The missions from the CD are also printed on cards that come with the game. You just need someone with a watch or other timer of some kind who isn't playing to read them off. I haven't tried it, but I'm not sure I'd miss the computerized voice. I think it'd actually be cooler if a human were screaming "SERIOUS EXTERNAL THREAT IN THE WHITE ZONE! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" or something.
He should have an airhorn to blow in case anyone talks during the "communications down" (or whatever it is actually called) moments of gameplay.
I'm trying to decide which largeish, horror themed game to get. I've not played any of them, but they all sound pretty cool.
Arkham Horror; Last Night On Earth; Mansions of Madness; Betrayal At House on the Hill; A Touch of Evil
The people I play with are down with dice and stats and whatnot, we play D&D every so often. I don't have really any preferences, just whatever would give the best bang for my buck. I'm really leaning to Mansions of Madness right now, it looks quite nice.
I'd love any advice you crazy board game nuts have.
I bought A Touch of Evil because I wanted to play Arkham but had no faith in convincing people to play a 3+ hour game. I liked it okay, but it wasn't really a hit with my group. They found it had too many rules, and they were unsure of what to do. It would probably get better with more plays, but I haven't tried again.
On BGG there were a bunch of people putting together ideas for "quests" or something that would give people a reason to do things. In my mind that would improve the game quite a bit by focusing people on early tasks.
I am looking forward to Elder Sign, as what might be an Arkham "lite". Fingers crossed its good!
I've only played Arkham and Betrayal of those games, but here's my synopsis:
If you want to play a game where you have to all work together, focus hard on playing, and with good planning, strategy, and luck, have a chance at winning, then play Arkham.
If you want to play a game where you run around and crazy shit happens, and then someone turns traitor, and it's crazy and fun, then play Betrayal.
Both are very fun, and have great themes, but are very different feeling games. Arkham can definitely feel very tense when the doom counter gets up there, and you only need 1 more seal to win, and Betrayal is great when you realize that you can have your dog carry the spear over to your friend so he can use his magic feather to hit the dragon for a ton of damage, and it's completely unplanned. But for Arkham you've got to be ready for an epic (long) adventure with a lot of steps to win, and for Betrayal you've got to get used to lots of randomness.
Survive: Escape from Atlantis just came in the post!
It looks lovely inside. Wooden components and a velveteen bag to draw from. The tiles are chunky and, cleverly, the three levels of terrain (beach, forest, mountain) are different thickness.
So, after watching the mechanics video for Rune Age, I am a bit worried that over half of the available cards for each scenerio seem to be the static race-specific ones.
I guess if the village cards are crazy mechanically interesting for every deck, that would be great.
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ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
I know I'm late to the party but we picked up Space Alert (+expansion) yesterday. We played through all 8 training missions last night and had a blast.
Memorable moments:
- My wife, THE CAPTAIN, fired the main cannon instead of moving the mouse on turn one. So when I was trying to seal a fissure, the lights went out. Thanks, babe. She spent the rest of the mission moving the mouse a turn too late and staring out the window while everyone else was shooting and saving the ship. We miraculously survived that mission.
- Ten seconds before the end of phase 2, we realized no one had set up to move the mouse (screensaver mode caused so many problems the whole night). Frantic yelling ensued and led to a really messed up phase two. Still survived, though.
- Phase three had us with only one threat left in the Red zone. Everyone was near some kind of gun/rockets so we all just fired for 5 straight turns. A ship turned into debris which turned into dust while three rockets, 6 cannon shots, and our fighters pummeled it.
After all the training missions we are excited to try some real missions and use the experience system. Space Alert is an amazing co-op game that requires real cooperation as opposed to Pandemic and Forbidden Island (even though we still love those games). But its real fun is the narratives it creates and frantic nature of the game having an actual timer associated with it.
I'm glad this thread brought this game to my attention. Thanks all!
I know I'm late to the party but we picked up Space Alert (+expansion) yesterday. We played through all 8 training missions last night and had a blast.
Memorable moments:
- My wife, THE CAPTAIN, fired the main cannon instead of moving the mouse on turn one. So when I was trying to seal a fissure, the lights went out. Thanks, babe. She spent the rest of the mission moving the mouse a turn too late and staring out the window while everyone else was shooting and saving the ship. We miraculously survived that mission.
- Ten seconds before the end of phase 2, we realized no one had set up to move the mouse (screensaver mode caused so many problems the whole night). Frantic yelling ensued and led to a really messed up phase two. Still survived, though.
