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[AstroLad]

Very cool and deep game. Haven't soloed it myself, but the solo play seems really extensively thought out. Basically a whole new game in some ways.

 

[Doublethink]

Played a 6 player game of Twilight Imperium today. The game took around 4.5 hours, which was surprisingly quick, I think. We were all being a little too nice to each other in this game. I was the Barony of Letnev and I was trying to build up trade goods before I attempted to conquer Mecatol Rex. Next time I'll definitely start warmongering much earlier.

We also played a game of Dominion. Big money strategy FTW.

 

[Calculon]

Wow a 6 player game of Twilight Imperium in only 4.5 hours? Even with 3 people I've never had a game last less than 7 hours.

 

[Mashing]

Got in Alien Frontiers and ordered LOTR LCG today. Looking forward to playing both.

 

[Doublethink]

Wow a 6 player game of Twilight Imperium in only 4.5 hours? Even with 3 people I've never had a game last less than 7 hours.

We did simulate the first turn to speed things up. But still, it went a lot quicker than I expected.

 

[butzopower]

Anyone board gaming in San Francisco? Preferably while drinking delicious beers.

 

[StoOgE]

So my new job is making me work and really cutting down on GAF time..

Anyway.. I found an unopened copy of Game of Thrones And the Clash of Kings expansions for MSRP. Pretty pumped about that.

Sadly, I couldn't play them before the first episode because the game is based on MASSIVE SPOILERS for the first season of the show. Should be good to go about 6 episodes in though.

 

[AstroLad]

stooge long time no see! (well ok probably not that long, but gaf-time)

still in austin?

 

[StoOgE]

Yeah, still in Austin. Found a much better job, but it's a tiny little company.. so my slacking off time has been cut to basically zero. That and the owner of the company is facing my back and can see everything I do.

In any case I've had a couple of good games since I last posted.

Played Brass the other day.. forget how much I liked that game.. screwed up at least 1 rule this time..

Played Puerto Rico last week.. that really is one of those games that I enjoy a ton when it hits the table. Not sure why it doesn't hit the table more often.

 

[Neverfade]

Game of Thrones

But, who are you worried about spoiling it for? The only spoiler in there is on the back of the box. Don't read that and you're gravy. That being said, what a stupid fucking place for it. It's literally like the first 5 words. I can only imagine not knowing and reading it. By the time you know its a spoiler its too late. :lol


In other news, I'm getting real antsy for some upcoming releases. Troyes is taking its sweet time, and now I'm interested in Ninjato and Deadwood.

 

[jason10mm]

Well, to be fair, the book had been out for YEARS at that point, I think we are in general way too spoiler paranoid. Besides, I could tell you every big event in ASOIAF and I don't think it would affect enjoyment much at all, perhaps even heighten it.

I got the LOTR LCG game. After reading the rules it looks cool, but I feel like there should be some dice in there. About the only random element seems to be the encounter cards so you think you can complete a quest but SURPRISE a big bad pops out and you have to meander around until you are powerful enough to beat him. Then again, Thunderstone has essentially the same mechanic and that is fun, so after a play through I'll have a better idea. Also not sure why 4 players couldn't each use a deck from the base game, other than the little counter spinner things it seems possible.

Picked up the 25th anniversary battletech edition, just on general principles. Now I feel like I have an obligation to get the original Macross mechs miniatures, as no matter how hard they have tried, almost none of the "new" designs hold a candle to the originals. Far too clunky and messy looking. Digging up the original mechs is gonna be pricey though. And to think I used to have shelves of them....

 

[Corto]

Do you like Twilight Struggle's mechanics? If so, and you like the theme of this game, then yes, you'll like it.

It's a pretty solid game.

Very cool and deep game. Haven't soloed it myself, but the solo play seems really extensively thought out. Basically a whole new game in some ways.

Thanks both for the input!

 

[StoOgE]

.

The funny thing is this game isn't really Ameritrashy at all.

If anything it's a light war game with a Euro blind bidding mechanic.

Really looking forward to playing it.. I'm going to get some of my board game friends to play it with me next weekend I think and I'm going to make my friends watching GOT with me on HBO to play it before the finale.

