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[fenners]

So, did anyone pre-order Alien Frontiers from their favourite online boardgame retailer (e.g. CSI)? You just got screwed by Clever Mojo.

They've taken a lesson from Sirlin and are only selling Alien Frontiers online through a fullfillment center that charges RRP essentially. Any discount online retailer is getting their preorder stock canceled.

So, full price at retail, or full price online? Yay.

Thread about it at BGG.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

So, did anyone pre-order Alien Frontiers from their favourite online boardgame retailer (e.g. CSI)? You just got screwed by Clever Mojo.

They've taken a lesson from Sirlin and are only selling Alien Frontiers online through a fullfillment center that charges RRP essentially. Any discount online retailer is getting their preorder stock canceled.

So, full price at retail, or full price online? Yay.

Thread about it at BGG.

That's shitty.

 

[BattleMonkey]

LNOE went well, and the new GF really had fun with my group of friends so thats awesome and shes going to be a regular in our gaming it seems. Looks like we are getting the band back together in a way and going to do a regular Wed night board game night yay! Betrayal at House on the Hill seems to be on tap next week unless I get Mansions of Madness read up by then instead

 

[AstroLad]

That's shitty.

The Sirlin one was even better. He distributed to regular channels and then bitched at CSI and its customers for ripping him off and costing him money by discounting. Basically you're evil if you buy from CSI. Made the game-company used-gamers-are-evil arguments look downright noble and friendly.

I don't mind companies choosing to limit their customer base so much -- hope for them that their increased charges cover their lost customers. I have plenty of other games to play anyway. Definitely won't buy another Sirlin anything though -- that guy is a total jag. Always has been, but even more so now that he's trying to make money off board games. His games aren't even very well-balanced anyway, which is hilarious.

 

[Neverfade]

Yeah, it'll be a cold day in hell before I'd pay MSRP for Alien Frontiers. Your game is good, but not that good, buddy.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Small potatoes company being over protective of their money. Happens with miniature games alot too as they can't afford discount sellers selling their products which often are overpriced because of low production runs.

 

[Neverfade]

Not to mention that the popularity of that game has seen it OOP the wide majority of the time since it's release. Here's a fucking lightbulb: print a bigger run and profit from the savings.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Many gamers and developers are just not good business people. Like how most game stores fail, as they are run by gamers, who have no clue how to run the business.

 

[platypotamus]

Many gamers and developers are just not good business people. Like how most game stores fail, as they are run by gamers, who have no clue how to run the business.

So true.

 

[Woody Invincible]

Ok, me and the gf had a ball with Pandemic and I just ordered Forbidden Island. I'm trying to take this slow, but there seem to be so many awesome games out there to pick from.

 

[Fjord]

Ok, me and the gf had a ball with Pandemic and I just ordered Forbidden Island. I'm trying to take this slow, but there seem to be so many awesome games out there to pick from.

Did the same thing here. Nobody wants to play Forbidden Island when Pandemic is available though. Maybe it would be better for young children?

 

[UpperCaseN]

Ok, me and the gf had a ball with Pandemic and I just ordered Forbidden Island. I'm trying to take this slow, but there seem to be so many awesome games out there to pick from.

welcome aboard! a year from now you'll be on a TV show about your gaming addiction, having an overwhelming amount of games overflowing kinda like that Hoarders show on TV. Doctors will have to perform surgery on your tightly closed fist, only to find a 20 sided dice in your grip. At least that's the way things are looking for me at this rate

all kidding aside, FI is pretty much exactly Pandemic, just the 'lite' version. it plays in half the time and is not as complex, but they are extremely similar. my group doesn't really play FI anymore, we just play Pandemic instead. both excellent though

 

[AstroLad]

all kidding aside, FI is pretty much exactly Pandemic, just the 'lite' version. it plays in half the time and is not as complex, but they are extremely similar. my group doesn't really play FI anymore, we just play Pandemic instead. both excellent though

yes, this. FI is very nice though for total non-gamers and kids, or casuals who just aren't into pandemic's theme (crazy I know).

if you're looking for co-op, red november is pretty solid and different enough from pandemic

 

[narcosis219]

Is this a problem on my part? I am seriously at a loss here.

I bring "We didn't playtest this at all" to a party and play with 5 people. I say the rules are simple.

Draw a card.
Play a card.

