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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic

RayStorm

Member
Ok, fair enough, I should mention that I'm in Europe and we don't have anything like Coolstuff here (although "here" is a bit vague when talking about dozens of countries). It's not in stock anywhere outside of ordering from abroad with high shipping fees.

Compared to 44€ I would figure international sellers ought to be lower priced. I don't know about the specifics in terms of languages printed, but the German version at Amazon.de goes for 25€+7,50 for shipping to Finland.
 

Li Kao

Member
Ohmy ohmy ohmy, I'm in full boardgame mode these days. Everything is so exciting (but pricey).
So as I had surgery yesterday and kinda wanted to play it like the one surgery in my youth where my parents took me to a toy store afterwards... I ordered some games ^_^
Today should see the arrival of not the games I want to play the most but the three games that I can never find a spot for in my orders, so...

Pandemic (new edition) - because I looove this game, but having the first edition I was slow to bite the bullet on the new version. But now I will be able to buy extensions I never played, good good.

Last Will - Not sure if the main mechanism of the game will go over well with my group but ever since I watched a let's play of it I fell in love with the game.

Legacy : The Testament of Duke de Crecy - Same, fell in love watching a let's play.

So many things to experience, so little budget. I think my next order will be Card gaming or Ameritrash / Miniature galore. I would like to discover Magic and Netrunner and I feel a need for some miniature games, like Mice & Mystics, Zombicide, Descent... (but evidently and unfortunately this type of game is always on the high end of the price scale). But then there are games that always tempted me like Robinson Crusoe and Terra Mystica. And new games like Elysium, Five Tribes etc...
Long live loyalty discounts (next one is 20€ off, whoop whoop).
 
So I played half a game of Ora & Labora with the wife to pick up the rules, game seems fun but those components are extremely disappointing.

Picking up Snowdonia + expansion tomorrow for Valentines.
That's my excuse anyway.

Nice, that game always picked my interest but the board looks so boring that I can't force myself to research it some more. I'd love to hear some impressions from a gafer.
 

Mr E.

Member
Nice, that game always picked my interest but the board looks so boring that I can't force myself to research it some more. I'd love to hear some impressions from a gafer.

Yes the board could be interpreted as boring. I prefer to think of it as elegant. Most of the information is on the cards. A bit like Saint Petersburg which also has a bland board.
The main attraction for me is the replay value via the weather system and "ghost player" plus contract cards that combine to offer "different" experiences each play. Either speeding up or slowing down the progress up the mountain. This will cause re-evaluating your strategy as paths to victory seem to vary game to game.

My Wife likes Worker Placement games and this is a step up from Waterdeep/Stone Age but not by much.

I do love me some board game "bling". Pillars of the earth being my favourite "board" to look at.

Sometimes less is more and it's not all about the "Graphics".
I'll post, post game impressions next week.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Ugh. I pulled the trigger on way too much Conan stuff on Kickstarter. Got all the KS exclusive items, plus the Cthala and Bauza expansions.

The design team behind it is solid and it's the kind of dungeon crawler light that I might actually get to the table.

I do think they are going to get in trouble with their totally not red Sonja add-on character though.

their description:

feisty warrior who is in NO WAY RELATED TO ANY CHARACTER YOU MAY KNOW is a character that can be used as both a Hero and an overlord minion!
 

MikeRahl

Member
So I played half a game of Ora & Labora with the wife to pick up the rules, game seems fun but those components are extremely disappointing.

I picked up that game (at a premium) after the wife discovered that it existed and had to have it.

I thought it was really fun, and the resource wheel is really nice. She made a couple of tuck-boxes for the pieces and laminated a sheet that helps you keep track of all the resources.

Cardboard chits isn't all that great, but I couldn't imagine keeping track of all the components you'd need if they were something more substantial. There is what, 16 different resources you can have? Probably more!
 

Xater

Member
Ugh. I pulled the trigger on way too much Conan stuff on Kickstarter. Got all the KS exclusive items, plus the Cthala and Bauza expansions.

The design team behind it is solid and it's the kind of dungeon crawler light that I might actually get to the table.

