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[StoOgE]

The paper money is the only thing that really bugs me about the game but it's easily fixed. The insert is an annoyance as it's not even made for the game, but again, easily fixable. The luck factor actually works with the theme. I've said this before, but rolling fistfuls of dice is satisfying as fuck.

yeah, we thought the insert was for some other game too :lol and if I ever bought the game, the paper money would be replaced with some nice poker chips right away.

Like I said, I enjoyed the game, and the luck is something that you can plan for.. do you expand your casino onto the strip knowing someone can take control of it later?

I remember one thing I did in our game was rethemed my entire casino just to free up additional tiles of the kind I was using so the 4th place player could take over the 2nd place players casino. It was pretty satisfying move.

 

[StoOgE]

Sci Fi City in Orlando? They are a well known store, never ordered from them though online.

Looks like it.

They have some really really good prices on certain items.

http://www.sci-fi-city.com/

 

[BattleMonkey]

Looks like it.

They have some really really good prices on certain items.

http://www.sci-fi-city.com/

Should be trustworthy, they have some awesome stores.

 

[platypotamus]

So I mentioned last week that I played some Dominion with my friend and the new girl he's dating. I wasn't sure how much she liked it, but apparently she went the next day to buy it and take it to play with her family on Thanksgiving.

There is really something about that fucking game. It just grabs people so quickly.

 

[StoOgE]

Should be trustworthy, they have some awesome stores.

Nice.. a hypothetical* order of Agricola, 7 Wonders and Civilization is 9 dollars less than it is at Cool Stuff inc.

*hypothetical in that I just placed it.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Did you also compare to miniaturemarket.com ? Find them usually cheaper than CSI on most board games nowadays and free shipping on orders over $75

 

[StoOgE]

has anyone here played Wings of War?

Combining my failed forray into mini gaming with my nascent foray into war gaming might be a disaster, but it looks like fun.

 

[AstroLad]

has anyone here played Wings of War?

Combining my failed forray into mini gaming with my nascent foray into war gaming might be a disaster, but it looks like fun.

monpoc monpoc monpoc!

per bgg looks like 7 wonders is shipping whoo (although i won't get it for a while since i have it with several other games not coming out for a few months)

 

[Flynn]

I'm in the middle of a nice chat with Mike Doyle (the guy who did the redesigns of Modern Art, Titan, Caylus, etc.)

Will link the story when it gets pubbed.

EDIT: Looks like Mike also did Container!

 

[StoOgE]

ask him how long they spent on the 'theme' for container.

 

[StoOgE]

monpoc monpoc monpoc!

Yeah, Monpoc is going on ebay tonight. I was going through my collection and just can't see a way it ever makes it to the table.

Wings of War is supposed to be super simple.. and the base game doesn't even have minis. It's a card game that they added minis too later.

 

[AstroLad]

Yeah, Monpoc is going on ebay tonight. I was going through my collection and just can't see a way it ever makes it to the table..

:/

 

[StoOgE]

:/

yeah, I'm not thrilled either as it seems like a ton of fun.. but the only way I would ever in a million years get to play it would be to go to MonPoc night at my FLGS. Which would require me to become really good and get into deck building.

In other news, looks like Puerto Rico tonight. Haven't played it in a while, I remember liking it but thinking it had a lot of fiddly rules. Fiddly rules and well.. you know.. slaves.

 

[AstroLad]

yeah, I'm not thrilled either as it seems like a ton of fun.. but the only way I would ever in a million years get to play it would be to go to MonPoc night at my FLGS. Which would require me to become really good and get into deck building.

In other news, looks like Puerto Rico tonight. Haven't played it in a while, I remember liking it but thinking it had a lot of fiddly rules. Fiddly rules and well.. you know.. slaves.

Just play M44 Rules alternating armies. Solves every asymmetry problem ever! (In fact Mr. Jack is completely broken without it.)

 

[StoOgE]

Just play M44 Rules alternating armies. Solves every asymmetry problem ever! (In fact Mr. Jack is completely broken without it.)

yeah, I've thought about just ditching all of the specialties and just taking turns blasting each other.

 

[AstroLad]

MANPoc

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

In other news, looks like Puerto Rico tonight. Haven't played it in a while, I remember liking it but thinking it had a lot of fiddly rules. Fiddly rules and well.. you know.. slaves.

