Crazy mail order mystery packages ranging from $50-$300. My friend had an anonymous person buy one for him and the thing just showed up on his doorstep one day. Some Cthulhu mythos themed around him being an investigator looking into an ancient one cult. Had a letter from a fake package company announcing that they had just found this "lost" item meant for him. Inside was
minor spoilers
a hand-written note from "a friend" with the usual "If you're reading this, it means I've failed but I'm leaving my notes with you etc etc." Rolled up papyrus scrolls with symbols scribbled all over them. A giant half cracked metal coin. 19th century newspaper clippings. Star charts. Old timey photographs of creepy cult groups.
Slightly bigger spoiler
The whole thing comes in 3 packages sent about a week apart. One week included a photograph of cult members wearing burlap sacks over their heads with creepy faces painted on them. Next week was a giant wooden crate on the doorstep that needed a hammer to pry and break open. Inside was one of the same creepy face sacks. Inside the sacks was a wood/resin carved Cthulhu idol.
A month later and he still doesn't know who sent it.
I was looking into checking out one of the cheaper ones.
Shhhhh. I've been following them for years waiting for the right secret santa event ...
Crazy mail order mystery packages ranging from $50-$300. My friend had an anonymous person buy one for him and the thing just showed up on his doorstep one day. Some Cthulhu mythos themed around him being an investigator looking into an ancient one cult. Had a letter from a fake package company announcing that they had just found this "lost" item meant for him. Inside was
minor spoilers
a hand-written note from "a friend" with the usual "If you're reading this, it means I've failed but I'm leaving my notes with you etc etc." Rolled up papyrus scrolls with symbols scribbled all over them. A giant half cracked metal coin. 19th century newspaper clippings. Star charts. Old timey photographs of creepy cult groups.
Slightly bigger spoiler
The whole thing comes in 3 packages sent about a week apart. One week included a photograph of cult members wearing burlap sacks over their heads with creepy faces painted on them. Next week was a giant wooden crate on the doorstep that needed a hammer to pry and break open. Inside was one of the same creepy face sacks. Inside the sacks was a wood/resin carved Cthulhu idol.
A month later and he still doesn't know who sent it.
I was looking into checking out one of the cheaper ones.
Was there any kind of a game or puzzle to it or was it essentially just a weird story?
So i got my misdelivered 7th Continent...only somewhat peevishly about the fact that whoever the delivered package went to first, opened the clearly not addressed to them box, possibly to determine if they wanted to steal it before turning it into the leasing office.
Maybe it was an honest mistake, but when a mysterious large package arrives at your door, one usually looks at the name on it before opening. and that, I've discovered is a pet peeve of mine enough to make me irritable for an entire weekend.
So, nothing missing. I took my extra copy of the expansion, stored it safely away for later ebay gold (bought a second copy of it when they reopened the store after having gotten my base game in the first wave of shipping. I figured it might be a gift to a friend, but given its popularity I think its going to likely sit around safe, in celephane until its completely out of print, and i can fund a vacation on its sale.).
then took my copy, opened the card decks, (realizing i need to buy more sleeves). kept them in the expansion box for the moment until i get them.
I am absolutely intimidated however about the smaller expansions i purchased. there are 8 of them, and I don't know how they are suppose to be used. From what I gather there are instructions in the magical little boxes on how to place them...I don't know why im so hesitant about opening them... I guess i just dont want the kickstarter to 'end' cause its been a really fun and rewarding one.
Timing on the delivery as expected is right in the beginning of the 'half the gaming group is currently dealing with a newborn, so you ain't playing for a while' of course... but i can take my time getting them sleeved, and carefully not spoiling myself by looking at the cards.....I mean sure...a glance is all i need to be able to sort and sleeve them. Hold yourself back man....
BTW. Where do you guys get your sleeves usually? I just had some surprising sticker shock while looking for them. mayday games, where i bought my original sleeves, apparently jacked there prices up a bit, and on top of that are apparently moving there warehouse and training a new manager so all shipments are on hold according to a banner at the top, so i went to amazon...third party seller had what i needed for a good price...then tried to charge me 20 bucks for shipping 8 packs of mostly weightless sleeves. no thanks. Found this other place online selling them for a good price, and free shipping called Speilpro so i ended up getting them there. This has been the only game i really cared enough to sleeve about but i might get addicted.
With the 7th continent expansions, if it's an extra curse you can just open it and slot in the cards. It shouldn't affect much of anything until you choose to follow that curse.
With the other ones, take this with a grain of salt as I've not actually played them yet but:
- The Path of Repentance can be put in now as like a curse it triggers off taking a certain card when you start and should lay dormant otherwise.
- Facing the Elements/Path of the Devourers only put in when you want to introduce those elements to your game as they trigger from the random exploration cards.