I allow someone who wanted to go first to go first.
"So what do I do?"
"Draw a card then play a card"
"Okay I play this. So now what"
"uh.. just read the card out and do what it says... remember it's a random game without many rules so just go by what the cards say"
*reads card*
"So what do I do?"
*takes card from him and reads it aloud word for word* (card says to play in front of another player)
"it says to play it in front of someone else"
"then what?"
"read the FUCKING CARD IT SAYS RIGHT THEREAUGHGHSDFHSDJFLSDFI*#@UIJ@#E"

"wow wtf dude don't be so mean. maybe if you explained the rules better then we would know how to play"

Rinse and repeat for next 2 players then the game ends.

I don't even..... the damn card says in plain English what to do and you don't understand unless I read it out to you word for word, and you're STILL confused?? I don't want to patronize you but it seems like you will only understand if I stop every 3 words and look at you and wait for a nod to see if you understand.

I thought that this would be the... easiest to explain game ever, but apparently people have reading comprehension issues or don't know how to follow written instructions. Mind you, these are university students in their 3rd year.

I just want to give up introducing games to new people and just play with my core group of gamers who don't even need rules to figure out what's going on.

 

[Flynn]

This sounds like the passive aggressive technique of someone who doesn't actually want to play.

 

[XShagrath]

welcome aboard! a year from now you'll be on a TV show about your gaming addiction, having an overwhelming amount of games overflowing kinda like that Hoarders show on TV. Doctors will have to perform surgery on your tightly closed fist, only to find a 20 sided dice in your grip. At least that's the way things are looking for me at this rate

Totally sounds like me as well. I just got back into things after not really having played many games since high school (now in my mid-30's). A friend introduced me to Chrononauts a few months back and I played it a few times and enjoyed it a lot, so I went to the local store to pick it up and saw that they had Talisman, which was a game I enjoyed playing a bunch back in my early teens. This was around mid-July, I would say. I got a friend of mine to play with me and then he got hooked as well. Flash forward to today, and here's what we've got in our collections:

Me: Chrononauts (all expansions), Talisman, Arkham Horror, City of Thieves, LOTR: LCG, Adventurers, Claustrophobia, Innovation (/w expansion), Space Hulk: Death Angel, Impossible Machine, Dungeoneer, and Gloom. Have Elder Sign, Blood Bowl, Dungeon Run, and Fortune and Glory on pre-order.

Him: Runebound, Stronghold, World of Warcraft (both games), Starcraft, Famiglia, D&D: Ashardalon, Earth Reborn, and I think that's it.

As you can tell, we generally enjoy the more "Ameritrash" games. However, Innovation has probably gotten more play than anything since it's a bit shorter and a really awesome game to boot.

 

[AstroLad]

As you can tell, we generally enjoy the more "Ameritrash" games. However, Innovation has probably gotten more play than anything since it's a bit shorter and a really awesome game to boot.

whoo!

i'm more of a eurogamer but i couldn't imagine not playing ameritrash as well. it's the variety that makes it so great

 

[XShagrath]

i'm more of a eurogamer but i couldn't imagine not playing ameritrash as well. it's the variety that makes it so great

I'll admit I haven't played a lot of the "euro" games, but I've done my fair share of Catan and Carcassonne. Played Puerto Rico a couple times as well. I know Puerto Rico was the #1 game on BGG for a while, but it felt like work to me. Didn't seem to have much player interaction and whatnot. Plus, I like rolling dice!

 

[Yaboosh]

I broke down and bought Innovation. I also picked up the Inns and Cathedrals expansion to Carcassonne since we have been playing a good amount of that at home. I am still kind of hesitant about Innovation but we will see how that goes over.

 

[Neverfade]

I am still kind of hesitant about Innovation but we will see how that goes over.

Innovation haters aren't welcome here. Don't come back if you dislike it.

 

[Ferrio]

Third: you get an extra draw if he shares, which can be really big for getting to a card that can help you catch up when you are behind.

Ohh ya, forgot that rule entirely....

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Did the same thing here. Nobody wants to play Forbidden Island when Pandemic is available though. Maybe it would be better for young children?

Forbidden Island is Pandemic Jr. The only thing Forbidden Island has going for it that Pandemic doesn't is the end game. Forbidden Island's end game is much better. I traded my copy away because it felt redundant to have FI and Pandemic.

