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Thread: Attack! Deluxe Expansion:: Rules:: Downloadable Manual?

cumika — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:31:09 +0000

Can anybody provide a downloadable manual?

I would like to "study" the new rules, before buying it (when available in amazon again).

Thanks

Thread: MotorChamp:: Rules:: Lapped Cars blocking

Timw — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:18:34 +0000

by Timw

Picked this up for my son's birthday, and he's loving it, although a situation arose last night which we were not sure about.

A car was lapped, and sitting behind the leader - as per the rules (or our interpretation at least), on the next round, the leader threw first followed by the next car on the track, regardless of race position, so in this case the lapped car.

The lapped car actually overtook the leader, and slotted in directly in front of the leader to take the space with no speed restriction for its next turn. The next car rolled, and drew alongside leader, on the left hand side of the track.

This meant that on the next turn, the leader was guaranteed to crash - as he would roll first, before the car right in front of him.

Is this considered "cunning blocking" by the other teams, or unsporting behaviour by the lapped car, or could the leader request that the car directly in front of him take his turn first for this round?

We also liked the house rule on here to allow the red spoiler to be applied instead of a car being permanently out, which also added to the slow moving traffic to be lapped - although it is likely to make the scenario above more frequent.

Thread: Sorry! Sliders:: News:: Available in New Zealand - February /March 2010

idmonfish — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:53:20 +0000

by idmonfish

Just as the title says according to the very helpful Hasbro New Zealand, Sorry! Sliders should be in shops there in February /March 2010

Thread: BattleLore:: General:: What if... you replaced the minis with blocks... ducks

Boromir_and_Kermit — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:43:35 +0000

by Boromir_and_Kermit

G'day,

Just to justify my position here,
* I have tried to paint the figures that came with the game
* I have tried painting metal minis to sub in for some poor sculpts
* I have been painting minis for years
* I LOVE MINIS!

But! ... The combination of spending a massive amount of time painting largely the same sculpt (and should I say sculpts that I'm not really that keen on) has been sucking my energy and stopping me from playing the game.

I have sooooo much more respect for those that have completed their painted sets. Ladies and gentlemen, I salute you

The other thing for me is, with mass combat games I've played in the past (Warmaster, HOTT, Mighty Armies and FR!3) I've used element basing, not individual basing - which I find fiddly and a touch annoying. Yes you can just grab all four figures and plonk them down, but if you've spent ages painting them - this is sacrilege (for me).

I've been playing C&C:A recently and I have fallen in love with the blocks. So since I still like Battlelore, I am tossing up the idea of replacing all my minis with blocks. This way I only have to paint one of each type of mini (and I can spend more time on them) and its easier to move them around the table.

Here is a rough 5min attempt at making a Battlelore sticker for a block. Please note I would replace the drawing of the unit with a painted figure. The background would be more refined also.

]]>

Anyways, this is an idea in its infancy. If you have any suggestions, comments or criticisms, please post below. I'd be interested to gauge what other people think.

Cheers,
Ben.

Thread: Dominion: Seaside:: General:: 1 GG = A chance to win an unplayed copy of Seaside

aronbc — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:37:43 +0000

by aronbc

Anyone seeking to acquire a new copy of this game has a chance to do so at the low, low price of $0 in the December Geekgold for Games Lottery Geeklist.

[listitem=1111526]See the geek gold lottery entry here[/listitem]

Box contents are in new and in excellent condition.

Multiple entries are accepted. Entry Deadline is December 31.

Good luck!

Thread: 1881: Das Berliner Strassenbahnspiel:: General:: So English Anyone

masaakunokouchi — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:33:33 +0000

by masaakunokouchi

So anyone working on an English translation. I am, but my German is so rusty, it would make a better final electron acceptor than O2!!!! haahahahhaaha....
eh-hem.

Ok so that is all. If anyone wants to work with me on it that would be great.

Thread: Arkham Horror:: Rules:: Delayed in OT and then Gate Card Says Lose turn?

Old Blue — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:27:37 +0000

by Old Blue

Aloha,
I'm running through my first AH, base game, and came upon an interesting situation.
During the Arkham encounter phase I drew a card and it said a gate and monster appears - so I went through the gate and set my investigator to delayed - I didn't fight the monster.

Next phase - OT encounter
Since my investigator is now in the OT - I entered the OT encounter phase and drew a gate card and it said lose next turn. Do I lose the next, next turn since my next is essential lost b/c I was delayed. I think not b/c I'm already delayed and therefore the lose next turn is negated.

Also I have a bonus question - do 'items' mean physical possessions and don't include - money, clue, trophies,s pells. I ask b/c some cards say lose half your items and wasn't clear what an 'item' was. Is there a definition I missed?

Mahalos for the clarifications!

Thread: Mow:: General:: Mow Card Packs are there more than one?

peltazoid — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:02:55 +0000

by peltazoid

Hi, when I read the English translation rules posted in another thread
http://www.jsp-mag.com/jeux/Mow_En.doc

It mentions two card deck green and yellow.

The yellow pack has more special cards and allows upto 10 players when merged with the green deck.

Is this yellow deck still availiable or was it just part of the initial essen special?

Thanks.

Thread: Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition:: Rules:: Questions after 1st play

Wolfsflames — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:41:20 +0000

by Wolfsflames

When and how do you spend influence?

When carry infantry on a carrier and i move them to a system with two planets. Can i drop 1 inf on one planet and the other on the second planet, or does this happen in different turns?

Do you exhaust a planet card when you want to use the technology of it? Or does this only say that you have 1 credit discount? (So when i have 2 planets with the red technology, a techimprovement only costs 6 credits)?

Thread: Body War:: Variants:: H1N1

bert53 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:39:42 +0000

by bert53

Did you know that with a little help of a friend medical doctor (better if immunology specialist) we can do a scenario on H1N1 and see the reaction of the organism ?

Maurizio

Thread: Colossal Arena:: General:: French version 2nd edition different than English Version?

JacquesDeMolay — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:38:48 +0000

by JacquesDeMolay

I see an image that shows 14 combatants - rather than 12. Can anyone confirm this one way or the other.

Thanks in advance

Thread: Tales of the Arabian Nights:: Rules:: Error in paragraph 960?

sychen — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:31:15 +0000

by sychen

Page 102: Paragraph 960

If you choose a trial by pain. [Go to paragraph 112]

This trial should go to paragraph 1120 since there does not exist paragraph 112 in Book of Tales and the content of paragraph 1120 seems matches the story.

Thread: A Game of Thrones LCG:: General:: Using markers to show kneeled characters/cards

Chou4555 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:24:01 +0000

by Chou4555

I prefer using markers to indicate cards that are used, kneeled, exhausted, whatever.. I find it helps one reading the information on such cards if they aren't turned 90 degrees, thus not requiring some head swivelling (I find it's easier to read upside down!) and if they have just a counter/figure on the picture.

So for example, in Call of Cthulhu, I use the mini Cthulhu models (now available) to denote exhausted.

And so we come to GoT. Well the Cthulhu figures don't look at all in keeping with the GoT theme, so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for what counters or figures one could use or buy to mark cards as kneeled? I was wondering whether the figures from "Shadow over Camelot" might be suitable- they're certainly in keeping with the fantasy/knight/medieval period of GoT... but there's not enough of them, and each figure is different, and so may cause confusion.

So I guess what I'm looking for are 20 or so uniform figures or counters or markers that are vaguely fantasy medieval?

Any ideas?

Thanks

Thread: System Vector:: Rules:: Settling Planets / Systems

Nazhuret — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:47:55 +0000

by Nazhuret

In the rules it states:

To settle on a system, the player must
move and place a Mobile Command onto the
Systems planet (in the sector the planet occupies).
You do not gain the income, fleet or deploy ships
from this planet until the Income/Purchase or
Deploy phase of the next turn.

Let's look at the bold text above.

Deployment phase comes at the end of the turn just before victory check phase (if vp are used).
This seems like it might be confusing.

If you occupied a sector with a MC then, in the same turn, deployed units, it might be confusing which MC's can deploy or not.

A minor quibble to be sure but these are the things that throw people off.

Might I suggest including a counter to denote that the MC is establishing itself after movement?
Perhaps some other way of noting that that particular MC is not able to deploy ships during the deployment phase?

As I say, a minor thing but I can very well imagine many people being confused at that. I know I probably will. This may be a product of us playing many of our games in bars while having a few pints but still...

Thread: Great Battles of History:: General:: Curious

caradoc — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:40:14 +0000

by caradoc

If I was interested in getting one of the GBoH games, and haven't played any before, what would be a good starting place?

For my interests I favour one of: Alexander, SPQR, Chariots of Fire or War Galley...

I am looking for one I can order from GMT, and that would be reasonable to play solo. A 3-4 hour scenario isn't a problem, but longer probably is, and rules complexity is not a major issue, but again this would be my first foray into the system...

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Cheers,

Giles.

Session: Tactics II:: Teaching teenage boys to mind their elders...

ThomasH — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:39:24 +0000

by ThomasH

So my son had his friend over and they were annoying the heck out of me with the latest Xbox/Playstation/Wii game that could make bothersome electronic noises. At the end of my patience with their hogging of the TV during football season and incessant sound pollution, I challenged them to play a game that actually would use their brains instead of twitch muscles in their fingers. After the usual exchange of derogatory comments regarding fossils and empty brain pans, I dragged out Tactics II.

The two boys have played Risk, Axis + Allies, and even War at Sea so the basic idea of a war game was not foreign to them but this was their first effort at a “true” land war game. They set up the game fairly quickly and I hung out nearby to help them past any rules questions. Their game went fairly quickly and a lot was learned. After my son did a little victory dance, his friend challenged him to play me…

Accepting the challenge, my son offered me a game. I decided I would allow him to choose his side and whether he wanted to go first or not. This is not quite as critical as it might be since we are playing with 1973 rules. This removes much of the “blitzkrieg” flavor of the earlier versions but it does make the game more forgiving of “newbie” mistakes.

My son chose Blue and decided to take the first move. This was the same side he had played in the earlier game when he mopped the floor with his buddy. It was the first time he had moved first.

We decided to use the Advanced game rules but decided to not use weather, nukes or replacements. We did use the Isolation rules.

My son led off with his first turn as Blue.

Turn 1, Blue reconsiders declaring war, Red drives the infidel from sacred ground!
Blue moved 1st Corp to the immediate west of C10-47 with HQ occuping the city. 2nd Corp was detailed toward C3-26 and the Great Forest Road. 3rd Corp garrisoned C27-29 and pushed a little beyond into Blue turn while 4th Corp garrisoned C41-41 and threatened the southern mountain road. Amphib and paratroopers were stationed to the capital along with the Reserve forces. All in all a very conservative and defensive first turn move that was a prelude to the way he would fight the war.
Red moved the 1st Corp armor to the outskirts of C3-26 with the 2nd Corp infantry moving up to support and also block the Great Forest Road. 1st Corp infantry moved to seaport squares in C8-16 and C16-7. The replacement armor rushed to C19-26 while the replacement infantry either followed or manned the seaport at C13-16. This gave Red a Sea Transport reserve of 6 infantry divisions, with one seaport square left available for the 1st Amphibious division. 3rd and 4th Corp armor and 3rd Corp infantry mounted an attack on the Blue forces to the west of C27-29. 4th Corp infantry sent a division down the mountain road, placed a division in the seaport at C43-16 and sent the rest NE toward C27-29. The combat west of C27-29 consisted of two 4-1 attacks with a “soaker” 1-2 in the middle. The die rolls provided Db2 for both the 4-1 attacks and Aelim for the 1-2.

Turn 2 Blue hopes that a negotiated peace can be arranged, Red seeks maximum gain before the armistice.
Blue determined he could not mount an effective counter attack against the Red forces west of C27-29, so he fell back to the river line between Blue Capital and the Southern Mountains. The actual implementation of this tactical retreat left space 27-32 behind the bridge open with only an armor unit adjacent to it to the south. The forces around the Blue Capital pushed their defensive line a few squares north and west of the city but failed to block the NE road leading toward C10-47. The Red forces approaching C3-26 formed a defensive line to the east of C3-26. Apparently the Red 1st Mountain division and 1st Armor division had raised the cost of C3-26 beyond what was desired. Blue had no combats this turn.
Red used Sea Transport and existing forces to establish a 6 infantry (and one HQ) north- south line, east of C3-26 down and south of the Great Forest Road. This freed up the 1st Armor and allowed the 1st Mountain to be placed in a sea port space in C3-26. The 1st Armor joined two others and 7 infantry (reserves getting to the front) to drive up the NE road between Blue Capital and C3-26. They encountered a lone infantry division north of Blue Capital and attacked at 3-1 (result Db2). The armor around C27-29 moved across the bridge at 27-31 and attacked the exposed Blue armor at 3-1 odds (result Delim).

Turn 3 Blue Fights Back! Red delivers the butcher’s bill.
Blue moved to counter attack the Red thrust on the NE road, north of the Capital. Several Blue infantry divisions enveloped and destroyed a Red infantry division at 16-39. Additionally, an armor supported attack across the river at 30-30 was made with the unfortunate result of Ab2 on the 2-1 odds. Elsewhere Blue consolidated a line opposite the Red line in the forest east of C3-26 down to the Great Forest Road and started moving reserve forces from C27-50 and C41-41 up toward the fighting.
Red performed a counter envelopment on two Blue infantry at 16-38, eliminating both with 4-1 no retreat attacks. Red also eliminated an infantry division south of the river at 27-35 with a 3-1 attack, helped by a soaker attack of 1-2 (Ab2) against a Blue armor unit.

Turn 4 Blue begins to fight, Red says “Too Late”
At this point, Blue mounted an armor supported attack against the infantry east of C3-26. He also used his paratroopers to support an attack on the Red infantry that was garrisoning the southern mountain road. In conjunction with this Blue also consolidated his forces behind the river that leads to C41-41, leaving his capital empty and a few amphibs in C27-50. The attacks resulted in exchanges.
Red pushed his armor on the NE road on to occupy C10-47, used some infantry to hold the roads in the rear of the Blue forces at C3-26 and moved the rest in and through the Blue capital. This isolated the Blue forces in the Great Forest. Red also moved to attack the amphibious units in C27-50, while swinging the rest of his forces around to follow Blue south toward C41-41.
Before any additional attacks could be resolved, a message from Blue First Army Group was received declaring Blue was offering unconditional surrender terms.

A brief post game review consisted of the Blue player pointing out his errors and determining to do much better on the next game. The Red player offered to implement some play balance options but Blue was reluctant to accept them.

Hopefully we will have the digital camera handy for the next game. I also hope to have each player write down their thoughts and plans as each turn is played for later publication. Let me know if this interests you.

Review: Niagara:: [Video Review] - His lip beaded with sweat as they strapped him in....

UvulaBob — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:35:42 +0000

by UvulaBob

Here's a review I threw together after playing this one at a party last weekend.

Enjoy, please!

Youtube Video

Thread: Ra: The Dice Game:: Rules:: Running out of markers.

madkarateman — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:15:15 +0000

by madkarateman

Hi Everyone,

Enjoying this game but...

... what happens when a player runs out of cubes before the end of the 3rd epoch? the rules state that the markers for each player are considered unlimitted. does this mean that you use subsitute markers?

Thread: Richard III: The Wars of the Roses:: Rules:: Treason event card: can the treachery roll be performed in a battle that the moving group is not involved in?

EndersGame — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:10:36 +0000

by EndersGame

This question came up in a game I was playing today, and regards the Treason event card:

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Can the treachery roll that this event allows be made in an area or battle other than the one the group that has moved is involved in?

For example, let's say I play this card and move to an area, only to discover that the opponent's single block is loyal, and won't commit treason anyway. But meanwhile, my opponent has attacked me in totally different area, and there are some "juicy" looking nobles that are part of his attack that I'd love to try to persuade to join my side. Am I allowed to use the Treason event card to try a treachery roll in this second battle, even though it is far removed from the group I moved? The intent of an event card would seem to imply that it's the group which moves that gets to do the treachery roll. On the other hand, the wording on the card does say "in any battle", which would seem to imply that it need not be a battle that the moving group is involved in. What is the correct interpretation of this card?

Thread: System Vector:: General:: Some suggestions on resource tracking / ship building

Nazhuret — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:08:43 +0000

by Nazhuret

You suggest using counters to track how much Fleet Strength is available to each player saying we might want to separate it into two piles, one is a pool and the other is available for use.

Also you suggest using counters for the Ore resource.

And it's suggested that ships that are built but not deployed simply be set in front of you until deployment.

If I may offer a way to streamline all of this, keeping all your information in one easy to read spot and add a bit of flavor to the game as well....

How about a command sheet for each player? Somewhere on it (bottom?) you could have three tracks. One is for tracking Fleet another for tracking Ore and the third keeps track of victory points. Simply have one counter as a marker for each and you can slide it up and down the track as the resource or points are lost or gained.
Make some neat, easily recognizable symbols for each counter. Maybe an anchor for Fleet, some rocks or iron bars for Ore and a blue ribbon for VP.
Heck, if you did that you'd really only need ONE track that could be used by all the counters at once!

In addition to this you could have a space above the tracks as a "Dry dock" or "Shipyard" or "Testing Grounds" where you can place your built/purchased ships that have yet to be deployed so there is no confusion as to which is available for deployment and which are simply in your pool for purchase later. You can just leave purchased ships there for deployment later in case you had lost some Manufacture space that turn (MC on a planet got destroyed etc).

As for Garrison troops... If I understand the rules correctly you do not have to purchase Garrisons in advance. You may simply elect to place them at the time the attack (or defense) occurs. However, you do need to pay for them on your NEXT turn during the purchase/build phase.
Assuming I'm correct in this you might want to put a space next to the Dry dock on the command sheet to place activated troops so you can remember to pay for them. Perhaps call it "Recruitment tax" or "Retraining" or... I don't know... Something along those lines with a military bent. Maybe make it ambiguous so if someone wants to think of the troops as robots it makes sense too.

If I understand Manufacture correctly this would not need to be tracked at all since it's a hard number on a planet by planet basis and only reflects how much of each type of ship (or garrison if activated) can be deployed there.

You could integrate the information on the player aids such as ship cost and turn order onto the cards as well.

One tidy little package that adds some themed flash to the game as well.

http://www.geekdo.com/image/611205

Of course, you'd probably want to apply your already awesome aesthetic to it. Circles instead of hexes (i just love hexes! ), star background, glowy lines for the grid, etc...

Anyway, just some thoughts. I'm probably going to make this for myself if you don't but then I love modifying my games anyway.

I'm very much looking forward to trying this out. I haven't yet because I work wine and beer in a specialty grocery store. The weeks before Thanksgiving don't give me much time for playing games, unfortunately. After this week I'll be good to go though!

Except for the weekend after which is a big D&D game... Argh!

Thread: Opera:: Strategy:: When should you play the Esperto?

zzyzxuk — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:46:07 +0000

by zzyzxuk

I've recently finished my first game of Opera, but noticed that only once did anyone try to play the Esperto - and when they did, it was generally concluded to not have been "worth it", as you have to surrender your top opera...

In what situations is it a -good- idea to play the Esperto?

Session: The d6 Shooters:: Play-Test Dead or Alive Round 4 - with observations

revtiedye — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:42:50 +0000

by revtiedye

I hope these reports are more useful for Fine-tuning. I decided detailed was better than Story-telling. (Plus I thought I could tell a better story if I kept better notes, but neither of these recent games were quite as desperate as Game 2).

Game 4

Week 1: Lost 2 Posse to an attack, and 1 to heat. Found an I+ space. Day 3 we got Captured (event 6-6). Decided to let the captors move us along, and feed us, and try to escape after Ration day. Day 4, we stole some ammo. We made good time, and we didn't have to shell out food on day 5.

Day 5
Position: 5 spaces short of the Dotson Cutoff
Traveled: 17 spaces
Posse: 12
Food: 11
Ammo: 6
Gold: 3
Info: 1
Evidence: 0

Week 2: Escaped captors on day 7. Day 8 was busy. Found a deer herd (event 1-6) spent 2 ammo to gain 7 food. Arrived in Dotson, SOld 6 food to get 3 gold, bought Compass & Ammo. Then we had a shootout with Army. I spent an ammo to buy a die, and rolled snake-eyes. Posse lost 1. Heat took another Posse member. Day 10 we Put together our first evidence and Posse lost 3 when it came time for rations.

Day 10
Position: 2 spaces past Dotson
Traveled: 28 spaces
Posse: 8
Food: 0
Ammo: 6
Gold: 3
Info: 1
Evidence: 1

Week 3: We learned that Fountain was Brown's Home Town, and we could expect trouble there. We won a shootout with Ranchers, but got attacked the next day and lost one Posse member. Day 13 was bloody: On the way into Fountain, we shot it out with Browns Men (from the event 2-6) we won, and got Info & Gold. In town we bought better guns (3) and 2 food. On the way out of town, we had another shootout (1x4 & 2x6) it turned out to be Brown's men again, so I traded ammo for an extra die, and won that shootout too, gaining Gold and ammo. Riding out of Fountain we were pretty smug. But the next day it was 117 degrees in the shade (5x5's) and we lost 4 posse. Day 15 We managed to find both piece of Info right before Sawyer. The compass allowed us to make decent time, covering 15 spaces this week

Day 15
Position: 1 space short of Sawyer
Traveled: 43 spaces
Posse: 4
Food: 2
Ammo: 4
Gold: 1
Info: 4
Evidence: 1

Week 4: In Sawyer we sold some food to buy a lucky charm, and hit the LOSE WHITE DIE space outside of town. Day 17 We put together our 2nd evidence. We bouth 2 food in Carlin, and lost 2 Posse members in two attacks. Day 20 we won a shootout with Ranchers.

Day 20
Position: 3 spaces past Carlin
Traveled: 54 spaces
Posse: 2
Food: 2
Ammo: 3
Gold: 0
Info: 1
Evidence: 2

Week 5: We hit another Lose White Die space on Day 21, on Day 22, we found a fishing hole

(event 3-5) but not near as beneficial with only 2 posse, gained 1 food. But with our Compass, our Lucky Charm, and the knowledge that we didn't need any more food or info, we rode like bats out of hell: Day 22 & 23, we rolled 5x1's including 1 red die both times, so we covered 12 spaces in 2 days.

Day 23 (14 points)
Position: Capital City
Traveled: 65 spaces
Posse: 2 (6 points)
Food: 4 (4 pts)
Ammo: 3 (1 pt)
Gold: 0
Info: 2 (4 pts)
Evidence: 2

WIN: Score 29 pts.

COMMENTS & QUESTIONS after 4 plays:

PRISONER: Event 4-4 was a little confusing to me. I saw how it might be as a bonus if you rolled a red 6, and a hinderance with a white 6. But I was having a hard time working out why you'd want to have less dice at all. Since it's optional (I think) I probably won't take any prisoners unless I'm really close to a town. The prisoner escapes if you lose a shootout, but what if you're just under attack, and don't spend any 4's to shoot back. If you lose posse members then, do you lose the prisoner?

With Gold being as scarce as it is in this expansion, I really missed Gambling in town. I've rarely managed to buy any of the special items. I've gotten the compass twice, and in the game where I sold off my fishing pond proceeds (6 food for 3 gold), I did manage to upgrade my guns.

FOOD SELLING LOOP SCAM: I saw a potential cheat. I use the scam, but the simplest solution would probably nix my big fishing sale in Game 4. Here's the cheat: If you arrive in town with 2 gold, buy 5 food. Then sell 2 food for 1 gold, repeat, and now you've got 2 gold and 1 food (Profit: 1 food). Since I saw no limitations on buying & selling, you could repeat this cycle a ridiculous number of times until you had maxed out all your supplies and posse every time you arrive in town with 2 gold. It is a solitaire game, and I don't know how many people who like solitaire games would stoop to this, but I thought I'd point it out. Possible Rule Solutions:
....1> If you sell more than 2 food, you must sell at 2:5 ratio
....2> You may not both buy and sell food at the same town

FAILURE TO MOVE from a Resource space
This may be in the original rules, but I couldn't find it. If you land a space that changes your resources (G+, P-, Lose White Die), and you don't manage to roll any 1's, does that resource change trigger on the second turn too? That would be a major bummer if you landed on a D+, then failed to roll 1's or 4's, that would be most of a "week" at one space.

Well needless to say, I enjoy this solitaire game system, and was quite impressed with the creative ways you have made each scenario different. With as complex as D or A is, I'm glad you were able to eliminate the cards.

Thanks Eric!

Michael;

Session: The d6 Shooters:: Session Report for Round 3 of Dead or Alive (Lost in Day 24)

revtiedye — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:13:40 +0000

by revtiedye

d6 Shooters - Playtest #3

By day 5, we'd had a G+, and an attack that cost us P-1. We'd also won a shootout with an army regiment. We'd hit a Fishing Hole Event, and maxed out our Food Supply. And we'd also discovered that "These People know something" which helped us pick up 3 info during the next 5 turns.

Day 5
Position: 5 spaces short of the Dotson Cutoff
Traveled: 17 spaces
Posse: 13
Food: 2
Ammo: 3
Gold: 4
Info: 1
Evidence: 0

We landed on a D+ on our 5th day, so we didn't accomplish anything on Day 6. By Day 10, We'd been Attacked (3x6's) and they were all deadly: P-3. WE didn't cover much ground that week, but we hit a P+ and an A+. And on Day 10 we were able to Piece together our first evidence. But we couldn't find enough food that week and our Posse was down to 5

Day 10
Position: Dotson Cutoff
Traveled: 22 spaces
Posse: 5
Food: 0
Ammo: 4
Gold: 4
Info: 1
Evidence: 1

On Day 11 we were Captured (Event 6-6), but we dodged a big shootout (3x6's) because all the

remaining dice were ignored. The next day we stole some Ammo and got some Info. The third

day of our Capture we escaped, pretty easily. WE got a P+ on day 14. We arrived in

Fountain just in time to buy food for everyone.

Day 15
Position: Fountain
Traveled: 35 spaces
Posse: 6
Food: 2
Ammo: 5
Gold: 0
Info: 2
Evidence: 1

The next week, we had 3 shootouts, one with the Army, one with brown's men, and the other with Ranchers. We won two of them, but Brown's gang got one of our posse. We got caught by a slow train (event 2-4), and Heat took out another Posse member. We hit a G- but we were broke, so no effect. And we repelled a attack.

Day 20
Position: 2 spaces short of Sawyer
Traveled: 43 spaces
Posse: 4
Food: 1
Ammo: 4
Gold: 0
Info: 3
Evidence: 1

The next week we got our entire allottment of 4's rolled on the second day. Every other day we wound up being attacked with no 4's to shoot back. We lost 2 posse on Day 21, 1 on day 23, and the last man went down on Day 24.

Day 24 - Dead
Position: 1 space short of Carlin
Traveled: 51 spaces
Posse: 0
Food: 5
Ammo: 4
Gold: 0
Info: 4
Evidence: 1

Thread: Space Hulk (3rd Edition):: News:: Space Hulk 3Ed still avaliable in GW stores

wufai — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:05:45 +0000

by wufai

FYI to those who are thinking about paying extra for SH from other socures there are still GW stores that have SH in stock at retail price. I've checked 2 GW stores in Toronto Canada and both seem to still have stock in late November. Those who are really interested might want to give their stores a call.

Thread: Combat Commander: Pacific:: General:: Golden Geek Award for Wargame!!!

Jacovis — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:02:38 +0000

by Jacovis

Congratulations Chad and team!!!!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/466364

Keep up the good work guys!

Thread: Cutthroat Caverns:: Rules:: Question about sub text of SPITE

mcook144 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:53:30 +0000

by mcook144

On the Spite card it has the following subtext:

SPITE cannot attack or heal after taking lethal damage

What does that mean? Does this apply to the monster or the player? I don't understand this...Any help from other players out there?

Thread: Pursuit of Glory :: Rules:: AH corp and replacement divisions in RB

wayneheeley — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:40:51 +0000

by wayneheeley

if an AH corp dies in combat can the CP choose to replace it with the AH/BU213 from RB, or must the CP use an AH113 if available?

similarly, if the GE/BU corp dies in combat, can it be replaced by either a GE div or BU div. any priority on which?

Thread: At the Gates of Loyang:: Rules:: first play rules questions - 4player version.

sao123 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:24:01 +0000

by sao123

a few rules questions after our first play... though i think we mostly did everything right.

1 How is priority determined? (this is why i dont like the simultaneous play).. Two people are playing their actions. One is going to trade his market stall for a vegetable, the other is planning to use his helper to trade for that exact same vegetable in the other players market... who gets it?

2 for a 4 player game...when/how/who is the pairings determined?
is the pairing for the current round determined by the starting player from the beginning of the round, or the starting player after the draft?

it would seem the pairings should be decided prior to the draft for strategy assisting. this prevents what i call intentional mispairing.
player 1 is not planning to use any helpers, but sees that player 2 post draft has a helper to perform an action paired with player 3. player 1 then pairs with player 3 to prevent player 2 from doing so.
this should be determined prior to draft correct?

3 in purchasing a 2 pack...if one recieved a helpr and a common field... after paying the 2 coins... both cards are available right? Or does the field not become available till the helpr is gone? what about is the field is chosen first... does then helper become available after planting or not till the field is harvested empty?

4 do you get any points for pgrading your cart/storehouse?

Thread: Dominion: Seaside:: Strategy:: Most ridiculously "powerful" strategies you've seen?

Brother Mojo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:07:51 +0000

by Brother Mojo

A while back I had an interesting game involving Tacticians, Stewards and Conspirators, and I stomped players hard with a moneyless Tactician deck, since I could Tactician every turn and still make buys. As the game (rapidly) drew to a close, I was buying one or two Provinces a turn, plus more bits (Conspirators, etc.) to make my machine run even better next turn.

At a later point, a friend and I were just theorizing and realized that, depending on what cards were available, Chapel/Ironworks was an opening hand that was potentially very powerful and possible with either a 2/5 or 3/4 split. From there, we started looking into what was possible with interactions with Throne Rooms, Bridges, and good card draw.

So, we decided to run a few basically open-handed game pitting these two strategies against each other, with Chapel/Council Room/Cash as a "baseline" to compare against. We used an 11-card set so that both of the combos could be set up in what we thought would be their most powerful form:

2: Chapel, Pawn
3: Steward.
4: Ironworks, Bridge, Throne Room, Conspirator
5: Council Room, Tactician, Bazaar, Outpost

Both decks generally turned out to be stronger than the baseline CCC deck, but the Throne/Bridge/Council deck turned out to be very luck-based (even more so than decks relying on Treasure Maps) but incredibly terrifying as well. For example, one game, the game ended on turn 12 with final scores of 12 (CCC), 9 (Conspirator Tactician), and 66 (Throne/Bridge/Council). However, the other game we recorded ended on turn 14 with final scores of 30 (CCC), 42 (CT), and 0 (TBC).

The goal of Throne/Bridge/Council is to get its deck to a state of having 1 Ironworks, 1 Chapel (just because you can't get rid of it), 6 Throne Rooms, 2 Council Rooms, and 4 Bridges. Then, if it draws two Throne Rooms and a Council Room, it wins, and it has a good chance of winning if it draws one Throne Room, the Ironworks, and a Council Room. In the first case, Throne Room a Throne Room, use one of the two Throne Rooms to Throne Room a Council Room and draw your whole deck, then Throne Room all your Throne Rooms, Throne Room the other Council Room and all your Bridges, and then take advantage of the fact that you have 13 buys and everything in the game is free. In the case of Throne Room/Ironworks/Council Room, Throne Room the Ironworks to pick up another two Throne Rooms or a Throne Room and a Bridge, then Council Room and hope you draw two Throne Rooms and your other Council Room, which is fairly likely since your deck is pretty small.

Meanwhile, the moneyless Tactician deck is a bit more straightforward and thus more reliable/stable. Gradually trash your deck with Stewards while acquiring Pawns, Stewards, Conspirators, Bazaars, and then two Tacticians and an Outpost. Eventually, you'd like to be playing a Tactician every turn while Outposting on all your natural turns, drawing your whole deck with Bazaars and Conspirators (supplemented as necessary with Pawns and Stewards), and buying 3-4 Provinces per time around the table.

So, in the game where the TBC deck won, it had everything it needed except for one Bridge by turn 12, but was able to use its Ironworks to acquire a new Bridge, as well as a Throne Room to replace the one it had used playing the Ironworks, go off, and pick up 9 Provinces and 4 Duchies, since at that point, the other decks had only picked up 1 and 2 provinces each.

In the game where TBC lost, it was all set up by turn 12, but never got the right combination of cards during the last three turns, while CCC picked up 5 chapels over those three turns, and CT acquired an Outpost and two Conspirators on turn 12, 2 provinces on both of its 13th turns, and then a Province and a Conspirator on its first turn 14 and two more Provinces on its second.

I know all this applies only to specific sets of cards, but has anyone encountered similarly overwhelming strategies when specific groups of cards appear together?

Thread: D-Day at Omaha Beach:: Rules:: WN Tactical Reinforcement Combat

oskacat — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:03:55 +0000

by oskacat

During an turn 8 attack on a WN with required weapons and at least twice the attacking strength, I revealed a Tactical Reinforcement as the depth marker for that WN. I placed the tactical reinforcement in the nearest reinforcement area, thus leaving only the WN unit in the hex I was attacking. My troops obviously still had the required weapons and were still at least double in strength, but then I got confused - with only the WN unit now in the hex should I be resolving the attack using the 'Gerrman Unit Alone' column, or should I be using the 'German Unit and Revealed Depth Marker' column that I had been expecting to have to use since I originally was attacking a hex with a depth marker? To my mind, the tactical reinforcement depth marker was never really in that hex in the first place (that's why that unit got placed in a different hex), so I should be using the 'German Unit Alone' column - but I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks!

Thread: Cyclades:: General:: Post here when you've received your plastic minis!

squash — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:58:57 +0000

by squash

Hello my fellow proud [thing=54998][/thing] owners!

From the moment I saw this gorgeously-produced games by the brilliant designers of the incredible [thing=21763][/thing], I knew it was a must-have for me, and I picked it up the instant it became available. Upon opening it up, I discovered that I was the lucky owner of an Essen collector's edition.

Once the initial disappointment had worn off, I was actually glad to have all those wooden mythologeeples and the cool special dice. But I didn't waste any time submitting my secret code, and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of all the cool plastic armies, navies, and monsters (which are supposed to be released 4-6 weeks after Essen).

So when you've received your plastic dudes, I hope that you'll be kind enough to post here so that I can know when to start getting excited! Thanks!!

Thread: Up the River:: Rules:: Rules Download Broken

DaJackel — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:54:58 +0000

by DaJackel

Can anyone repost the rules pdf for this game? The one in the files section is broken (looks like the user was deleted?)

Thanks!

Thread: Panzerblitz: Hill of Death:: General:: BEST/WORST SCENARIOS

capt yid — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:29:52 +0000

by capt yid

Can't find opinions on this...
Which is the best scenario to start with?
For short games/long games, balanced, etc.
thanks!

Thread: Knights:: General:: What is the Layout at the Start of the Game and a few more Questions?

elfrododumbo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:25:44 +0000

by elfrododumbo

I ended up with this game with the German rules.

How does each player set the cards at the start of the game ?

Does each player have 6 Castles cards with one of them face up ? If so, is the opponent aiming to get that card by rolling the dice ? If that is the correct, does he continue or is it the second player's turn ?

Sorry for so many questions But, in all honesty, all I could fathom was the number of cards in the game and nothing else !

I do so love dice games, even if cards are involved as is the case here. I would hate to have to put this little box aside to collect dust Can someone please explain the set-up and the general iam of the rules.

Thanks in advance.

Thread: Cowboys: The Way of the Gun:: Strategy:: The Crazy Bunch

Gamer With No Name — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:19:15 +0000

by Gamer With No Name

Seems to me like the odds are stacked against the bunch from the start. It seemed funny that no shotguns or pistols were permitted. With pistols that they could fan or shoot double they might stand a chance with some of the alternate rules though. Has anyone won this scenario as the bunch? If so what did you do?

Thanks
GWNN

Review: World Without End:: [German Review] Die Tore der Welt oder Das Leid armer Bauern zu Zeiten der Pest

toerck — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:13:49 +0000

by toerck

Die Tore der Welt ist der Titel der offiziellen Fortsetzung des Romans Die Säulen der Erde von Ken Follett. 49 Millionen Euro Vorschuss hat er dafür kassiert. Ob der Roman dies Wert ist, vermag ich nicht zu beurteilen. Das Spiel ist dementsprechend gewissermaßen natürlich auch eine Fortsetzung von Die Säulen der Erde und ein erster Blick auf das Spielbrett und die Spielmaterialien erinnert einen auch sofort an den Vorgänger. Jedoch ist der Spielablauf und das Spielgefühl ein anderes, und die Spielfortsetzung hat auf jeden Fall ihre Daseinsberechtigung und ist weit davon entfernt, einfach nur ein billiger Abklatsch, und ein Aufspringen auf den Goldeselzug zu sein.