- Phase three had us with only one threat left in the Red zone. Everyone was near some kind of gun/rockets so we all just fired for 5 straight turns. A ship turned into debris which turned into dust while three rockets, 6 cannon shots, and our fighters pummeled it.
After all the training missions we are excited to try some real missions and use the experience system. Space Alert is an amazing co-op game that requires real cooperation as opposed to Pandemic and Forbidden Island (even though we still love those games). But its real fun is the narratives it creates and frantic nature of the game having an actual timer associated with it.
I'm glad this thread brought this game to my attention. Thanks all!
Very nice - did you play with just you two or did you add 2 or 3 friends? I've owned the game for over a week and have yet to play it because I'm pretty sure I want to do it with at least 4 people.
We had a game night the other night with 5 of us, but decided to play TI3 with the new expansion instead (I've owned the expansion for far longer than SA and haven't tried it yet!). Fun times and I am still needing to play this damn game
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ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
We had 4 people.
But after playing, I can see it being just as fun/frantic with 2 players (since you each control an Android). Especially if you play with the expansion's experience/specialization system as it adds another motivating factor to succeed and another layer of depth.
Also, we went through and looked at some of the red threats the expansion added. They are legitimately scary to think of facing. All in time I guess.
I'm trying to decide which largeish, horror themed game to get. I've not played any of them, but they all sound pretty cool.
Arkham Horror; Last Night On Earth; Mansions of Madness; Betrayal At House on the Hill; A Touch of Evil
The people I play with are down with dice and stats and whatnot, we play D&D every so often. I don't have really any preferences, just whatever would give the best bang for my buck. I'm really leaning to Mansions of Madness right now, it looks quite nice.
I'd love any advice you crazy board game nuts have.
Well, I'd go with Arkham, LNoE or Betrayal. Arkham is strategy heavy and is easily my favorite. It has a TON of moving parts tho and it's really easy to get lost in the game. LNoE has a lot of strategy too but is lighter then Arkham and has a more visceral feel; it's zombies eating your butt not unknowable things after your soul. Betrayal is just a light, wacky, crazy fun game. It's fun for about 2 plays a year.
Mansions is really neat but has way way too many errors in it to effectively recommend as is and A Touch of Evil is just dull.
From your group, tho, I would say Arkham. If they groove on that a lot, you can get the expansions or try Mansions later.
I've never played LNoE, and I like Arkham a lot but disagree re: Betrayal. They are both great games, but Arkham is essentially the same deal with minor variation (close the portal at location X!) for a couple hours, while Betrayal's random Haunt mechanic means it's pretty much always fresh (at least so far for us).
Anyone have experience with Mansions of Madness? My group loved Arkham, but the guy who had it moved out of town so now we're thinking of getting something similar but new.
I know I'm late to the party but we picked up Space Alert (+expansion) yesterday. We played through all 8 training missions last night and had a blast.
Memorable moments:
- My wife, THE CAPTAIN, fired the main cannon instead of moving the mouse on turn one. So when I was trying to seal a fissure, the lights went out. Thanks, babe. She spent the rest of the mission moving the mouse a turn too late and staring out the window while everyone else was shooting and saving the ship. We miraculously survived that mission.
- Ten seconds before the end of phase 2, we realized no one had set up to move the mouse (screensaver mode caused so many problems the whole night). Frantic yelling ensued and led to a really messed up phase two. Still survived, though.
- Phase three had us with only one threat left in the Red zone. Everyone was near some kind of gun/rockets so we all just fired for 5 straight turns. A ship turned into debris which turned into dust while three rockets, 6 cannon shots, and our fighters pummeled it.
After all the training missions we are excited to try some real missions and use the experience system. Space Alert is an amazing co-op game that requires real cooperation as opposed to Pandemic and Forbidden Island (even though we still love those games). But its real fun is the narratives it creates and frantic nature of the game having an actual timer associated with it.
I'm glad this thread brought this game to my attention. Thanks all!
Not anything huge to report, other than our complete and utter lack of success once we actually head out and was attempting the real thing. Probably doesn't help that I mixed in the advanced cards into the decks.
Holy shit. I believe "I'm the JUGGERNAUT, bitch!" was appropriate one game. Also, we still lost some games even though we messed up a rule on the cannon where it can't be fired multiple times at the same time.
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I have a question about Space Alert: How complicated is it?