 

[Flynn]

whoo!

i'm more of a eurogamer but i couldn't imagine not playing ameritrash as well. it's the variety that makes it so great

Man, I wish Z-Man would get Prophecy back into print. It played like a Euro-balanced Talisman. Probably my favorite game of that ilk.

 

[Hero]

Is this a problem on my part? I am seriously at a loss here.

I bring "We didn't playtest this at all" to a party and play with 5 people. I say the rules are simple.

Draw a card.
Play a card.

I allow someone who wanted to go first to go first.
"So what do I do?"
"Draw a card then play a card"
"Okay I play this. So now what"
"uh.. just read the card out and do what it says... remember it's a random game without many rules so just go by what the cards say"
*reads card*
"So what do I do?"
*takes card from him and reads it aloud word for word* (card says to play in front of another player)
"it says to play it in front of someone else"
"then what?"
"read the FUCKING CARD IT SAYS RIGHT THEREAUGHGHSDFHSDJFLSDFI*#@UIJ@#E"

"wow wtf dude don't be so mean. maybe if you explained the rules better then we would know how to play"

Rinse and repeat for next 2 players then the game ends.

I don't even..... the damn card says in plain English what to do and you don't understand unless I read it out to you word for word, and you're STILL confused?? I don't want to patronize you but it seems like you will only understand if I stop every 3 words and look at you and wait for a nod to see if you understand.

I thought that this would be the... easiest to explain game ever, but apparently people have reading comprehension issues or don't know how to follow written instructions. Mind you, these are university students in their 3rd year.

I just want to give up introducing games to new people and just play with my core group of gamers who don't even need rules to figure out what's going on.

u mad bro?

Edit for real though:

Yeah, sometimes it's frustrating teaching people a new game but the key is patience. You're the teacher here and they are all your students, looking up to you with their doe eyes filled with curiosity but their hearts beating from fear of the unknown. It's up to you to guide them into this void of board gaming so that the hobby may spread, grow and the cycle can repeat itself. Often times the ability to teach a game will determine the enjoyment of said game for new players. I know in our circle there's been a few games that don't hit play as often because of the first experience being less than expected. Talisman has hit the table twice in a year's time. I'm going to have to play Arkham Horror with people from my local game shop if I want to. We've been waiting for our one friend since PAX East to play Battle Star Galactica. I understand in your specific example it was a bit extreme but maybe something a bit more light and friendly would've been a better game to introduce.

 

[UpperCaseN]

CSI order get! I'll be sleeving, organizing, reading rules ALLLLLLLL night, and loving every moment of it

 

[AstroLad]

I'll admit I haven't played a lot of the "euro" games, but I've done my fair share of Catan and Carcassonne. Played Puerto Rico a couple times as well. I know Puerto Rico was the #1 game on BGG for a while, but it felt like work to me. Didn't seem to have much player interaction and whatnot. Plus, I like rolling dice!

PR has very little luck which is why I don't like it myself. Love euros but love luck too. I'm on board with Knizia and Richard Garfield in terms of the right amount of luck being important to making games fun, especially if you play a lot with casuals.

 

[narcosis219]

Has anyone played King of Tokyo? My FLGS just got it and I don't know if they have an open copy.

 

[octobot]

Hi boardgame thread. been lurking around and thought of a reason to post

got my recent CSI splurgefest order in. cant wait to get some games in (and to finally play some physical Ascension, cant wait to try the expansion)

 

[UpperCaseN]

^Ooohhh, please report on Conquest of Nerath, I have a buddy who's interested in it.

Gears of War Board game is showing in stock at CSI, on Amazon it says releases on 9/5

 

[octobot]

^Ooohhh, please report on Conquest of Nerath, I have a buddy who's interested in it.

Gears of War Board game is showing in stock at CSI, on Amazon it says releases on 9/5

going to be a week or so before i get it to the table but i will definitly post my impressions of it.

 

[Flynn]

Played London and Lords of Vegas today. Won London so, of course, I really like that game.
Lords of Vegas was pretty good too. Very dicey, but lots of interesting decisions to be made.

 

[Neverfade]

Forgot all about labor day weekend. Boooooo Gears of War delay.