Colonists StoOgE, colonists.

Spoiler

No, they're slaves.

EDIT: So what makes MonPoc difficult? I watched a brief video online and it didn't seem too hard.

 

[AstroLad]

Colonists StoOgE, colonists.

Spoiler

No, they're slaves.

EDIT: So what makes MonPoc difficult? I watched a brief video online and it didn't seem too hard.

ALL TERRAIN - This figure treats rough terrain as open
terrain.
Ultra Aquosia
AMPHIBIOUS - This figure treats water spaces as open
terrain.
Water Kami Water Kami Elite
AMPLIFY - If you power up, gain +1 P-Die for each allied
unit with Amplify holding a power zone.
Earth Avatar
ANNIHILATE - This monster's attacks do super damage.
Ultra Aquosia
BEAT BACK - Move target monster 3 spaces in a straight
line in a direction chosen by the attacker. That monster
moves through and collides with buildings, units, and
hazards in its path. It stops moving if it collides with
another monster.
Tectomoc [BR]
BURROW - This figure can move through figures and
treats all terrain as open terrain. It is immune to hazards
while advancing.
Earth Avatar Glass Earth Kami
Earth Kami Elite Ultra Tectomoc
CARGO - This unit is cargo (see Transport).
Water Kami Water Kami Elite
CHAIN ATTACK - Once each turn, this monster can
make a power attack.
Ultra Tectomoc [BR]
CHAIN REACTION - If target unit is destroyed, use the
dice in play to make the same type of attack against 1
enemy unit adjacent to it, regardless of the number of
spaces between the attacker and the new target.
Incinerus [BL]
COUNTERMEASURES - Enemy figures within 2 spaces
of this figure cannot use actions. Buildings within 2
spaces of this figure that are secured by enemy units
cannot use actions.
Earth Avatar
CRUNCH - If this monster's attack rolled 1 or more super
strikes, it does super damage.
Mega Aquosia [BR]
DISTRACT - Enemy figures within 2 spaces of this figure
suffer -1 brawl, blast, and power B-Dice.
Air Kami Air Kami Elite [R]
DRAIN LIFE - Adjacent enemy monsters cannot restore
health.
Water Avatar [R]
ENERGY CYCLE - If this figure participated in an attack
of 2 or more A-Dice, you can return 1 A-Die that rolled a
miss to the active pool.
Aquosia
ENERGY DRAIN - Target monster's controller pushes 1
A-Die from his monster pool to his unit pool.
Hurricanus [BL]
EXPLOSION - All monsters and units adjacent to target
unit with a DEF equal to or less than the number of
strikes rolled take 1 damage.
Ultra Incinerus [BL]
EXTINGUISH - Replace 1 adjacent hazard with rubble.
Aquosia Hurricanus
Mega Aquosia Ultra Aquosia
Ultra Hurricanus
FIREPROOF - This figure is immune to fire hazards.
Incinerus Mega Incinerus
Ultra Incinerus
FLANK - Enemies within 2 spaces of this figure are -1
DEF from brawl attacks made
by other AGN figures.
Water Kami Water Kami Elite
FLIGHT - This figure can move through figures, treats all
terrain as open terrain, and is immune to hazards. It still
suffers collision effects from hazards and figures. A unit
without Flight cannot make brawl attacks against it unless
the attacker has an ability that allows it to do so. This
figure cannot hold objective spaces and does not benefit
from cover.
Air Kami Air Kami Elite
Hurricanus Incinerus
Mega Incinerus Tornadus
Ultra Hurricanus Ultra Incinerus
FLING - Choose a building or enemy figure within 5
spaces of target unit and roll dice in play. If the chosen
figure's DEF is equal to or less than the number of strikes
rolled, it takes 1 damage.
Earth Kami [BR] Earth Kami Elite [BR]
Tornadus [BL]
FRAGILE - If this unit is crushed or destroyed, remove it
from the game instead of putting it in your unit reserves.
Earth Avatar Glass
HASTEN - This unit gains +1 SPD.
Hurricanus [R] Ultra Hurricanus
HAZARDOUS - If a monster collides with 1 or more units
