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[Board Games] aren't worth playing until you add at least five expansions

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    ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    You're certainly encouraged to get everyone "equally close to out" just by the nature of the game's objectives, but there's very little stopping someone from outing themselves early on a bad gamble (or if gambling comes up A LOT and some players just can't afford it). Technically with the drinks being random, someone could get really unlucky with that too, but it shouldn't happen until the midpoint of the game at least, and also shouldn't happen unless someone is being unreasonably picked on. The game includes a lot of randomness, but it usually has its limits.
    Just make sure people roleplay their characters. :P

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    CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    My group has been playing Pandemic: Legacy: Season 2 very slowly for a while now, basically on game nights when only the correct 4 people are present.
    Last night we had one too many so instead opened up Betrayal: Legacy and played the first game of that.

    I've got to say, of the Legacy games I've played that was probably the easiest and most amusing first game I've had. The equivalent to the normal Betrayal haunt stage in the opening game (I believe subsequent games work more similarly to the original game; uncertain so far) was brilliant. And the tiny-ness and easiness of the first game made the one guy who had never played Betrayal before have a very easy time getting the hang of the game. I didn't expect much out of a Betrayal legacy game but I'm surprisingly optimistic about it at this point.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
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    ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    I wouldn't be surprised if Betrayal Legacy, like Risk Legacy, was actually phenomenal since it takes a game with very visible flaws and has a chance to patch them while also playing around with a different core experience.

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    AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    “Oh boy, Star Trek: Ascendancy is like Twilight Imperium only streamlined and shorter!”

    *8 hours later*

    “Okay, so ST:A is just TI with fewer races”

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    BluecyanBluecyan Buzz.. Buzz Buzz? BUZZ! Buzz buzz BuzzRegistered User regular
    Caedwyr wrote: »
    Does anyone here have experience with Red Dragon Inn? I picked it up and read that it is a player elimination with 45 minute games. Do games take that long and if so, do players get knocked out early on or is it the type of game where everyone gets knocked out all at once at the end?

    It would take a set of bad luck, or group of rather cruel players to eliminate someone early on. By about the mid point someone will probably be eliminated and people dropping out fairly consistently after that. Our group will use Red Dragon as a kind of closer for gaming night. Its a rather silly, low strategy game and if someone gets eliminated then they can just head home if they didn't want to sit around to watch the game end.

    In other player eliminate game news, finally get Nemesis to the table. The first game we were playing very selfishly and the ship blew up due to fire going unchecked (we had the fire control systems but nobody willing to spend the time). The 2nd game went much better, started off with everyone teaming up to explore the ship, kill intruders and fix the ship. Then halfway through the sudden but inevitable betrayals stated popping up. Nobody was trying to intentionally blow up the ship this time, but half of the players were planning on using the pods, the others were trying to clear out the intruders. The Mechanic didn't trust the Scout with the ships destination, got trapped in the helm by an adult and some bad Intruder Attacks later saw him dead due to a Bite. The Scientist had half a deck of infection cards due to running from intruders half the game and was trying to make it to surgery, only instead woke up the Queen in the Hibernatorium. The Scout didn't trust the Mechanic, so she ran down to check the engines, then had to decoy out the Queen (still in the Hibernatrium after killing the scientist) sneak into the room and then successfully activate the sleep pods. The Pilot and the Soldier teamed up each had the same basic plan as each other without coordinating: to use an evacuation key to board the pods, and bugger out of there early on.

    On the whole a good game, even for those that had gotten eaten. The game forces people to work together (moving through the ship is safer, limited number of actions, different character specializations), with that ever present unease of whom to trust. People were very invested in other players actions, since every room they entered could bring in more Intruders, or set up some new ship emergency that might need to be solved, or just to figure out what they are planning to do. The Intruder phase stuff went very smoothly, except figuring what some of the bag draws meant. There are a lot of rules, especially for teaching people, but there didn't seem to be anything unnecessary or overly complicated. Actual play wasn't very fast, people would take time to select their actions, and there was often a good bit of dice rolling, card revealing that needed to happen. Player elimination all seemed to happen near the end game timewise, though there was a bit of watching the last player (Scout in this case) go through a few rounds by themselves. With the noise rolls, contamination cards, unknown player objectives I found this to be a more tense game than something like Mansions of Madness.

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    HamHamJHamHamJ Registered User regular
    I wouldn't be surprised if Betrayal Legacy, like Risk Legacy, was actually phenomenal since it takes a game with very visible flaws and has a chance to patch them while also playing around with a different core experience.

    6 chapters in I would not say that it has done all that much to address the basic flaw that the haunt is often wildly unbalanced one way or another. Probably only half have been actually reasonably fair. On the other hand actually winning doesn't seem to matter that much.

