Board games!

[Werthead]

The Kickstarter for Frosthaven is live. I had it open in a tab for 10 minutes, during which time they made $40,000. I've never seen anything like that before.

I have Gloomhaven and even the organiser for it (a lot of work to assemble but it's a god-damn work of art), but didn't get around to play it. We had a team ready to go (after about two months of trying to get people on board) and had a first session planned and then global pandemic, which is fairly typical as these things go for me. Will probably hold fire on Frosthaven, especially given how cheap Gloomhaven got once it was out and being mass-produced (I picked it up brand new for less than half the price it was going for in the Kickstarter).

[Werthead]

Free League have launched a Kickstarter for a Tales from the Loop board game. It seems to be based closely on the excellent roleplaying game, and it's by the same team who did the great Crusader Kings board game. Will be backing this one.

[HokieStone]

I jumped on the Frosthaven KS - unbelievable how much money it's making, especially launching in the middle of the pandemic, with lots of people watching their finances.  Here's the thing, I don't even like Gloomhaven all that much, but my son loves it...so this will be a Christmas present (in which he'll get a piece of paper saying it will arrive in March).  There's something about town building in it...hopefully that's interesting.  I think it's also supposed to have more puzzles in the adventures.  I hope so...part of my disappointment with Gloomhaven is that it's really just a hack-n-slash combat game.  I play with my son and wife, and we don't quite play often enough for me to keep the overall story coherent in my head.

As for other games, I've been hitting Boardgame Arena in the last week or two. They have a pretty decent selection of games.  Most played so far is Clans of Caledonia - I'm not so sure the clans are very well balanced in the game the more I play.  Also reacquainted myself with Caylus on BGA last night.  I concentrated too much on building in the castle, and my buddy who built a load of buildings on the road ran away with it.  Tried a game of Stone Age against strangers last week on BGA, and I was the first player in the first round, and screwed up using the interface...and returned all my workers without actually taking their actions.  So I played the rest of the game knowing I was in quite a hole.  I came in last as expected, but if I'd rolled better on the last round and got one more stone, I would have had enough to get to 2nd.  Winner was out in front by quite a bit, and won by playing the starvation strategy, which drives me a little nuts.

At home, we've been playing a few games.  In an effort to support my local game store, I picked up Tiny Towns a few weeks ago - the whole family seems to enjoy it.  My son and I got in back to back games of Star Wars: Rebellion, using the Rise of the Empire expansion.  We both won on our turn playing as the rebellion, but just barely both times.  It is stressful as you watch the Empire bring their massive military to bear, and you don't feel like you're making progress...but then about turn 5 you start to cascade your objective cards, and the Empire player, who thought they had 6 or 7 turns left, suddenly only has 2.

My son and I also gave 878 Vikings a whirl today.  I demoed this at Origins last year, but didn't pick it up.  At a semi-local convention, Prezcon, in February, I pulled the trigger and picked up a copy.  (Thankful to get that convention in right before everything started shutting down).  My son played as the invading vikings, and I was the defending English.  He crushed me.  It's similar to SW: Rebellion in a way - the vikings keep sending waves of troops in, and you can't really hope to straight up beat them as the English.  I did a poor job recognizing that, and kept consolidating my meager troops.  That left a lot of empty territory for him to storm across.  I would have been better just leaving one or two troops in many shires, just to stop his juggernaut from rolling across the country side (you have to stop for combat even if it's only against 1 troop).  I recognize a lot of the same "characters" from Bernard Cornwell's viking series.  Also picked up the expansion for it, but we're going to give the base game a few tries before breaking that out.

In game design news, a friend and I have had a game with a publisher for over 18 months now, and no progress has been made. It is a new publisher, and the owner has gone through a series of personal issues in the last year.  And that caused him to go dark for a few months.  When we finally spoke to him a month ago, we suggested to him that it would be better for all involved if he released the rights to the game back to us.  He agreed during our Skype call...but we have been chasing him for a month to get it in writing.  We really wanted to be able to pitch it a few upcoming conventions...but those are getting cancelled and/or delayed, so who knows when the next major convention will be.