with Hazardous or crushes them with a rampage power
attack, that monster takes 1 damage.
Ultra Incinerus [R]
HOIST - Choose 1 unit within 2 spaces of this figure and
place that unit in another space it could legally occupy
within 2 spaces of this figure.
Tornadus [R]
HOVER - This figure treats all terrain as open terrain.
Water Avatar
IGNITE - Flip an adjacent rubble tile to its hazard side.
Units on the tile suffer the effects of the hazard as if the
unit had ended an advance on the hazard. Monsters do
not suffer the effects of this hazard being brought into
play.
Fire Kami Fire Kami Elite
Incinerus Mega Incinerus
Ultra Incinerus
JUMP - This figure can move through figures while
advancing, treats all terrain as open terrain while moving,
and is immune to hazards on which it does not end its
movement. It still suffers collision effects from hazards
and figures. This unit cannot end its movement on
impassible terrain. This unit can make brawl attacks
against a figure with Flight.
Mega Aquosia
LEADERSHIP - Grunt figures within 2 spaces and with
the same name as this figure gain +1 brawl and blast BDice.
Air Kami Elite Earth Kami Elite
Fire Kami Elite Water Kami Elite
LIFT - Allied units that begin their advance adjacent to
this figure gain Flight for that advance but must still end
their movement on a space they could legally occupy as if
they did not begin their advance adjacent to this figure.
Adjacent allied figures can make brawl attacks against
figures with Flight.
Air Kami Air Kami Elite
LIGHTNING ATTACK - Once each turn, this monster can
roll a second attack of the same type with dice in play
against the same target monster.
Ultra Hurricanus [BL]
LIMITED - You cannot include more than 1 figure with this
name in your city or force.
Tornadus
MULTI-SHOT - Choose up to 2 other enemy units in the
blast attack range of this figure. Those with a DEF equal
to or less than the number of strikes rolled take 1 damage.
Mega Incinerus [BL]
NESTING - If this figure is holding a power zone or
negative zone, put 1 FAC unit from your reserves into
play adjacent to this figure.
Earth Avatar Earth Avatar Glass
OVERLOAD - If target monster's controller has more than
5 P-Dice, this monster’s attack does super damage.
Mega Aquosia [P]
POWER DRAIN - Target monster's controller loses 1 PDie.
Ultra Tectomoc [BR]
POWER GORGE - You gain +1 P-Die.
Tectomoc [BR]
POWER TAP - If your opponent has more than 5 P-Dice
when you power up, your opponent loses 1 P-Die for
each of your allied units with Power Tap holding a
negative zone.
Water Avatar
QUICK - If this figure is the same FAC as your monster,
this figure can advance without spending an A-Die.
Aquosia [R] Ultra Aquosia
Ultra Hurricanus
RADIAL ATTACK - If target figure is hit, other monsters
and units adjacent to the attacking figure with a DEF
equal to or less than the number of strikes rolled take 1
damage.
Ultra Incinerus [BL]
RAGE - If this figure hits with an attack, gain 1 P-Die.
Fire Kami Fire Kami Elite
SIPHON - If target monster is hit, gain +1 P-Die. That
monster's controller loses 1 P-Die.
Incinerus [BL] Mega Incinerus [BL]
STEADY - This monster is immune to body slam power
attacks.
Tectomoc
TENACIOUS - This figure is immune to hazards.
Ultra Tectomoc
TRANSPORT - Put 1 AGN unit with Cargo from your
reserves into play adjacent to this figure.
Aquosia Mega Aquosia
Ultra Aquosia Water Avatar
VOLATILE - If this figure is hit, all adjacent units are
crushed and adjacent buildings and monsters take 1
damage. If this figure is a unit, crush it.
Mega Incinerus
WEAKEN - Enemy figures within 2 spaces of this figure
are -1 DEF to attacks made by AGN figures.
Hurricanus Ultra Hurricanus
WEAPON MASTER - This monster's attack does super
damage.
Mega Aquosia [BL]

