[Cause]

I was Seriously considering pulling the trigger but I'm worried About shipping costs now.

[Tapper]

Yeah, that's a bit of an unknown, just like how the British pound will be doing at the time when it is being paid.
I'd say: keep an eye on their website - they'll probably keep making stuff.

[Nevyn]

Picked up Grifters a couple weeks ago. Have only gotten to try it once so far, but it was a lot of fun.

It is described as a "handbuilding" game, which would make more sense once you have seen it played. You are acquiring cards as you would in a deckbuilder, but there is a hand management concept instead of turn by turn discards and redraws. Really a clever way to do it.

[Gorefest]

Pandemic Legacy is awesome. Two months in now and it is already getting bloody tense. Don't like having to cut up cards though, it just feels horrifically wrong.

[Tapper]

Over Xmas we played a few rounds of Imperial Settlers. Interesting game, quite fun.

[Morgoth]

Tapper, on 28 December 2016 - 07:01 PM, said:

Over Xmas we played a few rounds of Imperial Settlers. Interesting game, quite fun.

What kind of game is it?

We played Cosmic Encounter yesterday, for the first time. It was a lot of fun

[PLUGO]

Code Names has been great fun over the holiday gatherings. It's super easy to learn and you can play decent sized teams with varying levels of attention (someone's got to pour drinks etc.).

Another game that I picked up while shopping for gifts - Tash Kalar which maps onto thoughts of a Malazan themed gamed really well: 2-4 players act as mages summoning combatants into an arena to either achieve feats or engage in combat. Picture it as a cross between Go (or Othello) and a simplified Magic the Gathering. Players use themed chips to create geometric patterns on the board while preventing one's opponent from doing the same. The more complex the pattern the mightier the combatant that can be summoned from one's hand of cards.

Themed decks include
Imperial
Sylvian
Infernal
Highlander
& Omtos Phellack
(not really )

[Cause]

Anyone played champions of midgard? It looks good.

[worry]

I played Codenames too and lost every time, but it was pretty fun. Definitely a solid social/group game.

[Tapper]

Morgoth, on 29 December 2016 - 09:38 AM, said:

Tapper, on 28 December 2016 - 07:01 PM, said:

Over Xmas we played a few rounds of Imperial Settlers. Interesting game, quite fun.

What kind of game is it?

We played Cosmic Encounter yesterday, for the first time. It was a lot of fun

Resource gathering/ worker placement, mostly. There is a minor draft mechanic but considering the amount of normal card draw, it is not enough to call it a main element. Each faction thrives on different resources (usually 1 main and 1 or 2 support resources, which creates some competition) expansions add new races, new mechanics and resource cross-overs for existing factions.

[Cause]

Gorefest, on 11 December 2016 - 02:38 PM, said:

Pandemic Legacy is awesome. Two months in now and it is already getting bloody tense. Don't like having to cut up cards though, it just feels horrifically wrong.

Pandemic looks great but I don't know about Legacy. Once the legacy campaign is over can I keep playing? Should I rather just get the base game? Is legacy disposable as when its done its done or can it be played in such a way that I can I keep it pristine enough to rest.

[Morgoth]

I think the legacy campaign includes something like,.. 20 games? How many times do you play a single game you own in a lifetime? I'm not such a big fan myself, but that's because I'm not big on cooperative games.

This week end we played Mage Knight, which I've tried once before, and it was a lot of fun. A very clever, if perhaps a bit too rule heavy game. The closest I've ever come to feeling like I was playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 the boardgame. Being older and a little wealthier than we were back in our student days, a lot of interesting games are introduced during these evenings. Next time we'll play Forbidden Stars, a warhammer 40k themed grand strategy game, which I suspect will be awesome. In addition, several kickstarters will be arriving: Dark Souls, Vast, Bloodborne and Gods War. Being an adult is not all dull

[Cause]

Morgoth, on 10 January 2017 - 08:22 AM, said:

I think the legacy campaign includes something like,.. 20 games? How many times do you play a single game you own in a lifetime? I'm not such a big fan myself, but that's because I'm not big on cooperative games.

This week end we played Mage Knight, which I've tried once before, and it was a lot of fun. A very clever, if perhaps a bit too rule heavy game. The closest I've ever come to feeling like I was playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 the boardgame. Being older and a little wealthier than we were back in our student days, a lot of interesting games are introduced during these evenings. Next time we'll play Forbidden Stars, a warhammer 40k themed grand strategy game, which I suspect will be awesome. In addition, several kickstarters will be arriving: Dark Souls, Vast, Bloodborne and Gods War. Being an adult is not all dull

That must be lawyer money! You darn city folk lording over the rest of us!

I think with legacy the problem is also being able to play regularly enough with the same group of friends. I think the regular version may be the better place to start.

[Gorefest]

Cause, on 05 January 2017 - 11:29 PM, said:

Gorefest, on 11 December 2016 - 02:38 PM, said:

Pandemic Legacy is awesome. Two months in now and it is already getting bloody tense. Don't like having to cut up cards though, it just feels horrifically wrong.

Pandemic looks great but I don't know about Legacy. Once the legacy campaign is over can I keep playing? Should I rather just get the base game? Is legacy disposable as when its done its done or can it be played in such a way that I can I keep it pristine enough to rest.