It was really funny.. I went to San Antonio with my girlfriend for Fiesta last week (San Antonio Mardi Gras.. it's a giant deal, most people haven't heard of it) and popped into one of their game stores on the way out and there it was for 50 bucks. Then on Tuesday I popped into the game store next to my game night (It's in South Austin, I never go there now that I don't work South) to see what they had in/on sale.

And there was the first expansion for 40 bucks.

The temptation was there to flip them on ebay for a 100 dollar profit.. but fuck it.

I also had the ability to buy an unopened copy of War of the Ring for 80 dollars in a charity auction a few weeks back but declined. I wanted someone who would play it to get it.. and the winner wound up flipping it on ebay in any case

GAME OF THRONES SPOILER:

Spoiler

Until Rob marches on the South, I don't want anyone asking questions like "Why would The Starks march on King's Landing

 

[BattleMonkey]

Wow a 6 player game of Twilight Imperium in only 4.5 hours? Even with 3 people I've never had a game last less than 7 hours.

More players in TI, the faster the game moves generally. Less players causes everyone to be more spread out and lot more downtime of players doing nothing but sitting back building up their empire. More players forces everyone closer and causes much quicker conflicts

 

[Artadius]

Stooge, let me know if you're ever down in Corpus Christi on a weekend and want to get some boardgaming on. My group meets every other week and we usually have a fairly large/active crowd for about six to eight hours.

Check me out on BGG (I'm in the GAF guild there) to see my collection.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Anybody up for a quick game of 7 Wonders?
http://www.jeuxsurunplateau.com/fr/jeux-en-ligne/jeux-en-ligne~34~playing~m7.html

 

[TheExodu5]

Game of Thrones is really fun, but you really do need to play it 5 players.

3 players leaves it feeling like a 2v1, whereas 4 players leaves it feeling like a 2v2. 5 players opens a lot of doors for alliances and backstabbing, which is the whole point of the game.

At worst, the game will spoil up to about halfway through Clash of Kings.

Spoiler

The fact that Greyjoy is one of the warring factions and that Renly Baratheon is not.

 

[MichaelBD]

Last night we played a game of Civilization (the new FFG version) in under 3 hours (with setup and breakdown). Certainly helped that everyone knew how to play and the phases went quick. It was a military victory.

Also played a few games of Warhammer: Invasion. I bought the first major expansion and one of the battle packs to increase the variety. We played with all the cards for the factions we chose so the decks were kind of bulky. I really want to try the drafting variant. I think it could add a lot of variety without having to drop a lot more money to custom build decks. A local game shop has also started a Warhammer night so I might try checking it out, but I'm worried it might be too hardcore. Another local comic shop is also starting a Game of Thrones Card Game group, and I would like to try that as well. My copy of AGoT is sitting unused.

Finally, UPS should be here any minute with the LoTR card game. If I'm really lucky Dominant Species will show up as well, but that one is more wishful thinking.

 

[Artadius]

Anybody up for a quick game of 7 Wonders?
http://www.jeuxsurunplateau.com/fr/jeux-en-ligne/jeux-en-ligne~34~playing~m7.html

I'm game

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

I'm game

I'll set one up and whoever else wants to join come on in.
The game is called neogaf and the password is believe.

 

[BomberMouse]

I'll set one up and whoever else wants to join come on in.
The game is called neogaf and the password is believe.

I joined, but it seems no one else is still online

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

I'm back in.

 

[ncsuDuncan]

So I've got a decent group of 4 that plays Catan every Wednesday.

We have the base game and the Cities & Knights expansion, which one should we get next, Seafarers or Barbarians & Traders?

I'm leaning towards Seafarers, it sounds like Barbarians is a couple smaller expansions while Seafarers is one larger one.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

So I've got a decent group of 4 that plays Catan every Wednesday.

We have the base game and the Cities & Knights expansion, which one should we get next, Seafarers or Barbarians & Traders?

I'm leaning towards Seafarers, it sounds like Barbarians is a couple smaller expansions while Seafarers is one larger one.

Seafarers for the exact reason you stated. You get more board real estate to play with. That being said I don't normally play Seafarers with Cities and Knights. It tends to make the game too long.

 

[StoOgE]

So I've got a decent group of 4 that plays Catan every Wednesday.

We have the base game and the Cities & Knights expansion, which one should we get next, Seafarers or Barbarians & Traders?