Gespielt wird das Spiel in vier Phasen, die aus sechs Ereignissen bestehen, die durch Karten ermittelt werden. Da in jedem Spiel zufällig die Hälfte der Karten aus jeder Phase aussortiert werden und nicht mitspielen, spielt sich jede Partie ein wenig anders und man kann sich keine vorgefertigte Strategie zurechtlegen, mit der man das Spiel sicher gewinnt. Wenn die Karten zu einer eigentlich funktionierenden Strategie nicht im Spiel sind, kann sie einfach nicht funktionieren.
Auch in Die Tore der Welt baut man wieder. Diesmal sogar verschiedene Gebäude in Kingsbridge. Das bauen steht aber nicht im Vordergrund des Spiels. Man kann bauen, hat aber auch Siegchancen, wenn man nicht einmal im Spiel an einem Bauwerk gebaut hat.
Im Zentrum des Spiels stehen die zwei Mechanismen, die den Reiz des Spiels ausmachen, und die es in meinen Augen deutlich besser als den Vorgänger machen. Wier erwähnt besteht jede Phase aus einer gewissen Anzahl an Karten. Wer am Zug ist, deckt die oberste Karte auf. Jede Karte verursacht ein Ereignis, dass entweder alle Spieler trifft, sei es im positiven oder negativen Sinne, oder aber nur Spieler, die einen bestimmten Einsatz bringen wollen. In den vier Ecken der Karte finden sich je ein Symbol für die Gunst des Königs, Geld, Siegpunkte, Getreide, Frömmigkeit, Baumaterialien und Medizinisches Wissen. Diese Karte muss nun auf einem Feld auf dem Brett abgelegt werden, so dass eine Ecke der Karte zu jeder Seite des Spielbrettes zeigt. Man selbst bekommt entspechend des Symbols das auf einen zeigt entsprechend Geld, Punkte, Materialien. Jedoch bekommen die Mitspieler auch die entsprechenden Dinge, deren Symbol auf einen selbst zeigt. und als wäre das noch nicht genug, sind neben der Ablagefläche auf dem Spielbrett auch noch Zahlen aufgedruckt, von null bis drei. Am unteren Rand des Spielfeldes gibt es auch wieder eine Aktionsleiste mit einem Spielstein. Auf jeder Spielkarte befindet sich genau ein Pfeil. Je nachdem auf welche Zahl der Pfeil liegt, wird der Marker auf der Aktionsleiste vorgesetzt und der Spieler bekommt die entsprechenden Vor- oder Nachteile. Manche davon sind zu einem gewissen Zeitpunkt des Spiels sehr hilfreich, andere erst später oder früher, wieder andere sind nur negativ. So muss man sich also beim Ablegen seiner Karte sowohl überlegen, ob man das Material, dessen Symbol auf einen zeigt benötigt bzw. ob man damit seinen Mitspielern mehr hilft als sich selbst, und zu gleich muss man auch noch darauf achten, dass man nicht durch den Fortschritt auf der Aktionsleiste von negativen Ereignissen getroffen wird, wenn man ein Symbol wählt, dass einem eigentlich Vorteile bringt. Oder aber auch noch schlimmer, wenn man durch das Vorrücken auf der Aktionsleiste den Gegner nah an ein Feld bringt, das ihm auf Grund seiner Taktik viele Aktionspunkte bringen würde.
Durch diesen Mechansimus ist man immer in einer Zwangslage und hilft sienen Mitspieler in jedem Fall mehr mehr, mal weniger. Ein Mechanismus der mir außerordentlich gefallen hat.

Weiterhin hat jeder Spieler 12 eigene Aktionskarten. Diese sind bei allen Spielern gleich und jedesmal nachdem eine der oben genannten Ereigniskarten ausgepielt wurde, darf jeder Spieler eine seiner Aktionskarten spielen und die Aktion ausführen. Jedoch muss man nachdem man dies getan hat auch immer eine Aktionskarte ablegen, die einem erst in der nächten Phase zur Verfügung steht. Das bedeutet dass man sein Vorgehen sehr genug planen muss, und durch manche Ereignisse können Karten, die man auf der Hand behalten hat, funktionslos werden und bereits abgelegte Karten können enorm an Bedeutung gewinnen. Ebenfalls wieder ein sehr interessanter Mechansimus, bei dem man sich selbst ständig in Bredouille bringt.

Am Ende jeder Phase muss man Abgaben leisten, so dass man eigentlich das ganze Spiel über damit beschäftigt ist, die Rohstoffe für diese Abgaben zu sammeln. Erst wenn man diese sicher gebunkert hat, kann man sich ans Werk machen, Siepunkte zu sammeln. Denn dies Auswirkungen wenn man nicht in der Lage ist, seinen Tribut zu entrichten sind absolut fatal und können einen im Spiel sehr weit nach hinten werfen.

Fazit:
Die Säulen der Erde gehört zu den wenigen Spielen, die ich wieder verkauft habe. Man hat Runde für Runde mehr oder weniger für sich selbst gespielt, die Interaktion mit den Mitspielern war auf ein Minimum beschränkt, und wirklich langfristig planen konnte man bei dem Spiel in meinen Augen nicht wirklich. Auch dieses stumpfe abhaken der einzelnen Stationen auf dem Spielplan fand ich ziemlich dröge und weniger preisverdächtig.
Wirklich weit planen kann man in die Tore der Welt auch nicht. Man versucht einfach in jeder Phase, die benötigten Ressourcen zu bekommen, um am Ende die Abgaben leisten zu können, und veruscht dies so effizient zu tun, dass man sich noch darauf konzentrieren kann, Siegpunkte zu erwerben. Aber das Spielgefühl ist viel dynamischer, frischer, lebendiger.Jede Runde läuft ein wenig unterschiedlich ab, und die Spielmechansimen, die Interkation mit sich bringen, haben mir außerordentlich gut gefallen. Man kann seine Mitspieler ganz schön auflaufen lassen, wenn man ihnen permanent den Zugriff auf bestimmte Ressourcen verbaut und sie selbst nicht die entsprechenden Karten ziehen (so hatte ich in einem Spiel drei Phasen lang keinen Zugriff auf Tuch, was meine Planungen komplett umgeworfen hat). Passiert so etwas, kann man schonaml auf die Idee kommen, dass man eigentlichw wenig Siegchancen hat, aber man hat jederzeit die Möglchkeit seine Taktik entsprechend anzupassen, so dass wir am Ende punktemäßig alle recht eng beeinander langen.

Abschließend lässt sich sagen: Wem Die Säulen der Erde gefallen hat, der wird sicher auch seinen Gefallen an Die Tore der Welt finden, welches für mich das eindeutig bessere Spiel ist. Fans sollten also definitiv zugreifen. Wer mit Die Säulen der Erde jedoch Probleme hat und es nicht sonderlich mochte, wie ich, dem könnte Die Tore der Welt trotzdem gefallen, da der Spielablauf wesentlich angenehmer gestaltet wurde, und das Spielen an sich nun einfach Spass macht, obwohl man ständig kurz vor dem Ruin steht. An der Unplanbarkeit des Spiels hat sich nicht viel geändert, länger als eine Runde ist eine Planung immer noch nicht wirklich möglich. Aber anders wie bei Die Säulen der Erde tut das in Die Tore der Welt nicht wirklich weh.

Thread: Arcana:: Strategy:: guild's strategy

johnwoo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:12:19 +0000

by johnwoo

every guild has a unique bonus. e.g: guild of blades wins on a tie, for stakes whith the main arcanum of staves.
when you play for stakes- do you especially seek the cards that regard your bonus?
what is your strategy?

Thread: Star Trek Customizable Card Game (2nd Edition):: General:: So I guess not many people are still playing this game?

Sidewynnder — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:08:34 +0000

by Sidewynnder

I know this is a dead CCG and all but that makes it all the more enticing to me! Cheaper cards equals more cards for me!

Does anyone play this game every once in a while?

I have two starter decks headed my way and can't wait for this to hit the table. Is it dead due to mechanics or because it just didn't take off compared to Magic?

I will be sure to write review for the game once I have played it some!

Review: Tobago:: SdJ? Not quite...

stormseeker75 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:07:55 +0000

by stormseeker75

Tobago sounded like a really interesting game to me from the start. I was really intrigued as to how this game could possibly work. I was both excited at the possibility and concerned at how well it could be implemented. What I discovered is that both of those views had merit. Most of the reviews and opinions on BGG focus on Tobago as a family game or something to play with non-gamers. After a couple of plays, I think I can safely disagree with that opinion. So if Tobago is not for a family, then who does it cater to? Is Tobago a hidden treasure or just another false idol?

Rules

If you would like to read the rules, they are posted here on the Geek.

The basic gameplay revolves around playing cards to help find the treasures. There are always 4 treasures to be found (black, brown, white, and gray). On a player's turn, he can play a clue card into one of the treasures which will help narrow down where a treasure may be found. Once there is only one spot left, the treasure can be dug up and awarded to the players that helped find it.

That's the basic mechanism that moves the game. There are some additional rules such as moving your car or picking up/using an amulet, but those can be read about in the rules.

Components

Tobago starts off with a nicely illustrated map that is made of 3 interconnecting pieces. Each of the 3 pieces is double sided so there's a huge amount of variety in the board setup. Additionally, there are 4 wooden huts, 3 wooden trees, and 3 stone statues to put on the board. The statues are especially cool as they are made out of some kind of resin and have a nice texture and weight. Each player gets a small wooden Jeep to move around the board as well. The whole setup looks great.

The cards are small Euro sized and are nicely coated. The illustrations are very clear on the clue cards so its very easy to tell the different terrain types.

Gameplay

Clue cards - narrowing down the treasure location
The main crux of the game is playing your Clue cards to narrow down where a treasure is. Be warned: The first time you play this, its tough to figure out exactly how the cards work together. It gets easier with repeated plays, but expect new players to make many mistakes in interpretation. As I said, this gets easier, but for a new player it can be really hard to visualize the effect a card will have on the treasure's location. As such, expect your first game (or any game with new players) to take longer than it feels like it should.

Amulets
Amulets allow players to break the rules in various ways. If a player collects an amulet, he can use it to take extra moves with his Jeep, play extra Clue cards, or even remove location markers from the board. Amulets come out every time a treasure is found by finding the last hex on the island in a Statue's line of sight. After the amulets are placed, the statues rotate. This is one aspect of the game I can do without. Placing the amulets and rotating the statues just slows the game down. I also don't like how the amulets are always placed on the shore hexes as it detracts from players trying to find the treasures, adding time to the game. The extra powers of the amulets can be really helpful, but they can also be quite confusing to new players. The extra options can overwhelm new players when they will probably already have a hard enough time trying to grasp the concept of finding the treasure.

I've played 2 games with the amulets and one game without them. In my opinion, new players should probably play without them for a game or two until the rest of the game is second nature. Then, add in the amulets to ramp up the strategy in the game.

Fiddly
Tobago is fiddly. There's no question about it. Constantly adding cubes to the board and then removing them is fiddly. Fidgeting with the statues and amulets is fiddly. Trying to fit a Statue, a cube, and a Jeep on one small hex is fiddly.

You're going to spend a lot of time fiddling with bits in this game. The nature of using the cubes to show where a treasure might still be means that you will often have a lot of cubes on the board. And then you need to make sure that you don't miss any when narrowing the location down.

As I mentioned earlier, the turning of the statues for amulet placement is also a bit fiddly and time consuming.

Downtime
There can be a lot of downtime in Tobago. Many times, a player will need to take their time to find a Clue card they can actually play and will need to recheck their options several times. Also, the placement and removal of the location cubes can take time. To me, it feels like the game is constantly stopped every time it gets going. The constant stop/start of placing the cubes kills the pacing of the game.

Choices
A player's turn can have too many options: Play a clue card and where to play it? Move the truck and where to move it to? Pick up a treasure? Find an amulet? Use an amulet? Which power to use? For a family game, it may be a bit too much to digest. Most good family/gateway games offer simpler choices on a turn and I think Tobago may have a few too many options.

Player numbers
I've played this game with 2 and 3 players. I think it works just as well with both of those numbers. I think 4 would probably work fine as well.

Compare it to...

Man, I'm not really sure what to compare this to. I suppose its a deduction game at it's heart so any deduction game fits the bill. Tobago however, goes well beyond simple deduction and combines several other mechanisms to make a fresh new design.

Overall

It may appear, based on the above words, that I don't like Tobago. That's definitely not the truth. I like Tobago! I really do. It's visually appealing, the mechanisms are fresh and interesting, and there is room for choice along with a fair bit of luck. Tobago is a really interesting package of mechanisms that works pretty well.

I rate Tobago a 6.5/10 because of the above mentioned flaws. It's a good game with some great ideas, but the points I made above take a lot of the shine off of this game. In the one game I played without the amulets, I felt like the game improved drastically and I would rate it a 7 or 7.5. As it stands out of the box, I feel it needs some work to truly shine.

The reason for the negative spin on this review is because this game is constantly being billed as a great new family/gateway game. I think it could work for a family, but you're going to have some major obstacles in your first game or two. People talk about this game as the first real SdJ candidate for next year, but I think the fiddliness and tough learning curve make this one a poor choice for the SdJ. I'm sure we will see something that is more fitting in the near future.

Thread: Stronghold:: General:: How long are your games for this running?

bippi — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:56:02 +0000

by bippi

[poll=35488]

Review: a la Carte:: [German Review] A la Carte - Oder: Zu viele Köche verderben den Brei

toerck — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:44:41 +0000

by toerck

Das Spiel macht schon ein wenig neugierig, wenn man es so auspackt. In der Spielschachtel findet man kein Spielbrett, keine Figuren, sondern Pfannen (richtige kleine Pfannen, keine Pappfpannen), Gewürzflaschen, kleine Gasherde (die sind allerdings aus Pappe), und dann aber doch noch ein paar Spielmaterialien, die an ein normales Spiel erinnern, z.B. Kochlöffel, Sterne, Gerichte und Crepes. Worum es geht scheint also ganz klar zu sein: Wir sollen Chefköche werden, Sterne verdienen, und köstliche Gerichte zu bereiten. Auf den Punkt gegart und perfekt gewürzt. Doch wie wird da ein Spiel draus?

Zunächst gibt es Gerichte in fünf verschiedenen Schwierigkeitsstufen, durch unterschiedliche Farben symbolisiert. Jeder stellt seinen Herd vor sich, stellt eine Pfanne drauf, bekommt eine Ablage für fertige Gerichte, man wählt sich ein Gericht aus, legt es in die Pfanne, stellt den Herd auf Null, nimmt sich eine Kaffeetasse, stellt die Gewürzflaschen in die Mitte, platziert die Sterne auf dem Tisch, gibt dem ersten Spieler die drei Kochlöffel und platziert die Spüle in der Tischmitte direkt neben dem Müll.
Dann gehts los. Jeder hat drei Aktionen, die durch die Kochlöffel symbolisiert werden. Jedes Gericht hat einen idealen Temperaturbereich, in dem es zubereitet wird. Kalte Gerichte müssen auf Stufe Null zu bereitet werden, Crepes können von 0 - 6 alles vertragen, und manche brauchen Werte zwischen 3 - 4. Möchte man als den Herd auf die richtige Temperatur bringen, würfelt man einfach. Dabei kann man die Werte 1, 2 und drei Würfeln, außerdem kann man noch eine Kaffeetasse erwürfeln, oder eine 1-3 so das man sich den Wert selbst aussuchen darf und schließlich gibt es auch noch eine Würfelseite, die jeden Herd um eine Temperaturstufe ansteigen lässt. Das kann fatal sein, falls ein anderer Koch sein Gericht gerade auf der idealen Temperatur hat. Verlässt man den Idealbereich nämlich und lässt den Herd zu heiß werden, ist das Gericht verbrannt, und muss in den Müll entsorgt werden, sobald der Spieler dran ist.
Außerdem kann man die Gerichte noch würzen. Die meisten Speisen muss man sogar würzen. Wie man sie zu würzen hat, steht auf dem Gericht selbst, welches vor einem in der Pfanne liegt. Möchte man würzen nimmt sich ein Gewürzglas, darf es vor dem Öffnen nach belieben schütteln, und muss es dann ein einer konstanten Bewegung vertikal einmal über die Pfanne schütten. Dabei können dann unterschiedlich viele Gewürze in die Pfanne fallen, aber auch Salz, von dem sich in jedem Gewürzfläschchen füfn Stück befinden. Hier ist Vorsicht angesagt, wenn man ein Gericht mit drei Salz verwürzt, kommen die Gewürze in den Abwasch und das Gericht in den Müll. Aber auch bei den normalen Gewürzen gilt: Sobald man drei Gewürzsteine in der Pfanne hat, ist es verwürzt und damit ungenießbar und wird entsorgt. Das entsorgen bringt keine Strafpunkte mit sich, allerdings hat man Zeit verloren, in der die anderen Chefköche leckere Speisen zubereitet haben können.

Würzt man ein Gericht übrigens perfekt, hat also kein Gewürz zu viel in der Pfanne, und hat man es dann noch auf der richtigen Temperatur, so ist dies wahrlich eine Meisterleistung und der Koch wird mit einem Stern belohnt. Hat man zu einem Zeitpunkt des Spiels drei Sterne gesammelt ist man in der Tat der Chefkoch und hat automatisch gewonnen, egal wieviele Punkte die Gerichte wert waren.

Da war da noch was? Genau die Kaffeetassen. Kochen ist ein hartes Geschäft, und da gönnt man sich während seines Zuges doch gerne mal eine Pause, bei der man keinen Kochlöffel abgeben muss. Hier darf man seine erwürfelten Kaffeetassen einsetzen. Da kann man beispielsweise nochmal drei zusätzliche Züge ausführen, oder aber acuh mal etwas interaktiver und gemeiner sein und beim Konkurrenten einfach mal nachwürzen. Verwürzt man bedauerlicherweise sein Gericht, ist es wertlos und wird entsorgt. Außerdem kann man noch Pfannen tauschen. Das ist natürlich toll, wenn ein anderes Gericht viele Punkte gibt und fast fertig ist. Die Lorbeeren von anderen ernten ist nunmal die einfachste und schnellste Möglichkeit zu Ruhm und Ansehen zu kommen. Außerdem ärgert es die anderen Köche .

Wer gerade einen Crepes zubereitet, ist vor solchen diebischen Kochkonkurrenten zum Glück geschützt. Crepes bereiten sich auch etwas anders zu, als die anderen Gerichte. Sie vertragen eine Temperaturspanne zwischen 0 - 7. Man würfelt vor seinem Zug einmal und stellt den Herd entsprechend hoch. Dann hat man zwei Versuche, um den Crepes einmal in der Pfanne zu wenden. Natürlich ohne etwas anderes als den Griff der Pfanne zu berühren, sprich durch schwenken der Pfanne, hochwerfen des Crepes und wieder auffangen des Crepes. Das bringt immerhin fünf Punkte mit sich (das "beste" Gericht gibt sechs), ist jedoch auch ziemlich schwierig. Im Endeffekt eine Glückssache. Wobei geübte Spieler sicher hier im Vorteil sind.

Und sobald ein Spieler dann fünf Gerichte zubereitet hat, oder aber Chefkoch geworden ist, ist das Spiel vorbei. In letzterem Fall steht der Sieger sofort fest, im zweiten Fall werden die Punkte gezählt und somit der Chefkoch ermittelt.

Fazit:
Wer die Beschreibung gelesen hat, weiß ganz klar: Hier handelt es sich um kein anspruchsvolles Spiel, keins dass einen länger beschäftigt, sondern einfach um einen einfachen No-Brainer, der prima als Familienspiel für jung und alt geeignet ist.Für Vielspieler ist es ncihts, was einen auf Dauer reizen wird, Kinder könnten allerdings sehr begeistert von diesem Spiel sein. Es ist nett zu spielen, besticht vor durch die Aufmachung und vor allem das Material (die Pfannen sind toll, und die Herde auch). In Anbetrachts des Materials ist das Spiel noch nicht einmal wirklich teuer. Gerade das Würzen könnte in einigen Runden etwas problematisch werden. Wann hat man noch eine durchgehnde, geradlinige Bewegung, und wann ist es zu abgehackt, und gezielt. Hier sollte man auf jeden Fall nicht versuchen auf Teufel komm raus Sterne zu erreichen und einfach drauf los würfeln. Wirklich kontrollieren kann man das Würzen eh nicht, manchmal verhaken sich die Gewürze auch, und es kommt gar keins raus, so dass man eine Aktion verschwendet hat. Hier sollte wirklich zugunsten des Spielspasses darauf verzichten, zu gezielt und bedächtigt vorgehen. Das Spiel ist auf jeden Fall eine Abwechslung vom normalen Spielealltag. Ich würde nicht sagen, dass es zwingend in jede Sammlung gehört, und das man etwas verpasst hat, wenn man es noch nicht gesielt hat, aber es ist eine lustige Alternative, und wenn man mal die Möglichkeit hat, das Spiel auszuprobieren, sollte man diese auf jeden Fall nutzen.

Thread: Stretch Run:: Rules:: Rulebook Interpretation Survey

chaviland — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:41:38 +0000

by chaviland

[poll=35485]

Thread: Operation Typhoon:: Rules:: Russian Committment

drmark64 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:37:26 +0000

by drmark64

I find the question of Russian Reinforcement to uncommitted armies a bit confusing. Here is why.

Reinforcments for the 1st Shock Army arrive from offboard. They are unable to move as they have not been committed. They are unable to be committed because they are not on board. What to do?

So I can assume one of two things.

First- Reinforcements including those set up on board are considered committed.

Second- Reinforcement are not committed but are able to move just enough to enter the board.

Any clues?

Thread: The Guns of Gettysburg:: News:: Design Diary update, 23 Nov. 2009

bowen — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:33:56 +0000

by bowen

http://www.simmonsgames.com/products/Gettysburg/diary/Entry2...

Thread: Small World:: General:: Storing the expansions - my solution

Shawn_Kehoe — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:23:53 +0000

by Shawn_Kehoe

The one common complaint I heard about the Small World expansions at BGG.CON was about storing the components in the base game box. DoW set a pretty high bar with designing tight packaging for Small World, which makes storage a bit tricky.

I broke out my expansions tonight, and here's my solution for expansion storage. I'm assuming that both expansions are being added to the base box.

1) The 5 new races can all fit into the existing race well without problem.

2) The Special Power well can hold 1 more power if you aren't storing the blank power from the base box there. I placed the remaining six new powers around the edges of the special power and race wells, 3 powers apiece.

3) The two "Hordes of..." tokens are placed in the small tokens bin that houses the Hero, Dragon and Hobbit hole tokens.

4) Each expansion has 27 race tokens. I stored them by removing the race token tray, and placing the new tokens in two layers of 3 * 9. It's not perfectly snug, but the token tray should keep them from moving around too much.

5) Lifting the component tray out of the lower box entirely, I removed one of the old cardboard punchboards from the base box. This allows the box to fit the maps snugly with the added height of the new tokens. I also stored the blank special power badges in the badge punchboard for later use.

It might be wise to retain the removed base box punchboard in case a future expansion better accommodates the Cursed and Grand Dames components.

Hope that helps!

Thread: Cuba:: Variants:: Reversing shipping VPs in the 2 player game

cayluster — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:13:16 +0000

by cayluster

The biggest problem with Cuba for two is that the shipping path is far too lucrative. Because you have 4 turns notice and less competition, it is not hard to load up 4 or 5 merchandise on the 3 VP ship. (The "competition" boiling down to who holds 1st player).

I can see the reasoning for this scoring in a multiplayer game, as with a tighter market and more competition, you are playing a game of chicken - hold out for the higher VP, or grab it when it's available for less. In the 2er, though, the competition is not so fierce, so all paths are equally viable. But you can't pursue those paths, really, because you would lose to anyone concentrating on shipping.

I'd propose that in the 2er, scoring is reversed - the first dock scores 3 VP, the second 2, the last 1. This makes more thematic sense - you are rewarded for getting the ship into and out of port as quickly as possible. In terms of play, it would give you one turn to assemble what you need if you want to ship big, and bring the VP generation of shipping in line with other strategies (like buildings or subsidies). It would also slow down the harbor, and give less choices for merchandise delivery, as a boat filled early would still pass through the remaining docks, effectively blocking them out.

I have yet to try this, but am interested to see if it tightens the game up a bit for 2.

Thread: D-Day Dice:: Rules:: Courage for Last Advance

CamelCity — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:48:01 +0000

by CamelCity

I used a Whistle for my advance into the Bunker. Is my "last advance" score for VP = 0 (because I spent no courage into the Bunker), or is it 4, as that's the last amount of courage I spent moving?

Either way, I barely survived the bunker, so my VP is either 27 or 31.

Thread: Dire Heroes - Gas Attack at Ypres:: News:: Playtesting underway

GreenBear — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:46:50 +0000

by GreenBear

Some good early feedback from players (thanks folks!). A few additions and tweaks in the pipe but all is good so far.

Illustrated rule examples to follow and hopefully a finalized map.

Thanks to all who have participated so far, your help is much appreciated!

Thread: The Isle of Doctor Necreaux:: Rules:: Question: Who's rolling the dice?

fractaloon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:43:58 +0000

by fractaloon

John, I'm really enjoying your game. A question came up yesterday in a two player game that hadn't occurred to me when I played solo. The Trap "Laser Beam of Pure Antimatter" reads "Roll one die. If it is less than your team's Speed, each Character card on your team with Charges on it loses one Charge." So whose rolling the die?

1. If I roll, then I had the Security expert letting me roll two dice and keep one of the two results.

2. My team-mate was Skilled so he could add +1 to his roll.

3. The deux ex machina could roll for us but then none of our Character abilities would apply.

It seems in a card like this where no specific player is directed to make the roll, then option 3 is the correct one. I think when I played solo I always applied my own ability modifiers.

Cheers,
Albert

Thread: Battle Fleet Mars:: General:: Designer Edition?

ctcharger — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:41:13 +0000

by ctcharger

Anything special about the Designer Edition? Mounted maps maybe? Big price difference, is it worth it?

Thread: Klingon Armada:: General:: What does Starmada add?

nedpatrick — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:39:45 +0000

by nedpatrick

I'm seriously considering getting Klingon Armada+Federation Commander. I've checked out the Starmada quickstart rules and it seems like the system is right up my alley. I will probably start with just the Klingon Armada rules but it seems like the Starmada Admiralty rules add some more options. My question is what exactly do the Starmada rules add that Klingon Armada doesn't have?

Thread: Hansa Teutonica:: General:: Hansa Teutonica ends up as No.1 at BGG Con

Misha99 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:14:02 +0000

by Misha99

And a very worthy winner too. Like at Essen, laptops were setup to let people rate on a 1 to 5 star scale the games they played at BGG con last weekend.

Surprise hit of the con for me. Just a great, great game.

Misha

Thread: Descent: The Tomb of Ice:: General:: Quick question about a dungeon

James McMurray — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:06:57 +0000

by James McMurray

Can someone with tomb of Ice please tell me what the additional rules for the Ice Wyrm in the Hunting the Wyrm rumor dungeon are? Extra health, armor, etc.

Thanks,
James

Thread: Wormhole:: General:: Card stock in the UK?

Tooooon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:52:52 +0000

by Tooooon

Hey there,

I have a Cannon ip4600 printer, and im looking for places to purchase plain white A4 card stock from in the UK, yet only seem to find patterned ones for use in a variety of crafts.

Any tips on what card stock to use, and where to buy it from in the UK?

~David

Thread: The Adventurers:: General:: Shortest Review of Gameplay Ever

bungeeboy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:43:43 +0000

by bungeeboy

How can you describe this game in the greatest depth in the shortest time?

"Everyone plays as adventurers running through a Mayan tomb trying to grab as much treasure as they can and get out. You start in a room where you can grab tons of treasure or peek at the back of trap tiles. Don't dillydally though, or you'll get crushed by the walls in the room! The next area is a giant lava pit. Remember those traps you peeked at? They match the symbols on some lava tiles, and if you misstep, you fall in the lava and die Why bother? Because there's also treasure. Or you can go the long way around and pick locks to get treasure. On the 2nd half of the board is a big treasure behind a giant lock. You can jump in the river and get more treasure, but at the end you might go over a waterfall if you're too greedy. Or you can go over the bridge which might collapse depending on your weight. At the same time that ALL THIS IS HAPPENING, there is a giant boulder racing down the main corridor: slowly at first, then later very quickly. If it hits you, you die, and if it reaches the end of the path, it seals the exit forever, killing all still inside the temple. Richest survivor wins."

There...45 seconds.

Thread: Pocket Battles: Celts vs. Romans:: General:: Accompanying Novels

Patrick Carroll — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:43:17 +0000

by Patrick Carroll

In case anyone would like to read a series of novels to complement this game, I'll suggest one I've been reading: Simon Scarrow's Eagle series.

The first book in the series starts in German territory, but by the end the legion is on its way to invade Britain. The next several books cover the Roman conquest of Britain.

Not serious history, but a pretty good read--and well researched, I think. Gives you a taste of what it might've been like to be a legionnaire.

Review: Castle Keep:: A fun light game

boffotom — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:39:22 +0000

by boffotom

I got a copy of Castle Keep for Father's Day this year. It was an immediate hit. My kids wanted to play this game every night for about two weeks. Its rules are simple and easy to grasp. It plays in a maximum of 20 minutes and is easy to reset for another game. The game involves building a castle with a keep in the middle. That's it. Well, almost.

The object of the game is to build your castle out of nine tiles - one keep and eight wall tiles. Consisting of three different shapes and three different colors, the wall are joined at the corners by towers. Wall and towers are matched either according to color or shape or both. The keep must match the color of one of the walls.

At the start of the game the tiles are shuffled, face down. Players are dealt 4 tiles each. The rest of the tiles are placed in the middle in two stacks. These are the draw stacks. On a turn a players draws two tiles from the draw stack. The player can then either build onto his castle, attack an opponent's castle or keep, or pass. At the end of the turn the player discards down to four tiles.

Castles are built by placing them next to each other based on color and/or shape. Red goes with red, yellow with yellow, blue with blue. Round towers match to curvy walls, square towers with straight walls, and diamond towers with jagged walls. Players may attack an opponent's castle by playing a wall tile that is an exact match for that opponent's wall tile directly on top of that tile. The attacking tiel and attacked tile are discarded. And any same colored tiles are also removed! This can be devastating. In one game I had my whole castle destroyed this way. To attack a keep players play two matching keeps on top of the attacked keep. Play continues until someone completes his castle.

The tiles are heavy thick cardboard and are easy to handle. The rules sheet is clear and concise. The artwork is good and it is easy to distinguish between each type of tile. This is a small game and travels easily.

As I said, my kids like this one a lot. And there is enough there to satisfy gamers as a quick filler too.

Check it out.

Thread: At the Gates of Loyang:: Rules:: Solo Card Phase - Changes or Additions?

Progmode — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:30:38 +0000

by Progmode

Alright, I think I've got myself over-thinking this so it's time for a stupid question: Am I supposed to be dealing myself a hand of four cards of which I'll get to pick two in addition to buying cards from the grid? (Technically I suppose you'd play one to the courtyard during distribution and it would immediately come back to you at which time you'd pick it and one card from your hand.)

I haven't been giving myself a hand of four cards, but as I was reviewing the rules I noticed the solo rules state they are additions as opposed to changes, and nothing that I found explicitly states you don't get a hand of cards.

Thread: Thinking Man's Golf:: General:: Differences between 1966 and 1972 printings...

huber — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:29:56 +0000

by huber

I just discovered that there are two different printings of this game, with enough differences as to be interesting - and to make one edition a better option for those who just wish to play the game.

* The 1966 edition has the title, description, and back 9 holes printed in portrait orientation on the cover. The 1972 edition has that data printed in landscape orientation.

This doesn't really matter, but is a quick way to tell which edition you're looking at.

* The 1972 edition has the par and distance printed on each hole.

This is definitely handy.

* The 1972 edition has the distances printed on the shot chart; the 1966 edition does not.

This is the most important difference, and IMHO a sufficient reason to prefer the 1972 edition.

Thread: Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel! - Kursk 1943:: General:: Compatibility

Hawkeye 6 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:23:35 +0000

by Hawkeye 6

Is SoS fully compatible AtB? It appears that map boards are different. I am assuming the counters are different (values, structure, etc..) Or does it not matter?

Thanks,

Steve

Thread: Leopard II:: General:: English Language rules?

Original_CorPse — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:20:59 +0000

by Original_CorPse

I can pick up a copy of this, but it's the Japanese version.

Does anyone have a scan of the English language rules? I'd be happy to pay some GG for it...

cP

Thread: Betrayal at House on the Hill:: General:: BETRAYED ONCE MORE – 2nd EDITION IS NOW A GO!

BruceGee — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:19:11 +0000

by BruceGee

The news we’ve all been waiting for has finally come down from Hasbro - Betrayal is going into a second edition! The projected release date at present is the fall of 2010. Here’s what we’re working on with the new edition (note, some of these may be subject to change, so don’t write anything in stone [or blood] just yet):

 New Haunts!
 Revised and rebalanced old Haunts!
 New Item and Event cards!
 New counters, now with more graphics!
 New cover art!
 Revised rules, based on the FAQ!
 Revised and updated components (the Underground Lake goes underground once more)!
 New mechanic (for certain scenarios): hidden traitors!

If you’re interested in participating in this process, I could use some help. Read on for how...

The revisions to the old Haunts will be based primarily on the comments that have been posted here on the BGG discussion board (just as I did with the last revision). I’ll be trying to do a bit of tweaking based on Haunts that seem frequently imbalanced, or unclear, or not fun for any reason. If you’ve posted anything whatsoever on any of the BaHoH forums, you don’t need to do anything else -- I’ve already copied them. One thing I’d be particularly interested in hearing is which are the best and worst scenarios in your opinion -- we may be cutting a few of the weaker ones in order to add some new ones in their place. Reply to this thread to weigh in.

Also -- contest time! -- if you’d like to participate even more, I’m looking for some new scenarios to add to the ones I’m currently writing. If you think you’ve got what it takes, send me your scenario, and if I like it, I’ll send it along to be included in the new Haunt book. I want complete scenarios, not just "it’d be cool if you had a scenario based on this one set of movies." I’d also love getting ideas for new item and event cards. The deadline for scenarios is December 23rd (so I can playtest them over the holidays); the deadline for cards is January 1. Unfortunately, we aren’t offering anything to the winners other than the eternal glory of having your name in print in the new Haunt books, but that’s worth something, isn’t it?

As far as what makes a good Haunt, in my opinion: my favorite Horror paradigm is the one where the Threat, whatever it is, cannot be confronted directly. There are always more monsters, or the single monster is too tough to just be defeated in combat. Instead, you’ve got to hold the threat at bay just long enough to locate the widget or perform the ritual that will defeat the threat indirectly.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread to answer questions, so ask away!

Thread: Funny Friends:: Rules:: Star a commune card question

Bolga — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:17:33 +0000

by Bolga

Do the 4 friends you bring with you have sex with each other and with yourself and the friend you make, or do only the new friend you make and yourself have sex?

The 4 prerequisite friends icon doesn't have an "A" and the new friend and sex icon at the bottom (effect) both have an "A".

Thread: Small World - Grand Dames of Small World:: General:: Underpowered White Ladies versus Overpowered Priestesses

Donderwolk — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:03:41 +0000

by Donderwolk

After a few games with the new expansions I am beginning to wonder if the the Priestesses aren't too strong. At least the Priestesses seem too strong in a 2 and 3-player game. Once you go in decline with a big Ivory Tower it's sometimes almost impossible to get the Tower down without a good throw with the reinforcement die.

In a 3-player game it's even worse. One of the other players has to attack the Tower with all his tokens scoring almost no points, making the third player the big winner. If nobody attacks the tower, the owner of the tower probably wins the game.

The White Ladies on the other hand seem to weak. It's really difficult to get three or even two lands, when going in decline. So the first turn you probably won't score more than three points. The points gathered when in decline don't compensate for that. I think you score more points on average with a normal race in decline.

What are your experiences with these races?

Session: Agricola:: Interesting match

smcmike — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:46:06 +0000

by smcmike

I've been playing a lot of 2 player matches online. Unfortunately, most of the heavy hitters in the community only play 4 player, and the level of competition usually isn't very high. Here's an example of one of the more interesting games I've had, against a player who seems to get some of the possibilities of the 2 player game: you'll probably notice that I don't manage to grab a single reed this game.

Round 1: Fences

Tacticus: Occupation: Wood Carver
M: 3 Wood
Tacticus: Day Laborer
M: 1 Reed

First 2 actions were fairly standard. I took Day Laborer on the advice of some threads here, and because I planned from the start to play a lot of occupations. The 1 reed surprised me . . . but there's a lot more of that to come.

