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[Merino]

Man those component-breakdown videos from Drakkenstrike on BGG are heavily fueling my collectors OCD.

I've been looking around like crazy today for Plano boxes in nearbye stores and luckily found a fishingsport-store that's able to get pretty much all the different models.
So now I'm investigating BGG to find out how best to get most of my collection into those pretty plastic cases.

I also love seeing his video's on Limited Editions and pre-painted miniature releases but at the same time I'm fully aware that I am way to poor to fork out so much cash for such editions.
The set of Investigators for Arkham Horror on the other hand are going to be hard to resist I feel. and I don't even own the game yet :lol

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Played Pandemic for the first time tonight. Didn't realize that it was a co-op game when I picked it up. We played with 4 players with 5 epidemic cards. We had a Medic, Researcher, Scientist and Operations Expert (me).

South America got hammered right form the beginning, so our medic ended up spending pretty much the entire game down there. Toward the end Asia started to get lots of cubes as well. Overall, we had a pretty easy time getting all four cures and winning the game. I could certainly see how the game could be a lot harder with fewer players and/or if you don't get the right roles. Overall, it was a good game.

Interested in trying it with the expansion at some point in the future.

You must have missed a rule somewhere.

Generally with 2-3 investigators you want to win by sealing gates, especially 2. With 5+, it's easier to win by defeating the AO (and it's just easier overall). 4 you can go either way, which is why 4 is the best way to play the game.

An experienced group of players may actually want to try winning by getting enough gate tokens and simply closing all the gates on the board. Seal when you can, sure, but that's another victory path - gate rush.

 

[AstroLad]

Yeah anyone playing Pandemic check out this thread: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/300287/common-mistakes

The set of Investigators for Arkham Horror on the other hand are going to be hard to resist I feel. and I don't even own the game yet :lol

I think those are kind of crummy. Could be wrong and you can check out reviews but they're that soft rubber and the paintjobs look a bit meh to me. I have way too many investigators anyway.

If you want some really nice pre-painted stuff, check out Monsterpocalypse. Unfortuantely I can't vouch for the game itself quite yet since I haven't had the chance to play it. :lol

 

[Merino]

I had no idea they where soft rubber (hadn't investigated the investigators much further than the component-breakdown video).

Will have to see if I can inspect one somewhere before committing to the purchase.

 

[AstroLad]

*BattleMonkey signal*

 

[StoOgE]

I'm home sick. lets do it.

 

[BattleMonkey]

*BattleMonkey signal*

Did someone say miniatures?!

 

[Evlar]

So third playthrough of Civ last night. We have it down to 3 hours now, and that's with occasional analysis paralysis. My wife looooves it. I'm still trying to figure out the game balance: last night's game spanned about 15 total turns yet was incredibly close in the end (the difference came down to a single culture event card). A virtual tie.

 

[BattleMonkey]

I had no idea they where soft rubber (hadn't investigated the investigators much further than the component-breakdown video).

Will have to see if I can inspect one somewhere before committing to the purchase.

The figs FFG uses are generally a very cheap plastic often seen in board game minis as well as collectible miniature games. The detail is not as sharp as you would get with hard plastics, but for game usage it's not bad. Figs with pointy parts or objects in hand can sometimes suffer bending due to packaging and the rubbery plastic not being able to properly hold the weight of the sculpt. Paint jobs are also pretty mediocre, these are quickly painted mass production items, not really hand painted with care. For general table top gaming though the figs work fine, as long as you don't stare at them closely they shouldn't bother you, but if you wanted quality stuff you will probably do better to just create your own. There are countless companies that make good miniatures out of pewter that can match the investigators from Arkham. If you're into hobby stuff, buying these and painting them up to match the characters in the board game could make for a visually appealing game.

I don't think the figs are bad though, but it is pricey to replace all the investigators so I wouldn't bother.

 

[Mashing]

Man those component-breakdown videos from Drakkenstrike on BGG are heavily fueling my collectors OCD.

No kidding, I've been watching all of them (and it appears that me and him share similar interests). I definitely have to pick up Middle Earth Quest next month.

 

[Seth C]

I bought myself Ticket to Ride and Small World for Christmas. Can't wait to play them.