- Flying Roots I think you can put in now as it triggers via cards put in the action deck at the start of the game, so they can easily be left out or not when you start depending on your wishes.
- Comfort Creatures is I think another random event one you don't want to mix in until you want to play it.
I spent a while slotting everything into the dividers over the weekend and will see how it goes when I start my next playthrough.
Crazy mail order mystery packages ranging from $50-$300. My friend had an anonymous person buy one for him and the thing just showed up on his doorstep one day. Some Cthulhu mythos themed around him being an investigator looking into an ancient one cult. Had a letter from a fake package company announcing that they had just found this "lost" item meant for him. Inside was
minor spoilers
a hand-written note from "a friend" with the usual "If you're reading this, it means I've failed but I'm leaving my notes with you etc etc." Rolled up papyrus scrolls with symbols scribbled all over them. A giant half cracked metal coin. 19th century newspaper clippings. Star charts. Old timey photographs of creepy cult groups.
Slightly bigger spoiler
The whole thing comes in 3 packages sent about a week apart. One week included a photograph of cult members wearing burlap sacks over their heads with creepy faces painted on them. Next week was a giant wooden crate on the doorstep that needed a hammer to pry and break open. Inside was one of the same creepy face sacks. Inside the sacks was a wood/resin carved Cthulhu idol.
A month later and he still doesn't know who sent it.
I was looking into checking out one of the cheaper ones.
I've been following them, and they've always looked cool.
They *should* have gotten a black envelope when the experience was over that tells you who was behind it... unless they didn't put it in intentionally for some reason?
Any idea if the puzzles themselves are any good?
Just ordered their cheapest one: Lights, Camera, MURDER!
So, we tried Root yesterday, with three players (birds, cats, alliance)
It took about 20 mins to explain the rules and an hour to play, which was delightful.
Alliance won because we didn't grasp how dangerous a base with warriors in it was—not as a military but as a cheap propaganda engine. Once he had two officers, he could just move a warrior and turn him into sympathy each turn, scoring lots of points. We also didn't grasp how important it is to stamp out sympathy in your territory, either, since you can guarantee a revolt won't happen.
Alliance player also made a great move to guarantee my birds went into turmoil by preventing a recruitment, so I lost 8 VPs and crashed hard
In general, I really enjoyed this as a lighter area control game with deep asymmetry. It was really fast, and the relative simplicity of each faction means that you can actually look at the other factions and make good predictions of what they may or may not do — something that's really hard in heavy, complex war games where even tracking your own faction is a daunting cognitive burden.
It felt a lot like Cthulhu Wars, where it's often about managing other players and not letting any leader get too strong, and convincing players to make the sacrifice of striking down the leader even when it doesn't directly benefit them. But the board state is a lot easier to absorb and understand, which makes negotiation easier.
The field medic errata for the cats seems like a great tweak — suddenly it becomes very difficult to challenge them anywhere close to their keep at all, as you'll likely face all their fallen troops the next turn.
Huge fan of this, gonna pick up some expansions for sure (or have my buddy print some figs, as he just got a fancy German 3d printer).
Crazy mail order mystery packages ranging from $50-$300. My friend had an anonymous person buy one for him and the thing just showed up on his doorstep one day. Some Cthulhu mythos themed around him being an investigator looking into an ancient one cult. Had a letter from a fake package company announcing that they had just found this "lost" item meant for him. Inside was
minor spoilers
a hand-written note from "a friend" with the usual "If you're reading this, it means I've failed but I'm leaving my notes with you etc etc." Rolled up papyrus scrolls with symbols scribbled all over them. A giant half cracked metal coin. 19th century newspaper clippings. Star charts. Old timey photographs of creepy cult groups.
Slightly bigger spoiler
The whole thing comes in 3 packages sent about a week apart. One week included a photograph of cult members wearing burlap sacks over their heads with creepy faces painted on them. Next week was a giant wooden crate on the doorstep that needed a hammer to pry and break open. Inside was one of the same creepy face sacks. Inside the sacks was a wood/resin carved Cthulhu idol.
A month later and he still doesn't know who sent it.
I was looking into checking out one of the cheaper ones.
Was there any kind of a game or puzzle to it or was it essentially just a weird story?
Oh there's definitely puzzles. A big part is deciphering all the weird symbol language.
The one I ordered for $50 has you as a 40s LA Homicide detective solving a murder case.
So, we tried Root yesterday, with three players (birds, cats, alliance)
It took about 20 mins to explain the rules and an hour to play, which was delightful.
Alliance won because we didn't grasp how dangerous a base with warriors in it was—not as a military but as a cheap propaganda engine. Once he had two officers, he could just move a warrior and turn him into sympathy each turn, scoring lots of points. We also didn't grasp how important it is to stamp out sympathy in your territory, either, since you can guarantee a revolt won't happen.