Round 2: Sheep

Tacticus: 2 Clay
M: Start Player/Landing Net
Tacticus: Occupation Traveling Salesman
M: 1 Reed (+2f)

Well, if he's gonna deny me reed, I'll play clay-denial, I figure. His SP explains things a bit though. I play the Salesman on the theory that it will get me either 2 reed or 6 wood next round. He shows me the error of my ways.

Round 3: Improvement

M: 6 Wood
Tacticus: Occupation Wood Deliveryman
M: 1 Reed (+2f)
Tacticus: Start Player/Fireplace

He takes the obvious 6 wood. I play my Deliveryman for reasons to be explained. He demonstrates his commitment to reed denial. I take advantage of the Salesman to allow food flexibility in round 4.

Round 4: Sow/Bake

Tacticus: Major/Minor Improvement: Spinney/Fruit Tree
M: 1 Reed (+2f)
Tacticus: 4 Fish
M: Start Player/Clogs

I get out a pair of 3 Occ minors, in the hopes of keeping myself in the wood game. He dominates the reed. At this point, I give up on growing before round 8 or 9. He takes SP for another big wood grab.

Round 5: Family Growth

M: 5 Wood (1 for Tact)
Tacticus: 3 Clay
M: 1 Reed (+2f)
Tacticus: Occupation: Stablemaster

Early FG and enough wood, reed and food to fuel it. This doesn't look good. I stick with my clay denial, he sticks with reed denial. I play the near-useless Stablemaster.

Round 6: Renovate

M: Build 2 Rooms, 1 stable
Tacticus: Major/Minor: Wildlife Reserve/Quarry
M: Family Growth
Tacticus: 5 Sheep (burn 3)

And now M is off to the races on growth. Will he leave me some reed in his rush to grow? In other news, I'm starting to pile up minors, and my food worries are non-existent.

Round 7: Stone

M: 2 Reed (+2f)
Tacticus: 6 Wood
M: Occupation: Field Watchman
Tacticus: Day Laborer + 3 Stone
M: Family Growth

At this point, I've decided to see what I can do without growth. Quarry + Traveling Salesman should get me SOME points, right? Of course, he lays down his first Occ, and it's a good one.

Round 8: Boar (+f,w Tact)

M: 1 Reed (+2f)
Tacticus: 3 Clay
M: Grain (+field)
Tacticus: Start Player + Well
M: 2 Wood (1 for Tact)
4 Fish

Here I think M starts to make mistakes, perhaps imagining that by doubling my actions, he's untouchable. I've already decided not to take single reed: I just can't imagine trying to catch up down that path. The 3 clay, on the other hand, would have been REALLY valuable for him at this point.

Round 9: Vegetable (+2f,w Tact)

Tacticus: Day Laborer +3 stone
M: 3 stone
Tacticus: StartPlayer + Stone Oven
M: Grain + Field
2 Wood (1 for Tact)
1 Reed (+2f)

Here I probably should have taken the stone off the board, rather than from my quarry. Perhaps by doing it this way, I lured him into hoping for the Stone Oven. It's hard to say. My theory at this point is that if I can deny him any cookeries, he'll be FORCED to take reed every round, a pretty big waste of actions. Of course, he has actions to spare.

Round 10: Cattle (+2f,w Tact)

Tacticus: 3 Wood
M: 1 Reed (+2f)
Tacticus: 2 Clay
M: Occupation: Animal Tamer
M: 3 Boar
Grain + field

Here I'm getting impatient to build fences, and make a wood grab. Again, he passes on stacked clay for a single reed. At this point I think it's a real mistake to continue the hard reed embargo: if I started taking 1 reed at a time in round 10, I'd be doomed. The Tamer/Boar plays also don't seem that great to me.

Round 11: Stone (+2f,w Tact)

Tacticus: Day Laborer +3 stone
M: Start Player/Tavern
Tacticus: Fences (15, 3 pastures over spaces)
M: 1 Reed (+2f)
3 Fish
Sow 3 grain fields

I DL with a plan of sitting on SP with Pottery. M correctly blocks me, and then is forced to scramble for food. Considering my massive food stores, M really should have taken 3 food from the Tavern rather than fishing, and let the fish build.

Round 12: Family Growth (2f,w for Tact)

M: 5 Wood (1 for Tact)
Tacticus: Family Growth
M: Start Player
Tacticus: Vegetable
M: 3 Stone
1 Reed + 2f

I think the wood grab was a major error. I was desperate for growth, and he really shouldn't have let me get it. I figured he wouldn't let it happen again, so I prepared for plow/sow.

Round 13: Plow/Sow (2f,w for Tact)

M: Family Growth
Tacticus: Plow/Sow 1 veg field
M: 3 Clay
Tacticus: Start Player/Pottery
M: Major Improvement: Clay Oven/Bake for 5
Tacticus: 4 Cattle
M: Vegetable

M doesn't let me match his family, but I'm happy to ensure my farm will have fields. Maybe I should have blocked his Oven move, but I'm mostly counting my points at this point.

Round 14: Ren/Fences (1f,w for Tact)

Tacticus: 6 Wood
M: 8 Fences
Tacticus: Plow/Sow 1 vegetable field
M: Major/Minor: Basketmaker's
Tacticus: 4 Stables
M: Grain + Field
Sow/Bake
8 Sheep

Final score:

Tacticus: 2 Fields (1), 3 Pastures (3), 0 Grain (-1), 3 Vegetables (3), 5 Sheep (2), 0 Boar (-1), 6 Cattle (4), 0 Unused (0) 1 Fenced Stable (1), 3 Family (9), Fireplace (1) Spinney (1) Fruit Tree (1) Wildlife Reserve (1) Quarry (2) Well (4) Stone Oven (3) Pottery (4) = 38

M: 4 Fields (3), 1 Pasture (1) 5 Grain (2), 2 Vegetables (2), 8 Sheep (4), 4 Boar (2), 0 Cattle (-1), 3 Unused (-3), 1 Fenced Stable (1), 5 Family (15), Clay Oven (2) Basketmaker's Workshop (4), Tavern (2), Clogs (0) = 34

I like this one as an example of the extremes of the 2 player game. With the right cards, you can REALLY deny your opponent of any one thing . . . but an experienced opponent should expect that, and will often be able to adjust accordingly.

Questions/Comments welcome.

Thread: Chaos in the Old World:: General:: simple idea for an expansion.

Unicorniclops — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:23:44 +0000

by Unicorniclops

Hey all,

So, This game is in my top 5 all time along titles like Carcassonne, Galaxy Trucker and Agricola.

I would love to see them develop the game further but with a mind not to change the feel of the game.

For an expansion I would leave out the addition of different units for the powers. I feel that would cloud the purity of the gameplay too much.

what I would do is the following. Each power would get

1. new chaos cards
2. 1 new upgrade
3. and most importantly, a new dial!

This way, each chaos power would have different dials which played slightly differently. Maybe you could give a dial that allowed the possibility of a Nurgle Dial victory. Or a dial that allowed Khorne the potential of a points win more accesible. Naturally these would be balanced so that they are only viable in conjunction with proper card use and gameplay etc.

Now i know there are some technical issues here, however, they could greate a plastic fastener that was more easily removed for easy shancing of the dials. I would verymuch enjoy something like that!

Tim

Thread: Quebec 1759:: Rules:: Movement & Battles

CSoren — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:14:13 +0000

by CSoren

I understand that movement is simultaneous, both sides moving at the same time. I understand too that battles must occur at certain points.

After our first play, what I'm not clear on is whether battles interrupt the flow of simultaneous movement.

For example, say the English spend their movement to bring their last 2 ships into the St. Laurent. The French send 2 across to attack in Etchemin. The English occupy both Etchemin and Levis. The battle begins with the English as defenders. Say the French choose to retreat on their first battle turn. Or, has the movement of the English ships into the St. Laurent blocked possible retreat?

We argued opposing views: rocksnrolls thought that, given simultaneous movement, that the French should still be allowed to retreat. The movement phase wasn't over, the battle was only a temporary interruption. I thought, since the ships had moved, the battle begun, then amphibious movement of the French was curtailed immediately.

Thoughts?

Thread: Advanced Squad Leader:: General:: Vehicle Weapons

grahamj — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:10:08 +0000

by grahamj

For some reason I'm having difficulty understanding paragraph 3.31 MG/FT in section D of the first edition rule book.

The way I read it is that a vehicle may not fire its MA during the AFph if it fired during the Mph, and may not fire its MGs if they fired during the Mph. But the vehicle may fire its MA if only its MGs fired during the Mph and vice versa. ???

Also, paragraph 3.54 section D of the first edition rule book concerning vehicle MG vs AFV

The way I read it is that an AFV MG may not be used to Kill another AFV. But in section (A paragraph 9.61) I've read that an MG may attack an AFV
by attacking it alone using the To Hit Table (Vehicle Target Type). Does this mean that only an MG manned by infantry may kill an AFV?

Session: Space Junkyard:: Wow, space sure is empty...

zeroth hour — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:05:20 +0000

by zeroth hour

So I mentioned this game to my friend B, who thought it was interesting and decided to print out a copy on foam and play it (I then ordered a copy on Tanga).

She brought it in and we played some last week, a 3 player game (B, G and me.)

We didn't have the foresight to cut out a grid, so we made do with nonrevealed tiles. When those ran out we used unused resource tiles.

I built a funny compact ship that had thrusters pointing forwards and backwards. B built a ship that looked like a horseshoe with the thruster pointing back. I forgot what G built (he went first, and for 3 players, the number of tiles don't seem to be even so we didn't use the last tile.)

It was brutal near the end when there were only a few good tiles and a lot of empty space, and we needed to burst our way across (and trying to screw the other people over meant we killed more tiles in the process). Unfortunately, I had a lot of radiation as did B but had trouble with metals and carbons., but all of the conversion tiles were on the bottom of the deck G had the opposite problem.

B won the game, by virtue of being able to fit one more piece. I think the final score was 9-7-5 (B-Me-G, reverse seat order, heh)

So, a few questions:
1) When determining whether or not a tile is "bumpable", does "last round" mean up to 3 turns before, or does the starting player always get an advantage in that situation?

2) Was it right to discard the last tile because that would give an even number of turns for everyone?

Thread: Mississippi Queen:: General:: The Most Beautiful Abstract-Strategy Tile Game: Mississippi Queen

mike selinker — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:04:31 +0000

by mike selinker

I know some people over here follow my journal, The Most Beautiful Things. This week's entry is The Most Beautiful Abstract-Strategy Tile Game, for which I picked Mississippi Queen. Feel free to talk about your favorites over there.

Mike

Session: Pit:: PIT: The kids may teach you a thing or two.

Morgan — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:59:28 +0000

by Morgan

I have to say, writing a session report for a game of PIT is a bit daunting. How does one describe the chaotic, high decibel, back and forth, voice straining, commodity trading mish mash, yelling, screaming, bell-ringing, frustrating, confusion of a mess that occurs in a session of PIT, and do it while trying to explain the subtle nuances and strategies (if there are any) to an audience who expects to gleam some measure of satisfaction, or derive some new insight into an old classic game from 1904 that hasnt already previously been derived, and do it in a coherent and meaningful way?

The short answer is: I dont know, but heres what happened:

My brother and I recently collected ourselves at my cousin's abode on Saturday night for a typical gaming session of several hours duration, one that is usually preceded by a short filler type game played with his two children, ages 7 and 10, before their bedtime and prior to the adult gaming portion of the night in which the heavier games are played with cut-throat abandon.

Typically I endeavor to bring something which children can enjoy and understand, is reasonably short, and wont bore the adults who play along also. This usually means something like TransAmerica, Ticket to Ride, Formula Motor Racing, etc. For this night however, I strayed from the usual course and pulled out a game that hasnt seen much table time in a long time: My deluxe copy of PIT, which includes a metal desk-top bell that can be rung with a quick tap to the button.

PIT is easy to understand, easy to setup, and quick to play, and both children and adults can enjoy this game together at the same table. It can also accommodate a large crowd. (up to eight players). My instincts proved correct as this decision turned out to be the hit of the night, and lasted us well past the kiddies bedtimes.

There were 7 of us in total.(5 adults, 2 children) We decided to play to 300 points, assuming this would only last about an hour or so. (That proved entirely incorrect, as we lasted well into 2 hours). After a brief explanation of the rules, I placed the trading bell in the center of the table and yelled out, "The market is open for trading!".

There then followed a cacophony of voices, young and old, all yelling "TWO, TWO,TWO!!" or "THREE, THREE, THREE!!" or "FOUR, FOUR, FOUR!!!" with each player emphatically stabbing the air over their heads with their designated set of cards, pleading, begging, listening for a reciprocating answer from the jumble of bids echoing through the room, that must have sounded like the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange during peak trading hours on expiration Friday.

As bids were matched, a hasty exchange of cards was sloppily executed across the table, sometimes colliding with another exchange occurring simultaneously, with cards flying everywhere, mixed together, and players scrambling to sort them out. With each trade came a growing sense of urgency, and hands and cards flew across the table in ever increasing rapidity, as players realized either instant gratification or instant frustration at the results of their exchange.

Confusion reigned. As you shouted your bid of cards, you were sometimes answered back by three or four other players with the same bid. But whom to trade with? Sometimes bids were adjusted mid-stream to match the bid of a specific players, but which then elicited responses from other players who were not originally targeted, which then exponentially added more confusion, and then even more confusion as those players then adjusted their bids once again.

Mistakes inevitably occurred. In the mad scramble, some players traded more cards than agreed on, or sometimes a mixed set of commodities were traded instead of all the same type. Sometimes the bell would be rung, only for the player to discover he did not have the right number of matching commodities, which then caused prior disappointment and silence to be quickly overturned with a deafening and frenzied roar of bids, with the whole process starting all over again. Sometimes the same set of cards would be traded in circular fashion between two or more players until they would realize their mistake and change course.

After several minutes of this maddening, frenzied, frustrating process, the sound of dread would inevitably be heard: the bell would ring. This was then followed by shouts of "Oh, I was so close!" and "I only needed one more card!" and so forth. After a tally of the points, cards would be dealt for the next round, for which players were given a brief opportunity to sort and study before trading, but which sometimes led to illegal pre-trading agreements occuring before the opening bell, that had to be ultimately stopped by the Securities And Exchange Commission (i.e. Me)

Sometime near the two hour mark, the final chapter of the game began to be played out. After several rounds, a leader emerged from the pack. This turned out to be none other than the precocious 7 year old daughter of my cousin. Somehow she had worked her way to a commanding lead of about 100 points, leaving us all a bit dumbfounded in the wake. (Although I suspect she may have had some help).

At this point I said to her, "I cant seem to corner the market like you; I have trouble deciding which set of commodities in my hand to go for." To which she responded, in a very wise manner beyond her years, "I have a tip for you. ALWAYS GO FOR THE HIGHER VALUE!" She then proceeded to win the game.

Ouch! Put to shame by a 7 year old!

PIT is a great game for the entire family, young and old alike, and kids will readily take to it. In fact, the kids may end up beating you. Beware.

Thread: Arkham Horror:: Variants:: Secret Cultist for Arkham Horror

Majobi — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:53:22 +0000

by Majobi

Play and comment please. I got a lot of my ideas for a post by Big_rhino and copied some text. i know some of the wording may be a little fuzzy, sorry.

Arkham Horror Secret Cultist

Objective
Secret cultists attempt to help the Ancient One to awaken without being discovered. They must do this by following the normal rules of play but by playing in a slipshod and/or deceitful way so as to create tension throughout the investigators. If the Ancient One awakens, the cultists will be given a huge advantage toward winning if they went undiscovered. If the secret cultists are discovered before that time they will still have a chance to disrupt the investigators plans. The investigators must try to reveal the identity of the secret cultist before the Ancient One wakes up or face a seriously trying final battle.

Setup
Allegiance is determined during setup after players choose investigators. Using a deck of normal paying cards create an allegiance deck consisting of a number of cards equal to the number of players +1 card for each cultist that the players wish to have in the game. These cards can be random except there must be a number of Aces equal to the number of cultist everyone agrees to play with. The allegiance deck is then shuffled and each player receives a card face down. The player may look at their card but no one else may at this time. If the player received an Ace they are a secret cultist. Players do not show their allegiance card to another player unless they are being accused, there is a gate warp or confession effect, or if 4 gates are sealed.

Making Accusations
If a player suspects another of being a secret cultist they may end their movement in the same location or street area as the player they suspect and make an accusation by paying 2 clue tokens. The accused player then reveals their allegiance card to all players. If the accused player’s allegiance is revealed to be that of a secret cultist they are knocked unconscious as per normal rules except the loss of items and clue tokens that are normally associated with being knocked unconscious are given to the accusing player. The accusing investigator also gets half of the cultist’s money. If, however, the accused player is revealed to be a normal investigator the accusing player loses 2 sanity and the terror track is raised by one (no one wants to hang out with crazy, distrusting investigators). The accused player also loses 1 sanity and 1 clue token (a player’s number of clue tokens cannot go below 0).

Gate Warp and Confession Effects
Players who leave another world for any reason may choose to look at the allegiance card of another player who also left the same other world during the same phase. This is called the gate warp effect. A player who goes unconscious or insane in the same location or street area as other players must show their allegiance card to those other players. This is called a confession effect. Player may no longer make an accusation against any player whose allegiance card they have seen from a gate warp or confession effect to make that player reveal it. Any player may tell any other player what they have seen but everyone must remember that other players may be lying.

Revealed Cultist
Cultists may reveal themselves once four gates are sealed at which point all other investigators lose 1 Sanity. Revealed cultists may no longer use the location abilities printed on the board except for Arkham Asylum and St. Mary’s Hospital. They may still travel between boards and into other worlds as normal. Revealed cultists also count toward the monster limit. If the limit is already reached when a cultist reveals themselves they may put 2 monsters of their choice into the outskirts. If the limit was reached and another investigator reveals the cultist the accusing investigator may take 2 monster of their choice from Arkham, the outskirts, or the sky as monster trophys. When a cultist is revealed the number of players is lowered by one for purposes of monster limit, number of monsters in the outskirts, number of successes need against the Ancient One, etc. Once a secret cultist is revealed they must continue to follow normal rules but may also do special actions.

Revealed Cultist Actions
1) Pass on every phase when they are the first player to move any 2 monsters in Arkham or in the sky by their normal movement rules on any path the cultist chooses (black or white), draw 2 monsters from the cup and place them at their present location (they do not have to fight or make an evade check against these monsters next turn to move), or move 1 monster and take 1 monster from the cup. The cultist does not move, have encounters, or draw a mythos card but other players may move and have encounters.
2) “Purchas” allies from the Ma’s Boarding House location or acquire them through encounters. These allies are then either discarded and the purchasing cultist gains 2 clue tokens or if the players have access to the King in Yellow expansion they may use the blighted ally card instead.
3) Pay 5 toughness worth of monster trophies or one gate trophy while in another world to gain 2 clue tokens instead of having an encounter. They may only do this once each time they are in another world.
4) Pay 8 clue tokens, lose 1 sanity, and pass a lore[2] -1 check to open a gate at their present location, add a monster at that location, and add a doom token to the doom track instead of having an encounter while in Arkham. The summoning cultist and any other investigators and cultists at that location are then sucked though that gate and are delayed in the other world they end up in. This effect is exactly like when a gate opens at an investigator’s location by a mythos card.
5) Pay 8 clue tokens, lose 2 sanity, and pass a lore[2] -1 check to remove an elder sign from their present location instead of having an encounter. They may make the lore check even if the sanity loss makes them go insane.

Revealed Cultist Movement Phase
When a player attempts to leave a location or street area they share with a player of opposing allegiance (it is assumed that secret cultist are normal investigators until revealed and so must be considered of the opposing allegiance) they must treat those players as monsters by either entering combat or making an evade check –(that player’s luck -2 to a minimum of 0) with each other player present with the opposing allegiance. Just like monsters, if combat is entered movement stops and if the evade checks are passed movement continues. If an evade check is failed then the player loses one stamina and enters combat with the player they just made the check against. If that player chooses not to fight they may lose 1 sanity and make an evade -2 check. If they pass the opposing (active) player goes to jail. If they fail combat is entered. If the active player survives the combat they must continue to attempt to evade or fight the remaining opposing players in that location or street area that have not yet been evaded or fought.

Revealed Cultist Evade: Pilfer
As the evade checks are passed the players may attempt to pilfer from the other players of the opposing allegiance. After passing each evade check the player may attempt a sneak –(the evaded player’s luck -1 to a minimum of 0) check against the player just evaded. If the player succeeds they get either one clue token and 1 dollar or a common item from that player and may continue to move if they have passed all evade checks against all other opposing players in that area. If the active player fails the pilfer attempt they lose one stamina, enter combat with that player (who may choose not to fight as described above), and their movement ends. If they survive the combat they must continue to attempt to evade or fight the remaining opposing players in that location or street area that have not yet been evaded or fought and may also continue to attempt to pilfer from other players.

Revealed Cultist Combat: Horror Check
If a player enters combat with another player of opposing allegiance special rules apply. First both players wager an amount of sanity for a horror check. To do this both players remove an amount of sanity, equal to the amount that the player with the least remaining has, to their hand. They then put an amount of sanity they wish to wager out of sight of the other player into their other hand. A minimum of one sanity must be wagered. Then both players reveal the amount of sanity they wagered. The player with the most sanity wagered gets to keep it. The other player loses the amount of sanity they wagered. If both players wager the same amount of sanity they both lose that sanity +1 (a player cannot lose more sanity than they currently have). This horror check only needs to be performed once before the first round of combat. If one player goes loses all sanity from the horror check or before the end of combat the other may make an evade –(the luck of their opponent -1 to minimum of 0) check. If they pass then they may loot any two of the items, and/or clue tokens that are lost from the other player going insane. Players gain nothing if the check is failed. If the investigator fails this check when the cultist loses all sanity they still perform one more round of combat before the cultist goes insane. The cultist may not loot the other player if they manage to knock out that player during this extra round of combat. If both players go insane at the same time nothing outside the normal insanity rules applies.

Revealed Cultist Combat
Both players in combat make a combat check as normal. Each player adds their number of successes together. The player with the lowest number of successes subtracts their total form the number of successes from the other player and loses that much stamina. If one player knocks out the other during their combat they may loot as described above. After each round of combat each player takes a stamina token from their total to vote on whether to continue with combat. Like wagering sanity for the horror check, either player secretly puts the token into their other hand or does not. Both players reveal their hand. If both hands are empty both players evade each other and combat ends. If one person has a stamina token in their hand the other player may attempt an evade –(the luck of the opposing player -1 to a minimum of 0) . If they pass combat between these players is ended. If they fail they lose 1 stamina and combat continues for another round. If both player reveal a stamina token from their hand then combat continues for another round. The stamina that is used for this vote is returned to the players total and players cannot be knocked out by using it (it’s just a marker for the purposes of the vote). Players can still lose the stamina by normal means. Cultists and investigators must still pass evade checks or enter combat when they leave the same area in another world as a player of opposing allegiance. Cultist and investigator are lost in time and space if knocked unconscious or after going insane in another world.

Final Battle and Victory
Cultists win if the Ancient One awakens and devours all investigators. Any cultists that are revealed before the Ancient One awakens are devoured but can still win if all investigators are devoured. Any secret cultist may join the Ancient One, once it awakens, against the investigators. Cultists that join the Ancient One are strengthened by the power of their Elder God and gain special powers. When the Ancient One awakens all investigators lose 2 sanity for each unrevealed secret cultist. Cultists refresh like normal during the Investigators Refresh portion of the Final Battle but do not attack during the Investigators Attack portion. The investigators need a number of successes equal to the number of investigators and the number of cultists still participating in the battle. The Ancient One attacks as normal during the Ancient One Attacks portion. Then the Cultists join the fight. Using the Ancient One’s combat rating and defenses, each cultist may do one round of combat against one investigator. They do not have to perform a horror check. This does not have to be the same investigator every time. If an investigator is knocked out during this combat then they are devoured by the Ancient One and the cultist gains 2 stamina (they can now exceed their maximum stamina). However if an investigator manages to knock out a cultist then the cultist is devoured by the Ancient One, two doom tokens are instantly removed from the doom track and the number of successes needed to remove a doom token is lowered by 1. If the investigators manage to remove the last doom token from the doom track they win but the cultists do not. If all investigators are devoured by the Ancient One then only the cultists win including any revealed cultists. The score of the game goes to the winning side except all players are counted for points (not just the alive ones).

Being Devoured
If a player is devoured before the Ancient One awakens then that player sets their allegiance card aside and then takes one of the undrawn allegiance cards when they select their new character. Their previous allegiance does not apply to their new character. If no allegiance cards remain then the new character is on the side of the investigators.

Tips for Being a Secret Cultist
If it seems the investigators are on the verge of sealing 6 gates then it would be in your best interest to reveal yourself. Lying convincingly is important after a Gate Warp Effect. If someone suspects you, you can try to lay suspicion on them or another investigator. You could always run if someone suspects you although this is a dead giveaway. Don’t try it unless the player who suspects you has a strong backing. When the group has a big decision to make and it’s put to a vote, you should vote for what you think the less helpful solution is. Usually it’s best to agree with someone else rather that push your own agenda e.g. should another player use those precious clue tokens on that particular skill check or not? Grab a lot of clue tokens and spend them. If you’re accused remember that half of them go to the investigators side. Push for bad trades and delays on gate closing. If you jump in a gate early and close it then another player can’t seal it. Subtlety is key in these strategies.

Session: Arkham Horror:: A Tale of Tommy and an homage to Tibs

Lord_Nerdhammer — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:53:20 +0000

by Lord_Nerdhammer

One more doom token and Zhar will awaken...

The Dunwich horror has been rampaging for 2 turns. And Tommy Muldoon has just sealed the 5th gate at gardners place. Minh Thi Phan is in the second area of the abyss but has no clue tokens to seal. Its looking grim for the investigators.

Tommy Carefully Sneaks past a cultist and ends his movement facing the Dunwich Horror. He flips the switch to activate his time bomb (Not bothering to set any delay) he lays down his badge and his rifle and walks into the writhing mass of destruction that is the Dunwich Horror... "Giving his All". By sacrificing himself he removes a doom token from the track and Gives 5 clue tokens to Minh Thi Phan...

Minh Thi returns from the abyss just in time to hear the thunder clap from the top of sentinal hill. Zhar opens yet another gate but it is too late. Minh Thi sheds a single tear for Tommy as seals the 6th and final gate.

But its all just another Thursday night in Arkham!

And now for the homage: Tibs has a google spreadsheet that tracks stats for Arkham Horror games that i found very interesting. So i stole his idea and put my own spin on it:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Atmdi0RhTot6dGU1N3ox...

I use this spreadsheet to track games that My Group has played and its fun to track the stats of the different investigators. I also added a category of "Honors" for things that our group wanted to track for particular investigators.

If you like it
1. make a copy for yourself
2. Delete everything on the "Games" sheet.
3. There is a form attached that will walk you through recording a game and then individually recording your investigators stats.
4. Shoot me a message to let me know, cause i'm curious if i'm the only one who likes to track stats at this level.

(You will of course need to Replace the player names with your own)

"If i have seen further than other men, it is because i have stood on the shoulders of Tibs"

Review: Egizia:: 1st impressions from Essen 2009

Brokito — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:53:14 +0000

by Brokito

This review was initially posted in [geeklist=47966][/geeklist]

Egizia - a game about monument building in ancient Egypt

Each player manages a building company with 3 building squads. These can support the construction of the sphinx, tombs, the obelisk, a temple and the pyramid and will be awarded with VP by doing so. The game is played in 5 rounds. The player with the highest amount of collected VPs wins.

The board depicts the Nile and the different construction sites. During each round the players sail the Nile downstream and will stop at its shores to take actions. In order to do so, the Nile is divided into 20 sections. Each section is assigned with one action. Half of the actions are standard actions and they are available each turn (they are marked on the board). The other actions are assigned semi-randomly by drawing cards and putting those face-up next to the shore (semi, because the deck is semi-randomly constructed based on the round). Except for the construction sites, the actions can just be selected by one player each round. In this clever mechanism, the players can chose to stop at any unoccupied shore downstream. They can pass as many shores as they want (e.g. to reach a specific action first) - but will never be able to get back to one of the shores that they passed.

The actions can generally be divided into the following categories:
- agriculture: the players can select agricultural land cards. These depict a number of food resources that are available to them each turn to feed the squads. 3 different terrains are available: grassland (produces always), irrigated land (produces only if irrigated), highland (produces only at high tide)
- quarry: the players can select quarry cards which allow them to produce the indicated amount of stones each round
- squad development: additional workers are added to one squad (thus this squad can add more stones at once to a monument). However, the more people in the squads, the more food is required.
- construction sites: 3 construction sites are available and several players can stop at them (one less then players in the game). Here the players can claim to add stones during the construction phase.
- weather field: the player can change the weather/water condition by one increment and thus changing the type of terrains which are fertile.
- 2 different development tracks (stone, VP): the further developed on these tracks, the players will be able to exchange VP to food or stones to VPs)

Once all players reached the Nile delta, they have to feed their squads. Unfed squads will lead to VP reduction.

Now the quarries produce stones which can be used for construction afterwards.

Construction is then done site by site in claim order. The 1st construction site allows to add stones to the sphinx. For each stone, the player draws a sphinx card. These cards will provide bonus VP at the end of the game if the indicated requirements are fulfilled (e.g. most stones in the obelisk). The player can select to keep one of the cards. The remaining cards are converted to immediate VPs. The second site allows to add stones to the obelisk or to construct tombs. These constructions are directly converted to VPs. The 3rd site allows to add stones to the pyramid or the temple => VP.

After 5 rounds and the settlement of the bonus points from the sphinx cards, the player with the most VP wins.

Egizia is a nicely composed strategy game. All ingredients are well woven into one another and require an elaborated action selection by the players regarding size of squads, feeding of squads, collection of stones, selection of construction sites, achieving bonus VPs. The "Nile"-action selection process is innovative, effective and greatly incorporated into the theme. All in all a very sound design !

However, except for the innovative action selection process, it seems that all other ingredients were somehow recycled from other games and newly mixed together. Hence, I felt that playing the game was slightly boring and not adding a really new gaming experience.

Thread: Homesteaders:: General:: My Moist Game

locusshifter — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:45:54 +0000

by locusshifter

Did anyone else get a copy of this game that was QUITE DAMP?

My main board was dried warped, my player screens were warped and discolored right out of the box, and after punching the first few pieces I managed to have the paper tear "more than I would prefer" (to put it nicely) on one edge.

After letting the game air out the rest punched fine, and I'm left with a damaged tile, screens and main board.

So, how was your copy?

I am however REALLY looking forward to what looks like a most excellent design

Thread: War for Edaðh:: General:: Northern New Jersey

BarryRoy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:31:17 +0000

by BarryRoy

Anyone in northern New Jersey have this title? If so, would you be willing to get together to give it a spin? I want to try before I buy. Thanks.

Barry

Thread: Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization:: General:: Through the Ages - Third edition High Resolution Player Mats available at eaglegames for $10 + shipping

kneumann — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:28:11 +0000

by kneumann

I think this is for all 4 mats and removes the circle on the temple.

Link: http://www.eaglegames.net/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CBG...

Not sure what shipping cost is for just these, but if you spend $30 you do get free shipping.

Thread: Battlestar Galactica:: Rules:: Drawing crisis cards while in brig

umbaci — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:25:08 +0000

by umbaci

After some plays of BSG the rule which forbids prisoners to draw crisis cards needs explanation for me. What is the reason behind this rule?

To me it seems highly illogical to stop the flow of time just because someone is arrested. This rule can slow down the game considerably (especially if many players are in the brig) while giving the humans an undeserved advantage. The arrested player gets his full set of skill cards and by XOing other players the humans potentially gain many additional actions without the risk of losing resources or activating cylon ships. In my eyes this advantage more than outweighs the restricted movement and participation of prisoners in skill checks. This rule leads to the paradox situation that the human side can gain valuable time by intentionally arresting some of their own and additionally any incentive to free human prisoners is lost.

Imho prisoners should draw crisis cards just like anyone else thereby keeping the pace of the game and increasing the incentive to free innocent prisoners.

Your opinion is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Session: Battlestar Galactica:: A BSG Virgin's Session Report

Oogie Da Bruce — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:24:25 +0000

by Oogie Da Bruce

With:
Burt as Apollo, our ace pilot (and the only one of us who had played BSG before)
BigJim as Helo, our other pilot extraordinaire
Boom as Chief Tyrol, our engineer
Oogie Da Bruce as Admiral Adama, Military Command
SlikkRikk as Gaius Baltar, President

Burt explained the basics and we were on our way. Jim spent the whole first round relaxing at the bar (Helo doesn't come into play until the round two). We asked a bunch of questions and fumbled our way through the first round.

Slowly, as we began to get a better handle on the rules, we began to question everything, and everyone.

“We need this fixed… Right Chief?”
“That the best jump card you could play, Admiral?”
“I’m watching you, you Gods Damned Toaster.”

I’ve been playing games with Boom and BigJim for nearly 5 years now and I’d like to think I could read them. I was pretty sure Boom wasn’t a Cylon and it was too early to tell if Jim was since he didn’t play the first round. I’ve only been playing with Rikk for the past year and was watching him a bit closer. Burt was the wildcard as this was the first time I’ve played with him.

So Boom and I had a feeling about Rikk, that he might be a Cylon, I’m not really sure what he did to deserve the accusation, maybe it was the shifty eyes, maybe it was because he wasn’t drinking beer, who knows, but Boom and I decided to grab our torches and pitchforks and go after the President. We stripped him of his title and threw him in the brig. Boom was the new President. And I was Admiral. I could live with that.

But as the game when on , Rikk repeatedly claimed his innocence (like any good toaster would) and started pointing out some of Burt’s inconsistencies. I got a chance to look at Bert’s loyalty card and he was, in fact, a Cylon. I knew this to be true, but would the rest of the crew believe the Admiral?

They did. And we got the points needed to spring Rikk from the brig and lock up that dirty Cylon, Bert.

“But who’s gonna stop all the raiders that are bearing down?”

Burt had put on an early display of piloting and wiped out a squad of raiders on his own.

We lost precious time. We were hurting. We put the wrong guy in the brig. And it was still early in the game.

But once we put Bert in the brig things started going a little better for humans. We began making jumps, beating skill checks and were generally a happy bunch. Till the second round of loyalty cards came out. Any of the remaining humans could be a Cylon, except me. I, at least, knew that. But Who was it?

Burt knew we were on to him and that we weren’t going to let him out of the brig so he outted himself as a Cylon and began using the Cylon recourses to make our lives harder.

As time went on a little more, I began to trust boom again, but couldn’t put a face on Rikk or Jim. I asked them both time an again about where their loyalty lied. Rikk pleaded his case and I heard it. But Jim… Jim didn’t. He just sat back in his chair, drank his beer, and said, “Hey, I’m doing my job.” And that was it. Each turn, each action, each subtle move he made, I was watching. I accused Jim of being a Cylon and he didn’t deny it. “You’ll see.” was all he said.

So Rikk played a card that would let him throw anyone in the brig. He said he thought I was Cylon, Me or Jim. I could have played some cards to stop the arrest.

I said, “Go ahead; prove to me you’re not a Cylon. Make the right choice.”

And he chose me!!! ME!!!!

WHAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!

Im no Cylon. That’s it, he was the Cylon and I knew it!!! I had to figure out a way to get out of the brig and take care of that fracker!!!

Rikk laughed and said that he really wanted to throw Jim in the brig. My heart began to beat again at a normal pace and I laughed. Haa haaa, good one… you got me. At least my suspicions were confirmed… IT WAS JIM!!!

Or was it? While Jim was in the brig, I still had my suspicions that Rikk may have been the Cylon. So I kept up conversations with Jim.

“Give me something, Jim. Anything. Make me believe you’re not a Cylon.”

“You will all pay for what you did.”, was his reply.

That sure as hell didn’t sound like a good response. Maybe we did make the right decision. Well at least we don’t have to worry about who the Cylons are anymore. Let’s just get to Kobol.

We then escaped a Cylon swarm and were only one jump away from victory when Rikk starts to laugh.

“I’m revealing myself as a Cylon! And I was one from the beginning!!!”

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?????

From the beginning!!! But you gave up the other Cylon player? Why… How… Crap!!!! "Sorry Jim."

AHHHHHGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Boom just shakes his head… I didn’t think it was Jim.

"Why didn’t you say something sooner? And Jim, why didn’t you say… say something???

The two Cylons were laughing and plotting. The humans were close to death on almost every scale, but Boom, Jim and I weren’t giving up.

We had a little luck with the cards and move a bit closer home, till the Cylons played a level 23 skill check (very difficult) that would end the game for us. So we threw everything we had at it. Everything. We had no cards left. Was it enough… well…. It was!!!

There were a few other obstacles thrown at us, but somehow we made it. We jumped to safety with next no recourses, moral, and minimal populations, but we did it!!!

