I went to a Play-tester group yesterday and got to show off Supernatural Selection. I got plenty of feedback, not all of it was harsh, and it was very constructive.
I also got to play King's Forge (soon to hit Kickstarter). The game uses different colored dice to represent forging materials, and each player places their un-rolled dice onto cards or a playmat to claim abilities on cards or other dice to use in the construction rounds. Each player on their turn gets to either place the dice on the mat (guaranteed upgrades by sacrificing dice), place a number of dice on one of 4 cards in the center depending on the color, and thus, drafting the card, or passing. During the crafting phase, you roll your unused dice to try to roll certain combinations to match the dice on Artifact cards. For example, a Giant Club uses 3 wood (green dice) and you have to roll a 3,4,5 or better on 3 green dice, including bonuses, if another player rolls a higher set of required dice, they can steal the item. The first player to craft 4 artifacts wins. I really liked the game, and will either get it via the kickstarter, or later on.
The same designer of King's Forge also brought a prototype for a game called Rocket Dice. You play a round of drafting Spaceship parts that give different colored dice, as well as bonuses, or you can save the card, face down, under one of a number of one time bonuses. After the drafting round, you take the dice you get via your space ship, and penalty dice based on your weight. You choose a distance and set aside dice for the distance (color doesn't matter), then roll the remaining dice. If you hit the minimum pip requirements on the respective dice, you move your spaceship to that location. After 4 rounds, the game ends, and the furthest player wins. There are special stars on spaceship parts for breaking ties.
While I am in a Tim Horton's waiting for a call here is an update:
Parade: New game to be released in September, a simple trick taking game in which you line cards up in a parade in the style of Alice in Wonderland. High cards are worth their points, but if you have the majority in a color each one is worth one point.
The game is simple and elegant in how you place a card down "locking" the ones that you do not have to touch, but all cards that are open you will take any values equal to or less than what you placed and all cards in that Suit.
There are 6 suits and goes from 0 to 10. If you either clear the deck or if someone has one card in each suit, the final turn takes place, you discard two from your hand of five and add two cards in front of you.
Need to try it again to get a better grasp on the moves of the game but solid game that is a decent way to learn how to card count.
In a nine-player game of Eclipse, Cremlian is the one who finally dislodged me from the galactic center - not even my neutron absorber could save me from a fleet of antimatter cannon equipped interceptors. I never actually attacked another player until turn 8, just spent the middle of the game playing king of the hill with missiles.
also finally connected him and Scott after a few times of trying in the past.
Today I learned, all you have to do to get me to do something is mention Eclipse. Totally worth it, though; now I know where all the anime and board games are.
I mostly played lighter games the day after... Small World, TtR, King of Tokyo.
I don't know if this is old news to everyone but if you haven't yet bought "Glory to Rome" and are interested, the black box version should be coming back into stock really soon.
I had a chance to play with his set at PAX Aus and the art quality is superior to the base set.
I don't know if this is old news to everyone but if you haven't yet bought "Glory to Rome" and are interested, the black box version should be coming back into stock really soon.
I don't know if this is old news to everyone but if you haven't yet bought "Glory to Rome" and are interested, the black box version should be coming back into stock really soon.
I only know because the one in Australia I've been constantly asking about it has emailed me to put my pre-order in now (after almost a month plus of it being listed as a backorder).
I played Planet Steam for the the first time today. It was a fun game, but I'm mad at myself for somehow finding a way to play suboptimally at every single opportunity, while thinking I had a good idea of what I was doing. I am a poor decision-maker.
Played Ideology: War of Ideas last night. The game plays sorta like a more sophisticated Illuminati, in that you take regions from the middle and control them but other players can attempt to take stuff from the middle or even from other players. The fact that you always have to declare your diplomatic stances a turn ahead (you can only wage Culture war if if you are at peace, Economic and Culture if neutral and Military, economic and Culture influence if at war.) adds a interest dimension to diplomacy in the game. No Joint victory causes all sorts of screwing to occur. As with all games with lots of socialization it went on way longer then the recommended 1 to 2 hours, but that's also because no one knew the rules going in. The phases can be a little confusing and the instruction book could be laid out better. All in all I'd play it again. It's my kind of game.
Also you can get weapons of mass destruction and while the game says they are rarely used, we used three of them.
Also Communism won our game (ended up a tie with Imperialism (me) but beat me with the tie breaker secondary measure. Damn those communists)
Played King of Tokyo for the first time as well. I can see why that game is popular it's quick, fun and has great art design.
Alien Frontiers: Simple game with no expansion due to players' time restriction. Everyone enjoyed it, I came in third since I was pumping the machine while the person next to me was dice hoarding, dice hoarder made one fatal move at the end of the game that cost her victory. I also got slapped a lot...don't ask.
Glory to Rome: Thanks to Pence we played a three player game in which I had to go and make sure they understood the core mechanics (action card can not be used to build off of the building, show the card in your hand to demand things, etc.). I won that by simply vault hoarding and by a catacombs being built at the same time. With two Bonuses (almost 3) can't lose.
Spot it: I am a slightly above average in this game.
