Board Games - The expansion thread

[Corvinus85]

13 minutes ago, Werthead said:

There were an additional eight stand-alone expansions released under the Heroes Chronicles banner. This was an early example of the "episodic gaming" model, with each expansion having just one campaign and I don't think any new units or factions. I had a friend who was hardcore into collecting them. General consensus now seems to be that they were a bit of a waste of time.

Oh, never played those. I don't think the GoG version has those. At least, as far as I remember, I only purchased the main game + the two main expansions.

[DaveSumm]

1 hour ago, Maithanet said:

Last year the board game thread recommended I try out Jaws of the Lion rather than the full Gloomhaven, and that was an excellent recommendation!  It is a bit simpler, but way cheaper ($40 bucks instead of $130 for the full game), and it is still a whole bunch of content such that my friends are unlikely to finish it for years (we don't play that regularly).  So thank you @Werthead for the good recommendation. 

I will particularly compliment the Learn to Play setup of JOTL.  The first five missions are fairly easy, but they introduce the different elements of gameplay gradually so that it you can get started without feeling overwhelmed.  It was a well designed, and still fairly fun tutorial. 

The only real downside I'm finding for this game is that the game elements do not fit in the box, so it only half closes, and after playing through 6 scenarios, the box is already starting to show some wear.  Oh well!

Are you using any apps to help with admin? I think if you do, you can lose the monster cards and it juuuust fits back in there. Having said that, when I played Gloomhaven Helper was the only game in town but since then it’s been taken off the App Store (that’s a whole story), Cephalofair are developing their own for Frosthaven and a few others have sprung up. So I’m not 100% on what your options are at the moment.

Cannot wait for Frosthaven, a few people in North America are seeing theirs, I think for UK it’ll be touch and go if we have it by Christmas.

Edited November 16, 2022 by DaveSumm

[Maithanet]

18 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

Are you using any apps to help with admin? I think if you do, you can lose the monster cards and it juuuust fits back in there. Having said that, when I played Gloomhaven Helper was the only game in town but since then it’s been taken off the App Store (that’s a whole story), Cephalofair are developing their own for Frosthaven and a few others have sprung up. So I’m not 100% on what your options are at the moment.

Cannot wait for Frosthaven, a few people in North America are seeing theirs, I think for UK it’ll be touch and go if we have it by Christmas.

We haven't been using any apps, no.  I will check and see if they are helpful. 

[DaveSumm]

1 hour ago, Maithanet said:

We haven't been using any apps, no.  I will check and see if they are helpful. 

It looks like X-Haven Assistant does most of what GHH used to, basically running all the enemy cards for you so you don’t have to shuffle and track their health and stuff. There’s a ton of others (scenario viewer, attack deck manager, campaign manager) but the enemy tracking is where it’s at. 

[HokieStone]

7 hours ago, .H. said:

Not for me though, I did back Lords of Baseball and Unconscious Minds though.  And I have Ark Nova being delivered tomorrow, which I am keen to maybe try out this weekend.

I've known Max Jamelli, designer of Lords of Baseball (along with his dad) for quite a while now, and been following the LoB saga since the early days.  It's been quite a ride to get the game published - nearly 10 years.  They've been through a number of publishers.  It's really a labor of love for them, and I'm glad to see it finally having success.  I paid the extra to have my picture on one of the cards - first time I've ever done anything like that!

Ark Nova is an interesting game - the comparisons to Terraforming Mars are apt - although I know some folks who don't like TM that did enjoy AN.  Generally they feel that the card luck is less swingy in AN, although it's still there.  I had one game where I played some cards at the very beginning of the game that would get me discounts or bonuses on animals from Asia...only to have no Asia animals come up in the deck until 3/4 of the way through the game.  That was frustrating.  Generally I've enjoyed my 3 or 4 plays...but I haven't played it enough to really know the rules well, and it's a dense game, so relearning the rules each time is a bit of a pain...

[.H.]

2 minutes ago, HokieStone said:

I've known Max Jamelli, designer of Lords of Baseball (along with his dad) for quite a while now, and been following the LoB saga since the early days.  It's been quite a ride to get the game published - nearly 10 years.  They've been through a number of publishers.  It's really a labor of love for them, and I'm glad to see it finally having success.  I paid the extra to have my picture on one of the cards - first time I've ever done anything like that!

Yeah, a pretty wild journey to get it published there.  I actually misunderstood the tiers and sort of overbacked, but I decided to not lower it, even though I have no realistic expectation of finding 7 more people to play it with me.  The upgraded components ought to be decent quality, so the more the merrier I guess.