Alliance player also made a great move to guarantee my birds went into turmoil by preventing a recruitment, so I lost 8 VPs and crashed hard
In general, I really enjoyed this as a lighter area control game with deep asymmetry. It was really fast, and the relative simplicity of each faction means that you can actually look at the other factions and make good predictions of what they may or may not do — something that's really hard in heavy, complex war games where even tracking your own faction is a daunting cognitive burden.
It felt a lot like Cthulhu Wars, where it's often about managing other players and not letting any leader get too strong, and convincing players to make the sacrifice of striking down the leader even when it doesn't directly benefit them. But the board state is a lot easier to absorb and understand, which makes negotiation easier.
The field medic errata for the cats seems like a great tweak — suddenly it becomes very difficult to challenge them anywhere close to their keep at all, as you'll likely face all their fallen troops the next turn.
Huge fan of this, gonna pick up some expansions for sure (or have my buddy print some figs, as he just got a fancy German 3d printer).
Huh, I found it a lot easier to parse the board state in Cthulhu Wars. Everyone is getting VP the same way through gates, just with different techniques. The only real wild card is the King in Yellow, but it's very easy to grasp what he does.
That's why Root just bounced off me. I much prefer asymmetrical games where there are just a few small differences between factions that are clever enough to make them play totally different. Root made them too different to the point that it feels like you're playing competitive Space Cadet.
MrBody on
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
So i got my misdelivered 7th Continent...only somewhat peevishly about the fact that whoever the delivered package went to first, opened the clearly not addressed to them box, possibly to determine if they wanted to steal it before turning it into the leasing office.
Maybe it was an honest mistake, but when a mysterious large package arrives at your door, one usually looks at the name on it before opening. and that, I've discovered is a pet peeve of mine enough to make me irritable for an entire weekend.
So, nothing missing. I took my extra copy of the expansion, stored it safely away for later ebay gold (bought a second copy of it when they reopened the store after having gotten my base game in the first wave of shipping. I figured it might be a gift to a friend, but given its popularity I think its going to likely sit around safe, in celephane until its completely out of print, and i can fund a vacation on its sale.).
then took my copy, opened the card decks, (realizing i need to buy more sleeves). kept them in the expansion box for the moment until i get them.
I am absolutely intimidated however about the smaller expansions i purchased. there are 8 of them, and I don't know how they are suppose to be used. From what I gather there are instructions in the magical little boxes on how to place them...I don't know why im so hesitant about opening them... I guess i just dont want the kickstarter to 'end' cause its been a really fun and rewarding one.
Timing on the delivery as expected is right in the beginning of the 'half the gaming group is currently dealing with a newborn, so you ain't playing for a while' of course... but i can take my time getting them sleeved, and carefully not spoiling myself by looking at the cards.....I mean sure...a glance is all i need to be able to sort and sleeve them. Hold yourself back man....
BTW. Where do you guys get your sleeves usually? I just had some surprising sticker shock while looking for them. mayday games, where i bought my original sleeves, apparently jacked there prices up a bit, and on top of that are apparently moving there warehouse and training a new manager so all shipments are on hold according to a banner at the top, so i went to amazon...third party seller had what i needed for a good price...then tried to charge me 20 bucks for shipping 8 packs of mostly weightless sleeves. no thanks. Found this other place online selling them for a good price, and free shipping called Speilpro so i ended up getting them there. This has been the only game i really cared enough to sleeve about but i might get addicted.
I got the sleeves add-on from the Kickstarter, and ended up needing an extra pack from Mayday (80mm x 80mm extra thick seem to be identical).
I went ahead and sleeved and added all the mini-expansions. The only one that’s apparently iffy in that regard is Fear the Devourers, because everything else is either a fun addition, a mild change, or has to be purposefully activated at the beginning of the game. I figure I can always remove Devourers (or ignore them on the fly) if they get too annoying.
Crazy mail order mystery packages ranging from $50-$300. My friend had an anonymous person buy one for him and the thing just showed up on his doorstep one day. Some Cthulhu mythos themed around him being an investigator looking into an ancient one cult. Had a letter from a fake package company announcing that they had just found this "lost" item meant for him. Inside was
minor spoilers
a hand-written note from "a friend" with the usual "If you're reading this, it means I've failed but I'm leaving my notes with you etc etc." Rolled up papyrus scrolls with symbols scribbled all over them. A giant half cracked metal coin. 19th century newspaper clippings. Star charts. Old timey photographs of creepy cult groups.
Slightly bigger spoiler
The whole thing comes in 3 packages sent about a week apart. One week included a photograph of cult members wearing burlap sacks over their heads with creepy faces painted on them. Next week was a giant wooden crate on the doorstep that needed a hammer to pry and break open. Inside was one of the same creepy face sacks. Inside the sacks was a wood/resin carved Cthulhu idol.