What a great game!!! So great in fact, we ended up talking about the game all night and even on the drive home!

Thread: Acqua Dolce:: News:: Christmas promotion

micheleq — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:21:59 +0000

by micheleq

Giochix Christmas promotion started: FREE SHIPPING (USA/Canada included) if you buy at least two card games

Check: http://www.giochix.it/barrel9e.html

Thread: Ghost Stories: B-Rice Lee:: Rules:: B-Rice's Nunchaku in the corner?

Vox_Dargard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:18:38 +0000

by Vox_Dargard

If you use his Nunchaku reward in a corner can you exorcise two ghosts with no roll?

Thread: War of the Ring Collector's Edition:: General:: Already charged....shipping soon????

mhutton — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:57:47 +0000

by mhutton

After checking, my CC has been charged by GameSurplus.....but their website lists the game as "backrdered"

I thought that stores didnt chagre you for your game until they were ready to ship it.......has anyone else been charges for their copy yet?

Thread: Stronghold:: Rules:: Removing units

BartowWing — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:44:34 +0000

by BartowWing

When the game says remove units "FROM THE BOARD" it really means remove units "FROM THE GAME" right? For the fdefender I mean. I know the invader's units don;t go back in the back.

What about Walls? Are they removed from the game when removed from the board?

Thread: The Adventurers:: Variants:: Pressure + Interactions

bungeeboy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:41:11 +0000

by bungeeboy

Here are a couple of variants that could appeal to various groups of players. They may be played or combined in any desired fashion.

Walls Variants
The first variant I use adjusts the pressure provided by the walls closing. The wall deck has 18 cards in it, and 5 of them have wall movement icons. All 5 of these must be drawn in order for the wall to close completely. This means that in 6 turns, the walls are guarenteed to close.
1) The amount of time it takes to close the walls can be adjusted by simply removing blank wall cards. As a standard, I always remove 3. This makes 15 cards, guarenteeing the walls to close in 5 turns, and sometimes sooner. Riskier players may opt to remove 3 more, making a 12 card deck, guarenteeing a complete close after only 4 turns.

2) As above, but remove only 2 cards or 5 cards. This means that on the 2nd to last wall draw, there will be 4 cards. One will be left for the final draw: either a blank, or the 5th wall move card (assuming they have not already closed). This allows risk-takers to gamble on what that one remaining card is, and they can choose to stay for one more turn or run.

3) Players may rule that once one of the walls has moved its full 3 spaces, trap tiles may no longer be viewed. Players may also agree that once one wall has moved its full 3 spaces, each action to gather treasure elicits a die roll. A roll of 1 wastes the action, and on a 2-6 a treasure card is gathered as normal.

Treasure Variant

1) Make the '6' value alcove treasure behind the great lock a '9' value treasure instead.

Player Interaction Variants
Some players have expressed a desire for greater pvp interaction.

1) A player can use an action to attempt to push another player standing in his/her square. Each player rolls a die, and higher roll wins. The winner moves the loser one space.
Note: Loser cannot be pushed over a solid line, into the lava area (includes sun tiles), into the river exit space, or onto the bridge. Loser may not be pushed into the boulder. This action may never be taken if standing on a lava tile or river space.

2) As above, put allow players to push (and be pushed) in (and into) the lava area.

3) Blind Trade: At the end of the game, a survivor may offer another survivor a blind trade. Players shuffle their hands in secret. One player closes eyes and draws a single treasure from other's hand. Laying that card face down, he/she then opens his/her eyes and the other player draws with eyes closed.
Each player may only offer one blind trade. Offers may be delined.

Thread: duck! duck! SAFARI!:: General:: Availability?

fitzyfitz — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:36:48 +0000

by fitzyfitz

I've just been quoted shipping to the UK at $42, which nearly trebles the overall price. It took a while for duck! duck! go! to hit European suppliers, will it be the same with this?

Thread: Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - Battle at Sarlacc's Pit:: General:: 1 GG = A chance to win a copy of ROTJ - Battle at Sarlaacc's Pit

chaosjenkins — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:34:53 +0000

by chaosjenkins

Anyone seeking to acquire a copy of this game in excellent condition has a chance to do so at the low, low price of $0 in the December Geekgold for Games Lottery Geeklist.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/48594/item/1108680#ite...

Game was played 2-3 times so all pieces are assembled but in excellent condition. I received this new and sealed a couple of years ago, so it has seen very little wear.

Multiple entries are accepted. Entry Deadline is Dec. 13. Which means it should be possible for a winner in the lower 48 to receive the game in time to give it as a Christmas present, if desired.

Good luck!

Thread: InterSpace:: General:: Has anyone actually played the advanced version of this with other players?

UanarchyK — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:34:40 +0000

by UanarchyK

Hi, I've recently started lusting over Interspace, waiting for a chunk of time to try it out.

I'm going to start off by simply using some hex paper and the counters to play a basic game, just to get a feel for it before I invest the time to cut out a hundred hexes.

Still, I'm wondering: has anyone (aside from the author) actually played a full standard game of this with advanced rules? From looking at the rules, it looks like the game would really shine with these extra rules. And yet, everyone on boardgamegeek seems to have only dabbled with the basic version. So, anyone wanna chime in?

Also, if anyone has: I understand it's a long game [the author says 5-7 hours ], but that's not a problem so long as it's a GOOD GAME. Is there something here that makes the 5-7 hours worth it? I think I'll still probably try it, but I'd love to hear from some voices of experience. Especially if they can give comparisons to something like TI:3, which I realise is somewhat less complicated, but seems like a solid, prevalent reference point.

Cheers!

Thread: King of Siam:: General:: Early Santa

Carlos Palomino — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:25:02 +0000

by Carlos Palomino

St. Nick surprised me yesterday with delivery of this gem. It should make for good gaming over the Thanksgiving holiday!

Thread: Mythos:: General:: 1 GG = A chance to win a new 2-Deck Mythos Starter Set

chaosjenkins — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:24:57 +0000

by chaosjenkins

Anyone seeking to acquire a new copy of this game has a chance to do so at the low, low price of $0 in the December Geekgold for Games Lottery Geeklist.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/48594/item/1108703#ite...

Box contents are in new and in excellent condition.

EXTRAS INCLUDED!!!
This lot also includes two open-but-unplayed starters for the original Warhammer 40,000 Collectible Card Game (One Eldar starter and one Space Marine starter)

Multiple entries are accepted. Entry Deadline is Dec. 13. Which means it should be possible for a winner in the lower 48 to receive the game in time to give it as a Christmas present, if desired.

Good luck!

Thread: Battleground: Crossbows & Catapults War Chest Starter Set:: General:: 1 GG = A chance to win a copy of Battleground: Crossbows & Catapults War Chest Starter

chaosjenkins — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:18:57 +0000

by chaosjenkins

Anyone seeking to acquire a brand new copy of this game has a chance to do so at the low, low price of $0 in the November Geekgold for Games Lottery Geeklist.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/48594/item/1108674#ite...

All box contents are in new and in excellent condition.

Multiple entries are accepted. Entry Deadline is Dec. 13. Which means it should be possible for a winner in the lower 48 to receive the game in time to give it as a Christmas present, if desired.

Good luck!

Thread: Runebound - Cult of the Rune:: General:: 1 GG = A chance to win a copy of Runebound - Cult of the Rune

chaosjenkins — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:12:24 +0000

by chaosjenkins

Anyone seeking to acquire this nifty expansion has a chance to do so at the low, low price of $0 in the November Geekgold for Games Geeklist.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/47353/item/1088996#ite...

All box contents are in excellent condition.

Multiple entries are accepted. Entry Deadline is Nov. 30.

Good luck!

Thread: Stronghold:: Rules:: Marksmen coordination ?

Philphil — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:11:03 +0000

by Philphil

Do the marksmen need to stand on the same wall section, or on the same tower, to coordinate their shot ?

Or (See example 2, page 17) : do the marksmen on the tower (c) coordinate their shots with the marksmen standing on the wall section (b) to kill the Troll ?

Thread: Zooloretto:: General:: California vs Zoolorertto and/or Aquaretto? Please explain the "hate" [cross link]

ackmondual — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:05:49 +0000

by ackmondual

To keep all of the conversations to one thread, I'm requesting all resposes be redirected here.......

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/466242

Thread: Aquaretto:: General:: California vs Zoolorertto and/or Aquaretto? Please explain the "hate" [cross link]

ackmondual — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:04:53 +0000

by ackmondual

To keep all of the conversations to one thread, I'm requesting all resposes be redirected here.......

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/466242

Thread: War of the Ring:: Rules:: Dead men of Dunharrow questions

metalguisolid — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:03:51 +0000

by metalguisolid

Is Dead men of Dunharrow the only way in the game to retake a settlement by mustering ?
Can you play this card to muster in a SP controled Pelargir if there are no units there ?

Session: The Adventurers:: A two player Adventurers session report.

Dannoo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:00:46 +0000

by Dannoo

Allright, this will be my first session report ever.
My girlfriend and I played this game earlier this evening, and here is what happened.
I intentionally left out all the "game" stuff and just tell the story.
So if you dont know the rules of "The Adventurers", you'll probably have no interest of reading this

Anyway.. Happy reading to you all!

Mustafa Ibrahin and Len Tso Yau wandered off into the temple..
Both of them were deciphering glyphs and grabbing artifacts from the first room.
Very quickly though, the walls started to move. Closer and closer, and to avoid getting crushed, they had to run out of the room into some small corridor, right in front of a giant rolling boulder.

Len was leading the way, quickly turned to the right and discovered a red hot room filled with lava! There were many slabs with glyphs to choose from, but Len felt quite sure which ones were safe to walk on. After all, he HAD deciphed all of the glyphs in the "moving walls" room. He usually has a good memory and after grabbing some nice artifacts from two slabs, he tried jumping to a third..
Bad mistake, since this slab was trapped! The glyph was so similar to another one.. If he only had paid a little more attention in the previous room.
Len Tso Yau fell screaming into the lava, leaving Mustafa all alone in the corridor.

Mustafa didnt spend much time checking out the glyphs in the first room.
He was overwhelmed by finding so many rare artifacts, and screaming "my precious", that he forgot!
Since mr. Ibrahin was so loaded with ancient findings and didnt want to leave anything behind, he decided to try and outrun the crushing boulder.
Unfortunately he had no chance at all, and with the speed of the boulder, Mustafa Ibrahin had to pay the ultimate price..
Greed got to him, and so did the boulder, leaving him as just a little splat on the ground.

The boulder continued rolling, slammed into the ceiling, and a hole opened up for the other two members of this temple-expedition.

Bill Baker, and Martin Fletcher quickly jumped down the hole and entered the temple.

Mr Fletcher followed in Len Tsos footsteps, jumping from slab to slab, grabbing a few artifacts, while Bill took a safer route in the boulder corridor.
Bill found a few alcoves that he tried to open.
He was surprisingly good at picking these locks, and quickly grabbed 3 artifacts.

Martin Fletcher had already crossed the lava room and jumped into the river, when Bill made it there. They both dove many times and found some valuable artifacts on the bottom. Martin had loads of stuff on him when he made it to the waterfall. And it wasnt easy for him to get out of the water!
To avoid being dragged down the waterfall to a certain death, Martin had to reroll 2 dice, throwing away the 6 least valuable artifacts.. and he made it up into the corridor.

Bill Baker was close behind, but also had to throw away a few golden coins and statues to be able to exit the water safely.

They took another step, and they were back into the corridor, with the boulder heading their way
"There it is!! The exit!" Martin shouted and ran towards the opening as fast as he could.
But Bill couldnt hear a single word, because of the raging boulder coming straight towards them.
Bill turned around and saw Martin run towards the exit. He used his exceptional stamina to try to outrun the boulder, and to exit this doomed temple...

But they were both too late...

The boulder caught up with them when they were just ONE STEP from making it out alive! They both were crushed and their bones, will forever be sealed inside the Temple of Chac.

//Danno

Thread: California:: General:: California vs Zoolorertto and/or Aquaretto? Please explain the "hate"

ackmondual — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:00:43 +0000

by ackmondual

Ratings for all 3 as of this post.....
CA is 6.42
Zoo: 7.05
Aqua: 7.27

I know ratings aren't everything here on BGG, but generally, they do provide good, general guidelines. And I certainly play games that are below 6.0 in rating while loathe some titles that are highly acclaimed.

Among the 3, Aquaretto leads the pack, followed by Zooloretto, and California trailing by a wide margin in last.

.

Just what do people have against Cali that Zoo and/or Aqua do better and subquently, warrant superior ratings?

My situation is that Zoo and Aqua get played sooo many times that I really do want to squeeze in games of California. It's to the point where if someone puts Zoo on the table, I will immediately counter-offer with California, or at the very least, sometimes be willing to settle for Aqua instead, but that depends on my "current mood". I own Aqua and CA but not Zoo, so sometimmes playing Zoo is better since it's naturally more difficult to play games you don't own.

And I'm not bitter about any of my purchases of Aqua nor CA. Some people will try to defend a car, video game console, TV brand, board game, or whatever in the mentality that they invested a good amount of time and/or $$ in it so they need to justify their purchase, even if it may truly be for all the wrong reasons. (I believe there's a pyschology term for this....?). Like many, I got CA via Tanga for cheap, so THAT'S NOT the case

I find CA every bit delightful as Zoo and Aqua. They're all by the same designer, and have very simlar mechanisms. Granted, the theme and mechanics similarities are noticeably higher with Aqua and Zoo than with either of these with CA. For mini-reviews, I find Zoo overall fun and balanced. For Aqua, ditto except one thing major thing that bothers me about that game.... i typically play 4p to 5p games (on its own, withOUT combining it with Zoo) where Keepers seem to be THE strategy to go. I have not seen one game where a person who did NOT go Keepers and animals with fish tiles win the game. I've seen close to this where the non-keeper strategy using Trainers was 3 pts behind the keeper strategy. Those games' mechanics are nice. CA is still a refreshing change of mechanics to what I enjoyed (keep in mind, I played CA after playing Aqua and Zoo).

.

As for why others feel this way, I can only guess, but perhaps others can fill me in on this...... Animal themes are more amusing? People visiting is just creepy? Renovating a house theme is just not that appealing? Players really do like the idea with the trucks much better? The game is horribly broken somehow?

I have heard plenty of negativety towards CA and NOT towards Aqua nor Zoo, but in all fairness, the same said people may feel the same about it anyways. I've just never heard them express this is all.

Session: World in Flames:: Peace in Flames 21: Japan Takes Bombay; Soviets Advance in Winter

wifwendell — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:50:52 +0000

by wifwendell

This is a trans-Pacific game being played via Vassal. Following is the latest turn, January/February 1943. Old turns and rules summary below the ====. "Peace in Flames" seems an appropriate name since wars are busting out all over...

The players: Stewart - Axis
myself - Allies

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1943: JAPANESE CAPTURE BOMBAY; SOVIETS FINALLY PUSH GERMANS BEHIND DNEPR, TAKE SMOLENSK

After a stormy start to winter, snows settled over most of Russia. The Soviets took advantage of this and launched another offensive. In January, Yeremenko's armies captured the forests northwest of Dnepropetrovsk, while farther north Soviet armies pushed the Germans back farther in the Pripets, and another attack captured marshes northwest of Smolensk. With the Red Army approaching Smolensk from the northeast, and Soviets now southwest of Smolensk in the Pripets, the Germans decided to fall back. Smolensk was abandoned without a fight and occupied by the Russians on January 30.

Not so Dnepropetrovsk. In February, the Soviets again attacked Dnepropetrovsk, which they had surrounded on three sides. After heavy fighting, that ravaged city was captured by the Red Army on February 23. Moving in the snow, powerful Soviet partisans (Zoya HQ) in the Pripets linked up with Guard Banner armies and defeated more German armies. The spearhead of the Soviet armies was within two hexes of Minsk.

In mid-February, the Germans withdrew further. As of March 1, the German line ran from Pskov to just east of Vitebsk (abandoned), and down to Minsk. Mannstein had a blocking force in the southwest tip of the Pripets; the German line resumed at in the central Pripets east and south to Kiev, and then south to Nikolayev on the Black Sea. The withdrawal greatly increased the strength of German lines.

British intelligence had discovered that Delhi was the Japanese objective in India. However, they failed utterly to note a buildup of Japanese amphibious forces. On New Year's Day, Japanese marines sailing from Ceylon and Calcutta attacked Bombay from sea, with heavy bombardment by battleships. Bombay had only its inherent garrison, Lord Mountbatten having reinforced northern India. The local forces resisted fiercely and inflicted heavy casualties, but Japan captured Bombay. Parliament called for an inquiry; Churchill was livid. The Japanese also captured Benarc in northern India. And anti-British partisans launched a suicidal but very effective offensive against Indian militia southeast of Agra. There was talk of recalling Mountbatten... but no easy way to get anybody else there given the half-dozen Japanese carriers in the Arabian Sea.

Taking advantage of their absence, Nimitz sent a strong carrier task force to the Marianas. US planes sank the light carrier Shoho and damaged a cruiser. Plans to port strike Truk were called off due to poor planning (and an early end of turn roll by Stewart).

China was relatively quiet; Japan brought some reinforcements in to slow down the KMT and Communist Chinese. No real action in the Mediterranean; it was stormy the entire period.

Comment: losing Bombay was stupid. I had three Indian units arrive this turn as reinforcements; I should have stuck one in Bombay. It was also a bit frustrating to only get two impulses. The Soviets could have dome some damage, the US was going to strike Truk and depending on the weather the Allies had plans in the Med. That's one of the things about WIF - uncertainty over how much time you have in a given turn. The Soviets are doing well, although the Germans have strong lines. It appears that Japan may well conquer India. Because of Japan's Indian campaign, the Chinese are doing well.

Build points of killed units: Germany 24, Japan 21, CW 18, USSR 15, Italy 4, US 2

===================

Rules: Same as in the Scandinavia in Flames game, we're using most of the normal options (partisans, etc), SIF, PIF, new MIF, divs/guns, terrs, Cruisers in Flames, 2d10 combat, "Stalin's War" Soviet production (+.25 in '42 OR when Germans declare war; '42 city mods become '43, '43 city mods deleted), EZ oil rules. We are also trying Devin's victory point system, and Italian and Japanese surrender. We are using Line of Command Vichy rules. We are also using the errata from the 2008 WIF Annual as well some of the new options including Offensive Points rules, randomized naval losses, revised Chinese attack weakness, lending limits, and face-down aircraft rebasing.

1939: Germany crushes Poland, Netherlands. No Japan-USSR war.

JAN/FEB '40: Japan takes ChangSha. Graf Spee sunk off coast of Canada. German subs hit shipping in North Atlantic. US occupies Iceland and Greenland.

MAR/APR '40: Germans declare war on Belgium, take Brussels with difficulty; French hold Antwerp. Soviets build up along Manchurian border. US seizes French carrier Bearn.

MAY/JUNE 1940: Germans smash through Belgium into France; French government teeters. Italy declared war on France, attacked in Alps, took Tunis. USSR invaded Manchuria, Japanese stripped China to defend.

JULY/AUG 1940: France collapses, Free French government set up in Senegal. Soviets advance in Manchuria. Germany redeploys east, with Italy and Romania, declares war on USSR. US embargoes strategic materials to Japan, gives destroyers to CW.

SEP/OCT 1940: German and allied troops enter USSR proper; Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary join war. Finns snatch Murmansk (oops). Stalin gives up Soviet Far East to get peace with Japan. Commonwealth declares war on Italy, sends BEF to Karelia, lands division in Sardinia. US authorizes resources to W. Allies.

NOV/DEC 1940: Germans take Minsk, Kiev. Royal Navy sinks last Italian transport (and kill Balbo HQ), several cruisers, damage Littorio for no loss.

JAN/FEB 1941: Japan occupies French Indochina, seizes Kunming. US freezes Japanese assets, builds five Essex-class carriers. Germans take Pskov. Germany and Italy eject British from Sardinia.

MAR/APR 1941: Germany takes Dnepropetrovsk. US first gear up, FDR authorized navy to base at Pearl Harbor. Axis air attacks against Malta but no invasion. Australians liberate Ethiopia. Japan attack against Nanning fails.

MAY/JUNE 1941: Storms in Russia, Germany stalled before Smolensk. Japanese take Nanning, move marines to Truk. British, Finns maneuver in north but no battle. Air battles rage over Malta, CW reinforces the island and deters an invasion. South Africans occupy Tobruk, Bardia. Kriegsmarine relocates to Brest.

JULY/AUGUST 1941: Germans take Smolensk with heavy losses. Germans capture Gomel, Kursk, Stalino, but retreat from Kursk before being cut off. Italy, Germany invade Greece; British, Australians, and Indians reinforce. Japanese fleet relocates to Truk. RAF damages Graf Zeppelin in Brest. Italian subs wreak havoc on CW shipping. US reinforces Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor.

SEP/OCT 1941: Heavy fighting in Russia but front moves little. Yugoslavia joins the Allies; Axis conquer Greece. Free French take Italian Somaliland. Japanese massing near Kunming.

NOV/DEC 1941: Soviets push Germans back from Bryansk. Japanese take Kweiyang. Naval wars in Atlantic.

JAN/FEB 1942: Japan declares war on Commonwealth, invades India, Borneo, captures Singapore, Rabaul. Free French reinforce India. Germans, Italians take Zagreb. General Soviet winter offensive does little damage to Germans; assault on Gomel repulsed. British, Soviet bombers damage German war production. US imposes oil embargo on Japan, approves North Atlantic escorts.

MAR/APR 1942: Japan takes Chittagong, Hyderabad in India. US second gear-up. Soviets retake Gomel. Finns destroy Gort HQ. CW marines land in Tunisia.

MAY/JUNE 1942: Japanese carriers sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, sink the Ranger; they land in the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies. US declares war on Germany and Italy. Yamamoto advances in India and approached Calcutta. Free France declares war on Japan. British, Canadian, Indian, American troops take Tripoli; Italians take Cyprus. Yugoslavia still holds out. Russian Front is static, battles along the Dnepr River. Soviets attack Estonia.

JULY/AUGUST 1942: Belgrade falls. Japan conquers Netherlands East Indies, advances in India. British land in Sardinia, take Tunis. Heavy fighting in Russia; Soviet assault on Dnepropetrovsk fails. Soviets force the Dnepr, but Germans push them back.

SEPT/OCT 1942: Japanese take Calcutta and Manila. Chinese take Kunming. Soviets cross the Dnepr in the woods. Admiral Hipper sunk in the Atlantic.

NOV/DEC 1942: Chinese take Kwei-Yang, Wuhan. Japan advances in north-central India. Germans resist Soviet offensive along Dnepr. US marines take Kwajalein.

Thread: The Hell of Stalingrad:: Variants:: All Out Effort!

Stalingrad Steve — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:50:10 +0000

by Stalingrad Steve

Hello Everyone,

I just got back from the Board Game Geek con and it was amazing! My thanks to all the incredible fans I met, I swear BGG attracts he best gamers!

I observed many games of The Hell of Stalingrad and developed a new rule that I wanted to playtest to address some of the comments people have made about rewarding good game-play.

All Out Effort Special Rule
If a player who is rolling more dice than his opponent loses a Break- Test may may choose to deplete a formation to force both players to roll the dice again. The Actual Formation Depleted is chosen by his opponent. The result of the re-rolled Break Test stands and may result in a another loss or a Bloody Slaughter.

let me know what you think,

have fun,

Steve

Thread: War of the Ring:: Rules:: The 3 FP wilderness muster cards

metalguisolid — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:49:32 +0000

by metalguisolid

It recently came to me that 3 FP event cards (one character, 2 strategy)
permits you to muster in a free region without a settlement or FP army. Each human nation has one. These are :
1. House of the Stewards
2. the card that muster in any Rohan region containing a companion (forgot the name)
3. Rangers of the North
For example, the SP conquered all of Gondor and moved all his units far away to another war. Boromir separates from the Fellowship and goes to Erech. FP plays House of the Stewards, retakes Dol Amroth and starts mustering a big army, in the back of the much angered and surprised SP, who from now on swears to always send one regular to Erech, Anfalas and Druadan Forest before leaving, to be sure that all the regions are not free.
No problem with the first two cards, they're clear. My question is about Rangers of the North.
In the FAQ it says that you can play this card just to muster the unit and leader, even if no shadow army can be attacked. Does this means you can put them in any free region of the North, making that card even more dangerous for the SP than the other 2, since no companion is needed and he can't see it coming ?
If it's the case, suppose a game where an aware of this danger SP (who conquered the North) has sent at least one unit to all the North nation regions. If the FP play Rangers of the North and kills all units in a region without a settlement, can he recruit there ? I mean, is the same region considered adjacent, like when the SP plays Dreadfull Spells on a besieged stronghold ? (the card Rangers says in a free region of the North adjacent to the one attacked)

Session: The Pillars of the Earth:: Too little, too late

Nodecam — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:47:08 +0000

by Nodecam

3 players - myself, Rob and Darren. We hadn't played in a while, so there were some spots where ideal moves were missed - in some cases quite badly.

First round, Prior Phillip was there for the taking, Rob drew himself, and gladly paid the price to take him. This had a pretty big impact on the game, as several times I wound up taking the Kingsbridge Priory to prevent Rob from being able to take full advantage. Darren didn't help me out a lot in that effort.

I decided to take a stone strategy, and figured out how much stone I'd need to take advantage of the three best stone craftsmen for the last three rounds. I got the wood => 4G woodworker as well as the Metal = +2G toolmaker, which kept me in the gold throughout the game.

I tried to not spend my resources if I thought they wouldn't go to waste at end game. I managed to snag the privilege that gives you +1 stone every round in the second round, and continually took king's court first to starve the other guys of metal.

Rob saw my huge pile of stone and figured he'd try to starve me of the good crafstmen. Between him and Darren, they took all the stonecutters, masons and sculptors until the second last round, despite the fact that they couldn't get stone in enough quantity to make much use of them.

I had lots of gold, compared to my opponents, so Darren grabbed the first goldsmith for good measure, which is when I finally managed to snag a sculptor.

Going into the final round, I was 30(!) points back of Rob, and 10 back of Darren, but with a bellyfull of gold and stone, and having taken start player, first shot at resources. Wouldn't you know it, there was only one sand card. Rob and Darren were both too poor to buy crafstmen, so I grabbed the one sand production card, leaving Rob with very poor prospects heading into the final scoring round - most of his craftsmen were based on sand. I quickly snagged the only available sand, and then grabbed the Bellmaker and the Organ Builder to deplete my cash reserves somewhat. I don't remember what I used the other workers on - might have been some stone in there.

When it came time to assign master builders, I drew Rob first, redrew, drew him again, and he chose to not spend his remaining money to go first. I drew Darren next, and he paid the price to pick the sculptor. Next was me, and I went for the goldsmith, meaning that I'd picked up three crafstmen in the last round, essentially to replace some of my starting crafstmen (I had Jack, and thus was able to hang onto 6 crafstmen) As the turn played out, Rob thought he could leave his choosing of the resource market late, so I dropped two master builders on there, telling him I planned to sell metal with the first, and buy all the sand with the second.

Consequently, Rob avoided the market, and I didn't have to do that. I had 7 metal sitting my my resource pile, and was only able to spend 3 of them, so I sold the other 4, as well as my useless sand, and managed to get enough gold to max out my goldsmith. I had plenty of stone for the sculptor, and even used 6 stone on my starting stonecutter for a whopping 3 points (boo - wasn't able to replace him) to bring me within spitting distance of Rob - he only scored 6 points in the final round due to my sand starvation. If I'd been able to pick up one mason at any point in the game, I would probably have beaten him, but he successfully got Darren to help him prevent that from happening. As it stood, I made up more than 20 points on him in the final round.

Heading into the final round, I'd done the math, and I knew it was basically impossible for me to catch Rob, but it was sure a crazy finish. Things fell Rob's way early, and fell my way late, but by then I'd dug myself too deep a hole.

Thread: Hansa Teutonica:: General:: US Availability?

curtc — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:42:57 +0000

by curtc

Any update on US availability? I don't see it anywhere, including funagain and valley games.

Thread: Small World - Grand Dames of Small World:: General:: A lost opportunity -- blank Race tokens!

Barliman — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:41:44 +0000

by Barliman

I picked up a copy today, and I'm eager to play with it soon, but here's the first thought I had when I looked at the components: Boy, there's a lot of empty space here. Too bad they didn't use it for something extra!

I don't at all mind that the Grand Dames' abilities means they have fewer tokens than average.

I have mixed feelings about getting another blank Power badge -- on one hand, I have plenty of my own ideas so it's good to have another blank, but I probably would have enjoyed another actual Power more.

But I really do wish they had used the blank space for something, and the most obvious thing would be blank Race tokens to go with the blank Race badges we get in the base game and the Cursed! expansion.

We could have had 16 tokens on each sheet, rather than 9. I've done the math. The sheets are obviously wide enough for 4 tokens across (the Cursed! expansion has 4 across). And if things were distributed evenly in the vertical dimension, there would be room for 4 rows of tokens and the Race banner/Power badge, with about 6.8mm between each row. In the base game, the tokens are 7mm apart, and in the Leaders expansion the top and bottom borders are only 5mm.

So we could have had 21 blank Race tokens -- 7 on each sheet - enough for 2 Races! I think this would have been a win-win deal: I don't think the production costs would have been much greater than for what we do get, and it would have made the expansion more desirable, hence selling more.

Oh well.

Thread: Arkham Horror - Curse of the Dark Pharaoh Expansion:: Rules:: Students Protest Museum Exhibit - mythos card question

iidhaegn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:40:48 +0000

by iidhaegn

Just want to make sure we're doing this right. The card states

"The students of Miskatonic are stirred up by the "disrespectful scavenging of a society's remains" - by which they mean the visiting museum exhibit. Any investigator who ends his movement in the streets must make a Fight (-1) check or be delayed by the throngs of protestors."

Does this mean ANY streets? Or just the MU streets?

Thanks!
~Daniel

Thread: At the Gates of Loyang:: General:: Distribution query - two player

battlepuppy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:40:14 +0000

by battlepuppy

Can I please check if I have interpreted something correctly in the two player game.

1. When starting distribution, does the first player have an option of turning over the first card of the draw deck to form a courtyard and then immediately take this card (plus one from their hand) to go out?

2. When someone has gone out, does the other player have the opportunity of turning over the top card from the draw pile into the courtyard?

3. And am I right in assuming these are the only two occasions when cards can be added from the draw deck to the courtyard?

Thanks everyone!

Andrew

Thread: Roll Dice Kill Monsters Have Fun Dungeon Crawler:: General:: Info?

clig76 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:39:40 +0000

by clig76

The game sounds great!! Anymore info on this one?

Thread: Vasco da Gama:: Rules:: Navigation

fsnam — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:39:27 +0000

by fsnam

I could only find a vague reference to this question in the rules. What happens in the Navigation part when a ship with a lower number navigates up then is followed by a ship with a higher number if an open space to the left is available. According to this part of the rules page 11 it looks like the higher number ship is destroyed

The first Ship to move will be the one placed in the
furthest left Slot, followed by the other Ships from
left to right.

But later on that same page it implies they go to the empty spot

If there are no empty Slots in the next Landing, or there are only
Slots with a value higher than its Navigation Limit or if the Ship is already
at the complete Landing of Calicut, the moving Ship will stop its navigation
and is immediately removed from the game.

Anyone know which idea is correct?

Thread: Telepaths:: Variants:: 3-Player Variant

Haze01 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:31:30 +0000

by Haze01

I had fun playing this game with my full board game group a week or so ago. The other day, however, I simply had two friends over and one of them suggested we play Telepaths again even though there were just the three of us. We came up with the following 3-player variant:

Each of the three players had his own pawn.
On a player's turn, he rolls and would have the player to his left as his partner for the word or picture.
When scoring, both the player and his partner move ahead.
If one player hits a Go Back space, only that player goes back.
If one player is on a double points space, only that player gets double points.
If the person playing is on a Brainstorm, all players play off the word, then each player matches words with each other player.

These changes made for a faster game of Telepaths that was still quite fun.

Just felt like sharing it.

Thread: Advanced Squad Leader:: General:: Vehicle LOS

grahamj — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:31:23 +0000

by grahamj

What is the LOS restrictions for a BU AFV and a CE AFV?
The way I see it, a BU vehicle may only see what is in front of it (VCA) and a CE vehicle may see all around it.Is this correct?

Thread: D-Day Dice:: Rules:: 2 RWBs in Final Tally

CamelCity — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:24:45 +0000

by CamelCity

Are 2 RWBs allowed in final tally? I just rolled RWBs on 3's and 4's (first turn), which, by my count, is 21 soldiers!

Session: Memoir '44:: Brummbar's Hellcats Scenario

StevenE — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:24:09 +0000

by StevenE

Insomnia hit me last night so I decided to give Brummbar's "Hellcats Race to Noville" a go... ( http://www.brummbar44.com/?page_id=18)

The scenario sets up fairly balanced as far as terrain and total units go. The US forces are at a slight disadvantage as the Hellcat units are only 2 figure units but they have high mobility, move 3 attack, move 1 additional hex.

Initial card draw for both sides were fairly balanced. The US quickly occupied Noville (using the left Hellcat) and began getting up a defensive perimeter. The Germans concentrated on just getting forces moved up in each sector. The right most Hellcat was able to damage the elite German tank unit one turn and then destroy it the next with a 3 grenade roll. At this point the score was tied 3-3 and then went down hill for the US. The German left flank slowly chewed its way through the US right flank like a Rottweiler through a steak. The Right most Hellcat got too cocky and got over extended trying to take out a base line armor unit. The US forces couldn't roll the dice to save their lives...

With the medal count at 4 (one for Noville) to 5 the Germans made their play for Noville. The US could not play a card to rotate out the damaged infantry unit occupying Noville. So the Germans rolled right into town with an armored assault for the win and punctuation. 3-7 axis win...

Unfortunately no photos this time around.

The scenario was fun and I look forward to playing it again. The Hellcat house rules could be expanded a little for clarification but I think I played them right.

Session: Fighting Formations: Grossdeutschland Infantry Division:: Scenario 8 - Tanks Are Coming Now

johnfoley79 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:20:48 +0000

by johnfoley79

Time to tackle the other half-map scenario in the box, which is aptly named and meta-named (yeah - we got tanks already).

Chris Storzillo served as the ~~victim~~ defending Germans, at a hilltop command post overlooking a small valley with clusters of platoons and teams spread around about to be surprised at breakfast time by a Soviet attack out of nowhere led by platoons of T-34. Now, Chris had not played the game before so we went through the rules and mechanisms in detail. He's a solid tactical game player and he has run me off the board of some of the games we've played together. So, I wanted him to be fully informed (none of the infamous oh by the way).

Like the other half-mapper, most of the defending forces are hidden, which makes it a lot of fun (and tense) for both sides. He understood the special command radius capability in this scenario and placed his units with interesting dispersion. One of the telling things he mentioned (as the game went on) is that with hidden units, especially a hidden gun like the 88mm FlaK specimen in his OB, it's best to avoid revealing the gun for as long as possible. This would play out in this scenario (as it should).

So - he placed his entrenched command post on the rearmost hill (required for setup), and placed his remaining units in the the various stretches of building and (entrenched) in rough in a somewhat dispersed pattern. What I observed is that the large woods in the center shielded most of the open rough area to the right from view of most of his units. So I placed the vehicle platoons to the rightmost side of my setup area - and the infantry to the left of the setup area (to the right of the center of my entry edge).

General Assignments: (1) Tank platoons to move up, use the woods as a shield, park at the edge of the rough (while shielded) and sit in a line to pound away on the positions on the back side of the small village in the center of the map. One wriggle, I sent the sacrificial T-60 forward to see if I could smoke out an MG or the 88 with LOS down a central road. I sprung the MG on turn 1 - but no 88. (2) Infantry to lay down smoke on a line of buildings to my left and get across the dangerous open ground and into the woods to prepare to assault the central village buildings.

Turn 1 results - I pretty much accomplished my initial plan. I wanted to immediately place the T-34's in a location where during turn 2 I was not going to try to make them move at all (the double-cost for Radioless Vehicles is a crucial thing to pay attention to for the Soviet player - if you don't plan your movement while you have these vehicles under Mission command, you are going to suffer a very wasteful turn in terms of economy). They arrived - no gun - and they proceeded to pepper the village (to no other effect at this time - but that's okay - I was far enough away to avoid the danger of APCR from a lurking 88 gun). The infantry had to work hard to get across the road. It took two entire turns to pull it off - with a lot of rallying to boot. My Maxim MG never made it across.

I'll tell you something - I've now figured out how to get that slow moving MG safely across, even under bad conditions - and no - I'm NOT saying. There is one thing about this game, after every single time I've played, I think for HOURS about how I can use the tools in the system to improve my approaches. It's very enjoyable thought time.