7 minutes ago, HokieStone said:

Ark Nova is an interesting game - the comparisons to Terraforming Mars are apt - although I know some folks who don't like TM that did enjoy AN.  Generally they feel that the card luck is less swingy in AN, although it's still there.

Yeah, it seems to be to be sort of akin to TM in some ways, but since it tends to get brought up in conversations as somewhat like both TM and Underwater Cities I think there is a fair chance it might be one my wife actually likes, since TM is her favorite game and Underwater Cities is another she likes.  In any case I got it on sale, so I feel it will likely be worth it even if we only play it a few times.  I know that some people really don't like the "multiplayer solitaire" way it plays most of the time, but my wife hates people messing with her stuff in games, so it works well for us.

[DaveSumm]

13 minutes ago, .H. said:

Yeah, a pretty wild journey to get it published there.  I actually misunderstood the tiers and sort of overbacked, but I decided to not lower it, even though I have no realistic expectation of finding 7 more people to play it with me.  The upgraded components ought to be decent quality, so the more the merrier I guess.

Yeah, it seems to be to be sort of akin to TM in some ways, but since it tends to get brought up in conversations as somewhat like both TM and Underwater Cities I think there is a fair chance it might be one my wife actually likes, since TM is her favorite game and Underwater Cities is another she likes.  In any case I got it on sale, so I feel it will likely be worth it even if we only play it a few times.  I know that some people really don't like the "multiplayer solitaire" way it plays most of the time, but my wife hates people messing with her stuff in games, so it works well for us.

Ark Nova has some fairly mean cards, my wife and I use the solo mode alternatives printed at the bottom as a non-mean option.

Fantastic game. It does run quite long but it holds my attention the whole time, and always feels exciting throughout. 

[.H.]

8 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

Ark Nova has some fairly mean cards, my wife and I use the solo mode alternatives printed at the bottom as a non-mean option.

Yeah, I think we will very likely do the same.  Especially since it is going to just be two of us, not much sense in doing much take-that with that few of players.

[RedEyedGhost]

On 10/8/2022 at 4:15 AM, DaveSumm said:

Yea it makes sense. To be honest, it wouldn’t even need to be SHUX specifically, just a con that had the same ethos of paying through higher ticket prices to allow more free play tables, as opposed to what most other cons seem to do which is publishers paying for space to demo their games.

I usually watch a few Essen Spiel blogs on YouTube and it’s kinda cool, but I just don’t see the appeal of bringing home a boot load of games I didn’t get a chance to play fully first. 

Essen holds zero appeal to me.  Have you looked into Gridcon?  

 

Played Endless Winter a couple of weeks ago - liked it much more than I thought I would.  It was on Kickstarter when Dune Imperium and The Lost Ruins of Arnak were released, and garnered a lot of comparisons because they all have worker placement, deck building, and map activities.  I hated Dune Imperium so much, that I had been regretting backing EW.  But EW doesn't have nearly as much randomness and restrictiveness based on randomness, so yeah, that's a very good thing. 

Have Weather Machine coming up on Friday.  Really excited about that.  And then in a couple of weeks (after the holiday), Federation.  That's been getting some great buzz this week. 

[HokieStone]

Got a chance to play Foundations of Rome (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284189/foundations-rome) last night.  There is a decent game in there, besides just being an overproduced mini-fest.  The game is actually quite simple - buy lots (like in Acquire), build buildings once you have enough connected lots to have the right footprint, get money/population/points based on the buildings you have built.

There are a number of optional modules you can include to vary the gameplay.  We played with "stealing", where twice during the game you can steal lots from other players (but they end up with points for your theft), and "monuments", which add a bunch of neutral buildings.  

I would never shell out the $200+ for the game, but I'm happy to play my buddy's copy.

[Werthead]

On 11/30/2022 at 3:24 PM, HokieStone said:

Got a chance to play Foundations of Rome (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284189/foundations-rome) last night.  There is a decent game in there, besides just being an overproduced mini-fest.  The game is actually quite simple - buy lots (like in Acquire), build buildings once you have enough connected lots to have the right footprint, get money/population/points based on the buildings you have built.

There are a number of optional modules you can include to vary the gameplay.  We played with "stealing", where twice during the game you can steal lots from other players (but they end up with points for your theft), and "monuments", which add a bunch of neutral buildings.  

I would never shell out the $200+ for the game, but I'm happy to play my buddy's copy.

