Board Games

[tarcone]

Thanks. Great explanation.
I really want a sci-fi wargame.
So now I have 3 that have piqued my interest.
Im going to be looking at picking one of these up soon. But Im not sure what route to go.

I just bought Mission Red Planet on Geekbay. I watched a video about it. The reveiwers said it was Citadels with a game built around it. They both really liked it.
So I picked it up. Looks like a great family game.
Next is Munchkin add-ons decks.
And a sci-fi wargame.

[Warhammer]

Space Empires 4x is a great sci-fi wargame.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

Space Empires 4x is a great sci-fi wargame.

I looked at this one. But I like minatures a lot more then chits.

[Warhammer]

Pick up some from Silent Death and use them in place of the chits.

[gi]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

The biggest problem with Twlight Imperium is that it takes waaaaay too long to play.

And for me, turtling was a huge issue.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Thanks. Great explanation.
I really want a sci-fi wargame.
So now I have 3 that have piqued my interest.
Im going to be looking at picking one of these up soon. But Im not sure what route to go.

I just bought Mission Red Planet on Geekbay. I watched a video about it. The reveiwers said it was Citadels with a game built around it. They both really liked it.
So I picked it up. Looks like a great family game.
Next is Munchkin add-ons decks.
And a sci-fi wargame.

I haven't done Mission Red Planet, but I know someone who has it. So there is a chance I'll get to try it out in the upcoming months.

For the Sci-Fi wargame, there are three I can talk about with experience.
-Twilight Imperium: Great game play, I like the action selection mechanic, and I love the impact that the political and event cards can play. The downside for me is the play time. I just can't get this to the table.
-Space Empires 4X: This one is much more war game than board game. The chits are well...chits, and ship designs and tech advancements are tracked on paper. There are some pretty good tools to make the book keeping simpler, and the game play is really very good. This is very much a war game following the 4X principles. I own it, I like it a lot, and it has seen the table more the TI3.
-Eclipse...not the shiny vampire Eclipse(just to see if tk is keeping up):This one is essentially a board game that encourages, if not requires, aggressive player interaction. This features what I consider elegant Euro mechanics to manage your empire, and I believe the best ship design element in any of the above games. This one plays relatively fast, and hits the table often.

For my gaming circle, Eclipse it the one. If you are looking war game, I'd still give Ecliplse a try, but S4X might be a good fit for you. As much as I love to play TI3, unless you have a group of players willing to set aside a huge chunk of time, it will be tough to fit the games in.

[tarcone]

Cool. Thanks for that explanation.
I guess im not using war game correctly. Im not a grognard. So I think it comes down to Eclipse vs. Twilight Imperium.
Once I get a play of Twilight in, I will pull the trigger.

I did see Eclipse went down to $80 at Minature market.

[tarcone]

So im at the brick and mortar store of minaturemarket.com. They have a dent and ding wall. Eclipse is on it for $50. I'm buying it.

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by Matthean

CSI is doing a Summer Sale and they have Fortress America on sale for $39.99. Retail is $79.95.

Fortress America Board Game - Fantasy Flight Games - Board Games at CoolStuffInc.com America Board Game

The rest of the sale listing. They add daily to it.

Summer Board Game Sale 2012 at CoolStuffInc.com

so they are selling it at the price that it should be. Good on 'em!

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

so they are selling it at the price that it should be. Good on 'em!

It's 51.99 now...

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by gi

And for me, turtling was a huge issue.

this. a guy at GenCon that we played against stayed back pretty much the whole game and then snuck out to grab my buddies home worlds near the end. it was sort of fun trying, watching everyone scramble to get him, but we failed. Also, he was the only person who had played before, and took pictures of each turn. I'm sure his newb-whipping is up on the innernets somewhere.

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

It's 51.99 now...

did they add something to the game that wasn't in the original? if not, it should be priced about the same as Axis and Allies, which I can find for between $30 and $40.

[tarcone]

Fortress America
There are cards for the Americans and also for the invaders. Specialized events (for invaders) that are add-ons if you want a more difficult game.
Maybe that is it.

