Yeah I did those and had a lot of fun. I think I cheated on the last level though because I ended up saving the intelligence officer by blowing up the city?
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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
- Start date
Yeah I did those and had a lot of fun. I think I cheated on the last level though because I ended up saving the intelligence officer by blowing up the city?
Awesome! Another Talisman expansion.
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/12/14/the-cataclysm-1/
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/12/14/the-cataclysm-1/
hunchback
Member
I wish this game could be played solo. It looks really fun.
The PC version of Talisman is absolutely rock solid. I'm not a fan of the game myself, but the implementation was extremely polished & playable, and solo-able.
That is one of the few games that I plan to NEVER play again after the abysmal experience at a game night this year. The only people the host could rope in were people who hadn't played it before, and even the host was like "OK I'm good for the year".
Now a PC single-player version, I could see that being more fun.
Femmeworth
Banned
Is Talisman really fiddly or something?
Never ends in a Munchkin way in that there's an end state that it never reaches, or never ends in a Cards Against Humanity way in that there's no end state so everyone just keeps playing until they have to leave?
It's very long and it ran into one of my big turnoffs in gaming -- turns where you can do nothing, but other players can do something.
My group had one particular player who doesn't join us very often, and they kept taking very long turns going, "Oh, but maybe I should do this" "Oh but let me check the rules". Or "So what can I do now" ALMOST EVERY SINGLE TURN even though he had 4-5 turns of downtime, every cycle, to plan his move, since moves weren't often affected by other players.
It seemed, though maybe I was just misinterpreting, that he was attempting to troll the host of the house (the guy who owns and likes the game) by being intentionally annoying and slow. Meanwhile, I kept taking turns over and over where I would just go "I roll the dice, move a few squares, and nothing basically happens" or "I roll the dice, move a few squares, and an encounter pops up that teleports across the board so I can't fight it".
After hours of this where even the host (who was winning) just wanted the game to be over, when the host finally had climbed to the very top of the crown thing that would end the game, this other player managed to catch up and play an instant jail card. That card apparently sends the person on the crown out of the crown, out of all 3 normal map levels, and into the furthest corner of the expansion side board thing. They then celebrated how clever they were for having a card that could be that powerful, and won.
So maybe it was partly players, but the game taking so long with so many turns where I was just rolling dice and waiting while nothing happened (for me personally) was awful. I was also not a fan of how the game is designed around all the levels being incredibly gated on dice rolls, yet also having a card like that which can instantly pull someone who has made it past all the specific hell gate checks.
Talisman isn't really a modern boardgame. It has its flaws like long game length, player elimination, downtime, etc. But for some of us who grew up playing with it in the 80's, it holds a special place in our hearts.
I used to own the 2nd edition but now I only have the latest. FFG has actually done a great job with the latest version by keeping its charm and adding more content.
I used to own the 2nd edition but now I only have the latest. FFG has actually done a great job with the latest version by keeping its charm and adding more content.
Just wanted to say I started an 8 player noob-friendly game with randoms this week and I'm enjoying it immensely. Made quick friends with my spawned neighbors (Gray, Pink and Orange) by being honest about which outposts I wanted and effectively formed NAPs with them. Gray eventually asked for an alliance, probably sparked by his border disputes on the other side against light and dark blue. I agreed and even sent him reinforcements since I saw light blue gunning for one of grey's cities right on my border. Thankfully, pink also exists between me and light blue, and with pink's outposts 17 hours away from any of mine, I don't really have to worry about it.
There was a cluster of 4 neutral outposts 30 hours away from green (24 for me) so I gunned for them straight up, and figured green would stop at the outpost that was ~12 hours away for him. Turns out I was right, but I didn't take into account that brown would also be trying for them, so right now I'm winning a border dispute vs brown, who I'm fairly certain has allied with both blues. Orange on the other hand, I'm pretty sure has allied with green. He's also making brown out to be a real bad guy, but I think he's trying to goad me into overextending so he can stab me. He's in the best position to, having 4 outposts along my border around 15 hours away from me. Overall, only ~26 hours into the game and even though moves take ~12 hours to complete, I'm constantly checking in every hour or less. Somebody help me.
There was a cluster of 4 neutral outposts 30 hours away from green (24 for me) so I gunned for them straight up, and figured green would stop at the outpost that was ~12 hours away for him. Turns out I was right, but I didn't take into account that brown would also be trying for them, so right now I'm winning a border dispute vs brown, who I'm fairly certain has allied with both blues. Orange on the other hand, I'm pretty sure has allied with green. He's also making brown out to be a real bad guy, but I think he's trying to goad me into overextending so he can stab me. He's in the best position to, having 4 outposts along my border around 15 hours away from me. Overall, only ~26 hours into the game and even though moves take ~12 hours to complete, I'm constantly checking in every hour or less. Somebody help me.
