When I was a child, I had a fever... My BoardGameGeek profile
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SurfpossumA nonentitytrying to preserve the anonymity he so richly deserves.Registered Userregular
So having finally had another board game night, I thought I would toss a few of my cents around regarding a pair of games that I did not expect to be any good at all, but which turned out to be surprisingly pleasant.
The first was the absolutely not copyright infringing at all Dread Curse, which is a game about stealing loot from one another. Basically every round you are assigned a new role and then steal from each other. It's interesting because you can choose to "quit" at any time, essentially locking in your gold. Or you can stay in and try to get more, but risk acquiring one of the two black spots, which 1) prevent you from quitting and 2) make you lose if the game ends. The roles primarily modify the stealing, and there are a bunch of "spell" cards similar to those in Cosmic Encounter or Cutthroat Caverns that have a variety of effects. One nice bit is that the cards also have a gold value, so there's an incentive to hang on to them rather than just screw people over.
It can be quite a good bit of fun, though I don't know how it would hold up under "serious" play.
The other was the very pink Fame Us, wherein players secretly think of a celebrity that matches all the descriptors in a pile plus whatever they add to it. Then the next player either repeats this process or calls their bluff. Players then vote on whether the proffered celebrity actually matches the descriptors; there's an "incentive" to vote honestly because everyone is secretly on one of two teams; I'm not sure about the game theory behind that, as it might technically be better to get everyone else to fail while you succeed, thereby guaranteeing your team's success, but it's unlikely that you'd be able to convince everyone and anyway where am I even going with this.
Anyway, the game very much looks like hot garbage, and probably would be if we didn't house rule it to allow fictional characters as well as real persons. It immediately became much more entertaining with that alteration.
I wouldn't exactly recommend that people go buy these games, having been gifted them myself, but they did provide a decent bit of entertainment.
Me three... Funny thing is I don't usually like worker placement games.
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WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
Cracked a new copy of Risk Legacy with 4 of my friends this weekend. We only played the first round so far, but
Let me tell you
I earned 4 solid grudges last night.
I ended up with Die Mechaniker for the first game, so I chose the power where my HQ is always considered fortified when I defend it. Started off in Mongolia.
Turn 1: Moved south as a show of force to the bottleneck with Australia, where Imperial Balkania had made their home. Had the standard conversation, "We can fight and both of us will lose, or we can come to an agreement." In addition, I added that my HQ would be among the most difficult for her to capture, given that I would receive +1/+1 on every single roll. We agreed that I would take North Asia and she would take South Asia.
Turn 2: Moved west through South Asia and managed to take a territory from the Saharan Republic of Europe by applying my Ammo Shortage scar. Territory card #1. Maneuvered my troops back to Mongolia, leaving just one in each of those territories. They were easily obliterated by Balkania as she moved west, per our agreement, so no hard feelings.
Turn 3: Dropped all my recruits in Mongolia and expanded into Kamchatka, then conquered Alaska from a lone Enclave of the Bear unit, I don't think he was expecting me to come that way. He dropped a bunker to try and defend it from me, but the dice came up in my favor. Territory Card #2. I was already spread thin at this point, having willingly given up 3 or 4 territories (and therefore units) in South Asia, but during maneuvers I split what little I had between Alaska and Mongolia, leaving just enough of a buffer at my HQ to make a betrayal by Balkania inefficient and therefore unlikely. Enclave of the Bear couldn't devote all of his forces to dealing with me, as he was clashing with the Saharan Republic between Greenland and Iceland, and had a huge cold standoff happening with Khan Industries in Central America. He was unable to retake Alaska during his next turn.
Turn 4: Dropped all units in Alaska and took the Northwest Territory, leaving a lone unit to hold the bunker in Alaska. Territory Card #3. Enclave took Alaska back from me, cutting off my squad in Northwest Territory.