I ask because I don't really have a regular "gaming group" that's accustomed to complicated games. Once in a while, I manage to scrounge together enough friends+family for a game of Battlestar, but I'd really prefer to have something fun and engaging that doesn't take 30 minutes to explain before we start.
To the OP, this is a really well organized list of some interesting board games that I'm looking forward to trying. Just need to head down to the LGS.
I also wanted to throw in my support behind the board game Pandemic. It has a solid mechanics that force the players to really cooperate and create a strategy for how they are going to control global disease outbreaks. The turns are fast and it presents enough of a challenge that you will probably lose a few times before you really start to grasp how to work together as a more cohesive team.
I have a question about Space Alert: How complicated is it?
I ask because I don't really have a regular "gaming group" that's accustomed to complicated games. Once in a while, I manage to scrounge together enough friends+family for a game of Battlestar, but I'd really prefer to have something fun and engaging that doesn't take 30 minutes to explain before we start.
it's both complicated and not. remember everyone is only doing 12 actions (or less!) per game, and your only options are moving and pushing A/B/C. but the consequences of those actions can vary widely, which is where the complications come in.
additionally: because of the simulations, teaching the game is one of the most fun parts of the game. so although it would be good to have a regular group that can escalate to the real/advanced missions over the course of a couple of sessions, it's by no means necessary.
I've never played LNoE, and I like Arkham a lot but disagree re: Betrayal. They are both great games, but Arkham is essentially the same deal with minor variation (close the portal at location X!) for a couple hours, while Betrayal's random Haunt mechanic means it's pretty much always fresh (at least so far for us).
No, Arkham variations (if you include the expansions) are mind numbingly huge. Betrayal doesn't change all that much and, a good percentage of the time, when the haunt is revealed, the game is over because the win/loss conditions have already been satisfied. Arkham will be pretty tense the whole way through.
Has anyone here played Middle Earth Quest or the Lord of the Rings LCG much?
I want to get one of them, but they seem very similar in quality - their ratings are similar on BGG, reviews sound similar...
Can anyone help me choose between them?
Middle Earth Quest is amazingly good. It desperately needs an expansion tho; the replayability is sort of limited as is since there's just 5 Win The Game quests per side and it's pretty easy to tell what the other side is aiming for.
Anyone have experience with Mansions of Madness? My group loved Arkham, but the guy who had it moved out of town so now we're thinking of getting something similar but new.
Despite the theme and having a couple of similar mechanics, the two games are almost completely different. Mansions of Madness plays more quickly than Arkham, but requires much better teamwork and a greater effort on the part of the players toward immersion in the story. Arkham is essentially a game of "close the portals". However you happen to go about it in that playthrough and whatever other things there are to keep track of, that's the goal and everybody knows it. Mansions, on the other hand, has a number of (I think 6?) scenarios which determine the board layout, each with between 3 and 6 options that alter the win conditions and how the scenario plays out. Unlike Arkham, someone has to play the adversary against the otherwise cooperating investigators. Most of the gameplay centers around trying to figure out how to win. You go around the map searching for clues that will lead to more clues and so forth until eventually the final challenge reveals itself. The clues are literal clues rather than tokens a la Arkham, hence the greater need for player investment. The last game I played started with the players knowing only that they were taking shelter from a storm in an old mansion after a car accident and that, shortly after their arrival, they'd heard a scream from the direction that the butler went with their coats. There's no marker on the board or anything to indicate what to do next, so it's up to the players to figure out that they should go check out the coat room.
If that sounds like your kind of thing then I heartily recommend it. It's a ton of fun. I suspect that the limited number of scenarios means that after ten or so playthroughs it's going to get stale, but I assume there will be expansions and it seems fairly easy to make up new scenarios yourself.
For the other guy who asked about Arkham vs. Mansions vs. Betrayal vs. Last Night on Earth... I don't like Last Night on Earth. It plays very slowly, has very little horror feel to it despite the theme, and there just aren't enough zombies for a zombie horror game. If you're only going to buy one of those games, get Betrayal. It has the most variety and is probably the most consistently fun of the lot, and I say this despite Arkham Horror being my favorite boardgame. It's long enough for a satisfying game but short enough that you don't have to necessarily dedicate a whole evening to playing it. It's pretty easy to learn, very easy to set up, and the combo of random maps and a fairly large haunt list gives it a lot of replay value. I own all the games you listed and Betrayal is the only one that nobody in my gaming group will turn down if it gets suggested.
