What are you playing?

[Stoppy2000]

4 hours ago, Spatial said:

The third part is renowned for being punishing, especially with the pre-built starter decks - you've already got your expectations set right by expecting it to be a horror show

 

Definitely pick up The Dunwich Legacy next - the Night of the Zealot adventures are okay to begin, but with Dunwich they started getting into their stride (plus you'll also start building up some good investigator cards for your decks).

 

If you haven't already I'd recommend giving The Dunwich Horror a read before you play. It's not essential in any way, but you will get more out of it with names, places and events (but then I am biased as it's one of my fav Lovecraft stories).

 

edit: oh and if you can wait a bit until the start of next year, their new distribution models means you can buy the whole Dunwich Legacy scenario in one box (the investigators come in a separate box). That means you won't have to struggle tracking down reprints of all the separate mythos pack and it should work out a wee bit cheaper too.

Have you got a specific recommendation for a Lovecraft book on Amazon? There are about a million on there and it's hard to know which is likely to be good quality...

[Spatial]

6 minutes ago, Stoppy2000 said:

Have you got a specific recommendation for a Lovecraft book on Amazon? There are about a million on there and it's hard to know which is likely to be good quality...

 

That's a tough one - I stopped with physical copies of books ages back. Something like this seemed okay;

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/H-P-Lovecraft-Collection-ebook/dp/B077GXY6B7/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

Be warned though, some of Lovecraft's ideas and notions are horribly racist. Even as a product of his time his peers saw him as a total dick in that regards, so some of the stories will have deeply questionable language and tone.

 

These are my other recommendations for audiobooks and stuff which I can vouch for from a recent thread on here;

 

On 18/09/2021 at 07:57, Spatial said:

My fav's and recommendations;

 

- Dunwich Horror

- Mountains of Madness

- The Colour out of Space

- Call of Cthulhu (not the best story, but some good parts in there)

 

 

If you're cool with audiobooks there's a few good options - free on Youtube there's the Horrorbabble channel;

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIvp_SM7UrKuFgR3W77fWcg

 

It covers lots of stuff (including Arthur Machen, one of the people who inspired Lovecraft).

 

Although if you want to spend money, I whole heartedly recommend the HP Lovecraft Historical Societies readings of Lovecraft

 

https://store.hplhs.org/collections/books/products/the-complete-fiction-of-h-p-lovecraft-an-audiobook?variant=48949486997

 

I'd also recommend their Dark Adventure Radio Theatre series - Lovecraft stories but they give them a 1920's / 1930's radio drama twist (complete with campy music, and fake radio style ads).

 

https://store.hplhs.org/collections/dark-adventure-radio-theatre

 

The drama's do take artistic licence with some of the stories to fit the format and in the name of entertainment (they'll introduce characters or small events for the sake of plot advancement, and later on start re-stringing some of those characters through episodes for a wider narrative world and twists).

[Exit Chamber]

Got given 2nd edition Eclipse as a 40th present from some friends and had a great game of it on Saturday. Came resoundingly last but had a lot of fun anyway.

[Cosmic_Guru]

13 hours ago, Stoppy2000 said:

Have you got a specific recommendation for a Lovecraft book on Amazon? There are about a million on there and it's hard to know which is likely to be good quality...

You can't go wrong with the Penguin Classic paperbacks curated by ST Joshi.

[Hexx]

On 28/09/2021 at 12:05, Stoppy2000 said:

I'll try part 3 at some point. No doubt I'll be slaughtered. What's the best thing to buy next to continue my Arkham experience? 

 

There's the Mythos Cycles - these add investigators, player cards and stories.

 

The problem is that you have to buy the base set and the 6 packs. Which can be expensive, especially if out of print. It also means your collection is huge (I have first 4-5 cycles) and a lot of cards, mostly player, you'll probably never use but you have to pay for as they're part of the set. (Danger of LCG)

 

There's a lot of power creep as they go as well. But also you might really want a Guardian card to Path to Carcosa pack 6 as it's amazing for all decks - but you need to buy the pack to get it, even if you hate Carcosa.

 

The new stuff they're release as 2 items - the entire campaign and all the player stuff. 

 

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/arkham-horror-the-card-game/products/arkham-horror-card-game-edge-earth-campaign-expansion/

 

Which will make things easier.