A month later and he still doesn't know who sent it.
I was looking into checking out one of the cheaper ones.
I've been following them, and they've always looked cool.
They *should* have gotten a black envelope when the experience was over that tells you who was behind it... unless they didn't put it in intentionally for some reason?
Any idea if the puzzles themselves are any good?
Just ordered their cheapest one: Lights, Camera, MURDER!
I got this one for my wife and we recently finished it together. It's not as flashy or immersive seeming as their really expensive ones, but this was the package I could afford and we're both into old movies (and she's particularly fond of murder mysteries). There weren't any puzzles, really, but you did receive clues and follow leads and try to holistically piece things together, much like a detective in one of these movies would.
No spoilers, but if you want to go in totally blind about the experience, don't click through:
It's very film noir and it felt like it nailed the pacing, themes, and feeling of a noir mystery (there were bits where we both felt totally stumped and hopeless for almost long enough to give up, until one of us was like "well what about this random thing" that led us into another chain of discoveries). It didn't feel as much like a package of real documents as I had hoped it would; there's a game book and you play a character, using the game book to go to locations and talk to leads around Los Angeles. That being said, once I got over that self-imposed disappointment, all the prop documents that the package actually comes with are really wonderful and give the whole thing a tactile experience.
So i got my misdelivered 7th Continent...only somewhat peevishly about the fact that whoever the delivered package went to first, opened the clearly not addressed to them box, possibly to determine if they wanted to steal it before turning it into the leasing office.
Maybe it was an honest mistake, but when a mysterious large package arrives at your door, one usually looks at the name on it before opening. and that, I've discovered is a pet peeve of mine enough to make me irritable for an entire weekend.
So, nothing missing. I took my extra copy of the expansion, stored it safely away for later ebay gold (bought a second copy of it when they reopened the store after having gotten my base game in the first wave of shipping. I figured it might be a gift to a friend, but given its popularity I think its going to likely sit around safe, in celephane until its completely out of print, and i can fund a vacation on its sale.).
then took my copy, opened the card decks, (realizing i need to buy more sleeves). kept them in the expansion box for the moment until i get them.
I am absolutely intimidated however about the smaller expansions i purchased. there are 8 of them, and I don't know how they are suppose to be used. From what I gather there are instructions in the magical little boxes on how to place them...I don't know why im so hesitant about opening them... I guess i just dont want the kickstarter to 'end' cause its been a really fun and rewarding one.
Timing on the delivery as expected is right in the beginning of the 'half the gaming group is currently dealing with a newborn, so you ain't playing for a while' of course... but i can take my time getting them sleeved, and carefully not spoiling myself by looking at the cards.....I mean sure...a glance is all i need to be able to sort and sleeve them. Hold yourself back man....
BTW. Where do you guys get your sleeves usually? I just had some surprising sticker shock while looking for them. mayday games, where i bought my original sleeves, apparently jacked there prices up a bit, and on top of that are apparently moving there warehouse and training a new manager so all shipments are on hold according to a banner at the top, so i went to amazon...third party seller had what i needed for a good price...then tried to charge me 20 bucks for shipping 8 packs of mostly weightless sleeves. no thanks. Found this other place online selling them for a good price, and free shipping called Speilpro so i ended up getting them there. This has been the only game i really cared enough to sleeve about but i might get addicted.
I got the sleeves add-on from the Kickstarter, and ended up needing an extra pack from Mayday (90mm x 90mm extra thick seem to be identical).
I went ahead and sleeved and added all the mini-expansions. The only one that’s apparently iffy in that regard is Fear the Devourers, because everything else is either a fun addition, a mild change, or has to be purposefully activated at the beginning of the game. I figure I can always remove Devourers (or ignore them on the fly) if they get too annoying.
I'm away from home for a while, and we checked out a small game store last week since it was Tabletop Day. The store wasn't doing anything special (no promo giveaways, boo), but they did sell used games. I walked out with Clank! for almost half off, as it was marked as missing two cubes. At that price, we bought the mummy expansion to make up the difference.
We opened it up to see which cubes were missing, and it turned out that the two missing cubes were really there all along, just in the velvet bag instead of the small Ziploc bag with the others. So, hey, score one for us.
GNU Terry Pratchett
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
I am absolutely mystified by a component decision in Root.
Many tokens and buildings can be exhausted on a per-turn basis, and the game provides absolutely no means to mark this. The items — which can also be exhausted and are the exact same size and shape as buildings — can be flipped over to a darker side to mark when they're exhausted, but the other components appear to be the same on both sides.
Why? This seems incredibly obvious as a major usability benefit when there are dozens of these buildings and tokens on the board.
I am absolutely mystified by a component decision in Root.
