Cardboard Gamers (Board Games/Tabletop)

[Vroenis]

Clutch victory! Try not to buy board games while you're over there, DexX! Though I'm thinking you may not have time? And if you do, don't waste it in shops, mate, see the sights! Experience the culture! I was going to make a joke about lawlz not doing that and going shopping anyway but nope, I'd actually still want to see the sights and experience the culture

[DexX]

Culture? Dude, I'm in Sacramento...

[Vroenis]

Do they at least have cheap games? XD

[DexX]

I haven't looked. The thought of paying excess baggage to get them all home stops me from looking.

[Vroenis]

Just don't bring back any of your clothes - surely you don't need them, right? Or your laptop. Or your toiletries. Or your various devices, chargers and batteries. Hmmmmm. You may have a problem...

[DexX]

@Vroenis, @Smoolander, and @Mr_Ak! Tabletop did Coup and Love Letter!

We're not the only ones who say "assassin!" after a single coin is taken.

[Joka]

We had a games night Saturday night where some new games came out (only time for one): Dead of Winter. Now I normally am not a fan of zombies at all, but the game was quite enjoyable. Part co-op, part solo game, it was a fun game to explore in trying to survive against zombies, have enough food and to work on our own objectives.

With 4 players and one betrayer, I was voted out of the group as being the betrayer...and to the groups dismay, I was not a betrayer! I had a new objective separate from the group (and I ended up winning) but soon enough the betrayer was found out and he was exiled. Unfortunately, while I was trying to help the survivors win, they lost and both myself and the betrayer won. It took a long time to play, but two of us were unfamiliar with the concept so the setup took some time. Definitely will play again soon.

Triassic Terror came along (some of us chipped in money for a friends birthday), but that will come next time.
Meanwhile, I wait for Sheriff of Nottingham to arrive in the post.

[Vroenis]

I think I never really had an ideal game of Dead of Winter, yet for whatever reason I played a fair amount of sessions all around the same time and the math kind of bled out a bit for me. There's a lot I like about it but it didn't take me in the long-run. Still, there's plenty to enjoy for the right group.

I'm trying some 2p only games, the first being Targi which Rok and I played last weekend and it's really good. Very simple rules but a fair amount of choice, alternate strategies and while interaction is for the most part blocking, it's more significant than in a multiplayer game because of how the game mechanises overall. Highly recommended.

I've ordered the 2p only Akrotiri from NZ so hopefully it'll arrive next week if not earlier if I'm lucky, quite keen to give that a go too, it's been exceptionally difficult to get at a good price. Also on its way from the US is Bernd Eisenstein's Palmyra which belongs to a group of tile laying games that offer more than Carcasonne (which granted, isn't difficult...) that I'm growing quite fond of, probably thanks to Phil Walker-Harding's Cacao which is fantastic.

[DexX]

Gotta say, I've gone off so many of the classic Euros, but Carcassonne is one that I still enjoy every time.

[Vroenis]

I will happily never play it again ^_^ but that's a good thing because diversity

[Joka]

Played Settlers on the weekend and realised a fatal flaw in my gaming. I lost one game because I was too nice and not ruthless enough. Learned my lesson!

[Vroenis]

Never, ever, play nice XD I ran Coloretto for some folks over the weekend & there always ends up being two consecutive games. The first one in which people are way too nice, and the second when they figure out screwing people is good fun. It's my go-to outside of Survive for teaching people that being mean in a game is just a bit of fun, and a board game is the safest environment in which to do that kind of thing to each other. That said, beware of gaming with couples! XD

This weekend I also got to play new hotness The Voyages Of Marco Polo and no spoilers, we'll discuss it in the next episode.

Got to play old school closed economy bidding game Lascaux featuring art inspired by the eponymous town or the ancient cave paintings found therein. That was great.

Also played a new German game, Auf Teufel Komm Raus which means something to do with dealing with the devil or some such but who cares it's freaken awesome. Kind of a more involving Camel Up for adults - I don't mind Camel Up and it's so simple even kids can play it which is a big plus, but Auf Teufel Komm Raus is more involving in that you're betting values you choose which are relevant to potential corresponding actions you take and push your luck with. The slight bump in complexity will turn off some players and won't suit younger ones but that's a good thing. While I'll play Camel Up on occasion with higher player counts but haven't bought it, I'm on the hunt to import a copy of Auf Teufel. Kick. Ass.

[DexX]

I too was at DB&C at Games Laboratory in Melbourne this past weekend and got to play a bunch of games...

Batman Love Letter - When I first hear about this I laughed, certain it was just a cheap marketing gimmick. I could not have been more wrong. While this is 90% the same as vanilla Love Letter, the small tweaks actually lift it above the vanilla game. Vanilla feels like high-born snobby types trying to sneak past the guards and other lower-status people, but BLL turns it on its head: the guard is replaced with Batman, so the hero is at the bottom, punching up. Inverts the entire theme and works brilliantly. I don't think I'll be playing vanilla again.

