The Board Game Thread

[FatDaz]

I really, really want to order Rebellion right now but I really shouldn't spend £70 plus on anything immediately after Christmas

If you find someone willing to spend 3-4 hours playing and enjoys Star Wars, you'll find it one of the most grin inducing and fun games you can play. And despite the sheer number of components, the game is really simple to grasp and play. It's one of those games where as soon as it's finished you want to talk about what happened and why you made decisions etc.

[Tafdolphin]

They look pretty good. I'd love to get into Imperial Assault, but nearly £100 for the base game is eye-watering, never mind the expansions.

I got it as a Christmas present but no way was it £100. I mean, it is in our local board games shop but you can find it for £60 online*. Still expensive, but you get a lot for your money. I've already bought a Villain Pack though, another ATST but a heavy weapons version with a tiny wee general peaking out the top. Including paints I've spent nearly £100 on the damn thing, not including the game itself...

First proper campaign play is tonight. Bit nervous, as although it's technically the Imperial player (me) vs 4 Rebel players in reality I'm acting more like a DM. During our intro game I decided to let the Rebels win as part of the whole thing was convincing them to play regularly and, bless them, they didn't really know what was going on. It ended up being quite close: they were nearing their objective when they realised (ie, I reminded them) that I'd win if they were all wounded, and 3 out of 4 heroes had gone that way already. They just about scraped through which worked really nicely.

* https://goo.gl/zqZrL9

[Tragic Magic]

I done a bad thing and bought Star Wars Rebellion

[Hexx]

Rebellion's great - it'll be fine.

[FatDaz]

I done a bad thing and bought Star Wars Rebellion

Good... good....

[Hypes]

Had a board games night tonight. Played two new games: Star Wars Carcassonne, which is an interesting variant but I'm not sure I'm a fan of some of the scoring, and Camel Up with the expansion, which kind of messes with the whole betting as it ensures the camels are right together until the end whilst making the game longer.

[Hexx]

Captain SONAR

Loved this. We did 4vs4 games and each got to try all the roles.

Only game I've played similar is Space Cadets Dice Duel - but this didn't have the frantic RNG nature of dice and more about decisions/interactions.

The 1st mate felt a bit bubbins overall - but anything else is frantic and can make or break the game.

Radio/Sonar operator was my favorite. Engineer is horrifically stressful (We nearly went nuclear a few times).

We ended up house ruling that the movements had to be very clearly announced (we went with "North Confirm" etc) as the discussions were causing hell for the radio operators. It's meant to be hard enough for the radio chap, but trying to work out what's a instruction and what's a discussion about which way to go was a step too hard.

[Tafdolphin]

Had my first Campaign night of Imperial Assault and it was bloody brilliant.

First mission was The Spice Job, a side mission with the Rebel heroes helping Chewie steal some Spice. Definitely something of a learning experience for everyone, but as the Imperial player I went all out trying to actually defeat them as I had very limited troops. I basically delayed them as long as I could, moving mission critical figures as far away from the attackers as possible and physically blocking routes with non-essential personnel. It was really close and ended with the Rebels losing on the last round.

Second was a campaign story mission and here I really had to scale myself back. I had a lot more resources at my disposal as well as the level having a loooooot of traps that the Rebels duly proceeded to fall into (well, they had to to progress the mission). Still, one of the players decided to branch out on his own and spent the entire campaign in a huge battle with a giant cat monster, alternatively healing and attacking. For the rest, I decided that one of the abilities I'd bought with XP (add 2 health to any unit, re-roll a defense die once per round, if unit is destroyed attach the ability to any newly deployed unit) was massively overpowered so I didn't use it and refused to put it back into play once the first unit was destroyed. I also had to simply not do anything with some pieces or I would've tore the divided Rebels to pieces. As it was it still came down to the very last roll of the dice, with less than 50/50 odds of the Rebels passing a final ability test. They did, and everyone went wild.

strawberry floating amazing game, even if being the Imperial is very much being a DM as much as an opponent.

[Tragic Magic]

I'm hoping that Star Wars Rebellion arrives tomorrow so that my wife and I can have a game in the afternoon together before all our friends come over for other games. I'm also getting another board game as a belated birthday present from my parents which I have an inkling could be Champions of Midgard.

How I've accumulated so many board games in just one year is beyond me. I wouldn't like to add up the cost of them all.

