few times before breaking out Tuscany and tonight was our first time with it. More would have been overwhelming, I think. I do agree it feels slightly less novel than Euphoria, but I still think the various mechanics are pretty interesting and thematic. I don’t think I’ve played nearly as many worker placement games as you have, though. I’m actually not sure if I’ve played any others besides Euphoria and Agricola, off the top of my head.
I realize that.
I guess my worry is that right now Eldritch Horror feels like Mr. Creosote, and even the introduction of one more wafer-thin mint could cause rather unfortunate results.
(That said, once you get a chance to play a game or two with the expansion, would love to get your impressions!)
Come to think of it I’ve also played Dungeon Lords. And there’s probably one or two others I’m blanking on. But it isn’t a genre I’ve particularly sought out.
This past holiday I gifted three games to my wife and teenaged daughter to encourage some family play time. One was a board game, Quilt Show, and the other two were card games, Elevenses and Sushi Go.
All three involved constructing your own thing – a plate of sushi, a tea party, a quilt – while trying to screw up your opponents’ plans. I found all three to be the right mix of light-gaming with some strategic depth so I’m not bored to death. And all three were big hits with the ladies and will be brought out again. All are recommended for casual gaming with non-hard core family and friends.
ShivaX
2013
Should get a game going in a couple weeks with it. Most people think it’s a great expansion from what I’ve seen, but we’ll see.
hepcat
2014
I have Eldritch Horror and all the fixin’s sitting on my kitchen table right now. With the weather being as crappy as it is (and a 500 dollar car repair bill this morning), I think I may drown my sorrows in Guinness and gaming this weekend.
xahlt
2015
I’ve played 2 games now with Mountains of Madness. To set the scene, my wife and I have played probably two dozen or so total EH games, almost all of the time with 2 investigators (we each play one). In many ways we didn’t like too much of Forsaken Lore, as it does a couple things: adds Lost in Time (which is killer when you have only 2 investigators) and ups the general difficulty (we typically only win something like 10 to 20% of our games). So, it was nice to have in terms of adding game variety, but the way it changed the game wasn’t particularly appealing to us.
Mountains of Madness, on the other hand, seems like it gives more tools to the investigators (and if I had to guess, might make things a bit easier, although we’ve closely lost both games so far). First of all, the focus tokens give you an action you can take all the time, regardless of where you are or what the situation is, alleviating some of the “well, I’m in the wilderness and don’t need to rest, so…” situations. It also helps you “farm” chances, or gather your resources, to pull off a big encounter that previously would have been basically impossible if you didn’t want to waste clues or don’t have a character who can generate them. Second, the prelude cards give a little starting variety, which is nice even with just the base game. Third, and most importantly, there are now cards that result in “Advance the Current Mystery.” This really helps progress the game, especially if you are stuck on a mystery that requires a specific omen sign, or needs a specific artifact to hurt an epic monster. Before MoM you were basically stymied from moving forward while the world went to hell.
So even though there are still quite complicated mysteries that are very difficult to pull off, I’d say it is a far better expansion than the first – if you have room to store it.
ShivaX
2016
There’s soooo many cards now, not to mention tokens. My storage solution is going to break with the next expansion I think.
I think Eldritch Horror’s design neatly sidesteps a lot of the problems that expanding Arkham Horror caused that game. All the unique mechanics have either been spun out into their own modular thing, tied to a specific Ancient One, or condensed onto single cards (i.e. every gate encounter is going to be thematic to a given other world because where the gate leads depends on the card you draw, rather than being tied to the gate token itself.), and cases where you might need specific cards generally provide a way to get them. Eventually the decks will get bloated and hard to shuffle, but that seems like the only intrinsic issue with expanding EH for now.
I picked up Roll for the Galaxy yesterday. Unfortunately, my girlfriend and I are sick so we only had enough energy to play one game. But damn, that game was really fun! Despite 111 dice and a pretty big box, the game is actually as easy to setup and quick to play as Race for the Galaxy (perhaps easier since I don’t have to fish through the giant deck for starter planets). The way dice are implemented is just brilliant. They work as stand ins in all the ways cards used to. You use them as currency to build developments and settle planets, but after doing so you have to hire those citizens back with cash. The whole flow is nothing like Race for the Galaxy and yet feels surprisingly similar.
I think the element I’m most interested in exploring at the moment is the build queues. Whenever you explore, you draw tiles with developments on one side and planets on the other. You have to immediately decide whether to place the tile as planet or development at the bottom of its queue. And then you have to build those tiles in that order. However, when exploring, you can opt to discard any tiles in any queue to be able to draw more tiles. This seems like it allows some interesting but risky queue management since you don’t know what new tiles you’ll be getting when you toss old ones.
It also generally feels a bit more thematic. The dice are your space empires “citizens” so you have to pay them to hire after you use them. You gain new citizens when you settle planets (but still have to hire them), and developments tend to give you powers that make controlling your citizens a bit easier. After only one game, I’m still getting my mind around the basic mechanisms of play and haven’t really gotten to enjoying the planet and development powers. They seemed interesting. They’re the element that will determine the lifespan of the game. Really looking forward to playing more when I’m feeling better.
Bought my copy, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Glad to hear you liked it.
Gedd
2020
Does anyone else have Marvel: Legendary? I got it as a gift this Christmas, and while I’m enjoying it quite a bit, I’m having a bit of an issue with shuffling and drawing cards. The cards seem like they do not like to slide against each other at all, and I frequently get two or three cards at a time. This wouldn’t be a big deal in most games, but in a deckbuilder and a game where everything is some sort of stack of cards, it’s really annoying.
I’m just curious if anyone else has had this issue and whether I can expect it to get better over time.