Turn 5: By this time, there were 3 ammo shortage scars in Europe, and Saharan Republic's HQ in Northern Europe was very much up for grabs. I dropped a couple of recruits in Ural, and 1 in the Northwest Territory, then took Greenland. Territory Card #4, but nobody was paying attention to that because I was arguably in the weakest position of any player at the table. My armies were split, I had very little territory, and Khan Industries was 1 Star away from victory, having established tenuous control of North Europe during his last turn. The Enclave of the Bear threw himself south against the wall of Khan Industries in a desperate bid to take his HQ in Argentina, but to no avail.
Turn 6: Drop all four cards for a Star, then put all 3 of my measly recruits in Greenland, allowing me to take the Enclave HQ in Eastern Canada with ease. Game over.
The day was won. There is no way I'm going to win the next round through sneakiness again. But at least everybody had fun!
So is Pandemic a non-consumable counterpart to Pandemic Legacy?
Yes. More accurately, Pandemic Legacy is the consumable version of Pandemic. You can also play regular Pandemic with the Legacy box, up until the time you decide to start doing the Legacy-specific stuff.
What do you think could be better? It is playable even on my 4 inch phone.
It's not that it isn't playable, it is, but it lacks the UI polish of Playdek's games, namely Ascension. The problem was that the app was clearly a port of a PC build of the game. There's also little things like press/hold to read cards is less intuitive as opposed to double tapping to read them. The online play is also faster and smoother in Ascension with a better variety of options for play.
Again, I'm not saying Star Realms app is bad, just average compared to Ascension. You should really play it for yourself to see how much more polished it is. If I could plug Star Realms into that UI, I'd be in heaven.
For the record, the wife introduced me to deckbuilders with Ascension. We love it, hell I played 2932 games of Ascension online (1655-1328 ~56% WR), but I still like Star Realms more.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
Played a game of Mansions of Madness 2ed over the weekend. Very fun if brutally short game. It starts with the guy with the lowest sanity getting slammed with horrors and ends with him stealing a knife off the sole isolated person and stabbing him to death for the win. A knife the game gave us for, I can only assume, exactly this purpose. It was pretty fun and the app is interesting. The learning curve was much steeper than the Learn to Play guide made it sound like but we found our way through. Now I just have to find a way to track down a copy of the 1st edition for more options.
Also got a chance to play Cthulu Fluxx (wife had a birthday and we oddly all went with a similar theme) and holy hell is that a hard game to win. Out of a dozen games or so no one has won without some form of cultists, and maybe only half the time does someone win. I kinda like it.
The other new game was Ghostbusters which we all enjoyed. A bunch of Zombicide vets so it was all pretty easy to get running smooth since a lot of the rules and setup are substantially similar. Didn't get all the way through Campaign 1 yet since we had some new games but I am excited going forward.
Played a game of Mansions of Madness 2ed over the weekend. Very fun if brutally short game. It starts with the guy with the lowest sanity getting slammed with horrors and ends with him stealing a knife off the sole isolated person and stabbing him to death for the win.
FINALLY a Lovecraft game done right.
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Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
Wife and I finally cracked open Roll Through the Ages: Iron Age yesterday and got in a short game while the kids napped. Neat stuff, I beat her pretty handily. I went toward Ports and she took Provinces, Ports a little better since you can get crazy goods from your rolls. Seems like Provinces should have a similar mechanic to make them balanced?
Also got a chance to play Cthulu Fluxx (wife had a birthday and we oddly all went with a similar theme) and holy hell is that a hard game to win. Out of a dozen games or so no one has won without some form of cultists, and maybe only half the time does someone win. I kinda like it.
A version of Fluxx where it's possible for everyone to lose? LOL, awesome!
Also got a chance to play Cthulu Fluxx (wife had a birthday and we oddly all went with a similar theme) and holy hell is that a hard game to win. Out of a dozen games or so no one has won without some form of cultists, and maybe only half the time does someone win. I kinda like it.
A version of Fluxx where it's possible for everyone to lose? LOL, awesome!
This is something that has popped up in various Fluxx editions since Zombie Fluxx, I believe. Any version that has "creepers" usually has an "everyone loses!" option.
Maybe a dumb question, but can you update your address with Kickstarter if you move?
I am VERY interested in that Mint Works game, but May 2017 is pretty far out there.