I'm leaning towards Seafarers, it sounds like Barbarians is a couple smaller expansions while Seafarers is one larger one.

Seafarers is a fun expansion. There are also some games in the family like settlers of America that are a ton of fun. It's a stand alone train game based on the die rolling/resource acquiring mechanic.

Also, buy a resource pack from mayday. It replaces the resource cards with little wooden bits that speeds the game up a ton and gets rid of the hand management/fumbling through cards problem.

Or you could move up to one of the other gateway games. Stone age or pandemic would be nice Segway games. Stone age is a similar gain resources to buy VP game (though mechanically different) while Pandemic is a fully co-op game that requires you to select sets of cards. Neither is any more complicated than settlers.

 

[Neverfade]

At worst, the game will spoil up to about halfway through Clash of Kings.

Spoiler

The fact that Greyjoy is one of the warring factions and that Renly Baratheon is not.

I don't see how that's a spoiler, especially given what's in the box.

I also like it with 4 people. Its no 5+, but its good.

 

[Flynn]

7 Wonders Expansion

 

[BomberMouse]

What was everybody opinion on 51st State? My birthday is in a couple of weeks so I'm thinking of making an order. So many ineresting games games lately

 

[fenners]

What was everybody opinion on 51st State? My birthday is in a couple of weeks so I'm thinking of making an order. So many ineresting games games lately

Try before you buy. I bought it, I like it, but it's definitely a little rough around the edges with a set of rules that even after being revised still don't do a good job of summing up the rules.

And the designer made some /dumb/ iconography choices with the one icon meaning different things depending on how the card is being used. Sigh. Even after reading the rules, being taught the game (wrongly) & seeing all the disputes on the BGG forum, I still /like/ the core of the game... Just not the rulebook. I'm still not 100% sure I'm playing it correctly.

 

[BomberMouse]

Try before you buy. I bought it, I like it, but it's definitely a little rough around the edges with a set of rules that even after being revised still don't do a good job of summing up the rules.

And the designer made some /dumb/ iconography choices with the one icon meaning different things depending on how the card is being used. Sigh. Even after reading the rules, being taught the game (wrongly) & seeing all the disputes on the BGG forum, I still /like/ the core of the game... Just not the rulebook. I'm still not 100% sure I'm playing it correctly.

Thanks, that's a little discouraging, the theme looks great though. Reading on BGG, it seems that there's a standalone expansion which fixes a lot of the game issues, so I might wait for that instead.

 

[Yaboosh]

I keep trying to register at that French site for 7 Wonders but for some reason it won't register me. For those who have managed it, did you have to do anything weird or did it just work?

 

[BomberMouse]

I keep trying to register at that French site for 7 Wonders but for some reason it won't register me. For those who have managed it, did you have to do anything weird or did it just work?

No, just pay attention to the field validators (ie. the password must have a number, etc) and the notification email takes a few hours to arrive.

 

[Schmattakopf]

BSG, just started playing:

1. "Activating" Vipers versus "launching" Vipers - what's the difference?
2. When launching from the Hangar Deck, does it matter if there's a Viper in both start spaces?
3. If there's no one to fight at the moment, what is there to do / what's the best thing to do (if you want to be helpful) apart from repairs?
4. Is this correct: if all resources are in the blue and a Sympathizer is revealed, they are treated as a revealed Cylon except that they can't use Super Crisis Cards or the Cylon's fleet. So they're like a gimped Cylon.
5. Do we spawn ships if there's no Basestar but the Crisis Card says to spawn minor ships?
6. When pulling a Crisis Card that adds Basestars and etc, is it added to the current ships or does it replace the current ship setup (including civilian ships)?
7. Can you use character abilities to modify skill checks on Super Crisis Cards?

 

[Neverfade]

What was everybody opinion on 51st State? My birthday is in a couple of weeks so I'm thinking of making an order. So many ineresting games games lately

Second on try before you buy. Its a lot like RFTG, but like a billion times more complicated, if that tells you anything. Gah.

RFTG superior.

 

[Flynn]

Thanks, that's a little discouraging, the theme looks great though. Reading on BGG, it seems that there's a standalone expansion which fixes a lot of the game issues, so I might wait for that instead.

