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Thread: Combat Commander: Europe:: General:: RSG + 5 months

TonyClifton — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:56:03 +0000

I picked up Combat Commander: Pacific at the beginning of March of this year and shortly after I managed to get a hold of Combat Commander: Europe, Combat Commander: Mediterranean and Combat Commander: Battle Pack #1 - Paratroopers.

Of all the things I really love about the CC system the random scenario generator really holds up over time. I've heard it described elsewhere as a mini-game in itself. It really is a version of CC foreplay and it is very exciting to see the battle-to-come developing before we play.

With the large amounts of maps and OoB's to pick from when we set up to play for the night we go through the following steps.

One player rolls the dice

- (a roll of 2) means it will be a historical scenario from either CC:P or CC:E we each pick one and flip a coin to determine which one of our choices will be played.

- (a roll of 3 to 9) means we will be playing using the RSG from CC:E

- (a roll of 10 to 12) means we will be playing using the CC: P RSG

I was wondering if any other big fans of this system have devised a way to decide what version and type of scenario will be played.

I'd also like to know if Chad or his minions have thought about developing a campaign system that would be usable across all the versions of this game....and if they are thinking about it would they consider making it available for free online.

I'm in the process of getting Combat Commander: Battle Pack #2 – Stalingrad and we are really pumped up about it.....I love reading about this battle in particular and I can't wait to try out the BP specific campaign.

Session: Smolensk 20:: Smolensk 20 solo replay: Day 3 - the defence of Lubino

dmcke013 — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:54:42 +0000

by dmcke013

Withdraw to day 2: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/420487

Turn 11: August 18, Morning (French morale 3, Russian morale 3)

(random event = “According to plan”. Reshuffle cards (again!))
No units in Smolensk move, as I, II and III cavalry corps all move to attack the Russian II corps west of Lubino, with the Imperial Guard toiling along behind. IV cavalry corps heads round the south of the wood near the pontoon bridge and VIII corps arrives in play along the road to the east of their LOC.

Russian Reserve cavalry counter-charge, and commit reserves against (-1 Russian morale) I corps, forcing them to withdraw back across the bridge (may retreat into and through friendly unit if no other path open). This is a hazardous retreat, and the I corps breaks! (-1 French morale, +1 Russian morale). The Russians recapture their objective hex.

French I, II and III cavalry corps all combine to attack Russian II corps, forcing that unit to withdraw east. As this is still in a EZOC, this is considered a hazardous retreat , which they make safely. I cavalry corps ‘takes ground’.

(random event = “Campaign exhaustion” This time, the Russian lose the morale point)
III corps moves to the woods to the south-west of Lubino as VIII corps crosses over the ‘undiscovered ford’ (French now aware of its existence), with Barclay’s cavalry corps in support to their south. Reserve cavalry clears a path (moves north-west) for the Russian Reserve Artillery to enter their objective hex, and both Bagration’s cavalry corps and V corps move south.

French III cavalry corps withdraws, and I cavalry corps counter-charges Cossack cavalry, forcing them to withdraw into Lubino.

Cossacks and II corps both combine to attack the I cavalry corps and force them to withdraw north-west. Cossack cavalry ‘take ground’. In Smolensk, VIII corps and Barclay’s cavalry combine to attack the V corps in the eastern-most redoubt. Although they roll a ‘withdraw’ result, they are able to ignore this as are in a redoubt. Finally, Reserve Artillery attacks (cross–river) the III corps, but remains engaged.

Situation at end of turn 11
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Turn 12: August 18, Mid-day (French morale 2, Russian morale 2)

(random event = “Poniatowski Leads”. French V corps (currently in Smolensk) receives +1 to both movement and combat strength this player turn)
VIII corps moves to area of rough ground to the east of Smolensk (surrounding Barclay’s cavalry corps with Zones of Control) as II cavalry corps moves to the north of the woods outside Lubino. Meanwhile, III cavalry corps moves onto the patch of rough ground to the south-west of that town, and IV cavalry corps heads up the slope to the very south. Imperial Guard crosses the Kolodnia River over the bridge towards Valutino Gora.

Cossack cavalry withdraws into Lubino (Cossacks may withdraw from cavalry)

III cavalry corps attacks, and commits reserves against (-1 French morale) Russian III corps, forcing them to withdraw to the north-east. They then capture that wood. VIII corps attacks Barclay’s cavalry, also forcing them to withdraw north-east. This is a hazardous retreat as they are surrounded by Zones of Control, and Barclay’s cavalry break! (+1 French morale, -1 Russian). VIII corps decide to ‘take ground’. V corps attacks Russian VIII corps (did not need to, as attacks out of redoubts are optional, but have the +1 ‘Poniatowski leads’ bonus) and force the VIII corps to withdraw north-east. Finally, III corps decides to attack Artillery Reserve across the bridge (again, an optional attack since EZOCs do not cross bridges) and rout the Artillery 2 hexes (a roll of 3+ would have ended the game) north-east, through Bagration’s cavalry corps, before ‘taking ground’.

(random event = “de Tolly: ‘Withdraw’”)
After nearly 2 ½ days of constant fighting, Barclay de Tolly decides to withdraw his army from the field of battle.

Cossack cavalry abandon Lubino to head to the LOC outside that town as the (routed) Artillery reserve continue along the road towards Valutino Gora. The only other Russian unit to move is the VIII corps, who head south to engage their French equivalent.

III cavalry corps ‘penetrates’ to the south of Russian III corps.

Cossack cavalry withdraw from the field of battle (+1 Russian morale), then III corps attacks the III cavalry corps and force them to withdraw south. In Smolensk, all of Reserve cavalry, Bagration’s cavalry corps and V corps combine to attack French III corps, forcing them to rout back into the redoubt. This is a cross-bridge hazardous retreat; III corps makes it safely and Reserve cavalry recaptures objective hex.

Situation at end of turn 12
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Turn 13: August 18, Afternoon (French morale 2, Russian morale 2)

(random event = “Miscommunication”. All French units have their movement allowance reduced by 1)
II cavalry corps move into Lubino, adjacent to Russian III corps, and III cavalry corps moves to south of same unit (surrounding it with Zones of Control). I cavalry corps moves south, to the west of Lubino and adjacent to Russian II corps. IV cavalry corps continues to sweep around woods below Lubino as Imperial Guard capture Valutino Gora (although could move further, decided not to). Finally, the last French unit to arrive on the field of battle – the IV corps – enters play through the road to the south east of Smolensk.

II and III cavalry corps both attacks the (surrounded) Russian III corps but both attackers are forced to withdraw, north and south respectively. I cavalry corps attacks Russian II corps, and is also forced to withdraw south-west. Near Smolensk, VIII corps attacks their Russian counterparts but are routed 3 hexes (-1 French morale for routing more than movement) south, with the Russian VIII corps ‘taking ground’. V corps and (routed) III corps both combine to attack the Russian Reserve cavalry over the bridge (routed units can attack, but at ½ strength, rounded up) but all sides remain engaged.

(random event = “enemy lethargy and confusion”. Routed marker placed on newly arrived French IV corps)
II corps moves into Lubino as III corps move to north-east of same town. Bagration’s cavalry corps crosses at the no-longer-undiscovered ford, with Reserve cavalry making way (north--east) for V corps top move into the Russian objective hex. Finally, Reserve Artillery moves south of Valutino Gora.

II cavalry corps disengages north.

Artillery Reserve attacks Imperial Guard in Valutino Gora and forces them to withdraw north-east, before capturing the town. Bagration’s cavalry and VIII corps both attack V corps, who are able to ignore the ‘withdraw’ result rolled. V corps opts not to attack over the bridge (too risky)

Situation at end of turn 13
]]>

Turn 14: August 18, Evening (French morale 1, Russian morale 2)

(random event = “Imperial Indecision”. May not spend morale point to force-march, commit the reserves or commit the Imperial Guard this turn)
With things not going entirely his way, Napoleon succumbs to a bout of indecision. Luckily (for the French player) this isn’t going to really have any effect this turn, as they only have the 1 morale point anyway and so wouldn’t have been able to do any of the above anyway!
VIII corps moves north-east to engage their Russian counterparts near Smolensk as I, II, III and IV cavalry corps all converge on Lubino. No other French unit moves.

Bagration’s cavalry corps counter0-charges V corps, who again are able to ignore the ‘withdraw’ result rolled.

I, II and IV cavalry corps all attack Russian II corps within Lubino, but are all forced to withdraw to the south. III cavalry corps attacks III corps to the north-east of that town, and is also forced to withdraw (north). VIII corps attacks their Russian counter-parts, but are routed 5 hexes (-1 French morale), ending the game with a Russian decisive victory!

Situation at end of game
]]>

Final thoughts

So, based on these games, General Barclay de Tolly did a lot better at Smolensk than General Kutuzov would later do at Borodino! The game itself seemed slower building than Borodino, with it taking almost two and a half full days before all units were in play. I imagine this is due more to the situation of Smolensk being more of a meeting engagement than of the set-piece (defensive) posture later adopted by the Russians at Borodino.

The city of Smolensk itself proved to be a focal point, with the battle for control of that city lasting the entire length of the game (and was ablaze for nearly that entire period). Both sides made extensive use of the roads near and around that city to deploy their troops. Later in the game, Lubino also saw plenty of action as the French cavalry tried, and tried again, to capture the town in order to cut the Russian path to the lower of their LOCs. A stalwart defence by the Russians, however, meant they were never able to do so and with the Cossack cavalry able to make good their withdrawal from the scene of battle during the third day of battle, the French were put under immense pressure in the last few turns to stop the rest of the Russians doing the same …

Thread: Mall of Horror:: General:: High Kingmaker Level?

BoB Utrecht — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:24:01 +0000

by BoB Utrecht

Having played the game only once, our playing group considered the game to have quite a high kingmaker level. Players already out of the game were able to decide the winner by voting. Is this usually the case or was this a coincidence?

Though we did like the game mechanism we thought this was a downside. After a short discussion we thought the king maker level was due to the clear marked game end. We thought a rule variant with an uncertain game end might overcome the "problem".

Did anyone have the same experience and did someone already think of a possible solution?

Thread: Jena!:: General:: Off Board Movement Table Needed

Wilhammer — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:17:48 +0000

by Wilhammer

I purchased a copy of this used, and found the OBMT was missing.

Can someone scan one and post it here, or via PM?

Thread: Mall of Horror:: Rules:: Easy question on parking lot

BoB Utrecht — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:08:45 +0000

by BoB Utrecht

Since I have a French version of the game, I don't have the complete English rules. I couldn't find in the precise rules summary whether the parking lot can ever be full (it has no drawing pins)

Thanks in advance!

Thread: Sorry! Sliders:: General:: Not allowed in the UK?

White Stone — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:56:50 +0000

by White Stone

I've been trying to get hold of this game for some time now. However, it would seem it's forbidden to have this game in the UK. There are no UK retailers that sell it (as far as I have been able to find), foreign retailers won't ship it to the UK - and in the rare case that they do, shipping costs almost as much as the actual game! What's up with this? Am I missing something here?

Thread: Risk Machtsevenwicht:: News:: Risk : Balance of Power coming out in English edition in UK next week

Sorp222 — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:24:45 +0000

by Sorp222

RRP £19.99 - should be available in your FLGS or FOLGS Tuesday 7th July

Thread: Descent: The Road to Legend:: Rules:: Question on Harbinger Approaches

whipko — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:10:28 +0000

by whipko

IF hero enter the OL keep before the nine Comet tokens. And the OL keep is within three trails from the Nine comet.

Will the heroes wound and fatigue reduce by 1 also?

Thread: Neuroshima Hex! - Babel13:: General:: Cost

domus_ludorum — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:10:24 +0000

by domus_ludorum

Just become available in the UK - wow, £25 for two sheets of counters/terrain overlays.

No board, no cards, no plastic pieces. That is very expensive cardboard! I know price is not exclusively the result of component cost etc, etc, for games but this is a little excessive.

The last Dungeon Twister expansion (Fire and Water) was the same, and the latest Race for the Galaxy expansion was close - I did give the latter the benefit of the doubt due to having to cover the costs of artwork for all the cards. However, the DT expansion and Babel13 will stay on the shelf for someone else to buy - despite me liking both games.

Thread: Arctic Scavengers:: Rules:: Saboteurs in FAQ

ScottE — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:01:36 +0000

by ScottE

I noticed in the FAQ on the next to last page it mentions that Saboteurs can't carry a weapon. But they have a Fight value of 1. Shouldn't they act like a fighter and be able to carry a weapon? So if you don't use their special ability during the resource or skirmish phase they should count as a Fight 1 plus any weapon they have attached.

Then I'm assuming if I am correct if you use their special ability they are immediately discarded and would not add their Fight 1 to the skirmish phase.

Thread: Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization:: Variants:: A potential mitigation for the random military problem.

Capoeirista — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:06:54 +0000

by Capoeirista

TtA should be in my top 10 games, it has the right theme, novel mechanics, interesting decisions and, for the most part, many different balanced strategies. Unfortunately, the military side of the game has always to me felt at odds with the rest of this well crafted game. To see this sentiment expressed by others in ways far more eloquently than I can manage read Chris Farrell's excellent review and analysis of the game. Having lost games simply for the lack of a tactics card (despite drawing the maximum each turn) or a complete lack of aggressions despite a strong military advantage (except for a War drawn on the last turn) I turned cold on this game, I don't mind being screwed by the deck in a 30-60 min game like Glory to Rome or Race for the Galaxy, but in a 2hr+ game, it's a little frustrating to see everything collapse because the deck decides to hold out on you.

So I have a simple modification to the game which could potentially mitigate the randomness of the military deck while still trying not to give players too much control over it. I haven't playtested this idea, but would be interested to hear what other, more experienced, players think of it. Credit for the variant has to go to Race for the Galaxy.

On his turn, a player may use his military actions in the normal fashion to draw single cards from the deck. Alternatively, he may spend all of his military actions to draw 2xN cards from the military deck, where N is the number of actions he played. He must then discard all of the cards except one. Any extra military actions gained during the turn are considered to also be used, but do not result in extra cards being drawn.

The idea here is that, if a player really, really needs a card of a given type, he has a means to trawl through the deck to get it at the expense of his military actions. There are a couple of things that need tested in this. It's possible that 2x is too strong and a better thing would be N+2 or N+3, alternatively, you could cap the number of cards drawn to 6 while still consuming all military actions. I'd be interested to hear what people think.

Edit: speeling

Review: Blood Bowl: Living RuleBook:: Blood Bowl PC Review

Jasta — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:33:07 +0000

by Jasta

Intro

Ok so this isn't a boardgame review as such, but it's a review of a computer simulation of a boardgame which I've seen on the Geek before. Apologies if anyone finds this inappropriate.

I played the 2nd edition of Blood Bowl on the tabletop a LONG time ago and don't really have the time to get a team together anymore let alone find people to play the game with. My Blood Bowl fix has mainly come from playing FUMBBL, the other online Blood Bowl game. I enjoyed it quite a lot (and the competition was fierce) but living in an Australian timezone and finding games with acceptable opposition was tough - plus sometimes I like playing three games in a row or pausing a game for an hour in the middle. Neither of which is all that likely with random human opponents.

So when I heard there was a proper port of the game to PC I was pretty excited.

Overview

The game is currently available for digital download at http://www.bloodbowl-game.com

IMO it's a very reasonable price at USD$49.99 and at only 1.5Gb it's not too bad on your download cap either (if you live in a stone age country that still has them like I do).

The game includes a fairly faithful replica of the Blood Bowl Living Rulebook version 5 as well as a live action version of the game that uses an RTS style control system that can be paused at any time. Both versions support single matches, comptetitions and cups and a campaign system against either AI or online, LAN or hotseat opponents.

The Good

The game looks and sounds great. The models mostly look nice - they've even got all the mutations modelled with a wide range of animations and the stadiums are brilliant. I can't really find any flaw in the eye-candy department allthough apparantly you do need a reasonable system to run it. The audio is nothing to write home about and the commentary is cheesey and pretty repetitive. Strangely enough though I haven't grown bored of it enough to switch it off yet.

The game feels like Blood Bowl. Some people have been complaining on forums that the random number generator is screwy or that the computer cheats or that the game is too hard. I haven't found this. All my old strategies work, I pull off ridiculously risky plays about as often as I get completely hosed on a simple 2+ roll which is to say rarely. The game is still all about maximising your odds and minimising risks and I really cannot tell any difference with the way the game plays and the way the tabletop game or FUMBBL plays.

Off the pitch the game is pretty good too. Managing your team, checking stats, upgrading players and buying new ones is all pretty simple. The game also keeps track of loads of fun stats like the best rusher, most violent player, best passing team etc. for any particular campaign or cup.

The extra touches they've added to the 'Blitz' version (which can still be either turn based or real time) are really nice IMO. In the campaign you can buy randomly generated 'star' players in the off season (allthough 90% of them have pretty weird skill sets.) You can buy new helmets and pads etc. for your star players which look fantastic and give a small chance of a stat upgrade for each game. Nice to have a little bit of extra padding for your best players without it being overpowered. There's also a kind of gimmicky 'training' function that provides a similar bonus at the risk of losing the player for the match. All of these things are completely optional so if you want to play vanilla LRB5 that's fine.

The Not So Good

The AI. This might be the biggest issue for some people. I'd probably rate the AI (on hard mode) as equal to someone who's played the game maybe 10-12 times. It does its best to protect the ball carrier, forms cages, tries risky plays at the end of a half and does its best to stomp your players into the mud. Unfortunately it still makes some stupid decisions, tries dumb moves first and is far too conservative. If you're a Blood Bowl veteran you will concede the occasional touchdown but you should still win every game barring a string of horrific injury rolls.

The good news is that even if you're a veteran it will still throw some very curly problems for you to solve, and I always thought of Blood Bowl as a very well themed puzzle game. Yes I win every game but it's still requires a good mental workout. The computer definitely plays fast passing teams better than running teams but I wouldn't be surprised if a patch comes out that beefs up the AI. Having said all this if you're a Blood Bowl beginner or intermediate I cannot think of a better way to brush up on your skills.

Multiplayer is a bit of a mixed bag. If you want to play an organised game or cup with friends you are more than catered for whether it's in the same room or over the net. If you want to play against total strangers you might have more difficulty. There is no easy way to hook up with quality opponents and joining a random league looks like an excercise in frustration.

I won't comment too much on the real time game as it doesn't really interest me. I had a bit of a bash at it and to be honest it's not quite as awful as I thought it was. It's still a chaotic mess and telling your players apart is nearly impossible (it can be difficult enough in the turn based game for some teams) but to be fair the short time I played it was still kind of fun. The dynamics of the game change a lot as there are no turnovers so you get to see plays that would be nearly impossible in the turn based game (like a Troll taking 4 attempts to pick up a ball but then running the length of the field flattening everyone in his path for a touchdown.)

The Rotten

Yes there is pretty hardcore copy protection and there have been some bugs reported. I haven't seen any and I don't have issues with Securom but your mileage may vary. Patches have been pretty frequent and hopefully will continue to fix up any lingering problems.

No Dark Elves, High Elves or Undead! This sucks as Dark Elves are my favourite team but I guess they needed something to put in an expansion pack. There aren't Amazons or Norse or any of the other more obscure teams either but Goblins did make it into the mix.

There are some things missing from the full tabletop game as well. Goblins don't have bomb throwers, each team can only get one named star player so there's no Morgn'thorg or Hakflem Scuttlespit and journeyman don't work quite the same way. The biggest thing missing in my opinion is weather effects which means the kick off table is less interesting.

So Should I Buy It?

If you've got an organised group of friends who want to start a cup or league but don't have the time to paint miniatures or get together in one place then this is a must buy IMO. It's got everything you need plus the eye-candy to boot.

If you're looking to join a worldwide league and pit your team against the best the internet has to offer, you're much better off sticking with FUMBBL. Cyanide's game just isn't robust enough to deal with the griefers and crybabies you'll find online.

Finally if you just plain like playing Blood Bowl, then seriously consider it. If you're a halfway decent player the AI as it stands isn't going to be a huge challenge but you'll still have fun and there's something to be said for being able to have a game whenever you have a spare hour lying around - especially if you've never played the game before.

Thread: Memoir '44 - Overlord:: Rules:: Which field general first, and Move then Battle question

philmcd — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:51:46 +0000

by philmcd

1. Does the C in C decide which order his field generals take their actions?

2.If I understand it right, all 3 field Generals make their movements in turn before the first field general begins his attacks.

So if the C in C gives 2 section cards to the left FG and 1 card to the right FG and orders the right FG to play first, it would go thus...?

Right FG plays card and moves units
Left FG plays cards and moves units
centre FG decides to roll dice, rolls INF and moves an inf unit
Right FG makes his attack rolls
Left FG makes his attack rolls
Centre FG makes attack roll for his inf.

Is that right?????

3. As a supplementary, as there could be a lot of units moving and then firing, is it worth (particularly if being played as a 2 player game), putting glass beads or markers beside ordered units? My memory is crap

Thread: Dungeonquest:: Strategy:: Never Attack a Goblin!

Sphere — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:37:55 +0000

by Sphere

DungeonQuest is a deliciously difficult game to play. Most of your trips into DragonFire Castle will result in your untimely demise before nightfall. You'll have many choices to make if you hope to gain treasure and emerge alive, but this article focuses on only one of them: Monsters, and what to do when you encounter them.

Each of the five adversaries included in the Monster Deck has its own peculiarities. Understanding these, and picking the best course of action for each monster you encounter, can be the difference between life and death for your adventurer.

You must select one of three courses of action when you enter a room with a monster: Attack, Wait and See, or Escape. Attack and Wait and See are functionally equivalent - you'll remain in the new room after dealing with the monster, assuming you survive the encounter. But Attack is a far better choice against some monsters, while Wait and See is better against others.

Escape is different, in that you can't select it if you entered the room via a Secret Door or through a Portcullis, and if you succeed in escaping you'll have to return to the previous room from which you entered. Depending on your situation, that may be more important than your expected loss when deciding whether Escape is your best bet. Whether that's the case or not, the info below will let you compare Escape to the other two options.

The abilities of each monster encountered is determined by drawing one of the 15 cards from the Monster Deck:

]]>

(image by Friendly Bombs)

I've taken the data from these cards, and broken it down for each monster to help you see the best case, worst case and average for each of your possible responses. The possible results are as follows::

Escape: you can only get this result only if your selected action was Escape. As noted earlier, in this case you must return to the room from which you entered the room with the monster. In some cases, an Escape result stands alone, in others it follows a Slash (see below).

Flee: you can get this result only if your selected action was Attack or Wait and See. When this happens, you get to remain in the room, and take no damage.

Combat: with this result, the monster will fight your adventurer to the death. Each Combat includes the number of life points (LPs) that the monster has. This is the number of hits you'll need to kill it. The larger the LP number, the more dangerous the monster.

Slash: with this result the monster gets an initial swipe at you before anything else happens. The weakest Slash attack is a 6-sided die roll minus 4, which works out to 0.5 hits on average. The strongest is an unmodified 12-sided die, which could be as much as 12 hits, and averages 6.5! After the Slash is resolved, the encounter will conclude with either a Combat or an Escape.

Now let's examine and compare the results for each of the monsters in turn.

Goblin

Attack:
73% Flee
27% Combat (1 to 4 LPs, avg 2.5)

Wait and See:
73% Flee
27% Combat (1 to 2 LPs, avg 1.5)

Escape:
40% Escape
47% Slash (1 to 2 hits, avg 1.1) / Combat (1 to 2 LPs, avg 1.3)
13% Combat (always 1 LP)

Analysis: Goblins are weak creatures, and relative easy to deal with. That does not mean you should take unnecessary risks when facing them. As the article title indicates, you should never Attack a Goblin. Wait and See is as good or better for every card in the deck.

Orc

Attack:
40% Flee
60% Combat (2 to 5 LPs, avg 3.3)

Wait and See:
27% Flee
73% Combat (1 to 6 LPs, avg 3.1)

Escape:
27% Escape
13% Slash (0 to 6 hits, avg 2.1) / Escape
53% Slash (0 to 6 hits, avg 1.6) / Combat (2 to 5 LPs, avg 3.5)
07% Combat (3 LPs)

Analysis: Orcs are a bit more dangerous than Goblins, and react differently. Attack is a better choice than Wait and See against an Orc, because it is more likely to flee. If it fights, its strength will differ little on average, and the worst case LP for Attack is one less.

Mountain Troll

Attack:
20% Flee
80% Combat (1 to 4 LPs, avg 2.2)

Wait and See:
53% Flee
47% Combat (2 to 5 LPs, avg 3.4)

Escape:
87% Escape
13% Slash (0 to 12 hits, avg 4.8) / Combat (3 to 4 LPs, avg 3.5)

Analysis: The Mountain Troll is large and slow, so your odds of a successful Escape are excellent. But if you try to Escape and fail, it can get very ugly! If you don't want risk an Escape attempt, Wait and See is probably a better choice than Attack. If the Troll fights, he'll be a bit tougher, but the chances of him fleeing are substantially better and may make that risk worthwhile.

Death Warrior

Attack:
13% Flee
87% Combat (2 to 5 LPs, avg 3.8)

Wait and See:
07% Flee
93% Combat (2 to 5 LPs, avg 3.6)

Escape:
40% Escape
27% Slash (0 to 3 hits, avg 1.0) / Escape
33% Slash (0 to 4 hits, avg 2.1) / Combat (2 to 4 LPs, avg 3.2)

Analysis: The Death Warrior is a formidable opponent, and one from which an attempt to Escape might be the most prudent choice. If you must hold your ground, Attack. That doubles your chance of getting a flee result, with almost no change in LP average should you have to fight.

Champion of Chaos

Attack:
13% Flee
87% Combat (2 to 7 LPs, avg 4.5)

Wait and See:
07% Flee
93% Combat (3 to 8 LPs, avg 4.8)

Escape:
20% Escape
73% Slash (0 to 6 hits, avg 2.0) / Combat (2 to 8 LPs, avg 5.4)
07% Combat (5 LPs)

Analysis: If you face the Champion of Chaos, you have a serious problem. Unlike the Death Warrior, Escape doesn't look much better than standing your ground - your chance of getting away doesn't improve a great deal, and it's highly probably that you'll take more damage otherwise. If you choose not to Escape, Attack is the least painful choice. A flee result is twice as likely as it would be with Wait and See, and if you face a Champion he will be less formidable, both in the worst case scenario and on average.

Summary
So there you have it. Escape should get extra consideration against Mountain Trolls and Death Warriors. If Escape isn't your choice, Attack against Orcs, Death Warriors or Champions of Chaos, but Wait and See is superior when you face a Goblin, and probably also against a Mountain Troll.

Learn these lessons well, and perhaps you'll escape alive from your next foray into DragonFire castle.

Thread: Acquire:: Rules:: When placing tiles at the beginning of the game...?

BlueDagger — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:58:45 +0000

by BlueDagger

What happens when two tiles are placed next to each other in the initial tile placement? Is a hotel founded? If so who gets to chose which hotel is started, and who gets the free share?

Review: Space Alert:: Giant Hamster Ball of Chaos

VixenTorGames — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:45:05 +0000

by VixenTorGames

Imagine you and four friends are in a giant hamster ball. Now imagine that you have all been eating Snickers and drinking Red Bull for the last 48 hours. Now imagine that the hamster ball is careening down the Alps, bouncing off trees and skiers and dogs with whiskey barrels on their collars. Almost done - just one more thing - now imagine that you have to control this insane spherical avalanche of chaos, and that's Space Alert.

Since you probably need more than that to call this a game review, I'll discuss a little of how this game works. The theory is that you're all manning an explorer craft in space, and while you're out there, stuff comes flying at you like crazy. And you have to shoot cannons, fire rockets, order robots, charge reactors, power shields, and just in case you're not too busy already, you also have to hit the mouse every now and then to keep the screensaver from coming on (I am not making this up).

As if that wasn't enough crap going on, you're on a serious time limit. The timer is accomplished with a CD, and each 10-minute recording will spout off now and then to tell you that there are bad guys coming in, or that you get more cards, or that you need to lie down and put a cool rag on your forehead after you play three or four times (OK, now that part I made up).

Every game is basically split into two segments. The first part is where you plan what you're going to do. You don't actually have to resolve anything, you just put out cards. The problem is that while you're putting down cards that do stuff like move, use the elevator, or fire yourself into space, the clock is ticking. And every so often, the recording will announce a new threat, one that could quite possibly blow you directly to Hell (unless, of course, you have made other arrangements, like praying a lot and avoiding strong drink - but either way, you're dead).

The chaos that ensues while the soundtrack is playing is amazing. It's unlike anything I've ever played. It might actually make you wish you were doing something a little less stressful, like driving the wrong way in traffic while you check your voice mail and light a cigarette with your kids screaming in the back seat because frankly, you're going the wrong way and you're probably about to kill them (and may I add that if you smoke in the car while your kids are in the back seat, you are probably the same kind of dirtbag asscrack who wears his seatbelt while he lets his children bounce around like super balls in a paint mixer).

After ten minutes, the soundtrack ends, and then you see how you actually did. A very useful turn tracker walks you through every step, and you use the board to keep track of how well you managed to shoot down the space octopus, battle the slime, and deactivate the nuclear device, all while trying to remember if you turned off the iron.

