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[platypotamus]

Looking at picking up something more thematic. How is Dungeon Lords? I love the concept and the presentation looks slick; it just seems like one of those games that could have a definite best strategy that, once you have figured out, you could always stick to.

I loveeeeeeeeee Dungeon Lords. Haven't really found an optimal strategy, because the monsters, rooms, and adventurers are randomized each game, you've really got to adapt to what's facing you. Sure, some monsters are more powerful than others, but you just might not be able to get the one you want because an opponent gets there first, or it might be weak against the adventurers coming your way (Vampires are great unless you've got a couple priests coming at you). A pretty heavy worker placement kind of thing, great theme, and pretty, can't recommend it enough.

(One negative: Playing with less than 4 players involves a kinda of kludgey "fake player" mechanic, but it still works and is pretty fun)

I'm also considering Dixit and Arabian Nights, but they seem like pure theme and very little game. Could still be fun.

Haven't played Arabian Nights, though I think Astrolad loves it. I love Dixit. It's perfect for playing a more social gaming night rather than strategic, and it's great for more casual players. My wife, who hates being creative or pretending still really loves it, and I've played with both super serious hardcore gamers and very casual, English-second-language people, even at the same time, and we all had a blast. We want expansions/sequel even.

Lastly, Descent and RuneWars look pretty amazing, but they're fairly expensive, look pretty daunting to newcomers, and seem like they'd require lots of setup.

I played the hell out of Descent and some of its expansions. It is about as fiddly of a game as you can possibly imagine, and setup will literally take an hour. The Overlord (DM) we played with had a sewing kit or fishing tackle box that he used to keep all the bits in, which helped, but it was still a lot of set up, and a lot of rules look ups as we played. Still, pretty fun for people that want a dungeon crawl experience without the extra pain of the pen and paper RPG.

 

[fenners]

I loveeeeeeeeee Dungeon Lords. Haven't really found an optimal strategy, because the monsters, rooms, and adventurers are randomized each game, you've really got to adapt to what's facing you. Sure, some monsters are more powerful than others, but you just might not be able to get the one you want because an opponent gets there first, or it might be weak against the adventurers coming your way (Vampires are great unless you've got a couple priests coming at you). A pretty heavy worker placement kind of thing, great theme, and pretty, can't recommend it enough.

(One negative: Playing with less than 4 players involves a kinda of kludgey "fake player" mechanic, but it still works and is pretty fun)

Yep, Dungeon Lords rocks, especially if players get into the theme.

I played the hell out of Descent and some of its expansions. It is about as fiddly of a game as you can possibly imagine, and setup will literally take an hour. The Overlord (DM) we played with had a sewing kit or fishing tackle box that he used to keep all the bits in, which helped, but it was still a lot of set up, and a lot of rules look ups as we played. Still, pretty fun for people that want a dungeon crawl experience without the extra pain of the pen and paper RPG.

I love Descent , but man, it takes some investment in time & energy. Frankly, for 2 players, Claustrophobia is far more entertaining/good value

 

[Neverfade]

I'm visiting my buddy in Norfolk and we just got done playing a shitload of games.

In short, El Grande is awesome......and Stronghold is fucking horrible. I hate it. I hate everything about it. I can't believe I was that pumped and subsequently let down that hard.

Angry face.

 

[Gaming Truth]

Like I said earlier I'm not sure how badly it will affect the game. I mean you will eventually see those cards anyway be it from when your neighbor passes the hand to you or they immediately play the card. It does suck that this happened and people should expect to get the product they pay for but shit happens. Good thing Asmodee is making good and offering replacements.

Is there a thread about the offer to replace Age III cards? Or should I look up a contact number? I'll know how much it matters in an hour or so

 

[Cathcart]

Is there a thread about the offer to replace Age III cards? Or should I look up a contact number? I'll know how much it matters in an hour or so

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/6549901#6549901

My copy arrived last night and I haven't even bothered. I can't see any issues with the age III cards even under a bright light. Game looks really cool, can't wait to try it out.