Femmeworth
Banned
Played another warm up game of Pandemic Legacy with the SO and this time we had two characters each. It was going well, we had eradicated two diseases, and then
Two epidemics together is nasty.
Two epidemics together is nasty.
Played another warm up game of Pandemic Legacy with the SO and this time we had two characters each. It was going well, we had eradicated two diseases, and then
Two epidemics together is nasty.
These sound like actual pandemic playthroughs now lol. If you want some pointers I can spoiler tag some for you. It's for regular pandemic, but still applicable to Legacy since the core is the same:
1) Stop outbreaks when possible. That means 3 cube cities are priority. If outbreaks do happen, then cleaning up the 1 cube cities generated would be good to clean up as well, just so you don't get a nasty surprise off the back end of an epidemic.
2) In contrast to 3 cube cities, 2 cube cities are LOW in the priority list. Unless of course you know their city card is currently near the top of the infection deck. Then treat as a 3 cube city. This also means that clearing all 3 cubes off a city typically isn't worth the actions unless it's somewhere really remote
3) Since movement is a huge resource in this game, lots of research facilities are a great way for both saving cards and movement. Placement is typically near clusters of heavily infected cities and you want 3+ spaces between each one. The earlier the better too.
4) The hardest part of the game is actually getting the damn cures. There's only 12 of each color card and it will probably take 2 rounds to get 1 card to the right person. That means you want to get 3 of the 4 cures before the last 2-3 rounds of the game, or the last 3x2x<player number> cards, which would be 16-24 cards if you are playing with 4 characters. With fewer characters it's easier because you get more rounds to do this.
5) Eradication is a trap. Don't do it unless you're really far ahead in the game or got lucky with the infection cards. If you can't do it in one turn then it'll probably turn up again before you can finish it out, wasting a lot of actions.
2) In contrast to 3 cube cities, 2 cube cities are LOW in the priority list. Unless of course you know their city card is currently near the top of the infection deck. Then treat as a 3 cube city. This also means that clearing all 3 cubes off a city typically isn't worth the actions unless it's somewhere really remote
3) Since movement is a huge resource in this game, lots of research facilities are a great way for both saving cards and movement. Placement is typically near clusters of heavily infected cities and you want 3+ spaces between each one. The earlier the better too.
4) The hardest part of the game is actually getting the damn cures. There's only 12 of each color card and it will probably take 2 rounds to get 1 card to the right person. That means you want to get 3 of the 4 cures before the last 2-3 rounds of the game, or the last 3x2x<player number> cards, which would be 16-24 cards if you are playing with 4 characters. With fewer characters it's easier because you get more rounds to do this.
5) Eradication is a trap. Don't do it unless you're really far ahead in the game or got lucky with the infection cards. If you can't do it in one turn then it'll probably turn up again before you can finish it out, wasting a lot of actions.
I might try Elder Sign as a 2-player game soon, either by itself or with the Unseen Forces expansion.
Does anyone have opinions as to whether I should use the expansion (I'm leaning towards yes) even with a first-time player, and whether we should each use 1 character or 2 each?
Does anyone have opinions as to whether I should use the expansion (I'm leaning towards yes) even with a first-time player, and whether we should each use 1 character or 2 each?
Femmeworth
Banned
I say start with Unseen Forces. 1 character each is fine in my experience.
The Right Deal
Banned
Me and a group of friends have slowly been going through Pandemic Legacy since it came out. We just lost our first game in August and (intro rules spoilers)
had our first loss as the 8th outbreak hit.... the scientist, things are about to become quite a bit more difficult.
Thanks!
Also, my Warhammer Quest copy might arrive tomorrow. Does anyone who's played that have any tips for the first play? Especially tricky rules, which quest/scenario I should start with, etc.?
Scientist had two scars already? Rip.
Went to a friends to play her copy of Game of Thrones Risk. There are a lot more interesting things going on compared to regular Risk but god damn whoever was in charge of making sure the game doesn't immediately break did a bad job.
Some factions have abilities you can pay to activate once per round whereby they receive defensive bonuses for "one invasion". But the rules never actually explore how to handle the obvious work-around of attacking a territory, having the enemy trigger the effect, rolling one round of combat then retreating so the effect wears off and attacking again. It's not often you find a game breaking thing that needs to be house ruled before you even start playing...