 

I've done 5 of their campaigns and it's hard to think of an out right bad one. E.g. Forgotten Age is brutally hard, but also introduces fun new mechanics.

 

What you might be best to do is try some of the standalone scenario packs. They will just be a story/enemy set, but will be cheaper while giving you more gameplay. You can think if you want to commit to an really expensive campaign expac

 

 

[Cosmic_Guru]

Been a while since posting here.  Currently enjoying Forza Horizon 5 on the black box so board games are taking a breather, but still been a busy few months:

 

Obsession / Pax Pamir / Imperium classics - for forthcoming TTG column (all being well)

Then a bit of a Awakening Realms period

Finished the first campaign in Etherfields

Finished the main campaign in Tainted Grail with Beor and the woman after a couple of abortive attempts.  Really good game once you get the hang of taking your time in each chapter to explore, but without incurring penalties.  Easily the most sophisticated of the big "adventure book" type games out at present, with several different strands to pursue and no chance of seeing everything in one go.  The card based combat and diplomacy mechanics clever too.  Looking forward to playing the other 3 campaigns at some point.

Then another (exhausting) chapter in Middara.  I really like it but the pacing for a group is all over the place.

Then onto some new games (or new to me)

Robin Hood - the Michael Menzel version.  Really nice game.  The gimmick is the game board featuring a forest, a castle and a village, which functions a bit like an advent calendar.  You flip over spaces to indicate the presence of guards (to be avoided) and rich people (to be robbed). Other things like carriages and boats disappear from one space to appear elsewhere to indicate movement.  Another gimmick is the little wooden pieces which indicate the distance a character may move each turn.  You play a campaign but at heart the game has the same time and space dynamic of Andor - you have to interact with certain people, obtain certain objects and so forth before the timer runs out.  A branching storyline offers partial replayability.  The only snag is potentially damaging the board but a chemical spatula is ideal for the smaller tiles and the mini plunger from Queensdale at last finds alternative use for the big ones.

Euthia: Torment of Resurrection.  Duff name but absolute banger of a KS.  Think Mage Knight but with a more conventional RPG type progression in terms of skills and equipment.  Same random tile placement and limited number of actions though.  Better variety of activity too.  Excellent game for the solo gamer.

Glass Roads - obviously not new but the Capstone edition, which now includes very simple rules for solo play.  Really enjoyed this one as an uncharacteristically compact Rosenberg.  Fast but chewy.

 

 

 

 

[Nathan Wind]

Solid Memoir '44 sesh with m'pal this afternoon. We each took a turn at Sword beach playing as either side, allies losing both times, albeit a very close game when I played as them because I was able to see the mistakes he made - just came down to the dice roll on what turned out to be the final turn. Then Omaha beach as a decider and I drew the short straw, losing another fairly close game as the allies. Those German bunkers are nasty.

 

[phresh]

How long does a game of Memoir '44 normally take?

[Nathan Wind]

45 - 60 minutes, I'd say. It's nice and streamlined.

[Stejay]

My wife and I are enjoyed Cascadia immensely at the moment, and I'm happily playing it solo too at https://cascadiagame.github.io rather than setting the game up just for myself.

[phresh]

Played a couple of new games this weekend -

 

Watergate - Really, really, enjoyed this. It just takes some really simple systems but combines them in clever ways that keep it really balanced throughout (caveat - only played a few times). Would definitely recommend.

 

Tranquillity - Wasn't sure about this to start with, it's a coop game where you're supposed to remain silent (which we mostly did) but once you get into the rhythm of it after a game or two it flows really nicely and you can probably knock a two player game out in ~15mins.

 

Escape From the Dark Sector (4p) - Played two player already, which I enjoyed - but four player was a better experience. I think the overall difficulty scales a bit better with four than two so if you're considering i'd recommend it more for four than two. 

 

 

[Padster]

Enjoyed our first Xmas play of Kabuto Sumo. Surprisingly thinky and quite beautiful dexterity game. 

 

Guess who won from this position? 

 

[therearerules]

Clash of Cultures, monumental edition.