 

[Brashnir]

Got lots of good gaming in this weekend.

Spent Friday hanging out with some friends, and we decided to give 7 Wonders a go. There were 7 of us, so we had a full game. Everyone really enjoyed it, (with the exception of the one guy in the group who always hates everything - though he ended up coming around on the game a little and even said he liked it after crushing everyone with a 65 in the final game)

We also got in a game of Arkham Horror later after one guy left. We stagnated for a while in the middle of the game, and couldn't seem to make any progress despite getting lucky and buying THREE Elder Signs from the Curiosity Shop. Then we had a single turn where we had two back-to-back "A gate opens and a monster appears!" cards in the Arkham Encounter phase. Oddly enough, this got us going back in the right direction again. We got those gates closed, managed to get into the rest and close them all in rather short order afterwards. Solid win.

Then tonight I was at my sister's house and we got in a game of Pandemic, which had the most ridiculous last round of turns ever. We had one player with 4 Red cards (the last uncured disease) and a Researcher with another red card, but the player with 4 was only going to get one more turn and the Researcher was after him. Someone had (and played) the special event card that allows a player to choose a new role. The player with 4 drew and got... THE SCIENTIST! Sweet, we thought - we win!

Only then did we discover that the newly-acquired scientist was 4 spaces from the nearest research facility, and thus didn't have enough moves to actually cure the disease. Then we re-calculated and him discard one of his reds, then the researcher gave me two reds (to go with the 2 I had) and then I used the event that allows you to pull a card from the discard pile, which gave me the 5 I needed to cure the final disease on the very last turn of the game. feelsgoodman.jpg

Then I brought 7 Wonders out and we played with 5. Very similar experience to playing with 7, everyone loved it. I won the first couple while everyone else learned the game, then they got more competitive and different people won games 3 and 4. Two people had to leave, and the final 3 of us decided to play a couple more. I was worried after reading the rules that playing with 3 would be a let-down since you'd be seeing the same cards a lot, but that actually didn't seem to be much of a concern. It added another little wrinkle to the strategy, and it was still very fun with just 3 people. I won one on the last turn after an epic 18-point turn (I had the wonder that allows you to play both of the final 2 cards of an age) and a massive miscalculation by an opponent, who thought he could buy 2 clay from me for 2 gold, but his trading post actually pointed the other way, so he was screwed and had to discard. I ended up winning by 1, 59-57.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Yeah besides the two player variant 7 Wonders scales unbelievably well and adding players doesn't add any length to the game.

 

[Cathcart]

Two Arkham losses yesterday, but a lot of fun and I got to introduce two new people to the game so that's good. The worst, though, was that the second game was easily the loss-closest-to-a-win for us yet. We sealed a few gates but due to some seriously bad luck on my friend's part he ended up LiTaS twice just as he was about to seal a gate and of course lost a ton of clue tokens along the way. Ithaqua poped due to doom track filling and then we got him down to one doom token. One doom token! Aaaaarrrrrgh! Usually when the boss wakes up we're toast. I don't think we've ever taken more than four or five tokens off. So on the one hand, yay us, but on the other hand, damn.

 

[platypotamus]

Played a game of Steam last night. We had to end it early ("next round will be the last" - so we played 1 round short), and we played with 5, including someone who I'd never gamed with, and who kept talking about risk and monopoly (no joke) as the only games he played (and saying positive things about both!). It went way better than I was expecting though, except for my wife beating me by one point :\

She's still undefeated at Steam, and there is no living with her for at least a week now.

 

[StoOgE]

MOTHER FUCKER.

So, I went to this give to game charity event yesterday.. gaming from 10AM to midnight. 20 bucks to get in, goes to the food bank. Sold little snacks and what-not. Brought a bunch of games, got there around 1. Girlfriends brother came and we started playing Twilight Struggle. We were waiting on a couple of games to end so we could get into one with some of my normal game group, and figured we would play TS until something better came up and just call the game at that point.