Some factions have abilities you can pay to activate once per round whereby they receive defensive bonuses for "one invasion". But the rules never actually explore how to handle the obvious work-around of attacking a territory, having the enemy trigger the effect, rolling one round of combat then retreating so the effect wears off and attacking again. It's not often you find a game breaking thing that needs to be house ruled before you even start playing...
SillyEskimo
Member
This expansion is really ballsy. It's a direct sequel to the previous expansion, The Harbinger, which really shook things up. Replacing the main board is pretty drastic. I can't wait to try it out!
Talisman is a game that can be as simple or as complex as the group desires thanks to its many expansions. Every board game relies pretty heavily on the dynamics of the group, but some are more influenced by this than others. Talisman is one of those games IMO.
That FFG/Asmodee merger/news has really ruffled some feathers. It will be interesting to see how this affects consumers:
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/49015/starting-2016-asmodee-will-operate-asmodee-north-a
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/3xg0fk/asmodee_issues_a_new_policy_that_states_all/
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/49015/starting-2016-asmodee-will-operate-asmodee-north-a
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/3xg0fk/asmodee_issues_a_new_policy_that_states_all/
BlewHedgehog
Member
Played Blood Rage with my roommate and a buddy of ours last night. All of our first times. There is a ton going on in that game--possibly too much.
With all of the cool figures and board set up, it's easy to underestimate the importance of the drafting, but the cards you choose is where the game is really decided. My roommate drafted some incredible combo pieces where he was able to generate points when his ship was destroyed, regenerate the ship, destroy it to fuel another card on his tableau, rinse, repeat. It's clear that you're supposed to hate draft some of the cards to keep these from happening, but in the first game, we didn't even realize those cards existed, so it felt pretty bad to lose to them in that fashion.
There was also a big time blowout in the 2nd Age (of 3) when we all got wrapped up in a big fight over the central hub space on the board. One player basically sucker punched us with another tricky card that we'd never seen, causing us to lose most of our board presence. He then went on to get the resources from that very important space several turns in a row while we were rebuilding and unable to contest him.
All in all, there are so many interesting interactions that I can't wait for the chance to play again. It's a very swingy and breakable game that was great fun until the meltdown in Age 2 when it became clear that I was playing for 2nd place. Hopefully, more familiarity with the game and the cards available will keep scenes like that one from occurring very often. Kemet is still my favorite, but Blood Rage is on my brain right now.
With all of the cool figures and board set up, it's easy to underestimate the importance of the drafting, but the cards you choose is where the game is really decided. My roommate drafted some incredible combo pieces where he was able to generate points when his ship was destroyed, regenerate the ship, destroy it to fuel another card on his tableau, rinse, repeat. It's clear that you're supposed to hate draft some of the cards to keep these from happening, but in the first game, we didn't even realize those cards existed, so it felt pretty bad to lose to them in that fashion.
There was also a big time blowout in the 2nd Age (of 3) when we all got wrapped up in a big fight over the central hub space on the board. One player basically sucker punched us with another tricky card that we'd never seen, causing us to lose most of our board presence. He then went on to get the resources from that very important space several turns in a row while we were rebuilding and unable to contest him.
All in all, there are so many interesting interactions that I can't wait for the chance to play again. It's a very swingy and breakable game that was great fun until the meltdown in Age 2 when it became clear that I was playing for 2nd place. Hopefully, more familiarity with the game and the cards available will keep scenes like that one from occurring very often. Kemet is still my favorite, but Blood Rage is on my brain right now.
Wow. This is pretty huge. First I'm worried about how it will hurt my favorite game, Netrunner. But yeah on a personal level I've always thought I could stop buying games today and have more than enough to play for the rest of my life -- might get to test that, at least as to FFG and Asmodee.
Femmeworth
Banned
I hope they clarify this soon and it isn't as bad as it sounds. I don't see it affecting CSI, MM, and etc. Though we might not see good online deals again.
yup.
to be fair a lot of the games I am interested in at this point are z-man games lol.
i can't think of any asmodee/ffg/dow game I am looking forward to at this point anyways but still what a crappy move. hopes it bites them in the ass badly and they quickly decide online sales are okay.