And that's only like 1/10th of it.

 

[Drey1082]

I enjoyed my game of it.. but I have a few problems with the game.

First of all, there is too much luck involved. The strategy is great, but if you build up a casino and the D6 spot has yet to be claimed you are basically waiting to lose control of the casino. You can of course force a reroll though.

Second, WHY IS THERE PAPER MONEY? You have a game about Las Vegas. POKER CHIPS. POKER CHIPS. Why are there not poker chips in this game by default?

Lastly.. the box itself is about the worst thing ever. The board, the chits, the dice are all top quality and look like an amazing game.. and the box and storage tray just look like some throwaway game no one cares about.

Other than that I really like the idea of the game. It is like aqcuire but with some randomness to it and a pretty theme. I would like another play with it, but I own acquire and it scratches too much of the same itch.

I thought the level of luck was fine. It is a game about Vegas after all. And it's great to see someone build an awesome casino just to have it stolen.

You're definitely right about the Paper money. Just some cost saving BS. Same with the box.

The game really made me want to try out acquire.

 

[Flynn]

ask him how long they spent on the 'theme' for container.

Ouch. I'll reword the question.

 

[StoOgE]

I thought the level of luck was fine. It is a game about Vegas after all. And it's great to see someone build an awesome casino just to have it stolen.

You're definitely right about the Paper money. Just some cost saving BS. Same with the box.

The game really made me want to try out acquire.

aqcuire is a great game and cheap. For it's price there isn't a good reason not to have it in your collection.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Monpoc is not difficult at all, it just seems people are approaching the game wrong by trying to learn all the abilities for the game. You just learn the basic game and once you have familiarized yourself with the basics, you learn what your figures are capable, don't attempt to learn every power/ability in the game as you just are never going to learn. I played for years, ran demos and tournaments for over a year at our old shop before it closed, and even I can't remember most of the abilities.

Yeah, Monpoc is going on ebay tonight. I was going through my collection and just can't see a way it ever makes it to the table.

Wings of War is supposed to be super simple.. and the base game doesn't even have minis. It's a card game that they added minis too later.

Yea the minis are not needed but do add so much to the game. It's been around for a while, but after they put out the minis for it, the game became very popular.

Basic game will involve each player picking a plane, and each has a deck of cards which represent the capabilities of said plane. Each player at the same time secretly chooses a move to make and puts it on table, and then together everyone reveals their move. You then all in order perform the move you chose. The whole point is largely to maneuver and use your planes strengths to your advantage. Each has different stats and the different decks give each plane different turning speeds and such. You basically move around like that trying to get in a good shooting position.

Combat is somewhat luck based in how much damage you can do, but this is considered very faithful to WWI era fights as the planes were generally fragile and a single bullet could bring a craft down.

Game play is very fast, and theres lots of additional rules with the expansions to make things more interesting like running bombing scenarios, adding rockets, drachens, dive bombing.

The minis are great too and come with adjustable bases so you can alter the altitude of the figures to represent how high/low they are instead of using tokens and such.

I would highly recommend the new deluxe revised set, as it features the full rules including most expansion stuff, game materials to play, as well as 4 plane minis.

 

[AstroLad]

Monpoc is not difficult at all, it just seems people are approaching the game wrong by trying to learn all the abilities for the game. You just learn the basic game and once you have familiarized yourself with the basics, you learn what your figures are capable, don't attempt to learn every power/ability in the game as you just are never going to learn. I played for years, ran demos and tournaments for over a year at our old shop before it closed, and even I can't remember most of the abilities.

We didn't try to learn all of the abilities. Even learning the abilities of just of the two armies in play and all the buildings isn't the friendliest things. I agree, it's not a complex game at all. In fact it has mechanics a five-year-old could understand and appreciate (except the power attacks, which a five-year-old could appreciate, but not understand) but learning the abilities is the hump of the game. Some people are happy to go in and play sans abilities or only knowing their own abilities or whatever but to me that's not even playing MonPoc. At a bare minimum you need to have a rough sense of all of the abilities in play or you're just barely playing a tutorial game since your army's abilities don't exist in a vacuum.

Also you have to realize that CCG mechanics are just anathema to most eurogamers. For me they are literally impossible to play with short of going to some Magic shop and playing with weirdos. I don't have any friends or family I can say come on over and bring your set and let's duke it out. So I have to be more creative but the game was designed for that CCG mindset where you just tailor and learn your army inside out, and sort of pick up the other armies along the way. I have to basically either play Voltron or make MonPoc uber M44 where I make all the armies and then play both sides to compensate for any imbalances. When my brother comes over I plan to teach him and let him choose his own army but he used to play Warhammer and stuff so that doesn't really worry me.