I do think they are going to get in trouble with their totally not red Sonja add-on character though.

their description:

feisty warrior who is in NO WAY RELATED TO ANY CHARACTER YOU MAY KNOW is a character that can be used as both a Hero and an overlord minion!

Can you link to it? Doubt I'll back it because usually shipping to Europe sucks. You description though makes me curious.

Also I am finally delving into RPGs. Bought InSpectres and Fiasco. I will also give Goblin Quest a shot.
 
I do think they are going to get in trouble with their totally not red Sonja add-on character though.

their description:

feisty warrior who is in NO WAY RELATED TO ANY CHARACTER YOU MAY KNOW is a character that can be used as both a Hero and an overlord minion!
Huh, is Red Sonja not a Robert E Howard creation? I thought she was but the only thing I know about Conan is based on the movies.

Edit: Ah, she isn't. At least not the Red Sonja we all know.
 

Phinor

Member
Compared to 44€ I would figure international sellers ought to be lower priced. I don't know about the specifics in terms of languages printed, but the German version at Amazon.de goes for 25€+7,50 for shipping to Finland.

Most international/European sellers have quite high shipping fees, usually in the 20-30 euro range for a game like X-Wing. Amazon.de is one of the few sites that have what I would consider reasonable fees, but as you said, language is a big issue when ordering from Germany. They localize so many games that you really have to check what version it will be before ordering. If they offer both German and English versions, the English version is often priced 20-50% higher than the localized one.

In the case of X-Wing (I originally mentioned it just as an example but it's a good and popular example), it's the German version they are selling. That is, the cards are all localized etc. Not much use to non-Germans.

Just for fun I checked the shipping for Friday from Coolstuffinc. The game costs $13.99, shipping to Finland is $26.90 using the cheapest shipping method. Cardhaus usually beats Coolstuffinc with total price but thanks to the weak euro (in comparison to dollar), the prices are still pretty high when you add shipping. And anything over 22 euros (customs) often gets a nice additional fee slapped on top of the price anyway. There are deals to be found using international stores, but it doesn't happen often. Kickstarter might be one of the best store fronts right now (and it is often just a store front) because while some projects have high shipping fees to Europe, the rest have managed to lower the costs somehow (sometimes using their own money, sometimes using Amazon.de as a shipping platform etc.)
 
Just for fun I checked the shipping for Friday from Coolstuffinc. The game costs $13.99, shipping to Finland is $26.90 using the cheapest shipping method. Cardhaus usually beats Coolstuffinc

It's less than $10 in shipping on Cardhaus. There's another option for light items that CSI just doesn't offer.

I got Patchwork shipped to Chile for less than $12. At least you can ship games from the rest of Europe, here in South America we are SOL. :(
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Huh, is Red Sonja not a Robert E Howard creation? I thought she was but the only thing I know about Conan is based on the movies.

Edit: Ah, she isn't. At least not the Red Sonja we all know.

Yeah, there is a red Sonya.. but no one cares about her.

There is a Red Sonja created during the Marvel comics run that everyone cares about.

It's sort of curious to include given that they claim the story is based entirely on Robert Howard's works and not the films or comics. but that mini money needs to flow, so I'm guessing that went out the window around the million dollar mark :p

I'm in for 225 I think. I grabbed all the KS exclusive stuff.

If I like it - I'll buy the rest at retail.

If I don't, I can probably get my money back.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I'm looking at that Conan KS and really puzzled as to how they got to the number. Game looks pretty dry and boring to me. But I should be too surprised; people love their minis.
 

Draxal

Member
I'm looking at that Conan KS and really puzzled as to how they got to the number. Game looks pretty dry and boring to me. But I should be too surprised; people love their minis.

KS exclusives, I really really really hate the concept, but it's doing so well for CMorNOT.
 

Neverfade

Member
Gates of Arkham will be here Friday.

I love what they did with adventure cards, giving each of them an Arkham Horror identity and a per-location 'theme'.

Also, AH-eqsue gates make way more sense.

Hype!
 