Let me second the fussiness of the game. There's promise in there, but its not a great game out of the box. It's not the next Race For the Galaxy that some expected.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Yeah, 51st State was my biggest disappointment of last year. The theme felt pasted on and the game just wasn't that good. I love the art and would kill for a proper post apocalyptic game but 51st State just wasn't it.

 

[StoOgE]

Yeah, 51st State was my biggest disappointment of last year. The theme felt pasted on and the game just wasn't that good. I love the art and would kill for a proper post apocalyptic game but 51st State just wasn't it.

It was the goat of BGG Con.

Heading into it, it was hot shit that everyone was super pumped about. Heading out of it, no one even talks about the game anymore.

 

[MichaelBD]

I'm assuming you are just using the base game, as the expansions slightly alter things you can do when activating a viper.

BSG, just started playing:

1. "Activating" Vipers versus "launching" Vipers - what's the difference?

- When you launch a viper you pull it from the reserves and place it into one of the two launch spaces outside of Galactica. It's then out in space and you are done.

- You activate a viper that's already launched. When you activate a viper you can move it or attack with it.

2. When launching from the Hangar Deck, does it matter if there's a Viper in both start spaces?

- Not sure exactly what you mean. If you are asking if you can have multiple vipers in a single space area, then yes you can.

3. If there's no one to fight at the moment, what is there to do / what's the best thing to do (if you want to be helpful) apart from repairs?

- Depends really on what else is happening. Do you suspect a player is a cylon? Even if there are no enemies on the board, if the jump track is low you probably want to get as many vipers out as you can, to prepare for any future attacks.

4. Is this correct: if all resources are in the blue and a Sympathizer is revealed, they are treated as a revealed Cylon except that they can't use Super Crisis Cards or the Cylon's fleet. So they're like a gimped Cylon.

- We never use the Sympathizer anymore (because we have both expansions and either use a Cylon Leader or make sure to play with 5) so can't help with that one.

5. Do we spawn ships if there's no Basestar but the Crisis Card says to spawn minor ships?

- Nope. If you are just using the base game and there are no basestars then no new ships can be launched. Enjoy the quiet.

6. When pulling a Crisis Card that adds Basestars and etc, is it added to the current ships or does it replace the current ship setup (including civilian ships)?

- Everything is added to what's already on the board. If you don't have the plastic (or cardboard for civilian ships or basestars if playing with just the base set) then you don't add it. So for example, if you already have 2 basestars on the board and you pull one of the ambush cards and it says to place a basestar behind the Galactica and 2 Heavy Raiders in front of Galactica, you would ignore the basestar placement (because you already have every basestar on the board) and just place the Heavy Raiders (assuming you have Heavy Raiders available to place). Hope that's not confusing.

7. Can you use character abilities to modify skill checks on Super Crisis Cards?

-Unless something specifically says you can't, then you can.

 

[Neverfade]

-Unless something specifically says you can't, then you can.

I don't have the rules in front of me as I'm at work, but this is incorrect. I'm 100% sure Super Crises and their checks are immune to all character abilities.

 

[Neverfade]

4. Is this correct: if all resources are in the blue and a Sympathizer is revealed, they are treated as a revealed Cylon except that they can't use Super Crisis Cards or the Cylon's fleet. So they're like a gimped Cylon.

Since this wasn't answered I'll just chime in that this is correct. It fucking sucks for that player. Do yourself a favor and get into the expansions so you can dump the sympathizer. We just straight out remove it and our 6 players games are still really balanced.

 

[Schmattakopf]

I'm assuming you are just using the base game, as the expansions slightly alter things you can do when activating a viper.
BSG, just started playing:

1. "Activating" Vipers versus "launching" Vipers - what's the difference?

- When you launch a viper you pull it from the reserves and place it into one of the two launch spaces outside of Galactica. It's then out in space and you are done.

- You activate a viper that's already launched. When you activate a viper you can move it or attack with it.

2. When launching from the Hangar Deck, does it matter if there's a Viper in both start spaces?

- Not sure exactly what you mean. If you are asking if you can have multiple vipers in a single space area, then yes you can.

3. If there's no one to fight at the moment, what is there to do / what's the best thing to do (if you want to be helpful) apart from repairs?