What generally happens is that you probably get through the first three or four turns pretty well, and maybe even manage to get another third of the way through the game before everyone starts turning up cards and going, 'why am I looking out the window right now instead of launching rockets, and how come you fired the cannon when we haven't had anything on that side of the ship for five minutes?' It sort of unravels at the end, with people shooting at targets that aren't there, activating robots willy-nilly, and mostly just hoping that the last few threats aren't big enough to blow your doors off.

However, if everyone stays sharp, and someone plans really, really well, you can come through alive. It's not impossible to win the game, just really hard. This is a completely cooperative game, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it, especially when your cohorts play the wrong cards, or fail to pay attention, or just completely don't get how to play and wind up using up all the energy to charge the shields on the wrong side of the ship so that you don't have any power left to shoot the kamikaze fighter that ends up crashing into you like a wrecking ball full of high explosives.

In fact, to give yourself the best chance of success, you'll want to play several games with the same group. After a while, everyone will start to understand the various actions and how things work, and hopefully figure out how to work together as a team. If you've ever played a cooperative game and been totally irritated by that one mouthy know-it-all who tells everyone what they ought to do on their turns, this game should be the cure. That guy might still try to dominate, but now you can make him the captain, and if you all die, you can blame it all on him.

One final note here - I hated this game the first time I played. I mean, I was so irritated and confused that I actually said, 'I don't care if I ever play this again.' But we tried it again, and then one more time, and I started to see how this could actually be a really fun game. Then I tried it solo, and it was a completely different game, and it was still fun. Heck, at this point, I want to make it a regular mainstay with my family, because I think it would be a blast once we get it down.

Of course, knowing my kids, they'll probably drive the hamster ball into a ski lodge and blame it all on each other, but what the hell. We'll bond.

Summary

Pros:
The CD could have been a total gimmick, but turns out to be a critical game component
Cooperative game that really forces teamwork
You're really proud of yourselves when you win
Hilarious rulebook is funny and informative at the same time

Cons:
Utter chaos
Should never be played with people who don't get it
Painful learning curve may stop people from learning the game

Thread: Axis & Allies:: General:: Does anyone even play this version anymore?

SFRR — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:02:04 +0000

by SFRR

I loved this when it first came out, but with all the improved versions, revising all of the errors and weaknesses of the 1st/2nd Ed's...why even play this one?

...just curious.

Session: Advanced Squad Leader (ASL):: D1 - Guryev's Headquarters - the Russian side of the story

aiabx — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:55:46 +0000

by aiabx

DASL1 - Guryev's Headquarters

I recently managed to get together with the Scrub to play his first game of full ASL. I picked Guryev's Headquarters as our scenario for a number of reasons - it's all infantry, it's on the deluxe boards, and it's small enough for a half-day's play. When the Scrub mentioned that he had an interest in Stalingrad, that made it an easy choice.

The Scrub has posted his AAR, so an awful lot of what happened doesn't need to be repeated. The essence of the scenario is simple; 17 German squads need to break through a row of buildings and occupy the Russian HQ behind them before the Russian 6-2-8 reinforcements come swarming in. We rolled for sides and I came up with the Russians.

I had a few choices to make as the Russians. The first was whether or not to swap an officer for a commissar. Since this was going to be an educational experience for the Scrub, I decided to pull out all the stops and swapped my 8-1 reinforcement leader for a 10-0 commissar. None of my starting leaders were eligible for the swap, so I would have to wait until a lucky roll to get the commissar benefits. For my hidden squads, I placed a 6-2-8 in the rubble on the right flank of my defense, and a 4-5-8 with an LMG at the 2nd level of bE1, at the back of the building. Here I would skulk until Scrub made his move to enter GH, and I would shoot him in the back, causing misery, encirclement and failure to rout. At least, that was the plan.

When the Scrub actually set up his forces, it was clear I would have to rethink; he had gone for a heavily weighted right sweep, and too many of my forces were on the wrong flank, including my MMG. Since my boys were going to have to move, I saw no reason to keep their HIP/concealed status - they opened right up on the targets that were in their range. Sadly, they never really got a chance to move.. the MMG squad was swarmed by Germans and killed in close combat before they really made their mark, while the 6-2-8 crept into the big stone building that served as my front line.

The essence of the battle itself you can get from Scrub's excellent post. My plan was a simple one - sacrifice the lives of every one of my men to slow down the Germans while I got reinforcements into the building. When Scrub was hesitant about charging full bore into the street while I still had units available to resist him, I did skulk back for a turn to keep him from breaking the line in my turn. The slaughter was only delayed, culminating in an amazing berserk charge, but it bought me a turn in delay. The berserkers, by the way, started out as a full squad. They were killers, but they paid the price in dead bodies on the road. I did screw up by allowing them an ambush roll, but when Scrub rolled a 2, well, that was a sign that fate wanted those Russians dead. Since my boys were already pinned, my odds of vengeance weren't all they could be anyway.

The other rule I screwed up was guarding prisoners. If I had clearly remembered that guards were at half strength in close combat, I probably would have massacred the unit I captured at the start of the game (they were surrounded and couldn't rout). As it turns out, however, seeing the prisoners freed in close combat, rearmed with Russian rifles and sent back as a German conscript half-squad - only to see them disrupted and surrender again - was the comic high point of the narrative and I wouldn't have missed it for a platoon of T-34's.

When the crunch came and I was faced with a massive German force ready to rush the headquarters, I had three aces up my sleeve still. The first was an HMG with an elite squad and a 9-1 officer. The second was a hidden sqaud and LMG lurking in the upstairs windows of the big house, waiting to shoot the Germans in the back as they charged. And the last was my coloured die, the red die from my original Beyond Valor set back in 1985. It cranked up a streak of ROF that really broke the German attack apart, while generating a bunch of SAN rolls by my opponent. By the time the end came, I didn't even need my hidden squad to push back the last feeble German survivors. But shooting him in the back was still fun and a valuable learning experience for the Scrub.

So, like the Scrub, I too take lessons away from this scenario.

1) Play an opponent who isn't going to get bent out of shape if you flub a rule. There are a lot. It's going to happen.

2) Deluxe ASL makes an excellent learning platform. Those big hexes make it good and clear what's going on. It makes a good spectator platform if you're out in public, too.

3) Play an opponent who brought his camera. Those are mighty good picture's in Scrub's report

4) Take a Commissar. It may be chrome, but they were really out there, and it really adds to the narrative when he shoots an elite rifleman, and next turn, the rest of the squad is on their feet and saluting.

5) Have fun. There's a lot of enjoyment in an ASL scenario.

Thread: Key to the Kingdom:: Rules:: Stealing treasure cards

Bonepitterror — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:52:16 +0000

by Bonepitterror

What are the circumstances by which someone can steal a treasure card from another player? The rules say you can if you land on the same space, but does it apply for special spaces too? For example, if the spot is a white arrow spot, the player has to stop after going through a challenge, so they're more likely to stop on that spot. A similar situation is the black arrow spots, which someone can land on both by fighting a monster or by landing on an exact role. Do both of those situations lead to someone stealing the treasure? (same with the bone pit skull spaces or the splash spaces from the boat)

Thread: Conquest of the Empire:: General:: PLEASE(!)...SELL Me your ORANGE "CotE2" Units

SFRR — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:49:38 +0000

by SFRR

ORANGEThe after-market orange colored units for "Conquest of the Empire II" are no longer available from Eagle Games ( www.eaglegames.net ). I HAVE painted a set orange, but because the plastic is soft and bendable, the paint eventually chips off. If you are not using your ORANGE units, please sell them to me. I need TWO ( that's [2] ) sprues of ORANGE, or only one if that's all you've got.

Thanks,
(SFRR)

Review: FITS:: The First Game I Enjoy Solo?

feydjm — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:33:14 +0000

by feydjm

I've seen many games over the years proclaim that they support solo play. To date none of them convinced me to actually play them solo. Until tonight.

For those who have avoided learning about this latest Knizia SDJ nominee, I think you should avoid it no longer. FITS is a game from Ravensburger for 1-4 players. Pentomino (although some are only 3 and 4 block pieces) style pieces are slid vertically down the provided ramps in an attempt to achieve the most points. Unlike Tetris, the pieces cannot be moved horizontally to fill in gaps.

There are 4 different boards that come with the game and you score points differently on each board. There is one universal scoring rule: If a gray dot on the board is exposed at the end of the round, it's worth -1 point. On the first board the goal is the simplest: Complete the most rows, each one being worth a point. The second board provides some bonus positive point spaces that are worth points if you don't cover them up. Board 3 has positive and negative bonus points, and then the 4th board forces you to try to leave sets of circles uncovered.

Whoever has the most points at the end wins.

This is not a deep strategy game, it's all about doing the best you can with the next card that flips up. This is a critical point as to why I enjoy this game. Every game ends with the feeling that you could do better and hence desire to play again, and again, and again.

While opening the game today, I just started flipping cards and playing the first board. I think I played through the 1st board 5 or 6 times before I stopped. My scores ranged from -5 to 6. The key here is that I was enjoying this by myself. I find this a really fun game and I'm encouraged by the solo playability. I think it lends itself to solo play more than other games I've played.

I think anyone that enjoys puzzle games will really like this game and it appears to be widely available now, so enjoy!

Thread: Empires of the Middle Ages:: General:: compare contrast with 7 Ages ?

Gronak — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:31:09 +0000

by Gronak

I have both of these and am daunted by the length & reputed deficiencies poor presentation of their rules.

Both have multi-use cards and deal with creating empires; but how similar are they in game play? Does one have a clever rule or mechanism that the might work in the other?

To what degree does knowing the rules for one help or hinder you in playing the other?

Thread: Tales of the Arabian Nights:: General:: Game type

PETz — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:28:45 +0000

by PETz

Hello,

the game first drawed my attention when I saw him in the "hot spot" of BGG. I like the theme and from what I saw this is a new type of game that my newly players group didn't played. The group I play with arn't very strategic type. Everytime I tell them about a new game and I start explayining the rules they tell me "let's play the game with the sheeps" (Settlers of Catan - we call it the sheeps game because in the games we played we always had a lot of sheeps), even that after some plays they get the rules and actually start to like the game.

So my question here is, do you think this is a game you will have FUN with 3-4-5 players? I'm looking for a game where strategy is not so important, just a fun game. It's pretty sad for me to see the "wrong" moves that my friends make when playing other games.

From what I'v read about the game, the game is about stories and stories can be fun, but since I havn't saw any video about it and havn't read the rules I don't know how fun the game can be.

Anyway, do you know how I can get the game in Europe?

Thanks

Thread: Café International:: Rules:: A Couple of Rules Questions

Beowulf — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:17:59 +0000

by Beowulf

1. During the final turn of the game, a player fills the last seat on the board without creating a "single nation" table. Does this player still have to draw a replacement tile which will count against her in the final scoring?

2. When jokers are played in such a way that they score at two tables, they are not allowed to change nationalities. When such a joker is later replaced, can it be replaced by an appropriately-gendered tile of either nationality? Or do you have to match the nationality which was selected for it by the original player?

Thanks for the help!

Thread: Arkham Horror:: Rules:: Second play : Couple rules questions and some general game play talking

Bobthesnake — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:25:45 +0000

by Bobthesnake

Note that I don't want to open my box for the correct names because it's late but you will know who or what I'm talking about.

Aschan Pete's ability is that when he draw a certain card, he can look at the top and bottom one. When we discard items, spells or any card after use, do we put them under the pile so we can use it agian, or we make a seperate discard pile and shuffle them if we ever run out of items or spells card (which never happened yet)? When we go at the curious shop, you pick up 3 cards, buy one and discard the 2 others. As I see it, you would put the 2 unbought cards under the pile since they were not used at all. Also here, does Aschan look at the 3 top and 3 bottom, or 3 top and 1 bottom? When we use a spell or an item and it says discard after use, would we put them under the pile or in a seperate pile. I guess the strategy would be if someone used a elder sign, put it below the pile, Aschan could go there and buy the sign which was under the pile? Which would make the game so much easier?

The item healing stone which says that in the upkeep, we exhaust it to gain 1 stamina or sanity. Me and my friend had a discussion. When I use it in the upkeep in turn 3, in the upkeep at turn 4 you unexhaust it but you can only use it in the upkeep in turn 5 right? thats how I see it. My friend was telling me that you could unexhaust it and exhaust it again in the same turn. But this logic is flawed, since if the upkeep last long enough to untap and to tap it, well it could last infinitaly long and I could gain 3 stamina and 3 life in 1 upkeep which would be stupid.

I fought a mob which said that if I won a combat check, i didnt get the card, but it was put in the box and I gained 1 unique. Put in the box meant out of play or in the monster bucket?

General game play discussion.
2 player with 2 char each :
Me : Photographer and the woman which allows you to reroll missed rolled in checks - can be used once per game turn.

Friend : Aschan Pete and the Nun (girl which start with holy water and a crucifix).

The GOO was Azgaloth (the one that if he awakens, the world is doomed)

I choose this mob for our second game since it would allow us to play the 5 phase longer since the mob had a long doom track. This would help us play phases faster which would lead to less downtime.

Well we finished the game is 2:45 min with 6 sealed gate, 3 of those was with elder sign. Azgaloth never had more than 6 counters on his doom track. Terror levels was at 2.

The nun did nothing. We thought that maybe she could help us go close gates since she couldnt get LiTaS which meant being devoured but that was not the case. She starts with so few things that she never had time to pick up. We needed our items and couldnt trade with her. She killed 3 mobs in the whole game which was in late game when it didn't count.

The photographer : well i got lucky and at the start, got the tommy gun (in 2 games, I started with that), a +3 magic weapon and the spell that changes a physical damage weapon to magic or vice versa. I closed 3 gates, killed about 13 worth of toughness monsters. I had 1 close call with 1 sanity in the OW.

The girl with the missed rolled in a check power : She closed 2. She was quite good but her skill is so helpful. She helped us every turns. I think she made the game too easy. 3 time in the OW, she did encounters that would have sent her LiTaS, but won them all.

Aschan did moderately good. closed one gate but never got some cash to get items after his initial ones.

This game left me and my friend a bit of sour taste in our mouths. We got a couple of close calls, but in the whole, the game was too easy. We are doing our phases really fast now since we understand how it works. We forgot a couple basic thing a couple our 3 first closed portals which was to remove monsters of the same dimension, but we missed only 2 monsters so it only gave us a bit more challenge. We finished the game and was like, Uh. This game was ok in fun factor, but not challenging enough. Is Azgaloth always this easy, or having that reroll check chick made things way to easy? Also about the gates, I notice that when we close 2,3 gates, like 75% of the time, it's a monster surge or a sealed location. I don't know if it's our luck, but it happened also in our first game. this makes the game way easier.

I guess it's a bit of a rant since I love this game but this session left a sour taste which I never tought of having in just my second game. Next time, getting a real GOO that has a negative slumber effect would be better. Hastur and Chtulu seems hard enough

Can the nun actually become good in a game alone? Seems she has to be given everything by other characters to at least become competetive or maybe she needs to get a bank loan to get her started?

Well that's it for now. Gnight!

Thread: Senji:: Variants:: No Oda

Gyges — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:04:52 +0000

by Gyges

I am strongly considering just ditching Oda from the game (he's the 4-point dude that lets you use a hanafuda card as wild every fall). He seems a little too good to me. Thoughts?
(The biggest downside would be that in a six-player game, people would only be able to choose from two samurai as opposed to three).

Thread: Rope:: General:: Brief Description of ROPE in Dice Tower interview at Origins

jollyrogergames — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:04:15 +0000

by jollyrogergames

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmqpqvCjqUo

Thread: Ta Yü:: General:: Help! Trying Not to Break the Board!

Carmilla — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:57:19 +0000

by Carmilla

I'm one of those people who are prone to breaking things through pure klutziness -- for which reason I'll probably never own Starfarers of Catan, and games with mixed back & front fold boards give me the heebie-jeebies.

So -- I managed to assemble my Ta Yu board with little trouble, and only a minor fit of nerves. Yay! I tried out a game solo, just to get familiar with the rules.

And then -- I tried to take the board apart. It's not quite working, and honestly, I'm scared to fiddle too much. Reversing the set-up illustration, it LOOKS like I should be able to kind fold the sides together, but it doesn't seem to work, and I don't wanna force it.

Can someone help this klutz?

Thread: Age of Steam Expansion - Barbados / St. Lucia:: General:: Steam Solo Scores on Barbados

forsytjr — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:50:24 +0000

by forsytjr

What are folks getting playing Steam rules on Barbados? I seem some postings with Age of Steam rules, but not sure how they compare to Steam. I got 55 on my first try (45 VP + 10 Income).

Thread: D-Day at Omaha Beach:: Rules:: Artillery limitations?

Ravenbro — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:57:08 +0000

by Ravenbro

It seems to be that given the restrictions on artillery support of an attack (Section 8.1), the only way a non-armored artillery unit with unlimited range can support an attack is if there are two HQ or Gen units involved; one Gen/HQ that commands the attacking infantry and another HQ that commands the artillery unit some distance away. Is this the case?

Since both the attacking infantry and the artillery unit have to be in command, how can this attack be performed with only one HQ? Wouldn't they all have to be adjacent to each other in a 3-hex line? This arrangement wouldn't even work if the position being attacked projects fire on the artillery unit if non-armored.

Why not allow HQ-commanded artillery to support any infantry unit so long as that infantry possesses a radio?

Thread: Arkham Horror:: General:: Arkham Stepladder For Those With Limited Table Space

PeterB10128 — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:00:03 +0000

by PeterB10128

I discovered that putting some paper towels on the steps of the stepladder and placing it near the dealer's chair is a easy way to access and deal cards. Useful for anyone with limited table space, and all with the help of a common household item!

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Thread: Le Havre:: General:: A bit curious after an initial play...

DavidT — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:27:06 +0000

by DavidT

So, my wife and I are huge fans of Agricola and were very excited to receive our copy of Le Havre last week. Without much delay, we got it out on the table and tried out a 2-player, short version to get a feel for how the game works.

We didn't really look very far ahead for our strategies and just did what felt right at the time, figuring that the game would make a lot more sense and a structure would emerge after completion. The resulting scores have me curious, though.

Essentially, I spent the entire game buying a *ton* of buildings. As a result, the end game kind of crept up on me and I didn't have the number of turns necessary to get my "shipping" game going. I only had two wooden ships and never shipped a single thing.

Conversely, my wife began planning for a 'points-via-shipping' strategy early on and successfully completed two lucrative deliveries before game end. It seems to me that building up to this type of successful shipping is the intended focus of the game (is this correct?).

However, what has me curious is that I still beat her handily by virtue of the value of my accumulated buildings alone. She only had 2-3 buildings at the end, and I had many, many more (all but one of which I'd built from scratch, so were pure income). Based on this, it makes me wonder what value the shipping strategy would have, if it can be beaten by a very straightforward 'build' strategy.

My guess is that this is a result of playing the "short" version and being inexperienced with the game. Any thoughts?

Thread: High School Drama!:: Rules:: Questions about rules

vhirvela — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:10:11 +0000

by vhirvela

Ok so could someone make video review of this so We could see how you actually play this?!

I have no idea if you can infact "steal" orgnanisations or people from other players.

So I guess I have to play it without the stealing...but if you cant "connect" to people organisastions your rivals have allready connected Is it very improtant (perhaps too important) to connect to the organisations as clearly as poissible?!

Thread: To The Last Man!:: Rules:: Bad Weather question

fusag — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:02:05 +0000

by fusag

Sorry, one more: The attacker plays a Poison Gas card, which the defender neutralizes with a Bad Weather. May the attacker play another Poison Gas card?

Thread: Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition:: General:: Questions about deluxe vs. orginal

vhirvela — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:58:18 +0000

by vhirvela

Ok so everywhere I ask everyone says that these games are vastly different!? Also i read that there are more charracters in deluxe including also interesting variant rules!? But in orginal you can only play with one set of charracters?!

Also the combat system is different? how?

What is different in the two games?
Which is the same?
And which one is better?

Session: Pirates of the Spanish Main:: Not Quite Capture the Flag

commodore vendari — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:52:55 +0000

by commodore vendari

This game introduces three of my friends to my friends to my little gaming group: Captain C. Jones, Monsoon Matthew, and Typhoon TJ. The only person really new to piracy is Matt, but he got the hang of it rather quickly. CJ and TJ were intermediate beginning players, but still really good. The fleets:

Commodore Salem Vendari the Sly (myself):
HMS Grand Temple
-Admiral James Norrington
HMS Hyena
-Captain
HMS Raven
-Captain
HMS Victor
-Captain

Typhoon TJ:
Constitution
-Chief PO Charles Richard
-Helmsman
-Firepot Specialist
Julius Caesar
-Captain
USS Kentucky
-Helmsman

Monsoon Matthew:
Le Gaule
-Mademoiselle Josephine Godiva
-Helmsman
East Wind
Sea Phoenix
L'Auguste
La Belle Etoile

Captain C. Jones (CJ):
Grand Vainqueur
-Madame LaFontaine
-Captain
-Helmsman
Lady Newport
-Captain
Pioneer
-Marty
-Captain
Banshee's Cry
-Cotton

Four fleets shot from fortified harbors, prepared for war. Each fort carried four guns: two S-range and two L-range, all of which were rank-3. Typhoon TJ, commanding an American-pure fleet, immediately sent his fleet after the largest threat on the seas: Commodore Salem Vendari. The Julius Caesar was he first to open fire. She pulled up alongside the HMS Victor and fired a broadsides attack. As one her cannons roared....and left four holes in the ocean. The splashes heard around the sea. The Victor swooped in alongside and shot down two of the Caesar's masts.

The commodore's HMS Grand Temple slid into a nearby fogbank, preparing to jump the oncoming Constitution."Old Ironsides", sailing under an amateur captain, was unable to unleash her firepower into the HMS Hyena as her cannons came in range. The Hyena took this weakness to her advantage. She rammed into the starboard-bow of the Constitution, knocking down her aft-most mast with a lucky roll of 6. Due to her ability, the crew of the Hyena swarmed over to the Constitution and killed Charles Richard, then came in with another wave and killed the helmsman in a boarding party. Then the English ship unloaded two of her cannons into the ship, knocking down the only mast she was able to.

Salem rolled a 2 for the Temple's exiting roll in the fogbank, which brought her face to face with Old Ironsides. She slammed her bow into the American's port-stern and knocked down a third mast. Her crew boarded and killed off the firepot specialist. The Temple then unloaded four cannonballs into the Constitution's side, knocking down the last two masts and leaving her derelict.

It was at this point Salem decided to show mercy. In return for command of the Constitution, he agreed to a truce between himself and TJ.

In the midst of all this, Monsoon Matthew sneaked Le Gaule in to strike at the nearly unprotected American fort. Her captain, like the captain of the Constitution, was unexperienced. Le Gaule lost three of her five masts when the fort shot at her. Le Gaule shot back, taking out of of the guns, but then lost on more in the return-fire. She high-tailed it back home for repairs. She didn't get far before the USS Kentucky shot down her final mast and took her under tow.

An unsuspecting Beautiful Star (La Belle Etoile) found herself in the waters of Captain CJ, and was quickly overwhelmed and taken under tow by the Grand Vainqueur, Pioneer, and Lady Newport. After getting Etoile to home, she was quickly repaired and sent into battle with the oncoming English fleet.

The Victor, having lost her captain previously and taken the Raven's, pulled alongside the Lady Newport and shot down her central mast. The Newport returned fire and shot down two of the Victor's, then the Vainqueur's bombardier cannon took down the final and the Pioneer finished her off. The Raven was also sunk in the mayhem. Salem had finished repairing the Constitution and was sending her to join the battle, but time had run out. In the end, no one was able to capture any flags, so we defaulted to most masts afloat. Salem won with a whopping 18 masts. TJ came in a close second with 16 masts, Matthew in third with 12, and CJ came up last with 10 masts.

Matthew was new to the game, but he did really well for a new player. CJ and TJ were both advanced beginners, but fought like experts. All in all, the players fought hard. Salem is still Ruler of the Seas, but he might not have gotten the title after that turning point in the match.

-Commodore Salem Vendari the Sly

Session: CHAOS ISLE: Zombi Deck:: I'm a celebrity, get me out of here!

Matchstickman — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:52:41 +0000

by Matchstickman

(Solo game using no expansions)

There I was, trapped on Chaos Isle. I use to have Money, cars, fame and all that stuff but now all I have is a fight for my life every day. Of course you recognise me, I'm Travis, actor extraordinaire (S:9 L:8 P:9 F:8).

I'd heard a rumour about a helicopter on the Isle and I still had enough die hard fans who were willing to bend the rules for me to get a look at it. I noted it wasn't guarded very well but there was no fuel, if I could find some I would be off back to Hollywood (Mission: Gather Gas to fuel escape; requirements 8 Gas).

Raiding the last of my supplies I found an old souvenir from that time I filmed in Cambodia and the last of my '100% natural, guaranteed undetectable' pick me ups and set out into the Isle to see what I could find (Starting equip: Sniper Rifle, Perk Pills).

Leaving my house I was immediately confronted with a choice, should I blood myself in combat or run to one of the two glittering items off to either side of me? (Bone Collector, Task, Task) I chose to wade through some infected blood and came out with a valuable prize, that of a Kevlar Vest.

With my million dollar looks now protected it was time to venture out into the unforgiving Isle and see what was out there. The zombi I had previously dismissed was still behind me, as was the infected blood but before I could run for cover another zombi swooped down out of the night's sky and attacked me! (Bone Collector(d), Task(d), Stalker) Aiming carefully with my Sniper Rifle I shot it out of the air before it had a chance to attack me and on searching it's body I found it was carrying some Gas I quickly collected this up and moved on (Gas:1)

Up ahead I came across 3 zombis trying to take apart a poor victim. (Bone Collector, Bone Collector, Corpsemare) I distracted the Corpsemare long enough for myself and the girl to run away from the 2 Bone Collectors there and as a way of thanking me for rescuing her she gave more some more gas! (Gas:1, from Corpsemare) Parting ways I continued on.

The Bone Collectors I had outrun were still slowly following on behind me, proving them had some rudimentary intelligence they tried to funnel me towards another zombi, but I quickly outpaced it too. (Bone Collector(d), Bone Collector(d), Feeder)

The noise from the Feeder soon attracted more attention from its Zombie brethren and 2 others joined in pursuit (Feeder(d), Corpsemare, Stalker). I out ran two of them but the Stalker flew over all obstacles with ease, catching up to me and trying to scratch at my face, luckily the Kevlar vest was still untouched! The surprise of not drawing blood allowed me to get in a quick attack on the Stalker and, thanks to the organic products I had recently eaten (Perk Pills, +2 attack) was able to take it down without any further problems. It had been obviously been a station attendant in life as it still clutched onto two emergency Gas cans in its hands (Gas:2).

A feeding frenzy was going on ahead, several Zombis fighting over a single kill. (Feeder, Feeder, Coiler) With no conscious thought as to what I was doing I sprang into action, exposing myself to all three of them. Leading the two feeders a merry dance I slowly wound my way back to the lone coiler and took him/her/it out with a precisely aimed shot. Searching over the body of the poor victim for supplies I found more Gas! (From Coiler Gas:1)

I took longer to look over the remains than I had though and a sudden shriek alerted me to the fact that the Feeders were back, and they had brought a friend! (Feeder(d), Feeder(d), Feeder) I saw that one of the Feeders I had previously avoided was unwittingly entangled in a Gas can, I shot him down and then ran off, doubling back to the scene when I was sure the other Feeders were long gone (Gas:1).

The streets were getting a little too crowded for my liking and I ducked into a nearby building (Coiler, Flesh Reaper, Task) but to no avail, there was a Zombi in here waiting for me! I tried to rush past it but its tentacles ripped at my Kevlar Vest, letting out a hideous howl as it destroyed the last of it.

I ran through the streets, trying to get away from my pursuers and in my haste to get away I didn't notice that they were cutting off all escape routes but one, I was being herded inwards, ever inwards until I turned the last corner and saw that I know faced The Creator! (Coiler(d), Task(d), The Creator) Surrounded as I was I couldn't outrun him and prepared for the inevitable. With a weary resignation I readied my Sniper Rifle and took a shot, a direct hit! With no sign of the bulleting slowing its progress The Creator advanced on me, whipping its tentacles all around, one smashing into my cover before the other ripped into my flesh (1 hit), as I lay there exposed and bleeding I saw a blackish light pulsate out of the top of its head and streak towards me, only to veer off at the last instance. Given new confidence by this I picked up my Sniper Rifle again and shot back. The bullet passed straight through the centre of its eye and out the other side, thus ending its miserable life.

Sitting down and resting after such an ordeal I found myself resting my back against the very thing I was looking for, two Gas cans! (Gas:2, total 8) Without a backwards glance I hoisted up the cans and headed off back the helicopter to fly into the sunset...

Is it not a truly cinematic end to the tale that I, the hero, should face down The Creator to find the final elements needed to fuel the chopper?

So Mr Producer, how much are you willing to pay me for the story of my life? Cast me as me and I can bring genuine experiences to the roll that will win us an Oscar for sure!
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was my first time playing Chaos Isle and I know I made at least one mistake, the first time I faced off against a Stalker I let Travis take his attack first, the Stalker had higher speed and should have attacked first. Only experience will tell me if I made others.