[sachmo71]

huh. the original game had cards, but i think they were only for the americans.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

So im at the brick and mortar store of minaturemarket.com. They have a dent and ding wall. Eclipse is on it for $50. I'm buying it.

I would say wait on preorder for Eclipse because mine was $62, but $50 for a dinged one that is still in decent shape overall works. I picked up a copy of Mansions of Madness that had a corner with a tear in it but everything else was fine, and the guy even had stuff stored in plano boxes and had player aids as well.

[tarcone]

The box has no tears. It is still shrink wrapped. It has a little bit of a pushed in look. But I really see nothing wrong with the box. I put it on the counter and was looking at other games, and the guy put another copy on the shelf. They were putting them out, one at a time.
Maybe I got real lucky.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

The box has no tears. It is still shrink wrapped. It has a little bit of a pushed in look. But I really see nothing wrong with the box. I put it on the counter and was looking at other games, and the guy put another copy on the shelf. They were putting them out, one at a time.
Maybe I got real lucky.

Seems odd for a game of that price to mark it down to $50 for no real damage.

[tarcone]

The shrink wrap is still tight and untorn. Just a little warping on the box. I havent opened it yet. Thats on the agenda tonight. I will report when I do.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Seems odd for a game of that price to mark it down to $50 for no real damage.

When I find Ding and Dent stuff at a Con, I'm always a buyer. Most of the ding and dent stuff I see is very minor. The bottom is "dented" or the like. Mostly things that look like the game was not packed or stacked/stored well. I've also seen a rare example that looked like a fork lift had speared it.

Gamers can be particular about box damage. Many expect pristine condition. I'm not one of them though, I'm much more concerned about the inside, so Ding and Dent all the way.

That said...If I'm the seller, I'd mark it down a little, and then wait for someone like me to come along to buy it.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Cool. Thanks for that explanation.
I guess im not using war game correctly. Im not a grognard. So I think it comes down to Eclipse vs. Twilight Imperium.
Once I get a play of Twilight in, I will pull the trigger.

I did see Eclipse went down to $80 at Minature market.

Space Empires 4x is a wargame, but I wouldn't say you have to be a grognard to play it.

I put it in the realm of Samurai Swords with a little extra bookkeeping.

[Danny]

I am really forward to getting Space Empires 4x played. I'll likely have to play it solo because I have no one to play wargames with me after my move

[Matthean]

Getting closer to being released.

[tarcone]

Getting a closer look at the box of Eclipse. On the left front side is a crease about 6 inches long and maybe a 1/2 inch wide. That is it. Bang 1/2 price. Lucky day.
Had Tikal for 22.50. Almost go that.
Had War of the Roses for 25.
Game of Thrones card game base set for 20.

[Matthean]

Tikal is one of those games with minimal rules and the player aids that come with the game tell you as much as you need to know. The depth is in the play. Now that the one guy from my group is gone to Pittsburgh as part of a group starting a church plant, I finally get to rotate more of my games in and Tikal is definitely on the list. It's just kind of hard to rotate games in when you play once a month and people tend to pick a game and just play it repeatedly for the night.

[tarcone]

Went to a game night at my FLGS.
Played
Eclipse. Really enjoyed the 3 player version. I finished 2nd. But learned more about the game.
A couple games of Cash and Guns. Fun game. I would have loved it in college at 2 am after a night of drinking.
King of Tokyo. Didnt win. Close, but couldnt knock out the guy who won it with VPs. I was close.

Fun night of games.

[Danny]

Tikal is a good game but it's very very VERY bad for ap prone players

[DanGarion]

I went ahead and backed The Great London Fire since I know I have money now. We are having our sixth monthly game night tomorrow, it has been fun playing new games with friends.

[Warhammer]

Cash N Guns - Who doesn't like pointing guns at their friends?

Agreed regarding Tikal. I prefer Torres myself, for the reason you mentioned, it is less prone to AP. I feel it is due to knowing what your opponent's current position vis a vis you is and you are able to plan accordingly.