About 20 minutes into the game, this guy walks up to us that I didn't know, and says "Oh, if you like this game, you should really come try this game we are about to play.. it's a GMT card driven game for 6 players and we already have 4.

We went and looked at it.. a game about the reformation era Europe.. sounds interesting enough.. love the time period a lot. Asked the guy how long it would take.. and he said "It depends, but 3 hours max plus teaching time".

So, 4 hours... be done by 5, go grab some dinner come back and play 2-3 faster games.

2 hours into the game I realized we were on the first of nine turns still.. so I logged onto BGG on my phone and checked the game out.

6-10 MOTHER FUCKING HOURS?!?

We finished the game at 1030. 10 fucking 30.

Not to say it was a bad game... but there is no way I would have agreed to it had the guy been honest about playing time.

Here I stand.

I've played you once, never again.

The game is actually pretty interesting. There are really 3 games going on at once. The reformers and the Pope. are off fighting over the hearts and minds of Europe.

The Ottomon's are trying to move up into Europe (and later in the game, unofficially doing some pirating).

The French, English and Hapsburgs (Holy Roman Empire) are fighting wars with one another for control of territory. The English typically side with the reformers so that Henry the 8th can get his divorce, the French are usually caught in the middle of the reformation and the Hapsburgs need to align themselves with the Papacy to try and 1) Keep the Ottoman's at bay, especially the pirating and 2) Keep Luther from reforming Germany and costing the Hapsburgs military control of the region.

It's an amazingly intricate game, and I'm a history nerd so I was loving every minute of it. I was Charles the Vth and after King Henry divorced Catherine.. made peace with the French and brought the pain.

Sadly, a last gambit to fend off the Ottoman's failed, they allied with the reformers and brought down the Papacy and thus the Holy Roman Empire with it.

Lovely game.. that I will never ever play again..

9.5 FUCKING HOURS.

 

[UpperCaseN]

^Holy shit dude, that is ass! What's the name of it?

 

[StoOgE]

^Holy shit dude, that is ass! What's the name of it?

Here I stand

 

[MichaelBD]

Here I stand

The group I game with has a guy who wanted to set up a game of Here I Stand over last Thanksgiving. He was planning it as an all day affair. I don't think they ever ended up playing it though.

It looks interesting but I think if I'm going to dedicate 6+ hours to a game it will be Twilight Imperium.

 

[AstroLad]

we had a ruthlessly efficient night of gaming last night.

--arkham horror (base + encounter cards and items from all the expansions): just destroyed azatoth with the gate-seal win. a great way to kick off the night and the game only took about 90 we were so dominant.

--agricola (K+Austria+Gamer Decks): i still haven't full wrapped my head around the gamer deck. many of the cards seem very weak or just situationally appropriate. all these new decks though just really whet my appetite for gric. if i had the time i'd play every day. (they really need to release a good user-friendly async web/android/iOS version not that it'll ever happen :/)

-san juan: good ol' reliable sj. i got screwed never even peeping a decent card but it's a game you can play soooo fast.

 

[fenners]

MOTHER FUCKER.

So, I went to this give to game charity event yesterday.. gaming from 10AM to midnight. 20 bucks to get in, goes to the food bank. Sold little snacks and what-not. Brought a bunch of games, got there around 1. Girlfriends brother came and we started playing Twilight Struggle. We were waiting on a couple of games to end so we could get into one with some of my normal game group, and figured we would play TS until something better came up and just call the game at that point.

About 20 minutes into the game, this guy walks up to us that I didn't know, and says "Oh, if you like this game, you should really come try this game we are about to play.. it's a GMT card driven game for 6 players and we already have 4. 9.5 FUCKING HOURS.

Dude, I was sitting playing Dominant Species at the table behind you.