Yeah, usually with pledge manager. They also generally hit you up for your shipping address within a week or so before shipping, so I'd expect sometime in April to get an e-mail asking for confirmation of address.
Maybe a dumb question, but can you update your address with Kickstarter if you move?
The creator will send out a "backer survey" at some point after the project is funded. This includes your shipping address. It is typical for creators to wait to do this until shortly before shipping, but some of them do it earlier and then use a third-party "pledge manager" like BackerKit to handle things. In other words... probably, but you might have to contact the creator in some way to update a changed address, depending on how they decide to handle it.
Maybe a dumb question, but can you update your address with Kickstarter if you move?
I am VERY interested in that Mint Works game, but May 2017 is pretty far out there.
Usually you get an email right before shipping to confirm your address.
Yeah I moved last summer and almost everything was taken care of without incident. The problem is that any surveys you've already filled out will have to be taken care of individually, and there are so many different post-KS pledge managers out there that it's easy to have one or two slip past you. This is why my copy of Emergents: Genesis eventually arrived like a month after it was supposed to. The USPS system for forwarding packages is DUMB AS HELL — but it did its job, eventually, so if nothing else be sure you've got that covered and you should be fine.
Maybe a dumb question, but can you update your address with Kickstarter if you move?
I am VERY interested in that Mint Works game, but May 2017 is pretty far out there.
They should end up having their own pledge manager or collect data through BackerKit or something like that. Game makers almost always give a heads up a week or two before addresses need to be locked down and sent to distributors, giving you some time to change your address if need be.
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
By the way, Target is doing a buy 2 get 1 free sale on board games through 9/17, and CoolStuffInc currently has Pandemic Legacy on sale for $34.99.
I shall endeavor to be an enabler as much as i am enabled, damn it.
Speaking of enabling, Barnes and Noble clearance started today. Some good boardgames included at 50% off MSRP, like Specter Ops, Roll For the Galaxy, Camel Up, Five Tribes, and Castles of Mad King Ludwig.
Whats the monetization mechanic on the Star Realms/Ascension apps? Or should this go to the other board games thread in G&T?
IIRC Star Realms is one-time purchases for any given expansion that spans every device you play it on. Might be $5 for the base game (I got mine free from backing the KS so I'm not sure), which unlocks harder AIs, online play(?) and some solo scenarios; I haven't investigated actual expansions.
In my experience, Kickstarter's with physical delivery often (but not always, of course) allow for entering address info in the Pledge Manager period, which is usually (but not always) weeks, months, or even quarters+ after the campaign ends, then some PM's allow for changing addresses until it's on the verge of shipping (for this very reason), and most KS's I've been in will take address changes through messages on the KS platform or through email.
It's not a universal thing, but I'd be a bit wary of a project slated for around 3/4 of a year (let's call it a year with the 'usual' KS backslide) that didn't account for at least some portion of its backers changing locations. That's, like, fulfillment 101.
The better campaigns I've been in usually go with redundancy of some form, like addresses in the PM (have to establish where you are to set up shipping costs) followed by reminders as delivery looms to get updates done by X date, followed by an update or three of HEY GUYS CHANGE YOUR FUCKING ADDRESSES IF YOU'VE MOVED LOVE YOU THANKS!
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Good grief, Quinns just announced a game he did some work for, Mechs vs Minions, on SUSD. Roborally meets Descent with some legacy aspects and TAKE MY MONEY NOW
*Apparently he jumped the gun, he's taken it down already. It's a big box, with minis (looks like the hero figs are prepainted), with cards showing movement programming for your units.
I've never played against other people, but I love it for a quick "I've got 15 minutes" fix or when nobody else wants to play board games. Route endpoint highlighting is pretty handy, too.
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<sigh>... ditto
My BoardGameGeek profile
Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
The first was the absolutely not copyright infringing at all Dread Curse, which is a game about stealing loot from one another. Basically every round you are assigned a new role and then steal from each other. It's interesting because you can choose to "quit" at any time, essentially locking in your gold. Or you can stay in and try to get more, but risk acquiring one of the two black spots, which 1) prevent you from quitting and 2) make you lose if the game ends. The roles primarily modify the stealing, and there are a bunch of "spell" cards similar to those in Cosmic Encounter or Cutthroat Caverns that have a variety of effects. One nice bit is that the cards also have a gold value, so there's an incentive to hang on to them rather than just screw people over.
