1741

We just need to get together more frequently than you visit your favorite retailer. With that habit of game acquisition, you’re not going to be able to retire anytime soon.

1742

Tried Galaxy Defenders tonight. Generally speaking, it seemed like a good mix of fairly straightforward play and tactical depth and challenge. Setup and teardown were a bit time consuming but also pretty easy and nicely mission-specific with enough variance in the structure to make multiple plays of a mission unique experiences. There’s a campaign with flavor text, tracked upgrades and branching paths based on degree of success, and plenty of room for expansion. The aliens, even the basic ones used in the first mission (which was what we played) are challenging and we did lose one of the four agents were were playing with to swarming spine crawlers that Just Kept Activating. It was admittedly kind of a perfect storm of bad dice luck on offense, worst case locations of enemies teleporting in, and ill-timed draws from the activation deck, but the flip side was that I was consistently rolling an incredible amount of successes on defense. And these were the easy guys. There’s a lot of tension in not knowing which of the enemies might activate between agent turns, and the limited action economy and mostly one-shot nature of devices and tactics made for some tricky decisions in terms of optimal use of resources and actions. In short, I dug it, as did my friend, and I feel entirely validated in my almost entirely baseless decision to go all in in the recent Kickstarter. (Only the core set and set of red “elite” alien types that were funded by the original Kickstarter shipped, so my giant pile of expansion and bonus content won’t be here for a while.)

1743

Obviously not an RPGer…

1744

I’m guessing that most people here use the board game geek to trade games but if not, let me know. I’m looking to trade some games.

1745

A friend of mine uses the math trade on Boardgamegeek.com to varying degrees of success. He seems to really like it. But you do have to learn the intricacies of it to be successful.

1746

I did a BGG math trade back in the spring. 2 successful trades, and a third in which I got scammed (as did two other users). Not sure I’ll do it again.

1747

Shieldwolf (and others) – I have been looking to get rid of a couple of games I don’t think will be getting to the table again: Core Worlds and Manhattan Project. Maybe one or two others, I’ll have to check. Don’t want to turn this into a trading thread, and happy to connect up on BGG if that’s the best way to trade, but thought I would mention it since you brought it up. What are you looking to trade away?

1748

Let’s please not turn this into a trading thread. Feel free to connect over PM if you like, but otherwise I’d rather you guys used other more appropriate places to announce and hash out trades.

-Tom
1749

So I managed to grab the only copy of Dead of Winter at my local B&N today. Hoping to get this on the table this weekend but I have a question for those of you who’ve already played, specifically Tom, what’s the best way to teach this game to a group of casual players?

1750

I managed to get in (most of) a game of Ignacy Trzewiczek’s Stronghold this past Saturday.

It’s an interesting game. Each round (of which there are 10) the invader performs actions through 6 phases that consist of collecting resources, building siege machines, equipping your forces, training them, performing magic rituals to enhance your attacks and finally sending in waves of assault forces. Every time the invader assigns a worker from his forces to perform an action during a phase, he gives the defender a disk representing one unit of time. The defender, after each phase, then has to spend those units of time on defensive measures/actions.

The defender starts with 4 glory points (read: victory points) and the invader starts with 10. For each round the invader fails to breach the defender’s castle walls, he hands the defender one of his glory points. So the invader has to breach the castle quickly in order to win. That or complete a series of achievements that could swing it his way if the defender does his job too well.

It’s asymmetric, contains elements of worker placement and resource management, and plays out almost like a tower defense video game.

I need to get in a few more games before I decided whether or not it’s a keeper, but it’s definitely interesting and has me thinking of ways to win as the invader (the role I played).

1751

Like Tom mentioned in the Dead of Winter podcast Stronghold will hold some pieces back in each game. You won’t get all the seige engines, training, or spells each time so the game plays out differently and forces on your feet thinking.

Tom M

1752

I hadn’t listened to his podcast so wasn’t even aware he mentioned Stronghold. Wow, talk about coincidence.

1753

Oh sorry I wasn’t entirely clear. In general games that hold back. A Study in Enerald came up but not Stronghold. Stronghold just happens to be another example.

Tom M

1754

I just listened to the Dice Tower episode that talks about (and spoils) Risk Legacy. I never played it and it is forever ruined for me now, but after hearing that I kinda wish I had played it, even if it is a Risk game. Still, holy great herons am I excited for Seafall now!

1755

Oh, got you. Yeah, I’m a big fan of games that can make the experience a little different each time without hobbling the core game itself.

1756

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Risk Legacy was awesome, and I say this as someone who realized twenty years ago he never wanted to play another game of Risk again. Seafall is definitely my most anticipated game right now, by a country mile.

1757

Tom,
Thanks not trying to turn this into a trading thread just was curious.

Bmarinari,
Math Trades can be tricky. Rule of thumb never check something you aren’t willing to trade for your game. Other than that MTs run pretty smooth unless the actual trader misrepresented their game.

Don Quixote,
I picked up Risk Legacy for $1 sealed. I figured in another few years it might be collector worthy, but I am sorely tempted to open it and teach it to my boys.

1758

Yeah. At the time the Risk Legacy came out one of the members of the boardgame group I was firmly in the “no Risk” camp so it was completely off the table.

Now that I know what it is I wish I had found someone to play it with, and Seafall has skyrocketed to the tippy top of my “gotta play” boardgame list.

EDIT: Shiledwolf, from what I just listened to you should definitely open Risk Legacy and play it with your boys.

1759

Giving this a bump:) really want the first play through to go well

1760

Personally I’m more excited about Pandemic: Legacy (since I’m more of a coop guy and Pandemic’s basic gameplay, while inoffensive, severely needs jazzing up with Legacy systems).