 

[AstroLad]

Forgot all about labor day weekend. Boooooo Gears of War delay.

for some reason my csi order has been stuck at fedex in florida all week.

and i'm out of town all next week

going to be slammed with work and games when i get back

:/

 

[Flynn]

Gears of War Board game is showing in stock at CSI, on Amazon it says releases on 9/5

Fantasy Flight said they'd add me to their promo list. I hope they send Gears.

 

[Neverfade]

Fantasy Flight said they'd add me to their promo list. I hope they send Gears.

HNNNNG. so jealous.

 

[superrobot]

Coming tonight to Yucata : Pergamon

 

[Whifflebat]

Went to a games night last night and played D&D: Conquest of Nerath, Space Alert and Quarriors.

Ooohhh, please report on Conquest of Nerath, I have a buddy who's interested in it.

Nerath was fun. Played a 4 player game. In a nut shell, it's a simple Risk-like game with D&D trappings. You can decide to send units into dungeons to fight random monsters and hopefully score sweet loot to help with your regular conquering of regions from your opponents. The game rewards offense, so it plays relatively quickly and is a fun dice roller. I didn't enjoy it enough to pick it up myself, but had a good enough time to want to play it again in the future.

Space Alert was very unique, maddening and fun. It kind of felt like a co-op Agricola, except you have to make your action decisions under incredible pressure and all within 10 minutes.

I really liked Quarriors and will probably pick it up. There's just so many pretty dice! Plus I see an expansion is already planned for November. Good times.

 

[platypotamus]

Coming tonight to Yucata : Pergamon

I don't know what that is, but someone invite me!

(I'll be at a music festival all weekend and not take many turns though)

 

[antiquegamer]

Pick these up at PAX.

So far I really like Space Hulk. My son and I found it to be very fun and we have yet beat the scenario. I really like co-op VS deck type game other recommendation?

The bag of 10 Munchkin dices are for my brother-in-law who always complain about my rolls.

Also got Penny Arcade game, it's play alright. Dominion clone with a little twist. My kids like it better because it's goofy theme, I think the rule set need some tweaking.

 

[MichaelBD]

I played my first game of Innovation with the Echos expansion. I have read some reviews and impressions and I know a consensus seems to be you have to play it a few times to get a real feel and appreciation for it and so far I agree.

The new concepts are interesting but the game dragged longer then we were used to and we would forget to do stuff (like echos).

The base game is now probably my second favorite card game; ousting Race for the Galaxy. I really like it. So for now, if I have my choice, I'd stick with the base set. Once I have a few dozen plays or more under my belt then I could see adding the new cards.

I do think it's interesting that they made the expansion a different color back so you can see which cards are from which sets. It made for some interesting choices surrounding dogma effects.

 

[Yaboosh]

I played my first game of Innovation and kind of disliked it. It had nothing to do with the icons mechanic, i just found the flow of the game weird and the actions not all that interesting. Thoughh i am not sure if we were even playing correctly.

When a card tells you to draw a specific age card, do you draw one from the next highest age if the correct pile was empty?

 

[AstroLad]

I played my first game of Innovation with the Echos expansion. I have read some reviews and impressions and I know a consensus seems to be you have to play it a few times to get a real feel and appreciation for it and so far I agree.

The new concepts are interesting but the game dragged longer then we were used to and we would forget to do stuff (like echos).

The base game is now probably my second favorite card game; ousting Race for the Galaxy. I really like it. So for now, if I have my choice, I'd stick with the base set. Once I have a few dozen plays or more under my belt then I could see adding the new cards.

I do think it's interesting that they made the expansion a different color back so you can see which cards are from which sets. It made for some interesting choices surrounding dogma effects.

I like the base still but if I am playing with more experienced players really dig the expansions. The only downside is that it adds like 10m to setup which is a lot for a <60m game. It does't add too much complexity and I really like the way you build the decks with a sampling from base and expansion so you have no idea what you're going to get.

When a card tells you to draw a specific age card, do you draw one from the next highest age if the correct pile was empty?

yes -- this is actually one of the most important mechanics in the game. i've had many people pick the game up right away but for others it is more a slow burn like rftg or something.

 

[RyanDG]

Pick these up at PAX.

So far I really like Space Hulk. My son and I found it to be very fun and we have yet beat the scenario. I really like co-op VS deck type game other recommendation?

You may want to take a look at the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games. It's my favorite of these types of games, probably because of the theme mostly, but also because the game itself is a rather interesting take on some familiar mechanics.