Many tokens and buildings can be exhausted on a per-turn basis, and the game provides absolutely no means to mark this. The items — which can also be exhausted and are the exact same size and shape as buildings — can be flipped over to a darker side to mark when they're exhausted, but the other components appear to be the same on both sides.
Why? This seems incredibly obvious as a major usability benefit when there are dozens of these buildings and tokens on the board.
I had never thought about this and now I want it fixed. Reducing the memory burden on players is such a neglected skill in game design.
+6
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HedgethornAssociate Professor of Historical Hobby HorsesIn the Lions' DenRegistered Userregular
I am absolutely mystified by a component decision in Root.
Many tokens and buildings can be exhausted on a per-turn basis, and the game provides absolutely no means to mark this. The items — which can also be exhausted and are the exact same size and shape as buildings — can be flipped over to a darker side to mark when they're exhausted, but the other components appear to be the same on both sides.
Why? This seems incredibly obvious as a major usability benefit when there are dozens of these buildings and tokens on the board.
For all factions other than the vagabond, crafting is what "exhausts" buildings/tokens, and all crafting happens at one discreet time in one's turn. I think the expectation is it's not information that needs to be tracked for any length of time beyond "I use these two to craft this card and these three to craft that one," so there's no point adding extra exhaust and refresh steps for the other factions.
I am absolutely mystified by a component decision in Root.
Many tokens and buildings can be exhausted on a per-turn basis, and the game provides absolutely no means to mark this. The items — which can also be exhausted and are the exact same size and shape as buildings — can be flipped over to a darker side to mark when they're exhausted, but the other components appear to be the same on both sides.
Why? This seems incredibly obvious as a major usability benefit when there are dozens of these buildings and tokens on the board.
For all factions other than the vagabond, crafting is what "exhausts" buildings/tokens, and all crafting happens at one discreet time in one's turn. I think the expectation is it's not information that needs to be tracked for any length of time beyond "I use these two to craft this card and these three to craft that one," so there's no point adding extra exhaust and refresh steps for the other factions.
Crafting can involve five workshops, or nine sympathy tokens, or six roosts. That's enough to lead to confusion about which one you've used or haven't used, especially if you change your mind or get distracted mid-decision.
In general I think as much information should be made explicit as possible, and when it's that easy, and another element in the game has already done the same thing for the same purpose, it strikes me as odd
Hardly gamebreaking or anything, just irritating (especially for new players)
So I discovered an issue with my scythe broken token. The base game one assumes you're using the base game box so the tray of cards isn't entirely covered because normally the lid would hold it in. But uh, not if you have it all in the legendary box. So as far as I can tell, until I play through fenris, or just accept minor spoilers to build the second kit, I can not tilt my box at all without living in fear.
On the good news front. I have the first two quests and basic cards in thunderstone quest sleeved so that's more than enough to start getting in some games while I grab more sleeves as incidental purchases whenever I get chances to.
Generally I try to buy sleeves all from the same batch, so it's more likely they match. Even good brands of sleeves will have variances that can be noticeable in coloration and length.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
So I discovered an issue with my scythe broken token. The base game one assumes you're using the base game box so the tray of cards isn't entirely covered because normally the lid would hold it in. But uh, not if you have it all in the legendary box. So as far as I can tell, until I play through fenris, or just accept minor spoilers to build the second kit, I can not tilt my box at all without living in fear.
On the good news front. I have the first two quests and basic cards in thunderstone quest sleeved so that's more than enough to start getting in some games while I grab more sleeves as incidental purchases whenever I get chances to.
Apologies if I didn't mention that when talking about my kit.
Yes! I finally got my 7th Continent wave 2 shipping notification! And next month should be Lifeform, my most anticipated game this year so far.
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
I won a beautiful game of Inis tonight. We put four sanctuaries in a single spot with two citadels, so it was pretty easy for everyone to get a pretender token. Everybody fought mightily to take the Brenship on the last turn. I was second to get a pretender token. The Bren had to play a red card to teleport in. I did my part to try to knock the Bren out of a sanctuary, but he just hid in a citadel, and in doing so I left the capital and changed who the Bren would be.
But that also got me a second win condition, as I went from 5 citadels, 2 deeds, 2 regions to 6 citadels, 2 deeds, 4 regions. Which nobody noticed until they dejectedly played kingmaker and passed out. I said "I win!" cheerfully and they were all stunned.
So I discovered an issue with my scythe broken token. The base game one assumes you're using the base game box so the tray of cards isn't entirely covered because normally the lid would hold it in. But uh, not if you have it all in the legendary box. So as far as I can tell, until I play through fenris, or just accept minor spoilers to build the second kit, I can not tilt my box at all without living in fear.
On the good news front. I have the first two quests and basic cards in thunderstone quest sleeved so that's more than enough to start getting in some games while I grab more sleeves as incidental purchases whenever I get chances to.
Apologies if I didn't mention that when talking about my kit.