It can be quite a good bit of fun, though I don't know how it would hold up under "serious" play.
The other was the very pink Fame Us, wherein players secretly think of a celebrity that matches all the descriptors in a pile plus whatever they add to it. Then the next player either repeats this process or calls their bluff. Players then vote on whether the proffered celebrity actually matches the descriptors; there's an "incentive" to vote honestly because everyone is secretly on one of two teams; I'm not sure about the game theory behind that, as it might technically be better to get everyone else to fail while you succeed, thereby guaranteeing your team's success, but it's unlikely that you'd be able to convince everyone and anyway where am I even going with this.
Anyway, the game very much looks like hot garbage, and probably would be if we didn't house rule it to allow fictional characters as well as real persons. It immediately became much more entertaining with that alteration.
I wouldn't exactly recommend that people go buy these games, having been gifted them myself, but they did provide a decent bit of entertainment.
Me three... Funny thing is I don't usually like worker placement games.
Let me tell you
I earned 4 solid grudges last night.
Turn 1: Moved south as a show of force to the bottleneck with Australia, where Imperial Balkania had made their home. Had the standard conversation, "We can fight and both of us will lose, or we can come to an agreement." In addition, I added that my HQ would be among the most difficult for her to capture, given that I would receive +1/+1 on every single roll. We agreed that I would take North Asia and she would take South Asia.
Turn 2: Moved west through South Asia and managed to take a territory from the Saharan Republic of Europe by applying my Ammo Shortage scar. Territory card #1. Maneuvered my troops back to Mongolia, leaving just one in each of those territories. They were easily obliterated by Balkania as she moved west, per our agreement, so no hard feelings.
Turn 3: Dropped all my recruits in Mongolia and expanded into Kamchatka, then conquered Alaska from a lone Enclave of the Bear unit, I don't think he was expecting me to come that way. He dropped a bunker to try and defend it from me, but the dice came up in my favor. Territory Card #2. I was already spread thin at this point, having willingly given up 3 or 4 territories (and therefore units) in South Asia, but during maneuvers I split what little I had between Alaska and Mongolia, leaving just enough of a buffer at my HQ to make a betrayal by Balkania inefficient and therefore unlikely. Enclave of the Bear couldn't devote all of his forces to dealing with me, as he was clashing with the Saharan Republic between Greenland and Iceland, and had a huge cold standoff happening with Khan Industries in Central America. He was unable to retake Alaska during his next turn.
Turn 4: Dropped all units in Alaska and took the Northwest Territory, leaving a lone unit to hold the bunker in Alaska. Territory Card #3. Enclave took Alaska back from me, cutting off my squad in Northwest Territory.
Turn 5: By this time, there were 3 ammo shortage scars in Europe, and Saharan Republic's HQ in Northern Europe was very much up for grabs. I dropped a couple of recruits in Ural, and 1 in the Northwest Territory, then took Greenland. Territory Card #4, but nobody was paying attention to that because I was arguably in the weakest position of any player at the table. My armies were split, I had very little territory, and Khan Industries was 1 Star away from victory, having established tenuous control of North Europe during his last turn. The Enclave of the Bear threw himself south against the wall of Khan Industries in a desperate bid to take his HQ in Argentina, but to no avail.
Turn 6: Drop all four cards for a Star, then put all 3 of my measly recruits in Greenland, allowing me to take the Enclave HQ in Eastern Canada with ease. Game over.
The day was won. There is no way I'm going to win the next round through sneakiness again. But at least everybody had fun!
Uhh... yeah. It is.
I love Star Realms, but the app is average at best. If Playdek had been the developer it would have been far superior.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
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It's not that it isn't playable, it is, but it lacks the UI polish of Playdek's games, namely Ascension. The problem was that the app was clearly a port of a PC build of the game. There's also little things like press/hold to read cards is less intuitive as opposed to double tapping to read them. The online play is also faster and smoother in Ascension with a better variety of options for play.