[Matthean]

Day one of DaveCon. I got three games in. Shadow Hunters was first. It's deduction game, but I wasn't that fond of it. There's cards that help you figure out who's on what side, but there is this damage aspect that brings in player elimination. The problem is players can start damaging other players way before you have any sort of idea if they are on your side or not. I think a second play makes it better, but not a game I'm busting to play again.

I finally got to play King of Tokyo with some other people and won. It was a nice and hard fought game. I won due to being the last person standing, but the person I eliminated had 19 VP.

Ra is one of those games where you see a review of it and go, "That's it?" So Survive: Escape from Atlantis got shot down due to one player not liking it and maybe the time issue and we played Ra instead. Whatever cons I had towards the game were solidified. The game is purely about the mechanics of the auction. The good part is the auction is rather good. During the second round I had this fear I was going to end up with negative points and continue to completely suck at the game. Third round came and I pulled off a decent enough round to finish at least within reason from the other players. Still in last, but at least not so bad I never wanted to play it again.

I saw a ton of games I have really wanted to play and hopefully I get the chance to do so tomorrow. I watched Tikal get played since I own it, but have yet to play it. I was definitely impressed with it and I now should be good to go in terms of teaching it. I talked to some kids about Survive and they wanted to know if I would bring it tomorrow. I need to add Hey, That's My Fish as well. Talked to one guy about Summoner Wars, but never did play. He has Eclipse so I'm way more than geeked about getting a play of it in tomorrow if all possible. I saw Egizia, Brass, and London played. I was curious about Egizia, but it wasn't clicking for me from what I briefly watched. Brass is on the buy list once the reprint hits, but I came in way late to really get a feel for it. London I already saw reviews for, and it seemed OK. I saw somebody have a copy of Dungeon Petz and that's another "would love to play" game. This weekend needs to be two weekends long.

[DanGarion]

Bought and played Bang! With a group of six. If you like werewolf you'll love it. We had fun but if you go it early you can have a lot of down time.

[Matthean]

Day 2. Nine games with 10 plays. Best game that I already don't own has been Cosmic Encounter. I'm a fan of any game that offers "Wait, what...NOOOO!" moments and there were a number of them. Case in point, I was using the Anti-Matter race which means the lowest total wins for battles versus highest. The other guy had the Graviton race where he can flip the first and second numbers of the totals, ie 24 becomes 42. We get ready to show our attack cards and I play a card to nullify his race's ability.

I can't remember the specifics, but one guy attacked me with his ships and his planet which adds 20 to his attack. Again, lowest total wins when I'm involved so I knew something funking was coming. I can't recall what I played, but I pulled off the win. Both cases the other player just sat there in stunned silence as the rest of the players busted out laughing.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Day 2. Nine games with 10 plays. Best game that I already don't own has been Cosmic Encounter. I'm a fan of any game that offers "Wait, what...NOOOO!" moments and there were a number of them. Case in point, I was using the Anti-Matter race which means the lowest total wins for battles versus highest. The other guy had the Graviton race where he can flip the first and second numbers of the totals, ie 24 becomes 42. We get ready to show our attack cards and I play a card to nullify his race's ability.

I can't remember the specifics, but one guy attacked me with his ships and his planet which adds 20 to his attack. Again, lowest total wins when I'm involved so I knew something funking was coming. I can't recall what I played, but I pulled off the win. Both cases the other player just sat there in stunned silence as the rest of the players busted out laughing.

Cosmic Encounter is easily a top 5 game for me.

[Matthean]

Lighter day with it being Sunday and I was so drained from the day before I skipped out on the first two hours, but I got 3 games in with four plays. Maybe most notable was finally playing Settlers of Catan. It was alright, which is about what I thought of it beforehand. 15 games with 17 plays was the total output at the end of the Con.

[tarcone]

6 of us got together today. We played Game of Thrones the board game. I really like it with 6 players. I was Greyjoy. I went after Lannister. Which was probably the wrong move, as Stark won the game.it was a lot of fun though.
Then we played Munchkin. We were all close to winning. 5 of us were on level 9. One guy was there for a lot of rounds but couldnt get in. I had 2 wandering monsters in my hang. On was a level 19 the other a level 17. I nailed a couple guys. I was an elf and helped another player in his battle. We were both level 9s. It was 3 players to my turn and 2 of them were on level 9. So it was the only way to win. It was a fun game.
That was all the time we had. A fun day.

