EYEL1NER
Member
A FLGS where everything is below MSRP? Sounds like you hit the jackpot.
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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
- Start date
SillyEskimo
Member
I have seen this store transform and morph over the past 30 years. It started out as strictly a comic book store, they added sports cards soon after, eventually Games Workshop stuff (including painting supplies), dropped that stuff after about 10 years, but thrived during the pokemon/Magic years. They've now grown to include used movies/CDs, collectibles of all types, and now board games as well.
Apparently they switched owners during the past 3-4 years. I knew the original owner quite well and I was sad to see he no longer owned the place.
SillyEskimo
Member
Beware: Incoming Talisman post!
Well, I own every part of Talisman 4th Edition.
-Talisman 4th Edition
-The Reaper
-The Dungeon
- Frostmarch
- The Highlands
- Sacred Pool
- Dragon
- Blood Moon
- The City
- Firelands
- Nether Realm
- The Woodlands
Thankfully, all the instructions are on my ipad via PDFs from Fantasy Flight. That helps a lot.
Some interesting totals, for those that care:
60 Characters/Miniatures (+4 Frogs, A Grim Reaper, and a Werewolf!)
560 Adventure Cards
144 Spell Cards
28 Alternate Endings
Several Dozen Misc Cards (Warlock Quests, Stables, Wanted Posters, Relic Cards, ect)
More Chits & Tokens than you can shake a stick at
Each of the 4 corner expansions have their own adventure cards not included in the above adventure card total.
-Dungeon-128 Cards
-Highlands-142 Cards
-City-82 Cards
-Woodlands-140
So what's next for me and Talisman? Well, I need to paint the miniatures eventually, as well as make a custom tray for all those goddamn cards. I consolidated some of the expansions awhile ago and I totally regret throwing away the boxes. I could have used them for the artwork, at the very least.
I think the characters in The Woodlands expansion are the most interesting yet, with each of the 4 having some chits to place and keep track of on the board itself. Each one has interesting abilities. So interesting in fact, that it makes the previous 56 characters seem a little lacking!
Well, I own every part of Talisman 4th Edition.
-Talisman 4th Edition
-The Reaper
-The Dungeon
- Frostmarch
- The Highlands
- Sacred Pool
- Dragon
- Blood Moon
- The City
- Firelands
- Nether Realm
- The Woodlands
Thankfully, all the instructions are on my ipad via PDFs from Fantasy Flight. That helps a lot.
Some interesting totals, for those that care:
60 Characters/Miniatures (+4 Frogs, A Grim Reaper, and a Werewolf!)
560 Adventure Cards
144 Spell Cards
28 Alternate Endings
Several Dozen Misc Cards (Warlock Quests, Stables, Wanted Posters, Relic Cards, ect)
More Chits & Tokens than you can shake a stick at
Each of the 4 corner expansions have their own adventure cards not included in the above adventure card total.
-Dungeon-128 Cards
-Highlands-142 Cards
-City-82 Cards
-Woodlands-140
So what's next for me and Talisman? Well, I need to paint the miniatures eventually, as well as make a custom tray for all those goddamn cards. I consolidated some of the expansions awhile ago and I totally regret throwing away the boxes. I could have used them for the artwork, at the very least.
I think the characters in The Woodlands expansion are the most interesting yet, with each of the 4 having some chits to place and keep track of on the board itself. Each one has interesting abilities. So interesting in fact, that it makes the previous 56 characters seem a little lacking!
SillyEskimo
Member
Also, the Descent expansion: Manor of Ravens is fair at best. With an MSRP of $40, I think it's the laziest and most bare bones expansion I have seen in the entire Descent series (1st and 2nd editions).
Also, not including the Lieutenant miniatures in the expansions is disgusting. I'm feeling ripped off at this point. What was included in Manor of Ravens was no where near the $40 asking price. It feels like a $20 expansion. Not even getting the Lieutenant in the box just adds insult to injury.
Also, not including the Lieutenant miniatures in the expansions is disgusting. I'm feeling ripped off at this point. What was included in Manor of Ravens was no where near the $40 asking price. It feels like a $20 expansion. Not even getting the Lieutenant in the box just adds insult to injury.
NuffDREW4two
Member
That's disappointing. I picked it up at full price at my FLGS, but got everything else online at reduced prices, so I suppose I don't feel too bad about its mediocrity. Almost finished the base campaign and will probably delve into some other mini campaigns and let some of the other players try the Overlord role before going into another big box campaign.