Thoughts on the game, will have to play more of the game to see if I was just lucky or if the zombies are that easy to overcome, I took only three hits over the course of the (very short) game I was playing. The plus 3 attack bonus the Sniper Rifle gave was a huge boost and the very slow cycling of equipment cards meant I was never going to be in any danger of discarding it.
In a single player game if you can outrun a zombie you can ensure that you only face one or two new cards each turn, that seems to make the game a lot easier than it should be, I might have to house rule that limits the amount you can draw from the discard pile, thus making certain you face new and unknown horrors. (Any cards with (d) next to it mean I redrew that card from the discard pile)

Session: Battlestar Galactica:: Why honesty is not always the best solution.

Lapoleon — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:34:13 +0000

by Lapoleon

Yesterday a couple of friends and I came together to play a game of Battlestar, most of us had played at least a couple of times, but there were two players who had only played once.

The turn order was as follows:

1: Roslin, Egbert (new player)
2: Helo, Sjoerd B. (new player)
3: Apollo, [username=Grinning One]
4: Baltar, Me
5: Starbuck, Sjoerd T.

The game started quietly with the destruction of the raiders by Starbuck. Apollo destroyed some other raiders which spawned from the Basestar. The only problem was a Centurion that had boarded us because of a Cylon Virus. Just before we jumped Apollo wanted to play a Strategic Planning to destroy a heavy raider when it was needed to destroy the boarding party, which, after having moved twice, was causing us considerable concern.
Luckily we were able to dissuade him of playing it on the heavy raider, but still we were somewhat suspicious. Especially since Apollo was played by a player who often analysis every move.

We got another jump icon in his turn and jumped away. Since Helo was not to sure about what the good destiny cards were he asked us for advice (without breaking secrecy rules) and we jumped to a barren planet. At this point we had only lost one or two of each resource and were in a good mood.

In the following turn I got a crisis allowing me to look at someone's loyalty card. The obvious choices of course were the president or admiral, but since Apollo's behaviour was suspicious I had a look at his card and sure enough I found the first Cylon. He didn't even bother to deny it. The next turn we failed a brig attempt by a lot. In fact there was only one positive card, and it was purple, since both Helo and Starbuck were the only ones who could have played it cries that: "Sjoerd is a Cylon" immediately went up. Still, we weren't too sure if it wasn't an honest mistake. So the president (executive) ordered me to take a look at our admirals loyalty card using my special ability...
And that is where it went wrong. Helo turned out to be the other Cylon, which I immediately exclaimed, thinking that this should be a cakewalk with both Cylons known. I was wrong.

Instead of revealing themselves both Cylons started an extreme spree of sabotage. They jumped in Helo's turn, costing us 3 population, which they gleefully did without having to use Helo's reroll ability. Our Cylon admiral then chose a Tylium planet as a destination, but obviously didn't bother to send out a raptor.

At this point we were still in good shape, fuel was a bit low, but the other resources were still in the blue. We were somewhat afraid that both the admiral and his successor were Cylons and that they were sitting in a row. From this point on however the Cylons could plot together about what they were going to do to us and they slowly but surely started whittling us down. Starbuck was an easy target to imprison and with some help of the destiny deck they succeeded in throwing the only non Cylon pilot in prison. We got her out just in time to fight the arriving Cylons, but it cost us another couple of turns since we were running low on cards due to food shortages and other crises.

Arriving Cylons however meant putting vipers on the board, and using Apollo's ability he was able to jump in a viper and XO Helo, this unfortunately happened several times, meaning Helo could lead the Civvies like blind sheep right into the arms of the raiders, costing us plenty of population and even more fuel. At this point thinks were almost hopeless with only three fuel left and only three distance travelled but since surrender is not a word found in our dictionary we tried to carry on.

The inevitable conclusion was that we were in a position where we wanted to jump because the need to keep our Civvies save, but we really couldn't since our fuel was only at one. And the admiral was still a Cylon. Helo however was imprisoned meanwhile by use of Roslins once per game abilty to draw Quorum Cards and a lucky Arrest Order.

In retrospect it would have been much better to lie about Helo's loyalty so Apollo would think himself alone and reveal. In that case I would have lobbied to imprison Apollo and once in the brig we could have taken care of Helo. But since both Cylons knew the other in the same turn they were able to wreak havoc almost unopposed.

Thread: Fauna:: General:: The light at the end of the English Edition tunnel is not a train.

feydjm — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:34:06 +0000

by feydjm

I contacted the people at Huch and Friends to inquire about an english edition. I got a nice reply from them saying it's in the works but it probably won't be available until Spring.

I thanked them and asked if the measurements will remain in Metric units. I'll post here if I get a response to my follow-up.

So if you can wait 9 months or so, our english version may be a reality!

Thread: Race for the Galaxy:: Rules:: How many can I develop?

UUMickey — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:28:35 +0000

by UUMickey

Hi, folks.

I think I know the answer to this, but I wanted a second opinion...

During the Develop phase, how many developments can I play? As many as I can pay for or just 1?

I think the answer is just 1 as the wording in the rule book states "... each player places a developmnent card from his hand face down..." emphasis mine.

I believe "a" means just 1. Is that the proper interpretation?

Mick

Thread: Endeavor:: General:: Gencon?

Tazzmann — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:15:10 +0000

by Tazzmann

I know that hoping for this to be available for Gencon is probably overly optimistic, but will there be a demo copy there so attendees can give it a "test drive"?

Thread: Age of Steam:: Rules:: Goods growth and production, by section

FergusWindbag — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:09:12 +0000

by FergusWindbag

I've looked in the FAQ for some mention of this, and through the rest of the rules forum, and I can't see any mention of this. Which just makes me worry that I'm being plain obtuse...

Did the interpretation occur to anyone else that the Production action be done for each half of the Goods Display, thus placing four cubes in total? After all, Section IX starts off by saying that the phase consists of carrying out actions for the left, and then the right, and then the next paragraph talks about carrying out the Production action.

I gather from incidental comments that this isn't how people play it, though -- right?

Thread: Bonaparte at Marengo:: Rules:: Infinite Moves by Primary Road?

MonkeyMagic — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:06:56 +0000

by MonkeyMagic

I am pretty sure the answer is yes, but just to be sure.

If every unit moves exclusively by primary road and they all obey the rules of not crossing the same approach at the same time, can I move an unlimited number of units on my turn?

Thread: Anima: Beyond Good and Evil:: General:: It's been released this week (UK)

Echtalion — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:03:22 +0000

by Echtalion

At least that's what the Esdevium page says. No news about the revised base game yet, though.

Thread: Scarab Lords:: General:: Change of card in advanced deck?

musici — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:40:09 +0000

by musici

The original version had a different card in the advanced deck that was later taken out and replaced with a repeat leader.

Anyone know any more about this?

Review: Die Säulen Der Erde: Duell der Baumeister:: Small review of Pillar's nice little brother

Ponton — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:23:10 +0000

by Ponton

Theme

This is a 2-player only game in the world of Ken Follet's "Pillars of the Earth". Bishop Waleran and Prior Philip compete with each other who will be the first to finish their building - Waleran is building his castle, Philip is building the cathedral of Kingsbridge.

Flow of Play

Each player has its own set of resources that need to be gathered and upgraded before they can be built in the player's building (red = Waleran builds his castle, blue = Philip builds the cathedral). You've got 12 rounds at most to complete your building. In each of the 12 rounds 9 cards are laid out in a 3x3 pattern. The start player (Waleran, this won't change unless Philip gets a special card) takes any one row or column or one of the two diagonals and places markers on those cards. The other player does the same, but needs to cross the first players line. Thus, there will be always one card that both players want to take. They fight for it by flipping numbered chits in the air (this is the silly part of the game). You can flip more if you threw the lower total and so on. Winner loses all chits thrown, loser all but one. Loser doesn't get the card, obviously. Then proceed with executing the cards and start a new round.

What do the cards show? They allow you to take resources, to upgrade them or produce money. Yes, money. You'll need it for upgrading resources, buying them on some cards, and most importantly, you need money to build upgraded resources in your building. The buildings are, btw, split in three sections and you only ever are allowed to add resources to one such section (but you may chose another one next round and come back to another later). If you are the first to complete a section, you get a bonus that your opponent doesn't (even if he completes this section later).

If you manage to complete your building, you win immediately. If the 12 rounds are over and nobody has completed his or her building, the player who has completed the most sections wins. If tied, moset spent resources break the tie. If again tied, most left-over money wins. If still tied, Philip wins as Waleran always makes the first move in any one session.

My Opinion

I like the Tic Tac Toe like claiming of action cards and the forced battle for one of them (such that one player gets 3 the other gets 2 actions). I really dislike the flipping of the chits to resolve battles. It's a funny part, but at the same time silly and somehow reminds me of Carcassonne Catapult. Geez, dear game designers, please do NOT take Catapult as standard. Puh-leeeeeze.

However, the game itself is good, plays in about half an hour and absolutely fits for 2 players. It really feels like a battle between two rivals and you can see your building grow higher than your opponent's. Anyway, as with every euro, there is little theme in the end - the mechanics are, as always, clearly in the center of the game. I do not have a problem with this. The game experience counts and I had a good one. However, if you thin Pillars have very little theme (and have a problem with this!), you'll find this game to have even less. The cards are named with characters from the book, but honestly, who cares in a euro game? I didn't bother looking at the illustrations.

I give this game 7/10 points. It's good and way lighter than it's old brother, but plays way faster and leaves a decent experience. I'd say try before you buy. Ken Follet or Pillars fans, on the other hand, will find this is a must-buy anyway.

Thread: Kaivai:: Rules:: Gift: "Glorious Deed"... what the hell?

BrenoK — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:22:58 +0000

by BrenoK

From the rules file here on BGG

"at any time you may give shell-money or fish to another player. If all the other players agree that this was a glorious deed, you receive 1 glory point"

Glorious deed? What the heck? You mean if all the players agree with your gift, it happens and you get a VP? That sounds a bit uncommon ("hey, let's allow two of our opponents to benefit while we sit quiet")... is this the correct rule?

Does it go like this:
Player A: "hey, if only I had one more fish, then I could sell it for big profits!"
Player B: "Here you can have mine"
Players C & D: "Why, that's fine by us!"
PLayer B gets a VP and gives a fish to player A. PLayers C and D sit and watch both opponents benefit from a great transaction.

Also, is it limited to one fish and one shell-money counter?

Sounds like a fantastic game, but this last bit is somewhat confusing.

Thread: Mythgardia:: General:: Hands up whose ordered...

JSutcliffe — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:22:47 +0000

by JSutcliffe

Hi guys

i have recently ordered a coppy of this game and im excited to revice it from the 10th of july.

looking to see who else have ordered this game so far and their thoughts on their purchase.

Thread: Talisman 4th Edition:: News:: TALISMAN SEQUEL by bob harris

JSutcliffe — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:20:04 +0000

by JSutcliffe

hi guys

for those of you that are not aware their apears to be a sequel to talisman called mythgardia that has just become available to puchase via the mythgardia site... at the mo thait are only 100 being sold and all are signed and numbered.

check out mythgardia page on boardgame geek my thread in the talisman furom on fantasy flight or the main site itself.

i have ordered my copy and looking to find others who have too.

Thread: D-Day at Omaha Beach:: Rules:: Tank Support

Ravenbro — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:08:11 +0000

by Ravenbro

Hey guys - when a tank supports an attack by an adjacent infantry, can the tank always use his "AR and BZ" weapon as long as he's in range? The US weapons chart says "if within 3 hexes of target:MG and BR" can be used.
Are those weapons in ADDITION to the AR and BZ weapons the tank brings to bear? So a tank supporting from 1, 2, or 3 hexes can bring AR, BZ, MG, and BR to bear??

Thanks again!

Thread: Agricola:: Rules:: Improvement & Occupation Cards

Muchoceasar — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:02:51 +0000

by Muchoceasar

Ok, so after hearing so much about this game we finally went out and bought it yesterday. Spent much of the evening reading the rules, reading forums and watching tutorial videos only to successfully play the game today.

After playing there were two things that we weren't sure we were doing right.

1 - If you've purchased an oven or other type of major improvement card, can you make food at any point in the game during your turn or only during the feeding phase of the Harvest?

2 - Same for the minor improvements & occupation cards, say if they're food related, do you only take the action during the Harvest or can you do it whenever you like?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Thread: Tichu:: General:: looking for japanese instructions or player aid charts

ralpher — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:59:22 +0000

by ralpher

I'll be teaching this game to a Japanese couple when we're on vacation, and to aid me, it would be helpful to have either the rules in Japanese for reference or a player aid chart which shows the rank of the combos and what the special cards do. Does anyone have one?

Thread: Steam:: Rules:: Duplicate Links

e-dave — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:54:08 +0000

by e-dave

Can a given player build more than one track link between the same two cities (or towns), for the purposes of scoring additional victory points at game end?

I couldn't find anything in the rules to prohibit this, but it just doesn't seem very realistic if it is allowed.

Review: Dominion: Intrigue:: An Expansion Always Does Expand Things...Right?

MichaelB — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:45:05 +0000

by MichaelB

A review of the long waited stuff is always a task to compose....

Well. To my surprise my friend had already gotten his pre-ordered Intrique and of course I was eager to try it out. I had read the spoiler before but not made any significant notes of not-so-obvious cards. I wanted to keep this expansion as unexplored as possible before the real thing = the first play sessions.

And several games we played (three player games) and ensured that all the new cards where in the mix atleast once.

1) Components...or art in this case:

Pretty much what you can expect. However I actually liked the cartoonish approach of some cards (like Harem). It gave some new fresh not-so-serious (Phil Foglio style of MtG circa 1994-95) touch to other mainstream "medieval" stuff you have seen hundreds of times. No complains. No ultra great either.

2) The essence...how the cards actually hold the candle.

In short paragraphs and hopping sentences:

+ I liked the funky approach which meant that usual routes of "silver-silver-silver-and then the game actually starts" does not works as often as before. The new cards and combinations made players think and usually thinking was worth time spent.

+ It does perfectly its job. It expands the base game. I actually would not recommend to play Intrique-only setup after initial familization process...the reasons:

1) Practically all Intrique cards are more complicated as their comparable versions of base game - this actually dismisses the base Dominion's greatest asset = fast and simple play and can turn the the play experience into a relative brainburning struggle where fun factor is lost.

2) You just need simpler and more straight cards from the base set. If all are funky...then the funky factor gets inflated.

+ There were several ultra cool cards which instantly were hits:

Ironworks: You just want this into your deck unless the card mix is very obscure.

Bridge: Screams for abuse. But it needs work...you do it well and it can pay double back.

Masquerada: Ultra fun card but has "black market" label on it : After all is more annoying than rewarding. However the card switching between the players is original concept. Props for that.

Swindler: Not exceptional by default but is the most fun of Attack cards as it usually at least does mess things up. I liked the card. However I would have hoped it had been a bit better.

...of course there were a lot of strong cards like Steward, Trading Post....absolutely great Mining Village...but these missed some fun, "work around factor" and originality of something more fancy like Bridge...

+ I really liked the cards which gave minor VP attached (Harem, the Great Hall etc). Not terribly original but functional and clear.

+/- I am not fan of cards which had multiple choices (like Pawn I already hate a lot). I agree that they give room for tactical paths/opportunities but I seriously think that it only slows the gaming process instead of giving enough back in quality.

- I did not like extra randomness some cards offer (Wishing Well, Tribute etc). Too situational. Just too random. Of course the other cards can give you means to get a ticket to pass that random obstacle but more than often it seemed too workaholic task compared to fun playing there could have been instead.
(the analogy is like playing Puerto Rico game with strong Forest House strategy....you can be a strong/winner-by-ease but you probably miss a half of the fun as your moves need to be optimized whole time for the strategy)

- After all funky (and again generally good) cards...when the dust has settled the outcome is revealed: There was no revolutionary stuff. It was after all same action-card-vp-discount-attack chain and optimizing it. No new card/action/ type (a'la permament). No altering of game state/turn order/base rules.

- Attack cards were interesting but generally a bit too weak. This was actually the biggest disappointment. The base Dominion for example included very fine Bureucrat and I somehow expected that expansions give more similar indirect attack cards...it actually does but with weaker effects...

I have fluctuated with my opinion of Dominion (my geekrating history goes smt like - first five games = '8', five games more = '7', three games more = '6'...then after five-ten more games a revelation and back to '8' where Dominion has stayed for two dozen+ games.

This expansion is fine and thought (almost overthought as many cards were quite wordy) job. It expands the base game and if you enjoy Dominion there certainly is no reason be without Intrique.

May be Intrique was a slight disappointment for me ('7' compared to base Dominion's '8')..I think...but yet still I am going to buy it next week. The rating for this after-all fine expansion is more probable to rise to '8' than stay its current '7'.

A good well-thought effort. May be too much what we actually expected with no revolutionary ideas but still...an interesting set of funky and gameplay altering cards.

I really look for setting up some Throne Room combos with the juiciest Intrique cards...

.mikko

Thread: Wheedle:: Rules:: End of the round questions.

musici — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:26:38 +0000

by musici

How does the end of the round conditions interact with the face up card.

If you have any these cards are you still penalized for ending the round (in other words do these count as scoring cards)?

I'm guessing they do not count as scoring cards and you will be penalized 5 points and redeal.

Thread: Bang!:: Rules:: Rag Time card in the 4th edition of the bullet

earlio — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:10:59 +0000

by earlio

I just got the newer edition of the bullet (the one with the 4th edition cards) and my friends and I were playing last night and noticed that the Rag Time card has been changed from "discard this card with another card to draw a card from any other player" (in the older editions) to "discard this card with another card to shoot any other player." Making it the same card as the Springfield.

Do you guys think this is a mistake or intentional balancing by the creators? If it was intentional, that means the only "draw a card from any other player" card is the Conestoga (which is a green bordered card, not like Rag Time or Springfield which is brown).

Thread: The Battle Above the Clouds:: General:: GCAW as a universal system

gidsadler — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:05:54 +0000

by gidsadler

I apologise for intruding what is not a game specific issue, but I am not sure where else to post it.

I have for a while considered that the fundamentals of this system can be applied to any pre internal combustion engine gunpowder warfare at an operational level.

The system applies itself in two ways:

Leadership - through generals or unit tactical capability

Unit fighting capacity - through numbers, fatigue and organisation

Game design for the GCAW has been facilitated by the quality of information availble about the armies, the detailed recording of the war and the quality of the mapping of where the campaigns took place.

Have any attempts been made to apply the systems to other wars?

I am thinking first and foremost about the Napoleonic era.

The balance of the three arms (infantry, artillery & cavalry) would be different, but could be accommodated.

Mapping of roads would be more difficult, but should not be insuperable as they generally ran between settlements. Quality and density would vary by region.

Any views would be highly appreciated.

I have been reading Chandler's Campaigns of Napoleon again and if MMP didn't object I would love to try and design a Friedland game.

Thread: Kingdoms:: Strategy:: some strategies I learned so far

Hendal — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:52:10 +0000

by Hendal

So I just logged my 42 game of this one and I am still learning so much form it. I am 42 years old so I thought I should be the first to try and do some strategy on this game. WOW where to begin.

I got this for $5 from FF and a bunch of other games a few years back and didn´t get them to Costa Rica for about a year. When I first pulled this one out I just thought it was OK, but I like the idea of the numbers and it being a math game appealed to me. Then I played a few more games and started to actually like it more and more, and I still see it growing on me more and more as I play more games and with different number of players.

One of my favorite things about this game is that game plays out so differently depending on what your secret bet is and what the first few tiles to come up are.

When you are playing with other people it is very important to play off everyone if you can and try and team up more with the person in last place ( hoping that is not you ). A lot of this game is just neutralizing the other players move with a similar move ( castle laying ). There is a lot of luck of the draw, but it is a numbers game so there is usually a better or worse place to play, knowing the best spot is not always that easy, I overlook stuff every once in a while and most people seem to miss a lot in this game.

One of the things that made me like the game right of the bat was the potential as a learning add for simple multiplication. I think this is a great game for kids needing some practice with their math. I like to say you get 5 points and make them do the math or just give them 5

I know it seems obvious but a lot of times you really don´t want to place a tile in a row after it has 2 or 3 in it or you give the other person ( people ) an advantage to decide the fate of that row. It is better to just let them place something first so you have the upper hand in that row when it is closer to closing. Being in control of a row is so so important.

Knowing when it is better to to throw a castle verses point tiles is also a big key to the game. A lot of times there is a spot that will net you points and/or good points and people pass it up. Of course you have to way the whole board and if there is potential for you to get hurt bad, cover that spot sooner then later.

I like to to get my 2nd castle in a crossfire with my first tile so the next tile I lay one will hopefully be positive number. Of course if someone lays a negative there, it hurts you 2 ways, so this does not always work out. Likewise when you have or draw a negative always look for the worst spot to hurt the other guy, I know this is obvious but it is often overlooked.

I just thought I would write this since I have been having way to much fun playing this one!

Special Tiles: These make the game so much more interesting IMO. If you get a 4 or higher positive or negative this is huge, it will either really help you ( play in the crossfire spots or when needed most ) or really hurt the other guy ( crossfire spots are usually best but sometimes with mountains you can really hurt people. Saving a high negative till someone lays the gold miner on them selves is a wonderful move when it happens to the other guy. The lower numbers are also great, negatives i think come into play more so you can screw the other guy over. The lower positve numbers don´t always get used but sometimes a low positive is the best last move possible for you. If you get the dragon or gold miner you are just way to happy I tell you. The mountains almost always come into play as someone tries and screws you over, so this can be a great blocker late int he game.

Starting Tiles:

Game On´

Thread: Deadlands: The Battle for Slaughter Gulch:: General:: Looks like this will be Twilight Creations biggest game yet...

The Jakster — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:42:50 +0000

by The Jakster

I´m amazed at all the stuff that will be included in the game and all the variety the game seems to offer.
Since this is a licensed game for you, does that mean that you get support of any kind from the holder of the license to produce even higher quality bits and get an even better price to content ratio for the customer out of the game, than like for your very own games?

When I say this seems to be your biggest game yet,in the context of components and playing content, do I create too great expectations or does it nail the spot?

Also, I´m delighted to see this has gotten a positive response already from the Geek in the form of a really convinced BBG admin playtester, I hope this is a turning point for Twilight Creations reputation on the Geek.

Last, but not least, I have to ask, will "Killer Kerry" make an appearance in this game?

Thread: Vikings:: Rules:: Why use money at all?

nmrosen — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:29:08 +0000

by nmrosen

I just finished playing my first game of Vikings (the base game) which I enjoyed very much. However, it seems to me that using the money that comes with the game is totally unnecessary.

If I understood the rules correctly, there is no way during the base game that you can earn money. If that is true then your money therefore, will probably run out by the third or fourth round. Thereafter, you either buy the zero value set or you spend victory points as currency at a 1 to 1 ratio.

The liklihood then that a player will have enough gold at the end of the game to convert back into victory points seems very small to me.

If all this is true, then wouldn't it just be simplier to start everyone on the victory point track at a higher total value equal to 10 plus the amount of gold the instructions say to use and then, as in many other games, just use the victory point track for accumulating points and spending money?

Is there something in the advanced version of the game that changes the way money is used and earned that would argue in favor of using the coins?

Review: Battlestar Galactica:: An taxonomy of the metagame.

thepackrat — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:27:58 +0000

by thepackrat

We've just run into a spot of conflict over the appropriate way to play Battlestar Galactica, and I thought it would be an interesting starting point for a discussion. I'm going to leave aside the question of sympathisers simply because I've recently played a variant without them which seemed to improve the game.

Level 0. No Meta-game.

In the most basic form of the game, all Human players would always play optimally. They'd try to win all skill checks possibly with a safety margin to avoid the Destiny Deck and they'd be completely surprised when a Cylon managed to insert some additional bad cards.

In the same sense, the Cylons would simply seek to cause as many skill checks to fail as possible. If they fell under suspicion, they would simply reveal themselves, possibly taking a supercrisis and start hammering the human players as hard as possible from the safety of their own ship.

Of course, there aren't enough skill cards available to participate in every skill check so in level 0 we'd probably have to include simply not participating in skill checks which didn't seem important enough, or didn't seem to need any help to pass or fail.

Level 1. The Cylons are tricksy.

Everyone knows toasters can't be trusted. Even the ones who don't know they are really toasters underneath. Plus, they look like us!

In order to cause maximum damage, a Cylon has to remain undetected. This would be difficult if they went the wrong way in every skill check. To be more ambiguous they'd play positively sometimes, perhaps most of the time, to demonstrate good faith, and then only sabotage a few critical checks.

With any larger number of players, it can be almost as important for the Cylons to signal their identities to one another as it is to conceal them from the other players. Thus begins the delicate dance of one or two players in their own personal metagame.

In this level, the humans are still always good, they always act wholly for the good of the ship, but may choose to sit out unimportant skill checks, or decide they aren't needed.

Level 2. Are the humans so helpless?

Previously the humans were assumed to be helpless pawns, trying desperately to battle against a faceless enemy, unable to strike back except to struggle grimly onwards towards their final destination. This probably satisfies some constraints of theme, but surely the plucky little humans we came to know so well in the series are capable of just a teeny bit of deception?

During the game, some characters draw multiple loyalty cards or have other special powers that give them limited additional actions. The use or non-use of those, or especially have more loyalty cards can subtly (or unsubtly) skew the Cylon probabilities of these players, in the eyes of both Cylon and Human players.

At level 2, the humans are free to take advantage of this ambiguity, to step up to the place of possible other Cylon for a time to lure the Cylons they know exist into becoming reliant on their assistance, in passively letting themselves be brigged to help a comrade establish their bona fides and so forth. Of course, the other players have to be willing to accept the extra ambiguity simply because the stated goal of the game is to stop the Cylon menace at any cost, not to consider some wider moral purpose, or how history might unfavourably view necessary collaboration.

Conclusion and Discussion

So, to all the avid BSG players out there, which level of metagame feels right to you? Which is a game you'd rather play and why?

Notes and variant idea.

Fundamentally, the opportunity to participate or not in a skill check can be misused, particularly by players who insist noone bar them participates in a skill check. This can be used as a free investigation card to effectively force people to either reveal the card they put into a skill check or to permit one player to control its outcome.

One interesting variant that fixes this would be to force everyone with cards to contribute at least one to every skill check. In this resulting noise, there would be far more ambiguity and interesting choices about how badly one could afford to damage a skill check. This variant would require some reworking so that people had more opportunity to collect cards either during their turns, or during their off turns.

Thread: Napoleon's Triumph:: Rules:: Initial Set-up Detachments.

tyvek — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:23:37 +0000

by tyvek

Of the six detached units in the intial French set-up, is the French artillery piece that is set up on the Santon, counted as one of those six?

Thread: Flickago:: Rules:: Points with the inspector disc ?

pak zoubaoum — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:11:11 +0000

by pak zoubaoum

Hi,
i am translating in french Flickago than i find excellent but i have just a problem with :
"When resting on a line other than the center an Inspector disc scores as if fully in the zone which would score more points."
I'm not sure to understand. That means than an inspector disc can done some points to a player ? If yes,for what player ?

sorry for my broken english, i bad write but i read better !

Thread: Roads and Boats:: General:: Expanded copy of R&B with &Cetera and custom components for trade

Robbage — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:07:08 +0000

by Robbage

This is a very sweet copy of the current edition of Roads & Boats. It has three laminated maps and customized tokens in addition to the standard ones. Unplayed and partially punched. Also have an unplayed copy of &Cetera, the hard to find expansion for this game, that would trade with it.

robbage

Thread: Bump In The Night:: Rules:: Rules Questions

rachaelk — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:00:40 +0000

by rachaelk

This forum has been really helpful...but my husband managed to make a situation that is nowhere in the rules and I was hoping for some clarifications.

1. If you activate a scare in a room with multiple girls...do they all flee...and then the free moves would only apply to one at a time...or does only one girl flee and the others stay in the room?

2. If a group of girls is in a room and all the doors are locked (i.e. no exit) and a scare is activated...does anything in particular happen? My husband locked in two girls and activated the specter of death...then we got stumped.

3. It is the terror points that lead to taking of girls for points...scare points are only used for movement?

4. If I activate the cat in a room with three girls - that results in a scare value of -1. Do the girls flee or do they stay in the room?

I think that is all for right now. Thanks in advance for any help with this!

Session: Thunder at the Crossroads:: Day 1, Session 1 from 1:30pm until 2:00pm

Rondor39 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:42:58 +0000

by Rondor39

Condeferate Playerturn

AP Hill has been unable to bring himself to resume Heth's attack towards Gettysburg and he, once again, shows true colors by not doing anything at all. I suspect that once Lee arrives at the field not only will Powell Hill get a dressing down but things will most likely get moving. The problem is that time favors the Federals.

Meanwhile, Pender's men continue to press the attack on Seminary Ridge. Scales crosses Pitzer's Run and extends his lines southward then moves up to confront Rowley. Perrin moves forward while extending his well dressed lines northward straddling Pitzer's to face off with Stone. The 3rd Corps artillery which is attached to Pender unlimbers in A16.13 to support the attack. Pender himself remains with Lane moving to engage Stone and the well emplaced Federal artillery to his front. Thomas remains in reserve but moves up to support the unlimbered artillery.