As much as I dislike the handling time and occasionally confusing turn structure in Ideology, I actually kind of enjoyed it overall. Especially the turns after everyone armed themselves with nuclear weapons simultaneously.
Race for the Galaxy: Had a ridiculous draw the first game which involved Galactic Imperium, Terraforming Guild, New Galactic Order coming up at exactly the right time.
Puerto Rico: This is the game with Coldguy. I had 57 points - (wisely) Cathy took my two points away by calling captain for me twice. Also wisely, everyone took the big buildings while I was playing around with my Wharf :P
Home of the Heartland: Deliverin' them cow cubes. I played to use as many cards in my hand per turn as possible, which was starting to worry me as I accumulated cubes without making money, but it paid off in the end.
So we're playing Caylus next week, right? It's the highest ranked game on BGG that I still really want to play.
After a solid year+ of delay due to the Ogre Kickstarter, Steve Jackson Games has finally shipped Castellan, and it is a lot of fun. Considering grabbing the international edition next month (different colored pieces so you can combine both sets for a 4 player game).
After a solid year+ of delay due to the Ogre Kickstarter, Steve Jackson Games has finally shipped Castellan, and it is a lot of fun. Considering grabbing the international edition next month (different colored pieces so you can combine both sets for a 4 player game).
I thought Steve was selling a red/blue set and a green yellow set, so you could buy both? I'll check it at PAX.
The green/yellow set is the "international edition." Red/blue only has english rules in it. They split it up that way so they could have only 2 SKUs for the entire Castellan line. I'm sure there will be plenty of international editions in US distribution, but it's not out yet.
The green/yellow set is the "international edition." Red/blue only has english rules in it. They split it up that way so they could have only 2 SKUs for the entire Castellan line. I'm sure there will be plenty of international editions in US distribution, but it's not out yet.
At this point I don't even care if the game is awful because castles.
I like how discrete the game is. You start off with a big pile of pieces and a deck of cards that allow you to play various groups of pieces, but there are just enough piece symbols on the cards as there are actual pieces in the game. Play continues until every card is played and the entire castle is built, so you can see the end-game coming a mile away and plan for it. Towards the end, you can make some good strategic moves just by eye-ing up your opponent's dwindling pile of pieces.
Correction: It's called The Great Heartland Hauling Company.
Thanks.
Board Game Recap:
The Duke: An interesting abstract game in which the goal is to either Pin The Duke from moving or capture him. To do this you either move a tile and filp it over (allowing the title to have even more sets of movement) or draw from a bag and get a new piece who is placed directly next to the Duke.
It gets around the what piece does what by having the movement printed on the tile itself and once you recognize what the symbols means it is really easy to go and plan your next action. Solid game.
Pixel Lincoln: I am waiting for the expansion before creating my set level decks however I think I grasped which enemies to include and what items work well in each level, as for the game I lost due to being stuck trying to get a character to ensure I had a chance to win the game.
Lupin the Third: The Board Game: The First Expansion: the Colon: We played the 4th episodes aka The Return to the Castle of Cagliostro. It took longer to explain the plot of the episode than it was to go and play due to the fact everyone was smart and had their turns go super fast.
Zenagata and Fujiko sadly beat each other up for Team Lupin to swoop in and make the final blow making us the victors.
Power Grid with Robots: Robots are an asshole and almost won the game if it did not have enough money to buy the 15th city. Added a lot of strategic maneuvering, like how I had the high bid for the first city placement for a dollar and made it go and place itself in the middle of three people, I then had the target for the rest of the game because of this.
Tichu: When your team wins 690 to -10 due to forfeit you know you are doing something right.
Caveman the Quest of Fire: This was the longest game we played of this due to thinkers being shuffled in poorly and everyone stabbing one another to ensure that a single person who got an early lead would not win the game. Still can't believe that this was inspired by a MtG draft.
There are talks of Dune tonight so things might get awesome.
Comments
I also got to play King's Forge (soon to hit Kickstarter). The game uses different colored dice to represent forging materials, and each player places their un-rolled dice onto cards or a playmat to claim abilities on cards or other dice to use in the construction rounds. Each player on their turn gets to either place the dice on the mat (guaranteed upgrades by sacrificing dice), place a number of dice on one of 4 cards in the center depending on the color, and thus, drafting the card, or passing. During the crafting phase, you roll your unused dice to try to roll certain combinations to match the dice on Artifact cards. For example, a Giant Club uses 3 wood (green dice) and you have to roll a 3,4,5 or better on 3 green dice, including bonuses, if another player rolls a higher set of required dice, they can steal the item. The first player to craft 4 artifacts wins. I really liked the game, and will either get it via the kickstarter, or later on.
The same designer of King's Forge also brought a prototype for a game called Rocket Dice. You play a round of drafting Spaceship parts that give different colored dice, as well as bonuses, or you can save the card, face down, under one of a number of one time bonuses. After the drafting round, you take the dice you get via your space ship, and penalty dice based on your weight. You choose a distance and set aside dice for the distance (color doesn't matter), then roll the remaining dice. If you hit the minimum pip requirements on the respective dice, you move your spaceship to that location. After 4 rounds, the game ends, and the furthest player wins. There are special stars on spaceship parts for breaking ties.