Between Turn 1 and 2, Chris wisely stayed put, revealing some of this forces as I got my infantry too close for him to NOT pull the trigger. A strong cluster of troops were in the central village. I consolidated myself to get ready for a major push on Turn 3 (when I had Mission Command again). My primary goal in that turn was to get myself into a hand-to-hand clinch in the village. I had to work at it. He hammered me with artillery and adjacent fire and I had to keep rallying desperately to keep things together. A couple of my platoons broke down into squads at this point, but late in Turn 3, I began my major assault and jumped ugly in the buildings.

The melee was a massive multi-building affair that lasted from late in Turn 3 until nearly the end of Turn 5. Still he did not reveal his 88mm and I was clearing away False Sightings and forcing him to reveal a few units.

One thing I pulled off in Turn 4 (with my wide command zone of control - 4 for the Soviets in this scenario) was to have both my infantry in the center AND my lurking T-34 platoons under the same command, saving for myself a fresh Mission command to plunk down on Turn 5.

On turn 4, I ordered the tanks to flank the village and come around the back side of the map and wait behind the stone walls - not getting too close to any of his sighting markers OR the command post. I put myself into range (range 5) with my massive frontal plate while staying away from tempting a killer APCR shot from his lurking 88mm.

During turn 4, my Engineers (these are to be dreaded in Melee), got first fire attempts repeatedly (because of how the initiative worked) and Chris, sadly for his experience, kept pulling "F" hits (not able to conduct reactive fire back at me). I continued working him over pretty mercilessly at this point in the village and was beginning to have things clear up as we entered turn 5.

Now, I suddenly hit a wall. I had the central village. I was ignoring his command post and there were only four sighting markers left, two at the foot of the hill and two at the row houses back by my start line. I intuited that the 88 was in one of the positions at base of the hill. For some reason, I believe he would have done things differently if his gun were either on the hill or in the row houses. But I was NOT SURE.

The wall I hit was how to choreograph the capabilities of the tanks and the infantry to pop his gun out and then respond with a pile of firepower when it came out.

Suddenly the magic combo hit me - DEPLOY AND ASSAULT.

I declared an Assault order and deployed one of the T-34 platoons. One by one, they expended MPs to cross the wall and snake their way into a position to pop a shot into the sighting markers - trolling for the 88mm gun. He did NOT expose it however.

In retrospect, he saw that if he deployed it when the first T-34 went by him, all the others were going to perform a cluster-frack.

After the first platoon trolled AND then stopped with frontal arc on his actual 88mm position, my poor buddy Chris waved the white flag. I still had two fresh T-34 platoons waiting to assault anywhere and everywhere and a turn-and-a-half to go before Sudden Death.

We had actually played for 3 full hours at this point and it was time for dinner. When he plays a second time, I know we'll get the whole game in that amount of time. So we stopped and chatted a lot and Chris, that devil, came up with some EVIL German set up ideas.

Nope. Can't be telling you those either.

Thread: Campaign Commander Vol I. : Roads to Stalingrad:: Rules:: Apilamientos

CasaIlimani — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:06:28 +0000

by CasaIlimani

Tengo unas dudas...

Con un movimiento muevo un ejercito y entro en una zona donde ya tengo otro ejercito.

¿Debo apilarlos forzosamente? Creo que no

¿Este es el unico momento cuando podria apilarlos? Creo que si

Si la respuesta a la anterior pregunta es si, ¿Como podria apilar esos 2 ejercitos en un turno posterior? ¿Tendria que salir, volver a entrar y apilar?

Muchas gracias D

Thread: Le Havre:: General:: Brick seems to gum up the works

joe willette — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:55:17 +0000

by joe willette

We've played Le Havre several times now and the buildings always seem to get blocked by a need for unobtainable brick. It seems that more often than not, after a few buildings are built, the piles get topped with three buildings requiring brick, often before any way to get brick has come up. This means waiting for the mercy of the special deck or a round where a regular building is built. This makes the game extremely tight. Thoughts?

Thread: Homesteaders:: General:: Homesteaders BGG Content Competition: Over 200GG in Prizes!!

Alexfrog — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:51:55 +0000

by Alexfrog

Now that some of you lucky people who were at BGGCon have managed to get copies, I am announcing: the Homsteaders BGG content competition!

I will be giving away over 200GG in prizes, as awards for the best BGG content/articles written for BGG about Homesteaders!

A huge thanks goes out to the contributors to this project who made this possible!
Top contributors:
jmilum: 100GG
Koldfoot: 25GG
Zimeon: 25GG
huber: 25GG
Jester: 25GG

And I am putting my 25GG towards it as well (all my current GG), for a total current prize pool of 225GG! If you would like to contribute to this, simply tip this post! All tips made to this post will be added to the prize pool.

Why give away this GG?

I have always loved BGG and loved to read the great BGG content for any game I am interested in. I love writing strategy articles and enjoying the writings of others as well.

I have always felt that the creators of great content on BGG should be rewarded for their effort, beyond just the small GG award for a session report, or the tips received. So for Homesteaders I am going to make it happen!

Prize Categories:

1) Best Strategy Article: 100GG

I will be giving away 100GG in the category of best Homesteaders strategy article. (Probably in the form of 50% to 1st and 25% to a couple Honorable mentions). This can be a general strategy article, or one focusing on a particular strategy, building, or aspect of the game.

I will award the prizes based on the value of the strategic information provided, and the quality and clarity of presentation.

2) Best non-Strategy content: 100GG

I will also be giving away 100GG in the category of best non-strategy related content. Whether this be in the form of an excellent session report, (like Gola's famous Amun Re session report), humor article, review, helper file of some sort uploaded to BGG, anything! 50% to 1st and 25% to a couple honorable mentions will probably be the structure here as well.

3) Homesteaders Game Puzzles: 25GG

I will create game puzzles, and award 25GG to the first person to post the winning solution.

Puzzle #1 will be posted on December 26th, 2009. (This gives people some time to get their copies and get some experience with the game first). These are kindof a race, as I expect that someone will at some point post an optimal solution and then no one will be able to beat it. The first person to post a valid solution totalling to the winning score will be the winner. I will create a thread in the Homesteaders General forum, and then create a link to that thread here.

For each 25GG in donations I get, I will create another puzzle, at a later date. (If there are too many donations, I will use some of it to increase the other prizes).

Award date:

I will give out all the awards on April 30, 2010. (My birthday)

That means you have 5 months to play the game, learn it, and create some content for BGG. At that time I will decide what the best content contributions are and award the GG.

For the puzzles, I will also award the winners on April 30, 2010, based on who was the first person to post the winning solution.

Thanks for reading, and I hope we all enjoy the results of this contest!

Thread: Carson City:: Rules:: Can I build roads in order to place a 'reserved' building?

byronczimmer — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:47:31 +0000

by byronczimmer

See also: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/462483

Background: There is a phase after the $3 building is purchased where players may place previously purchased buildings. Though not specifically stated, this would presumably be in turn order.

The question: Are players allowed to place roads they have in stock in order to place reserved buildings?

__
Edit: typo & clarity

Thread: Age of Scheme: Routes to Riches:: General:: Major problems with turn order?

shadow9d9 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:47:27 +0000

by shadow9d9

From my first 4 player game, it seemed turn order was very important. In a 4 player game, 2 players will be able to choose 2 family's price. This enables them to get a total of 2 families at the lowest price while the other 2 players will only have 1 family and would have to spend more to get into other families(2nd share is family price + income).

This was commented on in another review about a 5 player game giving 2 families to the starting player... but I see it as just as bad in 4.

With 3 players, every player would get 2 families... but people say the game is best with 4 because of the interaction factor.

What are your thoughts about game balance in 4 player?

Still trying to determine whether it is worth playing again/keeping.

Thread: Descent: Sea of Blood:: News:: FFG website now lists as "on the boat!"

Pone4games — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:46:59 +0000

by Pone4games

Good news for those that were waiting, FFGs website has updated and now lists this game as on the boat and shipping to their warehouse. Shouldn't be too much longer before we can get a copy! Here's the URL;

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_upcoming.asp

Thread: Battlestar Galactica:: General:: Water Shortage vs Food Shortage, thematic comparisons

ackmondual — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:46:19 +0000

by ackmondual

People can go longer without food than without water. Plus, clean water has other uses too. Yet, the Food Shortage event cards for the crisis cards are more severe in penalty. Is this because given the fleet's setting and situation, water is easier to find? Any damn planet, or celestial body (such as a comet or asteroid) with moisture vs a planet with vegetation, animals, or pizza plants (Wall-E reference. I just had to put that in there )?

Session: Cosmic Encounter:: Cosmic Kharma!

EineHund — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:37:02 +0000

by EineHund

There we sat...looking at each other across the void of space. Space filled with tiny UFO's and planet's that happen to be arranged in whatever pattern pleased their overlords.

I had not played Cosmic Encounter since the first version in the early 80's and after a game in which I suffered horribly at the hands of: Carter, Rich, and Adam - we had just settled in for our second game.

I had the Vacuum after my draw [them or the Calulator's] - Adam opted for The Healer, Rich gathered himself to The Human's, and Carter rounded out the group with The Reincarnater! An interesting mix to be sure but not enough to slake the appetites of my Cosmic return - so we added Flares! [This was the others third game ever and while I had been gone for a while I thought - what the heck!]

Carter had handily won the previous games of the evening so naturally he appeared to sit behind a giant target...and the rest of us happily took aim.

Suffice is to say that the start of the game went fairly smoothly - but at some point Adam turned to me and said, "You KNOW you can share a victory."

I considered - the Vacuum and the Healer...that...was kharma! They work perfectly together!!! Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

A loose alliance was created - and we started to send my stacks of four to their death, and destroying four of Rich or Carters - only to have him bring them back [and then play the flare card for the Healer and get FOUR cards!] It worked very well - and even better once I had Force Field and the flare for Clone to bring it back to my hand after I played it.

Carter was hampered a bit by the almost constant change of his racial ability - but the two of them put up a stiff resistance and held out well against the onslaught with Mobias tubes and the like.

It came down to Adam and I with four each - and Rich and Carter with three.

There was that tense moment where Adam and I eye balled each other and the fairly massive hands - mine by allying with him - his by his flare when a sneaky move was slapped down by Richard - he played the Reincarnate flare on me...causing my poor, long suffering Vacuum to be replaced with....

The Tripler!!!

Bwahahahahahahaa now that, combined with my large hand of 10 or less cards continued to be a factor and eventually led to a shared victory with Adam and myself. We both decided that the extra 30 minutes of play for a solo victory wouldn't be worth it in the end.

The best moment at the table came when poor Carter was down to just THREE ships [one on each planet] and Rich with ~ 2 on each of his - Adam and I could NOT stop laughing at how wickedly evil the Healer and Vacuum combo ended up - it reached the point where the laughter took over and the table broke up into gales of laughter and tears flowing.

I can only assume their were tears of sorry and ours of joy...it was good to be 'back'!

Thread: Warhammer: Invasion:: Strategy:: Support Cards

Marty S — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:35:07 +0000

by Marty S

Played another several games this past weekend . My opponent seems to be seeding his deck with a lot less building cards - I tend to put as many as I can into my deck . The ones that cancel one damage per capital are especially useful. If I get several out early, he has a hard time doing damage before I can follow up with units . Any ideas ?

Thread: Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel! - Kursk 1943:: Rules:: Questions on Group Actions and Control Markers

adorablerocket — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:32:46 +0000

by adorablerocket

So we've now played close to twenty games and seem to be getting a hang of all the possibilities the rules allow (it's a very simple set fo rues but a very complex and unexpected system). However, a couple of questions have arisen:

1) If I have two units group activated in the same hex as my enemy, can my units form a firegroup to fire at the opponent for an extra +1 FP in addition to the +4FP for close combat? Do they also fire against themselves in that case?

2) If I have two units adjacent to each other, but they are at different elevations, can the one at the lower elevation join a firegroup with the one at the higher elevation? If so, does he provide a +1 FP bonus? If so is the +1FP negated by the +1DM of the target unit if the target unit is at the higher elevation?

3) Can I drive through a hex occupied by my opponent without any penalty? Do I need to stop or pay extra AP?

4) Can I gain control of an objective simply by driving through it? Do I need to end the round on it? If I am occupying an objective and an enemy unit enters my hex is it still mine until one of us is 'last man standing' or does it immediately become 'nobody's' until somebody is the 'last man standing'?

In case you can't tell we just broke out Dance of the Totenkpfs! :-)

Thread: Stronghold:: Rules:: How Many resources?

BartowWing — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:28:26 +0000

by BartowWing

I have 22 resources (brown cubes). The rules say I should have 16.

Do I have 6 too many or maybe the 5 at the start are additional? Even then that is 21 not 22.

Should the invader player have only 16 cubes in his "bank"? or 5 to start with and 16 more?

How many resource cubes, in total, does the invader player get?

Thread: Arkham Horror:: Rules:: encounters at locations with sealed gates?

madhatter106 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:26:18 +0000

by madhatter106

Was wondering the following...

Supposing a Mythos card instructs you to place a clue token at a location (let's say The Witch House) where a previous player had sealed a gate. The clue gets placed - a player says "hey, I'm gonna go get that clue," and moves to the Witch House on his next turn to pick it up. He collects the clue token at the end of his movement phase - does he then have an Arkham encounter there in his subsequent encounter phase, even with the elder token on it? Provided that encounter doesn't require a gate opening if the card might state it?

For some reason, I had it in my head that encounter cards don't get drawn at locations that are sealed, but now I think I have it wrong...any clarification?

Thread: Magic Realm:: Realmspeak:: For newer users and first time players of Magic Realm-downloadable software to reduce setup, speed up playing.

Pone4games — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:22:29 +0000

by Pone4games

This is old news for the veterans, but thought I'd post this for new users and new players of Magic Realm. RealmSpeak is a very nice software that basically does the setup for you on your computer so that you do not have to stack the tiny treasure and spell cards with monster counters on the setup sheet. A whole lot of extra features as well. Runs on both Mac and PC and worth a look in my opinion. Here's the URL;

http://magicrealm.dewkid.com/rspeak/rsdownload.htm

For those that were not aware of this, enjoy!

Thread: Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! - Russia 1941-1942:: Rules:: Questions

scdit46 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:21:14 +0000

by scdit46

Any questions:

COVER

Trucks and wagons offer cover to the squad?

TRANSPORTING

How units can are trasported in a vehicle?

The process is:
1. The transport unit and the transported unit are in the same hex.
2. The transported unit pays her movement factor for be loaded.
3. The transport unit do the movement.
4. The transported unit ies unloaded paying her movement factor. The unit is alocated in the same hex that tranport

TIME DURATION

How time each firefight takes approximately?

UNIT IN THE SAME HEX

A unit in the same hex that other enemy unit can does a fire combat? or the unit must attacks in close combat if it wants attack.

SMOKE

A unit in a hex with smoke (+2DM) I thin that should have a penalty -2FP when it attacks.

I think the visibility is reduced to the unit that attacks a hex with smoke and for the drive that is in the hex with smoke.

What happens when two rival units clash in the same hex with smoke? Both units have-2DM when defending?

Thanks

Session: Rush n' Crush:: Maximum Overdrive

zombiegod — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:19:30 +0000

by zombiegod

Thousands of cameras flashed, and a deafening roar of wild applause erupted throughout the halogen lit arena as the four drivers stepped out onto the track. The circuit was a dangerous two mile loop of twists, turns, chicanes and narrow lanes with deadly concrete iron reinforced structures built into the surface, set to test the drivers to the max. The course was to be lapped twice over. With room for only one winner.

Break-neck speed, road rage, and driving skills were equally as important as brute size and raw power. It was the wheelmen who would provide the audience with a knock-down race to the finish. They were the best. Each was a champion in their own right, trained to survive and even take down the opposition.

Each vehicle bore the logo of its sponsor. Numerous ads & brands pimped the vehicles body sections, so the crowd in the numerous tiered stands, and the judges & commentators hovering overhead in their helipods could call the action.

A large-bore fuel pipe juiced the R-24 Meteor to bursting point as Komet, loved by thousands, hated by millions, leaned heavily on the wing arm. Vapours and smoke akin to dry ice dangerously spewed from around the fuelling point as he ignorantly chugged back huge lungfuls of smoke from a ridiculously oversized cigar. He flipped his goggles down into place and pulled at the knot on his scarf, uncomfortably tightening it around his thick tree trunk of a neck.

]]>
Fred West III (Witchfinder General) as Komet

As he lurched towards the door of his ride he glanced over at another of his opponents, who went by the name of X-Caliber. The guy was inspecting the .100 caliber machine gun ports, making sure that they were firmly bolted onto the roof.

Komet pulled the cigar from between his thick lips and flicked it towards X-Calibers vehicle with powerful fingers. It spanged off the side of the other racers vehicle in a shower of red hot ash. Komet curled his lips in a sneer of contempt and clumsily pulled himself into his ride, slamming the armour plated door closed.

X-Caliber paid little heed to the goading from his square jawed opponent, and finished checking over the vehicles armour busting arsenal. Last season he'd been racing for the U.N.A. Dream Team, but his new team-mate had bumped his vehicle into a 180mph death roll on the penultimate lap, causing a major wreck that involved at least five vehicles and ninety eight bystander casualties. The official ruling was mechanical failure. He was declared the winner and awarded a ludicrous amount of bonus points for each of the civilian casualties, but X-Caliber knew there was an ulterior motive.

]]>
Ian Sims (Bananatyke) as X-Caliber

Hopping nimbly aboard the B41-Pulsar he flipped the lever that automatically closed the door, then clunked the numerous safety buckles firmly into place around him before checking that the fire-command control panel was functioning correctly. The set-up was an array of soft-touch pads mounted on a panel above the hump of the power-train emplacement for easy reach. The armament package also included a stud that released mines, and a rear mounted nozzle device that could be aimed using a mini-joystick on the control panel to belch out an arc of liquid fire. His was a road machine built for death, not comfort.

As the Mechwinch swung the last of the vehicles gently into place on the tracks asphalt surface, Tombstone calmly strode towards the B-35 Doomsday Machine. He pulled his skid-lid out from under his arm and suited up. Locking the neck clamp securely to his fire proof crash suit and pulling on his reinforced gloves, he climbed inside his ride.

]]>
Rob Robinson (Zombiegod) as Tombstone

Buckling himself into his seat his gloved fingers touched gently over each of the numerous switches and buttons as he effortlessly gave a final check to the machines arsenal and set-up details.

The vehicles door whirred forwards, clicked, and finally hissed into place, the vacuum seal shutting out all noise from the frenzied crowd. Except for the occasional beep & hum from various internal components Tombstone was in complete silence, in his element. All that mattered was the race at hand.

He ran his finger along a row of buttons to the left of the steering column. The entire panel sprang into life as an impossibly complex array of dials, gauges & display screens, reflected ghostly in his visor. Leaning back into the leather headrest he closed his eyes and mentally prepared himself for the race ahead. Inside an air-cooled mobile man-eater with 3200 horses under the hood and enough heavy artillery to nail a battalion at the touch of a button Tombstone felt like a god as he waited for the Oni-Tech's to voice in the final signal for him to fire his precious ride into life.

The driver of the RB-52 Rolling Fortress appeared to be having technical problems. The crew of the U.N.A Dream Team laboured beneath the upraised hood, where they had converted the engine into a turbocharged road monster with a chrome plated engine. As the driver gestured angrily towards several points of the vehicle the techs shrugged their shoulders and scratched their heads as if they'd done all they could.

As the driver unbuckled the crash helmets chin guard and removed it to further the point, the crowd went wild once more. Long blonde hair flowed down and blew in the hot night air as the crowd cheered & whistled for the new U.N.A. Dream Team racer who went under the moniker of Wonderbrat.

]]>
Eddie Cassidy (The New Boy) as Wonderbrat

The vehicles noisily fired up one by one as she grudgingly boarded her ride, and once again donned her helmet. The door automatically slid forwards & closed as she engaged the engine button, the motor coming alive with a powerful roar, like a jungle cat getting ready to pounce.

The drivers were now all poised ready for the starting sequence to begin. Through the windscreens of each vehicle, the drivers glared at each other, sizing up the opposition's death machinery and improvising hasty strategies of attack and defence, their gloved hands hiding white knuckles as they anxiously gripped the steering wheels and gear levers.

The starting orb zoomed into view overhead and hovered over the front of the chequered starting grid. The chrome front slid open like a mechanical eye and a red glow pulsed steadily forth from within. It blinked to yellow and continued to pulse momentarily before finally changing to green. In that instant the drivers simultaneously slammed their rides into gear and floored the accelerator pedals. The powerful engines screamed into overdrive and showed their muscle. Oversized radials grabbed asphalt, leaving behind smoking black tread-marks as the vehicles catapulted forwards, heat vapour bellowed from the exhaust ports. The race was on.

]]> BIG BLOCKS ]]>

The sound of hard-revving engines echoed through the colossal stadium as The R-24 Meteor sprang forward, gravity hurling Komet back into his seat as it swept up the first curve, rapidly picking up speed. His head thumped home against the headrest as he turboed the vehicle three times.

Tombstone was hot on his tail as he pulled off the same manoeuvre and inched into first place. Glancing at his temp-gauge he noticed it had risen a few notches. With little regard to engine condition he flipped the Machine Gun and Rocket Booster switches to the active position. He could spend time cooling down the engine once he'd carved a decent gap between himself and the rest of the pack.

The new racer, Wonderbrat, seemed to be having trouble. As the vehicle juddered up to 40mph she flicked on the Circular Saw and Rocket Boosters, both of little to no use as X-Caliber riskily shot straight in front of her and into third place. His gloved fingers briefly touched two buttons on the control panel, lighting up two greyed out lights... Flame Thrower & Machine Gun.

]]> BOOMERANG CURVE ]]>

Tombstone changed gear, and allowed his engine some breathing space . "Full house" he mumbled as the remaining weaponry lit up on his dash, and he took the curve with ease. Halfway around Boomerang Curve one of his gloved hands left the steering column. Blindly reaching underneath his seat, his hand easily found the lever which he wrenched upwards, deploying a mine directly in his wake.

Komit flipped the Booster and Extinguisher buttons to active position as Tombstone disappeared around the curve. Slamming the gear lever over he turboed the vehicle twice in rapid succession. The temperature gauge rose to middling as the nitrogen afterburner kicked in. He ploughed around the curve after his opponent only to see a mine sitting dangerously in the centre of the track. With precision driving skills he lined up his machine and drove straight over it, missing the detonator cap by millimetres as he rocketed back into first place. The vehicle juddered violently as he forced it towards the inside lane for the next fast approaching track section.

No to be outdone, Tombstone gunned the engine and raced after the leader. He'd dropped a second mine adjacent to the first, effectively making that track section a no go area to all but the clinically insane. As he reached a straight he saw his chance to close the gap & flipped the Rocket Booster into life. The engine temperature shot higher than expected. The warning light flickered continuously, constantly demanding his attention.

X-Caliber and Wonderbrat passively coasted along, bringing up the rear, both steered hard into the outer lane, avoiding the mine section, as the billboard advertisements whizzed past them & the distance between the two groups gradually increased.

]]> V.I.P LODGE ]]>

Komet once again took the inside lane. He swerved hard around the structure built dangerously in the centre of the track, as the frequently used Rocket Booster once more kicked home at full power, glowing white hot. Flicking the extinguisher switch helped to slightly cool down his vehicle temperature to an acceptable level as Tombstone pursued steadily after him.

Tombstone geared down. It was too early in the race to risk unnecessarily damaging his ride. Braking firmly he took the inside lanes around the lodge with precision. Taking time to pay his machine some respect & prepare his extinguisher device. If he left it any longer he'd be in serious, hot, trouble. Glancing at the rear view display he could see X-Caliber and Wonderbrat In the distance coasting smoothly out of the minefield laden Boomerang Curve, gradually beginning to close the distance between the two groups.

]]> CRIMSON CRESCENT ]]>

Komet continued to torture his vehicle as he fought his ride around the bottom section of the course, dodging the seven foot high reinforced concrete blocks that had been built into the track to provide the audience with morbid entertainment.

Hot and sticky tyres left lines of burning rubber and scorch marks as his bulging muscles savagely wrenched the steering wheel hard right. The long narrow straight section fast approached his windscreen, a welcome sight for a guy reduced to riding on balding tyres with no intention of slowing down.

Tombstone slightly increased his speed. The speedometer display showed 90mph as he cautiously followed, taking the curves with considerable ease. He flipped the Extinguisher button and blasted his engine with a welcome burst of pressurised liquid carbon dioxide. The temperature gauge dropped only momentarily as he immediately kicked the Rocket Booster back into life and finished the curve as gracefully as he had entered it, as Komet streaked effortlessly towards the narrow section ahead of him.

X-Caliber skilfully negotiated the bottom of Crimson Crescent, closely followed by Wonderbrat who recklessly wrestled the vehicle around the solid obstacles at 140mph, almost wearing out the machines tyre tread in the process. The track was more difficult than the rookie had ever imagined.

]]> NARROW BRIDGE ]]>

Komet streaked over the bridge section and finished lap one. Tombstone relentlessly pursued after the leader, allowing himself a deranged laugh as he released another mine with detailed precision in the centre of the Narrow Bridge section.

As Tombstone drove hell for leather towards Big Blocks and after Komet, the other racers were making their way towards the Narrow Bridge section. X-Caliber had no option but to drive straight over the mine. A millimetre of error on either side and he would hit the magnetic trigger that would detonate the device and his ride would take the full force of the blast. Clearing the mine easily, he immediately reached forwards and pulled the release lever that deployed one of his own mines, directly adjacent to the one Tombstone had left in his wake. With a maniacal laugh that echoed Tombstones he boosted his ride into lap two and pursued him as the double dose of explosives sat waiting patiently for Wonderbrat who a fair distance back brought up the rear of the pack.

Wonderbrats eyes widened in horror as she headed towards the Narrow Bridge section. Her tyres were failing fast, there was little she could do but head straight for the awaiting mines and pray that her driving skills were up to scratch. The first mine posed little problem as she skilfully avoided it, but the second one in her path was impossible to dodge. The tyre clipped the detonator cap, as a loud whump picked the RB-52 Rolling Fortress up and slammed it back onto the track. Chunks of shrapnel and asphalt thudded into the vehicles underside, but the armour plating on the vehicles underbelly kept damage to a minimum.

]]> BIG BLOCKS (Pt II) ]]>

Letting up on the gas slightly Komet re-entered the first bend once more, taking it with ease. His tyres offered little in the way of traction, and were in danger of failing him on any complex lane change manoeuvres, but he thundered on regardless.

Tombstone couldn't afford to cut his opponent any slack and pressed his ride even harder as Komet ploughed ahead once more towards the mine laden section.

]]> BOOMERANG CURVE (Pt II) ]]>

Komet could see the circular plates of shrapnel death glinting on the tracks surface as he gunned his machine towards them. He knew his vehicles hull integrity was strong, strong enough to withstand the 'firecrackers' that his rival had previously dropped, as he once more made a beeline straight for them. His precision driving skills once again shone through as he cleared the area without issue. But the manoeuvring had taken its toll on his tyres. Sparks showered from rims that occasionally struck the asphalt surface. The tyres were almost worn down to bursting point, and were practically useless for any decent lane changing manoeuvres. Tombstone followed, copying the expert drivers manoeuvre blow for blow and likewise avoided the mines.

With two vehicles in front of him and still a pretty big gap in between, X-Caliber had no real alternative but to take the inside lane and hopefully gain some ground, even if it meant taking a pounding from the mines that the two leaders had somehow managed to avoid. With amazing skill both mines shot beneath his wheels and he emerged unscathed. He risked a glance in his rear-view at the rapidly disappearing floor limpets, blowing the beads of sweat off the end of his nose as he entered the next zone. Another glance in his rear-view confirmed that Wonderbrat was nowhere to be seen, but in front he could see Tombstone slowing down for the Lodge.

]]> V.I.P LODGE (Pt II) ]]>

With a screech of tyres X-Caliber floored the pedals. The B41-Pulsar cannoned forwards at 160mph in a last ditch attempt to close in on Tombstone. X-Caliber steered away from the central Lodge, pulling the wheel hard right, trying to clear the V.I.P building. The vehicle jogged and juddered forwards unresponsively as the death machine slammed headlong into the structure with thunderous impact. Steel fragments and concrete exploded from the impact zone as the Pulsar pin-wheeled off the building and out into the clear. The crowd riotously cheered, the fans chanting their favourite drivers name over and over.

X-Calibers body violently slammed back into his seat. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he gunned the crippled vehicles engine, closing in on the driver in second place.

Re-entering the V.I.P Lodge section was plain sailing for Komet, but the wall fast approaching him meant he needed to consider slowing down if he was to clear the next section in one piece. But he had another, risky idea. Maybe the machines integrity would cannon him off the wall and into the clear. It was a risk he was prepared to take.

Taking his time to navigate the Lodge once more, Tombstone braked hard and turned hard. His ride gracefully swung over to the empty lanes, giving him ample space to gently urge the booster back into play. The temperature gauge continued to hover at the danger point, but he needed to keep the pressure on the leader.

Exiting Boomerang Curve, Wonderbrat drove over the mines that had so far proved pretty much ineffective. Carefully skirting one mine was easy, but the other proved too much for her as the mines fierce concussion flung the speeding vehicle into the air like a mule kicking out its hind legs, and buffeted it with a spray of of flying shrapnel and rubble. Coming back down on its wheels hard Wonderbrat fought to keep control as she shot towards the central reservation of the V.I.P Lodge. She turned the steering wheel hard right, the machine juddered and screeched as she tried to avoid the building that raced towards her. The tyres squealed like howling banshees one last time as the Rolling Fortress ploughed headlong into the structure. With the vehicle virtually totalled the momentum continued to carry it towards the next wall where it slammed sideways into the broken wall of concrete and jutting iron that had almost signed X-Calibers death warrant. Dust, rubble, concrete and debris rained down onto the still vehicle and then aside from the occasional groan from the unsafe structure, silence.

]]> CRIMSON CRESCENT (Pt II) ]]>

Bracing himself for the collision, Komet wrenched the wheel with everything he had. The concrete mass rushed into view as his face twisted into a grotesque mask, and he steeled himself for the ricochet attempt. The R-24 Meteors heavy-duty suspension and armour absorbed little of the bone-crushing impact as it crashed back onto its wheels in a battered state. Komet felt the shock from the base of his spine to the top of his head as the impact lifted him off his seat and threw him back in. Steam and thick black smoke bellowed from the ruptured vehicle, obscuring its true position as it careened out into the open towards the next obstacle. Komets eyes bulged in sheer terror, ignorance about anything after the first impact his undoing.

The nitro-burning suicide machine hit the next fast approaching structure head on. The thunderous impact picked the R-24 Meteor up like a toy. Armour shards pin-wheeled into the black night sky then vortexed downwards in a cascade of spinning shrapnel. Komets funeral pyre rocked the arena, as an inferno of broiling yellow fire ballooned from the ruptured fuel tanks and detonated the on-board high explosives.

Tombstones machine glowed as he shot past the crash scene, the flames blistering his paintwork. Without a second thought for the unfortunate driver he unloaded his last mine adjacent to the crash site. He could see X-Caliber gaining on him in what was left of the B41-Pulsar. The machine was almost wrecked. Sparks showered from the asphalt as the broken claw arms scraped along the track, the shattered windscreen obscuring most of X-Calibers vision as he raced towards Komets funeral pyre.

"Mine or wreck?, choose your path", Tombstone muttered to himself as the remaining opponent decided to avoided the wreck and risk driving over the deployed mine.

X-caliber felt the heat from the fire as he successfully avoided the mine, It was now or never. He turboed his vehicle and dangerously accelerated to breakneck speed, the crippled vehicle lurched forwards a final time. Praying for his tyres to hold out he wrestled the steering wheel. The tyres blow out in rapid succession as the B41-Pulsar hit the concrete blocks head on, igniting it in a spectacular supernova that ruptured into a thousand sputtering fireballs which streaked skyward like a pyrotechnic display.

]]> NARROW BRIDGE (Pt II) ]]>

Tombstone slowed the machine down and flipped the vehicles weaponry and overdrive systems off, coasting smoothly over Narrow Bridge and towards the finish line. He now had no worries about problems from any other drivers. The final mine lay just ahead of him. "Belongs to me I believe" he thought to himself as he drove carefully over it. The vehicle jolted into the air with a gut wrenching bump, but it was as good as over as Tombstone eased the B-35 Doomsday Machine to a standstill over the finish line.

The capacity crowd let out a wild ear-splitting roar as the crowds favourite, Tombstone, stepped out of his vehicle. Thousands gave him a standing ovation.

"tomb-stone!" they cheered.

"tomb-stone! tomb-stone! tomb-stone!"

It gave Tombstone an overwhelming feeling of total blissfulness deep inside.

The gigantic electronic scoreboards lit up as thousands of LED's spelled out the final standings:

1- Tombstone
2 - X-Caliber
3 - Komet
4 - Wonderbrat

He stood staring at the wreckage strewn track, as palls of black smoke drifted up from the burnt out wrecks that littered the course.

As the officials cleared the debris and patched the track up as best they could, another sound began to rise in a raucous counterpoint to the crowds jubilant cheers for Tombstone. At first he was too preoccupied to pay attention to it, but then his instincts caused him to turn.

When he did he saw the mechwinches begin swinging fresh vehicles onto the track. Shadowed figures stood in the dug outs watching their rides being lowered into place. Waiting for their chance to take on the champion.

"Stay tuned..." said the announcer, his voice booming out over the arena's public address system, "for Rush n' Crush race two."

]]>

Thread: Vampire: Dark Influences:: Variants:: Kindred Politics: Using Dark Influences as an Expansion for Vampire: Prince of the City

Heavenslaughing — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:12:50 +0000

by Heavenslaughing

After playing Vampire: Prince of the City several times, my girlfriend and I felt as if it could use an added mechanic to bring in a sense of social climbing among the Kindred.

After playing Vampire: Dark Influences twice, we concluded we need never play it again. However, it had the makings for an ideal expansion to Prince of the City.

I found creating the rules fairly intuitive, and we've found they do add an extra layer of subtlety and fun while playtesting in games of four.

The rules below build from Prince of the City, and you'll only want the Dark Influences rules as a visual aid for the pyramid.

-------------

SETUP

From the one-point Kindred cards, choose a set of five with one of each clan and covenant. More than one set is possible. Arrange these five in a horizontal row as the bottom of a pyramid.

Choose a set of five 2-point Kindred with clan and covenant equally represented. Make four of these the second row of a pyramid, with the fifth one in the center of the third row.

Use the five 3-point Kindred to fill out the third and second row and apex of the pyramid.
(This pyramid has one row less than the one in Dark Influences, thus building cleanly from three sets of five Kindred.)

Set up Prince of the City per normal, but do not shuffle the Event cards into the play deck. Instead, keep the Event cards in a separate deck.

The character sheets and other cards from Dark Influences are not used.

RULES

Reveal one Event card at the beginning of each Resource phase. Its effects remain in play until someone solves it, per normal.

Players, per normal, begin with 3 bidding tokens per turn. During their bidding phase, they may always bid a token on any Kindred at the bottom of the pyramid.

You may bid on a Kindred adjacent to one over which you have claimed influence in a previous turn, provided that it connects to your Kindred at the bottom of the pyramid. Adjacent means touching on the pyramid, whether above, below, or beside. Connecting to your Kindred at the bottom of the pyramid means that you must have an unbroken line of adjacency between the Kindred on whom you wish to bid and a Kindred you control at the bottom row. If someone steals your only Kindred on the bottom row, you do keep your Kindred above, but you may not bid based on adjacency from them until you have restored an unbroken line to the bottom.

Bids on Kindred are resolved just like bids on territories, except no Disciplines may be used.
(Unlike Dark Influences, there is no die-rolling for uncontested bids.)

For contested bids, you gain +1 die for sharing a clan with the Kindred in question and +1 die for sharing a covenant. You take the covenant of the first Kindred over whom you gain influence, and you keep that covenant for the rest of the game, even if you lose influence over that Kindred.

During scoring, each Kindred is worth the number of prestige points shown on the card: 1, 2, or 3.

On your next turn, you gain additional bidding tokens equal to the highest row on the pyramid on which you control a Kindred. This means that all 5 players can easily gain 1 additional token, but only one player can gain up to 5 additional tokens with influence over the Prince.
(You do not gain additional tokens for controlling more than one Kindred on a row, and you do still gain the additional tokens even if the connection of your highest-row Kindred to the bottom has been broken.)

---------------

I hope this is clear! We've explained it to our friends so far with no trouble, but of course it's different to do it with text without the game right there.

Clearly, the main mechanic added is the opportunity to claim extra bidding tokens at the cost of not using your tokens on the main board. Despite the point-value of the Kindred on the pyramid, controlling Domains is worth more on its own, especially considering how likely you are to lose tokens from hotly contested Kindred near the top of the pyramid. We've found that this added level of strategy helps to make the whole game more worthwhile.