 

[Doublethink]

Finally got to play a game of Twilight Imperium this weekend. This game is so awesome. I was the Universities of Jol-Nar so I focused on creating a bunch of tech. I also got really lucky in that I had plenty of planet resources so I was able to create a war sun early on. Most of the objectives being revealed were tech based so I was able to score early. Unfortunately, someone had to leave before we could finish so we just called it right there :/

 

[AstroLad]

We were in midtown today so we thought we'd swing by the Compleat Strategist. Lo and behold they're closed on Sunday. I'm sorry but these are absolutely TERRIBLE hours for a games store. Do they just cater to people who have tons of free time during weekdays? wtf. i was totally in the mood to blow some dough on a nice game too and check out this supposedly great store. won't happen now unless we happen to be in the area on a saturday

Mon-Wed,Fri-Sat 10:30am-6pm
Thu 10:30am-9pm

 

[Yaboosh]

We were in midtown today so we thought we'd swing by the Compleat Strategist. Lo and behold they're closed on Sunday. I'm sorry but these are absolutely TERRIBLE hours for a games store. Do they just cater to people who have tons of free time during weekdays? wtf. i was totally in the mood to blow some dough on a nice game too and check out this supposedly great store. won't happen now unless we happen to be in the area on a saturday

Mon-Wed,Fri-Sat 10:30am-6pm
Thu 10:30am-9pm

Yeah, hobby stores being closed on Sundays makes absolutely no sense.

 

[timetokill]

Mon-Wed,Fri-Sat 10:30am-6pm
Thu 10:30am-9pm

Geez, that's bad :\ I'd only be able to go on Thursdays.

 

[Flynn]

We were in midtown today so we thought we'd swing by the Compleat Strategist. Lo and behold they're closed on Sunday. I'm sorry but these are absolutely TERRIBLE hours for a games store. Do they just cater to people who have tons of free time during weekdays? wtf. i was totally in the mood to blow some dough on a nice game too and check out this supposedly great store. won't happen now unless we happen to be in the area on a saturday

Mon-Wed,Fri-Sat 10:30am-6pm
Thu 10:30am-9pm

I wonder if mid-town foot traffic is just really bad during the weekend -- they probably do way better business when all the commuters are in town.

 

[AstroLad]

Maybe that's the case -- I'm sure there's some business or personal reason for it or some combination but it seems crazy to me that a hobbyist store's only weekend hours would be 10:30-6 on Saturday. There's tons of people in midtown at all times but it's on a street not an avenue so the foot traffic isn't intense but still. I would think on weekends they could hold game nights or whatever but I guess that's just not part of the plan.

 

[StoOgE]

Dude, I was sitting playing Dominant Species at the table behind you.

Ha, could you tell the pain we were in?

I was actually supposed to get a game of DS in as well.

 

[AstroLad]

Forgot to mention we played Gric with draw 10 pick 7. Think I'm going with that from now on -- really enjoyed it and preferred it to 7/7 and drafting.

 

[fenners]

Ha, could you tell the pain we were in?

I was actually supposed to get a game of DS in as well.

It looked like there was a 14 year old kid playing... I knew it was a long game, didn't recognise you in the players or I would have said hi.

For me, GiveToGame was a lot of fun. Got there around lunchtime, played a game of Dominant Species & got /spanked/ as the spider. I made some absolutely horrible decisions & deserved to lose.

After a break for dinner & beer at the Black Sheep, played some 7 Wonders with my usual group & a guy I picked up some games from in the recent math trade. Then it was a teaching game of Glory To Rome.

At that point, I was bushed. All in all, a nice wee day of gaming. Surprised just how busy it was - over 80 people, raising a good chunk of cash for charity. I think next year they'll need a bigger venue - they ran out of table space a few times.

 

[AstroLad]

Glad I learned Vikings on Yucata. Really fun game.

Now they need to put Gric on there! Har.... :/

 

[BomberMouse]

Glad I learned Vikings on Yucata. Really fun game.

Now they need to put Gric on there! Har.... :/

Agricola online was awesome, I've been thinking on doing my own implementation on my free time, but i'd be a shame to have it taken down the same way agricola online did.