You might have and I just forgot because I was only thinking about how to avoid the campaign spoilers. Either way, I guess it won't be a super huge deal. I just need to get on roping some people into playing this. The problem is most of the people who would do it work with me and our schedules are all nonsense
I won a beautiful game of Inis tonight. We put four sanctuaries in a single spot with two citadels, so it was pretty easy for everyone to get a pretender token. Everybody fought mightily to take the Brenship on the last turn. I was second to get a pretender token. The Bren had to play a red card to teleport in. I did my part to try to knock the Bren out of a sanctuary, but he just hid in a citadel, and in doing so I left the capital and changed who the Bren would be.
But that also got me a second win condition, as I went from 5 citadels, 2 deeds, 2 regions to 6 citadels, 2 deeds, 4 regions. Which nobody noticed until they dejectedly played kingmaker and passed out. I said "I win!" cheerfully and they were all stunned.
(I know you mean sanctuaries, not citadels. Good job~)
I won a beautiful game of Inis tonight. We put four sanctuaries in a single spot with two citadels, so it was pretty easy for everyone to get a pretender token. Everybody fought mightily to take the Brenship on the last turn. I was second to get a pretender token. The Bren had to play a red card to teleport in. I did my part to try to knock the Bren out of a sanctuary, but he just hid in a citadel, and in doing so I left the capital and changed who the Bren would be.
But that also got me a second win condition, as I went from 5 citadels, 2 deeds, 2 regions to 6 citadels, 2 deeds, 4 regions. Which nobody noticed until they dejectedly played kingmaker and passed out. I said "I win!" cheerfully and they were all stunned.
(I know you mean sanctuaries, not citadels. Good job~)
My Inis experiences have not been great. In both games, we wrestled with sometihng as simple as card drafting and games seemed to drag.
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
I played my second short game of Feast for Odin on Monday and I really love it. I foolishly bought an island on the second turn that I proceeded to do nothing with the entire game. Still, I managed to Viking Tetris my main board perfectly to 18 income on the last round. Maybe islands are only worth doing on a full game? Pillaging seems much better than I thought. I never bothered trying it in my first game, but cheap big blue items are amazing. The disparity in card usefulness is my only major complaint in the game. Also I'm sad that I don't own it.
I won a beautiful game of Inis tonight. We put four sanctuaries in a single spot with two citadels, so it was pretty easy for everyone to get a pretender token. Everybody fought mightily to take the Brenship on the last turn. I was second to get a pretender token. The Bren had to play a red card to teleport in. I did my part to try to knock the Bren out of a sanctuary, but he just hid in a citadel, and in doing so I left the capital and changed who the Bren would be.
But that also got me a second win condition, as I went from 5 citadels, 2 deeds, 2 regions to 6 citadels, 2 deeds, 4 regions. Which nobody noticed until they dejectedly played kingmaker and passed out. I said "I win!" cheerfully and they were all stunned.
(I know you mean sanctuaries, not citadels. Good job~)
My Inis experiences have not been great. In both games, we wrestled with sometihng as simple as card drafting and games seemed to drag.
Inis was extremely divisive in my experience, to the point that I traded it away. I also think its best with 2. Ymmv obviously.
I played my second short game of Feast for Odin on Monday and I really love it. I foolishly bought an island on the second turn that I proceeded to do nothing with the entire game. Still, I managed to Viking Tetris my main board perfectly to 18 income on the last round. Maybe islands are only worth doing on a full game? Pillaging seems much better than I thought. I never bothered trying it in my first game, but cheap big blue items are amazing. The disparity in card usefulness is my only major complaint in the game. Also I'm sad that I don't own it.
I usually go for two islands in the full game and I’ve seen someone get three and do well, so I’d probably still get one in the short game. Getting an island and then not doing anything with it is a warning sign — it should be easier to get income and bonuses off the island than your home board.
The expansion does a great job fixing the disparity in card usefulness by giving you a way to dump them into points. The expansion actually just makes the game universally better.
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
edited June 2019
You did that while still filling your main board? Maybe I just got the wrong shape of island. It seemed like a lot more effort to get income there then on my main board. Then when I got bigger stuff they wouldn't fit. I had three cows I could convert but I didn't leave room for them anywhere so I feel like I wasted them. I used the cows and sheep action a lot since I had both. I hear animals are better in the expansion, and in the long game, but that animal breeding card seemed to good to pass up.
admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Ah. Faroe is pretty bad. It got a 6-point boost in the expansion so you're not wrong there. I usually went for one of the early flipped boards in the base game.
But a lot of it is just... generally getting better at the game. I would expect that after a couple more short games you'll have a harder time not filling an island. Then you'll start figuring out what you can do with cabins and longhouses...