Ewell, his 2nd Corps HQ and supply follow Rodes Division southward on it's ordered attack of the Yankee line north of Gettyburg. Rodes men move south and somewhat west to engage the enemy with an eye on a strong attack on the left of the Federal line.

Union Fire

Rowley's Bde unloads it's muskets into the southern portion of Scales extended lines inflicting 100 casualties and 200 stragglers fade away as well. This pushes the Rebels back to A18.11. Stone and the Federal artillery fire inti Lane inflicting 100 casualties and the same number of stagglers but they hold fast. Up north, Schimmelfenig fire into Doles brigade but fail to achieve any results. Kryznowski fires into Daniel's men but only manage to send a few stragglers back. Devin's dismounted men unload into O'Neil causing 100 casualties and nothing more while v. Gilsa release into Ramseur and the Rebel artillery causing 100 casualties and shakking the men up but they hold tight due to the presence of the CSA guns.

Confederate Fire

Scales fully extended lines fire into Rowley's men and inflict 100 casualties. However, Rowley's boys are blood-lusted! Lane, the Reb artillery and about half of Perrin's men fire into Stone and the Federal artillery in A19.14 to good effect causing 100 casualties and the same number of stragglers. However, Lane's men hold fast due to Doubledays help along with the presence of the comforting battery. Doles extended lines fire at Schimmelfenig doing some damage and creating a few cowards as well. Daniel's boys do the same to Krzynowski. O'Neil, Ramseur and the Corps artillery do some damage to Devin's men but not enough to move them back and Iverson also inflicts 100 casualties and another 100 stragglers on v. Gilsa and they remain shaken up.

After rallys the CSA player turn comes to a close.

Union Playerturn

Reynolds decides to send an aide to deliver divisional orders to v. Steinwehr as follows; "Please move north through Gettysburg to support the defense north of town" I must assume he has been looking at the experience and morale of the 11th Corps troops and now realzing who they face has made Reynolds nervous.

The 11th Corps along with Devin's dismounted cavalry perform a small, controlled retrograde movement in order to dress and extended their lines to better defend against Rodes advance. It is better defensively to allow the enemy to walk into fire than just go toe-to-toe with more experienced troops. Of course this means giving up ground to get the advantage which will only work for a limited time. Ames pulls his brigade back to the Stevens Institute to act as a local reserve. In the southern battle area Baxter extends his lines and moves eastward to face off with Perrin's Rebels where the Horse Railroad crosses Pitzer's Run.

Confederate Fire

Scales fire into the blood-lusted brigade of Rowley to no effect while Lane and 3rd Corps artillery attached to Pender fire into Stone and his commander, Doubleday. They drop 200 men immediatelty with another 100 running away which wrecks the brigade. Doubleday himself, again survives the murderous volley and the brigade buckles but is able to remain in position due to both their fearless leadership as well as the Federal battery. Perrin fires at Baxter's brigade and drops another 200 Yankees with more men melting into the rear as well! Robinson survives the blast and once again, the Union line holds fast. Up north, O'Neil fires into Kryzynowski and his leader, Schurz and goes low ammo but, due to the low firepower, fails to do much accept drop 100 men. Schurz survives. So many leader survivals from the get go as I have kept them in front for the most part. It's only a matter of time before one is hurt or killed. 2nd Corps artillery fires at the far left of Devins line dropping another 100 Yankees but they hold strong.

Union Fire

Rowley returns fire into Scales without any effect whatsoever. Stone and 1st Corps artillery recover from the almost disastrous Rebel blast and fire back into Lane and Pender! Despite the withering effect of the accurate enemy fire just seconds ago they fire as accurately as could possibly be and devestate Lane's men right as they run low an ammo! ( I rolled 11 for fire, round up, 6 for stragglers, and 66 for morale!!!) 200 of Lane's men are no more with another 300 fading westward. The brigade routs back to A15.12 and another 300 of the men straggle back to hide. That was the most brutal fire of the engagement so far! Baxter fires into a portion of Perrins line and 100 more Rebels fall and the line is shaken. Back to the north, Kryzynowski returns fire into O'Neil and watches while 100 CSA men go down with an equal number deciding to bug out.

1900 Casualties
1700 Stragglers

I would say that 30 minutes was awefully bloody!

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Thread: Medievalia:: Rules:: Rules online

micheleq — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:20:43 +0000

by micheleq

Rules are already online on www.giochix.it (Second Edition rules)

Thread: Agricola:: Variants:: Alternative ways to distribute minor improvement / occupations

kemere — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:51:55 +0000

by kemere

Don't know if people have explored other variants than the three listed in the manual for distributing the minor improvement and occupation cards. For two player games, the normal draft technique was a little odd - getting to see all (or nearly all) of your opponents cards takes away some of the surprise factor. But without a draft, if one player gets several dominant cards (e.g., Conservator, Carpenter, and Wet Nurse) it can be a bit unfun to play out the game. So, we've started drafting them using the "Ticket To Ride" approach - 5 face up and a deck to draw from. The players alternate - choosing face up cards or drawing from the deck. If a face up card is chosen, it's replaced from the deck so each player can always choose between 5 face up cards or a random draw.

Better, but still not perfect, as sometimes we end up drawing the last 4-8 cards from the deck b/c the face up ones are not useful. Any other variants out there?

Thread: Dungeon Twister:: Variants:: Three Concepts to spice up your DT ... try one or all. Simple, too!

waitsfan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:40:54 +0000

by waitsfan

1) Action beads, not cards. Each player each round cashes in beads from a pool of 14 beads. 1 bead = 1 action. May only use 5 in any one turn. Should (duh!) make certian to use them all before 4 rounds expire.

(Anytime someone uses "5", werewolf takes werewolf form, just like if the card was played).

2) Draft - With 64+ "official" characters available...each character should be treated as an "individual." Players should draft their team of 8 prior to game start...makes things interesting. My pool of characters includes about 130 characters. Remarkably, they are quite "equal" in every sense...depending upon a player's strategy (combat versus escape versus "item hungry" etc.).

3) Why race to points. All dead or all out/trapped. 1 VP per kill, 1 VP per escapee...total points win! FUN!

Thread: Memoir '44:: Rules:: medic and mechanic

sshwk — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:39:34 +0000

by sshwk

Can this card medic and mechanic, that you roll to bring back units bring back units that have been destroyed?

Session: BattleLore:: The veil of darkness descends further: another battle from the Middle Earth Campaign

toddrew — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:39:30 +0000

by toddrew

I had posted another battle involving this army of Saruman's, and the following is a pictoral seesion report of that army's next endeavor: a class at the Gap of Rohan against a formidable dwarf army.

Greater details about the Middle Earth Campaign can be found on the Yahoo Group for BattleLore on Vassal, under the files section here. (Note, one must register with the Yahoo Group in order to view files, etc. - and please do, growing the number of players in that group is the not so hidden agenda of this post ).

Saruman’s army consisted of a level 3 war council, while the Dwarves had a 6 level war council. Due to the location of the battle and a positive army rating, Saruman’s forces would be allowed to clone one green or blue banner non-creature unit and deploy three units from the reserve card. The Dwarves’ army had a zero rating (first battle for the dwarves) and received no bonuses from the location.

Call to Arms set-up and how it interacts with the Middle Earth Campaign rules may be of interest to some, so I will detail that portion of the game, and then highlight a few of the deciding turns. The full vassal game log can be found here.

Set-up:

Deployment Cards:

Cloning due to home location:

Reserves:
Standards:

Pennants:

War Councils:
Pennants went with a level 3 wizard (satisfied both theme and strategy for Saruman ) and the Dwarves also went with a level 3 wizard along with a level 2 Warrior and level 1 Commander.

Specialists:
1st:

2nd:

3rd:

4th:

Final Set-up:

Battle Commences:
As the battle opened, the dwarves had to contend with Saruman's longbows. Even though they hit at a slightly below average rate, mitigating their effectiveness was the Dwarf commander's main priorty.

A battle across the river waged for several turns, until the Dwarf commander was able to set up an Assault, and push across:

Turn 16:

Hard to say who was more fortunate that turn, as the dice were rough for both sides. Though Saruman dodging death early in the turn and hitting back harshly with the heavy infantry seemed to outweigh getting nothing going on numerous battle back chances for the rest of the turn.

For a few more turns, caution amongst the chaos was exercised, until lore swung the battle once again:
Turn 20:

A critical swing in the banner tally. Skirmishing followed, setting up for the furious finish:

Turn 24:

Turn 25:

Turn 26:

Turn 27:

All in all, an exciting game to play. Lots of tough decisions to be made on each side, as lore keeps one guessing.

The end result as the campaign is concerned is that Saruman's grip on Middle Earth tightens. Saruman's level 3 "bait" army continues its reign of terror and the outlook for the defeated dwarven army grows bleak as a fresh level 6 army of Saruman's command has moved into the Gap of Rohan to squash any notion of a resurgence...

Thread: Arkham Horror:: Rules:: Duration

Foureaux — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:39:09 +0000

by Foureaux

If a card says "+8 to combat checks, discard after use" and the investigator is in a street with three monsters, this bonus woks at 3 combats, or just in the first of them? And spells, at the same situation?

Thread: Race for the Galaxy: Rebel vs Imperium:: General:: Card contest

starkadder — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:38:20 +0000

by starkadder

Is the due date for card submissions still Aug 1 or was that reflective of an earlier street date? My gaming group just has one copy someone got at Origins and the rest of us would like to submit when our copies arrive

thanks

bill

Thread: Arkham Horror:: General:: Professional Card Shoe?

apatheticexecutioner — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:26:29 +0000

by apatheticexecutioner

A lot of the players who combine all expansions together ask what the best way to manage a six-inch high stack of cards is.

Has anyone condsidered the type of card shoes used at casinos? Are they cost prohibitive?

Brian

Thread: Dominion:: General:: Persistent cards

baba44713 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:26:07 +0000

by baba44713

One thing I was kicking about in my head was what if - at some point in the future - Dominion introduced "persistent" cards which could use one of these two mechanisms:

a) You get to keep them in your hand during the discard phase

OR

b) Once played, they stay played, giving "permanent" effect from there on.

Now the benefits are obvious - more strategy, more control. However the problem is, of course, that they would break the elegant game system Dominion introduced.

I see a) as being much more problematic. Unless these cards come with different backs, the micromanagement of which cards can be kept and which not and controlling whether everyone plays correctly would be a bit wonky. What's worse, it could stall the game with players deciding what to keep or whether to keep at all etc., and Dominion doesn't need slower gameplay. In short, I don't think I ever want to see this in Dominion, unless Donald find a really ingenious way to introduce it.

But b) on the other hand seems much easier to implement and it just *might* be a cool addition. The game phases are left intact, you only have this permanent bonus available after playing such a card. I think this could be rather interesting - imagine if you have permanent +Buy, or +Coin, or you get to draw one more card each turn etc. Of course the cost of the cards should reflect their value. I think this could result in some rather interesting scenarios where a player would have to make a choice of long-term investments or shorter-term, more random progress.

So what do you think? Would it be good or it Dominion really doesn't need anything that breaks the mould of game phases (Black Market blissfully ignored)? Or is perhaps b) this *new* mechanism rumored for arriving with Seaside?

Thread: Dungeon Twister:: General:: Arch Mage Treasure Rooms, Promo Characters?

waitsfan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:25:08 +0000

by waitsfan

Okay...
They exist since the image on this very site. And so where does one get their hands on a copy of the Arch Mage Treasure Room tiles? Also, in general, where can I get official copies of guys like the ogre and the merciless?

Please don't say "Check Ebay." No luck there!!!

HELP!!!!

Session: Battle Cry:: The Famous Western Theater Campaign of 1862!

desertfox2004 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:51:39 +0000

by desertfox2004

Rick and Jeremy stopped over my house back on May 23rd for a day of gaming. Jeremy and my son David went down to the gameroom and spent the day playing Heroscape, while Rick and I decided to play a Battle Cry campaign. Battle Cry! is the Civil War version of the Commands & Colors/Memoir '44 game system, and is the first full commercial implementation of Richard Borg's "Commands & Colors" gaming system, known more famously for "Memoir '44", "Battlelore", and the excellent "Commands & Colors: Ancients" series. Battle Cry is probably the simplest of the C&C family.

We decided to play a Western Theater 1862 campaign consisting of three scenarios: Pea Ridge, Shiloh, and Murfreeboro. We randomly selected sides, with Rick getting the Confederates and me getting the Union. I therefore assumed the persona of General Henry Halleck while Rick donned the role of General Abert Sidney Johnston

Leo morphs into General Halleck

Rick transforms into General Johnston

In Battle Cry!, campaigns are won simply by whichever side ends up with a positive victory flag differential after playing all three scenarios.

...The Battles....

Game I: Pea Ridge

Historical Note (courtesy Wikipedia):
The Battle of Pea Ridge (also known as Elkhorn Tavern) was a land battle of the American Civil War, fought on March 7 and March 8, 1862, at Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas, near Bentonville. In the battle, Union Army forces led by Brig. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis defeated Confederate troops under Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn. The outcome of the battle essentially cemented Union control of Missouri. One notable fact of this battle is that it was one of the few in which a Confederate army outnumbered a Union army.

Game Commentary:
In the first game, Rick's Rebs were able to pull off a number of
attacks and assaults across all three sectors of the battlefield, while my army generally could do little more than skirmish and probe – the command cards definitely favored Rick in the early going, we both agreed. Before long, Rick had me down 5 flags to 2. I finally got a useful card, "Coordinated Attack", allowing me to order one unit in each sector, and amazingly, each attack routed a Southern unit. In a blink, it was a 5-5 game. However, Rick came back on his turn with the same card, and was able to score one kill, knocking off an unattached general (the second general I lost in this game) to score a 6-5
scenario victory. For the campaign, Rick was now at +1. This game took 13 turns.

Pics:
Start:
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Mid-Game:
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End:
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Game II: Shiloh

Historical Note (courtesy Wikipedia):
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought on April 6 and April 7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. Confederate forces under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard launched a surprise attack against the Union Army of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The Confederates achieved some initial success on the first day but were ultimately defeated on the second day.

Game Commentary:
In this scenario, the Rebs want to push to the Union side of the board,
simulating their attempt to push the Union army back into the river. Any hex on the Union side of the board occupied by a Confederate unit would count as a Confederate victory flag as long as it was so occupied. However, the Union army starts in a fairly strong defensive posture (I think this scenario basically simulates the second day of the battle), and this position got a lot stronger when I moved out a couple of regiments on my right flank and played a "Field Works" card, allowing those two units to dig in. This made the Union line very
strong across the entire board, and the game stalemated for awhile. I ran out to a 2-0 lead, but finally, Rick started a push again the Union left and was able to score a couple of victory points, tying the game at 2. Rick then began a push against the North's right flank supported by his artillery, of which he had three batteries on that flank. However, my units in their field works, and led by one of my generals, beat back that attack, wrecking all three batteries. With the score of the game 5-3, I finally felt confident enough to leave my defensive
positions and attempt to score the knockout punch. One of my infantry regiments on the left "Forced Marched" and attacked a depleted Reb infantry unit to score the final victory flag, for a 6-3 Union win. For the campaign, Leo was now up +2 (total flags Leo 11, Rick 9). This game took 32 turns.

Pics:
Start:
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Mid-Game:
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End:
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Game III: Murfreeboro

Historical Note (courtesy Wikipedia):
The Battle of Stones River or Second Battle of Murfreesboro (in the South, simply the Battle of Murfreesboro), was fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Of the major battles of the Civil War, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. Although the battle itself was inconclusive, the Union Army's repulse of two Confederate attacks and the subsequent Confederate withdrawal were a much-needed boost to Union morale after the defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and it dashed Confederate aspirations for control of Middle Tennessee.

Game Commentary:
The last battle of the campaign. The Union army starts out deployed
in an inverted "V", with the center set up near the middle of the board, and each flank bent back towards the Union side of the board. Most of the Rebs are set up along or close to their edge of the board. The killing started early in this game, and the Union got the better of it right off, running out to a 4-1 lead. Again playing a "Field Works" card, plus a "Reinforcements" card, I secured my right flank, which stymied Rick's hopes there. Meanwhile, his efforts against my left flank were repeatedly shot to pieces, as I luckily had a pretty good hand of command cards and usually had at least one to allow me to fire at his troops as they attempted to ford the river. A final assault allowed me to finish him off 6-2. This game took 20 turns.

Pics:
Start:
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Mid-Game:
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End:
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Final Western Theater of 1862 Campaign Score:
Leo scored the victory at +6 victory flags (total flags Leo 17, Rick 11).

A fun day, to be sure, and I think that to be fair, we should
probably play this campaign again in the future, but switch sides. I think Shiloh and Murfreeboro especially are probably slanted a bit in favor of the North (Pea Ridge appears to favor the South), making it a tough campaign for the Southern player to win outright. Of course, things would have been much closer had I not gotten rather lucky at the end of Pea Ridge and knocked off three Southern units in one turn to make a 5-2 game 5-5. If I don't get that "Coordinated Attack" card, and then succeed on all three attacks, Rick probably wins that game 6-2, and then we are talking about going into the last game, Murfreeboro, with Rick holding a +1 margin. In any case, an enjoyable day spent playing what in my opinion is a very underrated entry in Richard Borg's "Commands & Colors" family. Had this game appeared after BGG had become the fixture in the boardgaming universe that it is today, I think it would have received far greater attention and accolades. Of course, I believe there is a second coming of this game in the works, so perhaps it will finally receive the attention it deserves!

Oh, and Jeremy and David appeared to have a good time as well, as they played Heroscape until 10 that evening!

Thread: Kachina:: Rules:: Dominate powers, again: only when played or always on?

snoozefest — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:41:42 +0000

by snoozefest

What the subject says.

So, for example, is the Koshari power always active (reducing adjacent tile strengths to 0), or only when first played? If the former, what happens if a wolf play would next to a Koshari would result in the wolf having 8 strength? Is it 8 or 0?

In pictures:

[c]BEFORE
43
2351222

AFTER
443
2351222[/c]

So is that latest 4 (wolf) an 8 strength, or 0?

Thread: Small World:: Rules:: Another Halfling question

jasonwocky — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:38:48 +0000

by jasonwocky

If I have halflings on the board, and I pick them all up to re-enter, I know that I lose my holes-in-the-ground permanently. But can I still re-enter the board from any location, or do I now have to enter from the borders like everyone else?

Thread: Tales of the Arabian Nights:: Rules:: Seamanship skill vs. Crippled status

Haggis — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:36:49 +0000

by Haggis

Which one takes priority? The seamanship skill chit says "may always move at least 4 by water, regardless of wealth level." The crippled status says to reduce all movement by 1.

My thought is the crippled status applies after seamanship, but then again it really shouldn't matter if you're crippled and on a boat...

Thread: Arkham Horror - Dunwich Horror Expansion:: Rules:: Monster Movement and Lost Carcosa

apatheticexecutioner — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:36:29 +0000

by apatheticexecutioner

Played my first game with this expansion and have two questions.

Does a Hound of Tindalos move from Dunwich into Arkham if that is where the nearest investigator in a location is?

The rules seem to say that Arkham and the other towns are connected except for purposes of the monster limit, so I ruled that the Hound did attack Ursula Downs.

Lost Carcosa has a yellow encounter spot and what looks to be a purple one. Does this mean only a yellow encounter card is viable here?
Again, ruled yes; although, it was about ten or fifteen cards before I drew one, which was not particularly favorable . . . a Dark Young.

Brian

Thread: Medievalia Action!:: Rules:: Second Edition of Rules are available (english version)!

micheleq — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:34:44 +0000

by micheleq

Second Edition or Medievalia Rules are available!
Expansion rules will follow at the end of July.

(let Boardgamegeek website to check it and to publish it).

Thread: Arxhenge:: General:: Publicity

princemousey — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:30:19 +0000

by princemousey

Hey ArxMaster!

It'd be good if you could upload the rules PDF, do some screenshots, hold a contest to giveaway a couple copies, etc. As it stands, there is no information of your game whatsoever! It might as well not exist for all intents or purposes.

Tell you what, send me a review copy and I'll write you a detailed one! With pictures and the works!

Thread: Arkham Horror - Dunwich Horror Expansion:: General:: Dunwich Horror -- First Movement Phase

apatheticexecutioner — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:29:31 +0000

by apatheticexecutioner

Just got the three big-box expansions and played Dunwich first.
I combined all the AO's and investigators, so it was Gloria, Mandy, Diana and Bob vs. Ghatanothoa (I.H.)

The first clue appeared at The Science Building (making two).
With this particular AO, when an investigator collects two or more clues, (s)he turns over a special visage token. Seven of them are blank. If the investigator turns over the one with a picture of Ghatanothoa, (s)he is devoured.

I rolled a die eight for a random selection. Seven. Mandy is devoured before I had even had an encounter.

Encounter Spoiler. If you haven't played and don't want to know even one card, skip down to the next double paragrah.

Her replacement is Ursula Downs. In the first (my) encounter in Indy Square (Ursula herself had one earlier in the Unnameable) , Anna Kaslow gave Ursula a tarot reading. In a deck of 103 cards, about four or five having been drawn, the next Mythos was The Story Continues, the only card which would disallow the nuking of the mythos and the drawing of another.

The fun has only just begun, and its only been one game.

Had five doom in the first three mythos, two investigators being drawn into gates during Arkham encounters phase.

Wound up losing on open gates in fourteen Mythos. But had six early and often, winding up with two seals.

Could have had four, but Ursula had to spend six turns in Asylum and hospital after using Flute of the Outer Gods on a Hound of Tindalos, everybody else in Other Worlds or (Bob) having spent their money, and Diana was in OW at the time of awakening. Ursula also spent two clues later on to sneak past a Dark Young in Lost Carcosa.

Brian

Thread: Race for the Galaxy:: Rules:: Bonus for Rare Elements: applies to windfall worlds, right?

lebigot — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:15:17 +0000

by lebigot

Hello,

The -1 bonus for settling Rare Elements worlds applies to production worlds; what about windfall ones? the rule book says it does apply, but the French player aid says it doesn't (and this is what the icon suggests)... So, does the settling bonus apply to windfall worlds? what does the English playing aid say?

Thread: Richard III:: General:: Why the two "7" ratings?

Kinwolf — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:09:20 +0000

by Kinwolf

The game already has two 7 ratings and I was wondering why that score exactly as there is no comment at all with the ratings. Was it based on a demo? Dev or finished version? And what works and doesn't work in the game?

Thread: Kachina:: Rules:: Dominate powers

snoozefest — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:09:17 +0000

by snoozefest

Are they in addition to, or instead of, the usual highest-number-dominates rule? For example, if I play a hummingbird in a row with a 1 and something else, does it score or not?

Thread: Arkham Horror:: Rules:: A Strange, Distorted Mirror

apatheticexecutioner — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:05:19 +0000

by apatheticexecutioner

If the investigators opt to switch places, does the second investigator also have an OW encounter?

Brian

Thread: Race for the Galaxy: Rebel vs Imperium:: News:: Available in France! Typos?

lebigot — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:59:26 +0000

by lebigot

The French version is now available in local stores and online. I got a copy!!

Now, their is a 6-cost development (Prospecting Guild) that gives 1 victory point per "terraformé" card; it turns out that there is no single "terraformé" card in the game: I guess this is a typo and they really meant "terraformeurs", which is present in many cards. What is the English version? does it correspond to the usual terraforming cards of the base game + 1st expansion?

Thread: Monopoly Deal Card Game:: Rules:: Is there a limit to number of houses and hotels you can build / place?

Rock Photo Star — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:36:05 +0000

by Rock Photo Star

The FAQ addressed needing to put a house down before a hotel but did not address whether you could only put one house and then one hotel per set or could put down any number of houses and hotels, etc.

Thread: Agricola:: Variants:: Face up round cards?

megasycophant — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:17:57 +0000

by megasycophant

Another thread (Round cards face up or face down?) got me thinking. Seems that placing all actions face up initially may make for an interesting variant, removing a random element of the game and allowing for more strategic planning. To avoid confusion, the cards could be turned upside down (rotated 180 degrees) to indicate they weren't in play yet. (Or a turn marker could be used, but the Gric has enough fiddly bits.) This would substantially change game play, but it doesn't seem like it would break the game. I'm also thinking it may be good for newer players who can be overwhelmed and unsure of what's coming next. Thoughts?

Thread: Dominion: Intrigue:: News:: Will there be more new Intrigue cards on BSW?

zapatista234 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:01:23 +0000

by zapatista234

Sorry if this question has already been addressed but does anyone here know if any more new Intrigue cards will be added to the BSW version of Dominion? I'm really digging developing strategies with the new ones, so I'm chomping at the bit to see some more!

Thread: Agricola:: Variants:: Where's the reed?

Ryan Keane — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:57:58 +0000

by Ryan Keane

I got Agricola last week and my wife and I have played about 6 games with the basic deck so far. It's been very enjoyable but we seem to always have a shortage of reed, whereas there's always a ton of stone left on the two stone round cards at the end of the game. It just seems there's a lot of cards to more efficiently use wood, clay, and stone, but that there's only a few minor improvements that can allow you to overcome the fact that there will only be 14 reed total available for 2 players who each want about 8-12 reed each. I don't doubt that there are strategies to overcome this, but at least from our initial experience, reed seems the big scarce resource.

So, we were thinking of making the 2nd stone round card a reed card, to add 4-5 reed in the end game for more renovation potential. Any thoughts?

Thread: The Hell of Stalingrad:: Strategy:: Brutal Strategies

Stalingrad Steve — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:46:41 +0000

by Stalingrad Steve

I have noticed since the release of The Hell of Stalingrad that players develop their own brutal tactics depending to win the game depending on which side they are playing.

So the question is: What are the best strategies you have discovered to Win at the Hell of Stalingrad?

- Steve@thehellofstalingrad.com

Thread: The Settlers of Catan:: Variants:: Catan on Nintendo DS

Mofman — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:41:01 +0000

by Mofman

I've heard there is a great version of Catan for the Mobile phone, which has been to be converted to DS, does any one know if this is true?

Thread: Axis & Allies: Europe:: Strategy:: US & UK Win without USSR

kjrunft — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:40:47 +0000

by kjrunft

Last weekend I pulled out AAE after years of neglect. Per usual, Germany was able to take Russia by about the 3rd turn, but we decided to play on for fun. Germany whipped around and sent its tanks into Norway and the Middle East. Yet slowly but surely, the Allies managed to clear the seas, build up huge transport fleets and bomber forces. As Germany, I tried to build up sub forces to gain control of the seas to no avail. Eventually, the allies were able to constantly out manuver me on land and sea, particularly when the UK would clear a territory and then the US would blitz its tanks through on its turn (they manages to take back Moscow once this way, although I was able to take it aback).

It dawned on me, that even with Germany's 40IPC and Russia's 20(minus convoy), I still had less IPC's then the UK and US (combined 65). While not much of an edge, the fact was with their massive navies they always were able to control some portion of Scandinavia, North Africa or WEurope, even enough to make up for losses in the middle east, and thus maintain some edge in IPCs. After about three more days of playing, the Allies slowly but surely won.

To say I was surprised is understatement. In the world game, if Russia falls, Germany become close to unstoppable. If you play Germany, and play on after Russia falls, you need to be aware the UK and US still have an edge.

Review: Hogwarts: House Cup Challenge:: I have yet to finish a full game

LetsGetTrivial — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:40:10 +0000

by LetsGetTrivial

Plays:
-- Solo play to 100 points (x1)
-- 2-player to 300 points (x1)
-- 3-player to 300 points (x1)

As the plays above indicate, this is a long game. So long, in fact, that we have yet to finish a full game to 500 points. This is unfortunate for a game of such potential and probably the best of the Harry Potter games so far. In fact, it is difficult to describe the game to someone (especially a Harry Potter fan) without it sounding interesting and fun. "You run around gaining skills and having adventures".

What works well?
Seeding the board with cards is the one thing I really liked about the game. Playing cards on spaces is the central mechanic of the game, but is less thematic than seeing what adventures are happening around the school/castle and going to check them out.

What is lacking?
The cards. If you are on the space with a card and can fulfill the requirements, you get rewards. If you cannot fill the requirements of the card, you are punished. So the cards themselves lack interesting decisions. If you can defeat the card, then you play it on yourself to get the reward. If you cannot beat the card, you hold onto it until you can. There is very little incentive to play a card on another person as this will delay him/her only slightly. Further, there is NO benefit whatsoever of player a VP card anywhere but on yourself. As such, I worry the game reduces to who draws the most VP cards.

Because of these issues, I would have liked to see each card have a choice between earning skills or earning VP. This could also help speed up the game, which is the real problem. There is just not enough gameplay here for the length of time the game takes (2+ hours).

Other random thoughts
The board is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.

The cards are difficult to read at a distance, which is especially a problem with the big board. Icons would have worked well to make the cards easily seen at a greater distance.

I like the artwork on the board even though it strikes me as too busy at times. I also like the movie stills even though I usually like the HP art instead of movie tie-ins. Speaking of artwork, I didn't have any problem with the text on the board, but my S/O thought all the C's looked like G's.

I was disappointed there are not more characters (Fred, George, Ginny, Dean Thomas, Angelina, etc.) for variety. Heck I wouldn't even mind if that stats repeated.