Anyone have experience with Mansions of Madness? My group loved Arkham, but the guy who had it moved out of town so now we're thinking of getting something similar but new.
It's ok. The errata is a little too unwieldy at the moment, the game just feel cumbersome and it's a lot more frustrating then Arkham Horror. Honestly, if you liked AH then get AH again. Otherwise try Last Night on Earth or Betrayal at the House on the Hill.
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ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
I have a question about Space Alert: How complicated is it?
I ask because I don't really have a regular "gaming group" that's accustomed to complicated games. Once in a while, I manage to scrounge together enough friends+family for a game of Battlestar, but I'd really prefer to have something fun and engaging that doesn't take 30 minutes to explain before we start.
it's both complicated and not. remember everyone is only doing 12 actions (or less!) per game, and your only options are moving and pushing A/B/C. but the consequences of those actions can vary widely, which is where the complications come in.
additionally: because of the simulations, teaching the game is one of the most fun parts of the game. so although it would be good to have a regular group that can escalate to the real/advanced missions over the course of a couple of sessions, it's by no means necessary.
This is so true. So so true. We played for 3 hours just doing the training stuff. This game does a great job teaching you the game, while playing the game, by slowly introducing elements in each sim.
Make sure and take out the threats with the yellow symbols in the upper left corner. We did our first sim with those in and had a much harder time than we should have.
I've never played LNoE, and I like Arkham a lot but disagree re: Betrayal. They are both great games, but Arkham is essentially the same deal with minor variation (close the portal at location X!) for a couple hours, while Betrayal's random Haunt mechanic means it's pretty much always fresh (at least so far for us).
No, Arkham variations (if you include the expansions) are mind numbingly huge. Betrayal doesn't change all that much and, a good percentage of the time, when the haunt is revealed, the game is over because the win/loss conditions have already been satisfied. Arkham will be pretty tense the whole way through.
We don't have the xpacs for Arkham, though I've heard they are great.
In our games of Betrayal there has been widely varied results when the Haunt is revealed - sometimes it looks easy and then there is a mummy in your grill, killing you and taking the ring you had, and other times you are bludgeoning your evil clone/twin to death with a lamp or something to stand as the sole survivor.
Anyone have experience with Mansions of Madness? My group loved Arkham, but the guy who had it moved out of town so now we're thinking of getting something similar but new.
I like mansions. I find its best if the person who is playing the keeper (guy controlling the big bads) has some DM experience. The latest version, which I have comes with an errata slip, as well as updated cards that got changed (marked with a R in the lower right hand corner). It can get pretty fun if you have at least 3-4 investigators. If there are only 1-2 investigators, the keeper has too big of an advantage imo. You could probably get 3-4 decent playthroughs of each scenario with the amount of choices the keeper makes at the beginning.
On the downside, puzzles take way too long to set up and break the flow of the game more than anything. Also, the initial setup can take some time, but once everything is out it doesnt take too long to start a second game. Sometimes players yell at the keeper when they get stalked by a zombie :twisted:
Also, the mini's come unpainted, so if your into mini-painting that could be a plus.
My group likes AH and we like MoM as well. It does kind of add a new twist to the Cthulhu board game since you have an intelligent player fighting against the investigators. Also, the possibility of more scenarios in expansions looks promising. It gets a :^: from me.
(I just got Space Alert! cant wait to round the crew up for this one!)
Chronic on
I hit people with pillow wrapped baseball bats. Sure the blow is softer, but its still a bat.
This is so true. So so true. We played for 3 hours just doing the training stuff. This game does a great job teaching you the game, while playing the game, by slowly introducing elements in each sim.
Make sure and take out the threats with the yellow symbols in the upper left corner. We did our first sim with those in and had a much harder time than we should have.
think of it like Portal: most of the game is just teaching you how to play, which is a good thing because it is fun and also hilarious. SA is like that. except with a whole disc of missions + random missions from the flash app + the randomness of the threat deck, so it's as if Portal also came with Portal 2 thru Portal 1,433 at the same time, for free
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
I own both Mansions and Arkham.
FYI, they never released a version of Mansions without the errata card and "R" cards. They caught those during the delay due to the plastic figs breaking when glued on the stands. There is a second printing that fixes some issues with various cards, but they are going to reprint the errata'd cards in the first boxed expansion.
The first Print on Demand expansion went out this last week.