I'm looking at that Conan KS and really puzzled as to how they got to the number. Game looks pretty dry and boring to me. But I should be too surprised; people love their minis.

Agreed, seems like they can put anything with minis on kickstarter and people will buy them.
 

Xero

Member
Agreed, seems like they can put anything with minis on kickstarter and people will buy them.

while i like having some ks exclusives, I always hate the comment on games without mini's, that they somehow need them all the time. There is always a good amount that say this on most ks games. I love minis in games, and some games definitely need them, but its a big hassle for the smaller companies, and I'd prefer a better game then half assed mini's.
 
I'm looking at that Conan KS and really puzzled as to how they got to the number. Game looks pretty dry and boring to me. But I should be too surprised; people love their minis.

I'm kinda done with them, especially seeing majority of these games end up for around 50-60% off online before backers even get all their KS stuff.
 

Karkador

Banned
I'm surprised that the Kickstarter minis train only seemed to pick up steam after the apparently catastrophic sales disaster that is that Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster game. I'm thinking game retailers are going to start giving that game away.
 
I'm surprised that the Kickstarter minis train only seemed to pick up steam after the apparently catastrophic sales disaster that is that Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster game. I'm thinking game retailers are going to start giving that game away.

Think the games biggest issue that it really was not a board game, it was just a boxed miniature game that required lot of hobby work to put together and play. From comments seen about it, lot of folks bought into it thinking with the board game mind set, when it was clearly not a board game and that back fired on them. Lot of these miniature game focused wargames and such are having a hard time surviving post KS campaigns, even successful ones CMON has put out have had very weak post release support, which usually is death for a miniature game.

Robotech sadly looks like it's in danger too, outlets quickly discounting the game when a ton of KS backers never have even gotten their first shipment of the game! I don't think Robotech is bad either, I pledged it, but think we are seeing lot of knee jerk buys by the board gaming crowd into these miniature war games, and they are not really looking for that. Cool minis!.... but then see these large complex rulebooks and ton of miniatures they have to put together? Bail out!
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
I'm looking at that Conan KS and really puzzled as to how they got to the number. Game looks pretty dry and boring to me. But I should be too surprised; people love their minis.

I jumped on board because the rules are super easy for this sort of a game, and it seems like something my friends and I might actually play.

I think the reason it did well are somewhat simple:

1) The minis look good
2) There are a lot of them, some of which are add-ons that are KS exclusive, however the game sold enough that it would have been at 2 million even without add-ons.
3) The designer is well known, he made the Adventurers amongst other games.
4) The add-on game designers are Antoine Bauza, Croc (Claustrophobia) and Bruno Cthala.

These are the guys behind Bombyx, which is an Asmodee imprint. I had confidence that they would make a pretty fun game that was approachable. Which is why I didn't immediately write it off like most of the other mini games from people Ive never heard of.

think we are seeing lot of knee jerk buys by the board gaming crowd into these miniature war games, and they are not really looking for that. Cool minis!.... but then see these large complex rulebooks and ton of miniatures they have to put together? Bail out!

This is exactly why I bought Conan. I remember one fateful night at BGG where Astrolad and I tried to learn Monsterpocalypse and realized miniature games were absolutely not for me.

Conan is a board game with miniatures. Everything has simple rules and simple scenarios and each instance plays in 60-90 minutes.

I think a lot of board gamers see these things and assume they are looking at a really cool version of Descent or Imperial Assault.. then then get a 50 page rulebook and have to assemble minis and bail out.

Conan appears to be exactly what I want. A very basic game that non-gamers can handle.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
This is exactly why I bought Conan. I remember one fateful night at BGG where Astrolad and I tried to learn Monsterpocalypse and realized miniature games were absolutely not for me.
Hahaha yup. That was one of my most brutal game-learning experiences ever. And I had even read the rules and watched tutorial videos beforehand.
 

joelseph

Member
I am going to start culling my collection down to just euros and war games with a splash of amerithemed deckbuilders. Then maybe I can justify refilling the shelves with more euros, war games deckbuilders! It's a never ending cycle. I really should learn math trades.
 