Runaway leader problem as the leader gets ability tokens at every 25 VP mark. Room of Requirement is not enough to off set this advantage.

Playing a card directly on an opponent is (mostly) a bad idea. Instead it is much better to play a difficult card that BLOCKS an opponent so they have to waste a turn for the encounter.

The board is not always clear about adjacency. In the castle there is an opening to indicate pathways between rooms in the castle and exits. Outside the caste, there are no such openings.

Final thought
The game is long. A full game is supposed to go to 500 points. It was often obvious who was going to win after 100 points, but we played on till 300 points anyway and called it a day. A possible reason the game is so long us that there are too few points in the deck. Here are my counts:
Year 1: 215 VP (20 cards)
Year 2: 105 VP (12 cards)
Year 3: 120 VP (10 cards)
Year 4: 85 VP (9 cards)
Year 5: 80 VP (6 cards)
Total: 605 VP (57 cards), approx 10 VP per card
As the game progresses some of the cards will be reshuffled so the above counts could vary by game. That said, there appears to be fewer cards in the deck with points as the game progresses and they are more difficult to get. This makes the game drag on as there are few decisions to make each turn and no long-term strategy.

Thread: Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition:: General:: Just picked up A&A:AE, what happened to the p-38 lighting?

Biomage — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:30:54 +0000

by Biomage

I just found a copy of Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition at Hobbytown USA, on sale ($84.00 USD)! I am very please with the game. But what happened to the P-38 lightnings that were used with A&A:E?

Thread: Space Alert:: Variants:: Alternative (Balance Focused) Mission Generator

Fu_Koios — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:25:33 +0000

by Fu_Koios

This new effort solves two problems that I wanted solved for
my own usage, and so I now share them with the community.

1) A random mission generator where the resulting missions play
with the same "feel" as the original stock missions.
(Threat timing, card support and communication out all balanced
to be "similar" to the stock missions.)

Post with my original problem statement for "balanced" missions.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/419410

2) A tool to do selective fading of a background music file
(during announcements) so it will be suitable for mixing
into a specific mission file. (I quickly got tired of doing
this by hand in Audacity).

FuMissionGen and FuFader are the results of this effort.

Sadly I was not ready to climb the learning curve of a new computer
language, so my efforts are in Perl and not directly compatible
with Zorba's C# efforts. Perhaps I can correct this separation someday,
but for now I am holding 4 computer languages active in my brain
for professional reasons; the thought of adding a fifth for a
side project makes my head hurt...

Thus instead of the .NET run-time, you need a Perl install
to run FuMissionGen. The included Readme file gives you some
help on getting through the Perl install process.

On the upside, in Perl the source code and the executable code
are all one - so if you know Perl you can tweak to your hearts
desire.

FuMissionGen limitations -
Only works with .WAV files (in and out).
English only support (although you could clip edit...).
No nice GUI, only prompts in a command window.
Only adjustable parameter is the min/max threat level.

FuFader limitations -
Command line only, not even prompt driven.
Only works with 2 channel, 16-bit .WAV files (as if from a CD rip).
Only does the fading of music file, does not do the final mix.

The files with the mission generator have been submitted to the
geek moderation staff, but it may be some time before they get approved.

V 1.0 of the FuMissionGen package is also available at the URL's below
(you need both part 1 and part 2), note that if you use these links
you are using files not checked by the geek staff,
I say they are clean, but you don't know me, so use appropriate
caution:

Part 1 of 2:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/3/2497453/FuMissionGenV0...

Part 2 of 2:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/3/2497453/FuMissionGenV0...

To get started unzip both parts to the same directory and then check out the information in the ReadMe.txt for getting Perl set-up appropriately.

My thanks to Zorba and Chrisitan V for their very useful work that
I have built upon.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/395242

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/389829

Thread: Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm:: Rules:: Use of Military with Improved Logistics

joe_salamone — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:17:12 +0000

by joe_salamone

I'm a little unclear on the following:

Assume I have in my tableau:

1. The Improved Logistics card (which allows me to settle 2 planets instead of 1)

2. One or more other cards giving me a total Military of +4

So, I choose to conquer a world with a defense of "3" (I can do this because my total Military is +4)

Can I now use the same +4 military to conquer a SECOND world with a defense of "3" or have I already "used up" 3 of my military on the first conquest, leaving me with only 1 available? In other words, would I need to have a total Military of at least +6 in my tableau (3 for the first conquest and another 3 for the second conquest) to conquer the 2nd world allowed by the Improved Logistics card?

Thread: Combat Commander: Europe:: General:: Do you prefer CC: E or CC: P?

malteh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:16:21 +0000

by malteh

[poll=29226]

Thread: Lock 'n Load: A Day of Heroes:: Rules:: HMMWV buttoning?

krompot — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:12:03 +0000

by krompot

The module rules state that an HMMWV can button. But HMMWV are unarmored vehicles since they have asteriks for armor values.

What is the advantage to having an HMMWV button? Does this make it act as if it is "armored" and therefore immune to small arms fire while buttoned?

I'm not getting something here....

Thanks!

Thread: Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage:: General:: Looking for Generals miniatures

Billc63 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:11:40 +0000

by Billc63

If you are not using your unpainted generals, or just wish to part with them, I would like to offer you some games or cash for them.
I paint minis and wish to paint them up for use in games for my son and I!
I don't care if they are broken or not, I can fix stuff like that.

Send me a PM what you want for them, and thanks!

Bill

Thread: Combat Commander: Pacific:: General:: Do you prefer CC: E or CC: P?

malteh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:08:38 +0000

by malteh

[poll=29225]

Review: Tales of the Arabian Nights:: A Non-Bullet Point Review for Tales of the Arabian Nights

Superhawk2300 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:06:02 +0000

by Superhawk2300

A Non-Bullet Point Review for Tales of the Arabian Nights

This review is written paragraph style, which is fitting for the game it is reviewing. I have highlighted key words to help the reader find the areas of interest. I hope the writing style of this review lends some insight as to my preferences, as without understanding the person writing the review it can be hard to judge the content of the review as they apply to the reader. Anyways, on with the review.

The first thing I noticed when I was handed my copy of my newest adopted child was that he was a heavy one! Weighing in at 8 pounds this is probably the most physically heavy game in my closet. It comes in the 'not quite as popular as the 11.5 x 11.5 standard game box' and is 14.5 inches x 10.5 inches and is 3 inches thick. The box itself is beautiful; nice design and a glossy sticker for the main image. And it is a heavy duty box the most sturdy box of any game I own, hands down. That is where part of the weight comes from I think. The scotch tape will be disappointed if it thinks it is going to be applied to this game holding container.

I won’t do an inventory of the game components as that is listed in the game description on the web, just about everywhere. Removing the components from the box the first thing I noticed is the cardboard punch-outs for characters and hence the lack of molded plastic figures. There is some player interaction in the game and keeping track of who is where is semi-important so I can see why they opted to go this route. All the cardboard is thick stock, the text is clear, and the pieces punched out nicely. The game board measures roughly 28 x 21 inches and is a single entity. It also is a very sturdy quality. The screening / printing on all the cardboard components is textured and very high quality. The cards are 2.25 x 3.5 inches and are of a fair / average stock thickness. The quality screening is again evident here. My favorite card stock is the stock used by Flying Frog and these are much lighter than that but still fine. The cardboard character playing pieces have plastic stands that hold the cardboard very securely. The rulebook is printed in the highest fashion with glossy, heavy print. Upon opening it the printing smell immediately took me back to my teen youth and the smell I noticed when opening a D&D module for the first time. Ahhhh, how sweet it is. The Reaction Matrices player aid is printed on heavier stock but I think it will get some wear fairly quickly and could have been on even heavier stock. The Book at Tales is the ring-bound and of the same quality as the rule book. I think it should hold up pretty well. I think the chapter indexes in the front of the book could have been printed in a separate book for ease of use, but it isn’t that big of a deal. The individual player aids are heavy cardboard as well and has all of the info needed to remind one of the game turn and other data. All of the components fit back in the box after they are punched and the insert seems to serve a purpose and helps hold the stuff in place, so it lives on.

Game setup was a bit lengthy. The status cards need to be sorted as do the skill chits, and there are lots of these and it took both of us sometime. I recommend keeping them in alphabetical order when packing them up. Thankfully the player piece setup / board setup is a snap.

I am not going into game mechanics / turn order as there are already two reviews that cover this specifically and they do a fine job of it. I will comment on game play in general however and the things we noticed about it. First, plenty happens to your character that you have no control over. If you are looking for a strategic web to unravel do not look here. Second, there is little character / player interaction, but there is some. Since the game is story driven the small amount of interaction there is can change the game significantly. Between the two previous points the game can feel more like it is playing itself. I would have preferred some more control; even maybe just some more input in the same general way. After a while it seemed fairly procedural and this made the feeling that I was 'riding' and not 'driving' even more pronounced. The length of the game did not help the feeling either. Most of the game I had the required points to 'win' (a term I use very loosely) but I was prevented from executing the win for quite some time due to circumstances beyond my control. In the meantime I maxed out both scoring tracks and this seemed a little off to me.

So what would have helped? Some encounters to have more interaction in them. Most encounters are a 'choose and suffer’ type. Yes if you have some skills that are pertinent you can use them but that only alters the result of the encounter in its entirety. And if you do not have a skill that pertains to the encounter it is 'too bad, so sad' this is what happens to you. Don’t like it, tough. Should not have drawn that card and picked that keyword. So it goes something like this: 1. Get an encounter one of a few ways, 2. check for skills (do you have either of these skills? 'no' is my usual answer so the default action applies to me) and 3. apply result. If you do have a skill you have the choice to use it or not, but I cannot see for the life of me why one would not use a skill when they finally get a chance to actually alter the line of what will happen to them.

Another thing that would help here is to have encounters that last more than one choice once-in-awhile. Some encounters spawn additional encounters but that is not the same thing. The way things are a battle of 20,000 troops hinges on your multiple choice answer, of which you may only have 2, or even only 1 of the options available to you.

I would suggest more than two players in this game as well. When there is the opportunity for player interaction, it does no good if the only other player is all the way across the map and there is no way to get to them. More players will make interaction more possible and more likely if it is possible. When my wife and I play again two-player style we will either each play with two characters or I will rig a ghost player somehow (which will be pretty easy from the looks of it). I do not think I would like the game with more than 5 or more players and 3 may be the sweet spot.

Also if there were more affects that influenced the game, even ones that cannot be directly controlled, the game would seem more 'exciting'. More crazy combos with matrix checks would be better for variety but would admittedly slow things down a bit. Even in our first play we had two repeat encounters. Thankfully the die roll mitigated a duplicate result.

So my overall review probably sounds pretty negative. Indeed there are some things that this game does that are different than most game experiences. If you are the type of gamer who plays to win and has strong feelings about how games work this may not be the game for you. Despite the overall feeling of my review I actually liked the game quite a bit. Expectations were key here. I went in knowing winning was not important to the game and I would not be in control of a lot of things. The game stresses it is a story telling game and encourages players to drop the drive to win and not to break the game down into its base mechanic, but instead to take the time to savor the game. One problem with that is that the paragraphs you read to each other are pretty short and each encounter is not connected to any other one. This is remedied by adding to the text with vocal talents and elaborations, as well as ribbing and enjoying previous results and affects that happen to each other throughout the game. Like the game Funny Friends, reliving the game and the way it weaves your characters life after the fact is just as much fun as playing while you play it. For example my character got married and then later in the game he was turned into a beast. When I returned home to my wife we spawned a child that was 'as ugly as an elderly camel'. Mechanic-wise, the ugly child result had nothing to do with the fact I was a beast, (only the marriage card determined the child result) but the combination of the two worked so well together it seemed a story really was being woven for my character.

So I enjoyed my play and look forward to playing again. TotAN is refreshing and different, but it will take the right crowd to have a good time with it. I will not be bringing this game to my regular game events but instead I will hand-pick people that I will play it with and we will eat some humus, drink some wine and enjoy each others company as we converse about how the game results fits for each of us.

Thread: Twilight Struggle:: General:: problem with new map

htjester — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:05:37 +0000

by htjester

They posted a sneak peak of the new map at GMT, which you can see here:

http://www.gmtgames.com/nnts/TSMap11.jpg

The problem with the new map is the re-formatted space race. I am a long-time space buff (I even worked for NASA at Johnson Space Center in college between 1982 and 1984 and have friends who still work there).

In the context of Twilight Struggle, the space race is ultimately about getting to the moon, not building a space shuttle and space station. The original maps have a better timeline - Sputnik, Laika the dog, Gargarin in space, Leonov's space walk, Apollo 8's slingshot around the moon, and Apollo 11 are universally regarded as major space race milestones. Apollo 8 was a major public relations coup, and was specifically undertaken because Grumman did not have the Lunar Module ready. The Gemini program had multiple goals, including a space walk, earth orbit rendezvous, and earth orbit docking (Neil Armstrong showed very impressive decision-making under pressure on Gemini 8 after an extremely dangerous malfunction in the Agena docking module). Arguably earth orbit rendezvous and docking are more important milestones than a space shuttle and space station because they demonstrated techniques and skills that would be used on Apollo.

With regard to a space station, technically the first space station was Salyut 1 in 1971, launched while the Apollo program was still ongoing. NASA did launch Skylab in 1973, but if it was so important in the space race, why didn't Congress authorize funding for more than just three Skylab missions? Why did we let Skylab crash to earth in 1979, well before the end of TS's timeline?

The Space Race was effectively over when Neil and Buzz sent audio and video from the moon. There may be other worthwhile changes to the new map, but GMT would be well-advised to reconsider the changes to the Space Race track and restore the original.

Tim K.

Thread: Paths of Glory:: Rules:: Automatic Victory and Blockade

crazyyog — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:04:51 +0000

by crazyyog

If the CP go into a Winter Turn's War Status Phase at 20VP does Blockade take effect before the Automatic Victory?

According to rule 5.2.1 "the Central Powers win an Automatic Victory
if the VP total is 20 or higher during segment E.2 of the War
Status Phase of any turn". The Blockade card reads, "Subtract 1 VP during the War Status Phase of each Winter turn".

So, does the card happen right when the War Status Phase begins?

Thread: Race for the Galaxy: Rebel vs Imperium:: Variants:: Post-RvI community created cards

Bob Moron — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:23:33 +0000

by Bob Moron

Now that we've played a few games with the second expansion, we probably have a better grasp of the new game mechanics introduced by RvI. Everyone's probably busy playing right now, but I thought I might just start that thread.

Any ideas?

Thread: Battlestar Galactica:: Rules:: Saul Tigh - Cylon Hatred

DonErrico — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:20:15 +0000

by DonErrico

Can Saul Tigh activate "Cylon Hatred" at any time? Does he have to do it at the beginning of the check or could he wait till the end of the check?

Session: Advanced Squad Leader (ASL):: D1 - Guryev's Headquarters

scrub — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:06:05 +0000

by scrub

]]>

D1 - Guryev's Headquarters
An After Action Report by an ASL "First-Timer"
]]>[The following AAR is an abridged reposting from my blog: http://triplepbf.blogspot.com/]

Introduction.

Well, I finally took the plunge into full ASL this past weekend at TABSCon since I had access to Andy B, an ASLer in the Toronto area who has been dying to kill me.

And he has.

This is Andy: [username=aiabx]

We played on some super juicy Deluxe ASL boards and D1 - Guryev's Headquarters from Streets of Fire. (Click here to get it!) I've heard rumours that MMP wants to reprint these puppies on SK-style cardboard and the only thing I can say is DO IT!!!!!! The luxury of the double (triple?)-sized hexes is ridiculous. Given that you have less geographic area to work with on the maps themselves, the scenarios are shorter, tenser affairs with little manoeuvre and mucho blood. Blood everywhere. Awesome.

Here's a look at the two boards on which D1 takes place...

]]>MMP, REPRINT DASL!

The boards are DASL boards b and d. The left edge in the picture is North and the building by the roundabout in the upper left is Guryev's Headquarters itself. The goal of the scenario is for my Germans (we determined this by random die roll) to have more full squad equivalents in the building than the Russians by the end of game (turn 7).

]]>So neat and tidy...

Above is our set-up. Those neat little piles of counters are so small and well organized... that would soon change as all hell would break loose on the opening turn.

The Game.

Seeing as it was my first game ever I'm going to note certain rules and such that are different from the SK-level -- I should say in addition to, actually, there aren't many different rules at all. Andy was ever the gentlemen in explaining new things but to be perfectly honest, an experienced ASLSK player shouldn't have much new stuff to learn. The scenario choice was also very appropriate given that there were no AFVs or Guns.

The first rule we encountered was Environment Conditions. We just chucked it. Andy felt that neither of us were going to be setting fire to things so it wasn't likely wind direction was going to be a factor. One rule down!

The second immediate new rule was basically the ? question mark counters on the Russian defenders. I had no easy way to figure out who was what and more importantly, where the hell the MGs were (more on that later). Also confounding things were two squads which were HIP -- something I think isn't in SK-level (just HIP Guns).

My initial plan was to press up against the Russian defense and probe for weakness while trying to slide 5-6 squads down the right flank and dash, hopefully, towards the Headquarters while the others were engaged. It wasn't really a bad plan but it just lacked aggression. Seven turns is NOT a long time.

Here's what the first movement phase looked like. Seems pretty good right?

]]>The bloody streets of Stalingrad.

Other than a half-squad (very very useful that deployment rule -- you can start the game with full MMCs deployed to half-squads) scouting the left that was HIPPed and the right flank running into a bit of delay, the advance seemed good.

I've become a lot more use to doing CXing and things of that nature to really plan out my moves optimally. I think this comes with more experience in the game. At first you're just happy to figure out that MMCs move 4 MPs worth... later you're squeezing them with leaders (with no neg bonus) and CXing for double that.

So at the close of the first half turn I felt that I had made excellent progress. Most of my squads were across after advancing and though both Close Combats were inconclusive, the sheer weight of seventeen full elite German squads seemed likely to push forward next turn...

]]>The Krauts seem to have the advantage.

Other new rules so far? Ambushing in CC is already in SK but not the special edge cases like boxcars and snakes on the CC roll -- these allow the affected units to slink away or invoke the chromey "Heat of Battle" rules. This turn I had a half-squad go BERSERK! What does that mean? I asked Andy. His answer was that that squad was going to charge the closest KEU...

Essentially, my little berserk half-squad spent the next movement phase charging forward through the wide-open streets towards an SMG-toting Russian full squad. Thanks to a ridiculous morale of 10, the little dudes actually charged into the enemy hex and had it out in CC. I think you know where this is going...

]]>B E R S E R K !

If there's one hallmark that makes a good wargame it's the narrative generated from the game. This is something you're just not going to get out of a Euro like Agricola or Puerto Rico or whatever. For example, take the case of the Cursed MMG.

Early in the game, around turn 2, the Russians who would have been manning a MMG in hex bD2 ran off after taking fire. They left a perfectly good support weapon lying around and in the next rally phase I rolled a SIX -- what the HELL?! Pick the damn thing up you scrubs!

]]>Go on, pick me up! I'm very very safe...

I should have known then that the MMG was cursed. Slick with the blood of the Russian who last held it, the MMG was to be an albatross on the neck of every German squad who managed to pick it up... By game's end, its bad mojo extended into the full hex and even squads who didn't pick it up were gunned down...

]]>Still looking good for the Krauts!

It was a pretty eventful first couple of turns. Above is the board disposition after two complete. I don't know, it looks pretty good from here...

The only hiccup was a squad of Germans who were taken prisoner in a CC in the outlying building on the right. They had their own adventures in this scenario... but more on that later.

Now, a chat about snipers. So far in the early two turns I hadn't been rolling a lot of Sniper Activation Numbers -- mostly 2's hahahahaha.... For the SK-newbs, the "SAN" is the number that your opponent rolls that triggers YOUR sniper. The sniper counter is that one you see on the left edge of the above photo. When your SAN gets rolled you have a possibility of activating the sniper on a dr and then the sniper moves about the board (after making a direction and distance dr). The closest eligible target is either wounded, pinned, broken or outright killed depending on whether it's an MMC or SMC.

It's a rule that a lot of ASLers wondered why it wasn't included in SK. Granted it's a bit chromey and leads, occasionally to some break in the action (as you scream SAN!!!! at your opponent), but man does it level the playing field at times. If you look at the SAN numbers on the scenario sheet you'll notice that the German SAN is 3 and the Russian SAN is 6. That means, if you check the handy probability chart I made up here in this post, that about 13% of the time I shoot my squads, the Russian sniper will activate. On the flipside, I guess because it's Stalingrad, the German sniper only activates 5% of the time. (Without going in depth into it, it's a little more complicated than that too...)

Why is this important for an SKer moving up to full ASL?

Remember all those times you took silly 2fp +3 shots just for fun, hoping for a snake eyes? With SANs you are now more likely to trigger a sniper who will take heads off. Your heads. So, snipers are cool and all but now, popping your squad up to take low percentage shots is now not a great idea -- there are consequences to blasting away with no thought!

The sniper activations I was triggering in the early part of the game were generally harmless. Andy would roll too high on the check and nothing would happen, or a squad would pin only to get up again. So Vasily Zaitsev, as we joked, wasn't about in this part of Stalingrad this day... alas, he was coming though...

]]>Hey! Who left this machine gun here?

The innocuous looking MMG has been recovered by this hapless half-squad (they weren't going to make it). Everything was coming up roses for the Germans (famous last words!). Stalingrad didn't seem so bad really (what the hell was I thinking?!). What was this grumbling from the veterans? So far, the vaunted Guardsmen were running away and being ambushed by screaming teenagers... Better yet, Andy was rolling crap, including on bringing in his reinforcements. Guryev was going to lose his headquarters...

]]>It would never get better than this.

The German high tide of Guryev's Headquarters. Things would not be this good again...

Now, I'm not sure if it was just around turn 3 or after but I generated my first Hero ever in one of these turns. I think it was a snake roll in a rally attempt or something. Heroes are even more extra special SMC dudes that essentially replicate the Hollywood stereotype of war movies. This guy can do anything like lug big SWs around, add -1 DRMs to shooting, don't break, just wound, etc. etc. I'd actually generate two of the guys in the course of the game. Things were looking better and better.

]]>Ja!

Below is the situation into the third turn. Now some interesting things started to happen. First, I was starting to activate a LOT of sniper activity. Apparently someone dialed up Jude Law and Ron Perlman and my troops started to keep their heads down even while peeing. Note the wounded leader on the right, and the broken half-squad holding the Cursed MMG of Doom.

]]>Nein!

Things were obviously going to be a tougher slog as I approached the headquarters itself -- where, of course, there was everyone's favourite toy, the HMG... Better yet for Andy, it was on the second floor (buildings aren't all bungalows in full ASL kids!) and had a nice vantage point for anyone approaching. My only real hope was to do the German equivalent of a human wave and try to overwhelm the defenders with sheer numbers. This plan was helped along by Andy's bad luck rolling on getting his reinforcements (six more elite SMG squads and the friendly neighbourhood commissar). One slight hiccup? The tenacious Russians on the right and the total ignorance of yours truly about what the gashy-looking terrain feature was... Gullies slow down troops!

]]>MMG: Somebody... pick me up... I'm harmless...

You can start seeing some of the seeds of my undoing here in a shot after the fourth turn. Notice the unattended CURSED Soviet MMG? Yeah, they died or ran away, and so did everyone else except the hero (who's wounded too!). The sniper was wrecking havoc and Andy's disparate defenders were basically concentrated in the headquarters now.

I could do it though right?

]]>SURPRISE!

Well first one in is a rotten egg! I lobbed in a squad and Andy started unleashing HMG fire and ambushing me with a LMG toting squad in the attic of the building I was in! The jerk! Is he trying to make me fail here?! The nerve of the man.

Sneaky Russians aside, that was a cool thing to pull. I hadn't even realized it was possible. But, multilevel buildings can hide nasty HIP troops. In this case they put most of the frontal approach hexes in crossfire -- and another new rule was introduced: "encirclement". If your troops are taking fire from opposite hexsides or from three or more hexsides then they start to feel really unconfortable.

Things were bogging down, with time getting tight I tried and failed to get close from the front and the right side approach had my half-squads trying desperately to climb out of gullies.

In addition, what was funny was, during this whole time I was ELRing down madly. My dice were running cold and I was rolling a LOT of eleven's. That's good at Vegas, not good in ASL. Andy kept having to dig deeper and deeper into his German counters for worse and worse troopers (and half-squads). Look at it this way, I started with 17 elite MMCs, and ended up with a bunch of Conscript level, and 2nd-liners by the end. Stalingrad does that I guess, turn men into quivering pieces of jelly... or is that the HMG's doing?

]]>Who's going to cross the killing field first?

Above is the late game pic. By now, about turn 6, Andy had the majority of his reinforcements in the headquarters and I was not going to get in without a lot of luck. I even berserked another half-squad but their glorious charge ended in bloody smears on the front steps of Guryev HQ.

Amusing tale from the endgame?

The squad that I had taken prisoner from me earlier was rescued after a CC -- they even armed up with Russian stuff from their jailors. Two turns later as the attempted to take the headquarters? The were encircled and taken prisoner again!

Russian sergeant: "Put your hands up! You are surrounded!"
Hans: "Not again!" [Drops weapons.]
Russian trooper: "Hey, why are you all using our weapons?!"

Sad.

]]>Have fun in the POW camp!

So, in the end, Guryev's Headquarters was just fine thanks. Andy's troops stiffened their resistance just in time and reinforced with a bunch of commissar-led elites easily held the building. (And yes, the commissar did his old "shoot your own to make an example" trick he does so well...)

What can I say about my first game of full ASL? To be honest, it played a LOT like ASLSK with just a few additional rules and chrome. Yeah, we didn't have tanks and guns but who cares? It was definitely a confidence builder and having an experienced mentor like Andy makes it much easier. Rather than consult the rulebook every five seconds, I'd just ask him something like, "What's bypass?" or "What is the stacking limit?" or "Why are you hurting me?"

Aftermath.

Here's a list of the stuff I have to study up on for the next full ASL game I get to:

1. New terrain like gullies -- probably something you have to do on every new board you play on. Just quickly review the terrain you haven't seen in a while. On top of that, (pun intended) I have to check out multi-level stuff.

2. ? markers -- I think some of the subtleties of deploying that stuff will come with time but it was all lost on me at first.

3. Bypass -- didn't really come up, but at the end I asked Andy about a host of this stuff that I've read about from other sources but never understood. Bypass, Dash, Firelanes etc.

4. Prisoners & Encirclement -- I don't know if I'll ever top this ridiculous double prisoner story.

5. Heat of Battle, Leader/Hero Creation -- chromey but fun.

6. Snipers! -- extra chromey fun. I can finally understand the SAN reminder cards I've seen at Desperation Morale! Heck, Andy's head was spinning with all the sixes I rolled. In contrast, I think he rolled two or three three's total -- heck I don't know. Stupid Ed Harris was bumbling around or something...

7. Concealment -- What many have told me is the biggest addition to SK in full ASL concealment. However, it never came up enough in our game, probably due to Andy not wanting to be too picky about it and secondly, because it probably doesn't come up enough in this scenario -- we were pitched into each other almost immediately and no one was really sneaking around.

There has been a LOT of discussion about ASLSK4 or the like. Having played "full ASL" now I think that you probably don't need it if you have an experienced player to show you the ropes (heck, people made do without SKs for years right?). It comes down to your comfort level with making mistakes.

If you're afraid of making mistakes and need deterministic outcomes play a Euro or a game with 2 pages of rules. You're already "slave" to the dice. What's a little fudging around if you're having fun? Granted if this was a tournament or competitive endeavour then by all means, hone your ASL-Fu to a fine edge. I think that I've been lucky so far in that my opponents and I are in it for the sheer joy of playing one of the most fun and intense games around -- and frankly, we're comfortable making mistakes. We don't get too caught up in it.

Andy says it best here:

But every bit of knowledge puts you closer to the perfect game...

Other than rules, what could I have done better, tactically? Well Andy suggested that I not take my sweet ass time. Really I should have gone full bore to the HQ, instead of lollygagging around. Ideally you'd have at least a toe in the door before the reinforcements showed up. And another thing I realized is that reading the scenario card carefully would help figure this stuff out. Next time, next time...

My thanks for this first full ASL experience to Andy and TABS. The former for winning graciously and teaching me stuff, the latter for giving us a venue and opportunity to even get together. It was a gentle introduction to the big enchilada -- well, as gentle as Stalingrad can get!

]]>Leonidas was there too!

I hope this has been an enjoyable read! Roll low!

Thread: Fighting Formations: Grossdeutschland Infantry Division:: General:: Future formations...

Bulwyf — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:52:39 +0000

by Bulwyf

Hey Chad & Co,

I know that Fighting Formations: Grossdeutschland Infantry Division is intended to be the first in a series of games and the possible subjects of future installments have already been mentioned. However if the series takes off like Combat Commander, have you given some thought to some less well covered units of WW2? Specifically I'd love to see a game that featured units like the French Foreign Legion, the Italian Alpini, etc.

-Will

Thread: A Game of Thrones LCG:: Variants:: Solitaire?

GamerAtom — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:51:02 +0000

by GamerAtom

Has anyone figured out a decent way to play this game solitaire?