Both games are really, REALLY fun but take different mindsets. Arkham really is about trying to beat the board, whereas Mansions has a truly malevolent force (another player) trying to fuck with ya. I highly recommend both, but try to find a FLGS who has demo copies or someone you can try them out with. Arkham has.. well, it's been costly for me and sadly my friends don't want to play it often, but I'm a completionist.
FYI, they never released a version of Mansions without the errata card and "R" cards. They caught those during the delay due to the plastic figs breaking when glued on the stands. There is a second printing that fixes some issues with various cards, but they are going to reprint the errata'd cards in the first boxed expansion.
The second printing actually made more errata then it corrected.
I've never played LNoE, and I like Arkham a lot but disagree re: Betrayal. They are both great games, but Arkham is essentially the same deal with minor variation (close the portal at location X!) for a couple hours, while Betrayal's random Haunt mechanic means it's pretty much always fresh (at least so far for us).
No, Arkham variations (if you include the expansions) are mind numbingly huge. Betrayal doesn't change all that much and, a good percentage of the time, when the haunt is revealed, the game is over because the win/loss conditions have already been satisfied. Arkham will be pretty tense the whole way through.
We don't have the xpacs for Arkham, though I've heard they are great.
In our games of Betrayal there has been widely varied results when the Haunt is revealed - sometimes it looks easy and then there is a mummy in your grill, killing you and taking the ring you had, and other times you are bludgeoning your evil clone/twin to death with a lamp or something to stand as the sole survivor.
Yeah, Betrayal is a hoot.
Arkham w/ expansions and Arkham w/o expansions are totaly different beasts. I always play with every single expansion I own (which is all of them) and I'm pretty sure we'll never win the game again.
I'd love to see (a hilarious attempt at) a real time PbP / IRC game of Space Alert.
"Everyone start the mission 3 track in 3..2...1.."
It seems like it might be easier in some ways, since you can see everyone's plans laid out in front of you. Maybe vent?
pretty bad idea!! good luck though. you could probably throw a simple VASSAL mod for it together, that might help.
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blahmcblahYou pick your side and you stick - you don't cut and run when things get ugly.Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
I'd say it seems like more work than it would be worth, except that it's SPACE ALERT, and is thus worthy of such backbreaking effort.
I'm really loving all the Space Alert love. I've had an impossible time getting it to the table over the past 2+ years, so I hope this gets me some more players. I really think Vlaada is pretty much the most brilliant game designer ever, and it's all the talk about Space Alert that got me to start my PbP of Dungeon Lords (another Vlaada game that needs some more love [although not quite as much as Space Alert]).
Has anyone here played Middle Earth Quest or the Lord of the Rings LCG much?
I want to get one of them, but they seem very similar in quality - their ratings are similar on BGG, reviews sound similar...
Can anyone help me choose between them?
Middle Earth Quest is amazingly good. It desperately needs an expansion tho; the replayability is sort of limited as is since there's just 5 Win The Game quests per side and it's pretty easy to tell what the other side is aiming for.
I've not played MEQ but the LotR LCG I do have. I can't recommend it as a "board game" as it is VERY difficult to play the game by just leaving all the delivered decks as is. You are either going to get beat and beat often or you are going to play the meta-game of deckbuilding (and possibly card collecting) to make a strong deck. And then you are still likely to get beat a fair amount of time against the higher difficulty scenarios anyway. Very similar to Deathangel but far more complex with the variety of cards and combo's you are dealing with. Its a punishing game for people who like the challenge and are into collectible-style card games.
I am going to sell my core box as its just too high a barrier to teach this game to my more casual gaming friends only to have us constantly get the shit kicked out of us.
I'd say it seems like more work than it would be worth, except that it's SPACE ALERT, and is thus worthy of such backbreaking effort.
I'm really loving all the Space Alert love. I've had an impossible time getting it to the table over the past 2+ years, so I hope this gets me some more players. I really think Vlaada is pretty much the most brilliant game designer ever, and it's all the talk about Space Alert that got me to start my PbP of Dungeon Lords (another Vlaada game that needs some more love [although not quite as much as Space Alert]).
can't believe I haven't gotten to play DL yet ughhgghghh
good luck with the pbp, hope it doesn't die!!
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ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
I think a PbP of Space Alert would work. The 10 minute timeframe could be simulated by giving each person a limited number of posts (1 or 2) per phase, with a limited number of edits per post. No PMs between players allowed. Then the person running the game would announce threats. Comm down means further limiting posts for that phase. And actions would be placed through PMs to the game runner.