 

[AstroLad]

You may want to take a look at the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games. It's my favorite of these types of games, probably because of the theme mostly, but also because the game itself is a rather interesting take on some familiar mechanics.

i have this game but need someone to teach it to me. the production values are awesome but working through all the goddam corner cases reminds me of learning arkham horror all over again

 

[antiquegamer]

i have this game but need someone to teach it to me. the production values are awesome but working through all the goddam corner cases reminds me of learning arkham horror all over again

Space Hulk was a pain in the butt to learn and I am sure it's way more simpler than LOTR card game. It has one of the worst instruction booklet, not to mention the choice of background they used to print the word on.

I will pick up LOTR. I like the fact that they constantly coming out with new scenarios. (Space Hulk: Death Angels only have one expansion).

 

[RyanDG]

i have this game but need someone to teach it to me. the production values are awesome but working through all the goddam corner cases reminds me of learning arkham horror all over again

I know you've probably already seen it, but the video tutorial they put on the fantasy flight games website is actually not too bad. It is definitely a lot easier to pick up with someone teaching you the ropes, but the tutorial (along with a good rules read through/read through of the cards) doesn't leave too much to guess work.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com./ffg_content/lotr-lcg/tutorial/lotrlcg_player.html

 

[RyanDG]

Space Hulk was a pain in the butt to learn and I am sure it's way more simpler than LOTR card game. It has one of the worst instruction booklet, not to mention the choice of background they used to print the word on.

I will pick up LOTR, I like the fact that they constantly coming out with new scenarios.

You're in luck with this one as well... FFG is planning some additional packs/scenarios for Space Hulk as well. I know their first mini-expansions have already been released. Haven't picked them up myself yet, so I can't judge their quality. The additional packs being released for LOTR have all been solid so far. My wife and I have picked up all of their expansion releases.

 

[antiquegamer]

You're in luck with this one as well... FFG is planning some additional packs/scenarios for Space Hulk as well. I know their first mini-expansions have already been released. Haven't picked them up myself yet, so I can't judge their quality. The additional packs being released for LOTR have all been solid so far. My wife and I have picked up all of their expansion releases.

I am doing a little more research and some complain on Amazon seems to be the fact that it's very hard to put deck together with just core set to beat the game. How true is this? And I didn't know there is deck building involve. How complicate is deck building process? I am no stranger to deck building but I rather not spending time doing that.

Thanks for input and I can't wait for more Space Hulk scenario. I just ordered the first expansion but it seems those are print to order cards so I am not sure how long it take. Problem with Space Hulk is that my wife and daughter just not interested in playing "Space Marine" and killing aliens.

 

[RyanDG]

I am doing a little more research and some complain on Amazon seems to be the fact that it's very hard to put deck together with just core set to beat the game. How true is this? And I didn't know there is deck building involve. How complicate is deck building process? I am no stranger to deck building but I rather not spending time doing that..

For your first question, the only problem I had with the core set was when I tried to play it solo. As soon as you throw in another player (and ultimately another deck) into the mix, we had no problems with getting through the scenarios. The deck building itself isn't too complicated... It's mostly only judged by how deep/customized you want to make it. One thing that I will mention though is that once you start getting into the deck building, you will find that it will greatly increase your game's success rates. A lot of the cards will naturally start to fit together, and tend to build decks by themselves in a way. Especially when you are playing with two players and finding ways to complement the other players heroes. It's tough to really describe the deck building in the game though, as there isn't really a lot of other card games like it... Even the card pool is probably going to be a lot smaller than you may be used to (30 cards or so is usually the minimum end, 50 to be 'tournament legal').

Here's a good site to see some of the lists available:
http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/lotr/lord-of-the-rings-decks/_/lord-of-the-rings-decks/




Edit - I should also mention here that my wife and I didn't even really get into any of the deck building mechanics other than a few small shifts to some of the cards until we got the first expansion.

 

[Neverfade]

Awwwww shit yeah. I FINALLY had my first game of Innovation end by having to draw an 11. I lost, but it was completely brutal. Vaccinations and Mass Media were waging a holy war on each other's score pile and we were in a dead head with achievements as is. My buddy just managed to time a draw dogma just right after scoring a 10 to put him over.

I'm going to BGG and bump this game up my top 10 right now. I love it a bit more every time I play. PLUS I still haven't touched the expansion. I still feel like I'm getting a ton out of the base game.