 

[StoOgE]

good games fellas, I need to go get some sleep

 

[Mashing]

I picked up a couple Christmas presents (RFTG for my bro, Jaipur for my folks) and finalized another CSI order, so looking forward to some 7 Wonders and Gric+The Goodies over the holidays.

Generally with 2-3 investigators you want to win by sealing gates, especially 2. With 5+, it's easier to win by defeating the AO (and it's just easier overall). 4 you can go either way, which is why 4 is the best way to play the game.

Should I be using specific investigators or just pick randomly? I picked randomly on my first game and ended up with the doctor and the store clerk/trader (don't remember their names). I did the same thing for the GOO and ended up with Shub-Niggoroth (not an easy GOO to deal with).

I browsed the strat forum a bit and they pretty much say: get clues at all costs, don't waste them on anything (except to save an investigator being devoured). I'm also guessing the speedier investigators make for better gate closer/sealers.

 

[AstroLad]

I like doing random for any game with characters (e.g., LNOE). Some investigators are very powerful if you want an easier time of it. Mandy Thompson springs to mind.

 

[Merino]

No kidding, I've been watching all of them (and it appears that me and him share similar interests). I definitely have to pick up Middle Earth Quest next month.

yeah I agree, pretty much 90% of his collection I already own or have on my wishlist

edit//
and great, Middle Earth Quest now also popped into my wishlist :lol

 

[Yeef]

Yeah anyone playing Pandemic check out this thread: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/300287/common-mistakes

Looking at that list there is only one thing we didn't do and it only would've made the game even easier:

- All cubes of cured diseases in the same city as the Medic, including newly placed cubes, are immediately removed. This does not require an action and occurs at all times, not just on the Medic's turn.

Maybe we just got lucky, but I'd like to think it was all our skill. All four of us are pretty seasoned board gamers (same group of people I play Caylus and Argiola with).

 

[AstroLad]

prbly got lucky

i'm just kidding i've only played like two games of pandemic ever and am 1-1. just always heard that it was pretty tough and that if you play even one thing wrong it can change drastically. noticed a few big things not mentioned in that list but oh well. gonna play tonight with the fam actually

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Maybe we just got lucky, but I'd like to think it was all our skill. All four of us are pretty seasoned board gamers (same group of people I play Caylus and Argiola with).

Our game group has about a 50% win rate on normal (5 epidemics). Some games can go deceptively easy.

 

[StoOgE]

Our game group has about a 50% win rate on normal (5 epidemics). Some games can go deceptively easy.

There is also a high probability of a rules screw up. I've found a lot of people who complain that Pandemic or Shadows over Camelot is too easy, and it's because they are doing something wrong.

That said, if everyone plays smartly you can win 80% of the time, so it's very possible that they just had a great strategy. Sounds like the medic did his job (removing cubes).

As far as removing cured diseases, it is a *huge* help. Eradicating a single disease is enough to pretty much ensure a win.

 

[Flynn]

Looking forward to board game tomorrow. We set up an "Other Guys" meeting with just the nice, patient, socially adjusted people. I hope we play ten hands of 7 Wonders.

 

[platypotamus]

All of my board gamers are now out of town for the holidays, so I'm unlikely to do anything but 2 player gaming with the wife until I am also out of town.

In that time, it is my hope to sneak a game of Twilight Struggle in. I've been jonesin for it for awhile now.

Flynn, I mentioned the possibility of meeting up with you to the wife, and she didn't instantly say no, so we might be able to make it happen!

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Thumbs up to Astro for an awesome packing job. USPS completely demolished the shipping box but the game inside was unscathed.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Big clearance sale at Miniaturemarket, for any fans of the 40k universe, you can get the Horus Heresy for the incredibly low price of $45. This is one of the FFG big games, tons of miniatures, and it is an excellent wargame for 2 players. It's somewhat limited in that it's mostly going to appeal to fans of the universe, but it's a heck of the deal that you shouldn't pass up if you are.

http://miniaturemarket.com/amazing_deals1

 

[Neverfade]

7 Wonders is in and Merchants & Marauders will be here Monday. zommgggg.

 

[StoOgE]

Astrolad, just got my Indian card in the mail today.

woohoo.