Went to a local meet up on a bar this weekend and played:

- Ingenious: I heard a lot about this game and it lived up to the expectations. Must be the first Knizia game I actually like.
- Ricochet Robots: I hated this game, even more since I'm colorblind and I kept confusing red and green objetives
- A locally rethemed version of Pit: I liked it a lot. Bought one for my sisters
- A licensed version of Monstermaler with local characters, a fun little game but you could easily play with any piece of paper. Basically a glorified version of "eat poop you cat", I still bought a couple of copies to give away as presents

Sadly the tables with the more interesting games, like Skull & Roses or King of Tokio were full.

 

[Neverfade]

So I also got to play Star Wars Epic Duels. Crazy that this goes for the price it does. It's a fun little diversion, but I doubt I could justify a price tag like that.

Played Long Shot. Really cool horse racing game with non-traditional racing mechanics. You don't have one piece that lets you win when you cross the finish line. You can bet on multiple horses and win the game with a payout from an opponents "finish".

Learned Twilight Struggle. I'm not sure what to think of it yet. Cool mechanics, but they certainly haven't sunk in yet...

 

[platypotamus]

Forgot to mention we played Gric with draw 10 pick 7. Think I'm going with that from now on -- really enjoyed it and preferred it to 7/7 and drafting.

That's my favorite way to play. I dislike drafting with Gric, just because some of the cards are really good in combo, and not as good solo, and it's much easier to build a useful hand across the two types of cards when you see all your possibilities together.

Glad I learned Vikings on Yucata. Really fun game.

Same. It's another one that yucata has singlehandedly placed in my 'want list'.

 

[StoOgE]

Yeah, that 12 year old had a ton of patience.

My biggest problem were all the little rules he didn't teach us. Or that he failed to tell Me or another player what we should be doing to win until it was too late.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

So I also got to play Star Wars Epic Duels. Crazy that this goes for the price it does. It's a fun little diversion, but I doubt I could justify a price tag like that.

Likely more the rarity more than anything else. Queen's Gambit, on the other hand, is much more likely to be up your alley.

 

[timetokill]

Anyone here played Fury of Dracula and give any thoughts on it? I've browsed some of the forums on BGG about it but I was wondering if any of you had feelings on it.

 

[fenners]

Anyone here played Fury of Dracula and give any thoughts on it? I've browsed some of the forums on BGG about it but I was wondering if any of you had feelings on it.

I've played it a number of times (all as Dracula) & really like it. It can be a little 'fiddly' for some players & requires a smart Dracula, but I've enjoyed it immensely with some real nailbiter end turns. We used to play with some variant combat rules, but that's by the by.

"Letters from Whitechapel" takes game elements from it & Scotland Yard, but plays quicker & is probably less intimidating with the amount of cards etc. Might be worth a look at too.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Anyone here played Fury of Dracula and give any thoughts on it? I've browsed some of the forums on BGG about it but I was wondering if any of you had feelings on it.

I played it for the first time about a month ago (as Dracula) after getting the game after the recent FFG reprint. I thought it was a great game, as did everyone else in my group who played. Like fenners said, to get the most out of it you need to make sure your Dracula player has the rules down, as well as has a decent head for strategy. The difficulty of the game is almost entirely dependent on his skill level.

 

[AstroLad]

Agricola online was awesome, I've been thinking on doing my own implementation on my free time, but i'd be a shame to have it taken down the same way agricola online did.

Yeah it's pretty jacked that the officially supported version has a BSW level of user-unfriendliness.

 

[AstroLad]

As an aside, we topped the post count from the original GAFBG thread (33 months running) in seven months.

Congrats to all our posters and the big winners!
StoOgE 954
AstroLad 809
BattleMonkey 316
Neverfade 274
platypotamus 258
joeyjoejoeshabadoo 226
Flynn 144
XiaNaphryz 125
fenners 113
MichaelBD 103

 

[Mashing]

And you are to be commended for making a great OP.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Anyone here played Fury of Dracula and give any thoughts on it? I've browsed some of the forums on BGG about it but I was wondering if any of you had feelings on it.