 

Suspicous of this at the start, as it took my mates a good number of hours to get halfway through last time they played, but they said it was because of a slow newbie so I hgave it a shot. The most civ game I've played. Had a miserable time during the first game because I misunderstood where the game was- relied upon good card draws and drew shit, then got beaten in a city. Played the Romans who needed to attack attack attack, but that's not me with civ games. Have a real problem with games in which you can murder your opponents so badly- I feel bad and they feel worse, but came back around to it by the end. Reevaluated what I was meant to be doing and the cards actually played well, giving me numerous barbarian villages to attack.

 

Enjoyed it to the extent I played it again the following week, this time being given the purely civil Babylonians, no attacking needed. Just some defensive structures and a truce with my neighbour. Smashed a first place win.

 

Really like the game, and want to play it lots more, but it's wargame part does make me afraid of getting crushed in an early war and having to endure 4 more hours of a game I'm just existing in.

 

[Stejay]

On 25/12/2021 at 19:04, Padster said:

Enjoyed our first Xmas play of Kabuto Sumo. Surprisingly thinky and quite beautiful dexterity game. 

 

Guess who won from this position? 

 

Are you in the UK? I’ve been trying to pick this up for a reasonable price. Where did you get it?

[Padster]

1 hour ago, Stejay said:

Are you in the UK? I’ve been trying to pick this up for a reasonable price. Where did you get it?

 

I did the original Kickstarter, but have only just got it off the shelf of shame. I certainly didn't pay close to the £40-odd it seems to be selling for now! 

[Stejay]

2 minutes ago, Padster said:

 

I did the original Kickstarter, but have only just got it off the shelf of shame. I certainly didn't pay close to the £40-odd it seems to be selling for now! 

 

Lucky you.  Its the stupid SU&SD factor again!

[Nathan Wind]

Had my first go at Alien Fate of the Nostromo the other day. It seems very good. Visually it's an utter love letter to Alien. Compare the gorgeous hand drawn art here to the god awful film stills used by GF9 in Another Glorious Day.

 

It feels very difficult with just one character though, I think, unless I just need to work out some strategies. But that morale timer drains in no time when you're flipping over the concealment tokens as you move from room to room and Alan or Jonesy  leap out and surprise you. I like the variety of objectives. Ravensburger have been doing some good work recently.

 

[Munkienut]

7 minutes ago, Nathan Wind said:

Had my first go at Alien Fate of the Nostromo the other day. It seems very good. Visually it's an utter love letter to Alien. Compare the gorgeous hand drawn art here to the god awful film stills used by GF9 in Another Glorious Day.

 

It feels very difficult with just one character though, I think, unless I just need to work out some strategies. But that morale timer drains in no time when you're flipping over the concealment tokens as you move from room to room and Alan or Jonesy  leap out and surprise you. I like the variety of objectives. Ravensburger have been doing some good work recently.

 

 

Good to hear, got this from my secret Santa but yet to read the rules.

 

Got a few new games for xmas from various people and so far have tried Brass Birmingham at 2 (really enjoyed it, dont think i own anything similar so nice to have such an economic game in collection) and Maracaibo solo (also really enjoyed it but not sure I look forward to teaching it).

 

Also received all the too many bones stuff I needed to complete my collection, Skulk Hollow and the Architects of the west kingdom expansion alongside Tomesaga, all of which I need to get to the table. Last day off before back to work so hoping to try Skulk Hollow at the very least today

[Nathan Wind]

And currently on the go with @Rikku is Roll Player Adventures. 'Choose your own adventure' style narrative, with the dice drafting and skill card based dice manipulation of Roll Player (or Sagrada if that's more familiar) adding some strategic gameplay into the mix. It's very cleverly designed. We're playing it with the expansion that adds a backstory to your character and gives the game an extra layer of depth with new encounters and stories. I love the old school D&D aesthetic of the story book covers. Can't recommend this one highly enough if you're into narrative games.

 

 

[Padster]

A few days away gave me a chance to break out the full set of "Let's Waltz!" expansions for Grand Austria Hotel . Daughter will take me to the cleaners as always... 😎

 

[phresh]

Micromacro Crime City

It looks like Where's Wally, and kind of plays like it. We had great fun working through the first few easy missions, it's well presented and executed. Not sure i'd want to play this with four people (we've only done the easiest missions so no idea if it will stay like this), but seems like it would be great fun solo or with two. A bit of non-sexual roleplay as East End detectives helped .