[RedEyedGhost]

32 minutes ago, HokieStone said:

Clans of Caledonia - I'm not so sure the clans are very well balanced in the game the more I play. 

I don't know if BGA allows it, but that's easily balanced by bidding for clan selection in victory points at the start of the game.

[HokieStone]

15 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I don't know if BGA allows it, but that's easily balanced by bidding for clan selection in victory points at the start of the game.

Yeah, you can set it up that way - that's what we've been doing.  But I'm not sure we're bidding properly yet - only 3 or 4 points for first pick.  The clans that have good economic engines are very powerful - the one that can sell milk for money especially so.

[DaveSumm]

17 hours ago, HokieStone said:

I jumped on the Frosthaven KS - unbelievable how much money it's making, especially launching in the middle of the pandemic, with lots of people watching their finances.

I never thought I’d spend this much on a Kickstarter, but we went all in on the full game-and-organiser option. Also enjoying the community campaign that’s running right now, where everyone votes on scenario story outcomes and Isaac designs the next one based on the vote.

I’ve played two games of Brass: Birmingham on Tabletopia, which is generally a very smooth experience, there’s a few little buggy things about it but overall it’s worth playing. Money is the most fiddly part, it’d be way easier if they simply had a tally of your money that you increased / decreased, or even the ability to right click and take X amount and have it put straight in your pile. I’m now trying to think of games that don’t really involve a lot of moving stuff around, but that’s a bit of an oxymoron for board games.

[RedEyedGhost]

2 hours ago, HokieStone said:

Yeah, you can set it up that way - that's what we've been doing.  But I'm not sure we're bidding properly yet - only 3 or 4 points for first pick.  The clans that have good economic engines are very powerful - the one that can sell milk for money especially so.

Yeah, Cunningham is like playing on easy mode.  If there's a beginner in my games of it I'll usually suggest that they use it.  I really like the kickstarter exclusive clan too - MacEwen - they can make beer when fulfilling contracts that have hops on them.  This is another game that I would definitely like to play more often, but most of the time when we play something like this we go for Gaia Project first, then Terra Mystica, then this.

 

My gaming, post-lockdown, had been all 18xx on Board18.  The interface works pretty well (I wish it updated slightly faster), but between it and Google Hangouts, I'm getting probably 95% of the feel of playing in person.   I do think that number is so high because of my desire to play anything.  Played a game of 1846 the week before last in the evenings, repeated evening playing this week but a game of 18Scan (which was new to all of us, and very enjoyable), and on the past two Sundays I've played 18EU, with a minor powers variant.  18EU is quickly moving to the top of my favorite games list.  Three of us knocked out a game in less than five hours today - last week we played at four, and didn't get the game completed in over seven hours.  The 4th player last week did not enjoy the online experience at all - pretty much the opposite of the other three of us - so I can see how online gaming definitely doesn't work for everybody.

[Werthead]

On 4/12/2020 at 4:45 AM, HokieStone said:

My son and I got in back to back games of Star Wars: Rebellion, using the Rise of the Empire expansion.  We both won on our turn playing as the rebellion, but just barely both times.  It is stressful as you watch the Empire bring their massive military to bear, and you don't feel like you're making progress...but then about turn 5 you start to cascade your objective cards, and the Empire player, who thought they had 6 or 7 turns left, suddenly only has 2.

One of my favourite things about Rebellion. Having played the game six or seven times in total and never seen an Empire victory, I think it is weighted a little bit towards the Rebels. The lack of military power is more than made up for by the Rebels' huge array of agents, sabotage and cards, which the Empire can't really counter. The only time the Empire came really close to winning was when they managed to turn Leia to the Dark Side on the second turn, which both lost me a leader and one of only two agents who could really bring other planets to the Rebel side quickly (although I did manage the default Rebel strategy of bringing Mon Calamari into the Alliance on Turn 1, which starts Mon Cal Cruisers rolling off the production line). That went down to the wire and I only won because the Empire parked the Death Star next to the Rebel base without realising it and sent their fleet off after a diversionary force, allowing me to take out the Death Star with my base fleet and get enough victory points to win the game. That was close.