Between Myth (and their future expansions), my Outlaw preorder of Shadows of Brimstone, and what I currently have with Descent 2e, I think I'm good with dungeon crawlers for quite a while. As tempting as Star Wars: Imperial Assault is, I think I better pass on it. Better not piss off the wife too much.
SillyEskimo
Member
As I mentioned already, I picked up the Big Geeky Box for Smash up, as well as the Monster expansion.
Let me tell you, the Big Geeky Box is amazing. It's big. It's Geeky (includes the Geek Faction). And it's a box.
How big? Well, it holds the main game + all expansions pictured below in one box.
All the previous factions(25) are pictured below. Also included are Bases, Madness cards, and tokens.
As you can see, there is a stupid amount of room for expansion. A quick and dirty estimate is that there is room for 145 factions and their bases. The box is extremely solid too, with double and triple thick walls. The sponge inserts fit tightly and allow you to keep everything nice and snug.
Finally, the box includes high quality, full color/2-sided faction separators. There is a separator for every faction/expansion released, including the brand new Monsters. These alone is worth the price of admission IMO.
The Big Geeky Box is only $13.49 on CSI right now, which is what I got mine for as well. It's totally worth it if you are into Smash Up.
More than anything, I'm excited that Alderac went "all in" on this box. This should hold every expansion they throw expansions at us for years and years. And I hope they do!
Let me tell you, the Big Geeky Box is amazing. It's big. It's Geeky (includes the Geek Faction). And it's a box.
How big? Well, it holds the main game + all expansions pictured below in one box.
All the previous factions(25) are pictured below. Also included are Bases, Madness cards, and tokens.
As you can see, there is a stupid amount of room for expansion. A quick and dirty estimate is that there is room for 145 factions and their bases. The box is extremely solid too, with double and triple thick walls. The sponge inserts fit tightly and allow you to keep everything nice and snug.
Finally, the box includes high quality, full color/2-sided faction separators. There is a separator for every faction/expansion released, including the brand new Monsters. These alone is worth the price of admission IMO.
The Big Geeky Box is only $13.49 on CSI right now, which is what I got mine for as well. It's totally worth it if you are into Smash Up.
More than anything, I'm excited that Alderac went "all in" on this box. This should hold every expansion they throw expansions at us for years and years. And I hope they do!
So, Neogaf. What are your thoughts on Istanbul? I love that it's a Worker Placement game where you actually have to move around and place your workers. It's really simply but also really challenging to adapt your routes when somebody is in your way. Played once at three player, but I can see it be way more cumbersome with 4 players trying to go around the map.
Also, how do you guys get your game on? Right now I found two group, one french and one english (5$ a pop usually) and they both have meetups 2 time a weeks. This mean that Thursday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday I have at least 6 hours of board game. I really love that I can finally meet random people and have a game going really fast. The Website Meetups really helped me for that.
Do you play Random or Drafting or Draft with 8 random ? And do you play with Chthulu? The games I played with it were meh because they are really focused on the Madness deck and the other factions cant really work with it if they are not smashed with a faction of the expansion.
Also, how do you guys get your game on? Right now I found two group, one french and one english (5$ a pop usually) and they both have meetups 2 time a weeks. This mean that Thursday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday I have at least 6 hours of board game. I really love that I can finally meet random people and have a game going really fast. The Website Meetups really helped me for that.
Do you play Random or Drafting or Draft with 8 random ? And do you play with Chthulu? The games I played with it were meh because they are really focused on the Madness deck and the other factions cant really work with it if they are not smashed with a faction of the expansion.
Gaming Truth
Member
Somewhat kicking myself for not buying this at GenCon. Quick maths me not buy it at the AEG booth. I liked the game a lot, the only knock I had was a concern for replayability, since only those 16 tiles were in the box (screams expansions)
My quick maths that failed me:
1. Was already out prior to GenCon and had no promos for buying it there
2. The (screams expansions) thing
3. MSRP at the booth, with #1 & #2
4. Plus $? for the Spielbox issue that has the 17th tile. When I go, I go all in.
So, tallying it up, I feel I was getting ripped off, so I walked away. But I've been looking for it ever since and not finding it anywhere.
Yeah, one of the main advantage of Istanbul is that the board can be randomly placed and people simply have to figure out the best routes. I do wonder if an expansion could be possible outside of adding new characters or adding variants of existing tiles like the Kebab shop that replace the Fountain.