- Depends really on what else is happening. Do you suspect a player is a cylon? Even if there are no enemies on the board, if the jump track is low you probably want to get as many vipers out as you can, to prepare for any future attacks.

4. Is this correct: if all resources are in the blue and a Sympathizer is revealed, they are treated as a revealed Cylon except that they can't use Super Crisis Cards or the Cylon's fleet. So they're like a gimped Cylon.

- We never use the Sympathizer anymore (because we have both expansions and either use a Cylon Leader or make sure to play with 5) so can't help with that one.

5. Do we spawn ships if there's no Basestar but the Crisis Card says to spawn minor ships?

- Nope. If you are just using the base game and there are no basestars then no new ships can be launched. Enjoy the quiet.

6. When pulling a Crisis Card that adds Basestars and etc, is it added to the current ships or does it replace the current ship setup (including civilian ships)?

- Everything is added to what's already on the board. If you don't have the plastic (or cardboard for civilian ships or basestars if playing with just the base set) then you don't add it. So for example, if you already have 2 basestars on the board and you pull one of the ambush cards and it says to place a basestar behind the Galactica and 2 Heavy Raiders in front of Galactica, you would ignore the basestar placement (because you already have every basestar on the board) and just place the Heavy Raiders (assuming you have Heavy Raiders available to place). Hope that's not confusing.

7. Can you use character abilities to modify skill checks on Super Crisis Cards?

-Unless something specifically says you can't, then you can.

Thank you! What I meant in 2. was that there are two places for Vipers, which you describe as a launch space, and you explained that to put a Viper in a launch space, it must be "launched." So I guess my new question is if these launch spaces are full, are those the only two Vipers that can go into space at that moment in time?

I don't have the rules in front of me as I'm at work, but this is incorrect. I'm 100% sure Super Crises and their checks are immune to all character abilities.

The rules do say something about this, but they don't exactly mention skill checks so our revealed Sympathizer/Cylon was using Tyrol's ability on the Super Crisis Card's skill check, reasoning being that it was the skill check and not the card itself or something. I don't know. It sounds kind of ridiculous writing it out. I'm pretty sure you're right.

Since this wasn't answered I'll just chime in that this is correct. It fucking sucks for that player. Do yourself a favor and get into the expansions so you can dump the sympathizer. We just straight out remove it and our 6 players games are still really balanced.

Alright. We don't usually get expansions until we've played games enough to know we like them, but maybe it's necessary this time, or maybe just necessary to make some modifications.

 

[Artadius]

When a Cylon (not a Cylon Leader from Pegasus expansion mind you) is revealed, they can't use any of their character abilities. You can effectively turn their character card over or send it back to the box. They can't use their OPG and aren't limited by their negative 'human' traits.

One other thing to follow up on as far as "What do I do?" when the board is calm. Humans should focus on scouting the crisis deck (and the destination deck near jump time) to make sure they efficiently keep jump prep moving forward and they bury away any Cylon attack cards and crisis cards without jump prep. Executive Order other human players as often as possible so that you're more often getting two actions per player turn instead of just one. This is usually pretty effective even with hidden cylons in the rank because they will NOT leave a bad card on top of the Crisis/Destination deck unless they want to make it obvious they are a cylon. Sure they can burn good crisis cards and destination cards for the humans...but there could easily be another good one behind it.

Jumping at -1 Population (and even -3 population if you're very well off on Pop late in the game) is highly recommended for the humans. Doing so on every jump cycle can effectively reduce the total number of full rounds around the table by one or more by the end of the game.... thus giving your cyclon players fewer opportunities to poison the pot so to speak. This is especially true when you can StratPlan the early jump roll and if Helo is the one whose turn it is (since he can reroll a dice roll on each of his turns).

Oh, and there's no limit to the number of ships which can occupy a sector of space. All eight of your vipers could be in one space if you wanted.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Picked up the 2nd Resident Evil deck building game set today.

It's stand alone set that can be used as an expansion to the original game. Though I was a bit disappointed in that lot of the cards have effects or are meant to be used when playing the new coop mode that this set introduces, so it's a bit tougher to integrate with the original set though lot of cards do still work just fine. It's the original game with all new cards and a couple new mechanics for the included scenarios, but the big addition are the new coop game modes and lot of the cards are designed with coop in mind.