Thread: Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel! - Kursk 1943:: Rules:: Smoke and FP

scdit46 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:12:13 +0000

by scdit46

A unit in a hex with smoke (+2DM) I thin that should have a penalty -2FP when it attacks.

I think the visibility is reduced to the unit that attacks a hex with smoke and for the drive that is in the hex with smoke.

What happens when two rival units clash in the same hex with smoke? Both units have-2DM when defending?

Thanks

Thread: Vampire: Prince of the City:: Variants:: Kindred Politics: Making Dark Influences into an Expansion for Prince of the City

Heavenslaughing — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:11:19 +0000

by Heavenslaughing

Thread: God's Playground:: General:: Pronunciation of "Sejm"?

sos1 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:04:12 +0000

by sos1

Any Poles out there want to teach me to pronounce Sejm correctly? Currently, I'm saying it exactly like the English word "same" but I doubt that's really accurate.

Thanks!

Thread: Warrior Knights:: Rules:: Arson, City Riot - Choosing a Random Unrazed Occupied City?

LoweringTheBar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:04:02 +0000

by LoweringTheBar

I can't remember the exact wording on the Event cards, but what's the easiest (and most fair) way to randomly choose 3 occupied cities for the Arson and City Riot cards? I tried drawing fate cards until 3 occupied cities came up... but it took forever! Is there a better way? I'm playing with the expansion.

Thread: Stronghold:: Rules:: Orders questions.

BartowWing — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:31:36 +0000

by BartowWing

First, Shouldn't Phase 6 actually be called "DISPATCH AND ORDERS" and not just "DISPATCH"?

Could someone give an overview of "orders' and or answer the questions below? I think an overview would be easiest because I am certain I don't understand how orders work. Especially troll's call.

1) Once placed do orders stay on the board permanently? Or are they like Rituals in that each phase 6 they can be changed. When resolved in the assault phase is it REQUIRED that ALL face down orders are turned up? Once they are do they stay permanently? What about the dummy orders?

2) For one Hourglass the invader can place any number of orders face down? Not one hourglass per order? For zero Hourglass the invader can place ONLY ONE UNCOVERED order tile? (on only one section.) So you pay a little time to hide _all_ the orders or zero time to place only one uncovered/unhidden?

3) What is the definition of "currently fighting?" The rules say that in phase 6 the invader can give orders to units "currently fighting." For the trolls especially what is "currently fighting". Does this mean in melee, on the board (Foregrounds or Rampart) or in the camp?

I am finding the orders section to be the most frustrating of the rules left that I am not sure of...

Review: Coloretto:: Playing Coloretto Online: Marquand.net

MrScaryMuffin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:29:29 +0000

by MrScaryMuffin

I love it when there is an electronic version of a board game available. It gives me a great distraction when I'm not in the mood to fiddle around with Minesweeper or Hearts and allows me to improve my game and prepare for the real thing: playing with my friends.

Even though most adaptations are of the solo/AI only variation, I still love it as I'm usually looking to just scratch an itching for a game. In fact, since I'm usually just looking for a distraction, the fast playing AI and the ability to drop a game guilt-free is very attractive.

If you are uncertain about the rules of a game or if you want to playtest a game first, these electronic versions are indespensible.

Marquand.net ( http://www.marquand.net/index.php?topic=coloretto) has an adaptation of Coloretto available and I started trying it out today and I thought I would share with you my findings.

The Adaptation
The version on Marquand.net is of the solo/AI only variation. You can play 3-5 players, practically any number of rounds, and the game has an "Original" and "Advanced" AI setting.

The rules are available on the page and the images used are similar, if not exactly, the same as the original. The game itself doesn't require that much monitor space, which may be a bad thing since the cards are fairly small and is hard to count some times. You are not able to adjust the size of the game.

The first player to play each round does not change in this version. You are almost always the third to play, which is neither good nor bad, but some variability would be nice.

The Interface
Don't worry about card counting, as the game will keep track of the number of cards left in the draw deck for you, which is great. The interface is pretty good and straight forward. You click on the truck you want to take or on the deck if you want to draw a card (and then the truck that you want to load).

The only thing that I can really fault about the interface is the terrible background image of rocks, which is a bit too busy and distracting. I would much prefer some sort of card-table velvet green/red instead. However, as you play, you can ignore the background a bit, so it does not really take away from the game at all.

]]>

]]>

The scoring card is there and a moving castle card keeps track of whose turn it is. The card are relatively easy to keep track of, despite their small size. Overall, the interface works.

The AI
The only thing I noticed about the AI is that the Original AI likes to take a lot of single cards while the Advanced one tends to pass up favourable trucks more often. I, myself, play a mixture of the two and managed to keep my score higher than the AI throughout all my plays, but did find that the scores were closer against the Advanced AI, so take from that what you will.

]]>

Neither AIs were terribly challenging. Then again, the game is simple enough, so I wasn't expecting too much. They focus more on themselves than on each other, so there are not that many screw-you type plays made and it allows for you to easily force them to take bad trucks. As well, they seem unaware of the disadvantage in taking the last truck and can be stuck with it throughout the entire round.

Overall
You will definitely not become world champ by training against this AI. But if you are looking for a quick 5-10 minute game to relieve some stress and are itching for some Coloretto, then this will give you that fix.

Review: Tier auf Tier: Das Duell:: Kid Game Review: Animal Upon Animal - The Duel

gamemark — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:20:51 +0000

by gamemark

I first saw [thing=17329]Animal Upon Animal[/thing] being played at Kublacon (a gaming convention in the San Francisco area) by four very excited adults... and over the next 10 minutes or so, the game (and the exuberant players) attracted a crowd of people. It would have #101 on the Kid Games 100 ( http://akapastorguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kid%20Games%20...)... and if I were to re-do the list today, it would probably be there.

Animal Upon Animal - The Duel is a two-player version of the aforementioned [thing=17329]Animal Upon Animal[/thing]... with some similarities & some significant changes. First, the similarities:

•cool wooden animal pieces... this time around it's an octopus, a goose, a lioness & a squirrel.
•they're both stacking games
•all players have an identical set of pieces to begin the game
•dice determine how to place the pieces
•they're made by Haba (ok, that one's painfully obvious)

And the differences:

•The Duel is a race game - the two players both build in real-time, seeing which one can complete their assignment first.
•the big alligator is AWOL - you simply use any flat surface (which makes this a great restaurant game)
•there are two dice (of different sizes) rather than one

Game play is very simple - each player rolls one of the dice. The big die shows what animal has to go on the bottom of the stack & the small die shows which animal goes on the top. Question marks are "wild cards" (so to speak) and matching dice mean you can put the indicated animal at the top or the bottom.

As soon as the objective is clear, players begin building as fast as they can. No animal can touch more than 2 other animals & (just like the original game) they must be on their narrow sides. The first one to finish gets a gold coin (aka "wooden token"). The first player to accumulate 3 gold coins wins the game.

The stacking is trickier than with the original game - the octopus in particular can be difficult to get into position. And, of course, some combos are harder than others... it all depends on the dice.

I think the age number from Haba will work fine on a kid vs. kid level - but more than the original game, this game will reward better fine motor skills (aka "age"). When playing with adults, you could easily handicap it by requiring the older player to get more coins in order to win.

A number of folks here on Boardgamegeek have bought two copies of this to act as "Animal Upon Animal - The Expansion"... which is very cool if not a little pricey. Jeff Goris made some [article=3903838#3903838]really good suggestions[/article] on how to use a single copy to expand the game in a discussion over there that is worth reading.

Do I like The Duel more/better than the original game? No. Have we had fun with it & am I glad I own it? Yes.

For more kid game reviews, check out my blog: http://akapastorguy.blogspot.com/.

Thread: Campaign Manager 2008:: News:: Pre-order?

cdippel71 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:18:50 +0000

by cdippel71

OK. I know I'm obsessed with Jason & Christian's games, but when will be able to pre-order Campaign Manager 2008?

I will be able to sleep much better when I know that somewhere in space or time there is a copy reserved for little old me.

Zev, I just want to give you my money. Is that so wrong?

Session: Castle Panic:: a HUGE hit for six year old son

T Worthington — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:14:39 +0000

by T Worthington

About a month ago I decided to go to my first BGG CON, and shortly after I say BGWS' review of Castle Panic. I had already decided to get the game for my son, so we watched the video together to see if it was something he would be interested in. Of course he was, what 6 year old doesn't want to kill monsters and protect the castle? I told him that I was going to pick it up when I went to the game convention, so of course everytime I went out to game night he asked if I was bringing Castle Panic homw with me!

So on Thursday I said gooodbye to the family, and my son was pretty excited that I'd be coming home with the game. He still had some questions about the game play from watching the video a couple weeks back - mostly about how the monsters took hits - I don't think he understood the concept of playing cards to affect the sectors.

I didn't get a chance to play Castle Panic at BGG CON, but I did pick up my pre-order before they sold out. Evidently I wasn't the only one excited about the game.

On sunday night the whole family picked me up from the airport, my wife looking very relieved that her time watching two very active boys alone was at an end, and of course the older son wanteing to see Castle Panic righ away. As soon as we got home, off went the shrink wrap and we started setting things up right away. The game itself is produced extremely well - the art is very thematic and appropriate for the audiences that this game will appeal to, the board is very sturdy and nicely wrapped and the print alignment is excellent - pretty amazing for a publisher's first game.

The game play itslef is very fast and furious. With just the two of us holding cards it certainly felt as though there were several chances for the mosnters to over us. Often my son could wait to get new cards at the beginning of each round, he wanted to play them as soon as the monsters advanced - contiunally asking if he could play his cards yet. Our younger son (3 yrs old) joined in on the action and was responsible for rolling the die to determine where the monsters started and bringing the captured monsters into the castle dungeon (because we all know that dead monsters are going to come back). We finished the game over dinner in about 30 minutes. My eldest now wanted mommy to play, how could she be missing this much fun he was thinking. Mommy of course let us know that its was bed time, and after a little debate we had to comply.

Of course at 6:30am we were playing again, all three boys defending the castle together. The second game was a little tougher and we lost 3 towers but again managed to pull through for a victory. I ahd to go to work and the boys started playing again by themselves before they had to go to school. I think its a game that a 7 year could figure out on their own, but maybe 6 is a little young - but I am sure that he will try when he can't get mommy to play along and I am not there. I think the theme would work for kids 6+ - even teenagers that might be harder to get to the table for something else, and it plays very fast with no downtime.

The game has been in the house for 12 hours and seen 3 plays already, we all enjoy it. The only thing that I don't like about the game is the box cover. I asked my son what should be on the cover - he quickly said a castle with lots of knights fighting trolls, orcs and goblins. And I agree this game really makes you feel like you are defending a castle. This is a game that should find its way on to the shelfs of Target, Toys are US and Walmart - it is so appropriate for younger ones to play with the family and those that what a quick playing fantasy themed game, so I am sure a new version will correct the cover art issue, and I will probably buy that version as well.

It is a fun game that I really enjoy playing wtih my son, which is good because we are going to be playing this a least once a day for the next month! If you don't have this already, you should buy it quickly I have a feeling its going to go through the first run fast.

Thread: Manoeuvre:: Variants:: More manoeuvering variant: Tune into a more "English progressive chess" like game?

sthrjo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:07:18 +0000

by sthrjo

I have not given this more than a thought, but wouldn't it be a lot more fun if there was more actual manoeuvering in this game? Inspired by English progressive chess (see wikipedia), I think it would be great if the 1:st player moved 1 unit, then the 2:nd 2 units, the 1:st 3 units, the 2:nd 4 units and so on. The "English" variant of progressive chess means that you may not move the same unit twice in one turn. The moving ends prematurely when you move into battle position. Any input on this idea anyone?

Thread: Lock 'N Load: Band of Heroes:: Rules:: activation question

coreyb — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:56:37 +0000

by coreyb

if i use a leader to activate adjacent hexes but i dont use him in any other way during the impulse, can he be use to activate adjacent hexes during a different impulse of the same turn?

Review: Thunderstone:: What if You Took Dominion and Added...

banyan — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:55:26 +0000

by banyan

Wow it's been a long time since I've written a review.

First of, this is a review after one game. If this game is anything like Dominion (it is) then a large part of the appeal will come from variety between games, so there is at least that much missing from this review, but it looks like every other review so far is also only after one game, and I feel like I have some unique things to add. Also, none of the reviews go into much detail on how you actually play, so this one will. Finally, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you know how to play Dominion. If you don't, this review probably will not be very helpful to you.

The short and sweet of it is that this game is a much more thematic Dominion. Basically they took the central mechanic of Dominion and came up with a way to make it a genuine dungeon delve card game thematically similar to something like Cutthroat Caverns. This adds a lot to Dominion, but also loses a lot of elegance and some of the strategy.

Components
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Thunderstone is a card game, so the components are mostly cards. The cards are fine; they're good quality and the artwork is excellent.

The box insert, however, needs work. Unlike Dominion which has a separate slot for each card type, this one just has a few big slots. They chose a more "innovative" way of separating the cards from each other. The game includes (I'm bad at estimate but I think it's about) five-thousand divider cards, which are just slightly wider cards that have the standard card back on both sides. You're intended to put one of these between each type of card. This makes set up and break down more annoying than Dominion.

The rulebook also has some issues. If you go through it slowly and methodically you'll pick everything up, but it's not presented in the most logical way. Some things are worded confusingly; for example one step involves "randomizing" the monster cards and one involves "randomizing" the hero cards. It tells you to shuffle the monster cards together, so we figured you probably shuffle the hero cards together too. It turns out you don't. I'm not sure what they meant by "randomize" with the hero cards, except maybe that you're supposed to choose which hero cards to play with randomly.

Gameplay
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The central mechanic of Dominion is there and fully undiluted. You draw 6 cards (totally different from 5) play all of them that you can, discard everything, any gained cards go into discard pile, draw a new hand of 6, reshuffling as necessary. They even mention that "destroyed" cards go into a "trash pile." There are, however, some very important differences.

On your turn you have three options: a Village turn, a Dungeon turn, or Rest. Rest just means that you either have a crap hand or want to slim your deck a little bit; you get to destroy one card from your hand and otherwise skip your turn. Most turns will be Village or Dungeon turns.

Village Turns

Village turns are what you'll recognize as more typically Dominion turns. There are a bunch of cards for you to gain, you spend money to gain them, end of turn. One big difference is that you'll have another currency to spend in the form of XP. You gain XP during Dungeon turns and it doesn't go into your deck; it just sits out in front of you. At the beginning of a Village turn you can spend some XP to destroy a hero card in your hand and gain a better hero card of the same type (leveling up). You can only do this once per turn.

The other big difference with the Village turns is that there is practically no emphasis on Actions. You can use as many Village Effects (actions) as you want, but very few cards have any Village Effects on them. In the basic setup, there's only one. So your Village turn is really little more than a single quick Buy.

The card types are very important.
At the bottom you'll have the staple cards available every game. Those include Militia (the most basic hero), Dagger (the most basic weapon), Iron Rations (the most basic food), and Torch (the most basic item). Your deck will start out with a combination of these cards. They all have Dungeon effects, and all of them except Militias grant you some money.
At the top you have the four heroes. Heroes have no Village effects, but they're the most important thing to have for Dungeon turns. Each hero type has its own pile, like any other set of cards, but unlike other sets of cards, they get better as you get closer to the bottom. You can have as many of one type as you want, but after the level one heroes are gone for a certain type, you'll have to either level up the heroes in your hand or spend more for the level two (and so on) heroes that are left.
In between you have everything else. Some of them will be mostly Village cards, worth a lot of coins or granting you a Village effect, but most will be Weapons or Food or Spells or Items with Dungeon effects.
Note that you cannot buy any victory points during Village turns. This is where the game becomes unique...

Dungeon Turns

A Dungeon Turn has nothing resembling a Dominion turn in it. This is where the game takes your hand from the deck you've built and puts it to use in a different sort of setting.

During setup, you'll take three different types of monsters and shuffle them together to form the monster deck. Near the bottom of this deck will be the Thunderstone, which will mark the end of the game. Then you'll draw three monsters and set them out beside the deck and those are the monsters available to fight. If you kill a monster, you add them to your discard pile. They'll be worth some victory points, but sometimes will also be worth some money or have a Dungeon effect themselves, so they're almost all effectively VP/$ cards or something similar.

At the most basic, an enemy is just a target number you have to hit. Heroes will have some attack value and weapons and spells and whatnot will add to that attack value. Match the value on the monster and you win. The twists will include text on the monsters, so some will kill one of your heroes whether you win or lose, some can only be hit by magic attacks, and so on.

Also, which monster you attack will determine how much light you'll need to provide or suffer a big penalty. The monster on the right is near the entrance to the dungeon, so you only need a light value of 1 (a torch will grant this, for example). The one in the middle is down where the dungeon is darker so you need light 2. The one closest to the deck will need light 3. Apparently in this fantasy world, light filters through stone so that it's darker the deeper you go, like in water. When you kill a monster you slide the others into its space and then draw a new one and place it to the left.

The game ends when the Thunderstone hits the far right position (all monsters to its right have been fought). If you succeed in killing the monster that ends up sliding the Thunderstone to the right, you get the stone as a bonus, giving you 3 more VP.

Review
The simplest thing I can say about this game is that it feels like a variant way of playing Dominion. The two are so ridiculously similar that if the designer claims he came up with it prior to playing Dominion I would flatly not believe him. I didn't notice if it was in there, but I hope the designer credited Donald X. Vaccarino for coming up with the central mechanic. He certainly owes him something.

Does Thunderstone add something to Dominion? Absolutely, it adds a lot. However, in piling new stuff on to a game, you often find that you lose something too, and so the game is not strictly better. It's not strictly worse either; it's just a different feel. It really feels more like a thematic adventure card game, rather than Dominion which feels most like an engine building card game.

Engine building is mostly missing from this game. Getting powerful hands for Dungeon turns is straight forward: just get the highest attack values you can. After that you fight monsters until your deck is a little too clogged with them and you have to go back to buying more attack value. What's missing is that the monsters don't get any harder nor do they start requiring you to be more creative. Even when something tricky does come up, like a tough monster that only responds to magic attacks, you can just ignore it and go for deeper monsters. Having enough light pretty much stops being a problem about half way through the game.

There's also very little sacrifice when you buy a card that's good for something. With Dominion you really have to think whether you want another Silver or an action card that will let you do something more complex. In Thunderstone almost every card is worth money in addition to its Dungeon effect. There is very little that will let you manipulate your hand by drawing more cards or that sort of thing.

The role I expect this game to play for me is a nice diversion after several games of Dominion. All else being equal, I would prefer Dominion, but I play so much of it that I won't mind having something similar which nonetheless provides a little variety when I'm not in the mood for something heftier with a board. I had fun playing Thunderstone, and I look forward to playing it more and trying some of the variations.

Thread: Le Havre:: Variants:: Let's play less claustrophobicly!

olmo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:47:31 +0000

by olmo

Last saturday I played my first game of Le Havre with my wife. I messed the rules and we started playing doing both an A action and a B action every turn ( taking goods from an offer space and build/use buildings). I relized my error after 4 or 5 rounds and we continued the game playing in the correct way . We had a lot of fun and really really enjoied the game. That is, the very first occasion the day after, my wife asked to play again Le Havre, it never happended before! . Obviously we used the right rules from the beginning and we spent all the time trying to get food . You understand: this second game wasn't so funny (especially to her)! Please don't get me wrong: I really like this (kind of) game and its spirit, but, just to make a "less claustrophobic, some kind of spouse-approved" variant, I think we can allow the player who is paying for his main action (using a someone else building and pay) to grab also an offer space . What do you think?

I hope it's enough clear, sorry about my english!

Thread: Greed, Incorporated:: Rules:: English Rules Posted

kneumann — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:45:12 +0000

by kneumann

Link: [filepage=49594]Greed, Incorporated Rules - English.pdf[/filepage]

Thread: Vampire: Prince of the City:: Rules:: Resilience - once again

deras4 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:34:54 +0000

by deras4

How does Resilience work when losing a physical battle?

a) You roll one dice for all three lost vitae
b) You roll one dice for each vitae lost, eg. one dice three times

Thanks in advance

Thread: D-Day at Omaha Beach:: Rules:: Disruption

akadaa1 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:32:21 +0000

by akadaa1

Ok so I am completely new to wargaming and so some of my questions may be elementary, please bear with me. If a a unit (in this case a WN) is disrupted and I can attack it does it raise or lower any of the attack values or is it as if it was never disrupted? In this case I attacked a WN disrupted it and it did not get undisrupted on the next turn and I wanted to attack it again but if I use the same unit does the same thing happen?

Thanks though I know I don't explain the best,

Chad

Review: Dungeon Lords:: Fun Factor Review: Dungeon Lords (60% = 6 ranking)

maxo-texas — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:25:13 +0000

by maxo-texas

Fun Factor Review: Dungeon Lords (66% = 7 ranking)
As a long time D&D Player, I was looking forward to Dungeon Lords.

I played (and won) a 4 player game lead by an experienced teacher.

About the fun factor. This is a measure of the minutes of fun in the game vs the amount of time it takes to play the game. For example, I feel that Munchkin has about 30 minutes of fun crammed into 120 minutes of play time. On the other hand, Vegas Showdown has 50 minutes of fun and takes an hour to play. Ricochet Robots is 1:1 since you play as long as you enjoy it, and then stop.

Fun Factor does not completely cover games which I play for the experience rather than for fun (like Arkham Horror and Titan). I enjoy them on some other level--- but I play them rarely.

Parts of the fun factor will drop (Novelty) and rise (knowing the rules means I don't have to stop the game to refer to them) over time. Some parts of the fun factor depend on the number of players. Fifteen minutes of downtime is a little painful... 45 minutes of downtime is longer than many games.

Fun Factor Factors
1) Theme : Strong or pasted?
2) New Ideas : New ideas make your brain happy.
3) How much downtime is there overall? : Are you spending most the game waiting?
4) How long is a particular downtime? : Are there 15 minute chunks of nothing?
5) How quickly can you start the game? : Are the rules long? Is setup long?
6) How much of the game is productive activity? : Are there stalemates?
7) Rules Time & Frustration? Are the rules well organized with good examples and whitespace?

1) Theme
The game has medium strength theme. The game is really a series of 36, 3 bid auction interactive phase followed by a solitaire puzzle/roborally/space alert phase.

The meat of the game is looking at your opponents and correctly judging their positions and making the bid which strengthens you and cripples them.

The theme is well drawn and component quality is high - but this set of rules could be used for another game. As a long time D&D person, I never really felt like I was a dungeon lord so much as i was min-maxing numbers.

2) New Ideas
The game is a monge of many other games. I didn't see any novel concepts. That's not a negative as much as it is not a positive. Sometimes, novel ideals are new but painful.

I wasn't "intrigued" by some novel new concept and so I wasn't noodling around to see what it meant. I engaged parts of my brain developed for other games to deal with the particular subset of Dungeon Lords active.

3) How much downtime is there overall.
Overall, the downtime was balanced between players in the auction phase of the game and mildly imbalanced in the "space alert/roborally" resolution phase of the game.

4) How long is a particular downtime.
During the auction phase, there is almost no downtime. You simultaneously play your bid cards and then resolve the auctions for monsters, traps, rooms, new workers (imps), etc.
During the solitaire phase, downtime was about 6-10 minutes. You sit and watch other players resolve their dungeons. If you were clever and kill your adventurers quickly, then your percentage of downtime in this part is very high.

5) How quickly can you start the game.
It was easy for the teacher to go over the rules- about 10 minutes on the combat (solitaire) part using engaging puzzle examples and 20 minutes on the
auction (interactive) part. There were few questions or surprises.

6) How much of the game is productive activity?
Everything you do matters. Productive activity is about 75% to 80% of your time (with the downtime being in the area of watching others resolve their battles).

7) Rules Time and Frustration
Some games have short rules and are easy to pick up (Quirkle).
Other games have long rules (Star Fleet Battles)
Some games have well written rules (Stone Age, Thebes).

The rules for Dungeon Lord are well organized, have good white space, excellent examples and thought was put into the organization. For example, the combat (the last thing you do) is put first because it's important to understanding the meaning of the auction portion. During the session I played and the two sessions I listened in on while playing other games, there was little frustration with the rules.

Conclusion and Rating

I think that the game will generally take about 90 minutes to play once you get the rules down. I felt the game had 50 minutes of fun which would give a fun factor of 55% which would equate to a 6 ranking.

I enjoyed playing the game and would play it again if everyone else wanted to but I would probably not suggest playing it.

Session: Chaos in the Old World:: A complete surprise...

Duguayduguay — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:21:08 +0000

by Duguayduguay

Wow. Talk about a complete surprise…

A friend couple came over last weekend and I decided to push the game on them and my wife.

"We're going to play chaos gods and see who's best at ruining the world."
"What? chaos what?"
"Gods. And we're playing on this beautiful board."
"Cool. Dials just like in BSG! This looks weird though…"
"Its supposed to represent stretched skin."
"Ewwww. Are you sure about this?"
"Don't worry. Forget about the theme. This is supposed to be a really good game with a lot of Euro mechanics. It's simple and should last about 90 minutes or so but we'll play a practice turn so everybody understands the mechanics and then we will start for good."
"Oooookay."

So that was the introduction to the game. They actually were okay with the theme although they found it a little bizarre. But I sold them on the mechanics. Asymetrical powers, dials, different victory conditions, not too many units, rather simple rules and a Euro feel. They were actually eager to try this out after my sales pitch. For background, games we play with this friend couple and that they like are the likes of Catan, Agricola, Age of Empires III, Smallworld, BSG, Dracula, Railroad Tycoon, Arkham Horror, even some Descent once in a while. We did the practice turn and I explained the rules as we went along. Then we got to the game. I was Nurgle and my wife Slaneesh. What is really funny is that my friend Will got Tzeentch and his wife got Khorne. Now Will is known to be really schrewed in games and he absolutely loves to scew around with other players and his wife is one of the most competitive player I know. So their personnalities matched their characters perfectly. How could this go wrong I thought?

It was all downhill from there.

I am not going to get into the details of the game as it is irrelevent to what I want to convey. Just to point out that Khorne won a dial victory n the 6th turn, just as I got to exactly 50 points on that same turn. We did have a short discussion on what should have been done to stop Khorne after the game; too may of us placed figures in Khorne's territories for little return. We all realized that. We also realized that we should have paid more attention to try to equal Khorne each turn on the dial tokens race and to try and kill her bloodletters as leaving them there untouched gave her too strong a base to build on on future turns.

What happened though is that people were bored. And this is not for the AP prone crowd either. Our game lasted for 3 hours for 6 turns! (I am not counting the practice turn or the setup time). Tzeentch especially would take a really long time to play his turns even when I urged him to plan ahead. What would happen is that he would have 4-5 points left when everybody else was done and then would take forever to play his ramaining points. On top of that, for some unknown reason, my wife could not get her head around the domination/conquest value mechanic, to a point where she got all of us completely frustrated with her whinning about it. Now again, these are people that understand Descent very well so I could not figure that one out for the life of me. We also played from 7 pm to 10 pm, so fatigue was not an issue at all. Moreover, we were unanimous on the fact that the map is beautiful but that it is really hard to make out the territories, especially when the board gets crowded. In the end, I did like the game myself but my experience was affected by the fact that this specific game session completely crashed. After the game, I asked them if they would be willing to give the game another chance and was greeted with a resounding NO! Which is a shame as without my wife liking the game (in fact she hated it while the 2 others did not hate it but were not willing to play again), I will most likely not have the chance to play it again until my sons are a little older.

What is really frustrating to me is that I can't figure out what went wrong. They should have liked it; at the very least, it should not have been the disaster it became. Maybe this is the kind of game that needs a specific kind of players or players in a specific mind set when the game is played. I don't know. This has happened before with the same group but each time, I knew I was pushing the enveloppe; it turned out great with Arkham Horror and Dracula for exemple, not so much with the likes of Warrior Knights, Age of Mythology or Warcraft:Tbg. But in each of those cases, I knew this risks and they knew about them also. It is understood that we usually play our favorites but that from time to time, I will try a new game on them to push the enveloppe and see if they are ready for a new genre of game. This one I didn't see coming at all.

I don't know what I could have done in retrospect. I am putting that experience in the "cannot explain" category… But I can really see how this game must be great. Too bad my fellow players can't see past their experience with it.

Now up next... Middle-Earth Quest. They all LOVE Tolkien's work so at least the theme will sell itself. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Thread: High Rollers:: Rules:: Anyone have the rules, know where to get them, or possibly scan them here onto the geek?

KpuzzlerS — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:09:42 +0000

by KpuzzlerS

I would really appreciate it.

Ken

Thread: Wings of War - The Dawn of World War II:: Rules:: regras em portugues

paubo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:04:46 +0000

by paubo

Alguem consegue arramjar as regras deste jogo em portugues? O meu ingles e fraco...
obrigado desde ja

Thread: The Settlers of Catan:: Rules:: Question on building a road and settlement together

Brian Sinclair — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:56:32 +0000

by Brian Sinclair

After intitial placement of the two settlements and roads, is all building required to be attached to either of the two existing linkages?

I ask as someone I know was told that if you have enough resources to build a road and settlement at the same time, they can be built togther without being attached to either of the two original placements (settlements & roads). They stated the rules indicate that a road must be built to connect to a settlement, city or other road and that a settlement AND a settlement has to be connected to a road; therfore they have met the requirements and can place in a legal spot not connected to any original placement.

I've always played that "all" building must be connected to one of the two original placements.

Thanks,

Brian

Thread: Royal Palace:: General:: Parts storage solution

Colorado_Jeff — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:55:48 +0000

by Colorado_Jeff

We played our first game of this last night. I can't believe I missed this one when it first came out. It was great fun with 2, and I expect it to be even better with 3 or 4.

I encountered one very minor annoyance, and have a solution for it. The Palace tiles are a very snug fit into one of the existing compartments in the box. It was a hassle getting them out without tipping the box.

The game came with a generous supply of plastic bags, and I took an extra bag and laid it cross-wise over one of the empty compartments. Then I placed the Palace tiles into that compartment, and the edges of the bag protrude enough to provide "handles" that make removal of the tiles easy. Now there's no need to tip the box when it's time to play.

Thread: Blood Bowl: Living RuleBook:: Rules:: Match inducements

resin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:52:52 +0000

by resin

From the Living Rulebook, page 30, regarding semi-final or final Tournament matches:

Inducement and treasury gold may not be used to induce Star Players or Mercenaries for these matches as the NAF, while not monitoring day to day games on the road to the finals, enforces using your own team for these important matches!

(emphasis LRB's)

then on page 31:

Remember that teams do not receive inducement gold during semi-final and final matches.

So, no inducement gold at all or just that inducement gold cannot be spent on extra players? I can see the argument either way...what do those with experience running (or playing in) a league say?

Thread: Blood Bowl: Living RuleBook:: Rules:: Throw Teammate

resin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:45:40 +0000

by resin

From the Living Rule Book, page 69:

Throw Team-Mate (Extraordinary)
A player with this skill has the ability to throw a player from the same team instead of the ball! (This includes the ball if the player thrown already has it!) The player throwing must end the movement of his Pass Action standing next to the intended team-mate to be thrown, who must have the Right Stuff skill and be standing. The pass is worked out exactly the same as the player with Throw Team-Mate passing a ball, except the player must subtract 1 from the D6 roll when he passes the player, fumbles are not automatically turnovers, and Long Pass or Long Bomb range passes are not possible. In addition, accurate passes are treated instead as inaccurate passes thus scattering the player three times as players are heavier and harder to pass than a ball. The thrown player cannot be intercepted. A fumbled team-mate will land in the square he originally occupied. If the thrown player scatters off the pitch, he is beaten up by the crowd in the same manner as a player who has been pushed off the pitch. If the final square he scatters into is occupied by another player, treat the player landed on as Knocked Down and roll for Armour (even if already Prone or Stunned), and then the player being thrown will scatter one more square. If the thrown player would land on another player, continue to scatter the thrown player until he ends up in an empty square or off the pitch (i.e. he cannot land on more than one player). See the Right Stuff entry to see if the player lands on his feet or head-down in a crumpled heap!

Ok, so...
1 = Fumble
Success = Scatter three times

What happens with a Failure?

Review: Stronghold:: Fun Factor Review: Stronghold (66% = 7 ranking)

maxo-texas — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:39:17 +0000

by maxo-texas

One of the games I planned to play at BGGCon was Stronghold.
I played a 4 player game. I think the game will play in roughly the same time with 2 or 4 players so it scales well.

About the fun factor. This is a measure of the minutes of fun in the game vs the amount of time it takes to play the game. For example, I feel that Munchkin has about 30 minutes of fun crammed into 120 minutes of play time. On the other hand, Vegas Showdown has 50 minutes of fun and takes an hour to play. Ricochet Robots is 1:1 since you play as long as you enjoy it, and then stop.

Fun Factor does not completely cover games which I play for the experience rather than for fun (like Arkham Horror and Titan). I enjoy them on some other level--- but I play them rarely.

Parts of the fun factor will drop (Novelty) and rise (Rules) over time. Some parts of the fun factor depend on the number of players. Fifteen minutes of downtime is a little painful... 45 minutes of downtime is longer than many games.

Fun Factor Factors
1) Theme : Strong or pasted?
2) New Ideas : New ideas make your brain happy.
3) How much downtime is there overall? : Are you spending most the game waiting?
4) How long is a particular downtime? : Are there 15 minute chunks of nothing?
5) How quickly can you start the game? : Are the rules long? Is setup long?
6) How much of the game is productive activity? : Are there stalemates?
7) Rules Time & Frustration? Are the rules well organized with good examples and whitespace?

1) Theme
The game has a strong theme. The game is a simulation of a siege against a castle. This is not another auction game with a pasted on theme. While the strong theme contributed to my enjoyment of the game, it also created some fiddly rules and no-op rules (explained in 6).

2) New Ideas
The concept that my actions gave the other player action points was not completely new to me but it is a fresh concept. I had seen a similar concept in Thebes with a slightly different implementation. Essentially, if you do something fast, the defender has little time to react. If you do a lot of time consuming activities, the defender has a lot more actions (represented by hourglasses) to prepare with. I liked this concept and did not see the strategy around it as quickly as my co-besieger.

3) How much downtime is there overall.
Overall, the downtime is balanced between the players and broken into discrete chunks which strongly limits analysis paralysis by either side. At most, you usually have three choices to make- often you have one choice.

4) How long is a particular downtime.
The particular downtime in this game is small. The designers broke each turn into 6 phases. In each phase, the besieger takes actions which give the defender action points. These actions have to be spent in the phase they were acquired. So if the besieger does nothing, the defender can do nothing.
While the game can be long, you generally get an action every 30 to 60 seconds. This is very engaging. You are generally spending the downtime you have thinking about your next action or reacting to the opponents last action.

5) How quickly can you start the game.
This is a major problem. The rules need a rewrite. And the rules might need to be trimmed (see 6). It took a knowledgeable teacher about 45 minute to explain the rules to us (with several errors). We were still on the 1st page after 15 minutes. It may be too much jargon, not enough white space around the text. I think they need a "trainer game" with 3 phases and then the real game, and then advanced (and fiddly) optional rules.

6) How much of the game is productive activity?
This was a major issue. Many of the actions the attacker takes, create the time needed to counter the action. This lead to many fiddly, "no-op" turns. I push the marker forward, you push the marker back. I move special troops up- that gives the time to kill them. I think the "no-op" actions should be reserved for the advanced rules and some might be better off trimmed entirely.

7) Rules Time and Frustration
Some games have short rules and are easy to pick up (Quirkle).
Other games have long rules (Star Fleet Battles)
Some games have well written rules (Stone Age, Thebes).

The rules for Stronghold could use improvement. The rules were muddy and cluttered. They could use a larger font, more editing, white space, and bulleted lists. I recall reading one section on the 1st page which was a list turned into one giant run-on paragraph. It would have been trivial to read as a bulleted list.

One of the defenders got very irritated with the rules during the game. It was a common comment by random people who had played the game.

Many players missed the special victory condition rules around breaching and felt the game was hopelessly slanted to the defenders as a result.

Conclusion and Rating

I think that the game will generally take about 90 minutes to play once you get the rules down. I felt the game had 45 to 60 minutes of fun which would give a fun factor of 66% which would equate to a 7 ranking. I'd enjoy playing the game again but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Thread: Race for the Galaxy:: General:: Agricola easier or more complex than race for nongamers?

evilK — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:37:21 +0000

by evilK

I've been trying to play race with my girlfriend (obviously nongamer), and although she's able to understand the rules and play some basic strategies, she doesn't really enjoy it, and i doubt that she will ever improve/enjoy with it (i suposse i'm not the only one).

I think there are two principal reasons for this, one is that the game is way too abstract for her(she is just not used), and the other one is the theme (which sadly seems to happens to all my female friends xP, what's up with sci-fi girls?? ). If you add to this the relative complexity of the game, we end in the kind of activity that someone does only to please the other person, and that's not what i want (like everybody i suposse, i'd like to find something that would really interest her (at least a bit), and that i could also enjoy).