 

[StoOgE]

Got in games of Carson City and Le Havre today.. a couple of thoughts

1) Le Havre continus to grow on me.. and I continue to get better at it. The special buildings, though being pretty small in number in the game are extremely powerful. I think the better selection the promo cards and expansion give are well worth it because even a single special building card is enough to change a game completely.

2) The Indian card in Carson city really opens up an interesting method of playing the game. Take the indian - buy up a bunch of mountains in turns 2 or 3. Effectively destroy anyone elses mine operations.. then take the settler and turn those owned mountains into VP.

or, more devastating.. take the indian, buy up a ton of houses all over town for 3 dollar a pop... then take the store owner and convert houses into VP.. and of course, destroy all income for other players in the city itself.

The indian is fascinating because it makes buying mountains and houses around your buildings a necessity for defense.. because a well timed Indian card can destroy your entire strategy otherwise.

 

[dogbert]

Betrayal At House On the Hill for $20 at Amazon... They've got Pandemic for that price too. Tempting despite the production problems with Betrayal (which are getting taken care of apparently).

Too many games, too little time.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Betrayal At House On the Hill for $20 at Amazon... They've got Pandemic for that price too. Tempting despite the production problems with Betrayal (which are getting taken care of apparently).

Too many games, too little time.

I haven't had a chance to follow the game much. What sort of production issues are they having? If it isn't too bad that is a tempting price.

 

[StoOgE]

I haven't had a chance to follow the game much. What sort of production issues are they having? If it isn't too bad that is a tempting price.

the tiles that make up the house are warped and or warping. The little plastic pins that tell you your stats fall off or slide around on their own way too easily.

I've not played the original version, but there are component issues that actually make this one hard to play.

 

[StoOgE]

Dominion: Alchemy is 15 dollars at CSI this weekend, and Agricola is 37.

Pretty great prices on both of those.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

I've not played the original version, but there are component issues that actually make this one hard to play.

Seeing how this is from Avalon Hill, it really shouldn't surprise me. The amount of component issues there were with the Pacific version of Axis and Allies was terrible.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

CSI and Amazon are killing me with the sales this year. I've already added Asteryoids and Cities from CSI and Stomple, Qwirkle Cubes, Zeus on the Loose and TtR 1910 expansion from Amazon. And now CSI has Ingenious Challenges, a Touch of Evil Hero Pack, and Farmers of the Moor on sale.

Thankfully, I already have some of the big games that have been on sale (Pandemic, Betrayal) or the damage would be even greater. Though the Dominion big box is tempting. Knocking down the BGG wishlist I guess

 

[AstroLad]

Had a pretty good start to Christmas vacation. My parents got here Thursday and I taught and played:
-Carc: They loved this, especially my mom who is French.
-Pandemic: 4P game and though I'm not the biggest fan of this game I actually really enjoyed it. We were one turn away from winning so it was pretty exciting and fun. Dad really liked it. I integrated the new roles now so we're going to play again with those.
-Twilight Struggle: Taught this to my dad, who loved it. I had a 17 VP lead in Turn 3 and he pulled out an improbable Europe control win, which was quite awesome actually. Definitely playing this again.
-Gric: Everyone's brains were burning on this one. Looking forward to playing it again.

When my brother gets here on Thursday it's just going to be nonstop gaming.

Astrolad, just got my Indian card in the mail today.

Ditto! Looking forward to playing soon.

 

[Chorazin]

Played Carcasonne for the first time last night, one of the first real Euro games I've tried. It was ok, scoring was kind of weird, hopefully if i play it again I'll have better luck with it. One guy beat everyone else by a ton of points.

 

[AstroLad]

Played Carcasonne for the first time last night, one of the first real Euro games I've tried. It was ok, scoring was kind of weird, hopefully if i play it again I'll have better luck with it. One guy beat everyone else by a ton of points.

Carcassonne is awesome, but you have to play it two or three times to get a hang of the scoring. It's a Euro sure, but it's one of the absolute lightest Euros out there. If some experienced player was scoring tons of field points without repeatedly cluing you in as to how fields work that person is an asshole.

 

[AstroLad]

oh yeah btw iOS BG GAF, Neuroshima is on sale for .99 today. Awesome awesome super-polished app. (And game, my opinion.)