The new mode is cool since it basically has you teaming up with another player as a partner who has to build and fight together, so lot of team work combos and cards are available in this. Lot of the new characters also have unique abilities that only trigger when working with partners.... best is Hunk who gets stronger when he has no partner and basically instead of taking damage can pass the damage onto his/her partner lol

They just announced the next set for the game titled "outbreak", which is an actual expansion set and not stand alone like the first two games.

 

[Neverfade]

The rules do say something about this, but they don't exactly mention skill checks so our revealed Sympathizer/Cylon was using Tyrol's ability on the Super Crisis Card's skill check, reasoning being that it was the skill check and not the card itself or something. I don't know. It sounds kind of ridiculous writing it out. I'm pretty sure you're right.

Revealed Cylons can't use character abilities anyways.

Edit: horribly beaten, but worthy of rementioning.

 

[AstroLad]

Oh damn, Isotropic already has the Cornucopia cards available for play.

 

[MichaelBD]

Played 5 games of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (that's a mouth/keyboard full). 4 were solo and one was coop with a friend that came over this afternoon. 4 solo plays (with Tactics deck) ended early and horribly, to the point where I wouldn't personally try that deck solo again. In one game, within a few turns, I was already in an unwinnable situation. I didn't try any of the other decks solo. I used the intro scenario for each game. Coop game with my friend (using the intro scenario again) was a cake walk. He used the Aragorn deck and I used the Spirit deck. The game has potential, but I don't know if I'll get into it like I've gotten into Warhammer: Invasion as far as buying expansions.

We also played 1960: Making of the President. I got the game off of a trade maybe 6 to 8 months ago and we had only played it once. I dug it out again last week when my friend came over and brought it out again today. Twilight Struggle is my favorite game hands down, and I'd like to get 1960 into a regular rotation because I know it can be played in 90 minutes or under; something I can't say for TS. It scratches an itch. It was a close race but Kennedy (me) won with some last round campaigning in New York.

Finally we played a game of BattleLine, which we haven't played in a while but was as entertaining as ever.

 

[UpperCaseN]

Had a blissful extended gaming weekend, had 9 people on Fri and 5 on Sat. Long post, feel free to skip.

Fri:
To start the night off, played Cranium for the first time. 3 teams of 3. We need to revise some rules as a group, such as

we allowed props for the charades challenges which made it too easy

the card says for the Pictionary challenges, you can't use symbols. This made "sleepwalking" difficult since the person couldn't use Z's to show sleeping, and I had a dancing one where I couldn't draw musical notes to show music. Plus someone drew an arrow to show movement, we let it slide but I guess technically it shouldn't be allowed. That game is meant to be more fun than anything though, so we should probably not be strict with the rules at all.

After that, my group of 5 played Ticket to Ride (with 2 newbies) and the other 4 played Castle Ravenloft (1 newbie). The TtR newbies picked up very easily and one of them came close to winning, I got lucky with my initial Destination Tickets overlapping though so I scored 60 some points with 1 east to west coast route for the win. Can't comment on the Ravenloft group, but they won and my fiance who was the newbie liked it. She had trouble learning the game though because the rest of the group were seasoned and took their turns quickly

While Ravenloft finished up, our group of 5 played Carcassonne plus 2 expansions, I don't know which ones but Builder and Pig pieces were new to me. Lots of fun, but that game is a little on the long side. Plus my 2nd table isn't big enough so we played on the floor, lots of back pain but everyone liked it.

To finish the night, 1 person left and we played another party game, called "The Game of Things." It's a simple family game where someone reads a topic and everyone writes a response. Then the responses are read and you have to guess who said what. Antics ensue because the responses degrade down to silliness or writing things that your other friends are likely to say to trick people.

Sat:
I met with 4 of Friday's group for 5 total. We played Ticket to Ride again, I won but the 2nd place player had 1 ticket he failed which cost him the game. Plus I made a stupid mistake and took some random irrelevant route for my final turn, but I could have extended my trail with that. It cost me the longest trail bonus, so this game really could have gone either way

We then played Carcassonne again and had 1 new player, he caught on real quick and we all liked it. Again, ran a little on the long side, though.