HedgethornAssociate Professor of Historical Hobby HorsesIn the Lions' DenRegistered Userregular
Yeah, the thing about the islands in Feast for Odin is they tend to provide bigger and better bonus tiles, which leads to a snowball effect every round. Getting a pelt from the Faroe board every round will eat up a lot of space by itself, not to mention what could be done with the other rewards like a sheep or milk bucket.
I have yet to play myself, but have some first-hand accounts. The Deal game appeals to some, but seems to slow the game way down. The consensus from my associates on the customizable dice seems to be "fine but more fiddly than they're worth." People like having more tiles but that alone doesn't seem remotely worth the price tag to me.
It definitely looks like one of those expansions that adds whole new subgames to a game, which are generally ones that I don't like. But I do want more tiles and stuff, so once it gets cheap enough I'll buy it. The two crazy new subgames sound like things my wife and I will play once each and never again.
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Shhhhh. I've been following them for years waiting for the right secret santa event ...
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Was there any kind of a game or puzzle to it or was it essentially just a weird story?
Maybe it was an honest mistake, but when a mysterious large package arrives at your door, one usually looks at the name on it before opening. and that, I've discovered is a pet peeve of mine enough to make me irritable for an entire weekend.
So, nothing missing. I took my extra copy of the expansion, stored it safely away for later ebay gold (bought a second copy of it when they reopened the store after having gotten my base game in the first wave of shipping. I figured it might be a gift to a friend, but given its popularity I think its going to likely sit around safe, in celephane until its completely out of print, and i can fund a vacation on its sale.).
then took my copy, opened the card decks, (realizing i need to buy more sleeves). kept them in the expansion box for the moment until i get them.
I am absolutely intimidated however about the smaller expansions i purchased. there are 8 of them, and I don't know how they are suppose to be used. From what I gather there are instructions in the magical little boxes on how to place them...I don't know why im so hesitant about opening them... I guess i just dont want the kickstarter to 'end' cause its been a really fun and rewarding one.
Timing on the delivery as expected is right in the beginning of the 'half the gaming group is currently dealing with a newborn, so you ain't playing for a while' of course... but i can take my time getting them sleeved, and carefully not spoiling myself by looking at the cards.....I mean sure...a glance is all i need to be able to sort and sleeve them. Hold yourself back man....
BTW. Where do you guys get your sleeves usually? I just had some surprising sticker shock while looking for them. mayday games, where i bought my original sleeves, apparently jacked there prices up a bit, and on top of that are apparently moving there warehouse and training a new manager so all shipments are on hold according to a banner at the top, so i went to amazon...third party seller had what i needed for a good price...then tried to charge me 20 bucks for shipping 8 packs of mostly weightless sleeves. no thanks. Found this other place online selling them for a good price, and free shipping called Speilpro so i ended up getting them there. This has been the only game i really cared enough to sleeve about but i might get addicted.
With the other ones, take this with a grain of salt as I've not actually played them yet but:
- The Path of Repentance can be put in now as like a curse it triggers off taking a certain card when you start and should lay dormant otherwise.
- Facing the Elements/Path of the Devourers only put in when you want to introduce those elements to your game as they trigger from the random exploration cards.
- Flying Roots I think you can put in now as it triggers via cards put in the action deck at the start of the game, so they can easily be left out or not when you start depending on your wishes.
- Comfort Creatures is I think another random event one you don't want to mix in until you want to play it.
I spent a while slotting everything into the dividers over the weekend and will see how it goes when I start my next playthrough.
Any idea if the puzzles themselves are any good?
Just ordered their cheapest one: Lights, Camera, MURDER!
It took about 20 mins to explain the rules and an hour to play, which was delightful.
Alliance won because we didn't grasp how dangerous a base with warriors in it was—not as a military but as a cheap propaganda engine. Once he had two officers, he could just move a warrior and turn him into sympathy each turn, scoring lots of points. We also didn't grasp how important it is to stamp out sympathy in your territory, either, since you can guarantee a revolt won't happen.
Alliance player also made a great move to guarantee my birds went into turmoil by preventing a recruitment, so I lost 8 VPs and crashed hard
In general, I really enjoyed this as a lighter area control game with deep asymmetry. It was really fast, and the relative simplicity of each faction means that you can actually look at the other factions and make good predictions of what they may or may not do — something that's really hard in heavy, complex war games where even tracking your own faction is a daunting cognitive burden.
It felt a lot like Cthulhu Wars, where it's often about managing other players and not letting any leader get too strong, and convincing players to make the sacrifice of striking down the leader even when it doesn't directly benefit them. But the board state is a lot easier to absorb and understand, which makes negotiation easier.
The field medic errata for the cats seems like a great tweak — suddenly it becomes very difficult to challenge them anywhere close to their keep at all, as you'll likely face all their fallen troops the next turn.
Huge fan of this, gonna pick up some expansions for sure (or have my buddy print some figs, as he just got a fancy German 3d printer).