I really want Scoville but it's 60 bucks and I already have enough great games. It's killing me.
I've only played Scoville once as a two player game. It's actually pretty neat and works decently well with two. I want to play it with a higher player count to see how it really goes. It kind of reminds me of Fresco with the color mixing.

I am going to start culling my collection down to just euros and war games with a splash of amerithemed deckbuilders. Then maybe I can justify refilling the shelves with more euros, war games deckbuilders! It's a never ending cycle. I really should learn math trades.
Math trades are easier than they look. It's just something that you should just jump in and try. If you think about it for too long you'll psych yourself out. As long as you keep it only to one or two games for your first time and you only select things you actually want the worst that happens is your games don't trade.
 

am_dragon

Member
Hello, my wife and I played lots of board games with friends like 12+ years ago. Then we had kids and moved and life. Now our sons are 11 and 9 and we've been playing Apples to Apples, Monopoly, Munchkin (they adore this game), Dirty Marbles - cards, Hand and Foot - cards, and we just started playing Ticket to Ride. We take the boys to a comic book store to play Pokemon and I just noticed they have a bunch of "DEMO" games sitting out so my wife and I have tried a couple over the last few weeks. It is so nice to have a family game night, and play something that doesn't bore the pants of my wife and myself and isn't so difficult the kids lose interest.

At PAX South I had the chance to play several other games, I want to pick up Pandemic, Small World, a decent deck builder game, and a miniatures board game.

Deck Builder - I've played Ascension, and I've read the rules for the DC game, they seem similar. I've read about Heroes of the Multiverse but there is such wildly varied opinion on that game I'm not sure. What should I be looking at?

Miniatures - When I was younger and single I loved D&D, there is no way my wife is playing that. I was hoping for something lighter, with that same feeling. I played a short game of Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King "arcade rules" while at PAX South. I enjoyed it and planed on purchasing the game, again after reading feedback on the first Super Dungeon Explore, which was not great, I'm not sure that's the game we want. Any advice here?

Thanks for the help, can't wait to find more great games.
 
Arcadia quest is the new hotness in the same vein as dungeon explore, take a look at that.

I think ascension is the best deck builder. A lot of people also really like star realms and Trains. You could also try to the most popular/boring, Dominion.
 

fenners

Member
Hi am_dragon, welcome to the thread!

Deck Builder - I've played Ascension, and I've read the rules for the DC game, they seem similar. I've read about Heroes of the Multiverse but there is such wildly varied opinion on that game I'm not sure. What should I be looking at?

Ascension & the DC Deck Builder /are/ similar - the DC game is a simpler, streamlined version of Ascension for sure. I like DC for what it is - approachable, recognizable artwork & archetypes to the cards, and straight forward to explain to folk who haven't played deckbuilders. There's definitey more meat to Ascencion with the expansions.

Sentinels of the Multiverse is definitely a love/hate type of game - personally I like it, but I can see why folk dislike it. There's no deck building to it BTW, it's preset decks & you just draw a card or two each turn. It's also co-op in case that matters!

Your kids are at a great age for Small World IMO.
 

Cat Party

Member
Hello, my wife and I played lots of board games with friends like 12+ years ago. Then we had kids and moved and life. Now our sons are 11 and 9 and we've been playing Apples to Apples, Monopoly, Munchkin (they adore this game), Dirty Marbles - cards, Hand and Foot - cards, and we just started playing Ticket to Ride. We take the boys to a comic book store to play Pokemon and I just noticed they have a bunch of "DEMO" games sitting out so my wife and I have tried a couple over the last few weeks. It is so nice to have a family game night, and play something that doesn't bore the pants of my wife and myself and isn't so difficult the kids lose interest.

At PAX South I had the chance to play several other games, I want to pick up Pandemic, Small World, a decent deck builder game, and a miniatures board game.

Deck Builder - I've played Ascension, and I've read the rules for the DC game, they seem similar. I've read about Heroes of the Multiverse but there is such wildly varied opinion on that game I'm not sure. What should I be looking at?