I had the chance to play Vinhos yesterday, man that is a Lacerda game. Complicated for the sake of being of complicated. The kickstarter next month for the deluxe version promises to refine/simplify the rules, but if I wanted to play a heavy Euro, I would prefer Terra Mystica or Fast Food Magnate. I don't even know I will want to try the Gallerist, given the chance.
gallerist is a lot smoother playing than vinhos and isn't nearly as punishing, same with c02 for that matter. vinhos was his first game, he's only gotten better since then.
cooltrainer
Member
For the longest time I was skeptical of One Night Ultimate Werewolf. I'm so glad I decided to take a second look at it. Once people have played a couple of rounds and start to understand how the game works it gets super crazy and fun, while still having a surprising amount of depth to it. Our last game I added in the doppelganger for the first time and it just seems to allow people to be much more bold claiming things. I had three people claim troublemaker claiming they switched me, some guy who wouldn't say anything no matter what, I revealed that I was a werewolf and was probably switched and ratted the other werewolf out. The game somehow ended up people killing the true tanner, the quiet guy had doppled him, and I was a werewolf the entire time. Fantastic game.
First game of Warhammer Quest ACG.
2P game with the archer and the warrior priest guy.
Got destroyed by the first quest nemesis and the endgame peril timer. It was the equivalent of having a daisy chain of outbreaks in Pandemic. Too many baddies + the nemesis going crazy on you at the end.
We're gonna start over. I like that the game has a more subtle build-up to the fuckery (vs Death Angel), but I will say the rules are pretty annoying to keep up with.
2P game with the archer and the warrior priest guy.
Got destroyed by the first quest nemesis and the endgame peril timer. It was the equivalent of having a daisy chain of outbreaks in Pandemic. Too many baddies + the nemesis going crazy on you at the end.
We're gonna start over. I like that the game has a more subtle build-up to the fuckery (vs Death Angel), but I will say the rules are pretty annoying to keep up with.
AbsolutBro
Member
They have yet to actually say who they consider among the "select" retailers. I live in the country; my nearest FLGS is at least 90 minutes away (assuming they're still in business; I haven't checked because fuck driving an hour and a half each way). If FFG decides to follow the GW school of "fuck our customers", I guess that's it for my days of X-Wing.
Played my first game of Zombicide Black Plague yesterday, and boy, it was good.
We decided to split up into two teams of three to search the town faster; two melee fighters and one ranged in each group. things were going pretty good, slaying zombies that spawned in the rooms we opened as soon as they spawned, not taking damage for a good few rounds. Then it happened; Clovis took down a couple of walkers which took him into Yellow-dangerlevels, the next zombie spawnround gave us a load of walkers and fatties, and no weapons that deal 2dmg yet.
Every survivor immediatly went into searchmode, with Silas (longbow) and Samson (hammer, armor and shield) holding off the walkers. We quickly found the 2dmg dealing crossbow (Ann did), but we'd have to wait for the next turn to get it to Silas and/or put it to use against the fatties immediatly.
Luckily, Samson held his own against the horde, only taking one damage. The fatties were in line of sight of Silas, so Ann took the crossbow to Silas, who then took out both fatties in one roll. Clovis rolled up to Samson and both of them took out the walkers that were pestering Samson earlier.
The survivorgroup was pressed together, taking up three spaces, Baldric and Silas in the center, Ann and Clovis taking point and Samson and Nelly covering the back. With the yellow dangerlevel, moving fast was essential, since taking out Zombies while searching was no longer an option. They were coming in bigger numbers than we could handle, especially with that lovely Double Spawn card. We finally found the blue objective, spawning an Abomination, dealt with through the wonders of Dragon Fire as soon as he appeared.
We made some lucky rolls, strategy went out the window as soon as the numbers of zombies rose above "relax, we can handle this and have time for coffee"-levels to "there's more zombies than I got potential rolls!"-levels, we had to make some decisions as to who would fend off the horde so others could search for better weapons, so overall, it felt like you were really in a zombie apocalypse.
We decided to split up into two teams of three to search the town faster; two melee fighters and one ranged in each group. things were going pretty good, slaying zombies that spawned in the rooms we opened as soon as they spawned, not taking damage for a good few rounds. Then it happened; Clovis took down a couple of walkers which took him into Yellow-dangerlevels, the next zombie spawnround gave us a load of walkers and fatties, and no weapons that deal 2dmg yet.
Every survivor immediatly went into searchmode, with Silas (longbow) and Samson (hammer, armor and shield) holding off the walkers. We quickly found the 2dmg dealing crossbow (Ann did), but we'd have to wait for the next turn to get it to Silas and/or put it to use against the fatties immediatly.
Luckily, Samson held his own against the horde, only taking one damage. The fatties were in line of sight of Silas, so Ann took the crossbow to Silas, who then took out both fatties in one roll. Clovis rolled up to Samson and both of them took out the walkers that were pestering Samson earlier.
