GRcade

I went to the V&A Museum of Childhood at the weekend where they have an exhibition on the history of boardgames including some interesting things like early Pandemic prototypes and design documents. I also found they were selling modern reproductions of boardgames from the 1960s-70s by a company called West 11 Designs. I picked up a copy of Blast Off:



It'll go nicely with my actual 50 year-old Waddington's F1 game

Had an incredible week away with friends and board games. We took too many games though and didn't get around to playing everything we took. I introduced Eldritch Horror and Fury of Dracula to the group though seeing as we were away and could happily dedicate hours to one game. They were both very well received but I think Fury of Dracula is everybody's new love.

Would this be the right thread for posting about D&D? I've started playing as a human barbarian outlander with friends from work and I am currently preparing to DM the Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign for my friends who I went on holiday with. I absolutely love it. Currently scouring the internets for music to play while I DM but it's hard to pick the best tunes out of all the chaff there is. Trying to avoid using any film scores or well known songs.

Firefly

Think I hated this - BUT that might be because we played beginner rules which seem to shorten the game considerable, making upgrades/crew/improvements pointless.


As we only had to get $6000 (the main game is $30,000) the game was quite short (although still an hour or so).

You start with $3,000. Missions can easily give $1-1.5k. I ended up buying ship improvements (for $1k) and it just massively knocked me back in money - without any tangible improvements to my situation. 

The chap that won didn't buy anything, did 2 "simple" missions, and then parked on a planet earning $400 per turn. (A mechanic that feels a little broken looking at mission rewards that take several turns with some risk, particular in starter game). So a very anti-climatic ending.

The briefness of the game coupled with with focus on earning/retaining a small amount of money meant the mechanics all felt superfluous/needlessly complicated.

Having seen them all laid out I'm not convinced the main game will feel less "over mechaniced" (not the best word) - even though upgrades/crew will obviously mean more in a longer game.

I think one of the main criticisms is that you spend a lot of time just doing your own thing and not really interacting with anyone else.

We tried the LOTR cooperative card game at the weekend and noped out after trying to get set up and play one turn for an hour and a half.

I'm itching for something new, I've got my eye on the following:

Arctic Scavengers- deck building game about post apocalyptic survival

Roll for the galaxy - worker placement exploration game using gooseberry fool ton of multi coloured dice!

K2 - mountaineering strategy game, fairly simple but likely easier to teach others.

Has anyone played any of these and if so any opinions / thoughts?

Artic Scavengers I like. It's a very deck building focused deck builder. I've only played with the expac, but it's all fairly simple. And works thematically quite well (cannibalism yeah!!!)

Roll - never played it, but people at the board gaming group I go to love it and want to play it lots.



Got another game of SW:Armada booked in a week or two. Like the game and want to buy the shiney toys so much (up to wave 5 now). Don't think I play enough to justify the costs though

Hexx wrote:

Got another game of SW:Armada booked in a week or two. Like the game and want to buy the shiney toys so much (up to wave 5 now). Don't think I play enough to justify the costs though

I've spent more on X wing miniatures than I've ever really played, in fact the last 4 ship expansions I've bought haven't been used once! I love the game but seldom get chance to play and my wife isn't interested. I have to steer clear of Armada for my wallets sake.

I'm finding themed board games better at the moment as generally people I know are more willing to give them a go rather than "tabletop war gaming" which seems to put them off.

But if you bought Armada then we could play!

Ponzi Scheme

Loved this so much. It's like nothing else I've played before.

Effectively you keep taking out loans with repayment (and interest accrued) due a certain number of turns later, and then you take out more loans to pay these and try and keep the game going as your debts spiral.

Alongside this you're trying to build up your industry holdings - mostly via trades (if you offer to buy something from someone they either accept the trade, or counter offer double money to take one of yours...basically if you instigate a trade SOMETHING will happen...)

The entire dual nature of money keeps the game going but businesses mean points is great. You need to draw funds well to keep you in the game, but it's trading that gets you industry.

Plus planning out your repayment structure (and planning for "double turns" that can occur) is hectic.

The games over as soon as one player goes bust - then everyone else adds up their points for a winner (the bustee is out). So you never know when the game is going to end - as you don't know exactly how much money each player has due to secret trades etc.