Similar design to War of the Ring, where the Empire/Sauron can get overconfident in their overwhelmingly superior military force and forget that they need to play the same game as the good guys (with the agents for Rebellion and trying to counter the Fellowship in War of the Ring; it's no good raising your flag over Minas Tirith if Frodo is dropping the Ring into Mount Doom five seconds later).

Quote

 

My son and I also gave 878 Vikings a whirl today.  I demoed this at Origins last year, but didn't pick it up.  At a semi-local convention, Prezcon, in February, I pulled the trigger and picked up a copy.  (Thankful to get that convention in right before everything started shutting down).  My son played as the invading vikings, and I was the defending English.  He crushed me.  It's similar to SW: Rebellion in a way - the vikings keep sending waves of troops in, and you can't really hope to straight up beat them as the English.  I did a poor job recognizing that, and kept consolidating my meager troops.  That left a lot of empty territory for him to storm across.  I would have been better just leaving one or two troops in many shires, just to stop his juggernaut from rolling across the country side (you have to stop for combat even if it's only against 1 troop).  I recognize a lot of the same "characters" from Bernard Cornwell's viking series.  Also picked up the expansion for it, but we're going to give the base game a few tries before breaking that out.

 

I love this game. It is quite asymmetrical and it's interesting how the Vikings are not as powerful as their first appear and how the English aren't quite as effective in defence as it first appears. I've seen a Viking victory once (interestingly from a northern invasion strategy rather than a southern, which feels like a better idea because it prevents the English from consolidating in the heavily-populated south), so it's less weighted than Rebellion, but I think clever defending makes an English victory marginally more likely in each game, especially if you draw the Treaty of Wedmore cards early. I do think there is a strong luck component, which is that the Vikings drawing the "no fleet appears" card early, especially on the second turn, can really screw them over.

As far as I can tell, the expansion is a bit unnecessary. The Church-burning mechanic sounds like the only thing it adds to the game which is worthwhile, most of the other scenarios seem to complicate the game so it loses one of its key appeals, its relative straightforwardness.

I'm interested in sampling some of their other games in the same series (1754: The French and Indian War, 1775 Rebellion and 1812: The Invasion of Canada) which all seem pretty good. There's supposed to be a follow-up to 878 Vikings coming out at some point, although the theme is unknown (maybe the Norman Invasion but as the theme is "Birth of Europe" it might be something more like Charlemagne).

[HokieStone]

On 4/13/2020 at 8:23 AM, Werthead said:

I love this game. It is quite asymmetrical and it's interesting how the Vikings are not as powerful as their first appear and how the English aren't quite as effective in defence as it first appears. I've seen a Viking victory once (interestingly from a northern invasion strategy rather than a southern, which feels like a better idea because it prevents the English from consolidating in the heavily-populated south), so it's less weighted than Rebellion, but I think clever defending makes an English victory marginally more likely in each game, especially if you draw the Treaty of Wedmore cards early. I do think there is a strong luck component, which is that the Vikings drawing the "no fleet appears" card early, especially on the second turn, can really screw them over.

As far as I can tell, the expansion is a bit unnecessary. The Church-burning mechanic sounds like the only thing it adds to the game which is worthwhile, most of the other scenarios seem to complicate the game so it loses one of its key appeals, its relative straightforwardness.

I'm interested in sampling some of their other games in the same series (1754: The French and Indian War, 1775 Rebellion and 1812: The Invasion of Canada) which all seem pretty good. There's supposed to be a follow-up to 878 Vikings coming out at some point, although the theme is unknown (maybe the Norman Invasion but as the theme is "Birth of Europe" it might be something more like Charlemagne).