I still think it's a cool game.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Thing is it's a miniature game really so like most games of it's type, you have lot of abilities in your "army", which a person will build around and plan ahead before they get to the table. A person will always have the hump of learning how to play that army and what it can do as with any miniature wargame, which monpoc has lot in common with. Same as with playing a CCG, you have to generally play several times and do lots of planning outside of the game to build your decks and learn what it can and can't do.

As a board game where you can just pull out the stuff and play on the spot, it's not really going to work out that well for sure.

 

[StoOgE]

Oddly enough one of my friends from high school showed up to game night.. and was playing... MonPoc :lol

So we'll see.. I might hit him up to teach the game to me since he seems to know what is going on and I might have someone to play with.

Anyway, no Puerto Rico tonight. The girlfriend canceled at the last minute to go buy different shoes for her Christmas party tomorrow (she decided she needs taller heels so our height will be 2" apart of something stupid). so that meant her brother and sister in law didn't come.. which left my friend John and I to play.

3 games of Aton. I'm really, really liking that game a lot. The strategy is really deep and there are a lot of moving parts. The one thing I will say is it is rare that someone gets to remove someone else's pieces from the game. The 2nd cartouche is a dumping ground for your low card since it is the only playing area where a low card is worth anything. Other than that, I really love the game. Very tight, plays quickly. We got 3 games in in around 1:20 minutes with 3 beers and a pizza consumed in the process.

1 game of 1 player St. Petersberg which I heard worked well as a 2p game and it really did. Very interesting tableau building game.. it doesn't feel like any other game I've ever played, yet it is very simple to understand. I would have won the game had I not opened my big mouth out of turn to show how clever I was and gave John the winning move. *&$#@*&$^

Anyway, headed to the parents tommorow to drop my dog off so they can watch it at the aforementioned Xmas party. They asked me to bring games.. I think I'm going to try BSG on them since they are fans of the show. I'll bring Puerto Rico, Power Grid and Carson City along as well since they like those.

 

[StoOgE]

Also, got my Le Havre and Agricola donation cards in today from lookout games.

Looks like the X deck is officially no longer a freebie. I got (part of) the L deck. I bought the Legendary deck at BGG-Con and can see myself using it or the X deck on occasion, but the L deck is never going to make it to the table. I'll get the X deck when I buy the goodies expansion at some point down the road.

Not really a huge deal, I mostly just wanted the Le Havre Special Buildings that look amazing. They are mostly "fun" cards, but unlike say the X deck, they can be mixed into your regular special cards deck without issue and aren't game breaking. In fact, they ramp up some super nasty attack buildings that can completely hose other players

Should be getting Grand Hameau for Christmas as well which will give me 74 special building cards which should pretty much ensure each game is completely different.

 

[AstroLad]

Should be getting Grand Hameau for Christmas as well which will give me 74 special building cards which should pretty much ensure each game is completely different.

I just did that Farmers thing too. More charities should offer eurogame promotions! I happened to have Hameau since it was nicely discounted when I picked up Le Havre from CSI a while back. Going to play at least five more games with the base set first though.

Also my December CSI order shipped

Carson City Board Game (2nd Printing)
Twilight Struggle Deluxe Edition
Civilization: The Board Game

I dunno when Civ is going to come out but Carson City is hitting the table this weekend for sure. Just hope those Frenchies get me my Indian before the holidays.

Oddly enough one of my friends from high school showed up to game night.. and was playing... MonPoc

See MonPoc Mania is sweeping the nation -- don't get Left Behind everyone!

 

[StoOgE]

yeah, Grand Hameau isn't going to get mixed in with the base cards right away. The promo cards did though since that is the intention for them. When I orderd Le Havre I didn't realize there was an expansion (I don't normally look for them right away). Had I known it had an under 10 dollar expansion I would have bought it.

I guess you haven't played with the special cards at all yet since we played the "short" game. The city builds a certain number of special cards during the game and they are all pretty much rule-breaking cards that let you do crazy stuff. Only 6 ever come up during the game (I think that's the number) so a bigger deck just means more unique cards are available to keep the game fresh. Granted, the game is fun regardless of what Special Cards come up, but it's fun when you get a couple of really awesome ones. More variety is good.

It's like having more Dominion expansions. They give you new rules, but don't fundamentally change the game since you are always getting a random assortment of the cards anyway.