Love it - the big down side (perhapes suitably thematically)..it's so chaffinch expensive. ~£50 on Amazon etc for effectively some cards, some markers and some paper money. It's definitely doesn't feel what you get in the box is worth the cost - however well it plays.

Cards Against Humanity have done a 12-card Mass Effect booster pack. Costs $1, ships from US.

I imagine "Big Stupid Jellyfish" will feature among others.

$5 including shipping to the UK. Gonna bite at that price, much cheaper than I was expecting.

Well it is only 12 cards, so I'd imagine the box is pretty small.

Gonna play Armada this weekend!

Love it and wish I got to playmore

Hexx wrote:Gonna play Armada this weekend!

Love it and wish I got to playmore

Have you played x wing? I love that and I always assumed it was very similar to Armarda but that required more time and space (and money)

I played X-Wing once - it's much "quicker" feeling and the fighters are obviously much more agile.

Armada is slower and requirements more planning.

I got to play with my new ship this weekend - a tiny group of Rebel Transports. Flotilla's are chuffin amazing.

Scatter and Bright Hope* made it unkillable (opponent didn't have a good combo of dice pools to overcome that Defense Token, and where he did couldn't do more than 1 damage so Bright Hope negated).

It was token supplier, fighter activation and (most suprisingly) tank - since it was such an enticing target that turned out to be made of mithril.

(*http://starwars-armada.wikia.com/wiki/Bright_Hope)

Definitely not currently eyeing Home One...

I'd love to give Armada a try but it looks very time consuming. I LOVE rebellion but the 3-4hr play time means you really have to plan it very far in advance and despite owning it over 6 months I've only played 4 times. I love X wing too and my local game store does nights every Thursday but my shift pattern means I rarely get chance to play even though X wing is a relatively quick game.

Bought Roll for the Galaxy, K2 and Tsuro of the seas. All great games but Roll for the Galaxy is excellent! It's a tough one to teach. I was halfway through explaining to my wife and her eyes had glazed over but I persevered and she loves it as much as me now! Definitely scratches that dice rolling itch.

I found a copy of Dungeon Command at the bottom of our board game box, completely forgotten I'd bought it (think it was around £15 in 2012). Quite excited by this.

SW:Destiny news

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/n ... akening-1/

Awakenings Boosters to get a reprint.

Upcoming Spirit of Rebellion Boosters will only ever get one print.

Holy moly. Last night was the penultimate session of our Imperial Assault campaign and it was a doozy.

The mission was to rescue Luke from Tatooine, and it was deceptively small. The map was small, the goal was simple (get Luke to a terminal by the end of round 6) and as the Imperial player I had relatively few troops on the board. It began simple: I attempted to block and harry the Rebel players, who by this point in the campaign are stupidly powerful, and they proceeded to chew through my troopers and probe droids like no-one's business. By the end of round 2 they'd gotten Luke next to the terminal, ready to activate it at the start of round 3.

Of course, as soon as he did all hell broke loose. The doors to his hangar lowered and, complete with Imperial March accompaniment courtesy of yours truly and youtube, Darth Vader himself strode onto the board. This was the highlight of the entire campaign so far as everyone reacted with both shock and genuinely fear. It was fantastic. This move also revealed another Stormtrooper squad and allowed a previously deployed detachment of Royal Guard to thunder into the hanger.

The goal then became to eliminate all but 2 Imperial figures from the hangar. Over the next 2 and a half turns (equal to about an hour of play) the Rebels beat down soldier after soldier, but I was able to re-enforce them just as quickly. By the start of the last round, there was 1 Royal Guard, 2 troopers and an untouched Vader still in the hangar. By the time all but one of the Rebels had their turn, it was the 2 troopers and the Dark Lord of the Sith left. I got cocky. I moved the troopers waaaay out of the reach of the Rebels and reveled in my impending victory.

Then, on the last Rebel player's last action...he Force Pushed Vader out of the hangar. I honestly didn't see it coming and they immediately managed to get Luke to the ship and win the round. It was the perfect ending to a long, grueling mission and the Rebels can now bring Luke along to the final session.

I love this game.

Arkham LCG - anyone playing?

Had a game last night on an expansion with chums and I'll really tempted to get for solo play now