Searching throw the geek, i ended in the incredibly well considerated Agricola, which have a theme that will interest much more to my partner, but investigating about the rules..and i'm not sure if it's a good idea, as the rules seems as complex for a non-gamer as race, but as i haven't played it im not really sure about it. I also was searching for some "cuteness" in the farm based theme, but that euro-wooden-cubic sheeps really don't help at all (only a little cute sheep and i'd buy it without doubt). My other pseudo-gamers friends are a bit ameritrashers, and i'm sure that i won't convice then to stop playing space hulk and the like for playing this (they even find race too complex and abstract at times ), so if Agricola doesn't fits to my girlfriend is going to see table almost nothing.

So i'm quite undecided, it can be worth? Or will she break my head with the box at the first intend to explain her the game? (i suspect that she hopes to bore me with race, and never try any other boardgame again, not to find alternatives.. ) Maybe there are better option in terms of "cuteness and simplicity", and even being enjoyable for me?

Thread: Race for the Galaxy:: Rules:: Discard card for VP question.

metalfacekevin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:25:16 +0000

by metalfacekevin

Hello, all!

I have a question regarding a card, but unfortunately don't have my deck with me (I'm at work). We came across a card last night that had a power (don't remember the phase) that said something like "discard card for VP." It didn't say to discard a good, though. Can that card be used during that phase for the rest of the game? Are the cards discarded from your tableau, or your hand? Can you discard multiple cards at once?

Any help would be much appreciated. Sorry for being so vague.

Thread: Campaign Manager 2008:: General:: New Mexico has too many electoral votes.

BartowWing — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:25:04 +0000

by BartowWing

The New Mexico Electoral Tally marker is too long. It should be 5 electoral votes in size. The playing piece is actually 7 long.

I am happy to say that I was the first to notice this and report it to Zev and Jason at BGG.con. I am saddened to say that I am going to have to get my rotary cutter out and shorten that playing piece.

It is a very easy fix and really in no way should discourage anyone from purchasing this very good game.

Thread: Valdora:: News:: Rio Grande will release Valdora in the US

fralim — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:24:39 +0000

by fralim

I just read from BGN that Rio Grande is going to do a US release of Valdora in Dec. From the Rio Grande site: http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=352

Review: Dog Fight: Starship Edition:: Fantastic. Just blew me away.

charlestonjames — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:22:38 +0000

by charlestonjames

Review originally written by Endymian from http://www.gamersuniversity.com/; posted on The Game Crafter website at
http://www.thegamecrafter.com/forums/reviews/dog-fight#N9MM2...

Two (or more) players

About 60 Mins.

'''Overview'''

Dogfight is a game for two or more players where (in the basic rules) each player controls a starship on a hex board representing outer space. By running cards (placing them down in a specific order, and then revealing/using them in sequence shortly thereafter) you may command your ship to move, attack, upgrade itself, repair, or a multitude of other actions. From what I have gleaned from the advanced rules, after you understand the basic game you can command smaller fighter ships and even some space structures for a richer, more strategic experience.

Each ship has a “Hull” number, which essentially represents hit points. Zero = destruction. Each ship also has a number of Energy counters, which can be spent on ship-specific special abilities that can come in handy in a situation where you might desperately need to move but don’t have a command card to do so. Also there is a specific range (in hexes) which each ship can fire, which can be obstructed by hiding behind moons, stars, and other stellar objects to obstruct an opponent’s line of sight to attack.

'''Rulebook'''

The rulebook is very extensive. You can download a tutorial document which is great to read before you decide to start your first game, which will definitely give you the gist of the rules, but the rulebook that actually comes with the game is a lot thicker, and can be a little daunting at first, but really it isn’t so bad. I found some clarity issues when I read it the first time, but the author, Fox Games, addressed them immediately and fixed them (bravo). Once you read all the rules, anything specific you might be confused about can typically be found very easily in the rulebook’s glossary, and the back page of the rulebook has an easy to follow chart of turn steps and what happens in each one. With the aid of this, our first game was only minimally hindered by our inexperience, the chart is priceless—use it!

Although it may be wordy, it is clear that Fox Games knew exactly what was going on when they wrote it. I had a very rough time finding any problems with it, and even the one thing I was confused about was easily clarified by the context of other sections, it shouldn’t give anyone any trouble.

'''Gameplay'''

The gameplay (for the basic rules) is simple, yet satisfying. Having to make your decisions in advance is a great element that makes it difficult for one player to truly dominate another. There is also a bit of bluffing that can occur in deciding what you are going to lay down first. In order to move, you need a move card, and you need to place it down and wait until it activates before you can actually move. The same for attacks, repairs, and other actions. But before you start placing cards down, you can activate your special abilities on your ship by paying energy counters. Sometimes these allow you repair, or draw extra cards, or move a certain amount of spaces, these can be a lifesaver and decide the game if used correctly.

I was only able to play with two of the decks, but I am glad to see there is a great variety of options available to people who want to customize their game experience. This is a great example of a stand-alone game that has a rich offering of expansion content. There are multiple game boards; each one varies with the amount of obstacles and starting points, which offers even more variety to the game. This is a great joining of your typical Trading Card Game type gameplay with the special strategy of a Tactical game like chess. It is a great blend and has a great appeal to a wide audience.

'''Art'''

In a word, fantastic. Literally, this may be the best looking offering I have seen so far on TGC. I asked the author, Michael Fox, about the art early on, before he asked me to review Dog Fight for him because I wanted to know how I could obtain artwork that refined and polished. It’s all very professional looking and all the art is very in-context for the cards abilities. Even the color version of the rulebook is quite a piece of work. The borders and little artistic appendages make it absolutely beautiful. If your excuse for not getting games on TGC is that they don’t look professional enough, Dog Fight just killed your last excuse.

'''What could be better?'''

Not much. The boards were drawn in a bit of a low resolution for some reason, and appear a bit pixilated, but really it’s no big deal. The card art makes up for it by far. I would love to see randomized packs available for Dog Fight one day, and I’m sure TGC will figure out a good way to do that eventually. And maybe if the Starship cards were easier to identify in a pile (like had different backs or something) that would be good too, but I can understand why they don’t already have that-different backs would mean adding a different deck for them, and that would add a couple dollars to the cost of the final product so that’s totally understandable.

'''Final Word'''

I’ve been told this game has been a work in progress for over five years, and it shows. I talked to Fox Games about his art and the trouble he went through to get everything just the way he wanted it was very impressive. The gameplay is fun, it appears to be balanced pretty well, I haven’t found anything game-breaking in it and I am having a really hard time finding an excuse not to give this game a perfect score. Let me clarify…I don’t believe in ‘perfect scores’, nothing is perfect okay? There is always something to improve upon. Always. But, in light of the fact that this game really just blew me away, and it is leaps and bounds beyond even some of games that I see in retail stores, I am compelled to give Dog Fight a 5-star rating, I feel like it deserves it.

This is a very well made game, a great addition to The Game Crafter’s library.

Well done.

[The Author, Michael Fox (Fox Games) has graciously donated a copy of his game, Dog Fight, for the purposes of this review. Thank you very much, Michael! We had a lot of fun, and you handled my creative criticism extremely professionally. If anyone else would like to have his or her game reviewed and advertised for free on our website, please feel free to send me a message on TGC or email me through the link in my profile!]

Thread: Dixit:: Variants:: ...more cards more cards.

guitarsolointhewind — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:16:52 +0000

by guitarsolointhewind

I saw Tom Vasel's review and noticed in the comments that somebody recommended a certain type of therapeutic card that could work nicely as an expansion if/when you get sick of the normal cards. So I figured I share it here incase anyone is wondering how to freshen up their once beloved game.

Here's the website:
http://www.transform-your-life.org/

I'm interested to try this but haven't yet. Has anyone here tried these?
...something similar?

Also my wife and I have been collecting free postcards which are everywhere in Berlin. We plan to try it out when we get enough interesting ones. For the Berlin version we use little colored trabbie erasers instead of rabbits

I'll post some pics of the Berlin Dixit when we finally finish it.

Daniel

Thread: Stronghold:: Rules:: Concerning walls!!

Skinlucky7 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:14:25 +0000

by Skinlucky7

about walls!
the defender have 5 stone walls component...he can put a stone wall component or many) for free and after every invader's phase?

Review: Chaos in the Old World:: Newbie’s Review of Chaos in the Old World

jhsjhs — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:14:08 +0000

by jhsjhs

Note: I am writing a series of reviews for newbie boardgamers such as myself, or people gaming with them. The goal isn’t to judge games in the abstract, but to address which games are fun learning experiences for someone just getting into the hobby. As anyone who has walked into a gaming store “Boardgame Night” and played whatever had an open seat, some leave you wanting to come back next week while others leave you shaking your head, even if you can see why people like it. For the beginner, some games just aren’t much fun. Case in point: Chaos in the Old World.

Victory Conditions: Before I go touch on anything else, the victory conditions need to be emphasized. There are two ways to win Chaos in the Old World. There is a standard victory point track, the goal being to get to fifty points with points gained by corrupting regions with your evil cultists. However, each player also has an additional, unique victory condition tied to a wheel with 7-9 “clicks”. If you get your wheel to the final click, you win, even if another player hits fifty victory points the same turn (if two players get the final click the same turn, victory points are the tiebreaker). Each player gets clicks in unique ways—one for killing pieces belonging to opponents, the others for corrupting specific types of region on the board. I believe a lot of the attention given to the game is a result of this—it can be won in multiple ways, and each player can take a unique path to get to the end. I will come back to this point later, but here is the foreshadowing: clever victory conditions can make for unhappy newbies.

Quick Overview: Describing this game to newcomers is a challenge, as there are quite a few rules to deal with, but I believe the following is true: the mechanics of this game are much easier then they initially seem to be. Yes, there are many phases to the game, with domination, which is different from corruption, and also from ruination (also different from corruption), and there is combat, and tokens to determine victory wheel clicks…but somehow it all fits together. If I were teaching this and had people who were willing, I would run two rounds of the game and then start all over, when everyone realizes that it is not as confusing as it all sounds. This is a credit to the game designer, who made a game with many parts that is a cohesive whole. Also, please note that I am not a Warhammer guy, so the four players in the game (Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, and Slaanesh) don’t give me warm fuzzies, though others seem to appreciate the theme.

To give a quick run-through: at the beginning of each turn each of the four players gets a set number of power points, and a set number of chaos cards. Starting with the Khorne player (who gets an extra power point, but has to go first each round), the players can place one of any of their three types of units on one of the nine regions of the board, or can play one of their chaos cards on one of the regions. The three types of units are cultists (no attack powers, but if they survive the turn they leave corruption tokens in their region; they cost one power point), and two types of warrior units (basically, a two-cost weaker one and a three-cost very tough one). The chaos cards differ dramatically between the players, fitting their unique victory conditions and theme. Khorne gets cards that allow for extra attacks, Tzeentch that steal power from the other players and cancel their chaos cards, etc. In the slightest of ways, this part of the game (which is most of it) reminded me of Agricola—you have a fixed number of points, how will you spend them? You can’t pass your turn, so you have to do something, but you want to see what the others will do first to better plan your move. Zero cost chaos cards thus become extremely valuable as they let you conserve your power points until others move. Cultists are also cheap, but have no attack power…round and round it goes. Play goes clockwise until all players have placed pieces/played cards until they have no points remaining. At this point, the board is covered with cultists/warriors, and chaos cards.

The rest of the turn goes quickly. First is combat. Warrior pieces get six-sided dice to roll, a 4-6 is a hit, and a 6 gives you an additional die. Each piece has a set number of hit points. Combat is simultaneous. Dice are rolled, pieces are removed. Next is domination—add the number of pieces a given player has in a given region to the cost of chaos cards they played there, compare to the defense value for the region. If a player’s number is greater then the defense number, and higher then all others, they get the defense value in victory points. Next, corruption—each cultist left places one “corruption token” in the region. These don’t go away at the end of the turn, so they build over the course of the game. If the total number of (all players’) corruption tokens is greater then 12, the region is ruined, and players with tokens there get victory points, the most corruption tokens getting the most victory points (and that region is effectively done for the game). There is some cleanup at that point, but to a large degree, that’s it.

Now, without the victory wheels, this would be pretty straightforward, kill cultists, corrupt regions, score points. However, as mentioned, each player has a victory wheel with unique “dial advancement conditions”. Khorne gets a dial token for each region he kills cultists or warriors that belong to an opponent. Tzeentch gets a dial token for each region that has two or more magic tokens (which are randomly distributed at game start, and then can be added to regions using chaos cards) where he gets at least two new corruption tokens. And so on. At the end of the turn, the players see who has the most dial tokens. That player gets two clicks on his victory wheel. The rest who have at least one token get one click. If there is a tie for first, no one gets two clicks. Each click gives you a special bonus, for example additional victory points or upgrade cards to improve your cultist/warriors. And, of course, you are closer to victory.

Ease of Introduction: As mentioned, this game doesn’t lend itself to easy explanation. The mechanics really aren’t complicated, but there are a bunch of them, or at least a bunch of turn phases. Play it a few turns, and you realize that it all makes sense, but those first turns are a challenge, and just getting to the point where pieces are on the table takes a while. Lots of discussion the first few turns (of the “you should probably think about x, y, and z right now” variety) would minimize this, but it isn't always easy to create that sort of atmosphere at the gaming table.

Game Experience: This game was the first “I really, really want to play this game” during my reintroduction to boardgaming. Not for the theme, obviously, as it is lost on me, but for the victory conditions. I liked the idea of two paths to victory, and I still do. Not only does this lead to interesting “offensive” play options, but it demands a constant focus on the opponents’ approaches as well. Playing has only emphasized this point—the games seem to play out very differently (constant combat or little, multiple regions being ruined or few, players racing up the victory dial or everyone plodding along) and each player can significantly influence this. There is strategy, here, as well as tactics. Do you benefit if regions are falling left and right? You can influence this.

But, I have to admit, I haven’t enjoyed the game. As a beginner, and playing with other people who are at least newcomers to this game each time, the subtlety of the game is largely lost as people see there way through. For example, one of the four players only needs seven victory wheel clicks to win the game (the others need 8-9), and the game is 7 turns long. Obviously, if they get one click a turn they will win (or at least tie) unless someone else has gotten two clicks on multiple turns, which is quite hard. This difference is one of the keys to this player, who is disadvantaged in other ways. This matters and needs to be considered during the game. But how, and by who? These choices are hard on their face, but add to that confusion regarding dial advancement conditions (“oops”), limited to no experience with the opponents’ chaos cards (“you can do that!?!?”), and you have a mess. The resulting game feels very random, and can lead to frustrated players.

Externalities: I find one of the challenges as a new gamer to just jumping into the game is the sense that you will diminish the experience for others. Will the person who goes after you benefit disproportionably from your mistakes? Will you make the game random? This hasn’t bothered me with Chaos in the Old World, but only for bad reasons—I wasn’t the only one screwing things up. The game has tons of interaction and conflict, from turn one. Khorne has to kill pieces or fall hopelessly behind, so who, and where? This can lead to hard feelings of the “if you knew what you were doing…” variety. Bad times.

Final Thoughts: I really want to like this game; I am not sure why. Something about it convinces me that if I could find the right opponents, it would be tremendous. The multiple levels of interaction are clear even in the stunted games I have played. I am sure there is something there. But my goodness, it doesn’t come out in learning games. I hope that eventually I have a stable enough gaming group that shares my desire to give this one a fair chance. Until then, I will hold my copy in reserve, and break out Small World or Dominion.

Thread: Mü & More:: News:: Mü is coming soon to an iPhone near you!

SteveBl — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:46:34 +0000

by SteveBl

I'm excited to announce that I'm implementing a (fully authorized) version of Mü for the iPhone!

Some of the features:
* Supports 4,5 and 6 player games.
* Challenging computer opponents with multiple skill settings
* Linked play with up to 6 human players over Bluetooth.
* Detailed stats tracking.
* Fully automated score card.
* Support for English and German and possibly other languages. (I'm looking for volunteers to help with other languages. Let me know if you're interested.)

The game is currently in final beta testing.

See my blog for screen shots and more details! http://hfog.blogspot.com/2009/11/perhaps-worlds-worst-kept-s...

I haven't decided on pricing yet and I'm interested in opinions on what I should charge. What do you think?

Thread: Zombies!!!:: News:: Interview with Designer Todd Breitenstein

Narmical — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:42:03 +0000

by Narmical

We discuss the board game Zobmies!!! with its designer Todd Breitenstein. We discuss with him all the diffrent versions of the game and the intention behind many of the rules. We also discuss how zombies should not run, ever.
http://ninjavspirates.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=551829
[MP3] http://media.libsyn.com/media/ninjavspirates/NvP_3x03_-_Zomb...|Zombies!!! with Todd Breitenstein[/MP3]

Mitch Morris
Host: Ninja Vs Pirates Podcast

Thread: Affentennis - Die Doppelerweiterung:: General:: English Rules for the Doubles expansion

Big Bad Lex — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:39:53 +0000

by Big Bad Lex

Is there anyone who has a copy of the rules in English or who can paraphrase the basics for me?

I'd throw some gg at anyone who can.

Thanks in advance

Nick

Thread: Commands & Colors: Ancients:: General:: Question about the 3rd Edition

colin90149 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:37:29 +0000

by colin90149

Is there really a Mounted Map in CCA 3rd Edition?

Did somebody have picture about Mounted Map?

Thanks A lot

(My English is Very poor)

Thread: Dungeon Twister 2: Prison:: General:: First games played, some FAQs and musings on the game

faust3672 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:26:01 +0000

by faust3672

This might be more of a session report, but I lumped it in general due to some of the questions that I had. I finally got one of my friends to play me and we played 3 games. It took all of about 15-20 minutes to remember why I loved this game. We decided to not play with the clock (See more on this later) as it had been a while since both of us had played. I jumped out to an early lead in the first two games we played (Basically by exploiting rules...running weak characters through the Colossus and being able to room chain effectively). The 3rd game was really close, I lost 5-4 (Never leave a fireball wand unprotected and never let your opponent use two of them). Some questions popped up during the game, I think we were able to resolve them, but I figured I'd ask anyway.

Banshee...really fun to use when used well. The scream is a bit pricey at 2ap, but it's so much fun pushing people into pits. Is the scream considered a range attack or a special ability? We went with special ability (And hence, the large shield didnt protect from it).

Colossus...Solid, not as good as the Troll. Can be fun to exploit the weakness of running between his legs. He's the one guy who gives the mentalist fits.

Backstabber...amazing in group combat and fun to use in positioning so your opponent has to perform group combat

Naga...might be the best retreiver in the game. I found if you could kill him early, do it.

Mentalist...mixed feelings on this guy. He seemed really strong early and then as we learned the character, there are ways to get around him. Once again, a pretty powerful character if you can position him for solo combat only (Unless it's the Colossus, which doesnt fear the mentalist at all)

Bow...seems much better than it really was. Maybe it's the rooms in Prison (More commentary later), but it seemed really hard to get a clear LoS off at a decent range. If you are in an adjancent space next to another character, can you still use the bow or must you close combat?

Large Shield...seemed rather limited to what it protected against. We decided Banshee scream and Fireball wand are NOT ranged attacks, so the only thing it protects vs is the bow (Which is hard to use)

Telescoping Spear...we were running into the same issues with the Spear as the bow as it was hard to get a space between the attacker and defender. What is fun is attacking through the arrow slits. We had the following situation occur

(B1)(Y1)
(B2)
sp
(Y2)

Y2 has the spear and attacks B2, initiating group combat.
If Yellow wins, B1 and B2 are wounded.
If Blue wins, Y1 is wounded, Y2 is ok and the spear is broken
Is this correct?

I found the rooms to be incredibly difficult compared to the original base game (Exception being the grey rooms in the original, they are painful as well). Im not saying this is a bad thing, just more challenging. The amount of walls and traps and doors made for a much longer game than I've been used to. My only complaint is with the rooms and there is an amount of luck as to who is in them and their positioning. I found that you can "trap" characters for a good bit of time if you are able to open rooms with your opponents characters in them. This is frustrating, but I guess there is a reason why the game is called "Prison". This can also happen in the other versions of the game, but it seemed like it was easier to free characters. I think some of the weapons/items would be better suited or used more effectively in a more open dungeon than the tiles that were given. Here's to hoping the expansions make good use of all the mixing and matching. After one or two plays, the timer really should be used as this game can greatly suffer from analysis paralsis. This is twofold, length of time for the game (Out first two games were abount and hour, but there were concessions at 3 points in each, the last game took 2.5 hours not using a clock) and the feel of the game totally changes and rewards planning and quick thinking with a timer. I loook forward to running the basic scenerios and teaching some new people the game to see if they are easy to teach the entire game with, reading over them, Id have to say yes. There better be expansions, cause DT is a great game and has solidified itself as one of my all time favorites.

Thread: Roma:: General:: Explain to me how this game isn't broken

dcorban — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:24:12 +0000

by dcorban

I was happy to receive this game as a prize at BGGcon. It seemed to be highly regarded.

I sat down and played it a handful of times and have deemed it broken. The clear method of winning is with the Forum. All of the other cards are so expensive, slow, and have such minor effects. The forum trumps them all. You can gain 4-6 points per turn with almost zero effort. One game I specifically tried an anti-forum strategy and it lost miserably.

Also, if the other player get a forum going before yours, you lose. It is extremely difficult to overcome a deficit, since the VPs you score are just forcing the game to end more quickly, which is exactly what the current VP leader wants!

My impression is that this is one of the worst games I have ever played. Take out the forums and it would be playable. As it is, I can't believe that this game has a rating higher than 3. I can see from the forums that there are various fixes mentioned and the expansion (or whatever) may offer some help, but how this game went for so long with such a high rating is mind boggling to me.

Thread: Runewars:: General:: Will this be available on Amazon?

Magic Pink — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:12:25 +0000

by Magic Pink

It seems kind of big for Amazon to carry. Did they carry TI3?

Thread: Pocket Dungeon:: Variants:: Stealth Die Alternative

s3rvant — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:09:51 +0000

by s3rvant

You can use 3 coins like pennies or 3 small scraps of paper as circular as you can tear them with a 1 on one side and a 0 on the other. Flip all three together at one time and line them up as they land. So coin furthest to left stays leftmost, centermost in center and whichever coin was furthest to the right stays to the right. Then you can calculate a d8 using binary:

Btw, if using real coins, heads = 1 and tails = 0

The ones digit is zero if 0 or one if 1
The tens digit is zero if 0 or two if 1
The hundreds digit is zero if 0 or 4 if 1
This would allow for zero through seven, so we add 1 to the result to make it into a d8

Examples:
001 = 0+0+1 = 1 plus 1 more = 2
011 = 0+2+1 = 3 plus 1 more = 4
111 = 4+2+1 = 7 plus 1 more = 8

]]>

Thread: Descent: Journeys in the Dark:: General:: Is Descent Similar to HeroQuest?

GraysonMichael — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:05:26 +0000

by GraysonMichael

Hello Everyone,

I own the game HeroQuest that was produced back in the early 1990s (I think). Is Descent a more modernized version of this game? Is it better than HQ, the same, worse? Thanks!

Thread: A New World:: General:: From RON to A New World

LEF64 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:02:49 +0000

by LEF64

Hi everybody,

Following the first presentation of Rise of Nations the past summer it's time to present you with news.

The original work in progress title did change!
A New World is the title we selected for the game. Guess, it could be a happy choice: the New World is commonly used to indicate the Americas discovered in 1492: it's opening date in the Grand Campaign scenario of the game. Then, the French Revolution, 1789 was celebrated by people and historians as the begin of a New World for the innovations it introduced in thought, social order and culture. 1789 is also the ending date in the Grand Campaign scenario of A New World, while the French Revolution is the last challenging event players have to deal with..... at least till next game expansion!?

A New World Team did change too, with new people supporting now Luca Cammisa and Luca Franceschetti.

Luca Cammisa is the designer, developer, art director and scenario editor of ANW.

Luca Franceschetti is co-designer, developer and rulebook editor.

Clara Ciatto is responsible for the validation of the Italian version of the rulebook.
Her presence is the best answer to a quite common question: Will my wife or girlfriend play A New World?
Stefano Cuccurullo e Aldo Boffa Tarlatta, are our senior beta-testers.

Michael Nardi and Eric Weynards are supporting our efforts to edit the English version of the game: their linguistic assistance is of paramount importance. They are also experienced boardgamers busy in the validation of the game components and rules.

Guess, there's no need to introduce Philippe Thibaut: he's the well known author of Europa Universalis and La Grande Guerre. He's offering his know-how to the supervision of A New World project.

Now, what's the state of art of A New World?
Since we moved the first steps in the realization of the project we went after some goals.
The first one was the development of a playable and formally acceptable game supported by strong rules. It's not a trivial point: we met difficulties going from original ideas and plans to their formal codification in working rules , tables and other game components that players can then examine, read and understand.
Did we succeeded with it?
Let you see and decide:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/56y47zhpz6/ANW_De...

The ANW Demo, you can download from the link, is the official presentation of A New World in a pdf file. Most pages are an abstract from A New World living rules. They offer a detailed and exhaustive description of few game concepts and rules. Readers can get the picture of the game without having to examine the full body of the game rules. Of course a large section of the rule was not included in the presentation.
We hope we'll have the chance to post soon an enlarged version of the living rules of A New World.

Our last goal is the publication of the international, English language, version of the game.
We already approached few game publishers, Italians and international ones, and we are looking for the best solution.
If anyone is interested in this aspect or can help us introducing A New World to an editor, we please to contact us.

Thanks for your kind attention and stay tuned to learn more.

LEF64,
for A New World development team.

Thread: Long Shot:: General:: Horse "Spot" cards

Vistathon — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:00:30 +0000

by Vistathon

Just wondering if anybody has any suggestions as to how the "Horse Spot" cards are played?

The cards all have a differant number horse on and can net you $5 or $10 if you own the horse. (If I remember correctly)

We assumed you can play them whenever that particular horse is rolled?
Even if somebody else has rolled the horse number that you want to claim.

The reason I ask is that most of the other cards and horse "abilities" are quite clear in when you can or cannot play them with the exception of this particular set.

Even with this little query, I think this is the best game I've played for quite a while.

Thread: Dominion:: Strategy:: When to buy Duchies

lantern314 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:00:10 +0000

by lantern314

Second place seems to be my lot in Dominion, but I have noticed a pattern. I will often have fewer estates than my opponents, and as many or more provinces, but I always have many fewer Duchies. I don't seem to have a good sense of when to buy a Duchy in preference to another card, or when to transition to buying Duchies.

Can anyone give me some advice on this matter?

Thread: The Longest Day:: General:: solitaire

bwills — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:51:33 +0000

by bwills

Hello,

I realize this isn't the busiest of forums but what the heck...

I owned this back in high school and a buddy and me played it one summer and as I recall had a blast.

I'm considering giving it a solo shot so if anyone out there has tried the CG solo and has details for me please reply.

Thanks,
Bryan

Thread: Twilight Imperium 2nd Edition:: Rules:: Rules questions (bombardment, deep space cannon, assault cannon and a few others)

nachof — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:48:47 +0000

by nachof

Hi.

I played this game for the first time last night, and we had a couple of questions. Mostly we resolved them one way or another and kept consistent during the game, but for next time (which will maybe be next Saturday) it would be nice to be sure we are playing correctly.

So, questions:
* Can dreadnoughts bombard all planets in a system? We ruled yes, based on the fact that every invasion is a separate event.
* Who goes first if there is a tie in influence? We rolled a die.
* If I attack a fleet containing dreadnoughts with Assault Cannon, and I have P.D.S. in an adjacent hex with Deep Space Cannon, who fires first, the P.D.S. or the dreadnoughts? We ruled "at the same time", but during the game we never had a situation where it would have mattered (there was always something else to take the hits instead of the dreadnoughts).
* Can you build a spacedock and place it in a planet you conquered that same turn? We ruled not, based on flavor (the delay between build and place would represent the time it takes to be built) and also in the fact that the people who had taken strategic decisions based on this had assumed you can't, and none had assumed you can, but I really feel we got this one wrong.
* The Skilled Retreat action card allows you to retreat a defending fleet before any round in the battle segment, which would allow you to retreat without even fighting a single round, right? But what happens if that fleet faces dreadnoughts with Assault Cannon? We ruled that the dreadnoughts get their free shots, based on an assumed order of "beginning of combat -> beginning of round -> round -> beginning of round -> round -> repeat", but this one generated a heated debate between the defending and attacking player (who had been battling over two or three systems for four turns or more).

Well, thanks!

Thread: Castle Panic:: Rules:: When are the cards discarded?

Ronaldo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:48:28 +0000

by Ronaldo

I just got Castle Panic this weekend and played a couple of games with my kids. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have one question. When are the cards discarded?

A - As soon as you play each card in your turn they go straight to the discard pile.

or

B - You play all the cards you can play during the play cards phase in your turn then at the end of the phase you put all of them at the same time in the discard pile.

This is relevant because of Scavenge. If "A" is correct, you can use a cool card like Nice Shot or Barbarian, place it in the discard pile then use Scavenge to retrieve and reuse the card right away. This would allow you to use the same card twice in the same turn.

I think "B" is correct.

Thanks in advance.

Thread: American Rails:: News:: Rulebook Now Online - Review for GeekGold

GamesOnTheBrain — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:29:32 +0000

by GamesOnTheBrain

The near-final draft of the rulebook for American Rails is now online. I plan to send it to the local printer next week.

Now's the time to find mistakes, clarify confusing rules, and make corrections. I'm offering small geekgold tips to anyone who finds a mistake that I correct or makes a suggestion that I use.

http://www.gamesonthebrain.com/downloads/rules/AmericanRails...

Please let me know what you think!

Review: Bang!:: What Children Really Think About BANG!: Three children take on BGG's harshest critics

EndersGame — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:24:53 +0000

by EndersGame

There are over 2500 personal comments on Bang!, and they range from passionate love to raging hatred. My children happen to enjoy Bang!, and although it's not their all time favorite game, they've had a lot of fun playing it. Looking at the personal comments and ratings of other users, it's clear that many people can't stand the game, however. The haters are entitled to their opinion, of course. But then again, why should their opinion be more valid than that of children? So I figured: why not let my 9 year old, 11 year old, and 13 year old take on the harsh critics of BGG? What if I throw at them some of the strongest criticisms people have leveled against Bang!, and let them come to its defense? Read on to find out, because that's exactly what happened. I've picked out several quotations that illustrate the more common criticisms of Bang. In their own words, here's what my children had to say in response. Agree or disagree, read on to find out the reasons why some people despise this game, or for that matter, some suggested responses from kids as to why the case against Bang! really isn't that watertight!

]]>

Let's start by establishing the credentials of our three juvenile game experts:

Q: How many different games would you have played in the last 12 months?

9yo: 37.
11yo: Say about 20.
13yo: Maybe 50. At least.

Q: How many different games do you know how to play?

9yo: About 80.
11yo: 95. About.
13yo: 100. At least.

Q: How often have you played Bang?

9yo: About 20 times.
11yo: Not that often. Sometimes. Once or twice every month. Maybe 20?
13yo: Maybe 25?

Q: How would you summarize what the idea of Bang is?

9yo: To kill the sheriff.
11yo: You are certain people, and you have to knock the other players out in a certain order.
13yo: Kill the other players off, and don't get killed yourself.

Q: Would it surprise you that some people dislike Bang?

9yo: Not really.
11yo: Yes.
13yo: No, not really.

Q: Why do you think this might be?

9yo: In every game you're mainly doing the same thing, with the same cards, the game doesn't really change.
11yo: Because they think that you're just trying to kill the other player, and you actually mean it, and it's getting kids into shooting when they're older. And the idea of drinking beer, because some parents don't want that to happen to their children.
13yo: Some people don't really like killing games.

Q: Do you agree with this objection?

9yo: Not totally, because it still is fun.
11yo: Some people take it seriously, but you probably won't if you consider it a game, not a real life thing.
13yo: Not really, some games on the internet are killing games and are gory, it's not as bad as those games.

]]>

Let's look more closely at some of the reasons why some people don't like this game, and I'd like you to tell me how valid you think these objections are.

Player Elimination?

Terry Ford: (carlsbad) "Do I dislike this game. Why is it everyone carries this stupid card game around? It's so boring. It's even more boring when everyone instantly kills you because you bitch about the game and you end up having to watch other people play the stupid game. The cards are lame, the concept is lame."

HavocIsHere: "Bang, you are dead...A game where a player is kicked out before having the chance to say or do anything is broken; I've seen that in action, had myself killed shortly afterwards to play some two players with the victim."

Rob Herman: (Sitnaltax) "I like it less each time I play it. Any game where a player can be eliminated before the first turn is unplayably broken in my book."

Eric Clark: (Numbskull) "Game provides a lot of incentive to gang up on one player (whether they're winning or not) and once you're out, you get the pleasure of twiddling your thumbs and counting dots on the ceiling while waiting for the game to conclude so you can play something else. Yay!"

Q: Children, how true is this, and is it a valid reason to dislike Bang!?

9yo: That is true, but when you are done, you can do something else, you don't have to watch. And if you don't like that game, you shouldn't play it!

11yo: We changed the rules by saying that you can't eliminate any people on the first round, so everyone has a chance. You can shoot them, but you can't eliminate them completely, because then it's not fair.

13yo: You don't have to play it like that. We have a house rule that nobody can be killed before going around the table once, before everyone gets a turn. If you're knocked out, you get the fun watching other players and you know all their cards!

]]>

Too Luck Based?

Robert Seater: (rseater) "Would be an interesting party/politics game if it weren't so incredibly RANDOM"

Michael Webb: (CortexBomb) "Unimpressive card game, quite chaotic, and you're always at the mercy of the draw. Good draws? You'll probably win. Bad draws? You'll probably eat lead early and sit around waiting for the game to end."

Michael Barnes: (crackedlcd81) "I usually don't mind luck, but in this game that's all there is to it. Almost no strategy, the bluff element is practically moot, and there are so many odd rules questions that come up. Way overrated."

Paul Crane: (gtogixxer) "Obvious choices and no real decision making. Seems to drag on forever and can be quite frustrating if you're one of the ones to be eliminated early. Completely random with no real ability to influence how the game turns out."

9yo: There is quite a bit of strategy, because you need to decide what cards to play and what cards not to play. It does have some luck in it, but it is probably more strategy.

11yo: It's not random, because you pick up cards and there is strategy, because you can choose: does it benefit other players for what order do you play the cards. There is some randomness for drawing the cards, because you don't know what you're going to get, but it matters what order you play them. Also, it depends who you shoot, because if someone has been shooting a certain person for a long time, and you know that they have no misses, everyone can gang up on them. Also, you usually should shoot different people, so that you don't gang up on one person. Or if someone else starts to attack you, it might be a good idea to attack back - if they don't want to get attacked, then they shouldn't attack.

13yo: It's not only luck, it is skill, because it depends how you lay your cards down. It's also a matter of outguessing your opponents. It is strategy, because you have to figure out how to lay your cards in the best way possible. If you're Jesse Jones, for example, you have to think what your opponent's card might be, and whether it's worth taking or not.

]]>

Unbalanced in favour of the Outlaws?

Chris Farrell: (cfarrell) "Sucks like a souped-up hoover. Game seems like it lasts only as long as it takes the outlaws to kill the Sheriff, usually about twice around the table. No other role has any hope of winning, least of all the hopeless Renegade who is doomed to lose and have virtually no impact on the game. If the appalling play-balance problems weren't enough, the game is additionally almost completely uninteresting, with nothing in the way of choices that aren't utterly obvious. Avoid like the plague."

9yo: That isn't true, it depends how many outlaws there are. Usually when there are a lot of outlaws, there are more deputies, so the outlaws don't always win. Usually the sheriff wins!

11yo: The deputies should be helping the sheriff out. The renegade kind of goes with the deputies and sheriff at the beginning, eliminating the outlaws, and afterwards also helping eliminate the deputies and the sheriff last. The outlaws don't always win, especially in 3 player games, then it's usually the sheriff that wins, because he picks up more cards and he can't be put in jail - he has extra benefits.

13yo: Two rounds around the table? No way! For us, some games go around 20 times! The Outlaws don't win very often. There was one game with 7 players where the Renegade lasted, and it was a shootout between the Renegade and the Sheriff, so the Renegade does have chances - in that game I took out three guys in one turn!

]]>

Boring?

David/Charles Williams: (chux vomitus) "What a boring and pointless 'game'. It is possible that watching 6 hours of Clint Eastwood westerns, all the while getting horribly drunk, and talking in a fake Mexican accent may make this game bearable. But I doubt it. The elimination aspect of the game is odious as the game can take too long to drag to its futile finish. Why bother with this lump of turd, why not just play Snap! ?"

