Jeremy just spent a good 4 hours gluing them together, and is not even half-way done. He was looking up various tutorials and guides online to see how others did it. We bought that special Loctite glue that the internets recommended. He was cursing a storm at times while putting together one of the dragons.
It looks like a basic dungeon crawler with cute chibi-anime figures. We hope to get it all together by Saturday for friends that are coming over. We'll see how it goes.
Also picked up Hinterlands. Holy crap, we had no idea what the cards were about. Most of the cards give you an instant action when purchased. I think they will make for very fast games.
No, there are several different kinds of Loctite for plastic. I did some researching and several places recommended Loctite. Jeremy says it seems to work fine.
We don't plan on doing any coloring of the miniatures. That's not our "thing" for the time being.
So... I'm not quite sure what games all you fine folks enjoy, but we finally got around to playing Battleship Galaxies. The short of it is that there's a group of evil aliens and the good guy UN-type forces that battle them in space, using everything from battleships to destroyers and fighters.
The gameplay was surprisingly great, considering that I wasn't expecting a whole lot from something with the Battleship franchise. The bits are quite well done and add a nice cinematic feel as the game unfolds, without having to be painted or built. The board is fairly monotonous but manages to provide some decent points to fight over as you can add asteroids and such. The scenarios provided with the game are balanced and interesting. The combat is probably the only thing that is really Battleship-y. Each starship you command has its own card, and on that card is a blueprint of the ship on a grid. You then roll two provided dicii (one has letters and the other has numbers), call out the grid coordinates, and your opponent lets you know if you hit. There's also a chance for a critical hit.
All in all it was very fun to play. The main fault I can find at this point would be the fact that some ships feel underpowered and I don't know that there's going to be a lot of variety in gameplay after we finish the scenarios. For what it is - an easy to play space combat game - it's worth picking up.
My friend's game went live on Kickstarter: Order of Professional Sorcerers (O.O.P.S.). I helped beta-test it, and it's a lot of fun. Lots of tactical choices, some luck, and tons of replay-ability. If you like games such as To Court the King and Kingsburg, you should check it out.
To Court The King, you say? *clicks link* My Dad, who isn't a gamer at all, LOVES Yahtzee and I got him to try TCTK and he LOVES it!
If you watch the intro video, he comes right out and says that it was one of his influences for making OOPS. Having played both TCTK and Kingsburg, I can definitely see the "family heritage."
To Court The King, you say? *clicks link* My Dad, who isn't a gamer at all, LOVES Yahtzee and I got him to try TCTK and he LOVES it!
You should also take a long, hard look at Alien Frontiers. The top layer is Yahtzee/Kingsburg style dice, but most of the actions are in support of a second-layer area control game.
To Court The King, you say? *clicks link* My Dad, who isn't a gamer at all, LOVES Yahtzee and I got him to try TCTK and he LOVES it!
You should also take a long, hard look at Alien Frontiers. The top layer is Yahtzee/Kingsburg style dice, but most of the actions are in support of a second-layer area control game.
While I like Alien Frontiers, I think it's a lot more cuthroat than either To Court the King or Kingsburg. Additionally, the game just seems to drag on too long when played with max players, at least I think so, and is best played as a 2-3 person game.
So, I just played a game of Eclipse designed by my former co-worker and fellow theoretical physicist Touko Tahkokallio.
It's effing good.
As in, it was the best game at Essen last month, it is cruising at an 8.46 average rating on Boargamegeek, preorders are apparently through the roof, and the inital launch is going to be in five different languages.
The game is coming out soon (release over here is next week, US who knows), so this is brony time; you get this game now and you'll be the cool kid for a looong time.
There are a lot of writeups on BGG already (including video reviews by Drakkenstrike) so I won't go into any details here, it's an exploration, expansion, resource management, space battle game. Our game of five lasted four hours but all of us were first timers so that can probably be shaved down to two and a half as per the spec (30 min per player).
It's a gamers game, good mix of mechanics and multiple very well balanced victory paths that are surprisingly easy to switch between. I switched from an inital game military conquest strategy to a late game science research strategy in the space of one turn and managed to win the game. Not many high level games let you do such things.
Seriously consider getting this game if you're into the hard games (Puerto Rico, Caylus, Power Grid, Agricola). Eclipse is going to be on that same list.
Dominion: Prosperity was $20 on amazon yesterday briefly. It also appears that seaside is going to be on sale in three hours. If they keep this up I might end up with the whole set.
Ah, Asmodee publishing, one of the few companies that I'm not on the review copy dole with. I'll see them again at Toyfair in February though. Will have to work my magic there.
Just played Formula D for the first time. Huge asterisk because we got some big rules wrong. We forgot to put debris tokens on the track. The biggest rule we missed is that if you exit a turn and land in another turn on the same roll, that does NOT count as a stop in the second turn. It's pretty random, but way fun. I like advanced mode, but I think you have to play easy mode with a lot of players.
I've read the Formula D rules but haven't played, and I agree that it looks like a lot of fun. Some people crap on it because, as you pointed it, it's quite a random game, but I don't need to play Puerto Rico every single time I sit down at the table. I think I would enjoy Formula D.
Also in the racing field, Pitchcar gets a lot of positive review. It's racing, but it's all dexterity. You just have to flick your disk along the track, but the tracks are modular and people have made some pretty crazy layouts with jumps and such.
I've read the Formula D rules but haven't played, and I agree that it looks like a lot of fun. Some people crap on it because, as you pointed it, it's quite a random game, but I don't need to play Puerto Rico every single time I sit down at the table. I think I would enjoy Formula D.