SillyEskimo
Member
We've always done drafting. No one I play with knows enough about Smash Up to "game the system" with power combos or anything like that. People literally pick whatever they think sounds cool as a combo. We start with one player, then go clockwise until everyone has 2 factions. I wouldn't be opposed to random drawings either.
I haven't played enough with the madness cards one way or the other to offer an opinion on them, sorry! People tend to stick with the other factions when given free choice.
I loves me some Talisman! I only have the base 4th edition game and I want to get an expansion. Is there one that makes the game shorter? The main complaint of my group is it takes too long. I've read that The City can shorter the game. Any suggestions?
After only playing a few learning games with 1 or 2 ships a piece I finally played a full 2v2, 120 point battle of X Wing Miniatures last night and it was great! After finishing we immediately set it up, changed sides, and played it again!
I'm looking at the BOMB SQUAD kickstarter and I am wondering if anyone got a chance to play it at gencon and what their thoughts was as I am thinking about backing it.
That's a lot of cards man. Reminds me why I am more into digital card games these days.
Also Concordia is like crack. I want to play nothing else right now. Best purchase I have done in a while. I will definitely get the map in Essen.
Wow, that's incredible. How many cards?
No clue! =) And that is not even the half of the collection. What we see here is mainly stuff in current standard rotation and the last block to rotate out of standard which happened this past Friday. Stuff older than that is already sorted and not pictured. I typically buy one fat pack (9 packs of cards) per set. I don't crack single packs, I don't play FNM, so the majority of this is from drafting at non FNM events. I also play online but have been doing it less since the client upgrade.
One Foul Note
Member
Wow, that is quite a board. Being a bit of a Talisman fan myself too I am very green with envy.
Just out of interest, have you had any full scale games with every expansion in play? And if so how do they play? I imagine pretty wildly.
SillyEskimo
Member
To make a shorter game of Talisman, ya gotta Monopoly that bitch. In Monopoly, you can cut the time just by randomly passing out the properties thereby cutting out all the time it takes to accrue them the normal way. In Talisman, you do this by throwing Craft/Strength/Life tokens in a bag and let everybody reach in and randomly grab 2-3 extra before you start the game. You can change this based on how much shorter you want the game to be. You can even deal out a few random treasures to everyone as well. Other than that, there's not much I can help you with. The games can become pretty long once you start adding more and more expansions into the mix and there's no getting around that really, other than to only use a single expansion at a time (which is a great way to get the most out of each expansion IMO) and rotate play with them. The games are longer when people are trying to stab each other in the back at every turn, so I guess you could cut out the PvP entirely too. That way, people would die and start over less.
SillyEskimo
Member
I have not played a massive game with every expansion yet. I intend to, but I have no idea when. I have played with 2 corner expansions (Dungeon/Highlands) + Blood Moon and Reaper. So, 4 expansions plus the core is the biggest game I have ever played at once, and it was awesome. Turns still go pretty quick if you have your cards organized and set up well in advance. Man, I haven't even played the Dragon corner expansion yet!
Jables Swan
Member
We played Coup at lunch times almost every day for at least 6 months. We're ready for the expansion now. Amazing game.
Played once. The guy explaining did an horrible job and I was so confused about what was happening. Turned out that he gave me the "advanced" power card without the name of the guys on it. I was so confused.
EYEL1NER
Member
This post is my first introduction to the game, so that could suck. I just went to BGG and checked it out. Looks and sounds pretty cool. I'm not sure if it is something I would feel the need to own in the immediate future, I imagine it could scratch a Middle Earth itch while waiting for the War of the Ring reprint. But now I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Don't really need it now but have to buy it soon anyway on the off-chance that I will feel like I need it at a later date and be unable to buy it due to stupid prices for used copies.
I look forward to playing my copy in a couple weeks when I get back to Greenland. My KS edition was here in my apartment waiting for me to get back and my KS copy of Reformation just arrived. I sleeves all the cards using Mayday Premium 7 Wonders sleeves and condensed everything between the two boxes (a minimum amount of cards, the rules and reference cards, and all coins in Reformation box, spare cards in Coup box). I wish I could take the copies of Resistance and Avalon with me too, but if only have at most three people to play with, so those would be useless. I am sure Coup + expansion and Lost Legacy Starship/Gardens will be good enough though.
We've been playing Coup regularly every week, someone even bought the game immediately after playing it. We considered doing a crazy 10 player game (should we use Reformation rules?)