Hobbit Love Letter - Exactly what I thought Batman would have been: fairly shallow marketing tie-in. There are some new rules that change things around, but they only succeed in complicating the vanilla game, not in improving it. Can't recommend it.

Ascending Empires - A full-featured galaxy-spanning 4X that plays in 30-60 minutes and involves dexterity-based tasks? It's nuts in the best possible way. Your spacecraft are wooden discs, which you flick across the table to explore other worlds. Settle, mine, research, conquer, and battle in a fast-playing, easy-to-learn, and fun ruleset. Absolutely gutted that it's out of print.

Origin - Best components ever. Starting from Africa, chart the course of the evolution of the human species, growing taller and stronger, discovering the wheel, fire, and more. Very quick-playing, easy to teach and learn, but remarkably strategic.

Crokinole - One of my old favourites, sort of lawn bowls on your table. Flick wooden discs into the centre of a smooth wooden board, jockeying for the best-scoring spots while bumping your opponents' pieces into the gutter. Still on my Christmas wish-list, but boards are hard to come by.

Kanban - We didn't get to finish this as the venue was closing up for the night, but wow, what a heavy but fascinating game. Take on all of the core tasks in a car manufacturing business: design, upgrade, test, and manufacture, all while staying on top of the latest training methods and also staying one step ahead of your business rivals. About as heavy a euro as I would want to play, but I enjoyed the hour or so we got into it.

[Vroenis]

After getting a taste of the perhaps... 3rd tier train games (I'll dub them) at Border Con with Chicago Express and being delightfully impressed by it, last night at Stranger Gamers I tried the pseudo-sequel American Rails and the super quick Paris Connection. I am now a train gamer.

I'll always love Euros, particularly those that offer the more ingenious engines, combos and/or player interaction, but train games are almost entirely player driven, and you're always responding, reacting to and anticipating the actions of other players. I'm absolutely loving them. I get why they can be a little difficult to sell to people, though, as the theme can seem a bit naff, and then anyone who doesn't do well with either auctions and/or investments isn't going to like them as it's always a financial system. But that's what I love so much about them, you're almost always using your VP as currency (because VP literally is your personal money) so it's hazardous to overpay or over extend yourself. Also you can tank companies, offer subversive share auctions or take greater controlling interests for profitable development and a majority dividend grab. They're completely unpredictable from one turn to the next and you have to pay attention to absolutely everything.

Paris Connection is a super reductive, super easy and super swift iteration of the share/development model and plays in around 30 minutes. I had to order it immediately because it's astonishingly ingenious. Whether or not I get Chicago Express and American Rails will depend on whether I can hook others into playing them, which in my current pool of players will be quite difficult. I have, however, piqued my dad's interests so I reckon I could get him and my brother at least playing, plus one or two others, and it'll be game on. Most of these games play best with 4+, and while a 3p game will be good to teach and learn mechanics, the full dynamics aren't in swing until you have more emergent alliances and diluted investments.

[DexX]

@luverly_5pam came over today and we played Legendary Encounters, the Alien-themed version of Legendary. Coincidentally, I'd seen the Tabletop episode in which they played vanilla Legendary just last night, which features Marvel heroes, so I had a fairly solid idea of how to play. The Alien version tweaks the base rules, but it's about 90% the same.

We actually found it a little easy, so I am thinking one or more of the following were true:
1) It's a game that's harder with more players, so we had an advantage playing with just two.
2) We got one small rule wrong that made it easier (first play for both of us).
3) We just got lucky with our draws.

We played the original Alien scenario, and as an example of point 3 above, when the titular xenomorph popped up, it stepped straight into the airlock and we blew it out into space before it could attack us. Bit of a fluke, I suspect.

Despite it feeling overly easy, I really enjoyed it and look forward to playing again. I want to recruit a couple more players and take on the Aliens scenario four-player.

[Vroenis]

I'd give it a go for sure. It's possible that like a fair few contemporary co-ops, the initial missions are easier just to get you working the mechanics and I really like this as opposed to hitting you square in the face with failure up front. If you got into the atmosphere and Alien trappings and give it the thumbs up, it could be fantastic, especially in later missions.

[DexX]

Oh yeah, definitely. Thematically it's awesome, though the art is a bit shit. (I suspect they saved money by deliberately not making the art look like the real actors so they wouldn't have to pay fees to use their likeness.)

That said, the theme and mechanics dovetail beautifully. Enemy cards enter play face down, and move down a card corridor toward the combat area. You have to spend resources to "scan" the corridor, flipping the card face up, so you actually know what's coming.

Problem is, some of them are enemies, but others are unexpected events and hazards (and at least one is Jonesy the cat, which is fucking awesome, and I suspect Newt will be another). Plays beautifully into that Alien/Aliens "something on the scanner" trope.

We plan to play the Aliens scenario next week.

[Vroenis]

Niiiice, sounds great! & Jonesy's in!

[DexX]

If you get Jonesy (there's a chance of him dying) he heals flesh wounds. I'm a bit disturbed thinking about how.

[Vroenis]

Surely it's via the wondrous miracle of cuddles >_>