 

[platypotamus]

-Twilight Struggle: Taught this to my dad, who loved it. I had a 17 VP lead in Turn 3 and he pulled out an improbable Europe control win, which was quite awesome actually. Definitely playing this again.

Dammmmmmmn, never seen one of those happen.

 

[AstroLad]

Dammmmmmmn, never seen one of those happen.

haha yeah me neither. it was even better than a typical one b/c literally the turn before I missed my space-race roll that would have given me those three points.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Seeing how this is from Avalon Hill, it really shouldn't surprise me. The amount of component issues there were with the Pacific version of Axis and Allies was terrible.

The original run of the game came out nicely. I'm hoping the recent release of Battlelore doesn't fall victim to their recent production failings.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Had a 4 player TtA game last night.

SO GOOD.

I took the culture lead at the end, but fell short after the bonus scoring and ended up 2nd. Game took about 4 hours, but this was the first time through the Advanced Game for most of the players plus they hadn't played TtA in a long while.

 

[bistromathics]

Me and a few friends of mine have loved playing Catan on XBLA...it's probably the best local game we've played, other than Rock Band (although Super Meat Boy is climbing the chart). It doesn't matter who's using the controller - we all get in on the action and yell and discuss and fight about what the best move should be.

Now my roommate is completely hooked on the XBLA version, and after getting in a million fights over where he should put his house, I realize it's time to man up and get the real life version. I'm wondering if I should just get the straight up Settlers of Catan to start? I know there are tons of expansions...what do they add to the game anyway? Are there any that are widely accepted to be improvements?

Also, is there a site I should be buying from? I was just going to use Amazon...

 

[AstroLad]

Me and a few friends of mine have loved playing Catan on XBLA...it's probably the best local game we've played, other than Rock Band (although Super Meat Boy is climbing the chart). It doesn't matter who's using the controller - we all get in on the action and yell and discuss and fight about what the best move should be.

Now my roommate is completely hooked on the XBLA version, and after getting in a million fights over where he should put his house, I realize it's time to man up and get the real life version. I'm wondering if I should just get the straight up Settlers of Catan to start? I know there are tons of expansions...what do they add to the game anyway? Are there any that are widely accepted to be improvements?

Also, is there a site I should be buying from? I was just going to use Amazon...

You should start with the base game. Cities & Knights is a very popular expansion among Catan players though. It adds a good deal of complexity. Seafarers is the next most popular. You can check out reviews for these at boardgamegeek.com to see how well they would suit your group. For US orders, check out coolstuffinc, thoughthammer, and miniaturemarket.

 

[Neverfade]

Merchants and Marauders at home and I'm stuck at work....grr.

 

[Flynn]

Finally played a couple hands of 7 Wonders. Everybody in the group grokked the game pretty quickly.

Noticed a weird anomaly where we had two extra cards after dealing out the third round. I made sure to remove all the cards for 6 and 7 player game so I can only assume that a) somehow I have extra cards or b) the game purposefully leaves out two cards so you can't bet 100% that you'll get the guild card you want.

We also got in a game of BSG. Was the first time I played and I wound up liking it better than most co-op games. One of our Cylons misread his card and thought that he couldn't reveal himself if he was in the brig. That may have made the difference between winning and losing for us.

But I have to say, I made a damn good Adama. NUKE! JUMP! NUKE! JUMP!

 

[Neverfade]

grokked

Say what now?

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Merchants and Marauders at home and I'm stuck at work....grr.

Bah, my copy doesn't come in until Tuesday, quit yer bitching!

 

[Mashing]

I played Settlers of America tonight. It really is a better game than Catan is. I can't wait until they come out with some expansions. Ordered Power Grid, Betrayal and Pandemic this weekend on impulse buys (they were on sale).

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Ordered Power Grid and Pandemic this weekend on impulse buys (they were on sale).

One of us!

 

[Mashing]

Indeed... I'm hopelessly addicted now... I will be broke by the end the month if I don't stop (seriously, there's still so many games I want). Amazon and those Tangaa deals on BGG are the devil!

 

[Flynn]

Say what now?

I guess my Heinlein is showing.