After everyone uses up their posts/edits and phases are over. Game runner creates a cool narrative walking everyone through the resolution phase.
but with more than about 10 minutes to think about things, the game becomes trivial--basically Forbidden Island in space. which might be fun, I dunno, but it lacks the "OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT" factor, and I'm not sure that a post restriction would have the same effect.
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ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
True.
But the OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT part of Space Alert is just half the fun. The other half is the narratives it creates and the teamwork it requires.
Just have to assume you can't capture the real time craziness of it in the forums and focus on making the other great parts of the game really work.
Posts
He should have an airhorn to blow in case anyone talks during the "communications down" (or whatever it is actually called) moments of gameplay.
I bought A Touch of Evil because I wanted to play Arkham but had no faith in convincing people to play a 3+ hour game. I liked it okay, but it wasn't really a hit with my group. They found it had too many rules, and they were unsure of what to do. It would probably get better with more plays, but I haven't tried again.
On BGG there were a bunch of people putting together ideas for "quests" or something that would give people a reason to do things. In my mind that would improve the game quite a bit by focusing people on early tasks.
I am looking forward to Elder Sign, as what might be an Arkham "lite". Fingers crossed its good!
If you want to play a game where you have to all work together, focus hard on playing, and with good planning, strategy, and luck, have a chance at winning, then play Arkham.
If you want to play a game where you run around and crazy shit happens, and then someone turns traitor, and it's crazy and fun, then play Betrayal.
Both are very fun, and have great themes, but are very different feeling games. Arkham can definitely feel very tense when the doom counter gets up there, and you only need 1 more seal to win, and Betrayal is great when you realize that you can have your dog carry the spear over to your friend so he can use his magic feather to hit the dragon for a ton of damage, and it's completely unplanned. But for Arkham you've got to be ready for an epic (long) adventure with a lot of steps to win, and for Betrayal you've got to get used to lots of randomness.
I already picked it up on ebay for 20, and I love Tales and Legends rarely playing a game without it so this is good news for me!
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It looks lovely inside. Wooden components and a velveteen bag to draw from. The tiles are chunky and, cleverly, the three levels of terrain (beach, forest, mountain) are different thickness.
Really happy with this one.
I guess if the village cards are crazy mechanically interesting for every deck, that would be great.
Memorable moments:
- My wife, THE CAPTAIN, fired the main cannon instead of moving the mouse on turn one. So when I was trying to seal a fissure, the lights went out. Thanks, babe. She spent the rest of the mission moving the mouse a turn too late and staring out the window while everyone else was shooting and saving the ship. We miraculously survived that mission.
- Ten seconds before the end of phase 2, we realized no one had set up to move the mouse (screensaver mode caused so many problems the whole night). Frantic yelling ensued and led to a really messed up phase two. Still survived, though.
- Phase three had us with only one threat left in the Red zone. Everyone was near some kind of gun/rockets so we all just fired for 5 straight turns. A ship turned into debris which turned into dust while three rockets, 6 cannon shots, and our fighters pummeled it.
After all the training missions we are excited to try some real missions and use the experience system. Space Alert is an amazing co-op game that requires real cooperation as opposed to Pandemic and Forbidden Island (even though we still love those games). But its real fun is the narratives it creates and frantic nature of the game having an actual timer associated with it.
I'm glad this thread brought this game to my attention. Thanks all!
Very nice - did you play with just you two or did you add 2 or 3 friends? I've owned the game for over a week and have yet to play it because I'm pretty sure I want to do it with at least 4 people.
We had a game night the other night with 5 of us, but decided to play TI3 with the new expansion instead (I've owned the expansion for far longer than SA and haven't tried it yet!). Fun times and I am still needing to play this damn game
But after playing, I can see it being just as fun/frantic with 2 players (since you each control an Android). Especially if you play with the expansion's experience/specialization system as it adds another motivating factor to succeed and another layer of depth.
Also, we went through and looked at some of the red threats the expansion added. They are legitimately scary to think of facing. All in time I guess.
Well, I'd go with Arkham, LNoE or Betrayal. Arkham is strategy heavy and is easily my favorite. It has a TON of moving parts tho and it's really easy to get lost in the game. LNoE has a lot of strategy too but is lighter then Arkham and has a more visceral feel; it's zombies eating your butt not unknowable things after your soul. Betrayal is just a light, wacky, crazy fun game. It's fun for about 2 plays a year.