We finished off with a 5 player game of Catan. We usually omit the extra special building phase between player turns when playing 5-6 players, but decided to try it out this time hoping it would make the game go quicker (previous 5-6 player Catan runtimes got long, like 2+ hours). It sped the game up initially but the game was still just as long as normal. I think the group liked it in the end, though. We'll probably continue to try it out.

Finally, on Easter Sunday I played Ticket to Ride again with my family, 4 players. I won again, so I'm 3 for 3

I just wish there was more time in a single night to play. There were still a handful of games we didn't get to. Plus a lot of them are limited to 4-5 players max, so for example Pandemic was just off limits since I don't have the expansion yet. Not a fan of tweaking rules to allow for more players but it might have to happen

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

We finished off with a 5 player game of Catan. We usually omit the extra special building phase between player turns when playing 5-6 players, but decided to try it out this time hoping it would make the game go quicker (previous 5-6 player Catan runtimes got long, like 2+ hours). It sped the game up initially but the game was still just as long as normal. I think the group liked it in the end, though. We'll probably continue to try it out.

I don't think that extra building rule is supposed to make the game faster. I think it's to help mitigate the damage done by the robber. With that many people your resources are going to pile up and you will exceed your hand limit in no time. A robber can be devastating if you don't play by the special build phase.

I had a big gaming weekend as well. Friday we played a full 5 player game of Mansions of Madness. I was the keeper again and we played the second story, Inner Sanctum. To stay spoiler free, let's just say I lost and I made the mistake of not moving the Shogoth before the objective was revealed. In the end the game went a lot better than our first game which was only three people. The investigators felt they actually accomplished something on their turn and were obviously happy with the outcome.

Saturday started out decently enough but ended terrible. Every so often my game group has a game day that lasts from noon until everybody quits. I ended up getting their about 6 and immediately sat in on a game of BSG. We were playing with the Pegasus expansion minus the Cap board and the Cylon Leaders (so only the good bits). We started out great then we noticed that after our first jump we hadn't seen another Cylon fleet for the remainder of the game. We thought it was weird but we still soldiered on the humans ended up losing by lack of morale. After the end of the game we realized the reason for lack of Cylon fleets is because the person who set the game up forgot to take out the Crisis cards for the Exodus expansion. Grrrrr.

The second game I played (mind you it's about 10:30 now) was London. We played with four and two (including myself) hadn't played before and only one other person had played more than once. So it was pretty much a learning game. I had read the rules and understood everything but the other player, who was new, is notorious in our group for being slow. When I say slow I mean fucking slow. She was able to stretch a game of Lords of Vegas to last almost as long as a game of Imperial. So when she sat in I knew we were in for a long time. So four hours later we finish. The length of time stated on the box? 90 minutes. Fuuuuuuuuu- She literally took 15 minutes to draw three cards once, it was hell. While I did like the game I'll never play it with her again.

Sunday was family time so we ended up playing Winner's Circle, which I found a new appreciation for after we decided to do blind betting and use the 0 chip. I ended up coming in third but I was only shy a couple hundred bucks from the top spot, so it was close. Next we played Ticket to Ride and I completely demolished it. That's about it for the weekend.

Alien Frontiers comes in tonight so I'll definitely take that to game night on Thursday.

 

[UpperCaseN]

I don't think that extra building rule is supposed to make the game faster. I think it's to help mitigate the damage done by the robber. With that many people your resources are going to pile up and you will exceed your hand limit in no time. A robber can be devastating if you don't play by the special build phase.

Ah, I guess we got used to it, we never played with it. We initially decided against it because we learned to play with the regular 4 player rules and thought the special building sounded silly for 5-6 player games. Still, I think it may have sped the game up by at least a hair, we'll probably play with it from now on.

Sucks about your BSG experience. I'm usually the set up guy and I know how sucky it is when I screw up a rule or setup that throws the game.

 

[StoOgE]

Game of Thrones is pretty fucking amazing.

I bow down to my Ameritrash overlords.

I think the expansion is pretty well critical for playing the game.. without the port options several players would have been fucked early on (Lannister).

I'm not sure I like the One time Use powers.. or I should say, I'm not sure I like the special ones. Some of them are super powerful while others aren't My guess is that is used to offset some balance issues in the base game.