And yes, I really want the Indian card to get here soon. If played on the red side his "Max 3 dollar cost for land" combined with the store owner (VP for owned homes) or the prospector (VP for mountains owned) can become a very viable strategy that steals income from other players by buying houses and mountains out from under them.

Also bought "Merlin's Company" which is an expansion that makes Shadows over Camelot harder, allows for up to 8 players, introduces a 2nd possible traitor, 9 new knights to choose from, introduces a game controlled helper in Merlin who can assist you in quests and makes moving between quests a hazard as well. Looks like a winner since that game needed to be a bit harder. It was 15 dollars at my FLGS. It's also OOP and going for 40 dollars+ online right now.. so quick win. I think it survived because they put it with the other M games, not next to their copies of Shadows.

 

[AstroLad]

Yeah we played about half a game this weekend with four where we used the special cards. Game is so long. Very fun, but long. I need to figure out how to treat loans. Maybe use Uwe's suggested rule.

 

[StoOgE]

Yeah we played about half a game this weekend with four where we used the special cards. Game is so long. Very fun, but long. I need to figure out how to treat loans. Maybe use Uwe's suggested rule.

the game is long. It takes around 2.5 hours to play a 3 player game. I imagine 4 would push it up to 3 hours.

I have a similar experience to what I had with Agricola though.. I look up, it's 2.5 hours later but it felt like 20 minutes. That's when I know it's time to buy a game

 

[fenners]

Also bought "Merlin's Company" which is an expansion that makes Shadows over Camelot harder, allows for up to 8 players, introduces a 2nd possible traitor and makes moving between quests a hazard as well. Looks like a winner since that game needed to be a bit harder. It was 15 dollars at my FLGS. It's also OOP and going for 40 dollars+ online right now.. so quick win. I think it survived because they put it with the other M games, not next to their copies of Shadows.

$15 at Dragon's Lair?? Any more copies?

 

[StoOgE]

$15 at Dragon's Lair?? Any more copies?

It's the last one on the shelf that I saw. They often only put one copy of some games on the shelf that don't sell that great, so you may want to ask them if they have more.

 

[fenners]

I really need to pop in there more often. Rogue's Gallery is just far easier to get to on the weekend.

 

[StoOgE]

I really need to pop in there more often. Rogue's Gallery is just far easier to get to on the weekend.

I really like Dragon's Lair a good deal. Mostly because they leave you alone and don't pester you. They also carry comics in a logical fashion unlike Austin Books and Comics that has them in some weird layout where no one could find anything.

Very few people seem to ever be buying Euros there, which is probably why they had this and have Gulo Gulo in stock.

I live between it and Great Hall Games and far prefer Dragon's Lair. Though, I won't buy more than expansions from either of them because of the cost. I would love to support my FLGS, but not at 30-40% markup.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Selling at retail price is not a mark up.

 

[AstroLad]

I really think the only viable physical business model that caters to eurogamers is something along the lines of Snakes & Lattes where you offer a very attractive playspace for a cover charge, and make extra money from food and then perhaps a small amount of game sales as well. But then again that's why most FLGS folks tend to hate all eurogamers but will literally roll out a gold-plated red carpet for you if you even utter the word "Magic."

 

[fenners]

I really like Dragon's Lair a good deal. Mostly because they leave you alone and don't pester you. They also carry comics in a logical fashion unlike Austin Books and Comics that has them in some weird layout where no one could find anything.

Very few people seem to ever be buying Euros there, which is probably why they had this and have Gulo Gulo in stock.

I live between it and Great Hall Games and far prefer Dragon's Lair. Though, I won't buy more than expansions from either of them because of the cost. I would love to support my FLGS, but not at 30-40% markup.

Oh I like Dragon's Lair too, it's just in the wrong direction for me - I work in the Domain, I travel north to get home. Rogue's Gallery is just handier on the weekend for me, living in the 'burbs - their selection is smaller than DL, but the service is identical. I've bought a number of expansions & stuff there, and they do run the occasional deal (not /great/ but good - 20% off etc). I picked up a couple of Small World expansions there on Friday for my BGG Secret Santa, got $5 back in a gift card.

Selling at retail price is not a mark up.

Agreed. But the discounts available online always make it an easy decision on where to spend money for "big" orders, especially ones that qualify for free shipping.