This is one that I wanted to back on Kickstarter but it didn't align with me having the money available. Then I was relieved (because I saved some money). Then it started getting lots of great reviews with people saying it was a Kickstarter game which looked ridiculously good and was a good game and was simple enough to the get to the table regularly, which is some kind of holy grail of board gaming. I think they did a second production run on Kickstarter a while back and there's rumours they might do a third, so I'll check it out. £200 for a complete edition now isn't too bad, but I'd probably want to test-run it first to see if its worthwhile.

I've had a whole bunch of Kickstarters come good at once, with both Frosthaven and Frostpunk due to arrive in the next few weeks and Avatar: The Last Airbender's RPG around the same time.

I am tempted to flip Frosthaven almost immediately, as I haven't even gotten a game of Gloomhaven in yet despite owning it for 3 years, so getting the sequel ended up being a bad decision.

I was very pleasantly surprised when the Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun Kickstarter came back to life. I backed it over 3 years ago and they shut down all communication over a year ago and everyone assumed it was dead and they'd run off with the money, but apparently one of the people in charge had had some kind of breakdown and not been able to work on the project, but the money was all safe in an account and the production wheels were still turning behind the scenes. So now it looks like it's going to be delivered some time next year (touch wood).

[HokieStone]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Then it started getting lots of great reviews with people saying it was a Kickstarter game which looked ridiculously good and was a good game and was simple enough to the get to the table regularly, which is some kind of holy grail of board gaming.

See...I actually think the ridiculous production will keep it from getting to the table as much as it could.  It is a pretty straightforward game - but the giant box, and the ridiculous amount of table space needed is sort of a hindrance for having it in a regular rotation.  I almost think they should make a smaller $40 version with just punchboard tiles...and I bet they'd sell a ton.

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

I am tempted to flip Frosthaven almost immediately, as I haven't even gotten a game of Gloomhaven in yet despite owning it for 3 years, so getting the sequel ended up being a bad decision.

I will likely flip my Frosthaven when it comes in.  I ordered it when my son was really into Gloomhaven...but we sort of stopped playing, and never picked it back up.  I ask him now and again if we're going to continue, and he's kind of meh about it.  I think he got the digital version on Steam and played through it that way.  So, if we're not going to play Frosthaven, I'll at least make some money on it...

[Werthead]

Homeworld: Fleet Command's Kickstarter is going to go live soon-ish, so will probably back that out of franchise loyalty and also the rules system being very Command & Colours-influenced. Apparently Memoir 44 is a key influence. Even if that doesn't work out, I can swap in the models into Red Alert: Space Fleet Warfare so all good,

[DaveSumm]

On 12/2/2022 at 2:37 AM, HokieStone said:

I will likely flip my Frosthaven when it comes in.  I ordered it when my son was really into Gloomhaven...but we sort of stopped playing, and never picked it back up.  I ask him now and again if we're going to continue, and he's kind of meh about it.  I think he got the digital version on Steam and played through it that way.  So, if we're not going to play Frosthaven, I'll at least make some money on it...

It’s weird isn’t it, I love Gloomhaven but we did the same thing on our second campaign, left it too long and then the thought of figuring out what was going on and digging through so many components just puts you off. 

You could make good money on a flip though, it’s retailing for so much more that you could sell it, buy Jaws of the Lion and still be left with profit.

I do wonder if they’ll ever release an updated GH to bring it in line with the other games. At the moment, I’d recommend starting with Jaws, and then probably…? Go to Frosthaven, as it looks to be much better at keeping everything on track with the campaign and seems to be just an all round better game. Which is a weird thing to say for the #1 BGG game, play the other two and don’t bother.

[Werthead]

Gloomhaven: The Roleplaying Game was just announced, which seemed pretty inevitable.

Played Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar today because our local board game cafe was sent a free copy by the manufacturers. Our group was the first to break the seal and play it and we initially had doubts about it, but it ended up being good fun. It helps that it's very constrained in components, especially the very restrained dinosaur model count, and the fact that each scenario has its own components and rules means there's a strong feeling of freshness to the game. We didn't want to deface the game with the Legacy components, so we just played the infinitely-repeatable prologue mission and it was great. We did wonder if the very limited turn count (just 5 turns, which isn't a lot when you have some very complicated and lengthy goals to accomplish) and the very picky rules for the DNA lab and finding components in the Visitor's Centre would end up being too limiting, but we beat the intro in the nick of time, so clearly it does work.

Also played the Thunderbirds board game, which I thought was going to be a straight-up Pandemic clone, but the variations in the rules resulted in a very different experience, though the same DNA is visible underneath. It shares the Pandemic quarterbacking problem, especially for younger players (which this will appeal to more than OG Pandemic), but it has enough variety to be a good spin on the premise.