For some reason we played a few rounds in the past where you can block stealing and assassination attempts even if you weren't the target!
I've played Magical Athlete, a roll and move game with drafted special powers. It was neat, outside of the rounds that played out like a regular roll and move game. It also has the ugliest board in comparison to the rest of the artwork.
Played more Cosmic Encounter, this time everyone was focused on the points track. I went high up the points track early on which meant everyone targeted me. At one point I had a planet with ~4 of each other player's ships and none of mine, which was thematic given that I'm a middle eastern guy playing with Americans! I had one round with ton of cards played, a card that cancels a power then a card that cancels that card then another.. I lost that but it was awesome.
The game ended with all 6 players one point away from winning, the winner played a card that banned allies from defending.
For some reason we played a few rounds in the past where you can block stealing and assassination attempts even if you weren't the target!
I've played Magical Athlete, a roll and move game with drafted special powers. It was neat, outside of the rounds that played out like a regular roll and move game. It also has the ugliest board in comparison to the rest of the artwork.
Played more Cosmic Encounter, this time everyone was focused on the points track. I went high up the points track early on which meant everyone targeted me. At one point I had a planet with ~4 of each other player's ships and none of mine, which was thematic given that I'm a middle eastern guy playing with Americans! I had one round with ton of cards played, a card that cancels a power then a card that cancels that card then another.. I lost that but it was awesome.
The game ended with all 6 players one point away from winning, the winner played a card that banned allies from defending.
I found a similar place in Jacksonville, FL while my wife and I were visiting my parents. It's a place called JAX Game Center and they have a huge selection of board games and also a big room for gamers to meet up and play. They also have demo board games in the store you can try. I picked up Quilt Show for my weird group to play since my wife was interested in it. All games over $20.00 have a 25% discount off list price and 10% for games under $20.00. I fear going back there later this year with actual money prepared for the visit.
Yeah, we fitted in three games of Coup again at lunchtime, including teaching it to two new players. 
Someone ordered their own copy immediately after the games yesterday apparently.
Two things I realised we got wrong - we're playing with the Kickstarter bonus role card, the Inquisitor & his two actions are different, and you get two coins initially. *No* idea how we missed the coins.
Regardless, definite huge hit.
Someone ordered their own copy immediately after the games yesterday apparently. Two things I realised we got wrong - we're playing with the Kickstarter bonus role card, the Inquisitor & his two actions are different, and you get two coins initially. *No* idea how we missed the coins.
Regardless, definite huge hit.
Alright my Essen buy list did get bigger in the end than I thought:
Concordia Map
Cash 'n Guns
Mascarade Expansion
Colt Express
Colt Express I saw today in the SU&SD news. Watched some video and read the rules and it seems cool. I don't have a programming game and Robo Rally always intrigued me but there is no german release. This being in German, having these cool 3D trains and just the train robbery theme in general make it an easy sell.
Concordia Map
Cash 'n Guns
Mascarade Expansion
Colt Express
Colt Express I saw today in the SU&SD news. Watched some video and read the rules and it seems cool. I don't have a programming game and Robo Rally always intrigued me but there is no german release. This being in German, having these cool 3D trains and just the train robbery theme in general make it an easy sell.
BomberMouse
Member
Yep, unless it sucks super bad. Colt express looks like a must buy for me.
Robo Rally was...a big miss for me. There's nothing I find inherently bad about the "programming" gameplay, just that it gets tiresome after the first half hour or so...and Robo Rally can go on and on and on, into a spiral of uncertainty and despair, only to achieve the most basic accomplishment of moving your piece from one place to another. Same goes for Duck! Duck! Go! and other similar games.
Agreed.
Had the same reaction after my first play. Seems like it'd be a good party game if you just want something to socialize over.
Speaking of games we didn't enjoy: I've now played Shadows over Camelot twice and found it to be an incredibly boring going through the motions. Maybe it's because it was mostly new people both times (3 and 7 players total) or we needed more traitors/conflict, but I just can't see how it could make for a compelling gaming experience. Anybody like the game or have a better idea for an ideal setup?
I do like some co-op games, but not when each turn feels like an arbitrary task with little choice given or strategy required.
my wife and her mom enjoy shadows, I am mostly indifferent to it. I always feel if at some point you need to quickly lose something for you to win... the game likely has a major flaw... and that case comes up like half the time we are playing shadows.... oh we have 10 white swords... we need to lose this before the siege engines get full otherwise we will lose :/
Try the Card Game version of it! Those types of games are long, indeed, and can have long stretches of feeling like nothing is going on.