Michael Barnes: (crackedlcd81) "Worthless. I had high hopes for this as a fun, multiplayer card game but it's so pointless and simple-minded that it just wasn't any fun at all."

Teemu Salohalme: "Dull, dull, dull. It just isn't fun to play even for a party game. Maybe I don't stand parties either."

9yo: It's not boring, because it's really fun. It's realistic, sort of, like the sheriff can't get in jail but the other people can; and if you have a miss then you're not shot; and when you go to the saloon everyone gets to heal a health - well you wouldn't really heal a health from drinking beer in real!

11yo: It's not boring, because you have to interact with the other players. It's mostly your attitude that matters. If you are happy, you'll enjoy the game, if you're really grumpy like some people can be, then you'll think it's boring and never want to play again. But if you play a few times, it can be fun, and it's a really good game for with your family. But you don't usually want to get people to think that you want to get drunk when you grow up, and your friends might be horrified that you're playing a shooting game.

13yo: It's fun just having the thrill of trying to eliminate the other players. It's also interesting watching the other players if you are eliminated, sort of teaming up with one player. It's not boring, it's full of action. It's great for a fun party game, you just need the right crowd and the right group of people.

]]>

Too Long?

Matt Crawford: (gatchaman) "It goes on too long. There should be less Beer cards (maybe none) and more BANG cards in the deck."

Michael Webb: (CortexBomb) "The most damning thing about this game is its potential length. Losing early can mean sitting around for the better part of an hour if the game plays long, and that is way, way too long for a game of this sort...even for the players, let alone the dead people."

Matthew Eklund: (Matthew_Ekland) "Wow overrated. Surprisingly long and drawn out... and with enough downtime to kill a horse. Not fun."

9yo: It doesn't take too long at all, there are some other games that can take over an hour, this game doesn't take 45 minutes usually. It also depends how many players you are playing with.

11yo: These people hate this game! It shouldn't take too long if you're working together. If the Sheriff is working with his Deputies, it can go a lot quicker, because the teams are even and you usually should know what you're going to do next, and you shouldn't wait around for a few minutes thinking about what you're going to do.

13yo: You don't really need more Bang cards, the way it is is just right. You get enough Bang cards as it is, and you don't need less Beers - the Beer cards don't turn up that often, and when you are down to two players they are completely useless. They do help give people a last chance, and stay in the game, so they're not out right off the bat. Down-time isn't too much of an issue, it's fun trying to sway the person whose turn it is not to shoot you but to shoot someone else!

]]>

Rules and Symbols Too Complex?

John Weber: "It's hard for newbies to figure out the symbols on the cards."

J W: (waddball) "The icons are horrible to explain, rendering it difficult for exactly the audience it's intended for."

Al Johnson: "The amount of different rules drove me crazy."

Paul Schulzetenberg: (Unitoch) "Too difficult to explain all the symbols to newbies, and not entertaining enough to bring out often enough to get familiar enough with the rules. This game needs a full blown English edition, with the text on the cards. It's difficult to understand what the card symbols mean, and the player aid cards don't really help. This game is a study in bad design."

9yo: They are very easy, just looking at the cards you can sort of see what they do. For the Miss, there is a bullet going through someone's hat and a guy diving out of the way of a bullet - so you can tell that you're not shot!

11yo: You shouldn't really care about the symbols, just almost memorize the cards. Like if you see a Saloon, the picture will remind you what the card does - a Saloon has a picture of hats near beer, so that should mean that everyone gets a beer, and beer goes to all the players. For the Bang cards, you just have to remember you're going to shoot another player. For the Barrel, the icons get pretty simple, because they just represent what the card can do during your turn, and how it affects other players.

13yo: That's what the icon explanation cards are for - they explain the icons, and for the most part explain the cards. The advanced cards, like the Jail, are not too hard to explain. Pretty much what the card itself is, that is it's meaning - for example, if someone plays a Jail card on you, you get put in Jail, it's pretty straight forward. I think you can get newer editions that have the English text on the cards.

]]>

Too Easy to Figure out Roles?

Jacob W: (Jayolas) "To me it is too easy to figure out who is playing which role in Bang! - the Renegade is the only player with any ambiguity to it."

9yo: It isn't easy. It depends who you're playing with. Because if you pretend to be someone else, people can totally think that someone else is what you are, and that you're on their team!

11yo: If you play with more players, it's a little harder, and it sometimes includes guessing. You don't really know at the very beginning who is who, but it's not always obvious. If somebody shoots the sheriff, it's not obvious that it's an outlaw - some people just shoot them just because. It doesn't really matter who shoots who, it's about who shoots the sheriff. If one character keeps shooting the sheriff, usually the deputies will start shooting after him. Then it can be easy to figure it out, but that makes it worthwhile, because it helps figure out what you should do next turn.

13yo: If you have 7 players or so, you have no idea who is the Deputy, because they are trying to shoot off everyone else, and you can easy get the Deputy confused with the Renegade. The Outlaws are trying to eliminate people so they can get to the Sheriff, so they can easily be confused with Renegade or Deputy.

]]>

Other Criticisms?

Mike Swailes: (elanthus) "Makes me want to shoot myself in the head rather than play."

9yo: Definitely not. I would not want to do that. It is really fun!

11yo: Is that person drunk?

13yo: You're crazy. It's a great game if you have the right group of people.

Miranda Antonelli: (Oddrune) "It's feels a lot like Munchkin. That's not a compliment."

9yo: I don't think it feels anything like Munchkin. Not at all.

11yo: It doesn't feel like Munchkin. Most games have the idea of shooting characters and eliminating people, and in Munchkin you're just trying to shoot or kill creatures with weapons, but you're not trying to eliminate the people - what does this have to do with Munchkin?

13yo: Munchkin is supposed to be a funny game, Bang is only kind of funny.

]]>

Concluding Comments

Q: What do you like about Bang?

9yo: The pictures on the cards are really cool. And the abilities from the people.
11yo: I enjoy the interaction.
13yo: Everything pretty much.

Q: What's your favourite character to play, and why?

9yo: Probably Calamity Janet or Willy the Kid. Because Calamity Janet can play Bangs as Misses and Misses as Bangs and that is very powerful. And Willy the Kid can play as many Bangs as he wants on one turn, and if you're the sheriff it makes it much easier, because you can get rid of people much quicker.
11yo: Probably Willy the Kid, or Slab the Killer, because they are very powerful characters, and they are hard to beat.
13yo: Either Calamity Janet or Willy the Kid, because Willy the Kid basically has his own automatic Volcanic. And Calamity Janet because if you give her a Volcanic she is deadly - we like to say that she is such a sharp shooter that she shoots the bullets straight out of the air!

Q: What's your favourite role to play, and why?

9yo: Probably the Sheriff, because usually when there's not many people you're by yourself, and nearly everyone is ganging up on you. And you can't get put in jail!
11yo: I like the Sheriff, because you kind of almost start everything off, and everyone is going for you. But with the Renegade and the Outlaws, you don't know who each other is, but everyone knows who you are.
13yo: Outlaw, because it's fun trying to kill the sheriff, but you have to be sneaky, and being sneaky is fun.

Q: What games are similar to Bang!?

9yo: I don't know any game that is similar to Bang!
11yo: Maybe Saboteur, because you each have different roles, some good and some bad, but nobody knows who you are, and you also pick up cards and play them.
13yo: Lawless in a way, because it's got the Western theme, and Lawless also has cards that give you more cowboys, or fences.

Q: What would you rate this game out of ten?

9yo: 9.
11yo: Probably a 6.
13yo: 8.5 to 9.

Q: In one sentence, how would you sum up your feelings about this game?

9yo: It is really fun.
11yo: It's a game that requires being able to memorize things, the cards, and in a way challenging.
13yo: It's a great party game if you have the right group of people.

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The complete list of Ender's "What children really think about..." reviews: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/37597

Thread: Stronghold:: Rules:: When does Panic take effect?

Tom Kassel — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:21:22 +0000

by Tom Kassel

Does the Panic ritual take effect at any time in the turn when the conditions apply or just at some specific time (if so , when?).

Is it removed from play before or after melee casualties are removed from hospital? (In other words, does it kill one of the returning casualties?).

Apart from these returning casualties, it doesn't seem likely to have much effect as there seems no reason to accumulate units in the courtyard. Have I missed something?

Thread: Cold War: CIA vs. KGB:: Variants:: Playing to 50 for a real quick game

alansa — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:13:44 +0000

by alansa

doable or do you think need to go to 100 to allow a player who's lagging behind enough chance to catch up? thoughts?

Review: Dixit:: [Video Review] Dixit

TomVasel — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:06:09 +0000

by TomVasel

Youtube Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFsiBbopszI

Thread: Power Grid - Factory Manager:: General:: Winning with pass in 5th round

olavf — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:58:39 +0000

by olavf

We played a 2-player game and we were very close till the 4th round. My wife started the 5th round bought some things and increased her income. I decided to do nothing and won the game because I did not spend any money collected in the 4th round. I did not feel like a real win. A game of only 5 rounds winning without playing the last round.
Anyone has had this experience?

Thread: Stronghold:: Rules:: Some info about rules (sorry for bad english)

Skinlucky7 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:56:41 +0000

by Skinlucky7

i need some clarification concerning stronghold rules:

1. when an Invader can declare to be entered (?) in the stronghold?
2. An unit can destroy wall components?
3. in the rules i take 3 G.P. if i breaking into the stronhold + 1 G.P. for what?

Thread: Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization:: Rules:: Military Card Questions

wylde_karde — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:51:14 +0000

by wylde_karde

Hey everyone. After perusing the rules section here I found a couple of things we did wrong.

I didn't find the answer to one question I've got though in regards to military cards.

I know you are allowed to have as many military cards as you have military actions. What happens if you have three red tokens and have three military cards? Do you get to pick up three more cards and then have to discard on your next turn?

Thread: Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game:: Variants:: Dynamite

civet5285 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:46:32 +0000

by civet5285

Does anyone think dynamite is too underpowered in this game? Shouldn't it's explosive power effect the squares around it, rather than just one square?

Also, has anyone come up with house rules for burning gasoline? I saw some homemade burning markers on the pictures and wanted to know if anyone came up with rules for them.

Thanks in advance.

Session: Warhammer: Invasion:: Next three sessions

Arcangeli — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:39:24 +0000

by Arcangeli

Me and my regular opponent J sat down for our next trilogy of Warhammer: Invasion games last night. This time it was no learning session. The gloves were off.

First game: Chaos (Me) vs Empire (J)

I didn't feel I got a fair run at Chaos in our last session (a quick Savage Gor victory meant I barely saw anything other than my initial hand!) so I decided to give them a go for a few more games. For some reason I had it in my head that Chaos need to win a game fast before the enemy can build up an effective defence so spent most of my initial turns recruiting units and attacking. These attacks were mostly lead by a pair of Chaos Knights and supported by Nurglings or Savage Marauders. Before long my opponent's Quest zone was burning and his Kingdom was down to it's last couple of damage points.

However this is when the tide turned for me. My attacks had used up my main army and meant my own Kingdom and Quest zones had been badly neglected. With growing strength on the ground (and in the air...) J built up to an all out attack on my positions and in only a few decisive turns swept the last of my units from the table, swiftly followed by burning my Capital to the ground. Curses!

Second Game: Chaos (Me) vs Empire (J)

We both decided to stay with the same decks for the replay and this time I was going to take it slow. I built up enough forces to defend my zones (not an easy feat with mostly 1 hit point units!) and made sure my Kingdom and Quest zones where working overtime, mainly using Support Cards that grew more powerful with added Developments (Armouries, Contested Strongholds etc.). Thankfully J was also on the defensive for most of the game as I was not afraid to send my troops off to die just to cause some damage to his own units. I knew I would be able to replace them at a faster rate.

Eventually in a frantic arms race I was able to build up a force big enough to swallow his own army, lead by the fearsome Bloodthirster. With a full out attack launched his field army was wiped out and his capital was burnt to the ground. Revenge!

Third Game: Dwarves (Me) vs Empire (J)

Time to switch from blood and gore to iron and stone. Despite not using Dwarves before in W:I I have done in WFB itself so took the same mentality into this game. Dig deep and build strong. I knew a defensive strategy cannot win on its own so I also decided on building a "raiding party" of Troll Slayers to attack any vunerable zones and keep J on the back foot.

After a few turns of basic building on both sides J then made, what he regards as, a mistake by playing down City Gates and over populating his Quest zone. Suddenly J was drawing almost twice the number of cards as me a turn, either to be placed as Developments or to go into his hand. I realised the defensive strategy might work on its own, waiting for his deck to run out.

The game now became an all out siege with him pounding at the walls of my capital at every chance and me having to repair and develop every turn to stay in. My field army was wiped out when I decided to sent them off to attack his lightly defended Quest zone. A quick card play later my soldiers were wandering towards three units of Reiksguard Knights (6 Counterstrike Damage!) in his Battlefield and cut to pieces before you could say "Grungi".

As his cards ran low and my damage counters increased everything became more desperate until anything drawn from my deck was thrown straight into the front line to stop the Empire attack. As J's last Quest turn came my capital was in tatters but was still held together (1 burning zone, 1 a single point from destruction) but the deck was empty! I had won!

BUT

That would be no fun, so although I had "officialy" won we decided to play out the last assault anyway. Due to some nasty tactic cards and the intervention of a certain powerful Mage the last Dwarven zone was toppled and J had the military victory. Overall we decided to call it a Draw.

Conclusion

In all they were three exciting and very different games. We are both really enjoying the system and are going to move onto some deck construction for the next game, although I do enjoy using the set decks + random Neutrals.

Thread: Panzer Grenadier: Campaigns and Commanders Vol 1: War in the East:: General:: Eastern Front: Deluxe with Campaigns & Commanders

TankBoy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:29:51 +0000

by TankBoy

Just wondering if anyone has used this supplement along with any of the boxed games (Eastern Front/Road to Berlin)? If so, how has it been working out? I play solitaire and was wondering if I should make Leader characters for both sides to make it balanced (but with a whole lot of points to keep track of)? I could just make 1 (2 at the most) for each side instead of 3 to cut the tracking down a bit. Any thoughts of people who have used this with boxed games would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Tankboy

Session: Red November:: Gnomes in Space!

amosmj — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:17:55 +0000

by amosmj

Things to know before you read:
I realize it's a sub game but I thought I might have a bit of fun. I've taken considerable narrative license to attempt to make it a bit more humorous and, hopefully, more readable.
There will be more notes after the show

Space the final frontier. These are the voyagers of the starship Gnomish Death Trap who's continuing mission is to get home at all costs....

Ensign Grey sits alone in the air scrubber room when a sense of impending doom comes over him and he moves to the engine room, it’s a good thing he’s only go 90 minutes to go until retirement, he really is getting too old for this stuff. As he opens to hatch and step in, he feels the ship lurch and sees some gauges begin to move slowly but steadily towards red. Just then Scotty burst through the hatch behind him. "Outta me way Ensign, can-a you see I’ve gotta fix ‘er, she’s got too much power!"

Ensign Grey watches with rapt attention as Scotty goes to work taking the gauges back towards green. As he watches he sees sweat spring forth on Scotty’s brow. Ensign Grey realizes it’s not just concentration; it’s also getting very hot, very fast.

Bones feels the change in heat from the sick bay decides that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. He leaves behind an empty sick bay and races for the climate control room. Upon arrival he can tell that something is very wrong. The computer monitor is down and this room is hotter than all the rest. He takes his time and lowers the temperature, the last thing he wants is to have a crew with heat stroke today, they’re almost home.

Spock works alone in the science lab when the ship lurches and he almost drops his spanner and tools, fortunately he has enough hands to keep that from happening. Suddenly warning klaxons go off. A fire! It would be illogical to just let it burn, it may interfere with his experiments. Calmly he takes his tools, consults a panel on the wall and heads to the source of the alarm.

Once in the room, Spock manually sets off the fire control system, it’s out in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, just as the fire is extinguished more klaxons sound. We have a hull break and a fire somewhere else. Spock realizes it was illogical to believe he could just take it easy all the way home.

Ensign Grey hears the second fire klaxon and springs into action. He rushes forth from the engine room and back to the air scrubber where he had just been. He sees the fire on the wall but also notices that the room next door is a vacuum due to the hull breach. In a flash of abnormally great insight for the ensign, he slaps the door’s emergency open panel and lets the vacuum of the next room extinguish the flames.
Both rooms are now both very low on air. As the ensign struggles to breath he realizes that he must do something about the air, he wheezes to the utility hatch and rips off the cover. He manually pumps some air into the room, each breath coming just a bit easier than the previous. As he pump, he hears more fire warnings and strange locking and unlocking noises resound through the wallsless than 90 minutes to retirement.

Scotty whirls to see the ensign through the hatch window, manually pumping air into the room. Scotty knows the boy is overlooking the real problem; all the fire klaxons tell Scotty why it’s getting hard to breathe. He rushes through the hatch and goes to work on the computer console, the air scrubber is down. Scotty reroutes power from the missile control systems and the air scrubbers come on line. A new alarm sounds. Apparently Scotty aborted a missile control diagnostic and now they will explode in the tubes in 10 minutes. Good ol’ duct tape and bailing wire won’t cut it today, apparently.

Dr. McCoy can’t help but simply shake his head at the idiots on this ship. They should be more like him, cool under fire. He watches various warnings and goings on on the monitor. When he sees that idiot engineer set the missile count down, he knows this is a job of someone with some talent. He hops out of the climate control room, legs it past sick bay and into the missile room. A few minutes and the crisis is averted, no thanks to anyone else.

Ensign Grey sees Scotty working away at the console. He figures, the man’s the ships engineer, if anyone can do this he can so he heads off to deal with the rising temperature. As he heads towards the climate controls the ensign sees the doctor headed away from him mumbling something about not being a doctor not the Maytag repair man.
The ensign wrestles with the climate controls, he’s never been trained on them. Just as he’s bringing the temperature back under control he sees the control slip away from him. Why does his last day have to be like this? Just then Spock bursts in and takes over the controls. Several minutes of tense work and it seems to have only made the temperature slightly worse. Spock redoubles his efforts as the ships temperature begins to cook the entire crew alive. With quick thinking and determination he brings the temperature back to simply unbearable, which is marginally better than deadly.

The ensign gives Spock the bird and heads out of the room. He storms through room with rarified air which seems to do a lot to clear his head. It’s hard to be mad when you can’t breathe and steps into the engine room. It appears the engineer wanted more power, again, and now the ships engines threaten to rip the ship into tiny pieces. The noise is unbearable and fire alarms all over the ship are blurting out their song. Once this is done, the ensign swears he is into an escape pod and back to his home planet.

Bones is on the other side of the ship battling fire after fire. This is madness, pure madness! Why hadn’t they brought a fire safety officer on board? He hears the missiles chirp to life again in the next room. McCoy races through the hatch and sets his phaser to obliterate. There, that’ll fix those damn missiles.

The heat in the ship is becoming dangerous again, Bones and the ensign are both taken with the idea that they need something to drink or they will dehydrate. All either of them have are those strange drinks from the last planet they resupplied at. A quick swig each and they suddenly realize this is a powerful hallucinogen. It does seem to relieve their suffering, as they don’t realize that Scotty and Spock have managed to drop temperatures to normal.

Ensign Grey follows the brightly flowing colors in his vision back the air scrubbers. The mushrooms on the walls tell him to make the air more breathable. As he does so he is overwhelmed with the vision of the mushrooms and falls flat on the floor. Just then the hull breaches in the air scrubber and Ensign Grey is pitched out into the inky blackness. Only 30 more minutes until retirement.

Bones has a similar vision and skips on purple stones over to the air scrubbers. He looks through the portal in time to see Ensign Grey get carried off by 20 of those cookie elves into space. Bones slaps the enviro-shield panel, cutting out the vacuum. Bones opens the hatch and steps into the light air of the scrubber room. He begins to work on the scrubbers, trying to get more oxygen throughout the ship.

Tired of all the alarms, Scotty heads to put out some fires. Spock can feel the lack of oxygen and heads to the air scrubbers to help the doctor. No one seems to notice the lack of an ensign. The crew settles into an uneasy rhythm as Scotty moves about the ship putting out fires where needed and letting unnecessary areas (captains quarters anyone?) burn into a smoldering mess. Bones and Spock take turns lowering the temperature or recycling the air. Before long they arrive a port and decide that next time, they’re making the captain test drive the ship after minor improvements.

AFTERWARD:
This is my narrative synopsis of my most recent game of Red November. I played this game solo in an attempt to evaluate the game. I've played it a handful of times and I'm not particularly taken with it. I made myself a promise to play three games solo with 4, 6 and 8 gnomes to see if more players makes the game suddenly more interesting. I've documented my turns and will do so with each of the three games. I will attempt to do a session report for each, culminating in a review and a decisions.

QUESTIONS TO THOSE WHO KNOW:
Upon entering a room that is on fire you have one and only one action available to you, put out the fire. It is a viable option to put out the fire by opening a different hatch in the room that is connected to a high water room? It feels to me like it is in the spirit of the rules but may be a violation of the word of the rules.

I've check and checked again but I want to ask, is there any penalty for just letting certain parts of the ship burn? I realize they are inaccessible and the fire can spread but I'm content to let that happen. It does not raise the heat or pressure tracks correct?

Well, that does it for this session report. I'm open to questions comments and criticisms.

Thread: Stronghold:: Rules:: In Siege Tower = at wall section?

Tom Kassel — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:13:57 +0000

by Tom Kassel

Are units in a siege tower considered at the wall section for all purposes? This seems logical but the defender action "Siege Tower Excursion" and specific Cannon targeting raises a doubt. It seems that a siege tower trades speed of deployment (and increased invader spaces on a wall) for some extra vulnerabilities, but let's be sure of all the details.

Specifically:

a) can they be targeted by cauldrons?

b) can they be targeted by marksmen?

c) can a Troll in a siege tower call another with Troll's Call order?

d) can they be targeted by poles?

e) do Trolls in a siege tower which are killed before the end of combat contribute to the four Trolls glory condition?

f) if all invaders attacking a wall section are in the siege tower and are killed before moving to the wall, can they contribute to Great Siege glory condition?

In the last two cases, do the glory conditions apply if the wall was breached and the gamed ended (so that there is no end of turn in which the units move to the wall section).

Thread: Pax Romana:: Rules:: Are greek HI really at 1T in greece?

Lezard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:56:36 +0000

by Lezard

In the rule book, it said that HI are at 2T.

But in the player aid, it write 1T for HI in greece? It seem for me to be a mistake.

Does Greek really have 1 talent high infantry in greece territory?

Thanks.

Review: Junta Expansion Cards :: Translation & Commentary

bill_andel — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:55:42 +0000

by bill_andel

With a little help from BabelFish, I've translated the cards:

ASSASSIN CARD: Pursuit - Increases the possibility of a successful assassination attempt
[note that the card does not say in what way or by how much or what the cost is].

EVENT CARD: Radioactive Waste Dump - You may draw a money card and deposit it directly to your Swiss bank account.

ASSASSIN CARD: Bodyguard - Reduces the possibility of a successful assassination attempt
[note that the card does not say in what way or by how much or what the cost is].

BRIBE CARD: Confusion - You may move another player's stack of units once [note the card does not say what this costs].

EVENT CARD: The Red Menace - The President must draw twice the number of money cards [this turn].

VOTE CARD: National Press - 5 Votes.

EVENT CARD: Armored Car - You may deposit money in hand in your Swiss bank account without being present in the Bank.

ASSASSIN CARD: Fortress - Reduces the possibility of a successful assassination attempt
[note that the card does not say in what way or by how much or what the cost is].

EVENT CARD: Double Agent - Take a card from another player [does not say if card can be face-up or in-hand and if latter, if selection is random, or player's hand can be examined].

VOTE CARD: Television - 5 Votes.

EVENT CARD: International Peace Treaty - The President must draw half the number of money cards [this turn].

BRIBE CARD: Rejection of Political Asylum - Prevents another player from going into exile [note that the card does not say what this costs].

EVENT CARD: Luck - You may decide the result of one throw of the dice [it translated as plural, so I'm saving this for rolling an Air Strike ].

EVENT CARD: Elite Troops - Increases the possibility of eliminating an enemy unit
[note that the card does not say in what way or by how much].

EVENT CARD: Attack - An attack is perpetrated by an anti-government extremist group [note that the card does not say if this has a game effect - e.g. Coup Excuse].

VOTE CARD: Radio Transmitter - 5 Votes.

While a couple of these look good, at leat one (LUCK) seems broken and many of the others do not provide enough information to be useable.

Plus, the number of votes on the vote cards seems a little high relative to the vote cards in the base game.

That having been said, I quite like Red Menace, Peace Treaty and Armored Car.

Thread: Cuba:: Rules:: Warehouse question(s)

bop517 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:49:41 +0000

by bop517

It came up and I know what I would do but I need this in writing (unfortunately).

The only time you can store items in the warehouse is if you store the goods on the turn the warehouse is activated. Correct?

The warehouse is not activated all game once it is activated by the forman (i.e., storing goods throughout the game because the warehouse was activated once). Correct?

I saw in another post that you can store as many goods in the warehouse as you want (have) at that time.

Because I didn't have clarifications, it was sorta an ugly game of Cuba.

Thanks

Thread: Prolix:: General:: Describe this word game with just two words? Fast & Fun

pete belli — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:48:47 +0000

by pete belli

I had the good fortune to play a preview copy of this upcoming title at BGG.CON with Gil, the game's creator.

[UserName=IngredientX]

This challenging word game is fast and fun. The rules can be explained in less than five minutes but the play value is quite high.

As with many excellent word games, Prolix could be played on two levels... just messing around with some friends on a Friday night or fighting a battle of wits with some Geek who swallowed the dictionary (like Gil) and has a Mensa-level vocabulary.

The scoring is quick and easy with a balancing mechanic built right into the system. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to rack up a large point total; I scored big with common words like backpacker.

When this game is published it will make a nice addition to my collection.

Review: Mr. Jack:: Catch this Jack if you can!

madhujith — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:46:47 +0000

by madhujith

I always enjoyed the mystery themed games (not sure was this after Cluedo though- see my review of Cluedo http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/462207), but one of the problems with the Mystery games that I had before getting Mr. Jack was that they were all 3+ players and above. Both Cluedo and Mystery of the Abbey and it wasn't that I always used to have 3 people that I could play with. Also, I was looking at a shorter game ('cos Cluedo and MoA takes about 60-90 min).

After some reading around, I found the answer in Mr. Jack. Got it through a friend of mine from Singapore. This is a 2-player murder mystery themed game that takes about 5-10 min to learn and takes about 30 min to play.

This is a game where one player plays Jack picks a character at random from the 8 available character and tries to escape while the other player playing the detective tries to catch Jack! (Detail below)

What do you get in the Box?

Well before I go to the content bit, I have to share how I felt after opening the box ;-) As I mentioned before I had read a few reviews about this game and thought that this was a simple enough game for 2 players. I wasn't completely into lot of strategic Euro games and hence wanted the game to be simple (things are different now though).

When I opened the box and saw the rule book, I almost fainted looking at the size of it!!!! It is a 38 page magazine!! and I thought that I had blown up money on this one. But don't fret as I realized moments later the rule book comes in 7 different languages and hence so big. In actuality the rule set is just 5 pages

Now to the contents:

* You get a nice big board with lot of hexes
* 8 character tokens with suspect on one side (dark color) and innocent on the other side (white background)- Characters come from the popular Sherlock Holmes series like Sherlock, Dr. Watson etc.
* 6 hexagonal gas light tiles with 4 of them having numbers1-4 for removal after each of rounds 1-4
* 2 hexagonal manhole tiles
* 2 police cordon tokens
* 1 turn counter token
* 1 card witness/no witness indicator
* 8 cards with green back with the names and pictures of the character along with their special abilities
* 8 alibi cards with red back and picture of a character on each card

The quality of the components are top notch with really thick cards and absolutely brilliant art work! In fact I'm wrong in calling these cards as cards, they are really really thick boards!

How does it play?

First let's look at the set up before we see the game play:

* Set out the board look the the cover page of the rule book to set out the gaslight markers, manhole markers, police cordon tokens and the starting positions of the 8 characters with their bright/darker side up
* Place the turn counter token on the bottom right corner of the board where it says 1
* Choose a player who is going to play lack- he gets the witness card and draws one of the character cards from the red back stack
* Shuffle the 8 green back stack and draw the top 4 cards and keep it open next to the board
* Ensure that the player playing Jack faces the grey side of the board (upside down) and the detective player faces the board upright (gold side)

Now we are all set to play :-) So here's the objective of the game in detail. One of the 8 characters is Jack the Ripper i.e. the card the Jack the Ripper player chooses is the culprit. The other player has to find out this guy, and to make matter tense you have just 8 turns in which to do that! Of course did I mention that if Jack is clever he will escape from the city (board) even before you get to the 8 turns!! So buckle up you are in for a roller coaster ride!

On each turn the following happens:

* The turn order token tells you the order of play. Eg: Grey-Gold-Gold-Grey (for turns 2-4-6-8) or Gold-Grey-Grey-Gold (for turns 1-3-5-7)
* Players choose one of the open character cards depending on who they are representing (see above of grey and gold description)
* Players move the character tokens on the board as per the movement points for each character and use the character's special ability. E.g. Sherlock can move upto 3 places and draw a card from the red back pile etc.
* After a turn is over i.e. 4 cards the Jack player uses the witness card to indicate whether the culprit is visible or invisible.
* Once this is done, depending on whether the culprit is visible or invisible the tokens are turned around to indicate their innocence. Meaning- if the culprit is visible then all the invisible characters are innocent and vice verse
* The turn counter moves to the next number and one of the gas light is removes from the board (numbers 1-4 for each round)- i.e. your city is going get increasingly darker and becomes difficult for the detective to catch Jack ;-) so hurry up

Note on Visibility:

* Any character adjacent to another character is visible
* Any Character adjacent to a gaslight is visible
* Any character in the line of sight of Dr. Watson's gaslight is visible
* All other characters are invisible
* Jack can escape the city only when he is invisible and through one of the exits that does not have the police cordon marker!

Now for the fun element- Well it is extremely important for players to use the gas lights to their advantage and also the manholes. Using manholes can absolutely turn things around for players. There is no luck element in using the manholes, but there is surely a surprise element! Add to this the special abilities of the characters are really important and if used wisely can enrich the gaming experience immensely.

How long does this play?

Typically each game should last somewhere between 20-30 min, yes it is that short though my review makes the game appear long. In very rare circumstances I've seen games stretching upto 45 min (i.e. when I play this game with some serious chess players :-)

Who would you recommend it to?

I would categorize this game as a light-medium game and hence this can fit into most game collections with ease. Serious gamers can use this as an ice breaker before they want to get into something really serious and casual gamers can play this for hours before getting bored :-) I would say this is a great game for get away- so couples might find it very attractive, but if you are a person who plays games with larger groups and seldom play 2 player games, then you may not want it because this is a 2-player game :-)

Any Downsides?

Well I had to think long and hard before writing this section. Downside of such a nice game, well can it really have one? The answer to me was yes, and I say this as I have played this extensively for over 2 yrs now- One serious downside is games tend to become repetitive after you have played many times. There are actually 2-3 different strategies and once you crack them in your initial games the surprise element might die down. Playing with different players will give you different experiences as the style of play will be different, but you can nail down the trends after a point in time.

For beginners learning the movement abilities and special abilities might take a game or two, and if they play against experienced gamers there is a huge disadvantage. This game is also fairly unforgiving in that if anyone commits a simple error early in the game, you can be sure that your game is going to be short- specially true with errors made by players playing Jack.

Personally I feel that this game is not very well balanced- what I mean by this is, it is very difficult for Jack to escape and not get caught. After some games you know that Jack will get caught (experienced gamers) and the challenge is how long can Jack keep running away. For this I do play certain variants like playing it for 6 turns instead of 8, removing 2 lamps instead of 1 etc. but still the detective has a lot of advantage unless he plays really stupid.

Final Thoughts!

Well don't get carried away reading my downside section and dismiss this game as a flash in the pan. This is a very very good game and can keep you engaged for hours, days, years. Though I don't play it very often, I do see this game hitting my table every other month at least for a couple of games. Yes there are some drawbacks, but I guess there are very few games that are perfect. If you ask me this game is perfect to satisfy your mystery/deduction itch without brain burn within a short time! With an expansion and a full blown game released I can only imagine this game getting more and more popular! As I said before catch this Jack before he escapes from the market stands.

I rate this game a solid 7.5/10 for its cleverness and short gameplay and amazingly good components and art work.

Session: Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit:: The Force Was NOT strong with this game (at least not for the Naboo player)

Latex Jedi — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:45:56 +0000

by Latex Jedi

Just a quick report on the last session that we played of the Queens Gambit.

I had been asked to pull this out for a games night I had last Saturday as a special request. It would seem that we have not played this in over 18 months so we were looking forward to the game.

After setting everything up and as there were four of us we split into two team (myself and my Wife for the Naboo and my two mates for the Trade Federation).

The game got off to a very bad start straight away for the Naboo and both Qi-Gon and Obi-Wan fell to Maul in only four turns with some awful defence dice on my part and some very lucky attack rolls (six hits on one attack with no defence rolled!!). This meant than on turn five maul was able to enter the palace.

The battlefield fight was going just as bad with once again lucky rolls (trade Federation) and awful defence rolls (Naboo again).

The Trade Fedreation were getting bonus cards hand over fist where the Naboo were struggling to get even one extra card.

With Maul running rampant around the Palace the first Queen that he took out of course turned out to the the real one - so that halved the guards movement.

In the end it was a totall whitewash for the Naboo - the Trade Federation won with no trouble and left the Naboo with two guards in the Palace and one and only one capapult on the battlefield. Anakin had only managed to move one grid on the space battle again due to the Naboo only drawing one move card during the whole game.

The shroud of the dark side had well and truly fallen.

Thread: The BoardGameGeek Game:: Strategy:: 3 players game

kuentin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:42:38 +0000

by kuentin

Hi,

We just played a 3P game and we have been a bit disapointed about something a player did : she (yeah ... women are evil ) kept all the number 6 tiles behind and never put them in store.
So, the other players (2 dudes) couldn't achieve their collection in her colour.

Have we missed some point of rule about some negative points when keeping tiles away from store for the whole game ?

Thanks !

Thread: Stronghold:: Rules:: Traps and Shooter

Uzi125 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:21:41 +0000

by Uzi125

I have two questions

1. Can the attacker build a footbridge across a case? And can the defense again put a footbridge on a trap?

2. a) I had a shotter in the tower. Where can this shot?
I have played so far
- On the opposite ramp and two aprons in addition

b) Can a Goblin, which is formed with firemaster, kill a unit on the tower? And where does the Goblin stand? He need a direct path to the section of wall adjacent to the tower, or?

Thank you for the answer

Thread: Field of Glory:: News:: 'Fields of Glory' - BBC Report

Celtic — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:05:52 +0000

by Celtic

[c] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/83... [/c]

Thread: Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel! - Kursk 1943:: Rules:: Questions on Solitaire Play

evanbrooks — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:57:27 +0000

by evanbrooks

1) The rule states that "[A] Soviet unit will always rally before firing ..." Does this mean that it is automatic,or should the text read "[A] Soviet unit will always attempt to rally ..."

2) Movement Doctrine: As written, Soviet units will attempt to close with adjacent German units. Yet, the advantage is relatively limited, given the differential between close combat and adjacent fires. Often a Soviet unit will leave a strong defensive position to move into an exposed position. SHould the movement doctrine be readjusted to state that such movement will only occur if the final position is at least as good as the original position was in terms of defensive posture.

Session: Langfinger:: Langfinger Further Plays

Eisley — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:37:35 +0000

by Eisley

Langfinger was one of my favourite games (initial review) at Spiel 09 - simple, cute, fun and small.

Further plays reveals that there are definitely tactics to the game. The placing of your cubes which will determine you actions and their order offers some interesting decisions and quite a lot of trying to work out what the other players will be up to too. Mentally crossing your fingers that they won’t take the spot you want adds a nice excitement.

Also, the fencing of items (which is how you convert most goods into points) is really key as it can be a complete bottleneck. Having lots of hot stolen goods is (literally) pointless if you can not fence them. In fact, I started to consider which fence my opponents would want to use so I could use that one and make it harder for them to fence too. If you can’t fence goods (and especially if you just need a few points to reach 20 to end the game), grabbing the chests for instant points (no fence required) is also a good tactic although they aren’t usually worth as much as fenced goods.

Langfinger may be simple but it is elegant. I’m not sure how much more depth it has but it does have some and doesn’t need much more for the light game that it is. I’m really looking forwards to playing it with the full 5 players as it will be a really big scramble for the different cards. The game scales depending upon the number of players and with 5 there aren’t even enough new cards for every player to get 2 new ones each turn. It should be very entertaining.

James.

[Played with 2 players and with 3 players]

This report and others on Essen Spiel 09 games on my blog at http://thegameofgaming.wordpress.com

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