Also in the racing field, Pitchcar gets a lot of positive review. It's racing, but it's all dexterity. You just have to flick your disk along the track, but the tracks are modular and people have made some pretty crazy layouts with jumps and such.
I saw Pitchar recently. I think you actually tweeted it or something. Very interested.
Also in the racing field, Pitchcar gets a lot of positive review. It's racing, but it's all dexterity. You just have to flick your disk along the track, but the tracks are modular and people have made some pretty crazy layouts with jumps and such.
I saw Pitchar recently. I think you actually tweeted it or something. Very interested.
There was a sale on Pitchcar's at a local deartment store and we bought eight sets --> awesomeness!
That is awesome! Money is the one thing keeping me out of Pitchcar because I know I'll go crazy and want to buy several different sets, and I can't justify that when the pile o' shame is getting so large it may become sentient.
Pitchcar is good, but apparently the tracks are crap. I've got a copy of Roadzters that we love, which uses a similar mechanism but the tracks are better built.
Pitchcar is good, but apparently the tracks are crap.
I don't know where you heard that. Pitchcar has pretty high prodution values and we have never had any trouble with the tracks. What I can say is that the track needs a flat surface to play on so if you have wall to wall shag carpets that may be a problem.
I've read the Formula D rules but haven't played, and I agree that it looks like a lot of fun. Some people crap on it because, as you pointed it, it's quite a random game, but I don't need to play Puerto Rico every single time I sit down at the table. I think I would enjoy Formula D.
I own Formula D, and love it, and while there's chance, because you're rolling dice, I wouldn't say that it's random. A skilled player will almost always beat a new player, especially if you play multiple laps and include pit-stopping. The skill in Formula D is knowing when to down-shift gears, and when to take "damage" in order to slow down, while maining a higher gear to set up huge rolls on the straight-aways.
I don't play the game that seriously, but there are Formula D leagues out there that play all the maps like its a racing season, tracking the points each player (or team of players) earns throughout the season.
Also, the fan-made combat and weapons rules are a lot of fun too!
The only rule modification I want to make to Formula D is for fuel. You should get automatic -1 to any roll if you are heavy on fuel and automatic +1 to all rolls if you are light on fuel. If you run out of fuel, you lose. If you go in the pits, you can refuel as much as you want, but adding more fuel takes more time in the pit. Fuel will go down per turn a different amount based on what gear you are in.
Pitchcar is good, but apparently the tracks are crap.
I don't know where you heard that. Pitchcar has pretty high prodution values and we have never had any trouble with the tracks. What I can say is that the track needs a flat surface to play on so if you have wall to wall shag carpets that may be a problem.
Comments
It looks like a basic dungeon crawler with cute chibi-anime figures. We hope to get it all together by Saturday for friends that are coming over. We'll see how it goes.
Also picked up Hinterlands. Holy crap, we had no idea what the cards were about. Most of the cards give you an instant action when purchased. I think they will make for very fast games.
We don't plan on doing any coloring of the miniatures. That's not our "thing" for the time being.
The gameplay was surprisingly great, considering that I wasn't expecting a whole lot from something with the Battleship franchise. The bits are quite well done and add a nice cinematic feel as the game unfolds, without having to be painted or built. The board is fairly monotonous but manages to provide some decent points to fight over as you can add asteroids and such. The scenarios provided with the game are balanced and interesting. The combat is probably the only thing that is really Battleship-y. Each starship you command has its own card, and on that card is a blueprint of the ship on a grid. You then roll two provided dicii (one has letters and the other has numbers), call out the grid coordinates, and your opponent lets you know if you hit. There's also a chance for a critical hit.
All in all it was very fun to play. The main fault I can find at this point would be the fact that some ships feel underpowered and I don't know that there's going to be a lot of variety in gameplay after we finish the scenarios. For what it is - an easy to play space combat game - it's worth picking up.
I wonder if I should get it.
It's effing good.
As in, it was the best game at Essen last month, it is cruising at an 8.46 average rating on Boargamegeek, preorders are apparently through the roof, and the inital launch is going to be in five different languages.
The game is coming out soon (release over here is next week, US who knows), so this is brony time; you get this game now and you'll be the cool kid for a looong time.
There are a lot of writeups on BGG already (including video reviews by Drakkenstrike) so I won't go into any details here, it's an exploration, expansion, resource management, space battle game. Our game of five lasted four hours but all of us were first timers so that can probably be shaved down to two and a half as per the spec (30 min per player).
It's a gamers game, good mix of mechanics and multiple very well balanced victory paths that are surprisingly easy to switch between. I switched from an inital game military conquest strategy to a late game science research strategy in the space of one turn and managed to win the game. Not many high level games let you do such things.
Seriously consider getting this game if you're into the hard games (Puerto Rico, Caylus, Power Grid, Agricola). Eclipse is going to be on that same list.
I'm sold.
Also in the racing field, Pitchcar gets a lot of positive review. It's racing, but it's all dexterity. You just have to flick your disk along the track, but the tracks are modular and people have made some pretty crazy layouts with jumps and such.
I don't play the game that seriously, but there are Formula D leagues out there that play all the maps like its a racing season, tracking the points each player (or team of players) earns throughout the season.
Also, the fan-made combat and weapons rules are a lot of fun too!
FD has less luck than you might think. It's more push your luck than plain luck wirh gambling on corners.
It can also get expensive if you want to play different tracks. Luckily the old and new tracks are compatible.