 

Gloomhaven JotL

Played through the first 5 scenario's (although lost the 5th so need to repeat that!). It does a great job of easing you into the game, and the scenario books simplify a lot of the time setting up. The mechanics have been good so far, giving enough depth without being too fussy. I do like the action mechanics using a pair of cards, and the enemy decks, as it does keep the combat varied, something too many games struggle with even if it is a bit artificial. I do like the stamina mechanic too as it absolutely forces you to keep up the pace. We're playing 2p and it's felt pretty balanced so far, only the 2x modifiers feel a little bit too powerful.

[Nathan Wind]

Jawsies is great, I'm a big fan. I'd also recommend Gloomhaven on Steam if you haven't tried it already. It's literally the board game, but without any of the faff. Usually I'd say that defeats the entire point but in the case of GH and the amount of setting up and putting away involved...well...

[phresh]

Yeah, we're going to see how it goes playing through this and then see what takes our fancy next. By the time we get through it I expect Frosthaven may have been released, and if not maybe Gloomhaven on PC will have local co-op. Might just get Imperial Assault back on the table though!

[Jamin]

Had some very amusing games of Cockroach Poker Royal, Anomia and Just One tonight with friends we don't see very often. 

They loved the first two, and promptly bought a copy of each online as we left! 

I had also brought Quacks (w/Herb Witches expansion) and Sheriff of Nottingham neither of which sadly made it to the table - next time...

[MalevolentPanda]

2021.

[SeanR]

Family around today, not sure these count but, I won a round of 8 out of ten cats

 

by quite a margin

 

 

and a game called tension, which plays like Tenable (and the last round of the 8ooTC board game) where you need to name the list of ten things on the card based on a subject:

things associated with golf

types of tree

Queen songs

etc. 

 

But we lost that. So it’s shit.

[bobin]

After years of buying board games only for them to languish on the shelf due to lack of time and lack of willing players, my eight year old son has recently started asking to play Escape The Dark Castle every night. It’s like a dream come true. We cheat all the way through and have a great time. 
 

Tried a round of Escape The Dark Sector tonight but I’m not familiar with the rules and the combination of trying to read the rules while he demanded to know when the shooting would start meant we made some mistakes. He still enjoyed pew pewing and I’ve now read up on how to play, ready for tomorrow’s session. 
 

I hope he keeps this up - I think he’d like Castle Panic too and then it’s hardly any steps from there to Pandemic Legacy, isn’t it? No? What about Jaws Of The Lion?
 

One step at a time, I guess. 

[instasis]

On 07/01/2022 at 23:35, bobin said:

After years of buying board games only for them to languish on the shelf due to lack of time and lack of willing players, my eight year old son has recently started asking to play Escape The Dark Castle every night. It’s like a dream come true. We cheat all the way through and have a great time. 
 

Tried a round of Escape The Dark Sector tonight but I’m not familiar with the rules and the combination of trying to read the rules while he demanded to know when the shooting would start meant we made some mistakes. He still enjoyed pew pewing and I’ve now read up on how to play, ready for tomorrow’s session. 
 

I hope he keeps this up - I think he’d like Castle Panic too and then it’s hardly any steps from there to Pandemic Legacy, isn’t it? No? What about Jaws Of The Lion?
 

One step at a time, I guess. 

 

I'd recommend something like Machi Koro at that age, it's great and even though the base game is simples it means he can come up with repeatable strategies.

 

We're playing My City currently, me and the missus. It's so good. We're only 3 Chapters in, but after it looking like I was going to storm ahead in the first two, Chapter 3 saw her win every game.

 

Playing it in 2 players means a chapter takes around 30-45 mins to complete, and that's perfect for us.

[Stejay]

21 minutes ago, Pelekophoros said:

Playing it in 2 players means a chapter takes around 30-45 mins to complete, and that's perfect for us.

My City is already quite cheap as board games go, but the beauty of playing it with just two means you can play through the entire legacy campaign again afterwards too. Fantastic game.

[instasis]

3 hours ago, Stejay said:

My City is already quite cheap as board games go, but the beauty of playing it with just two means you can play through the entire legacy campaign again afterwards too. Fantastic game.

 

Yeah, I'd clocked that - might need to reset the churches I guess (stickers) but other than that easy enough so far.

 

The way it's slowly introducing the rules is just brill. Playing it regularly certainly helps too!