I did deliberately choose to play that to dissuade myself from buying The Clone Wars, which is the brand-new Star Wars spin on Pandemic. I have too many Pandemic clones as it is (probably going to flip Fall of Rome, which was okay but I'd probably prefer to play either Pandemic itself or Thunderbirds again). Along with my Command & Colors collection (Memoir 44 and every expansion, Red Alert and every expansion, Command & Color: Ancients and two expansions, Battles of Westeros and almost every expansion, and I am still tempted by The Great War and the few copies of BattleLore still floating around), I don't need another shelf full of games which are just variations on the same theme.

We played Fallout Shelter again and I have to say this is my new go-to worker placement game. It's short and focused, very easy to learn compared to a lot of worker placement games, very cheap but with excellent component quality, and a really clever use of the licence. It knocks the "proper" Fallout board game into a cocked hat.

[HokieStone]

Played a few games this past weekend:

Darwin's Choice - In which the conceit is to make "franken-animals" out of cards, combining traits of different animals, and then they have to survive in their environments (or migrate).  Interesting concept, but I found it to be way too fiddly.

Horrified (The American Monsters) - First time playing this game system, of which I'd heard good things.  A co-op game where you are looking to defeat various monsters (in our case, the Chupacabra and Badlands Banshee - the original has Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, etc.)  I found it enjoyable, but I probable wouldn't go out of my way to play it again.

Oceans - The sequel to Evolution.  I had played it once a while back, but had to re-learn it.  It's ok...but I can't shake the feeling we were playing wrong, as we barely ever had any species go extinct.  I like Evolution better.

Paint the Roses - An "Alice in Wonderland" themed co-op, where you are trying to deduce the card that other players have by the tokens they place on the board - very much logical deduction.  I absolutely loved this game.  So much so that it may be a late addition to my Xmas list, even though I don't like to put games on there.  Really really enjoyed this one a lot.

 

Lastly...and I'll delete this part if I'm out of line to tout my own stuff...Elf Creek Games has the new edition of my Santa's Workshop up for pre-order.  We had to delay to 2023, but development is done, and we'll be demoing at all the major conventions in 2023. https://www.elfcreekgames.com/products/santa-s-workshop-pre-order

[RedEyedGhost]

4 hours ago, HokieStone said:

Lastly...and I'll delete this part if I'm out of line to tout my own stuff...Elf Creek Games has the new edition of my Santa's Workshop up for pre-order.  We had to delay to 2023, but development is done, and we'll be demoing at all the major conventions in 2023. https://www.elfcreekgames.com/products/santa-s-workshop-pre-order

Looks really nice.  Much better graphic design than the original.  

[HokieStone]

On 12/13/2022 at 12:19 AM, RedEyedGhost said:

Looks really nice.  Much better graphic design than the original.  

Yep, the artwork is significantly improved. The whole ordeal with art and graphic design on the original is a bit of a story - basically I ended up being project manager and art director...and the artist got grumpy with me.  On this one, Elf Creek hired more accomplished artists, and a separate person to do graphic design.  There's been a few decisions I haven't totally agreed with, but in the end, they get to make the call - and overall it's a significant improvement.  

[DaveSumm]

Speaking of board game art, this video had me in stitches:

Particularly this one, in which the artist finished all but the faces, then got ill, and it was finished by … *ahem* … ‘less accomplished’ artists.

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/378777/heads-state

[Werthead]

Frostpunk arrived and it is a thing of beauty. The entire KS campaign from start to delivery was handled with the utmost professionalism by the team who made it and the component quality, art design and everything about it is amazing.

Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sold on the gameplay itself. It looks to me that the problem some thought could be an issue during the KS campaign has proven to be a big problem on delivery. It's a solo game which makes for a very good co-op with one friend game but an absolutely poor 3-4 player game, to the point where calling it a 3 or 4 player game feels like a streeetch.

I'll have to get it to the table to check it out, but I would be disappointed with that since as a solo game...I'll just play the (brilliant) video game instead and look to flip this, which might be a problem if everyone realises the same thing and demand drops. Might be good if the rumoured Frostpunk RPG comes to fruition, as the components could be resourced for that instead (the major saving grace of the Tales from the Loop board game).

People are also receiving their Frosthaven KS, but not in the UK yet (apparently we're bogged down in red tape). I'm 90% certain this will be an instant flip as the weight and heaviness of the game and the sheer length of its contents means I'll never get around to it (as my OCD demands playing Gloomhaven first).

I am getting a lot of recs for the Sniper Elite board game, weirdly, as it's very cheap (ish), and surprisingly fun as a hidden movement game for 4 players with genuine engagement for all involved. It seems to be ending up on a lot of "best of" lists.