 

[StoOgE]

Selling at retail price is not a mark up.

yeah, but you know what I meant.

I buy most of my expansions or cheaper games there because it is only a 3-4 dollar price difference.

When you start looking at "big games" that cost 30-50 online or 45-70 in store it's hard to justify the price difference. I can do 1 larger order every 2-3 months and get free shipping and it's like getting one of the games for free vs. buy a game a month at my FLGS.

They get enough of my comic money as it is. :lol

 

[BattleMonkey]

I really think the only viable physical business model that caters to eurogamers is something along the lines of Snakes & Lattes where you offer a very attractive playspace for a cover charge, and make extra money from food and then perhaps a small amount of game sales as well. But then again that's why most FLGS folks tend to hate all eurogamers but will literally roll out a gold-plated red carpet for you if you even utter the word "Magic."

Board games and RPG players don't make game stores money generally. Stores have to focus on multiple revenue streams to stay afloat nowadays. Gaming products don't get any cheaper, they have shit profit margins, and they haven't been really seeing growth in player base. Same goes for comic book stores which tend to have to expand to different product lines and often gaming as well.

 

[StoOgE]

There is a store near me that seems to survive off of War games and board games alone.

Though, the difference between hard core war gamers and mini gamers is next to nothing :lol

Lots of paint and minis in the store.

 

[AstroLad]

I'm biased too. I just don't like the feel of most game stores. My dad and I were huge comic collectors when I was a kid and we visited pretty much every store in Chicago and then all the stores in the Midwest when we went on family road trips but they were more of a necessary evil than something we genuinely enjoyed the atmosphere of. Evil is no longer necessary now so suck it!

 

[BattleMonkey]

Wargamers buy minis like it was crack

 

[platypotamus]

Looks like I'm getting two nights of gaming in this week.

Tomorrow, myself, 2 of my gaming friends, and the new to board gaming Dominion-girl mentioned previously. Not sure what I'm going to play with them. I think the natural tendency will be to play more dominion, since all of them know it, but I am kinda burnt out on Dominion a bit, so hoping I can talk them into something else. May try for Dungeon Lords.

Friday, playing with normal group (wife and her sister/husband). My night to choose the game there, and almost certainly going with Agricola. That's your collective faults, you've talked about it enough lately that I need to play it.

 

[Flynn]

I'm biased too. I just don't like the feel of most game stores. My dad and I were huge comic collectors when I was a kid and we visited pretty much every store in Chicago and then all the stores in the Midwest when we went on family road trips but they were more of a necessary evil than something we genuinely enjoyed the atmosphere of. Evil is no longer necessary now so suck it!

The Source in Minneapolis was a truly awesome game/comic shop. Best board game selection I've ever seen. But it was still a little geeky.

My favorite places to buy comics now are:
Family and Secret Headquarters.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Battlecry is out now, can't wait to get ahold of it.

 

[Merino]

Time for me to make a post in this new thread and join all of you.

Am a relatively new boardgamer who bought his first games last january.
Since then it's actually been quite a hard year getting any games to the table considering the amount of money I've invested in it already.

Tonight actually was the first opportunity I had to introduce the new-style boardgame (Ticket To Ride) to my own family. They have played Catan in the past but here in the Netherlands Catan is about as well known as monopoly so that doesn't count. They really seemed to be enjoying it alot and as this was my first ever 5-player game I had a great time myself aswell. Will have to try to find the time to go over there more often and use them as play-partners.

I have also been able to get a number of my friends hooked on Agricola but from there I haven't been able to get them to enjoy any other game I've put in front of them. Tried Ticket To Ride, Dominion and Race for the Galaxy but they all liked Agricola far better and are hard pressed to try anything else. I got Le Havre in this week so at least that will provide some needed change.

Luckily I am able to get quite a few games out of my gf and for that reason have mostly been considering to mainly restrict myself to buying two-player games. There just doesn't seem to be that much opportunity to game with a larger group in my current situation. She's fortunately geeky enough to try (and enjoy) most games I throw upon her. In fact while visiting a local boardgame store and offering her to pick any game she liked I was positively shocked to see her choose War of the Ring. She even wanted to paint the minitures

For christmas I'll be getting her;
- Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries
- Aton
- Hacienda
- Martinique

I asked her for;
- Civilization Boardgame
- Twilight Struggle Deluxe Edition
- Agricola: Goodies Expansion
- Power Grid

 

[platypotamus]

Welcome to the thread Merino!

