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GeekNights 20110628 - Small World

MrPeriodMrPeriod
edited June 2011 in GeekNights

Tonight on GeekNights, we review Philippe Keyaerts' Small World, successor to his Vinci. Rym's surprisingly playing a little Team Fortress 2 again (despite it being free to play), Scott Geekbites F.E.A.R., and Capcom might be doing something sinister with hard-locked save slots.

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Comments

  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Ninja Gaiden! I completed that game, one of the only NES games I ever managed. I didn't know at the time that it would be considered balls-hard 20 years later.
  • Anthony HemanAnthony Heman
    I think I also remember that hologram-shield toys cartoon. Vaguely. I'm a couple years younger and I had two of the toys. One guy was dark blue with a beard. The other one was red. I think the holograms were animals?
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited June 2011
    As soon as Rym mentioned TF2, I thought for a moment, and was able to speak along with Scott as he said his bit on TF2, practically word for word, in unison - Well, the first time, I didn't bother the other six or seven times he repeated himself.

    At least he's consistent, I suppose. Maybe that's why he doesn't play - He's just all too predictable. Then again, I'm hardly one to talk about someone repeating themselves, but I just had to say I've noticed a pattern...

    Also, doesn't Scott hate it when people repeat themselves like that?

    Eh, I don't know. I'm just used to it now, I guess, a concept that both relives and disturbs me.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • AprecheApreche
    Thank you to a listener for proving I wasn't hallucinating.

    https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Visionaries:_Knights_of_the_Magical_Light
  • ChurbaChurba
    Thank you to a listener for proving I wasn't hallucinating.
    Huh, that's interesting, I've never heard of that show before. Though I question if I'm masochistic enough to hunt it down and watch it.
  • AprecheApreche
    Thank you to a listener for proving I wasn't hallucinating.
    Huh, that's interesting, I've never heard of that show before. Though I question if I'm masochistic enough to hunt it down and watch it.
    The holograms are the same, but the characters don't match my memory. I remember it being less colorful and more dark twisted fantasy styling. Though, memory is faulty and the holograms are too similar for there to be much doubt. Unless there was another toy with the same holograms.
  • ChurbaChurba
    The holograms are the same, but the characters don't match my memory. I remember it being less colorful and more dark twisted fantasy styling. Though, memory is faulty and the holograms are too similar for there to be much doubt. Unless there was another toy with the same holograms.
    I was thinking more about the fact that many toy-related shows from that era were not exactly fantastic, and I don't have any nostalgic connection to it, I'd be watching it fresh. I wasn't doubting you, in the first place for remembering it, nor that it's the same show, though I do agree you might be mis-remembering some of the smaller details.
  • AprecheApreche
    edited June 2011
    Fuck me! Usually you can't trust memory for shit, but in this case I was actually right. Visionaries isn't the thing I remembered. Supernaturals is.


    http://actionfigures.about.com/b/2010/10/15/vintage-action-fiure-of-the-week-supernaturals-snakebite.htm
    http://www.action-figures.ca/super_naturals.htm
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • AprecheApreche
    Sky Commanders is the one with the ropes that I always forget the name of.

  • TheWhaleSharkTheWhaleShark
    edited June 2011
    Fuck me! Usually you can't trust memory for shit, but in this case I was actually right. Visionaries isn't the thing I remembered. Supernaturals is.
    I had toys for both, though I had more Super Naturals than the other one.

    EDIT: That site also allowed me to remember a toy I had whose name eluded me: Bravestarr. I had Marshall Bravestarr, the horse, and the backpack whatsit that shot infrared beams.
    Post edited by TheWhaleShark on
  • KapitänTimKapitänTim
    Sky Commanders is the one with the ropes that I always forget the name of.

    image
    Those toys were sooo boss.
  • KapitänTimKapitänTim
    Do you remember Starcom?
  • MattMatt
    edited June 2011
    I had hologram chest toys very similar to Visionaries but they were humanoid animals. I remember having a moose, horse, and walrus guy. There weren't more than 3 inches tall. Edit: upon further googleage, these were Battle Beasts.

    Also, holy crap about Sky Commanders. Don't know how I forgot something so awesome ever existed.
    Post edited by Matt on
  • TelemaniakaTelemaniaka
    I own Small World ^__^ I try and play with my little sister(10) at least once every two weeks.
    We are still new to board games, this being the first and only board game I own (not counting card games like Gold Thief and Yomi), and getting it out of and back in the box is a hassle.

    The territories have to be next to each-other! Its in the rules. Except for some powers like Underworld and Flying where it bends this rule a little bit.
    But you can, on the start of your turn, abandon all your territory and enter the map anew from wherever you want. The Gypsies actually have some kind of incentive to do that but they are an expansion race and I don't know the details.

    I don't own any of the expansions but basically Grand Dames of Small World, Be Not Afraidand Small World Cursed only add more races and powers.
    Necromancer Island sounds awesome. It adds a 6th player that plays a necromancer in the center of the map that captures the Race Tokens lost in conquest and uses them to spawn Ghost. And his goal is to spawn all his 14 Ghosts before the end of the game.

    I'll definitely get those 4 expansions eventually.

    I'm a little sceptical of Tales and Legends. It adds a lot more randomness to the game.