The regular version of Pandemic is great and an absolute must-have for any board game fan.

The Legacy version (as with all other Legacy games) unfortunately is not replayable, even if you wouldn't physically destroy any cards. During the various game rounds you are putting stickers on the board and amending character cards, so the changes are irreversible. It is quite a hefty sum of money for a game that you can basically only play a dozen times, so it definitely isn't really suited for casual gamers. But if you regularly play with certain groups and you already have a fairly large games collection, just ask yourself: how often do you really end up playing the same longer game (i.e. 1 hour plus)? I've had Arkham Horror and Firefly in the cupboard for about 2 years and only played it with friends maybe 10 times at most during that period, even though we really like the games.

We've chosen to play Pandemic Legacy with my brother-in-law and his GF who we only see about 10-12 times per year, so really this game will be good solid evening fun for a full year for us. Some people specd £30-40 on a single night in the pub; we'd rather spend two night's worth of that on a solid and exciting game that is bound to keep us enthralled for a good 10-12 months. But yeah, it definitely isn't cheap and we mainly did it because we saw it as a nice Christmas present for the four of us.

It is bloody epic, though!

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 10 January 2017 - 12:38 PM

[Sir Thursday]

Played a cracking game over the weekend called Aeon's End. It's a fantasy-themed cooperative deck-building game. Each of you plays as a mage battling to defend the last stronghold of humanity from being overwhelmed by demons.

Each of you has a deck that you play and enhance Dominion-style, so you have to judge the balancing act between generating enough money to get the deck you want and damage spells to keep the monsters at bay. The monsters you're trying to kill consist of a boss 'Nemesis', which has a large number of hit-points and a variety of different ways of causing you trouble (depending on which one you choose), and its minions, which are easier to kill but potentially numerous. They can make you lose either by killing all the players or by destroying the town you're defending.

One feature I really liked was the randomised turn order mechanic. We played with 4 players, so the turn deck had 1 turn for each of us interspersed with 2 turns for the 'Nemesis'. This lead to a very fluctuating game - you would sometimes get on a run and feel like you were winning, only to find the Nemesis getting three turns in quick succession to leave you on the brink of defeat. That back-and-forth feeling made it very engrossing to play!

I can report that in both games we played we managed to defeat the Nemesis two turns before it would have wiped us out - it seems to be very well balanced! There's huge replayability because there are a variety of different mages, deck cards and nemeses to choose from. We were playing against some of the lower difficulty ones so I dread to think what the hard ones would be like!

It's also got a nice scheme for introducing you to the game where it comes with a suggested first play set of cards packaged separately so you can learn the ropes. This is very handy as the array of choices you have in game setup might be slightly bewildering on first play.

Overall I can highly recommend the experience. It's very satisfying to work together to take down a big monster against what at the start of the game seem like insurmountable odds (your starting spells mostly do one damage per use and the nemesis starts with 60-70 HP). The theming adds to the experience nicely and the nature of the personal decks makes it hard for one player to dominate the game.

ST

[Cause]

Has anyone ever tried as a DIY project to ramake a favourite game in say wood or something to make it more, solid, easier to use, beautiful, a display piece etc. I have seen soeone who made a cool monopoly game out of wood as a way to propose but it always stuck with me as something I would just love to own. Soe games would be much harder than others to remake but some seem simple enough, with some wood, stencils and paint to make.

A DIY settlers o cattan in wood perhaps?


https://www.google.c...C4fbBXwx5KRM%3A

[Gorefest]

Sir Thursday, on 10 January 2017 - 08:25 PM, said:

Played a cracking game over the weekend called Aeon's End. It's a fantasy-themed cooperative deck-building game. Each of you plays as a mage battling to defend the last stronghold of humanity from being overwhelmed by demons.

Each of you has a deck that you play and enhance Dominion-style, so you have to judge the balancing act between generating enough money to get the deck you want and damage spells to keep the monsters at bay. The monsters you're trying to kill consist of a boss 'Nemesis', which has a large number of hit-points and a variety of different ways of causing you trouble (depending on which one you choose), and its minions, which are easier to kill but potentially numerous. They can make you lose either by killing all the players or by destroying the town you're defending.

This mechanic sounds eerily like Legendary (Marvel themed deckbuilder), where you also play cooperatively (although you can play it competitively as well) by building your own deck of heroes from a communal card pool to defeat a mastermind evil. Are you familiar with Legendary and, if so, how does it compare to Aeon's End?

[Nevyn]

Yeah, sounds like Legendary + Thunderstone

[Sir Thursday]

Interesting. I haven't played Legendary so can't compare - might have to see if I can find a copy to try it out. There are a few other mechanics I didn't get to - like how each mage you can play as has a special ability you can charge up and use, ot the way you have to prepare spells for a turn before you can actually cast them. You also start off with a limited number of slots (or 'breaches', as the game calls them) for casting spells that you have to pay to expand. So there are some subtleties involved.

ST

[Gorefest]

Sounds cool, I'll need to see if our local games shop carries it. My wife loves cooperative games and deck-builders and there aren't too many of those out there that don't grow stale or imbalanced.