[tarcone]

Sunday 6 of us got together for a game day. Unfortunately we only got 2 games in.
We played Game of Thrones 2nd ed. the board game. And we played Munchkin. That was all we got in.
GoTs with 6 players was great . I really liked it. Great time. I was greyjoy and wasted my resources against Lannister while striking a truce with Stark. That was a mistake. As Baratheon also left Stark alone. Stark ended up winning the game in about the 8th round.

Munchkin was fun. I really enjoy this game. We played with the 6 of us. A couple guys got to level 9 but stalled. I got to level 9 5th out of the group. I had 2 wandering monster cards with a level 17 and level 19 monster. So I was able to stall a couple guys from winning. A guy across the table got to level 9 and Got a level 17 monster. He was beating it until guys started dropping stuff on him. I was an elf. I get a level for helping others. So with 2 guys in front of me at level 9 I volunteered to help. If we beat the monster we both win. He agreed and we shared the victory,

Good times.

[kmbgolf]

mage wars sounds really good......looking for summoner wars on sale somewhere......been playing smallworld and seven wonders alot

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by kmbgolf

mage wars sounds really good......looking for summoner wars on sale somewhere......been playing smallworld and seven wonders alot

I haven't seen Summoner Wars: Master Set really on sale. Amazon gets you a copy for under $40 with shipping included so that's tough to beat. Mage Wars does look good though I don't think I would ever use the physical spell book. It seems needless. It's very much a streamlined version of Magic with a board.

It has less options for things compared to Summoner Wars, but gives more freedom within those choices. SW has 16 summoners with 16 more coming. MW has 4 with more coming, but I'm not sure they would ever get to 32. SW allows a medium amount of deck altering as were MW allows complete spell book altering. SW let's you draw up to 5 cards and you can play them or dump some of them if you get a bad draw. You get to use any two cards from your spell book in MW, but you only get to play those two.

Saying that, I can't see me getting it. I don't see the need to collect yet another mage summoning war game. It's not like you buy the base and call it a day. You get it full knowing you will eventually be pumping $100-300+ into it if you like it.

[tarcone]

Boy, my memory is really bad. I posted twice about the same game day. But posted on 2 different days. I really need to do something about that.
Is that a sign of dementia? Im kind of worried about that.

Anyway, I got Mission Red Planet in the mail yesterday. Looks like a great game. Lots of neat things going on. I cant wait to play.

[Matthean]

Ugh. Not sure if it's a good thing or not I found out about the The Manhattan Project Kickstarter. It's a worker placement game that allows you to build bombs to take out your opponent's resources or you can send your spy over there to overtake them. The project is for the Mega expansion and offers everything up to that point if you want. First print sold out in a month.

The Manhattan Project - Mega Expansion by Minion Games — Kickstarter

[tarcone]

Yeah, that game looks great. I really want in the $75 level. Get the game and both expansions. But Im trying to curb my game spending, so I will not be in on this.
You know Brass is coming again, right? Im thinking that may be on a future purchase.

Played Mission Red Planet with my daughters tonight. I really enjoyed it. Fun little game. Not too heavy. It will hit the table with my group. And Game night at my FLGS.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Yeah, that game looks great. I really want in the $75 level. Get the game and both expansions. But Im trying to curb my game spending, so I will not be in on this.
You know Brass is coming again, right? Im thinking that may be on a future purchase.

Yeah, Brass is on the want list as well, but I'm thinking of pushing it back to 2013. I don't see it as being a game that's going to sell out like some of the new stuff does. If you order online, there's really no difference in preorder price and regular price. There was a copy of it at the local Con I went to, but I didn't get a play in. There is a get together with the local city gamers group this weekend, so maybe then or during another one I'll get a chance to play it. If I find out I can get access to it at a decent rate, I might just leave it at that.