The survivorgroup was pressed together, taking up three spaces, Baldric and Silas in the center, Ann and Clovis taking point and Samson and Nelly covering the back. With the yellow dangerlevel, moving fast was essential, since taking out Zombies while searching was no longer an option. They were coming in bigger numbers than we could handle, especially with that lovely Double Spawn card. We finally found the blue objective, spawning an Abomination, dealt with through the wonders of Dragon Fire as soon as he appeared.
We made some lucky rolls, strategy went out the window as soon as the numbers of zombies rose above "relax, we can handle this and have time for coffee"-levels to "there's more zombies than I got potential rolls!"-levels, we had to make some decisions as to who would fend off the horde so others could search for better weapons, so overall, it felt like you were really in a zombie apocalypse.
BomberMouse
Member
If by big you mean amazon, target, etc. then sure. I can totally see them going the mayfair way and not letting them sell much lower than msrp.
TonkatsuAddict
Member
After playing it, I'm still a bit skeptical, though I think part of the problem was the person running the game did it wrong. We had no Villagers, so one, there was a lot of information available, and two, for the werewolves to lie, they had to claim to be something that could provide info which made it much easier to trap them in a lie. That made it so the werewolves never won a single game. It's certainly a better game than Mafia, but I feel like it needs more guidelines as to what combinations of cards make a good game (or maybe it does and our host just ignored them, thinking "more abilities = more excitement").
SillyEskimo
Member
Love the story version of the game! You sure captured the feeling of Zombicide!
Played through the scenario in T.I.M.E Stories this past weekend.
Very clever use of mechanics. I look forward to seeing what else they can do with the other expansion.
Not sure how they game would be play if you aren't doing the entire scenario in one sitting. You have to take copious notes as is.
Highly recommended if you enjoyed old computer games like Myst and Shadowgate.
Very clever use of mechanics. I look forward to seeing what else they can do with the other expansion.
Not sure how they game would be play if you aren't doing the entire scenario in one sitting. You have to take copious notes as is.
Highly recommended if you enjoyed old computer games like Myst and Shadowgate.
cooltrainer
Member
I think the game works well without villagers but for newer players the villager roles can provide some cover for lying. If there is only one werewolf they can claim one of the center cards they see. The troublemaker role is probably one of the better ones to claim because they don't have to provide any information that anyone could disprove. The drunk and insomniac don't really have to say much either. If the tanner is in the game, werewolves can blatantly lie and if people catch them they might think they are the tanner and not want to kill them. After people have revealed info it can be easier for werewolves to bluff. Like if the seer claims something a werewolf can claim robber and say they robbed either the seer or whatever role they saw. For this reason it's also often advantageous to not reveal what you know, for example you could claim seer but not say what you saw, or lie about it.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Word. I played it for the first time last week and had a blast. It reminded me like an easier, faster, Chaos in the Old World.
I think Cool Mini or Not is on a roll with these hybrid games. Last year we adored Dogs of War which added a bit of negotiation and betrayal to a worker placement. Now we have Blood Rage which is almost a cleverly disguised 7 Wonders hack with better interaction and more meaningful drafting.
Despite its similarity to CitOW on paper, Blood Rage has a heavy focus on drafting card combos and timing actions, of which I'm not quite so fond. I also don't really care for how each round largely resets the game and how the third round completely overshadows the earlier rounds. I had a longer post on it a page or two back.
That said, I'm looking forward to playing it again in a few hours.
TonkatsuAddict
Member
Maybe you're right and it didn't work so well just because there were so many new people, and we didn't know the strategies for properly lying. Either way, I'd want to see more plays of it before I make a final decision, because despite being more interesting than Mafia, my experience felt very slanted against the werewolves.
I'm looking for gift suggestions for a friend who is into board games.
He loves Arkham Horror, and plays it by himself occasionally. I was thinking of Eldritch Horror, but I'm getting mixed reviews on it, especially if he already has or is used to Arkham.
He also likes Small World and Mage Knight. I thought about getting him MK, but the price is a little more than I'd like to spend. $60 is about the cap, I think.
We have a gaming group, but a game like Arkham that can be played single player would be great, but not necessary.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
He loves Arkham Horror, and plays it by himself occasionally. I was thinking of Eldritch Horror, but I'm getting mixed reviews on it, especially if he already has or is used to Arkham.
He also likes Small World and Mage Knight. I thought about getting him MK, but the price is a little more than I'd like to spend. $60 is about the cap, I think.
We have a gaming group, but a game like Arkham that can be played single player would be great, but not necessary.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!