Parade: New game to be released in September, a simple trick taking game in which you line cards up in a parade in the style of Alice in Wonderland. High cards are worth their points, but if you have the majority in a color each one is worth one point.
The game is simple and elegant in how you place a card down "locking" the ones that you do not have to touch, but all cards that are open you will take any values equal to or less than what you placed and all cards in that Suit.
There are 6 suits and goes from 0 to 10. If you either clear the deck or if someone has one card in each suit, the final turn takes place, you discard two from your hand of five and add two cards in front of you.
Need to try it again to get a better grasp on the moves of the game but solid game that is a decent way to learn how to card count.
Eclispse: See Pence's description above, also finally connected him and Scott after a few times of trying in the past.
Trans-America: Played with the expansion and it add a lot of more strategic maneuvering, still crayon rails.
Tichu: I pulled off 1 Grand Tichu and two Tichus, however team still lost due to a Tichu Double Victory on the final round.
Speed Chess: Man I am really bad at abstract games
Hive: See above
Power Grid: I made a dumb move on the second to last turn, outside of that came in 2nd.
Smash Up: Plant Wizards are awesome, but lost to Alien Bear Calvary.
I mostly played lighter games the day after... Small World, TtR, King of Tokyo.
I had a chance to play with his set at PAX Aus and the art quality is superior to the base set.
I only know because the one in Australia I've been constantly asking about it has emailed me to put my pre-order in now (after almost a month plus of it being listed as a backorder).
Also you can get weapons of mass destruction and while the game says they are rarely used, we used three of them.
Also Communism won our game (ended up a tie with Imperialism (me) but beat me with the tie breaker secondary measure. Damn those communists)
Played King of Tokyo for the first time as well. I can see why that game is popular it's quick, fun and has great art design.
Alien Frontiers: Simple game with no expansion due to players' time restriction. Everyone enjoyed it, I came in third since I was pumping the machine while the person next to me was dice hoarding, dice hoarder made one fatal move at the end of the game that cost her victory. I also got slapped a lot...don't ask.
Glory to Rome: Thanks to Pence we played a three player game in which I had to go and make sure they understood the core mechanics (action card can not be used to build off of the building, show the card in your hand to demand things, etc.). I won that by simply vault hoarding and by a catacombs being built at the same time. With two Bonuses (almost 3) can't lose.
Spot it: I am a slightly above average in this game.
Smallworld Underworld: I know remember why 3 players on this game re bad, but nice to try the races that are not too common.
Puerto Rico:I won with 59 points with the pure builder, abandoned the factory to focus on two large buildings and made both pay off.
Home of the heartland: Nice game in which Pence was able to out optimize me.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=xs_gb_A2XGG3LU55H2MR?ie=UTF8&docId=1001324331&pf_rd_p=441937901&pf_rd_s=right-1&pf_rd_t=701&pf_rd_i=20&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1CSE4AR6VJJAGM8M7PDQ
Puerto Rico: This is the game with Coldguy. I had 57 points - (wisely) Cathy took my two points away by calling captain for me twice. Also wisely, everyone took the big buildings while I was playing around with my Wharf :P
Home of the Heartland: Deliverin' them cow cubes. I played to use as many cards in my hand per turn as possible, which was starting to worry me as I accumulated cubes without making money, but it paid off in the end.
So we're playing Caylus next week, right? It's the highest ranked game on BGG that I still really want to play.
I'm down for it.
Board Game Recap:
The Duke: An interesting abstract game in which the goal is to either Pin The Duke from moving or capture him. To do this you either move a tile and filp it over (allowing the title to have even more sets of movement) or draw from a bag and get a new piece who is placed directly next to the Duke.
It gets around the what piece does what by having the movement printed on the tile itself and once you recognize what the symbols means it is really easy to go and plan your next action. Solid game.
Pixel Lincoln: I am waiting for the expansion before creating my set level decks however I think I grasped which enemies to include and what items work well in each level, as for the game I lost due to being stuck trying to get a character to ensure I had a chance to win the game.
Lupin the Third: The Board Game: The First Expansion: the Colon: We played the 4th episodes aka The Return to the Castle of Cagliostro. It took longer to explain the plot of the episode than it was to go and play due to the fact everyone was smart and had their turns go super fast.
Zenagata and Fujiko sadly beat each other up for Team Lupin to swoop in and make the final blow making us the victors.
Power Grid with Robots: Robots are an asshole and almost won the game if it did not have enough money to buy the 15th city. Added a lot of strategic maneuvering, like how I had the high bid for the first city placement for a dollar and made it go and place itself in the middle of three people, I then had the target for the rest of the game because of this.
Tichu: When your team wins 690 to -10 due to forfeit you know you are doing something right.
Caveman the Quest of Fire: This was the longest game we played of this due to thinkers being shuffled in poorly and everyone stabbing one another to ensure that a single person who got an early lead would not win the game. Still can't believe that this was inspired by a MtG draft.
There are talks of Dune tonight so things might get awesome.