Miniatures - When I was younger and single I loved D&D, there is no way my wife is playing that. I was hoping for something lighter, with that same feeling. I played a short game of Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King "arcade rules" while at PAX South. I enjoyed it and planed on purchasing the game, again after reading feedback on the first Super Dungeon Explore, which was not great, I'm not sure that's the game we want. Any advice here?

Thanks for the help, can't wait to find more great games.

Can't beat Domninion for deck building. Unless you're using the term differently than I do :p
 

fenners

Member
Wow thanks for the great responses.

BTW, looks like your profile says you're in the DFW area - there's a bunch of large friendly game groups in the metroplex. The "Dallas Game Marathon" is well worth a visit and they run very regular game meet-ups with access to a *lot* of games for you to try out without buying, and good people to meet.
 

Xero

Member
for deck builders i'll throw my hat in with legendary, its not the easiest of deck builders, but its co-op and has marvel characters. I also second mice and mystics. Also if you're interested in pandemic another one to look at is forbidden island. Another way to get a look at some games is to try watching Tabletop on youtube with will wheaton. Basically Will wheaton plays board games with different guests each episode. Its shot more like a real tv show, it helped my wife and I get exposed to a good amount of games, that are out their and see what looked cool to us. Doesn't do the best job of showing how a game is played, but its entertaining.
 

XShagrath

Member
Got to play two new games at my job's monthly boardgame event yesterday.

Alchemists
I picked this up on Thursday and was really excited to bring it in and get some people to play. I set everything up for a four player game before we got started and a couple people came and looked at it, and were super intimidated. Ended up only playing a two player game, and it took about three hours, since it was a learning game.

It plays very much like a Vlaada game, and I really dug it. There were times I thought I had my deductions wrong, but I wasn't. The app interaction is really cool, and the first time I made a potion, it really felt like I accomplished something, even though I was just taking a picture of some cards. It was also really cool near the end debunking the other guy's theories, because I had more information at that point.

I definitely want to get this back to the table with more players. It looks really daunting, but after the first couple turns, it's very intuitive. There aren't a ton of different actions to take, and I really liked the mechanic of the later player(s) putting their cubes first, and then the first player takes their actions, allowing them to foresee things and make actions more difficult (or worthless).

Vanuaatu
I hadn't really heard of this one before, but didn't have anything to do after lunch, so I jumped in. This is a pretty solid worker placement game that has a ton of blocking. It has an "island" theme where you are fishing, collecting shells, bringing in tourists, etc. It works well, but could be replaced with almost any other theme and still have the same game. This one's all about the mechanics.

Each round starts with a role selection (a la Puerto Rico), and then the players get to put down their workers. You've got five workers, and you go around the table three times (2/2/1) to put them out. When doing the actions during the round, you can only take your actions where you have majority, and previous players break ties. There were a couple rounds where I screwed myself out of a couple actions because I didn't break the tie, and I had to do an action in an order that I did not intend.

I definitely enjoyed this as well, but not sure how often I'd play it. This has a three minimum, and most of the time I play outside of these gaming events is all two-player stuff.
 

am_dragon

Member
Have a look at Mice & Mystics. It's kid-friendly, more story-driven than Super Dungeon Explore, and there are a couple of expansions out.

This might be the way to go, I started watching the Sit Down and Shut Up review, not really a fan of their style but the game looks good. Appreciate the recommendation.

BTW, looks like your profile says you're in the DFW area - there's a bunch of large friendly game groups in the metroplex. The "Dallas Game Marathon" is well worth a visit and they run very regular game meet-ups with access to a *lot* of games for you to try out without buying, and good people to meet.

Thanks, that's awesome, I have a friend that just moved into the area, he will be interested in this as well. I noticed there is also a board game convention in Grapevine later this year. I'm over by 35 west so it's kind of a haul to Plano, but I think we'll have to check it out.

for deck builders i'll throw my hat in with legendary, its not the easiest of deck builders, but its co-op and has marvel characters. I also second mice and mystics. Also if you're interested in pandemic another one to look at is forbidden island. Another way to get a look at some games is to try watching Tabletop on youtube with will wheaton. Basically Will wheaton plays board games with different guests each episode. Its shot more like a real tv show, it helped my wife and I get exposed to a good amount of games, that are out their and see what looked cool to us. Doesn't do the best job of showing how a game is played, but its entertaining.