We played a 2nd round, and switched roles, I took the Vikings and my son took the English.  I tried the northern invasion strategy, and in the end won a very narrow victory. I did get the plain reinforcement (i.e. no new fleet) card on the second turn.  However, my son was having some awful dice luck as the English - including when he tried to take back the two cities on the east coast, in the blue territories - Theodford and Elmham - if he had taken those, I would not have had enough cities to win.  Still want to try the expansion, but we may give the two scenarios included in the main rule book a try first.

Got in a family game of Splendor last night, using the "The Orient" module of the expansion.  This adds another set of cards to each row, which have different capabilities - none of them are worth any points, but some have 2 gems, some allow you to tuck under another card to double it's gem count, some are 2 temporary gold coins, etc.  I liked it...I have played with a few other expansion modules, but it's been a while, and I recall them being a mixed bag.  I kind of ran away with the game by focusing on the The Orient card...didn't have many points at first...but then I steamrolled, grabbing several nobles, and several 3 and 4 point cards all in a row.

Been playing on Board Game Arena as well - had a 3 game winning streak in Clans of Caledonia finally snapped last night.  I was playing as the clan who can turn hops into beer, by spending grain when you claim a contract with hops (RedEyedGhost mentions them above - Clan MacEwan).  I had trouble, because all the contracts I got that had hops - needed bread and whiskey to fulfill them...which you need grain to make.  So, I wasn't very efficient. Playing a 2nd game of Puerto Rico after winning my first - I played the "corn king" strategy.  Only crops I were growing were corn and coffee - I'd ship corn for points, and sell coffee for money.  I had the "office" and "small market", so I couldn't be shut out of the trading house, and was making even more money there.  Only about 3 turns into the 2nd game, and I'm not setting up well...I have indigo to start, and I'm in a money hole...but it's early.  Lastly, I've played 3 games of Caylus - and I'm 1-2 in those 3 games.  First game, my brother and I fought over the castle and the associated favors, and let my buddy build to his heart's content.  2nd game I won, by building more myself, but still getting my share of the castle.  Last game my buddy and I were neck and neck (a 3rd friend was just learning) - but somehow I failed to notice he was hoarding resources, and on the final turn, he built something like 5 spaces in the castle, and closed it out, so I couldn't go there.  Still a great game after all these years.

[HokieStone]

On 4/13/2020 at 3:44 PM, bad robot productions said:

I have never won at a board game, except chess. I want to play Risk. My sister and I would play card games too. With my Dad and his side of the family, we would play Chinese checkers, Backgammon, Dominoes, Scrabble, and Chess. 

The classics!  Well, I encourage you to try some other games.  Risk can be a bit of a slog, to be honest.  If you're interested, I'm sure the regulars in this thread can suggest a few.

[Darth Richard II]

Oh man, Puerto Rico, that hit when I was first REALLY getting into euro games and we played the ever living fuck out of that one.

Anyway, I'd kill to get Gaia Project to the table but well, convid and all, so it looks like solo player games with my cats for now.

[Werthead]

Great deal on Humble today, which gets you a whole ton of digital board games and expansions: Twilight Struggle, Scythe, Mysterium, Splendor, Potion Explosion, Love Letter, King & Assassins, Patchwork, Carcassonne and Smallworld.

[Lightning Lord]

9 hours ago, Werthead said:

Great deal on Humble today, which gets you a whole ton of digital board games and expansions: Twilight Struggle, Scythe, Mysterium, Splendor, Potion Explosion, Love Letter, King & Assassins, Patchwork, Carcassonne and Smallworld.

Thanks for the head's up on this. I was looking at picking up several of these just for the easier gameplay and the AI features (over tabletop simulator). This definitely decides me and I am pushing it to friends and family, too.

I owe you a beverage of your choice should our paths ever cross

[A True Kaniggit]

Well I’ve just spent a week getting my ass kicked at Villainous.

3 times in a row I shuffled the Neverland map down to the last 2 cards of my deck while playing the Hook character. 

[Werthead]

Behold.

New Hero Quest.

[Werthead]

Okay, it's pretty much just old Hero Quest with some new art and all the Games Workshop-owned creatures and artwork stripped out and replaced.