Oh there's definitely puzzles. A big part is deciphering all the weird symbol language.
The one I ordered for $50 has you as a 40s LA Homicide detective solving a murder case.
Huh, I found it a lot easier to parse the board state in Cthulhu Wars. Everyone is getting VP the same way through gates, just with different techniques. The only real wild card is the King in Yellow, but it's very easy to grasp what he does.
That's why Root just bounced off me. I much prefer asymmetrical games where there are just a few small differences between factions that are clever enough to make them play totally different. Root made them too different to the point that it feels like you're playing competitive Space Cadet.
I got the sleeves add-on from the Kickstarter, and ended up needing an extra pack from Mayday (80mm x 80mm extra thick seem to be identical).
I went ahead and sleeved and added all the mini-expansions. The only one that’s apparently iffy in that regard is Fear the Devourers, because everything else is either a fun addition, a mild change, or has to be purposefully activated at the beginning of the game. I figure I can always remove Devourers (or ignore them on the fly) if they get too annoying.
Edit: 80mm by 80mm, not 90
I got this one for my wife and we recently finished it together. It's not as flashy or immersive seeming as their really expensive ones, but this was the package I could afford and we're both into old movies (and she's particularly fond of murder mysteries). There weren't any puzzles, really, but you did receive clues and follow leads and try to holistically piece things together, much like a detective in one of these movies would.
No spoilers, but if you want to go in totally blind about the experience, don't click through:
I think you mean 80x80.
We opened it up to see which cubes were missing, and it turned out that the two missing cubes were really there all along, just in the velvet bag instead of the small Ziploc bag with the others. So, hey, score one for us.
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
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Many tokens and buildings can be exhausted on a per-turn basis, and the game provides absolutely no means to mark this. The items — which can also be exhausted and are the exact same size and shape as buildings — can be flipped over to a darker side to mark when they're exhausted, but the other components appear to be the same on both sides.
Why? This seems incredibly obvious as a major usability benefit when there are dozens of these buildings and tokens on the board.
I had never thought about this and now I want it fixed. Reducing the memory burden on players is such a neglected skill in game design.
For all factions other than the vagabond, crafting is what "exhausts" buildings/tokens, and all crafting happens at one discreet time in one's turn. I think the expectation is it's not information that needs to be tracked for any length of time beyond "I use these two to craft this card and these three to craft that one," so there's no point adding extra exhaust and refresh steps for the other factions.
I think their suggestion is to turn the pieces 90 degrees when they’re used but that’s not great
Crafting can involve five workshops, or nine sympathy tokens, or six roosts. That's enough to lead to confusion about which one you've used or haven't used, especially if you change your mind or get distracted mid-decision.
In general I think as much information should be made explicit as possible, and when it's that easy, and another element in the game has already done the same thing for the same purpose, it strikes me as odd
Hardly gamebreaking or anything, just irritating (especially for new players)
On the good news front. I have the first two quests and basic cards in thunderstone quest sleeved so that's more than enough to start getting in some games while I grab more sleeves as incidental purchases whenever I get chances to.
Apologies if I didn't mention that when talking about my kit.
But that also got me a second win condition, as I went from 5 citadels, 2 deeds, 2 regions to 6 citadels, 2 deeds, 4 regions. Which nobody noticed until they dejectedly played kingmaker and passed out. I said "I win!" cheerfully and they were all stunned.
You might have and I just forgot because I was only thinking about how to avoid the campaign spoilers. Either way, I guess it won't be a super huge deal. I just need to get on roping some people into playing this. The problem is most of the people who would do it work with me and our schedules are all nonsense
(I know you mean sanctuaries, not citadels. Good job~)
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
My Inis experiences have not been great. In both games, we wrestled with sometihng as simple as card drafting and games seemed to drag.
Inis was extremely divisive in my experience, to the point that I traded it away. I also think its best with 2. Ymmv obviously.
I usually go for two islands in the full game and I’ve seen someone get three and do well, so I’d probably still get one in the short game. Getting an island and then not doing anything with it is a warning sign — it should be easier to get income and bonuses off the island than your home board.
The expansion does a great job fixing the disparity in card usefulness by giving you a way to dump them into points. The expansion actually just makes the game universally better.
But a lot of it is just... generally getting better at the game. I would expect that after a couple more short games you'll have a harder time not filling an island. Then you'll start figuring out what you can do with cabins and longhouses...
Boardlandia has the Odin expansion in stock, though not Concordia Venus. (https://boardlandia.com/products/a-feast-for-odin-the-norwegians-expansion)
Thanks, I typed that and then promptly went and scoured the internet and found a copy because I am weak!
https://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/272209
I'm betting it'll be significantly cheaper before too long, so I'm holding strong. But this is still a pretty legit price.