Again, I'm not saying Star Realms app is bad, just average compared to Ascension. You should really play it for yourself to see how much more polished it is. If I could plug Star Realms into that UI, I'd be in heaven.
For the record, the wife introduced me to deckbuilders with Ascension. We love it, hell I played 2932 games of Ascension online (1655-1328 ~56% WR), but I still like Star Realms more.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
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King in Yellow won of course.
The Play All button is pure poison. It should stop on card draw.
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
Woo
Yeah, I only do that when all I have left is stuff that adds to money.
Also got a chance to play Cthulu Fluxx (wife had a birthday and we oddly all went with a similar theme) and holy hell is that a hard game to win. Out of a dozen games or so no one has won without some form of cultists, and maybe only half the time does someone win. I kinda like it.
The other new game was Ghostbusters which we all enjoyed. A bunch of Zombicide vets so it was all pretty easy to get running smooth since a lot of the rules and setup are substantially similar. Didn't get all the way through Campaign 1 yet since we had some new games but I am excited going forward.
FINALLY a Lovecraft game done right.
A version of Fluxx where it's possible for everyone to lose? LOL, awesome!
I am VERY interested in that Mint Works game, but May 2017 is pretty far out there.
This is something that has popped up in various Fluxx editions since Zombie Fluxx, I believe. Any version that has "creepers" usually has an "everyone loses!" option.
Usually you get an email right before shipping to confirm your address.
Nintendo ID: Pastalonius
Smite\LoL:Gremlidin \ WoW & Overwatch & Hots: Gremlidin#1734
3ds: 3282-2248-0453
Yeah, usually with pledge manager. They also generally hit you up for your shipping address within a week or so before shipping, so I'd expect sometime in April to get an e-mail asking for confirmation of address.
EDIT: double ninja. But more detail.
Yeah I moved last summer and almost everything was taken care of without incident. The problem is that any surveys you've already filled out will have to be taken care of individually, and there are so many different post-KS pledge managers out there that it's easy to have one or two slip past you. This is why my copy of Emergents: Genesis eventually arrived like a month after it was supposed to. The USPS system for forwarding packages is DUMB AS HELL — but it did its job, eventually, so if nothing else be sure you've got that covered and you should be fine.
They should end up having their own pledge manager or collect data through BackerKit or something like that. Game makers almost always give a heads up a week or two before addresses need to be locked down and sent to distributors, giving you some time to change your address if need be.
Yep. I've moved house at least once before any of my backed kickstarter have paid out.
Mint works could be the exception to that rule though!
I shall endeavor to be an enabler as much as i am enabled, damn it.
Depends on the project and what pledge manager they use.
CMON fails pretty regularly at it.
Speaking of enabling, Barnes and Noble clearance started today. Some good boardgames included at 50% off MSRP, like Specter Ops, Roll For the Galaxy, Camel Up, Five Tribes, and Castles of Mad King Ludwig.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
IIRC Star Realms is one-time purchases for any given expansion that spans every device you play it on. Might be $5 for the base game (I got mine free from backing the KS so I'm not sure), which unlocks harder AIs, online play(?) and some solo scenarios; I haven't investigated actual expansions.
It's not a universal thing, but I'd be a bit wary of a project slated for around 3/4 of a year (let's call it a year with the 'usual' KS backslide) that didn't account for at least some portion of its backers changing locations. That's, like, fulfillment 101.
The better campaigns I've been in usually go with redundancy of some form, like addresses in the PM (have to establish where you are to set up shipping costs) followed by reminders as delivery looms to get updates done by X date, followed by an update or three of HEY GUYS CHANGE YOUR FUCKING ADDRESSES IF YOU'VE MOVED LOVE YOU THANKS!
*Apparently he jumped the gun, he's taken it down already. It's a big box, with minis (looks like the hero figs are prepainted), with cards showing movement programming for your units.
Spoilered for size
I've never played against other people, but I love it for a quick "I've got 15 minutes" fix or when nobody else wants to play board games. Route endpoint highlighting is pretty handy, too.