I have to say I'm pretty shocked that your group of friends is so stuck on Agricola. They must be pretty hardcore to like that one at the expense of the others you tried with them. Maybe you'll have luck with the Civ you asked for. Power Grid is also pretty hardcore. Is there anything about Agricola that they say they like especially? Might help figure out some games that they'll go for.

I also fully support the Twilight Struggle choice. You and the lady will probably love that one.

 

[StoOgE]

So, played BSG tonight. 3 player only which was pretty limiting.

I like the game. I like it a lot actually. 3p made it very obvious who the cylon was. That and she was the only one drawing red cards so when 3 of them came up in a support check I just stared at her and told her "you may as well play the Cylon card now".. but I don't think there is any way to accuse a Cylon player like there is in Shadows.

I liked a lot about the game. The president feels like an extremely powerful (yet extremely fluid) position. I played it most of the game and was doing a lot of good with the cards from the quarum deck. The nuke cards never came into play in our game (they probably should have), but the admiral being able to choose where we jump to is critical. Our admiral was a Cylon and chose two 1 movement destination cards in a row and really set us back.

I like the support check system. Shadows has a problem where it is often very hard for the traitor to be too evil simply because it would make it too obvious they are the traitor. Moves are fairly out in the open in that game. While the "actions" taken by a Cylon player need to be masked, they can completely fuck up the support checks and kill people.

I also like how the Cylon becomes more powerful in some ways after they reveal themselves. We had a fleet of Cylon attackers, the Cylon finally revealed herself, grabbed the "activate" any units and started blasting the holy hell out of Galactica with the base stars. Amazingly thematic situation. The humans wound up jumping at a loss of 3 population just to get the hell out of there.

I really enjoy the recreation of the first season of BSG that the game manages.. you jump and everything is going very well. For 4-5 player turns you run around drawing cards and getting ready with very little bad happening to you. Then the Cylons find you and all hell breaks loose and it's a race to jump the fuck out of there.

The humans won our game, but 3 of the supply wheels were within 1-2 spins of death. Gallactica was in good shape because we had two people with engineering skills and the boarding party never became a huge problem. Population almost sunk us as we had 4 human ships about to die if we failed to make a jump and only 2 population left :lol

I also think the game feels more like an episode of the TV show than a collection of mini-games. I like Shadows over Camelot, but it is a bunch of disjointed little mini games that feel very abstract. This game never really took on an abstract feeling. It is a worker placement game. You put your character on a space and take that action, and they all make sense thematically. The "bad" cards are also very evil as they often result in a bad action *and* a Cylon attack of some sort. But at least part of the bad thing can be mitigated with a support check, and well dispersed vipers can help with cylon attacks.

Great time, though I suspect the game really shines with 5-6 people.

My only real rules question is about the sympathizer card. Can someone explain how the hell that works because I reread that paragraph in the rules book 5 times and don't get it. Does the Cylon start working as a human again? but only if all of the supplies are above the halfway point?

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

BSG really shines with four or five players but it sounds like you had a good time. What's great is how the game mechanics become almost second nature as the game goes on and the focus becomes the Cylon hunt meta game. It's the one game I wish we can get it to the table more often.

As for the sympathizer card, it's really confusing and I'm sure I have this wrong so please feel free to correct me. The way I see it depending on who is winning the sympathizer is part of the losing side. So if the Cylons look like they are going to win the sympathizer is revealed but is human and sent to the Brig. If it's the other way around they are revealed as a Cylon and plays the rest of the game out as one in the Cylon fleet. It's a really weird balancing mechanic that I honestly wish wasn't there.

 

[Neverfade]

Joey's got it right again regarding the sympathizer.

The best solution? Don't play 4 or 6 player games. I despise the mechanic and would rather watch a 5 player game than play a 6 player game. And if there's 4, we'll just play something else. If the sympathizer ends up being a cylon, it totally ruins the game for that person. The whole point is being able to psyche people out and reveal when YOU want to. This card removes that AND doesn't let you use one of the cylon locations, of which there are already slim pickings.

FUCK the sympathizer.