Tricky one, because if they'd changed much some fans would have gotten antsy, and if they'd changed nothing other people would have gotten antsy. A lot of people grumbling, pointing out that charging more than Gloomhaven for a game with nothing like the complexity is a bit of a cheek (although possibly forgetting that Gloomhaven only has a few miniatures in the box, and was very harshly criticised for ages for its launch price which has only dropped below £100 recently). I think that's probably the point, though, and the campaign is aimed at people who remember the game from the 1990s but may have not touched the modern board gaming scene at all.

Up to $300,000 of the asked-for $1 million already and they're smashing it. Annoying, though, that the backing campaign is only for the USA (and Canada, but the shipping prices for Canada are so insane that they're effectively priced out of the market). Hero Quest is a British game and was a phenomenon here long before it hit the States, so it's surreal that Brits can't back it.

[hauberk]

20 hours ago, Werthead said:

Okay, it's pretty much just old Hero Quest with some new art and all the Games Workshop-owned creatures and artwork stripped out and replaced.

Tricky one, because if they'd changed much some fans would have gotten antsy, and if they'd changed nothing other people would have gotten antsy. A lot of people grumbling, pointing out that charging more than Gloomhaven for a game with nothing like the complexity is a bit of a cheek (although possibly forgetting that Gloomhaven only has a few miniatures in the box, and was very harshly criticised for ages for its launch price which has only dropped below £100 recently). I think that's probably the point, though, and the campaign is aimed at people who remember the game from the 1990s but may have not touched the modern board gaming scene at all.

Up to $300,000 of the asked-for $1 million already and they're smashing it. Annoying, though, that the backing campaign is only for the USA (and Canada, but the shipping prices for Canada are so insane that they're effectively priced out of the market). Hero Quest is a British game and was a phenomenon here long before it hit the States, so it's surreal that Brits can't back it.

It does seem odd about it being US and Canada only.  However, the price is utterly unsurprising given that the nostalgia factor is coming from consumers groomed by GW to open their wallets and say 'Thank you sir, please take another' for so many years.  

[Lightning Lord]

I rarely find myself on the cutting edge of new games. But I feel like typing out some recent gaming.

Played Dinosaur Island the other day. Great fun, but went a bit too long with four players. I know first play-throughs are slower, but there was just too much to get through to end the game. I think we were playing the long game, which I was told was 1-2 hours. After four hours, we called it a day and packed up. I lost. badly.

Had some Paladins of the West Kingdom and Architects of the West Kingdom a couple times recently. Very pleasant - still sorting how to play well, but generally competitive. I have really liked all games that fella Shem Phillips has churned out.

Reef and Wingspan were fun lighter games. Both have good themes that got away from the usual sci-fi/fantasy.

I'm moving house soon. I am going to try to stock the new one with some new games.

Digital gaming - Castles of the Mad Burgundy King have both been fun. Scythe has been hard to get into in the app. Takenoko was a fun adaptation of the board game. Basically have raided Steam for most of their offerings recently. Haven't tried out Isle of Skye or Root yet.

[Werthead]

The Hero Quest crowdfunder has now extended to the UK and (possibly, though some EU people are saying it's not working) Europe, thanks to Hasbro partnering with Zavvi.

The Game of Thrones board game has a new digital edition on Steam which is getting surprisingly good reviews, given Asmodee Digital's so-so track record.

The Frostpunk video game has a Kickstarter for the board game version. This is the same team (although under a new name) who handled the excellent - if depressing - This War of Mine boardgame version, so I'm very intrigued by this, especially because Frostpunk is even better suited to a board game format.

[HokieStone]

Been mostly gaming on BGA.  Got reacquainted with Marco Polo a few weeks ago, and tried Marco Polo II earlier this week.  I'm terrible at both.  Tried out the new version of 7 Wonders on BGA.  They've tried to streamline it a bit, using the same iconography at 7 Wonders Duel for cards that let you build another for free.  I prefer the old 7 Wonders style, but that's probably because I played it so much.