Mansions is really neat but has way way too many errors in it to effectively recommend as is and A Touch of Evil is just dull.
From your group, tho, I would say Arkham. If they groove on that a lot, you can get the expansions or try Mansions later.
this post made me woot irl.
Just spent four hours playing Space Alert.
Not anything huge to report, other than our complete and utter lack of success once we actually head out and was attempting the real thing. Probably doesn't help that I mixed in the advanced cards into the decks.
Holy shit. I believe "I'm the JUGGERNAUT, bitch!" was appropriate one game. Also, we still lost some games even though we messed up a rule on the cannon where it can't be fired multiple times at the same time.
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and "I'm the juggernaut BITCH" is absolutely correct
I ask because I don't really have a regular "gaming group" that's accustomed to complicated games. Once in a while, I manage to scrounge together enough friends+family for a game of Battlestar, but I'd really prefer to have something fun and engaging that doesn't take 30 minutes to explain before we start.
I also wanted to throw in my support behind the board game Pandemic. It has a solid mechanics that force the players to really cooperate and create a strategy for how they are going to control global disease outbreaks. The turns are fast and it presents enough of a challenge that you will probably lose a few times before you really start to grasp how to work together as a more cohesive team.
it's both complicated and not. remember everyone is only doing 12 actions (or less!) per game, and your only options are moving and pushing A/B/C. but the consequences of those actions can vary widely, which is where the complications come in.
additionally: because of the simulations, teaching the game is one of the most fun parts of the game. so although it would be good to have a regular group that can escalate to the real/advanced missions over the course of a couple of sessions, it's by no means necessary.
I want to get one of them, but they seem very similar in quality - their ratings are similar on BGG, reviews sound similar...
Can anyone help me choose between them?
It should be interesting.
No, Arkham variations (if you include the expansions) are mind numbingly huge. Betrayal doesn't change all that much and, a good percentage of the time, when the haunt is revealed, the game is over because the win/loss conditions have already been satisfied. Arkham will be pretty tense the whole way through.
Middle Earth Quest is amazingly good. It desperately needs an expansion tho; the replayability is sort of limited as is since there's just 5 Win The Game quests per side and it's pretty easy to tell what the other side is aiming for.
Despite the theme and having a couple of similar mechanics, the two games are almost completely different. Mansions of Madness plays more quickly than Arkham, but requires much better teamwork and a greater effort on the part of the players toward immersion in the story. Arkham is essentially a game of "close the portals". However you happen to go about it in that playthrough and whatever other things there are to keep track of, that's the goal and everybody knows it. Mansions, on the other hand, has a number of (I think 6?) scenarios which determine the board layout, each with between 3 and 6 options that alter the win conditions and how the scenario plays out. Unlike Arkham, someone has to play the adversary against the otherwise cooperating investigators. Most of the gameplay centers around trying to figure out how to win. You go around the map searching for clues that will lead to more clues and so forth until eventually the final challenge reveals itself. The clues are literal clues rather than tokens a la Arkham, hence the greater need for player investment. The last game I played started with the players knowing only that they were taking shelter from a storm in an old mansion after a car accident and that, shortly after their arrival, they'd heard a scream from the direction that the butler went with their coats. There's no marker on the board or anything to indicate what to do next, so it's up to the players to figure out that they should go check out the coat room.
If that sounds like your kind of thing then I heartily recommend it. It's a ton of fun. I suspect that the limited number of scenarios means that after ten or so playthroughs it's going to get stale, but I assume there will be expansions and it seems fairly easy to make up new scenarios yourself.
For the other guy who asked about Arkham vs. Mansions vs. Betrayal vs. Last Night on Earth... I don't like Last Night on Earth. It plays very slowly, has very little horror feel to it despite the theme, and there just aren't enough zombies for a zombie horror game. If you're only going to buy one of those games, get Betrayal. It has the most variety and is probably the most consistently fun of the lot, and I say this despite Arkham Horror being my favorite boardgame. It's long enough for a satisfying game but short enough that you don't have to necessarily dedicate a whole evening to playing it. It's pretty easy to learn, very easy to set up, and the combo of random maps and a fairly large haunt list gives it a lot of replay value. I own all the games you listed and Betrayal is the only one that nobody in my gaming group will turn down if it gets suggested.