    All in all, it's a really simple game that is very easy to pick up. And although we have a huge age difference (12 years) I haven't been able to beat my sister with that big of a score difference in a 1v1 game.
  • chaosof99chaosof99
    Since we are on the topic of weird shows from when we were kids. I doubt anybody has ever seen it here, but there was a show when I was a kid and it ran in a cartoon block on the german TV station "RTL 2", though I think the cartoon itself was either french or belgian. It was about two kids who befriend a jukebox which had been struck by lightning and turned alive. The jukebox had the ability to turn the kids into microscopic electronic data and send them through the electricity network, which kinda behaved like the internet. There they had to battle some foes like for example four viruses.

    This has been bothering me for like 7 years now because I can't find what that show was called.
  • RymRym
    Scott's memory is faulty
  • AprecheApreche
    The territories have to be next to each-other! Its in the rules
    On what page?
  • jmermjmerm
    I recently played through Aria of Sorrow, which had a pretty good solution to the rechargeable resource issue. Your mana recharged quire slowly, but if you hit any of the wall fixtures, it would drop a bit of mana. This meant that if you were exploring and using your mana-attacks a bit, you would generally be able to keep it close to full, but that during boss battles and the like, mana was a very limited resource.
  • MattMatt
    edited June 2011
    The territories have to be next to each-other! Its in the rules
    On what page?
    I haven't listened to this episode yet but I don't think there is a Small World rules question I can't answer. Between running it at Recess and playing in PAX tournament I studied the hell out of its rules & errata. Is this a general question of conquests needing to be in adjacent territories, or a more pointed question about how a certain special power works?

    If the former, here is the text from page 4: "Each of the newly conquered Regions must be adjacent to (i.e. sharing a border with) a Region already occupied by his active Race tokens, unless permitted otherwise by his Race and Special Power combo."
    Post edited by Matt on
  • RymRym
    edited June 2011
    If the former, here is the text from page 4: "Each of the newly conquered Regions must be adjacent to (i.e. sharing a border with) a Region already occupied by his active Race tokens, unless permitted otherwise by his Race and Special Power combo."
    No. this has to do with a player whose empire is bisected by another player when it isn't his turn. In Vinci, this basically fucked said bisected empire, which was required to re-unite the pieces on its following turn or abandon all but one contiguous zone.
    Post edited by Rym on
  • AprecheApreche
    If the former, here is the text from page 4: "Each of the newly conquered Regions must be adjacent to (i.e. sharing a border with) a Region already occupied by his active Race tokens, unless permitted otherwise by his Race and Special Power combo."
    Yes, this rule is obvious.

    The difference in Vinci is that the territories must remain adjacent. For example, let's say you have conquered seven territories in a straight line. A-B-C-D-E-F-G. Territory D is then captured by an opponent, splitting your empire in two completely separate pieces. A-B-C E-F-G. In Vinci you will be forced to completely abandon one of these halves. Your entire empire must always remain contiguous unless you specifically have a civilization power that allows you to break the rule. You can also decline on your next turn to avoid having to abandon those territories. It is ok for a declining empire to not be contiguous.

    In Small World it seems you do not have to maintain the contiguous nature of your empire. If you get split into two or even three pieces, that's just fine. This opens up completely different tactical options not available in Vinci. The most important of which is that you can abandon territories which do not give bonus points to your civilization and strongly defend a few disconnected spots that give you extra points for greater efficiency.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Hence why the British tried to hold on to Gibraltar, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Suez Canal, the Falklands, Malta, etc for so long. They don't give a shit about the rest of Spain, but Gibraltar might be super-handy in the future!
  • RymRym
    They don't give a shit about the rest of Spain, but Gibraltar might be super-handy in the future!
    Luckily, they had Astronomy.
  • TelemaniakaTelemaniaka
    Yes, in Small World you don't have to abandon territory if it gets separated from the rest. My bad for misunderstanding your statement in the first place.
  • MattMatt
    Yeah you guys are playing it completely right. Thought it was odd that there was some question about that.
  • RymRym
    Thought it was odd that there was some question about that.
    It was only a question because it was a specific rule in Vinci, and it had a huge impact on gameplay. That this was missing from Smallworld was surprising.
  • RochelleRochelle
    Rym's surprisingly playing a little Team Fortress 2 again (despite it being free to play)
    Scott, you should play in the tournament. I think it would be fun. Stop being all namby-pamby and come play with us. I will heal/kill you, depending upon which team we are on. :D
  • RymRym
    Scott, you should play in the tournament. I think it would be fun. Stop being all namby-pamby and come play with us. I will heal/kill you, depending upon which team we are on. :D
    Yes. It's a game of, in order of importance:

    1. Communication/Coordination for execution
    2. Tactics
    3. Personal FPS Skill

    As opposed to Counterstrike, which is a test of:

    1. Personal FPS Skill
    2. Tactics
    3. Communication/Coordination for execution
  • Conan-SanConan-San
    Ignoring the toffee nosing in regards to TF 2, It's great to finally have someone who's not Something Awful talk about Retro Game Master (Game Centre CX) but it's a shame you've only got the Kotaku mauling to go by. Needless to say, Kotaku's translation efforts are appropriate for a blog that's so badly designed.
  • ChurbaChurba
    Ignoring the toffee nosing
    Excuse me I'm 24 what is this?
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