I know it would be nothing like playing against a real opponent but at least it might be an easier way to learn card synergies and deck building.

I find the game i play solitaire the most is Race For the Galaxy. Also a card game but works pretty well with the official Solitaire variant that comes with a gathering storm. However, I'd much rather be playing A Game of Thrones LCG solitaire if I can.

Thread: Combat Commander: Pacific:: Rules:: Thompson / weapon usage

malteh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:33:58 +0000

by malteh

Can someone explain to me how i use weapons like the thompson? It has a firepower and Range of two. So if i activate a squad who is equipped with the thompsons with a fire order i am allowed to take a normal attack using the units stats AND do a single attack with the weapon stats (2/2)? This will mean that the thompson is kind of unable to deal any serious damage since it is very weak.

I see the only purpose of this small weapons in meele power, since they add their attackvalue to the units attackvalue when in close combat?

Thanks for help!

Thread: Dominion: Intrigue:: Rules:: Mining Village trashing question

jothaa — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:11:32 +0000

by jothaa

Maybe another stupid question:

Mining Village - You must decide whether to trash Mining Village or not before moving on to other actions or other phases.

The text above is straight from the rules. I'm still confused whether that sentence refers to the drawing of the card which the card itself gives (in total it gives +1 card, +2 actions).

So can I first draw the card and then decide whether to trash Mining Village or do I have to decide before drawing?

Session: Dominion:: How gardens can overcome a world of attacks

tallgrant — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:06:50 +0000

by tallgrant

Last night we decided to cap our play session with a game of Dominion. Dick's daughter was in town visiting and had played a single game with the suggested starting cards. She was a little nervous because her father had been telling horrible lies about my playstyle- my opponents all hoped that the moats would appear, to protect them from theft/bewitchment/bureaucracy/etc.

We had an interesting combination of cards that included almost every attack in the game (Bureaucrat, Militia, Spy, Thief, Witch), a few + Buy cards (Market, Woodcutter), Moneylender, Throne Room and Gardens. We took a few minutes to explain to Teresa how Gardens scored, and drew for positions.

Teresa went first- she immediately began investing in better treasure cards by buying silver. Dick grabbed a garden on the first turn in the hopes that it would start a Garden war- it enticed no competition and slowed him down early. Laurie and I both took Woodcutters.

From this point the strategies began to emerge, with all players working to deplete the wood cutter supply. Teresa invested in treasure cards and was able to get a province early. Dick had money shortage issues- he would grab markets when he drew the woodcutter, and estates when he did not. Laurie invested in spies. I proved all the rumors true by purchasing thieves and taking my fair share of treasure(including a gold from Teresa). My blatant thefts prompted Teresa and Laurie to buy thieves of their own.

Once the woodcutters disappeared, the strategy began to shift. The focus moved the victory points. Dick had taken quite a few Estates, and the last ones were gobbled up once the woodcutters were gone. I snagged a witch in the hopes of penalizing my opponents and managed to bring out 2 Curses. But the last 5 rounds of the game were a race to collect the Gardens before they disappeared. The game ended when I bought the last Garden. Because of the +Buys in Market and Woodcutter we'd managed to collect all but 2 coppers.

Dick finished with exactly 39 cards- he blamed the world of thieves from keeping him short of 40. But the large number of estates he collected propelled him to victory at 22 points. I managed to snag 18 points, with Laurie at 14 and Teresa at 16.

Dick said that his strategy was to play a deck where he bought no treasure and wouldn't be as badly bothered by the Thief. He focused on getting money from Woodcutters and Markets, and used the +Buys to get additional copper. I think it worked a little better than my strategy of thieving because Laurie and Teresa joined me in the life of crime. I may have been better served have collected treasure early instead of thieving, and then started getting markets and witches at the middle portion of the game.

Thread: Chicago Express:: News:: It looks like I forgot to announce that Queen Games has licensed the Wabash Cannonball - Erie Railroad expansion.

John Bohrer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:56:03 +0000

by John Bohrer

It looks like I forgot to announce that Queen Games, a German firm, has licensed the Wabash Cannonball - Erie Railroad expansion.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36607

Thread: Wabash Cannonball:: News:: It looks like I forgot to announce that Queen Games has licensed the Wabash Cannonball - Erie Railroad expansion.

John Bohrer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:54:53 +0000

by John Bohrer

It looks like I forgot to announce that Queen Games, a German firm, has licensed the Wabash Cannonball - Erie Railroad expansion.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36607

Thread: Wabash Cannonball Expansion - Erie Railroad:: News:: This expansion has been licensed.

John Bohrer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:50:56 +0000

by John Bohrer

It looks like I forgot to announce that Queen Games, a German firm, has licensed the Wabash Cannonball - Erie Railroad expansion.

Thread: Triumph of Chaos:: Rules:: "Cossakcs, Finns or Poles" placement of cossack army?

Reverend Zombie — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:39:44 +0000

by Reverend Zombie

The card simply states to place the cossack army "in any VC."

Are there any restrictions on where the army can go? My opponent played it in 1920 and put the army in the VC in the North that is a White supply source that he had previously taken with the BAF.

Is the cossack army from this card supposed to go in a Cossack home region, or can it really be placed ANYWHERE? I.e., can it go in an *enemy* controlled VC? Could it go into a an *enemy-occupied* VC and trigger a combat?

Thread: StarCraft: Brood War Promotional Leadership Cards:: General:: A printable Text of the Cards

Sillion — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:35:46 +0000

by Sillion

United Earth Directorate

I.1 Eliminate Alien Threat

Starting Units:
3 Marines,
1 Siege Tank,
1 Transport,
7 Workers

Special Victory Each time you destroy an enemy base, gain 1 Conquest Point.

I.2 Advance War Machines

Immediately build a level 1 Factory, and level 1 Starport for free.

Starting Units:
3 Marines,
1 Firebat,
1 Transport,
9 Workers

I.3 Special Funding

Place in your play area.
At the start of the game, receive 4 Mineral and 2 Gas resource Tokens.
At the start of each Regrouping Phase, gain 1 resource token of your choice

Starting Units:
2 Marines,
2 Vultures,
1 Transport,
8 Workers

II.1 The element of Surprise

You may immediately activate a mobilize order on any planet.
OR
You may immediately activate a build order on any planet.

II.2 General Dugalle

Hero
Place a Battlecruiser with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

When it is present at the start of a battle, opposing non-cloaking units that retreat or withdraw are instead destroyed.

When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +1 health in the skirmish.

III.1 The Time for Victory

Place up to 4 guard tokens in different areas you control. Then destroy 1 enemy transport on any navigation rout

III.2 Orbital Bombardment

Remove all guard tokens from one planet. Then choose an opponent with a base on the planet. You may discard one module or building token from his faction sheet. If it was a building, replace it with the token of 1 level lower.

Thread: Agricola:: Rules:: Round cards face up or face down?

cpsof95 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:32:37 +0000

by cpsof95

The rules say: "Turn the blue Round cards face up and sort them according to the Stage of the game. Shuffle each small pile and place the piles on top of each other with the cards for Stage 6 at the bottom, Stage 5 on top of that, etc - with the four cards for Stage 1 on the top. The Round cards bring new possible actions into the game."

So we have a deck of face up cards so the topmost card is always visible.

Later the rules say: "Turn over the top card of the pile of Round cards and place it on the appropriate space on the board."

How can we turn over the top card because it's already "turned over" (face up)?

Thread: Last Hurrah, The - ASL Module 6:: General:: Irrelevant if you have Doomed Battalions?

Joshua the Gamer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:29:30 +0000

by Joshua the Gamer

Just wondering cause I found a copy of this available. If Doomed Battalions makes this obsolete though I'll skip it. I need to save money and this game isn't helping

Thread: Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! - Russia 1941-1942:: Rules:: Smoke Usage

grahamj — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:26:57 +0000

by grahamj

How many points does it cost for a unit to place smoke?

Same Hex (cost) =

Adjacent Hex (cost) =

Thread: Lock 'N Load: Band of Heroes:: General:: any news about "Lock 'N Load: Band of Heroes" shipping date?

falagar — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:25:16 +0000

by falagar

Hy everyone,
i ordered BoH using P500 way, and i would like to know some news about its printing status and its shipping date.

regards

Thread: Hold The Line:: General:: Harlem Heights

feldmafx — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:12:47 +0000

by feldmafx

I played this solo to learn the rules, but it seemed that the British didn't really have a chance, and it was over in 1/2 an hour. Am I missing something? Is that just this scenario? If I were introducing someone to this game, a more evenly matched scenario would be better. Which scenario would that be?

Thread: Union vs. Central:: Rules:: When do bandits steal goods?

rockusultimus — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:55:24 +0000

by rockusultimus

Do bandits steal goods at the start of the player's turn or at the end?
Are there any limitations on goods they can steal (goods on trains vs. terrain feature vs. settlement)?

Review: Dixit:: A game unlike any other

HavocIsHere — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:29:14 +0000

by HavocIsHere

I was first interested in the game because of the box illustration.
Inside I found a game so simple to explain that, unlike in my other reviews, I am going to explain them.
A player has a few cards in hand; when it is his turn, he selects a card, gives a hint about the illustration, then puts it face down in front of him. The others pick a card from their hand, put them down on the table, the face down cards are shuffled then revealed. Each player secretly vote for the card he thinks the first player was alluding to. The catch is that the first player gets no point if all or neither among the others vote for his card; others get point by correctly guessing and by confusing others to vote for their own card.
That's about it.

Bits

One of the defining factor is the quality and the nature of the cards; they look like Henri Rousseau's or Folon's artwork, have the same strange, dreamlike, evocative quality.
The box inside is a keeper; it is used to track scores, along with nice bunneeples, and in a style coherent with the cards illustrations.

]]>
BGG photo by Laszlo Molnar

Rules

Well as you guessed from my description, the rules are extremely short; one page for the rules, and a second page with examples and some advice on playing.
The french rules are translated in no less than 7 languages: english, german, italian, dutch, spanish, italian, polish and portuguese.
The game component are totally language independant
From what I can judge, the translations are adequate.

Theme

The theme of the game is onirism and symbolism. If you dislike that kind of poetry, this will clearly be a turn off.
Some groups won't feel the theme at all. I would understand if someone would argue there is no theme. I would also understand also why one could argue that the game is nothing but the theme, so let's move to the next point.

The game

This is not a game to be played competitively. This is a kind of party game, but do not expect big bursts of laughs.
Also, do not expect it to work with all players and within all groups.
The only comparison I can find is with Once Upon a Time, because the success of the game will depend on all the players really wanting to enjoy it. Some introverts won't enjoy it at all.
People afraid to sound silly will sound silly, ruining the enjoyment of everybody around the table.

Conclusion

If only for the theme and the wonderful cards, I am happy to own this game. When it works as intended, it is really a nice experience. Its originality alone makes it a worthy addition to a gamer's collection.

But this won't replace Time's Up as a party game, and it's heavy reliance on groupthink will make it fall flat more than once.
However, a completely new idea for a game is not something a true geek can ignore, so give it at least a try.

Thread: Go:: General:: You know you're no longer a beginner at Go when...

Actorios — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:22:58 +0000

by Actorios

If you feel like it, please complete this sentence:

You know you're no longer a beginner at Go when...

Thread: Steam:: General:: Difference between edition

Prometeo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:22:42 +0000

by Prometeo

Speaking only about normal versions, Is there any difference between Mayfair and Phalanx editions?

Thread: Europe Engulfed:: General:: Any errata for 2nd edition?

Blustar — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:10:35 +0000

by Blustar

I can't seem to find the errata file for second edition rulebook/playbook?

Does this game not have errata?

Thread: Der Hexer von Salem:: General:: Hexer vs Ghost Stories

RagBear — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:35:26 +0000

by RagBear

Although many have been comparing Hexer to Arkham Horror, from my own impressions of my readings of the game, what springs most to mind is Ghost Stories.

Both are cooperative, known for their difficulty and involve fighting off monsters/ghosts as they appear in order to stave off a loss while collecting objects to aid them in this process. I've read two reviews that describe Ghost Stories as having more depth but that doesn't necessarily translate into more fun or more interesting and, while Hexer has a lower rating on BGG, it's far too early in its release cycle to assume that this is a critical consensus.

So, I was wondering and I suppose this may be a difficult question to answer since few have played both by this point but how do these two games stack up against each other? Which is most recommended?

Thread: Warhammer Quest:: Rules:: Help me with lost rules

Geirerik — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:24:40 +0000

by Geirerik

Can anyone help me getting the basic rules for the witch hunter and imperial Noble? I have the miniatures, but not the rules.

Thread: Descent: Journeys in the Dark:: General:: Some Newby Questions

andywatkins1963 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:22:03 +0000

by andywatkins1963

We will be playing our first game of Descent on Wednesday, with me playing the overlord.

We will have 5 players I was planning to use the suggestion made earlier that the overlord take THREE cards per turn. Other than that stick to basic rules.

I have the WOD 1st expansion and will be using the "changes" in there like bow having pierce 1 etc. I will not be using Treachery at all. The other bits I was not so sure about...

I am planning to use the Ferrox and Kobold cards from WOD

I also thought it would be a good idea to put in the treasure chest cards from WOD as there are some good melee and ranged cards in there.

Any ideas....

Quick question on monsters. If as the OL I activate 3 skeletons, do I move all 3 and then fight with all 3? Or do I activate move and fight one entirely, and then the next one etc? I am assuming the latter, and I can activate each of my monsters in any sequence I like...

Andy

Thread: Logan Stones:: Rules:: Permission to view underside first when moving?

muzzleflash — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:05:17 +0000

by muzzleflash

When moving a stone are you permitted to see what symbol is on the other side, the bottom, before deciding which symbol to put down (the one which will become the on the top)?

First I thought so, however, then I saw this in the rule leaflet: "Players must first disclose what they intend to do (move or flip) before they maneuvre the stone.", and now I'm not sure anymore?

Thread: Spanish Eagles:: Rules:: rules questions

jeff-n-jessa — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:05:00 +0000

by jeff-n-jessa

Hi - had a fun game of Talavera yesterday, but the following questions came up:

1. When infantry travels by road, will the counter be parallel or perpendicular to it? If parallel, can you choose which direction it faces? My opponent felt like the counter should be perpendicular and thus in "column" and vulnerable to flanking from any side. I agree in spirit, but the wording "along the road" implied parallel and thus I could face it either direction (protecting my vulnerable left flank in this case).

2. Victor is the army commander, but also a formation commander until J arrives. I activated a subordinate formation of his, and moved him (his formation was not activated). Does he get flipped to activated when he moves. I argued that he wasn't, and indeed I was trying to position him to put his formation into command.

3. I don't understand the retreat rule. Let's say French attack, win the battle, and choose not to retreat. Do I still have to roll a die to see if a unit is flipped? Or is it just the loser that does that?

Thanks in advance, Jeff

Thread: To The Last Man!:: General:: Cyberboard module available

fusag — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:57:42 +0000

by fusag

Tim has granted me permission to create a Cyberboard module, so I've created a Cyberboard gamebox for TTLM. If anyone is familiar with making Cyberboard modules, you'll know that triangular pieces can be a pain and a half. Happily, this game has such low counter density, so there were only several dozen of them. I had trouble uploading the file to BGG files, so I'm hosting it offline for now:

Module

This file also contains scenario files for each of the 6 scenarios plus another file for free setup scenarios. The current version is v0.9. It's past beta, but still report any corrections to me. Thanks.

[c][-- 1 Contents

This zip file contains:

TTLM.gbx Cyberboard gamebox file
TTLM_1914.gbx 1914 scenario file
TTLM_1915.gbx 1915 scenario file
TTLM_1916.gbx 1916 scenario file
TTLM_1917.gbx 1917 scenario file
TTLM_1918.gbx 1918 scenario file
TTLM_1919.gbx 1919 scenario file
TTLM_FreeSetup.gbx Free setup scenario file

[-- 2 Usage

This cyberboard module uses v3.* functionality so the Entente
and German players can keep their card hands (both identity and
number of cards) and army templates hidden. Each countries'
force pool is also hidden so their opponent cannot deduce how
many units are deployed.

Individual trays have been created for each season's events and
reinforcements. These trays are indexed by their turn number.
They contain biplanes, tanks, stosstrupen, and US units when
they become available. The trays also contain armies the
season they enter but not their component units, as those may
be needed earlier in the game.

If the scenario contains units to be deployed in "any Friendly
or Disputed areas," for the Germany player, they are located in
The Netherlands. For the Entente player, they are located in
the Strait of Dover and/or the North Sea.

If the scenario has the option of historical "At Start" cards
(17.5), both cards are already located in each player's hands
tray. Return the unwanted card(s) face down to the Draw Deck
tray face down. The Draw Deck is setup so that cards are drawn
randomly.[/c]

Thread: Dominion:: General:: Guessing the Seaside expansion cards...

Jumpseat — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:42:55 +0000

by Jumpseat

I dont think the Seaside card list has been released yet has it?

I wonder what "seaside" encompasses exactly.

25 cards certainly seems a lot of seaside-based action.

Pirate
Explorer
Docks
Armada
Trader

Okay, I'm out... any ideas?

Thread: Opera:: General:: I love the text in Italian!

masdero — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:39:36 +0000

by masdero

Now I'd suggest writing each city name on the map in the language spoken in that place.

This would give more the idea of music as the 2nd universal (pan-european) language after latin

Just an idea

Thread: Arkham Horror:: General:: The Second Great Ritual of Voting

Jedit — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:29:35 +0000

by Jedit

Almost forgot to mention this here.

To anyone who remembers the Great Rituals of Voting from the old FFG forums, and indeed to anyone who doesn't, the Second Great Rituals of Voting have begun. When complete, the Rituals will determine once and for all who is the favourite Investigator and GOO of Arkham Horror player.

The GROV-2 for the Investigators is currently well underway, but there's still plenty of time to join in - only three of the 48 Investigators have been devoured. GROV-2 for GOOs is going to start once 150 or so more votes have come in for the Investigators, so they'll finish up at around the same time.

If you want to take part, or just watch the fun, you can find the first part of the Ritual here.

Thread: Storm Over Taierzhuang: Samurai Stalingrad 1938:: Rules:: Storm Over Taierzhuang ATO edition optional rules.

Gangrel — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:27:25 +0000

by Gangrel

Now in case the Japanese player finds it too difficult to win the game or to give both players(especially the KMT Chinese player) some extra spice or tense feeling I cooked up the following optional movement rules. THese rules are the original revised Storm Over Taierzhuang rules found in the Firefight edition of the game(the one you can download from BGG).

Optional Rule 12.9 Optional movement rules

A unit or a group of units do not have to stop moving when they enter an area occupied and/or controlled area.

Also omit paragraph 4 of 7.1.1

Note this optional rule is not compatible with optional rule 12.6

12.10 Japanese deployment zone C

In this optional rule area Y+2(east of Japanese deployment zone becomes a Japanese deployment zone C.

Apply these optional rules and tell me what you think?

Enjoy...

Thread: Revolution: The Dutch Revolt 1568-1648:: Rules:: Assignement of bishoprics and the Nobility

brauerle — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:25:27 +0000

by brauerle

Hello,

how does the Nobility affect the bishoprics? It is not mentioned in the rules [6.18], although one can think, they move towards Catholic as in the initial assignement during turn 0 [5.7].

Thanks,
Michael

Thread: Steam:: Variants:: Using AoS Expansions with Steam

fellonmyhead — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:20:32 +0000

by fellonmyhead

I know it has been frequently stated that some expansions just will not work with Steam. This is usually down to the special rules accompanying such a map, but sometimes the topology of the map itself coould cause difficulty.

I don't necessarily have any of the answers, but I thought it would be a good idea if we start this thread so we have somewhere to post suggestions for variants to facilitate the use of AoS expansions with Steam.

I'll kick off by throwing out some general suggestions; feel free to discuss them but please try and avoid making this another AoS vs Steam thread. I don't think comments suggesting, for instance, that we should just use AoS expansions for AoS would be helpful.

The biggest problem the expansions pose is city growth instead of production. If any expansion has special production rules for use with AoS, they will usually be difficult to translate into Steam terms.

My own Northern England map included a rule which brought goods into ports should one of the production rolls produce nothing. To approximate this as best as I possibly could for Steam, I have suggested that in the absence of city growth and/or urbanisation being chosen for a city on their half of the board, one or two cubes are drawn and placed.

Another facet of the Northern England map meant that some cities had extra production. This is difficult to simulate; I could have gone for allowing an extra city growth action for each, but instead I opted for extra goods cubes placed at the start of the game - such that the cities concerned start with twice as many as other cities.

I know there are a few maps with special locomotive rules; Japan for instance. I've not had the pleasure of playing Japan yet; but I don't see any reason that locomotive changes would upset things too much when the function is much the same in the new game.

Building and shipping rules have not really changed from the original game either, so I see little point in changing them when adapting expansions; you may disagree, feel free to post a reply.

Special actions are another can of worms; some of the changes might be difficult to translate. If anybody would like to shed light on any other sticking points (and perhaps suggest a conversion solution) please post below.

Thread: Dynasties:: Rules:: Rule regarding number of cards

pmbatista — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:06:02 +0000

by pmbatista

I have one rule that needs clarification, can a player look through the discard pile of another player? Can a player check how many cards the other player have in his/her hand?

Thread: Advanced Squad Leader (ASL):: General:: ASL Rulebook? Check! but now what...lol

Blustar — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:05:27 +0000

by Blustar

After a long wait I finally purchased a brand new copy of the ASLRB 2ed and at a reasonable price to boot!

I know I can set Vasl or other software but I was hoping to try some preliminary games with a friend FtF. ( I didn't get the Starter Kits because I'm not made out of money and I know eventually I would need to get the full rules)

So, while I wait for Beyond Valor to get to market, I guess I'm stuck right?

I noticed that section K requires Paratrooper...yes it's out OOP too. AArgh!! Is Paratrooper compatible with 2nd edition? I heard the counters changed a little.

Is there anything I can buy to tide me over? Or even download? I wouldn't mind printing out something reasonable, something to tide me over.

thanks for any ideas

Thread: Masters of Venice:: Rules:: Thief, Dividends and Shipping Office shares

BudsBalkan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:48:08 +0000

by BudsBalkan

Ahoy!

Some rule questions occurd in our last 3 player game.

Thief
Can he steal any one cube of all 4 docks or only form the dock on which his meeple stands? Furthermore can he steal from the docks, if the action was triggered by another player and you are not in the docks with your meeple?

Dividends
When exactly will they be paid? After the action of one player, or after the actions of all players? So if the shop action is activated, one player sells jewelery for 200 and another sells during the same shop action also jewelery for 100. Will dividends occure one time with the worth of 300 or 2 times (200 + 100)?

Shipping Office shares
Can they be sold, if yes is the price 20?
Are the shares anything worth for the end calculation (e.g. 20)?

Thread: Star Wars CCG:: General:: This game brings back memories... I miss the good old times (before it got all complicated)

starboy5 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:46:59 +0000

by starboy5

I used to play this game. I remember when it first came out. I had just started grade 6 in Sept 1995. A few months later, in December 1995, the "Premiere" set was released, and then "A New Hope" was released during the summer. I think these two sets combined were the best. There was a group of 5 of us in our school who played it, and lots of tournaments back then. The game was extremely well balanced with just Premiere+A New Hope although simple, and tons of fun. I remember a pack of 15 cards was like $4... rediculous, because with inflation that would be like $7 now. I remember a Darth Vader went for like $75 and all the other main characters went for $30-50. We each only had maybe one character. Despite buying like 20 packs a week combined (maybe 4 each) none of us ever seemed to get any R1's it seemed like and none of us had a vader (I had like 1000 cards and no vader, damn my luck). My best card was a Han Solo haha.

Next year in grade 7 we kept going, and Hoth and then Dagobah were released. I remember when Dagobah was released we bought cards like mad trying to get Yoda... and my friend, the 2nd pack he bought, he got one. That was like the god card, I think I like, cried that night cause I was pissed he got it instead of me. So funny to look back on it now. That summer we played, then we started middle school in Sept 1997 and never talked about Star wars again (for fear of being nerds in middle school). I never got to see the 5th expansion (cloud city) but looks like I didn't miss too much. Honestly, I still think Premiere/A New Hope was the best though. Hoth was ok too, but, Dagobah ruined the game. Now, the game seems so complicated it's rediculous. There's like 3000 different cards, for a 60 card deck, making most cards obsolete. But, memories, I will always have!

Anyone else have memories?

Thread: Kriegsmarine:: General:: Compared to other naval wargames?...

_Kael_ — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:45:48 +0000

by _Kael_

I'm tempted to bid on this game in an auction. It has a high rating.
But that only 7 people rated it, kinda scares me.
That there are another 26 people who own it, but haven't taken the effort to rate (or: play) it, scares me more.

There's no review.
In fact, this is the first forum post.
It's hardly on any Geeklist.

So is this a hidden gem?

How does it compare to Jutland or Run Silent, Run Deep?

Thanks,
Matthijs

Thread: Advanced Squad Leader (ASL):: General:: Are there any ASLers in Kuala Lumpur region?

Lamskiy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:45:29 +0000

by Lamskiy

Calling ASLers in Malaysia ...especially the Klang Valley area. I have a problem getting ftf games. If any, just write me in Boardgamegeek or email me at lamlyew@gmail.com

Thread: Dominion:: General:: Most Dominion games played in a single house?

onigame — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:36:55 +0000

by onigame

At a recent housewarming party I went to, at some point in the party there were three games of Dominion being played at the same time in just one house.

Has anyone seen more? (Residential buildings only; hotels don't count.)

Thread: Chang Cheng:: Rules:: Two-players game and tower

kmiernik — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:35:28 +0000

by kmiernik

I need a clarification about reservation rule in a two-players game with neutral colour. Suppose that situation is as follows: red wall - blue tower - empty space. Is it possible for the blue player to put the neutral wall on the empty space (which is by the rules reserved for him)? Or the space is reserved only for the blue wall?

Review: Diamant:: A lightweight game, perfect for larger groups

thepackrat — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:29:59 +0000

by thepackrat

Diamant is a lightweight game that combines bluffing and push your luck elements with great components, a short playing time, and support for large groups.

The basic theme of the game is the exploration of caves and mines to find treasure before any of the deadly hazards come down. Since this is a family game, the deadly hazards merely scare the players away rather than kill them.

The components are quite nifty. Each player receives a little cardboard chest for their their safe treasures and a Indy-meeple in the matching colour. The explored mine is made up of a succession of drawn cards containing either an amount of treasure or one of five hazards (snakes, poison gas, explosions, scorpions or rockfalls). Finally, the goal of the game is to collect as much value as possible of the shiny shiny gems!

]]>

During the game players participate in 5 separate expeditions. For each step in the expedition a new card is flipped from the shuffled pile and placed on the path. If it is a treasure card, the treasure is divided evenly among the exploring players with any remainder left on the card. This treasure is not yet safe so it is only put next to the player's treasure chests.

If the new card is a hazard card is it left on the path. After each card draw is finished, the players decide whether they would like to press on with the expedition or flee like profiteering cowards! Players indicated they will proceed by secretly putting the Indymeeple in their closed fist or flee with an empty fist. All players reveal simultaneously.

All fleeing players get to put all their collected treasure into their chests. They also receive an equal share of all the leftover treasure left along the track, leaving any remainder there. With larger numbers of players these remainders can soon add up to a tidy amount.

An expedition ends either when all players have run away or when the second hazard card of any type is turned up. All the remaining explorers run screaming and lose all the unsecured treasure next to their chests and remaining on the track. One of the two matching hazard cards that came up is discarded into the box, making it less likely to reoccur, then all the path cards are reshuffled for the next expedition.

]]>

There's not a lot of deep strategy in the game, because most of the choices revolve around trying to work out when other players will run away. It can be incredibly profitable (but risky!) to be the only explorer left for a treasure card or two, but similarly being the first to run away and pick up 7 or 9 gems worth of leftovers in addition to 5 or 6 in split treasure is a pretty good result too. Of course, if those remainders are split too many ways, things get messy.

We found typical winning scores to be in the high 20s for 6 players, and lows 30s for 5. This was borne out as typical by us coming somewhat close to running out of gems. I should look into getting a second copy or finding some replacements in another denomination sometime.

If you're ever looking for a fast game that supports lots of folks and is easily accessible to non-gamers, Diamant is perfect. There's the potential for a little downtime for escaped players each round but they chose to leave, and are probably winning anyway!

Diamant has been re-released as Incan Gold which has one additional rule/component and generally less nice components. Unfortunately the original Diamant is out of print so you'll have to either pick up one of the two Incan Gold editions or try to look for it secondhand.

Thread: RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940:: Rules:: Replacement Points

qubilai2001 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:25:08 +0000

by qubilai2001

Do the Germans and British have to spend replacement points if they have them i.e. Can they leave units in the light/heavy loss boxes voluntarily?

Sagar

Thread: Age of Conan: The Strategy Board Game:: News:: headless hollow has a gameaid up!

superjosef — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:02:56 +0000

by superjosef

i dont want to steal universalheads thunder, so i just tell it in a post:
hes got a wonderfully designed gameaiid up at

http://www.headlesshollow.com/freebies_games.html

. thanks, head. wonderfully designed, as always. they just have to renslate arabian nights so i can play it with the kids. gereman kids, that is.