I've also got some dice of all shapes and sizes (d20s, 8s, 12s, etc) arriving tomorrow as a group of us from work are going to start playing a D&D campaign this month. The DM has quite a bit of experience in it but it's a first for me so I'm super excited seeing as how much I enjoy the story elements of some of my favourite board games.

Games are the best!

[Tragic Magic]

I'm unusually excited for tonight's gaming. Tonight we have lined up, in no particular order:

Mysterium
One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Salem
Coup
Codenames
Elder Sign

Didn't get to play Rebellion this afternoon but I'll make damn sure it gets played tomorrow.

[jiggles]

The PDF for the Dark Souls Board Game's rulebook has been released.

Peruse here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... -Rules.pdf

[Tragic Magic]

I can't wait to receive it. It's going to be amazing! Hopefully!

[FatDaz]

Have you played rebellion yet?

[Tragic Magic]

My wife and I went about 4 hours playing a game on Sunday and it was pretty amazing but I had to keep checking the rules a lot so I think a second game will be much better now that I've clarified a few things.

Just to triple check, can the rebels place units on the board in the system that their rebel base is located?

And if I rescue a leader who is in carbonite, will they still be frozen in my leader pool until I can find a card to free them?

I really want to play another game asap and then I'll write up a proper battle report.

[FatDaz]

My wife and I went about 4 hours playing a game on Sunday and it was pretty amazing but I had to keep checking the rules a lot so I think a second game will be much better now that I've clarified a few things.

Just to triple check, can the rebels place units on the board in the system that their rebel base is located?

And if I rescue a leader who is in carbonite, will they still be frozen in my leader pool until I can find a card to free them?

I really want to play another game asap and then I'll write up a proper battle report.

1) you can place units in the rebel base area of the board. You wouldn't place them on the map unless you already have loyalty there (would be a dead giveaway) but yes you can double up defence by having units in rebel board space and also in the actual system if you have loyalty there. If enemy attacks you can choose to reveal base and move all units to actual system for defence.

2) if you free a leader you remove whatever ring is binding them, whether it darth Vader or carbonite.

The game gets better once you have handle on rules and strategies.

Had a great game as rebels where I cocked up massivley signposting where my base was, empire found it on round 2! Thankfully they didn't have enough ground troops to conquer, I survived by an air speeder and solitary rebel trooper. This bought me time to move my base. It was defenceless and empire was everywhere. Managed to distract him by doing pointless but seemingly vital missions on far side of the map. He took the bait and I managed to eek out the win. He was one system from my helpless base with a huge army... luckily he chose wrong move!

Love this even though it takes ages.

[Tragic Magic]

Thanks for confirming those points. I'll try and get another game as soon as I can as I really loved it and now I understand the rules fully I'll be able to enjoy it much more. We were listening to the Star Wars soundtrack while we played which was so cool. Had a pretty incredible moment where the Imperial March started playing as the Empire assignment phase began.

We're currently spending our evenings together preparing characters for a D&D campaign though so not sure when we'll play next.

[smurphy]

I too have been blaring the Star Wars soundtracks while playing X-Wing. Got another TIE arriving tomorrow. It's too much fun.

[Hexx]

My wife and I went about 4 hours playing a game on Sunday and it was pretty amazing but I had to keep checking the rules a lot so I think a second game will be much better now that I've clarified a few things.

Just to triple check, can the rebels place units on the board in the system that their rebel base is located?

And if I rescue a leader who is in carbonite, will they still be frozen in my leader pool until I can find a card to free them?

I really want to play another game asap and then I'll write up a proper battle report.

On build you can place them on the Rebel Base Space (Edge of Board) or any System where Rebels have loyality (including Rebel Base).

I'm not sure if you can move to/from Rebel Base Space to Planetary system (why would you though) other than on the "Reveal"

You can "Move" from Rebel Base Space to system next to base system as per normal movement rules (it might give you away though)

You can only have one Captured leader as there's only one "Captured" Ring. Carbonite is a different ring to get around this limit - otherwise they're treated as Captured - including how to free them.


Playing 2v2 on Sunday

[FatDaz]

I too have been blaring the Star Wars soundtracks while playing X-Wing. Got another TIE arriving tomorrow. It's too much fun.

I have somewhere close to one of every expansion, don't want to think how much I've spent. Love it but don't get to play that often. Local games shop runs x wing nights every Thursday but my shift pattern always seems to get in the way.

[Tragic Magic]

Belated birthday present from my parents was Champions of Midgard. Anyone played this? It looks like fun but unfortunately has a 4 player max limit.