It's ok. The errata is a little too unwieldy at the moment, the game just feel cumbersome and it's a lot more frustrating then Arkham Horror. Honestly, if you liked AH then get AH again. Otherwise try Last Night on Earth or Betrayal at the House on the Hill.
This is so true. So so true. We played for 3 hours just doing the training stuff. This game does a great job teaching you the game, while playing the game, by slowly introducing elements in each sim.
Make sure and take out the threats with the yellow symbols in the upper left corner. We did our first sim with those in and had a much harder time than we should have.
We don't have the xpacs for Arkham, though I've heard they are great.
In our games of Betrayal there has been widely varied results when the Haunt is revealed - sometimes it looks easy and then there is a mummy in your grill, killing you and taking the ring you had, and other times you are bludgeoning your evil clone/twin to death with a lamp or something to stand as the sole survivor.
I like mansions. I find its best if the person who is playing the keeper (guy controlling the big bads) has some DM experience. The latest version, which I have comes with an errata slip, as well as updated cards that got changed (marked with a R in the lower right hand corner). It can get pretty fun if you have at least 3-4 investigators. If there are only 1-2 investigators, the keeper has too big of an advantage imo. You could probably get 3-4 decent playthroughs of each scenario with the amount of choices the keeper makes at the beginning.
On the downside, puzzles take way too long to set up and break the flow of the game more than anything. Also, the initial setup can take some time, but once everything is out it doesnt take too long to start a second game. Sometimes players yell at the keeper when they get stalked by a zombie :twisted:
Also, the mini's come unpainted, so if your into mini-painting that could be a plus.
My group likes AH and we like MoM as well. It does kind of add a new twist to the Cthulhu board game since you have an intelligent player fighting against the investigators. Also, the possibility of more scenarios in expansions looks promising. It gets a :^: from me.
(I just got Space Alert! cant wait to round the crew up for this one!)
FYI, they never released a version of Mansions without the errata card and "R" cards. They caught those during the delay due to the plastic figs breaking when glued on the stands. There is a second printing that fixes some issues with various cards, but they are going to reprint the errata'd cards in the first boxed expansion.
The first Print on Demand expansion went out this last week.
Both games are really, REALLY fun but take different mindsets. Arkham really is about trying to beat the board, whereas Mansions has a truly malevolent force (another player) trying to fuck with ya. I highly recommend both, but try to find a FLGS who has demo copies or someone you can try them out with. Arkham has.. well, it's been costly for me and sadly my friends don't want to play it often, but I'm a completionist.
"Everyone start the mission 3 track in 3..2...1.."
It seems like it might be easier in some ways, since you can see everyone's plans laid out in front of you. Maybe vent?
The second printing actually made more errata then it corrected.
Yeah, Betrayal is a hoot.
Arkham w/ expansions and Arkham w/o expansions are totaly different beasts. I always play with every single expansion I own (which is all of them) and I'm pretty sure we'll never win the game again.
pretty bad idea!! good luck though. you could probably throw a simple VASSAL mod for it together, that might help.
I'm really loving all the Space Alert love. I've had an impossible time getting it to the table over the past 2+ years, so I hope this gets me some more players. I really think Vlaada is pretty much the most brilliant game designer ever, and it's all the talk about Space Alert that got me to start my PbP of Dungeon Lords (another Vlaada game that needs some more love [although not quite as much as Space Alert]).
I've not played MEQ but the LotR LCG I do have. I can't recommend it as a "board game" as it is VERY difficult to play the game by just leaving all the delivered decks as is. You are either going to get beat and beat often or you are going to play the meta-game of deckbuilding (and possibly card collecting) to make a strong deck. And then you are still likely to get beat a fair amount of time against the higher difficulty scenarios anyway. Very similar to Deathangel but far more complex with the variety of cards and combo's you are dealing with. Its a punishing game for people who like the challenge and are into collectible-style card games.
I am going to sell my core box as its just too high a barrier to teach this game to my more casual gaming friends only to have us constantly get the shit kicked out of us.
can't believe I haven't gotten to play DL yet ughhgghghh
good luck with the pbp, hope it doesn't die!!
After everyone uses up their posts/edits and phases are over. Game runner creates a cool narrative walking everyone through the resolution phase.
Totally possible.
But the OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT part of Space Alert is just half the fun. The other half is the narratives it creates and the teamwork it requires.
Just have to assume you can't capture the real time craziness of it in the forums and focus on making the other great parts of the game really work.