Thread: Tinners' Trail:: News:: What is a copy of Tinners Trail Worth?

Dannecus — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:58:33 +0000

by Dannecus

A 'First Edition' copy of TT just sold on eBay for 112 GBP!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3601647...

Most games never make it beyond the first edition anyway. Although TT second ed is due to be released by JKLM soon for a princely £27. Even with the sickly graphics that sounds like a better deal to me.

Is £112 anything like a realistic price, I really like TT, but I wouldn't say it was a classic.

Review: Fairy Tale:: What's Your Game? 2008 Version - Component review

Jumpseat — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:46:41 +0000

by Jumpseat

Just received the What's Your Game? 2008 version of Fairy Tale and through I'd give a quick rundown of the quality of the components as the design was the main reasons I selected it over other versions.

First up I really like the design on this version. The symbols are much more thematic and beautiful, offsetting the artwork really well. The symbols work perfectly well during the game, though in reality there are many that are superflous after you learn the rules. The backs of the cards, which play their part in the game are particularly well designed, featuring the box image in a clever way.

]]>

The print quality is actually quite low, not poor, but it is a lower than average grade screen print, where you can clearly see the dot pattern. The cards feel quite nice and though they are relatively thin are of a fair to good quality with a fresh satin finish.

The box is about 10x15 cm and certainly does the job. It doesnt hold the fold up rules booklet particularly neatly, and the gluejob on the outer artwork looks like it may peel over time, but overall its a neat little package for the price.

Overall, I'd say the production quality is fair to good. Not quite as high quality as I imagined it might be considered the obvious effort that went into the redesign, but still I'd conclude it is a worthwhile and successful refacing of the game.

Session: Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery:: Pizarro overruns the New World!

Raharanor — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:35:49 +0000

by Raharanor

13/6/09

It had been a long day of boardgaming (of which I was part of for only the evening due to a long day of planning for my teaching placement) and we were unanimous in bringing out one of our old favourites, Age of Empires 3: The Age of Discovery.

Having lost narrowly to Merric in our last game as the Spanish, I was keen to redeem myself. We had one new player, Ian (who Laurie brought along), who was keen to give the game a try due to it's seeming resemblance in name to the well-known PC game but being a great deal different! After explaining the rules to Ian we selected our nationalities:

Randy: Dutch/Orange
Richard/Rich: Spanish/Red
Merric: English/Green (?- correct me if I'm wrong on this!)
Laurie: French/Blue
Ian: Portuguese/Yellow (?-correct me if I'm wrong on this!)

The game thus began, with the usual selection of capital buildings as our first action and then proceeding to flood the Caribbean with colonists. Merric made an early grab for trade goods as per usual, and Randy did also. I proceeded to get a missionary ready for the next turn to flood the Caribbean; Laurie went for his usual soldier in discovery or colonies strategy, and Ian went discovering! Here are the starting capital buildings:

]]>
What would you choose?

Once the Trading Post was taken by Randy(?) I decided between Trade Routes and Training Grounds, with the latter being taken with obvious intent. Navigator went to Merric with his intent of following a Discovery-oriented strategy. I'm not entirely sure about who out of Ian and Laurie got Trade Routes and Conquistador, but with our capital buildings and strategies in place, we continued forth!

My colony-hungry Spanish Conquistadors began sending missionaries (later courtesy of the Monestary) and soldiers to the New World to enforce the conversion of restless natives! Merric's English built up their economy in the First Age as well as he and Randy's Dutch building up their trade good base collaboratively with the odd interjection by Laurie, Ian or myself. Ian's Portuguese went discovering and ventured into the New World as well.Laurie's Frenchmen also went discovering as well as attaining a fair bit of money from sending soldiers and captains to the New World with the help of Navigator.

]]>
End of the First Age.

The First Age scores were:
Rich: 12
Merric: 0
Laurie: 0
Randy: 2
Ian: 2

The Second Age saw the continuation of the discovery strategy by Ian, Merric and Laurie. Merric's Englishmen maintained a very solid economy with their sugar and fur trade goods. Randy's Dutchmen strived to gain some sort of advantage in the New World with a varied degree of success, with my Spanish colonists/missionaries/soldiers strategy blunting his ambitions as well as in one turn declaring warfare on all four of the available positions! Laurie continued to send soldiers to the New World and to the Discovery Box, as well as selecting the soldier specialist virtually every turn. With the taking of the Fortress capital building by yours truly, the stage was set for a showdown in the new world!

]]>
End of the Second Age...boy is this board red!

The Second Age scores were:
Rich: +26 (38)
Merric: +12 (12)
Laurie: +2 (2)
Randy: +6 (8)
Ian: +12 (14)

As the Second Age scores suggested, I was getting a crazy amount of points from the New World colonies. I was feeling more confident about actually maintaining my prominent positions in the New World instead of being shot to pieces by the likes of Randy, Laurie or Josh! Ian was doing nicely for his first game too, though he was behind in economy and Laurie had no economy at all despite getting his income from discoveries/soldiers and such.

The Third Age saw Ian's Portuguese realising that Economy is actually scored at the end of the game and henceforth delving deep into what was left of the trade goods to get his income above $1! Randy's Dutch colonists made some heavy forays into the New World to gain some more VPs and Laurie sent some extra soldiers into the Discovery Box as well as the New World (he took Power from me!). Merric's Englishmen experienced some severe difficulties with my Spanish and Randy's Dutch in the colonies but made up for it with his exceptional economy (Wealth capital building- again!) and discoveries! With the Third Age complete, it was time for Merric to tally the final scores...

]]>
End of the Third Age- Thus the world was flooded with the enterprising Dutch and the ruthless Spaniards!

Final scores:
Rich: 96 (12 first age colonies, 26 second age colonies, 36 third age colonies, 12 economy, 6 discoveries, 4 Navy)
Merric: 83 (0 first age colonies, 12 second age colonies, 4 third age colonies, 19 economy, 20 discoveries, 23 Wealth, 5 Factory)
Laurie: 65 (0 first age colonies, 2 second age colonies, 6 third age colonies, 0 economy, 31 discoveries, 4 New World Cartography, 14 Prosperity, 8 Power)
Randy: 62 (2 first age colonies, 6 second age colonies, 24 third age colonies, 10 economy, 0 discoveries, 2 Taxation, 18 Glory)
Ian: 49 (2 first age colonies, 12 second age colonies, 2 third age colonies, 7 economy, 21 discoveries, 5 Population)

Thus the victory went to the Spanish Empire headed by Pizarro and his successors!

The game itself was dominated by a Missionary/Soldier strategy employed by me, but credit has to go to Merric for his consistency in building up exeptional amounts of wealth and discoveries, which did wonders for his score! Randy had an unusually low scoring game by his standards, whether it was due to my tactics, pure tiredness or both. Laurie's discoveries helped him attain a fair few VPs but his lack of economy hurt him. Ian did well early on, but needs more games of this to expand his experience in AoE 3.

Soldiers...and Missionary Man!..'

Thread: To The Last Man!:: Rules:: Movement question

fusag — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:25:57 +0000

by fusag

So I've started pushing pieces around. From my reading of the rules, this is allowable:

- Situation: The Entente player has the following armies: UK1 entrenched in Artois; UK2 entrenched in Flanders; UK3 unentrenched in Artois.
- During a Pass round, the Entente player can shift infantry and auxiliary type units from UK1 to UK3. These are free. (1.2.2 A)
- Move UK3 to Flanders. This is the single movement of the Pass round.
- Shift infantry and auxiliary type units from UK3 to UK2. Because UK2 is already entrenched, the infantry transfered also become entrenched (I can't find this rule, but I thought I read it somewhere.), though any remaining with UK3 are unentrenched.

So, effectively, a player can shift a large number of units from an entrenched army to an adjacent entrenched army if he has a 'shuttle' army (of the same nationality) to go between them. This makes sense if UK1 and UK2 occupy trenches, and UK3 is using its staff to help organize the move of men between the two. But does this violate the intent of the 1 movement per Pass rule?

Thread: Steam:: Rules:: Legal track placement, Carcassonne style

ryessler — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:58:01 +0000

by ryessler

Okay Carcassonne fans...what do you think of this:

Get your map of Germany out. Player White has laid one tile connecting Arnhem and Nijmegen and two other tiles (#'s 21&22) leading southwest then south from Nijmegen (almost to Eindhoven.) Player Green follows by similarly connecting Arnhem and Nijmegen with one curvy tile and proceeds south then southwest with two tiles (#'s 22&21.) That's one phase of Building Track. Look at what's happened.

Each player has fashioned an incomplete link out of Nijmegen, intent on arriving in Eindhoven. BUT, by virtue of each of them 'pointing' to the same empty hex immediately north of Eindhoven, have they forced a situation which would prohibit either from placing a tile in that hex? Playing the #43 tile would be clever, but is disallowed because it would be extending another player's track.

If we play in a Carcassonne fashion (that is, tile edges must be compatible), then this hex north of Eindhoven is unplayable unless one of the two approaching Incomplete links first becomes Unowned and subsequently completed by the other player, *or* Player Green chooses to Redirect his last track tile to turn south rather than continue to run southwest. Player White appears to be stuck without a valid play. He's not allowed to discard his last tile (#22) in order to redirect his link into a scissors crossing with Green.

Several posts speak of blocking as a valuable tactic and I certainly understand and appreciate the need to do so. But the rules are, from my reading, unclear on the options available to the players in a situation such as this. Unless I can clearly see rules to the contrary, I'm inclined to play in such a fashion that forces all tile edges to match.

Does anyone see the rules more clearly and offer an explanation?

(AND...can't you just see Michael Caine directing XXX Corps along this route??)

Thread: Glory to Rome:: General:: Always a Merchant-Scarce game

Patrick Kuan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:49:05 +0000

by Patrick Kuan

I'm from Taiwan therefore please excuse my poor English.

Among the 9 rounds of game I've played(2P only), the games were always Merchant-scarce. (Except the first 1 & 2 games when we didn't have much idea about Merchant's power.)

Now both of us simply denies leading with REAL merchant. We only lead with Jack as Merchant. And we almost always build the Stone(Blue) buildings...
Simply put, there'd almost never be a single merchant card appear in the pool.

So our games often leads to one of the following paths:
1. Try to find/wait for Aqueduct, which allows us to patron from hand.
2. Try to find/wait for Colliseum, which allows us to capture opponent's clients to our vault.
3. Build other relevant buildings which might give us an Merchant-edge.
4. Forum win
5. Catacomb win.

Well, these are already quite a few paths to winning, so it's not that I'm complaining....

However, I WANT TO WIN by MERCHANT MERCHANT MERCHANT!

Any suggestion?

Thread: Commands & Colors: Ancients:: Rules:: Elephants vs. Elephants - Number of Dice?

mvaldeslora — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:34:59 +0000

by mvaldeslora

Sorry if this has been discussed but I searched the forum and did not find an answer.

How many dice are rolled in an elephant vs. elephant close combat?

Thread: Valkenburg Castle:: News:: Digital version of Valkenburg Castle has been released

heruca — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:33:23 +0000

by heruca

I have republished this long-out-of-print game in digital format.
Click here for details.

Note that this is not a print-and-play game; it is a full digital conversion exclusively for use in Battlegrounds virtual tabletop software.

Thread: FITS:: General:: PC version?

heka — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:20:09 +0000

by heka

Anybody interested in a PC (currently Windows) version of Fits? I just created an implementation as a quick exercise project and wanted to know if it would be worth finalizing it. I have not yet contacted anybody for permission to distribute the game (for free) so it might be even forbidden altogether.

Few screenshots in my user gallery: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/images/user/14938

Features currently:
- Solo play
- Four boards
- Shows a "shadow" of the piece for easier alignment

Any comments or ideas?

Also one question about the rules, is it possible to score negative points? That is, would the second board start from -5 points if that's the outcome of the first?

Session: Thebes:: First Order of Congress: The curious behaviour of three explorers!

Raharanor — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:12:05 +0000

by Raharanor

On the night of 27/6/09, whilst Laurie, Randy and Merric played Brass and ran ahead and barely above the income red line, Josh, Ian and myself busied ourselves in setting up Thebes. Ian was our first-time player, and while we set up the board Josh and I explained the rules to Ian. Seeing as it is a game that I've played many times over as well as Josh, the rules explaining went without a hitch and Ian hitched a ride on the Thebes train to many exotic locations such as Greece, Crete, Egypt and so forth!

I went as Blue, Josh as Yellow and Ian as Red. The earlier part of the game was spent mainly collecting knowledge around the many centres of our board, and it became quickly evident that my shuffling still needs fine tuning when the cards were flipped over! Josh seemed to follow a Congress+concentrate on Palestine and Mesopotamia strategy, I followed a similar strategy to start with but Josh getting the lucky congress card draws, so I mainly did the best I could from my digs everywhere in the Mediterrainean and beyond. Ian followed a more balanced strategy of getting solid returns from Crete, Greece, Mesopotamia and Egypt. Notable also was my first dig at Crete. I had an incredibly lucky draw with eight knowledge and received 22 points for my first dig alone!

Josh used an interesting but effective strategy of clearing the cards at Warsaw and henceforth getting the congress cards from the resulting re-deal. Mind you, this occurred when Ian and I were digging merrily away in faraway places such as Egypt and Crete, so we gave a little too much free rein in the heartland. Exhibitions mainly came up earlier in the game, so we didn't have as much oppotunity to present our achaelogical findings as it was in my previous games with Randy, Merric and Josh.

When the bell tolled loudly in the Big Ben in London at the end of 1903, it was time to return home and assess our successes collaboratively at the British Museum!

Scores:

Artifacts:
Crete (Purple): Richard- 22, Josh- 0, Ian- 12
Greece (Orange): Richard- 16, Josh- 0, Ian- 18
Palestine (Green): Richard- 3, Josh- 29, Ian- 0
Mesopotamia (Blue): Richard- 1, Josh- 20, Ian- 12
Egypt (Yellow): Richard- 10, Josh- 2, Ian- 19

Exhibitions:
Richard- 5, Josh- 4, Ian- 13

Congress:
Richard- 3, Josh- 21(!), Ian- 1

Knowledge:
Richard: Mesopotamia +5, Crete +5, Egypt +3 (split with Josh due to tie in knowledge total)
Josh: Palestine +5, Egypt +3 (split points as above)
Ian: Greece +5

FINAL SCORES:

Richard: 73 Josh: 84, Ian: 70

All in all, a closely played game, but I had the growing feeling that Josh had the win with his congresses before scoring was tallied. Thus he was the one toasted with quarter-full McDonalds coke cups in the city of London (or Ballarat if you prefer ).

Thread: Arkham Horror:: General:: Easy Way to Incorporate Everything into One Game

SanguinousRex — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:42:37 +0000

by SanguinousRex

Most of Arkham Horror is easy to put together, but the main thing that gets "lost" in the shuffle are the Mythos cards, the flavor cards of Arkham Horror, so to speak. There are two methods I've come up with, both very easy to implement.

1) Seperate the Mythos cards from every expansion.
2) Place the original Arkham Horror & Kingsport Mythos cards into one deck (we shall call it Deck 1).
3) Place ALL the mini-expansion Mythos cards into one deck (Pharaoh, Yellow King & Black Goat become Deck 2).
4) Place Dunwich and Innsmouth Mythos cards together (we shall call this Deck 3).

Method 1: Roll a die every Mythos Phase. 1-2, draw from deck 1. 3-4, draw from deck 2. 5-6, draw from deck 3.

Method 2: Each Mythos Phase, change decks - deck 1 for initial Mythos, deck 2 for 2nd Mythos, 3rd deck for 3rd, and back to 1st deck for 4th, etc.

***

This system works very well because the majority of action will still be on the main board, but there is a good chance that you will see Gates open in Dunwich or Innsmouth which is important for a fun and challenging game. When everything is shuffled into ONE deck, you hardly ever see the mini-expansion stories, and often nothing ever happens in Dunwich or Insmouth because of the # of Mythos cards you get from Arkham, Kingsport and the 3 mini-expansions.

Method 2 is awesome BUT you will know when something might open in Dunwich or Innsmouth (since they are all in deck 3). Method 1 is the best way, but it IS random, so if you throw a ton of 1's or 2's you'll see mostly stuff from the original Arkham Mythos deck as well.

But give it a shot for the FULL Arkham Horror experience! Let me know how it turns out.

Thread: Enchanted Forest:: General:: Malcolm in the middle season 7 episode 21

gokiburijin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:42:23 +0000

by gokiburijin

In the beginning of the episode this game is on the table.

Thread: 1960: The Making of the President:: Rules:: Hostile Press Corps VS Advance Men

Harrelson — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:35:31 +0000

by Harrelson

The following situation presented itself in a recent game. And for me, at stake is precedent that goes beyond just this situation.

The Kennedy player began the Turn by playing Hostile Press Corps:
"The Nixon player is required to make support checks for Campaigning actions in all states for the remainder of the turn as if they were being carried by Kennedy."

The Nixon player just so happened to immediately follow with Advance Men:
"For the remainder of the turn, player [i.e. Nixon in this case] is not required to pay travel costs, nor to make support checks for Campaigning actions in states that are either carried by opponent or occupied by opponent's candidate token."

Now which of these cards governs Phases 2-5 of this Turn? Is it Hostile Press Corps because it was played first, and so got to the punch? Or Advance Men because it was played second, and therefore countered what was already in play? (If this is in the rulebook, I'm missing it.)

(For the record we played that the Press Corps event held effect except where the Advance Men event specifically countered it.)

Thanks for any thoughts/direction.

Thread: Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game:: Rules:: Quick question for 2 player game -- can zombie player discard before drawing?

j_holmes — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:26:27 +0000

by j_holmes

Rather than playing a card, can a player discard a card or cards?

Thread: Fluch der Mumie:: General:: Available in Australia?

coolpapa — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:23:16 +0000

by coolpapa

I've seen several people post that they have seen this on the shelves in Australia as Pyramid. Any details on where? I'm assuming at game shops specifically...

Thread: World at War: Blood and Bridges:: Variants:: Mounting the counters

Winks — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:10:25 +0000

by Winks

First, thanks for some great counters - Canadian, Marines, etc. Fantastic expansion to a great game set. If anyone is looking for a way to mount the units, I found that the counters in the old Avalon Hill Panzer Leader or Panzerblitz are just the right size. These games are easy to find at good prices. I use a permanent glue stick to mount the printed units and overspray with a satin finish. As a bonus, the mapboards are just right to use for some variant scenarios..

Thread: Storm Over Stalingrad:: Rules:: Movement Qs

DELTA2468 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:42:52 +0000

by DELTA2468

1. A unit can move multiple spaces if it has the MP correct?

2. Can a unit move through an enemy space and occupy an empty space on the other side if it has enough MP?

More when I think of them?

Review: Runebound Second Edition:: Buy swords and armor, kill monsters, and take their treasure? Yes please.

gren doogan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:38:34 +0000

by gren doogan

Runebound designers: Darrell Hardy and Martin Wallace

Background:

(Sits back in his armchair with a pipe) Scootch round for a longwinded background, children! Scootch closer!!

When I moved to Toronto about 3 years ago, I had begun to get back into board games, but hadn't bought any of my own yet. My good pal had bought Settlers and a couple of expansions, and he also grabbed Puerto Rico, which both blew me away with their sheer genius. I had a lot of free time when I first got to the "big smoke" and I found this great little hobby store that had a WALL OF GAMES! I was tantalized by this beautiful wall, and I returned again and again to gaze at it in wonder. A board-game-addicted employee eventually told me about a magical land called "BoardGameGeek", and my addiction took hold.

I looked long and hard at the beautiful wall, oh yes children, long and hard. Many nights I combed the vast database of BGG to find my first purchase. I'm a sucker for fantasy adventure, so I was looking for a map, possibly fancy components, and some form of monster slaughtering, and thusly... I found Runebound.

The Game

You learn Runebound very quickly. You move with the move dice onto hexes with various terrain types. You know, the classics: plains, hills, forest, mountains, swamps, and towns. The chance of getting a terrain type is based on how hard the terrain is to cross, which I think is damn clever. No counting move points here!

Next, if you're on an adventure jewel (4 color-coded levels of difficulty) you draw the appropriate card until you fight something.
If you win... you take the dead thing's gold and cheer like a maniac, of course! If you lose, you don't die, but you crawl back, ashamed, to the nearest town to recuperate. Sometimes we play that you DO die and you have to choose another character. It changes gameplay a little (but that's another story...).

If you didn't choose to slaughter something, because you lack courage, or sweet gear, or you are wounded, you head off to town to draw sweet sweet market cards with snazzy pics of weapons, allies (yes you get to have your own party!) and artifacts that will help you slaughter things better!

Explore, kill, treasure. A worthy tripod of fun. (Not including the market stage, which kind of makes it a quadpod, but that is just weird.)

Eventually you are powerful enough to take on the main baddies of the game, the dragons (of course! What the heck else would you want it to be?!?) and if you kill three dragons, you take their dragonrunes and win, or you find the BIG BAD DRAGON LEADER, kill him, and win.

My Thoughts

Positive stuff: I've been playing Runebound for about 3 years now, and for my girlfriend and I, it never gets boring. My experience is limited to a LOT of 1-player games, a good number of 2-player games, and a handful of 3-player games, and I have enjoyed all of them thoroughly. The mechanics are clever and simple, the components are excellent, the art on the cards is great, and the writing is classic fantasy goodness. If you like the genre, and you used to play DnD back in the day, Runebound is a great way to have a RPG adventure in a board game way.

As well, as you may have noticed from the Runebound page, it is positively overflowing with expansions, and all of the ones I've bought so far add to game, and make it more and more interesting. They have adventure cards to simply broaden your adventures, market cards to broaden your market stack, and fully new game variants. I love that you can get an entirely new version of Runebound in a little card-sized box. That is classy.

Finally, if you're looking to get back into painting mini's, as I was, it has mini's of all of the player characters! Sweet! Dry-brushing here we come!

Negative Stuff: You can sometimes be a little overwhelmed towards the end of the game when you have a ton of cards giving you a myriad of abilities that you may or may not forget to use. I begin to find myself relieved when I can finally discard something. (*Aside* I've found this with a few FFG games, I love them, but sometimes I think they wish their players were computers.)(Look at Android... that thing looks terrifying.)

As well, I wish, and I'm sorry to the map designer, that they got Jesper Ejsing who painted the character cards to paint the board. I know! I'm horrible! I'm so sorry! I just find the board a bit dry. Oh it gets the job done children, but it's not a FANTASY board. It reads like a military hex and counter board.

The more players you get to play with you, the more downtime you have. I like that each player has their own little party blundering around the map on their own, but it can make for some long waits.

Finally, I wish there was more to do in the towns. I know that this would make for even longer down times, but I remember being in the towns was ALWAYS the funnest part of DnD. Maybe a "Town Adventure Deck" would be a cool expansion that you could integrate into your market deck, or have it as an alternative to drawing gear.

Final Thoughts

Runebound is a solid 8 game, in my humble opinion. It's not incredibly brilliant, but it's clever, and pretty, and it scratches the adventure itch nicely. Like I said: Explore, kill, treasure (and sometimes market). Ahhhhh.

Here's some pictures of my Runebound stuff, in a SHAMELESS attempt to get more thumbs:

]]>
My dog Dolly plays Runebound!!! It's in my personal gallery because the incredibly short-sighted and obviously uncivilized geekmods rejected it. A pox on all of you!

]]>
I love the sneaky guys.

]]>
And for the ladies...

Thanks for reading!

Thread: Age of Steam Expansion - Barbados / St. Lucia:: Rules:: How many goods in supply for Steam version of Barbados?

Rob in Richmond — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:07:59 +0000

by Rob in Richmond

I realize that the city's get 2 goods in Steam's version of Barbados map. But what about the goods in the supply chart? Do they get the normal 3 goods or the 2 goods that they would get with 3 players?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

Thread: Capek:: News:: Capek Prototype

shem84 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:06:10 +0000

by shem84

I just picked up the prototypes from the printers today. Looks amazing. If you want to try out Capek, I will be demoing it at Wellycon (Wellinton, New Zealand):

August 15-16th, 2009
St. Patrick's College, Kilbirnie, Wellington
Saturday 10am - 10pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Not sure on a release date for the game yet. Still want to get in some more playtesting done before tracking down manufacturers.

Thread: A Game of Thrones:: Variants:: Testing a thematic game balance

anathemus — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:59:39 +0000

by anathemus

Hey guys, I've been playing aGoT a lot and as we all know (experienced players) Lannister is really hard job, it's very unbalance, especially if you can't secure some alliances really early in the game, I would even say, the first turn is almost vital (especially if you have greyjoy against you, conquering the sea).

So my proposal for me and for you all to try out in future games, is to change the Houses card decks.

I'm going to try a game with Lannister playing with the card deck from Clash of Kings while other players will play the normal aGoT decks.

This will give Lannister a clear advantage towards other players, maybe too much of advantage on the battles, maybe if the advantage was too much, some work could be done by creating card decks with all the cards available on the expansions, in order to try to balance the game.

And on my point of view this would also work thematically, because Lannister shouldn't be the weak House on the game (Altough I hate them xD).

I believe something could be done with these options... hoping to see some feedback and if it was already done

Thread: Arctic Scavengers:: General:: General Comments on Arctic Scavengers

chengr05 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:56:43 +0000

by chengr05

I am a Dominion fan through and through having played too many games on BSW and with friends. When I read that Arctic Scavengers was another similar deck building game I decided to take the risk and buy my first preordered game.

Am I glad I did!

Firstly, adding my two cents to the widely commented position that Arctic Scavengers and Dominion are NOT alike, I couldn't agree more. Okay so it has deck building but that's really about it ...

So, my verdict on Arctic vs Dominion? I believe Arctic to be a more "fun" game due to the interaction. Rarely in a Dominion game do I hear yelling, shouting and threats coming from opponents. A game that generates its own atmosphere and table talk is great in my books. Dominion usually gets, "ahh that's a nice combo" or "Here we go again, wake me when the chain is over". Here we have snipers running around, saboteurs blowing stuff up all the while you recruit a gang of thugs for your next battle.

Now don't get me wrong, I still love Dominion (and now with Intrigue even moreso) but it comes in at a firm 2nd to Arctic. Arctic just has that edge, the interaction that moves it from being a good game to a 'fun' game. My collection is all about having a fun experience and Arctic is definitely a game that will NOT be for trade. Ever. Period.

If you haven't bought this game then you're sorely missing out. Buy it now before it goes out of print (not sure what the designers have as a horizon for this printing). Eagerly anticipating the expansions!

Comments welcome!

Out of 5, I give:
+ half

Thread: Martians!!!:: News:: cant find this anywere!

bluereaper75 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:48:36 +0000

by bluereaper75

I thought this was supposed to come out on the 24th. how come none of the boardgame stores in my town carry this game? I would love to know!

Review: Power Grid:: Choose Your Own Adventure review of Power Grid

ragingoptimist — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:40:02 +0000

by ragingoptimist

You're walking down the streets of Springfield when you see Mr. Burns and Smithers walk up to you with a copy of Power Grid. Removing from your mind the confusion of how and why you are in a cartoon world inhabited by yellow people, you hear Mr. Burns ask "What is 14 + 20 - 6 + 12 + 9 - 3?"
A) Threeve? My math skills are slightly better than a really smart dog but not quite as good as an average first grader. Go to #1.
B) Clearly 46. Go to #3.
C) Give me a minute... 49, 48, 47, 46! Go to #2.

#1 "Release the hounds!" you hear Mr. Burns bellow. Before being mauled, you know in your heart that you were never meant to play Power Grid. While very well designed, it isn't for everyone. Now about those hounds...

#2 "Do you enjoy games that are math intensive?"
A) Math is the opposite of fun. Go to #1.
B) Not my first choice, but math is OK. Go to #3.
C) Math is my true love, while board games are only my mistress. Go to #4.

#3 "Do you mind tight economic games that require meticulous resource management and excellent long term planning?"
A) I'm allergic to the word economic and I don't know what meticulous means. Go to #1.
B) Uh, sounds alright. Go to #5.
C) Those words sound like poetry to my ears. Go to #6.

#4 "Out of my way!" Mr. Burns rudely pushes past you, having decided that you don't have what it takes to compete with him in building a power plant empire. You wonder if you would have had good time with this game, and decide to try playing it later with Principal Skinner. You might like it, but be prepared for a relatively dry but excellently designed 2 hour game. Its mechanics are nearly perfect, but the theme is not for everyone.

#5 "Would you spend 30-50 bucks for a good board game with solid components?"
A) That's too many dollars for too few electros. Go to #1.
B) I'm not certain this game is worth it. Go to #4.
C) If it's as good as its BGG ranking is, it would be a steal at twice the price. Go to #6.

#6 "Excellent!" says Mr Burns as he presses his finger tips together. "We shall play this "Power Grid." After I destroy you at this incredibly fun game, we shall endeavor to make the life of Friedemann Friese miserable. Green hair! The audacity!" You have a surprisingly enjoyable time, despite the fact that Mr. Burns outbids you with real money during every auction phase and has modified the game board to deliver electric shocks whenever you try to block him in. As for Friedemann, he was never the same...