Good to know, I'm a much bigger fan of DC but if the Marvel game is more interesting that might be the way to go. Coop is a plus, sometimes it's difficult to manage "fairness" with my sons.

We have been watching Tabletop, and I noticed they are making more.
 

Xero

Member
I'm a bigger fan of dc as well and the dc game is fun but I don't like the competitiveness. The crisis expansion adds coop though and is pretty fun though. You can get bigger combos in dc then in marvel as well
 

MjFrancis

Member
It's probably for the best that I missed the new Conan kickstarter. I would have bought a King pledge outright and piled on lots of additional extras. Still disappointed in missing out though. I'll buy it when it hits stores and after first impressions come out.
 

Yeef

Member
Played Murano last night. Lots of fun and I enjoy the boat mechanic a lot. The game was kind of perverted a bit since we started with 4, but 2 had to leave halfway through.
 

daevv

Member
Bought and played some 2 player Diamonsters last night. It was fun. Liked looking my wife dead in the eye thinking she was gonna play a 1, so I play a 3, only for her to play a 5. We play a lot of Battle Line and it kinda captures the same "What card will they play next?" deduction. Gonna have to try a 4 player game soon. The box it comes in is such a waste. The whole game (including the plastic diamonds) can fit in a Dragon Shield box. After sleeving the game I put in in the sleeve box, then inside the actual box.
 

Karkador

Banned
Played Murano last night. Lots of fun and I enjoy the boat mechanic a lot. The game was kind of perverted a bit since we started with 4, but 2 had to leave halfway through.

I thought it was a pretty pleasant and enjoyable game, but did you find any thematic meaning in that boat mechanism? It felt like nonsense to me.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Bought and played some 2 player Diamonsters last night. It was fun. Liked looking my wife dead in the eye thinking she was gonna play a 1, so I play a 3, only for her to play a 5. We play a lot of Battle Line and it kinda captures the same "What card will they play next?" deduction. Gonna have to try a 4 player game soon. The box it comes in is such a waste. The whole game (including the plastic diamonds) can fit in a Dragon Shield box. After sleeving the game I put in in the sleeve box, then inside the actual box.

Glad you like it.. Its been one of my favorite little games for a while. Its doing reasonably well too even though no ones talking.
 

Xero

Member
Got to play two new games at my job's monthly boardgame event yesterday.

Alchemists
I picked this up on Thursday and was really excited to bring it in and get some people to play. I set everything up for a four player game before we got started and a couple people came and looked at it, and were super intimidated. Ended up only playing a two player game, and it took about three hours, since it was a learning game.

It plays very much like a Vlaada game, and I really dug it. There were times I thought I had my deductions wrong, but I wasn't. The app interaction is really cool, and the first time I made a potion, it really felt like I accomplished something, even though I was just taking a picture of some cards. It was also really cool near the end debunking the other guy's theories, because I had more information at that point.

I definitely want to get this back to the table with more players. It looks really daunting, but after the first couple turns, it's very intuitive. There aren't a ton of different actions to take, and I really liked the mechanic of the later player(s) putting their cubes first, and then the first player takes their actions, allowing them to foresee things and make actions more difficult (or worthless).

Just ordered Alchemists from my local store, excited to get it next week. Apparently they had a lot of inquiries into it. Watched the Rahdo video with the wife a few months back and she's really wanted the game ever since.
 

Yeef

Member
I thought it was a pretty pleasant and enjoyable game, but did you find any thematic meaning in that boat mechanism? It felt like nonsense to me.
not particularly, but it's an interesting take on action limits without using typical worker placement.
 
Finished my first game of Ora et Labora today, I enjoyed it a lot but that's one exhausting game.

I don't see myself playing it again soon. Want to, but it requires me and my wife to be fully concentrated on it. Way too many options.
 
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