    While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
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    ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    Yeah, that's not something I expect to get fixed. Are the rules for the haunts actually coherent? That's the one thing I always expected would see improvement. <_<

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    HamHamJHamHamJ Registered User regular
    Yeah, that's not something I expect to get fixed. Are the rules for the haunts actually coherent? That's the one thing I always expected would see improvement. <_<

    They made some new formating conventions that make some things clearer but there are still issues. Like we had one that referenced "unconnected doors" and we could not agree on if the front door counted or not.

    While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
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    AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    Yeah, that's not something I expect to get fixed. Are the rules for the haunts actually coherent? That's the one thing I always expected would see improvement. <_<

    They made some new formating conventions that make some things clearer but there are still issues. Like we had one that referenced "unconnected doors" and we could not agree on if the front door counted or not.

    Isn’t the front door connected to the outside?

    ACsTqqK.jpg
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    HamHamJHamHamJ Registered User regular
    Astaereth wrote: »
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    Yeah, that's not something I expect to get fixed. Are the rules for the haunts actually coherent? That's the one thing I always expected would see improvement. <_<

    They made some new formating conventions that make some things clearer but there are still issues. Like we had one that referenced "unconnected doors" and we could not agree on if the front door counted or not.

    Isn’t the front door connected to the outside?

    That's what I said.

    While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
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    Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    JonBob wrote: »
    I've mentioned before that I create puzzles and puzzle hunts for small conventions. The latest one just concluded, and some here might enjoy giving it a shot. If you have questions or want to verify answers, send me PMs so we don't spoil anyone on the answers prematurely.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/pqne8y4vg8w6czo/mittencon2019.pdf?dl=1
    @JonBob My girlfriend and I completed this over the weekend. It was very clever and fun!

    Spoiler for one of the answers:
    We spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out "Hardback". We kept coming up with stuff like "Kardchab" and "Bardhack" for absolutely no goddamn reason. When I figured it out, we were SO disappointed in ourselves.

    She especially liked the pun-based puzzle on the beginning of the second page.

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    AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    That was a heck of a night run to Target!

    I found a copy of Ice Cool in the clearance section for half off.

    Then I get ahold of the Villainous expansion/standalone!

    ... which was weird. The price sticker was out, the website said it was in stock and ready for pickup, but they didn't have any on the shelves. When I asked the guy working the area, he knew exactly what I was talking about and grabbed one from the back. I wonder if they weren't supposed to be street dated yet, but the website/corporate screwed up?

    He/Him | "A boat is always safest in the harbor, but that’s not why we build boats." | "If you run, you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two." - Suletta Mercury, G-Witch
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    VyolynceVyolynce Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    Sounds more like they just sold out of what was on the shelves? Or every copy they received was accounted for via online pickup or whatever.

    Vyolynce on
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    PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    If I remember correctly, they were street dated for March 4'th when Wicked to the Core's existence was leaked. It's possible they set the modular for it, but just havn't had a chance to pull them out from the back room yet.

    I assume the board game department doesn't normally have to deal with release dates, and products arriving *way* earlier than normal.

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    COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
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    AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Possibly. It was just weird seeing a very obvious hole for it, and a price tag on the shelf. But it was late at night, maybe they just put it out as opposed to it being up all day.

    He/Him | "A boat is always safest in the harbor, but that’s not why we build boats." | "If you run, you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two." - Suletta Mercury, G-Witch
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    AuralynxAuralynx Darkness is a perspective Watching the ego workRegistered User regular
    Athenor wrote: »
    Possibly. It was just weird seeing a very obvious hole for it, and a price tag on the shelf. But it was late at night, maybe they just put it out as opposed to it being up all day.

    You might just have lucked into talking to the employee who's actually the one stocking them with board games in the first place - I knew who it was at our local bookstore for years after running in to him once while I was browsing.

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    JonBobJonBob Registered User regular
    Hahnsoo1 wrote: »
    JonBob wrote: »
    I've mentioned before that I create puzzles and puzzle hunts for small conventions. The latest one just concluded, and some here might enjoy giving it a shot. If you have questions or want to verify answers, send me PMs so we don't spoil anyone on the answers prematurely.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/pqne8y4vg8w6czo/mittencon2019.pdf?dl=1
    @JonBob My girlfriend and I completed this over the weekend. It was very clever and fun!
    Thank you! It's fun putting these together. The main challenge is that in these environments it needs to be an "open book" exam, which means I can't use a lot of puzzle/trivia types that are trivial to google.

    jswidget.php?username=JonBob&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=recentplays&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&inline=1&domains%5B%5D=boardgame&imagewidget=1
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    webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Played a couple games of dice forge last night. My group and I really liked it. Played quick, lots of potential strategies to build victory points even with the basic cards and the game just has a great style.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
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    BloodySlothBloodySloth Registered User regular
    Returning to Villainous after getting the expansion, I'm reminded that it really is a perfect "Everybody" game. It's really enticing to look at, the theme does wonders to draw in people of all skill levels, the guide pamphlets let people who are used to lighter weight family games get up to speed really quick, while the mechanics and cardplay let people used to more niche board games exercise their tactics and puzzle solving.