Thread: Commands & Colors: Ancients:: General:: Command card decks available

kentreuber — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:31:02 +0000

by kentreuber

I'm going to be running C&CA (as well as all the C&C games which I'm calling "Commands & Colors Fest") at Conquest (San Francisco area) over Labor Day. I have all the expansions, so I have multiple armies and maps, but I don't have multiple command decks. It turns out that GMT will sell you extra decks. Price is $10 + $2.50 shipping. So, I bought 2 decks. Now I'm all set.

Now if I only had another BattleLore deck....

Thread: Othello:: General:: Looking for a Gabriel Pocket Othello set

didaskalos — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:25:28 +0000

by didaskalos

or another Othello travel set. If you have one for trade, or even one you'd be willing to sell, I'd be interested. Please send me a Geekmail or set up a trade. Thanks.

Thread: Mare Nostrum:: General:: Why not Alexander?

jrescan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:22:44 +0000

by jrescan

Every time I play this with new people all keep asking the same question: Where's Alexander the Great? Why Perikles, and not Alexander? They may easily changed Greece for Macedonia (and starting city Athenas for Pella)...my answer is always: because Alexander didn't have the naval superiority Perikles had. And in this game Greece's trait is naval force.

Funny but people don't agree and keep saying: well I'm going to be Alexander the Great!!

Thread: Talisman 4th Edition:: Variants:: The Monk nerf and Craft

littlemute — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:22:11 +0000

by littlemute

Played a couple games of fourth edition now (base set + upgrade) on top of hundreds of 2nd edition games. Couple things I'm sad about.

1) Raiders nerf. Sad and no reason for it except to allay the whining of a group of people that should be playing a 'resurrect with everything whenever you die and is incredibly boring' type of game instead of Talisman. If anyone has a Black Isle Raider card they want to sell, let me know (I'd like to have two so people can't card count as easily).

2) The Monk nerf that states he only uses his starting craft to add to his strength in combat. Sad and easily fixed by going back to the way 2nd Edition was played i.e.: players do not save Craft enemies as experience to gain Craft. There are more ways on the board to gain craft than strength and when you add to this the ability to gain experience to gain craft, of course the Monk is going to decimate everyone. Plus the removal of the Warhorse from 4th edition (an item giving characters the Monk's ability just like Psionic Blast except persistent)exacerbates the problem of this rather common power in 2nd edition's exclusivity in 4th.

A really easy fix might be to make the Monk Neutral instead of Good at start. With Fate Points, it seems marginally less useless to be Evil or Neutral, but nothing beats healing up to your starting quota for free.

Thread: Carcassonne: The City:: General:: Have base carcassonne... should i get Carc City or Carc Inns/Cath & Traders/builders

ranoobu — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:18:55 +0000

by ranoobu

Like the subject says... wasn't sure where to post this...

I'm planning on either getting the city or the expansions... but i don't really know which to get..

I want an extra depth of play and apparently each of these options offers that...

Anyone care to offer their opinions?

Thanks!

Review: Wasabi!:: Wasabi! A Review for Gamers and Non Gamers

Jasta — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:13:06 +0000

by Jasta

Intro

I live in a house with my two best friends; one is a gamer the other isn't. As we all like doing things together my game collection is gathering a little too much dust for my liking. So begins my quest to convert my non-gaming friend to the wonderful world of boardgames. Seeing that my non-gaming friend likes sushi and all things Japanese, Wasabi! seemed like the perfect starting point, so I convinced her and another non-gaming friend to play.

Overview

Wasabi! is quite obviously a game about making sushi - in fact the way I pitched was that it was like Scrabble - only with sushi instead of letters. This was a concept that my non-gamer friends could easily understand.

Each player gets a selection of recipes and ingredients which are then placed on a central board to form recipes horizontally or vertically. Recipes have different lengths and longer recipes are worth more points. If you manage to complete a recipe in the order shown on the recipe card you get extra points for making sushi 'with style' and get to place a number of green wasabi cubes in a cute Japanese dish for extra points.

Completing a recipe also gives you a special action card which lets you move ingredients, place extra ingredients, stack them on top of each other or block off squares on the board.

Contents & Theme

Like every other Z-Man game I've experienced, the quality of the components and attention to detail are superb. Thick card counters, sturdy board and wonderfully designed and laid out rules. The 'menu' screens are probably the only weak point as they don't hold the recipe cards very well and the recipe information on the back serves no real purpose.

The whole game oozes theme from every angle. The artwork is vibrant and colourful and the little wasabi cubes and the Japanese dishes to hold them are a nice touch. The game has so much theme that I couldn't possibly play it without real sushi so I ended up making my own (with many comments about which ones were completed 'with style' and which looked like someone had thrown raw fish at a muddy snowball) If I was to nitpick I'd say some of the ingredient counters are hard to tell apart at a glance when the board gets full - rice and maki especially could have been differentiated better.

Gameplay

The game is extremely easy to teach and learn, and everyone got the basic idea after one turn. We played two games, neither of which went for more than 45 minutes although there is some setup time getting all the counters in the right place. There is a reasonable amount of strategy early on as you try and setup the biggest recipe you can while there is still room on the board. Do you go for a tricky 5 ingredient roll straight away or make a quick 2 or 3 length nigiri in order to pick up a special card in case things don't go to plan.

As the board fills up things get a lot harder, you have to be a lot more flexible in your strategy and eventually everyone ends up racing to get the last few points from the free space available. There are some opportunities to complete multiple recipes at the same time with clever use of the cards and ingredients and keeping track of the whole board is critical.

Conclusion

Wasabi! got a mixed response from our group. The non-gamers really enjoyed it. The game is chaotic and light hearted and while a game like Puerto Rico might punish you for playing each turn as it comes in Wasabi! it is almost encouraged. It’s not that there isn’t strategy; it just doesn’t pay to get too tied down to one in particular.

In comparison my gamer friend and I weren’t so sold. Too often, thinking a few turns ahead would prove fruitless as our plans were foiled not by guile or cunning but by bad luck - and unfortunately once you get a bad set of recipes or ingredients it can be difficult to get back in the game. Playing offensively is also tricky, maybe it’s the theme but it was hard to deliberately block or obstruct a player without it feeling like a pure act of bastardry rather than a sound tactical play. Maybe playing it with a group of hardcore gamers would be better but then I think we’d probably be playing something else instead.

In the end Wasabi! was a great game for introducing people to the world of boardgames beyond Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. While those of us with a wider experience of the genre were left wanting a bit more tuna in our tekkamaki we still had fun and hopefully we managed to convince our non-gamer friends to give something a little more complicated a try.

Roast dinner and Agricola is next on the menu!

Thread: A Brief History Of The World:: General:: First Preview

jrescan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:02:55 +0000

by jrescan

Here a nice preview of the major changes from previous versions:

http://www.ragnarbrothers.co.uk/html/brief_history_of_the_wo...

Release date: October 09. Looking forward to this. Specially, no more crazy ebay bids

Session: Marvel Heroes:: A look at the combat system through three fights vs. Ultron

maka — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:53:48 +0000

by maka

I just thought I'd show some of the possibilities of the combat system by example. Here are three fights between some of the heroes and one of the most powerful villains: Ultron. I chose not to use Ultron's special power as that would make him maybe too hard to kill, but heroes have only 3 attempts for using their special power. Neither heroes nor Ultron can boost their dice.

What follows are three fights where I've tried to choose as logically as possible (and with as little bias as possible), trying to showcase the kind of decisions this combat system allows. A real fight usually has more surprises as players try to outguess each other, but I've tried to emulate that as well as I could.

Here are the fights:

Hulk vs. Ultron

Hulk decides to start by trying to crush Ultron (red power) and Ultron, having enough energy too decides to fire some stun charges (red). Hulk jumps on top of Ultron (Attack 5) which can't do much with his low defense (1). Ultron is crushed by the blow (5 Hits vs. 1 Hit for 1 KO). But Ultron attacks back although his attack (5) is not strong enough to overcome Hulk's defense (4). Hulk is unharmed (2 Hits vs. 4 Hits). Now both of them look for ways to outwit each other and Hulk uses his jump powers to try to gain the advantage (2) against Ultron (3) but Ultron is not fooled and manages to take the initiative, striking a blow from behind (3 hits vs 4 hits for 1 KO)

Now Ultron decides to concentrate in outwitting his opponent and chooses his Superhuman Intelligence power (Yellow), but Hulk keeps on trying to crush Ultron (red). First Ultron attacks weakly (2) and doesn't even scratch Hulk (0 Hits). Hulk (5) smashes Ultron (3) and scores a hit (5 hits vs. 2 hits for 1 KO). Now both opponents eye each other looking for a break and Hulk tries jumping again (2) vs Ultron's intelligence (4). Ultron wins again (4 Hits vs. 3 Hits for 1KO) scoring a hit.

This is the definitive round. Ultron has the initiative and has to attack quickly before Hulk punches him. Still, the Stun Charges leave him defenseless, and he decides not to take the risk, choosing his Admantium Armor (orange). Hulk also plays it safe, choosing his healing factor, hoping either his punches or his jumps do the trick. Ultron attacks (2 vs 5) but predictably he fails to damage Hulk (2 Hits vs. 3 Hits). Now Hulk punches (2 vs 5) and fails too (1 Hit vs 5). Now both try their best at outwitting each other while Hulk tries his last jump (3 vs 2) but none manage to find a way to damage their opponent (2 Hits vs. 2 Hits).

Unexpectedly, the combat goes on. Utron decides to risk everything (red), hoping Hulk doesn't dare to do the same, and Hulk as expected conentrates on defense this turn too (orange). Ultron attacks (5) while Hulk does his best to avoid damange (5). This time though, Hulk fails to avoid Ultron's charges and falls (2 Hits vs. 1 Hit).

Spiderman vs. Ultron

Spiderman knows he can't stand less abuse than Ultron, so he has to be careful. He chooses his wall climbing powers (orange) hoping to score a lucky hit either by force or wits. Ultron knowing he's got a lot of strength left, chooses his Stun Charge power (red) hoping for an easy hit. Spiderman tries a weak attack (2) but Ultron left his defenses open (1). Spiderman scores a hit (2 hits vs 1 hit for 1KO). Now Ultron attacks (5) but Spiderman is ready (4). Ultron's attack is strong (6 hits) but Spiderman's spider sense helps him avoid part of it, although it's enough to damage him (4 Hits vs. 2 Hits). Now both fighters try to find the best way to trick the other (3 vs 3) but Ultron's robotic intelligence proves to much for our friendly spider (3 Hits vs. 5 Hits) and he goes down.

Wolverine vs. Ultron

Wolverine is weaker than Ultron, but he's got his healing factor so his first attack goes all out, using his admantium claws (red). Ultron knowing his strength also goes all out, choosing his stun discharges (red). First Wolverine attacks (5) versus Ultron's open defence (1) managing to score a perfect hit, damaging the robot (6 Hits vs 1 Hit for 1 KO). Now is Ultron's turn to attack (5) versus Logan's weaker defense (3). This time Ultron is unlucky and misses his shot (2 Hits vs. 3 Hits). Ultron now, using his higher intelligence (3 vs 1) manages to trick Wolverine and scores a hit (2 Hits vs 1 Hit for 1 KO).

Now Wolverine is desperate as he needs to survive and possibly recover his health so he chooses his healing factor (orange). Ultron predicting this uses his superhuman intelligence to both have a decent defense but also a good chance at scoring another hit at the end of the round. Ultron attacks (2) against Logan's great defense (5) which also stands this attack (2 hits vs 5 hits). Wolverine also recovers his health thanks to his powers. Now Logan attacks (2) although Ultron's defense is stronger (3). This time though, Wolverine's claws still manage to penetrate Ultron's armor (1 hit vs. 1 hit). But Ultron has the advantage now, thanks to his super human intelligence (4 vs 2) and scores another hit (4 hits vs 1 hit).

This is what seems to be the last round of combat. Both opponents are down to their last health point, and Ultron has the iniciative. He takes the risk and goes all out with his stun charges (red). Wolverine needs to recover his health, so he chooses his healing factor again (orange). Ultron fires (5) while Logan tries to avoid the shot (5). He easily does that, even managing to recover another health point (3 Hits vs. 5 Hits). Now Wolverine attacks (2) with a good chance vs. Ultron's weak defense (1) but this time the attack fails (0 Hits). Ultron again has a slight advantage when he tries to outwit his enemy (3 vs 2) but this time that is not enough. In a surprise move that leaves him totally baffled, Wolverine jumps, comes from behind and hits him by surprise (3 hits vs. 2 hits). Logan wins the fight. Ultron has been defeated.

Thoughts

Ultron is a mighty opponent. Hulk was very close to defeating him while Spiderman had a very hard time. He also was a bit unlucky. Wolverine did manage to win in the end, thanks to his healing powers and amazing strength, but also some luck in the end with that last outwit roll, although he was unlucky with his attack before too...

For a level 2 character, Wolverine is pretty strong (Hulk is level 3).

Now, Ultron's last choice may have not be the wisest although he does have an edge as ties go to the attacker. He could have chosen to hold out, trying to outwit Logan while he was forced to use his defensive power to recover from the constant damage. But as Logan's healing power is limited he'd have to change tactics or eventually lose. He may have been forced to risk choosing his red power hoping his defense of 3 would hold out...

Anyway, hopefully this has shown the extent of the choices available with this combat system, which makes each fight (unless it's very uneven) an exciting contest, where it's not only about rolling well, but choosing wisely and outsmarting your opponent.

Thread: Combat Commander: Europe:: Rules:: Discard leads to Time! trigger (end of deck), may a Dig in! action be played by the triggering player?

leakest wink — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:51:54 +0000

by leakest wink

Had this happen the other night; my opponent discarded 3 with one left in his fate deck, creating a Time! trigger. Would he then be able to play a Dig in action during the "time" process? My gut said "no, if you discard you discard and that's it", but I wasn't finding what I needed in the rules to make a bulletproof argument prohibiting it. Please let me know what you think.

Supplemental question: If the answer is "yes" (he can play it) how does that affect how many cards he can draw?

Thanks for any assistance...

Chris

Thread: 1829 Mainline:: Rules:: 11. Promoting Existing Tiles - Chicken & Egg Problem

rules_heretic — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:18:30 +0000

by rules_heretic

I am an 18xx novice and I picked this up at Origins.

I'm having trouble getting my head around rule 11 - Promoting Existing Tiles. The problem that I'm having is that I see a Chicken & Egg problem in the rules.

The rules say: Tiles may be upgraded ... A tile may not be promoted unless some of the new track is part of a line leading to a base belonging to that company.(Emphasis mine)

I'm running the NER (not very well mind you) and I've connected to Sunderland (a double large station). Now I want to extend out of there. But I can't extend because there's no line out. Ok, then I'll upgrade. No you can't upgrade because your "NEW TRACK" will not connect to anything.

Thanks in advance!

Thread: Space Alert:: General:: Space Alert: Solo: All Advice Will Be Appreciated.

elfrododumbo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:15:53 +0000

by elfrododumbo

I will be playing SA (solo) on Sunday. Please steer me in the right direction re: how to start and anything I should know before I begin the game.

Thanks in advance.

Thread: Lock 'n Load: Heroes of the Blitzkrieg:: General:: No game yet...

Mikeg99 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:09:51 +0000

by Mikeg99

Are there others out there who have not received their P500 pre-order yet that live in the U.S.?

I have not received my copy yet which a little disappointing. I know I ordered mine towards the end of May or early June which is late in the P500 process but we are going on 3-4 weeks from when they started shipping. It just seems a little long to me. I understand it is a small company and they are probably packing as fast as they can but I feel I should have at least received notification that they have shipped my game. I was ok with waiting a bit but I saw today that some online shops are starting to get their stock in.

In the future, I may be better served in waiting for the online stores to get their stock (unless their is the likelihood the game will not get published without my preorder). I do not mind waiting for a preorder but I mind when vendors get the game before I get my preorder.

I have preordered from other small wargame companies in the past such as GMT and I have not had to wait this long for my game.....

Thread: Dorn:: General:: English print?

Bagherra — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:07:09 +0000

by Bagherra

Any new news on the English version?
Last I heard CBG was supposed to do it.
Anyone?

Thread: Blue Moon:: Rules:: Cast Cataclysm

Cygnusx1 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:57:37 +0000

by Cygnusx1

I'm missing something basic here.

My son has announced 8 earth.

He has a plain 4 Earth char card, plus 2 support cards of 2 Earth each
Ballista of Confusion, Homing Missles

So I need to come up with 8 Earth.

I play the Leadership Card: Cast Cataclysm: Now I discard all of your support cards.

So I take off his Ballista of Confusion and Homing Missles.

But do I need to come up with 4 Earth now, or 8 Earth??

Confused,

David

Thread: The Settlers of Catan:: General:: Catan for Nintendo DS

ScottE — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:52:53 +0000

by ScottE

I met an old friend today that told me he got Catan for the DS. So I zoomed over to Gamestop to pick up a copy and they didn't have it or know anything about it. Then did some searching around and can't seem to find anyone that has it. Not even any searches on eBay show it available. Did this get released? Not sure where he got it, possible it was a pirate copy.

Thread: Arkham Horror - Innsmouth Horror Expansion:: Rules:: Leo Anderson's personal story and exhausting allies

bigtex01 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:41:50 +0000

by bigtex01

Leo's pass condition (once per turn, exhaust an ally instead of spending a clue token)--I take it that means that he can exhaust any ally? Even those that do not have abilites that can cause them to be exhausted?

From Dunwich rules, exhausting an ally does not affect the stat bonuses it grants, only exhaustable abilities. In the case of allies that don't have abilities that can be exhausted, then, he just tips them over to the side (which does nothing to them, really) and can do the equivalent of spending a clue token, right?

Thread: Attack!:: Rules:: Move and actions

nedpatrick — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:41:41 +0000

by nedpatrick

I have a question about sea movement and actions. Do you spend your action points after completing a move or upon declaration of your intent?

For example, if you plan an amphibious move, and the player who controls the seas doesn't allow the move and you choose not to move any airplanes, do you lose your action? Do you now only have 2 actions left even though you didn't move anything? Do you waste that action or do you get to use it to do something else?

What about trading? If the sea-owning player blocks a trade, have you lost one action? Or do you get to spend that action again on something else?

Thanks for the help.

Session: Britannia:: Great Moments In Wargaming #2

da pyrate — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:23:06 +0000

by da pyrate

Da Pyrate & Craig Go Toe-to-toe

]]>
Australian Multi-player Boardgame Championship
Canberra – January 1991

The Multi-player Boardgame championship was the brain-child of the late Tony White, the owner of Napoleon’s Military Bookshop. Tony generously provided games from his shop for people to use during the tournament and the games became prizes at the end of the tournament.

Tony lived in Brisbane and so, as tournament organizer, I worked through the Sydney branch of Napoleon’s to obtain the games that I needed.

This particular year, on the second day of the tournament I was involved in a game of Britannia. I had the Red faction (Saxons, etc.) and Craig, the manager of the Sydney store) had the Blue faction (Angles, etc.).

We were about halfway through the game and I was a bit concerned –I was coming first and Craig was coming second. This was no good – as organiser I really didn’t want to win the game and with Craig being manager of the sponsoring store I didn’t want him to win either.

For some reason I don’t understand, Craig made a deal with me and then broke it immediately. By the way, the part I don’t understand is his breaking of the deal. Apparently thousands of gamers travel great distances and brave great deprivations just to be able to make a deal with me.

Anyway, I was quite happy that Craig had broken the deal as it gave me a great excuse to fight him. I stated publically that as he had broken a deal with me I was going to make it my sole aim in the game to bring him down. Over the second half of the game I gave no thought to furthering my own cause and looked solely at making his life miserable. I think I succeeded – by the end of the game I had gone from first to fourth and taken Craig from second to third.

He kept telling me that my actions were not in my best interest. I kept telling him my only aim in the game was to take him down.

At the end of the game he told me that he was a better gamer than I was because he had come third and I had come fourth. I told him that he was totally correct in that believe and that I had been completely outfought by him and it was only fair that he came in with a better result than me. I also told him that the next few games I played against him would be fought in the same spirit – he would be my enemy and my sole aim would be to take him down.

He said I wouldn’t be so foolish – I assured that I would be and he would discover that the next morning as he and I would be playing in the same game. He said I couldn’t do that and I said I could because I was the tournament organiser.

For some reason Craig did not turn up for the game session the next day.

I must say that it made me smile when I played my next game against Craig. It was more than 10 years after the incident related above. During the game I heard Craig whisper to one of the other guys, “If you make a deal with Dave, whatever you do don’t break it!”

Thread: Pursuit of Glory :: Rules:: turkish war weariness

wayneheeley — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:10:44 +0000

by wayneheeley

a quick question on this card:
if the CP play no RPs on a turn after turkish war weariness is played then they are at -2RPs and must degrade units accordingly.

however, do they also reduce turkish max RPs by 2?

Thread: Age of Steam:: Variants:: Steam

jimb — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:01:21 +0000

by jimb

I wrote some draft notes on playing Steam as a variant of Age of Steam (using an Age of Steam set).

It's posted in the Steam forum (General), at
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/420594

Please, no flames over there ..

- jim

Thread: Steam:: General:: Steam conversion kit for Age of Steam owners

jimb — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:55:06 +0000

by jimb

A STEAM upgrade kit for Age of Steam owners (recommended for 2-4 players)

The goal of this simple kit is instructions for playing casual Steam games with your Age of Steam set - your board, track pool, and player markers.

Please limit your comments to the upgrade kit itself - not to the relative merits of Steam or Age of Steam.

This is a first draft - comments are welcome, and I'll try to polish it up some more.

Game Equipment

Steam rules - Mayfair has a draft online

Review the Base Game rules carefully, and skip the Standard Game rules. (Under Turn Order, always use the First Game rules - ignore the auction.)

http://www.mayfairgames.com/gamesupport/rules/Steam_Rules_Dr...

Steam display - new Income/VP/etc track & supply-spaces

Download and print Ted Alspach's Steam display from here -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/39813.

City growth markers (18)

Use pennies or dimes - small flat markers, distinct from the other game tokens.

Action tiles (7)

Instead of AoS's action-selection track, you need 7 simple, numbered action-tiles for Steam. Aside from the new display, this is the only thing you're really missing; simple instructions for making some with business-cards are below. (If friends have Steam and prefer Steam's action-track, they may give you their tiles - they're similar to the action-cards in some AoS variant maps.)

Setup

Setup your map board goods as usual. (So for the Rust Belt - 3 goods on Pittsburgh and Wheeling, 2 on the others cities.)

Also setup the Steam supply spaces (on the Steam display), as described in the Steam Rules - with 4 players, put 3 goods on each space; with less player, use 2 goods for each space.

On the Steam display - place player-tokens on the vp, income/expense, and locomotive tracks. Then, randomly place 1 of each player-token on the 'turn-order' track to determine starting turn-order; each turn-order position after the first-player gets an addition $1 (2nd-player gets $1, 3rd-player gets $2, etc).

Setup your 7 action-tiles in a pool.

Play

The turn phases are:

1. Select Action - select an action tile, in player order
2. Build Track - urbanization and city growth both occur during this phase
3. Movement - 2 rounds of movement, 1 can be used to advance locomotive
4. Income/Expenses - receive income or pay expenses (according to income track)
5. Finish Up - until the final turn, proceed to Turn Order Progression (below) and start a new turn; on the last turn, proceed to Score.

Select Action

Take one of the available action tiles to select an action.

Note that 3 of these 'action tiles' have costs (#5 City Growth, #6 Locomotive, and #7 Urbanization): if you select the action, you must pay the cost immediately, and you must use the action.

Two tiles also have a Pass action (#5 City Growth, and #7 Urbanization), denoted by '--': if you select the Pass action instead, pay nothing.

Turn Order Progression

The turn-order for the next is progressed, using this turn's action numbers: lower action #'s (1-7) get earlier positions for the subsequent turn. Reset the turn-order track accordingly, return the action-tiles to the selection pool, and advance the turn-marker.

Score

Review the Steam rules for final scoring:

If your income is positive, add half that many VP's (rounded down); if your income is negative, lose twice than many VP's.

Remove uncompleted links and associated tokens; then, score +1 VP for each completed link. (You don't earn points for each track segment or incompleted-links.)

Steam rules - some highlights from Age of Steam

In the Steam rules for the Base game, take particular note of the following differences:

Action Selection - particularly action-tile selection, cost (and passing), play, and turn-order effects.

Track costs - track-tiles cost $1 for each hexside with track, plus $1 for towns (simple curves are $2, complex-xing $4, complex-town-xing $5, etc). if you replace or redirect existing track, you pay the full track-cost of the new tile.

Terrain costs - rivers add $1, mountains add $2. (terrain effect is unchanged: only the first track on a hex pays terrain costs)

Income/Expense track - this replaces the stock track, there is no income reduction phase

City Growth, Urbanization, and Goods Supply spaces - the new Goods Supply spaces affect setup, City Growth, and Urbanization. When you supply a city via City Growth or Urbanization, select all the goods from one available Goods Supply space. Also, place a City Growth marker on the city as you do this. (You cannot resupply a city that has a city-growth marker; any city-hex can only be supplied *once* after the start of the game.)

Other notes

Age of Steam track and town disks

Use your AoS track-tiles and town disks as normal. Since your tiles are single-sided, you may run out of curves or straights earlier than you would in Steam in larger games (so I'm wary of 5-player games, unless you have another Age of Steam set). Play with your current, Age of Steam pool and make do for now - when you find it's the limiting factor, you're probably ready to buy Steam.

Scaling across games and maps

If you're playing a small 2-3p game on a larger 4-6p map, setup one less cube on each city. As always in Steam, supply-spaces get 3 cubes each in 4+ player games, 2 cubes each in smaller games. If a game on a scenario map feels cramped or too competitive, add 1 more goods-cube to the initial cities next time.

____________________________

Action Tiles - DIY

To make simple action-tiles, take small cards (business cards would be good), and mark 7 cards like this (cards #1 through #7):

#1 Turn Order

First in player-order next turn

#2 First Move

First in movement phase

#3 Engineer

Build up to 4 track tiles, instead of 3

#4 First Build

First in build phase

#5 City Growth $2 / --

Place an available new-city token on any town
Supply town with goods from a 1 available supply-space
Place city-growth marker on new-city

#6 Locomotive $4+

Move up 1 on the Locomotive track
The cost is $4, plus the new level

#7 Urbanization $6 / --

Good luck - please let me know if you see omissions, or other issues with the kit in play.

- jim

Review: Race for the Galaxy:: Choose Your Own Adventure review of Race for the Galaxy

ragingoptimist — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:41:07 +0000

by ragingoptimist

You're enjoying your week at Space Camp when Buzz Aldrin walks up to you holding a copy of Race for the Galaxy. "Do you want to play a card game with me?" he asks.
A) Would I ever! Go to #2.
B) Sorry, Buzz, but I have an irrational hatred of card games and/or anything related to space. It doesn't matter how awesome it is, I don't care about it if I have to shuffle or deal with anything not strictly terrestrial. Go to #1.

#1 Buzz Aldrin shakes his head in disbelief and walks away. Sorry, but RFTG is not for you. Maybe the game has too high of an entry fee to learn how to play. Maybe its mechanics don't appeal to you. Maybe you have bad taste in games (oh snap!).

#2 "Are you willing to learn a fairly complicated game with its own symbolic language?"
A) If a game isn't easy to learn and incredibly fun on its very first play, I don't want to play it. Go to #1.
B) I really don't like complicated games as much, but I'm willing to give it a try for Buzz. Go to #3.
C) A steep learning curve is a small price for an awesome game. Go to #4.

#3 "How important is a high level of player interaction for you?"
A) What's the point of a game if I can't directly mess with my opponent? Games like Puerto Rico feel like multiplayer solitaire to me. Go to #1.
B) I really like highly interactive games, but I can tolerate games with less direct interaction. Go to #4.
C) Indirect interaction is fine by me. Games like Puerto Rico have plenty of interaction in them. Go to #6.

#4 "Is 25 to 35 bucks too much for a nice deck of cards and a few bits of cardboard?"
A) I will NEVER spend that much on a card game. My frugality is only matched by my obstinance. Go to #1.
B) I'm still not sold. Go to #5.
C) I'd gladly pay triple that if this is a game worth playing dozens to hundreds of times. Go to #6.

#5 Buzz chats with you for a few minutes and then walks away, stating that he has "important astronaut business" to attend to. RFTG may be a great game for you, but you also might not like it. Try playing it with an experienced player and plan on at least your first couple of games to be learning games. This is a very deep and wonderful game, but some gamers just don't get into as much.

#6 Buzz smiles, shakes your hand, begins referring to you as "good buddy," and invites you to hang out with him on the International Space Station. While there you play RFTG with him and your other NASA friends, having a blast with its subtle strategy, immense replayability, and varied gameplay. You discover alien life while on the space station and become incredibly famous.

Thread: Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game:: General:: lot of Cards how much are they worth?

jedisilentbob — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:39:40 +0000

by jedisilentbob

I bought War of the ring and got these with it. I really just wanted the game and he wanted to get rid of these. THere is about 1500 or so of these he said there was just a mixed and he did not sell the rares. How much do you think I could get for these. I play ccg sometimes but ill stick to magic and the rare game of 7th sea.

Thanks

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