TMP and King of Tokyo: Power Up are the last two for 2012, but I was thinking just the base game for TMP and getting it via CSI completely unaware of the KS project. The next Band of Brothers war game is in preorder phase, and it's dealing with Panzer tanks, but I'll slide that to 2013 as well although war games are notorious for being out of print for periods of time. I'm even partly thinking of pushing back finishing off Summoner Wars when the reprints and new stuff comes out. At first I was like, "It's just a couple of packs I need." I later went back and figured it's 8 packs so it's more towards $70+ without shipping factored in since I want to get some of the promos and you can only get them from Plaid Hat. I know they will be there when I want them to be. 2013 is mostly backlogging and getting the couple of games which are big next year that I deem worthy of being bought.

[Matthean]

Speaking of Wallace, day two at the Con I played London and really wasn't impressed with it. I would rate it at a 7 and leave it at that. I just don't see further plays moving it to an 8.

[Matthean]

While I never kickstarted it, I did preorder Glory to Rome: Black Box edition. As it is hopefully nearing it's epic end, I've still got one foot out the door just waiting for any sort of screw up, and I'll switch my order at CSI and get something else. If King of Tokyo: Power Up! was in preorder, I would have switched. The main issue isn't when I would get it, but the fact there are reports now of component issues due to the fact that the shipment essentially sat for a month while in Boston, some of the boxes show wear from it, there's smudging, and other little issues going on.

Still trying to decide on The Manhattan Project. I'm kind of kicking myself for not making sure to play it at the local Con. It sounds great on paper, but then people mention the negatives and I start pausing. One person said a player could place 12 or 21 meeples(can't recall) in a turn so there are possible huge issues with game length, and the right bomb being built can end the game far quicker than expected since it can give you 4/5th of the VP you need to win. For a $75 KS buy in, those aren't really the kind of issues I want. At that price, I could pick up a lot of wishlist gaming in other items. Likely going with a no on the TMP KS project. I still got like 8 days to go.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Matthean

While I never kickstarted it, I did preorder Glory to Rome: Black Box edition. As it is hopefully nearing it's epic end, I've still got one foot out the door just waiting for any sort of screw up, and I'll switch my order at CSI and get something else. If King of Tokyo: Power Up! was in preorder, I would have switched. The main issue isn't when I would get it, but the fact there are reports now of component issues due to the fact that the shipment essentially sat for a month while in Boston, some of the boxes show wear from it, there's smudging, and other little issues going on.

Still trying to decide on The Manhattan Project. I'm kind of kicking myself for not making sure to play it at the local Con. It sounds great on paper, but then people mention the negatives and I start pausing. One person said a player could place 12 or 21 meeples(can't recall) in a turn so there are possible huge issues with game length, and the right bomb being built can end the game far quicker than expected since it can give you 4/5th of the VP you need to win. For a $75 KS buy in, those aren't really the kind of issues I want. At that price, I could pick up a lot of wishlist gaming in other items. Likely going with a no on the TMP KS project. I still got like 8 days to go.

I got my copy of Glory to Rome last Thursday.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

I got my copy of Glory to Rome last Thursday.

What's the condition on it though?

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Matthean

What's the condition on it though?

I haven't seen any issues with it.

[Matthean]

You might have gotten it early enough before the rest of them started to get sent out. This is what some of the issues with the cards have been. They have been sending out home mailings in padded envelops and one person found his with a split in the packaging and one of the two boxes outside of it. This is an utter and complete mishandle by them.

[tarcone]

Im looking to pre-order Sentinels of the Universe the Enhanced Version and Battle Beyond Space.
BBS looks awesome. 4 person game on a smallish board with 60-90 space ships battling it out in an asteroid field. Im really wanting this bad boy.

[bob]

I just got an iPhone 4 today. Are there any good board games on there? I know Ticket to Ride, but anything else?

[Matthean]

Summoner Wars would be my first purchase. Ascension should be on option. I'm thinking Dominion and Race for the Galaxy might as well. I know it has been mention that both might end up as app only games and the future nerd rage that will come from it. At least the first two should be there though.