I like it a lot. The only thing I'm completely sold on is the combat. It's a mix between card base and dice rolling but it's clunky and probably the hardest part of the game.

As an aside, we topped the post count from the original GAFBG thread (33 months running) in seven months.

Congrats to all our posters and the big winners!
StoOgE 954
AstroLad 809
BattleMonkey 316
Neverfade 274
platypotamus 258
joeyjoejoeshabadoo 226
Flynn 144
XiaNaphryz 125
fenners 113
MichaelBD 103

Excellent.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Anyone here played Fury of Dracula and give any thoughts on it? I've browsed some of the forums on BGG about it but I was wondering if any of you had feelings on it.

It's an ok game, but we got bored of it pretty quick after a couple plays.

 

[Neverfade]

I second (third?) the clunky combat in Fury. I'm looking forward to Letters from Whitechapel to solve this problem.

Edit: if anyone wants to buy a copy of Mansions of Madness or Stronghold let me know.

 

[timetokill]

Awesome, thanks for the impressions guys! I will give it a look as well as Letters from Whitechapel.

Neverfade how much are you asking for Mansions? Condition?

 

[Neverfade]

Condition: couple nicks on the box lid corners, slight dishing in one corner. Contents inside pristine. I'll send you some pics if you want. PM me an offer. Keep in mind it's kinda heavy.

 

[MichaelBD]

Finally got to play a game of Twilight Imperium this weekend. This game is so awesome. I was the Universities of Jol-Nar so I focused on creating a bunch of tech. I also got really lucky in that I had plenty of planet resources so I was able to create a war sun early on. Most of the objectives being revealed were tech based so I was able to score early. Unfortunately, someone had to leave before we could finish so we just called it right there :/

I'm playing Twilight Imperium this weekend. We've had it planned out for a few months now. Since we've only ever had 4 people the consensus has been the game drags a bit because of every player getting two strategy cards. They want to try playing a 4P variant that calls for only 7 strategy cards (you dump Imperial and modify one of the other cards to pick up the lost slack). We're also going to try a random map instead of setting up per the rules. Our games generally take 10 hours (with set up, break down, and time for lunch).

 

[Doublethink]

I'm playing Twilight Imperium this weekend. We've had it planned out for a few months now. Since we've only ever had 4 people the consensus has been the game drags a bit because of every player getting two strategy cards. They want to try playing a 4P variant that calls for only 7 strategy cards (you dump Imperial and modify one of the other cards to pick up the lost slack). We're also going to try a random map instead of setting up per the rules. Our games generally take 10 hours (with set up, break down, and time for lunch).

Yeah we played 4 player too and the strategy cards did seem to drag things down a bit. The owner of the game was telling me that the game runs better with 3 or 5 than with 4 people. I'd like to try a game where not every strategy card gets taken every turn. Well, I'd like to just try more games period. I really liked it but I don't want to buy it since I don't think my friends would play a game this long.

 

[Karak]

I'm playing Twilight Imperium this weekend. We've had it planned out for a few months now. Since we've only ever had 4 people the consensus has been the game drags a bit because of every player getting two strategy cards. They want to try playing a 4P variant that calls for only 7 strategy cards (you dump Imperial and modify one of the other cards to pick up the lost slack). We're also going to try a random map instead of setting up per the rules. Our games generally take 10 hours (with set up, break down, and time for lunch).

I love this game. But I agree it can drag a bit at times, then again so can many. Alternate rules are indeed the way to get passed it. However, with that 1 switch, or even without it, this is one ALMOST perfect boardgame. Just awesome

 

[AstroLad]

There's a new buzzlist up at BGG for hot upcoming releases: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/66280/the-buzzlist-anticipated-releases-marapr-2011

Notables for me:
-Alien Frontiers (own, haven't played )
-Cornucopia (Alchemy-ish expansion, looks cool to me though and I like the idea of being rewarded for having a deck with variety -- real swerve there.)
-Troyes (More sublime worker placement!)
-Race for the Galaxy Alien Artifacts (Really interesting idea to reboot imo.)
-Arkham Horor: Miskatonic U (more encounters whoo! I'll need to catch up on other expansions first though).