But Shadows Over Camelot: The Card Game condenses the experience into 30-60 minutes, and does some fun tricks with the constant conflict in the game of people not remembering what's going on and blaming the mistakes on a possible traitor.
edit: and don't let the "card game" version of a board game discourage you! I was iffy about this version of SoC, too, until I looked into it more, and then played it.
The new expansion for Elder Sign look pretty great. Loads of new locations, skills to remove a bit of randomness, new investigators, new elders. Look to add a lot of new stuff for everything. And no new dices. Which is great-ish.
Well this is supposed to take only 30-40 minutes so it's a quick fun game. Also all the programming doesn't happen secretly which probably helps a lot.
I just purchased the Woodlands expansion as well and own everything for 4th (besides those crazily priced early promo cards).
We plan on getting a huge game going soon. I think I am going to limit it to four players to keep our sanity as intact as possible. But, we are so looking forward to it.
The only expansion I don't really want to add in is the Dragons one. It's the one I like the least.
I played Splendor for the first time last night....I just didn't grasp it. I'm usually totally ok with engine games, hell, 7 Wonders is probably in my top three games. But this, I just couldn't wrap my brain around.
It felt like it punished me for working on my engine while another player just banked chips and bought big cards to win. The scores at the end were 15, 7, 4, and 3, with the losers all being people who tried building an engine from 1 and 2 cards. It also felt way to hard to appeal to the nobles at the top, i never got three of any gem at all, and the closest anyone got way three in two gems.
Worst of all was it's owned by the dude in our group that gets personally offended if you don't immediately grasp, or end up not being a fan of the game he brought to play.
It felt like it punished me for working on my engine while another player just banked chips and bought big cards to win. The scores at the end were 15, 7, 4, and 3, with the losers all being people who tried building an engine from 1 and 2 cards. It also felt way to hard to appeal to the nobles at the top, i never got three of any gem at all, and the closest anyone got way three in two gems.
Worst of all was it's owned by the dude in our group that gets personally offended if you don't immediately grasp, or end up not being a fan of the game he brought to play.
BattleMonkey
Member
Roborally is a great party game, it just can go on a little long. If you are in the thick of things and chaos is going on, the game is a blast, but if you do badly and get stuck away from the pack, you will be bored to tears. It's hard to catch up at all, that you just want the game to end while others are enjoying themselves.
EYEL1NER
Member
Nice! When they announced the Eldritch Horror expansion I was a bit disappointed that there was no news about an Elder Sign expansion (I didn't own Eldritch at that time but just picked a copy up). I like Elder Sign a lot and have been waiting for a new expansion. Not quite sure why though, since I have not played with Unseen Forces yet. But maybe when I get this I'll throw both of them into the main game.
It's coo that they are moving out of the Museum, which some people had been asking for.
Gaming Truth
Member
I played Splendor for the first time last night....I just didn't grasp it. I'm usually totally ok with engine games, hell, 7 Wonders is probably in my top three games. But this, I just couldn't wrap my brain around.
It felt like it punished me for working on my engine while another player just banked chips and bought big cards to win. The scores at the end were 15, 7, 4, and 3, with the losers all being people who tried building an engine from 1 and 2 cards. It also felt way to hard to appeal to the nobles at the top, i never got three of any gem at all, and the closest anyone got way three in two gems.
Worst of all was it's owned by the dude in our group that gets personally offended if you don't immediately grasp, or end up not being a fan of the game he brought to play.
Let me guess: He's the one who crushed you all.
I've only played it once and the scores were pretty decently balanced. It's also a game I didn't get a full grasp on and I can't wait to play it again to figure it out. It's a "simple to learn, hard to master" kinda game I think.
Oh yeah, he trounced us.
One really "bad" thing about our group is we're always buying new games, so we never really go back to master old ones. It's getting a bit old learning new rules every week.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
We also throw in a sand timer. The first player to finish their program flips the timer and the rest of the people have that time to finish their program. If they don't finish they have to fill out the program at random with the cards in their hand. We also only ever play with two boards at most. Most of the time we play with only one. The smaller map makes the game more chaotic and faster.
BattleMonkey
Member
Ew, yea never play with more than 2 boards if you can, anything larger and the game drags way too much.