    I've gushed over this in the thread before but the theme is so well integrated into the game, as well. From how each character feels and how their machine operates down to tiny little details. While playing our first game with the expansion, our Hades player (a big Hercules fan) laughed out loud when she was fated with Megara because her card allows you to move a hero in her region to any other region when played. She said it was perfect because Meg always pushes people away.

    The fun of that discovery is enough to draw anybody who likes the theme way into the game.

    It still has the same flaws I mentioned earlier, but I will say that a 4 player game plays better than I remembered. The characters in the expansion do initially seem like they're more balanced against each other than the base characters were, but I do kind of wish the manual hammered home the importance of playing fates on other players more. It's a core element in making the characters operate properly, and some of the characters, by design, seem to demand more attention from the opponent than others, and have more equipment in their deck to deal with it.

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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    Arkham LCG has finally defeated me. On the last scenario of Dunwich. I was doing pretty well until the very end. I open up the last location, get Agnes there and she desperately needs to generate clues to escape. Drawn to the Flame would be ideal, but I have lucky and grotesque statue so I feel okay. Agnes gets one clue and ends her turn just needing one more. Rex tries to get over there but gets waylaid by beasts. I feel the need to go cinematic for this. Very light spoilers.
    Scrambling around the tear in reality Agnes looks for anything that can get her home. Clutched in her hand is an ugly little statue, this weird totem she found earlier on this journey that seemed to bring her good luck. Finally she finds it, floating behind some impossible building floating past her, a portal that looks like home is on the other side.

    She moves towards it but is interrupted by a terrible scream. Agnes scrambles around trying to find the source. Squinting she locates Rex on some other flying piece of earth across this horrible dimension, engaged with a nightmarish monster. Agnes looks longingly at the portal but hears Rex's screams again. She never would have gotten this far without Rex. He'd saved her before, and the world presently be doomed without his intervention. If she could just buy him some time, he would be able to find their way home. He always had before. She could not leave him. She turns away from the portal, summoning all of the terrible magic at her disposal. It was time to be the hero Dr. Armitage thought she could be.
    And then they both draw more bad guys and they exhaust all their allies, spells, and acidic ichors and just DIE. I mean at least we saved the world. It was truly a terrible run of encounter cards. At least they saved the world before dying.

    Agnes deck. Rex deck.

    Agnes things I learned: Should probably not use the Lantern. My thought was like "Oh, it's like half a flashlight if she needs to investigate or just like one ping of damage and cheaper to play than Rite of Seeking. I don't need a dedicated clue card because Rex." The second part was MOSTLY true but there were times where Agnes being able to investigate would have helped a LOT. Half a flashlight is significantly less flashlight. Just run the Rite of Seeking or Flashlight. Song of the dead went in because I wanted to have more damage options than 2x shriveling and Rex had the Fire Axes. But like, just give Agnes the Axes. Waste of exp. Probably don't need both Spirit Athames.

    Rex things I learned: Rex is crazy good. It's like easy mode with Higher Education. The fire axes were important early for him, but after I got the Ichors I think I could have cut them. I was so used to them being very useful so I think I was blinded to it. I upgraded shortcut into pathfinder and I'm not certain that that's actually better. Pathfinder is really nice but shortcut is also very good just because it's cheap as hell. I've Got a Plan was not nearly as good as I hoped most of the time, I think it could be a one of. Seeking answers seems bad, played it maybe twice ever.

    Next up I think I'm going to do a solo Wendy or Pete since I haven't played a survivor. The obsession continues.

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    ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
    This is like watching my childhood flash before my eyes.

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    Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    Batman Talisman is a weird thing to exist. Also Kingdom Hearts Talisman. Both very weird things.

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    ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    Ah_Pook wrote: »
    Batman Talisman is a weird thing to exist. Also Kingdom Hearts Talisman. Both very weird things.

    I had to look those up, but that sounds absolutely ridiculous. I know they'll sell by name alone, but I doubt many people will enjoy them.

    Also ridiculous? USAopoly renaming themselves to "The Op" which makes finding their site/news/anything through Google nearly impossible.

    edit: And they're theming Bang! into Captain Marvel? This is getting out of hand.

    ArcSyn on
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    Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    Brass Colon Lancashire went down well with three new players yesterday. The end of each era comes around much faster than you'd expect. I think we suffered from typical problems of unfocused strategies so that we didn't get to our level 4 buildings as we tried to own full infrastructure. Next time I'll do some kind of rush in one area. Or so I tell myself. I'm still annoyed I had nothing I could do with my final action and had to pass.