 

[BattleMonkey]

I'm playing Twilight Imperium this weekend. We've had it planned out for a few months now. Since we've only ever had 4 people the consensus has been the game drags a bit because of every player getting two strategy cards. They want to try playing a 4P variant that calls for only 7 strategy cards (you dump Imperial and modify one of the other cards to pick up the lost slack). We're also going to try a random map instead of setting up per the rules. Our games generally take 10 hours (with set up, break down, and time for lunch).

TI really requires at least 5+ players to properly work to me, it just does not play that well with less than 5.

Large part of the of the length is the set up I find, because the game requires the players to be involved in setting up, a person can't simply set up a game of TI ahead of time and have it ready to go, you basically have to wait till everyone is there and can set it up, then toss in any teaching of rules or going over things, it often can take over an hour before things get going.

Though I've never had a game of TI last longer than 5 hours

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

There's a new buzzlist up at BGG for hot upcoming releases: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/66280/the-buzzlist-anticipated-releases-marapr-2011

Notables for me:
-Alien Frontiers (own, haven't played )
-Cornucopia (Alchemy-ish expansion, looks cool to me though and I like the idea of being rewarded for having a deck with variety -- real swerve there.)
-Troyes (More sublime worker placement!)
-Race for the Galaxy Alien Artifacts (Really interesting idea to reboot imo.)
-Arkham Horor: Miskatonic U (more encounters whoo! I'll need to catch up on other expansions first though).

Looking forward to finally getting my copy of Alien Frontiers later on this month. I preordered that damn thing back in November or December. Troyes looks amazing.

Fortune and Glory is on my watch list too. Looks like it will play differently from Flying Frog's other games and the theme appeals to me.

EDIT: I have a couple games up for trade or purchase if anybody is interested.
Neuroshima Hex - Played once and it went over like a lead balloon with my fiance. I have the iPhone app and that is good enough for me now. The box is in great shape as well.

Red November - Has been played a couple of time and I am the second owner but it's still in excellent condition. The pieces are all bagged and there is even a printed out player aid in the box.

Cold War: CIA Vs. KGB - Components are like new but the box shows a little bit of wear and there are a couple of dents but nothing too major at all.

Take a look at my want list or make me an offer if it's not on there, I'm open to pretty much anything.

 

[UpperCaseN]

My fiance is interested in Twilight Imperium, she asked me to get some feedback from you guys.

So it's good, but possibly long and drags in the middle depending on how many players you have?

Is there a lot of stat tracking/math involved? Are there a lot of cards, chits, pieces, etc to keep track of during a single game?

This here is a big concern for me with every game: are the rules/cards written out in a manner that can be subjectively interpreted? if so, is it bad? This is a direct issue for me due to Magic the Gathering and Last Night on Earth; where you have to analyze the order of the words in the text, where 2 people can come up with different end results on how cards work due to the way the text is interpreted. Know what I mean? i can elaborate if not

 

[BattleMonkey]

TI has alot of components, it's a large game, but it's not complicated at all or have complex stat tracking or anything of the sorts. The game just takes a long time to play and also a major factor in game length is how the players play. Some games can drag especially when players sit back in their territories and just build up and research all the time. Game generally moves quicker when conflict breaks out, but you get many times players who just opt for a cold war stand off on all sides with people often afraid of throwing the first punch.

 

[Neverfade]

^seconded

It's not overly complicated, just a lot of pieces. I wouldn't necessarily consider it fiddly though.

When My group learned the game it took 7 hours WITH rules explanations. So, not too bad all things considered. Whoever that was that played 10 hours with 4 needs to invest in a chess clock, haha.