    Azul is a very well designed game that just manages to overcome my general lack of interest in abstracts somehow. Neat mechanics and nice tiles. I'd happily play it again but I'm not going to ever ask for it to hit the table, I don't think

    Inis is one of the ugliest boardgames I've seen in a long time. The land tiles are okay but the card and box art is a style that I guess is trying to thematically fit with the Celtic theme and maybe it nails it but it is awful to look at. It is nice that your little minis are all different though. The game itself is fun enough but ended up feeling quite mean and one of the players ended up feeling victimised and then I miscounted and handed somebody a victory. The meat of the gameplay is excellent though, it's an area control game that relies on a draft from all but one of the basic action cards each round. It's a really good use of drafting. I'd like to play this again when I don't have Brass-related mental drain

    Mojo_Jojo on
    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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    PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    Inis is a 10/10 for me

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    GvzbgulGvzbgul Registered User regular
    Third fortnight of a game group I started. Goal is for it to be fairly casual, with no expectation of people attending every week*. This limits the games that can be played, but I'm not too interested in longer, complex games anyway. Though there's certainly room for them. So far the only rule is "no Monopoly". Age currently skews younger as there are a few parents there. But the numbers are such that we can run a kids' table and an adults' table with no problems.

    (*the real goal is to justify me buying more games)

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    Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    Mojo_Jojo wrote: »

    Inis is one of the ugliest boardgames I've seen in a long time. The land tiles are okay but the card and box art is a style that I guess is trying to thematically fit with the Celtic theme and maybe it nails it but it is awful to look at.

    I think Jim Fitzpatrick's art is the best thing about the game personally. Different strokes etc. He's a well known artist (he did the famous Che portrait, most notably), and all the art is taken from a series of books of retellings of Irish folklore that he released in the 70s. That said, it's certainly a very specific style that probably won't resonate with everyone.

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    ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    Yeah, I seriously considered dropping a few hundred dollars on buying and framing some of his artwork a couple months ago. It was really only a lack of wall space that stopped me.

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    jakobaggerjakobagger LO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTORED Registered User regular
    That's the good and the bad thing about a really unique, characteristic style I guess - people who like it will really like it, but those who don't will also really dislike it.

    Personally I'm a big fan (reminds me a little of Kingdom of Dragon Pass' amazing illustrations).

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    admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    He's also an actual Celtic Irish artist so like

    it's not "trying" to fit with the Celtic theme.

    Inis surprised me because whenever I looked at pictures of it I hated how it looked, but once I saw it in person I loved it.

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    webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Gvzbgul wrote: »
    Third fortnight of a game group I started. Goal is for it to be fairly casual, with no expectation of people attending every week*. This limits the games that can be played, but I'm not too interested in longer, complex games anyway. Though there's certainly room for them. So far the only rule is "no Monopoly". Age currently skews younger as there are a few parents there. But the numbers are such that we can run a kids' table and an adults' table with no problems.

    (*the real goal is to justify me buying more games)

    Sushi Go Party! A great game for both tables.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
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    MahnmutMahnmut Registered User regular
    I love how the epic deck's art is all appropriately 1000% more extra than everything else.

    Steam/LoL: Jericho89
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    jakobaggerjakobagger LO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTORED Registered User regular
    admanb wrote: »
    He's also an actual Celtic Irish artist so like

    it's not "trying" to fit with the Celtic theme.

    Inis surprised me because whenever I looked at pictures of it I hated how it looked, but once I saw it in person I loved it.

    Eh, I'm not sure about this argument. Might be a discussion to be had there about cultural essentialism or something, but probably not for the board game thread I guess.

    Interesting about the difference between image/reality - I have only seen pictures and like the style based on those. Maybe I would dislike the physical drawings. . .

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    WearingglassesWearingglasses Of the friendly neighborhood variety Registered User regular
    I'm almost sure that that's what's going to happen when we finally listen to our buddy and play Game of Thrones again. Ports are such a pain in the ass the last few times we played it.

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    InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    Personally I think Inis is probably the best looking boardgame I own.

    Replacing the plastic with wood is about the only thing I can think of improving.

    Inquisitor on
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    admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Personally I think Inis is probably the best looking boardgame I own.

    Replacing the plastic with wood is about the only thing I can think of improving.

    I would happily replace the plastic models with wooden cubes, but that’s my only complaint.

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    InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    admanb wrote: »
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Personally I think Inis is probably the best looking boardgame I own.

    Replacing the plastic with wood is about the only thing I can think of improving.

    I would happily replace the plastic models with wooden cubes, but that’s my only complaint.

    This is true of all games with plastic pieces for me though.

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    ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    But dudes in citadels are so much better than cubes on citadel tokens. ;)

This discussion has been closed.