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Post by 😎 on Jan 22, 2024 2:36:14 GMT
Got Plum Island Horror to the table earlier for a test play. Highly recommended, it really is Dawn of the Zeds (same designer) but modernized and tightened (yet crunchier) with a far more pulpy theme. Instead of waiting out the timer to win, you have to rescue enough people before time runs out or the island gets overrun or becomes radioactive.
Very interesting experiment from GMT which I hope we see more of.
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Post by 😎 on Feb 24, 2024 20:24:01 GMT
Can highly recommend Earthborne Rangers. A less threatening, open world campaign Arkham Horror/LotR LCG? Yes please. As absolutely amazing as those two are, sometimes the stress of how freaking difficult they can be isn’t necessarily a positive.
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Vandelay
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Post by Vandelay on Feb 24, 2024 23:04:06 GMT
Spent a lovely day with a couple of pals today in Oxford, including some time at Thirsty Meeples. Played Raccoon Tycoon, which I wasn't familiar with and we were mostly sold on by the name. Turned out to be a very enjoyable game, involving a little bit of resource management and bidding. Not particularly complex either, so was pretty quick for us to get to grips with, even though none of us knew the rules going in.
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Post by FlexibleFeline on Feb 26, 2024 11:01:53 GMT
ISS Vanguard has finally arrived, one year on - the base game, Personnel Files, Close Encounters, Lost Fleet and Deadly Frontier. You can imagine how big the box was. Spoiler: bloody massive.
Now to find the time to get to grips with it and hope I actually enjoy it...
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zagibu
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Post by zagibu on Mar 2, 2024 15:30:25 GMT
Anyone played Blood on the Clocktower yet? It's a bit like the werewolf games, but much better.
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Post by Leolian'sBro on Mar 2, 2024 19:33:12 GMT
It’s basically Werewolf but it can easily eat up a whole evening. It’s for people who really, REALLY enjoy playing that sort of thing and have a group who really enjoy it too. Plus it really helps if everyone in the group is familiar with both the game and the genre.
For everyone else, me included, it’s a bit much. It feels like one of those dinner party murder things, only more fiddly.
Edit: this is based on half a game with a small and somewhat unenthusiastic crowd. Maybe you’ll find it to be great, who knows.
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Mar 2, 2024 20:03:58 GMT
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zagibu
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Post by zagibu on Mar 2, 2024 22:44:43 GMT
It’s basically Werewolf but it can easily eat up a whole evening. It’s for people who really, REALLY enjoy playing that sort of thing and have a group who really enjoy it too. Plus it really helps if everyone in the group is familiar with both the game and the genre. For everyone else, me included, it’s a bit much. It feels like one of those dinner party murder things, only more fiddly. Edit: this is based on half a game with a small and somewhat unenthusiastic crowd. Maybe you’ll find it to be great, who knows. The main mechanics are like Werewolf, but it actually plays quite differently in practice. Social cues are much less and logical deductions much more important. Dying does not delegate you to the second row, because you can still partake in discussions and have one final vote in nominations as a ghost. Sometimes it even makes you the only trustworthy townsfolk, so you can function as an information hub for the other players.
Dying is even necessary, because it's often one of the only sources of information for the rest of the team. So daytime executions are much more part of the logical deduction puzzle, instead of just being a gamble. For example, if somebody claims the role of Undertaker, you might want to kill someone else, and then you might either find out whether the killed player or the Undertaker was lying, depending on what the Undertaker says he learned from the last execution.
The replayability is also much higher, because there are lots of different roles, not only for the good players, but also the evil players, that change the game quite drastically. Even swapping only 1 role out might already encourage a completely different approach by the townsfolk, because of how it interacts with other roles.
Yes, you need at least a few players who like to solve logical puzzles. Also, the game needs at least 7 players (it's technically possible with less, but 7 is min imo) plus a storyteller, and 8 - 10 is better. And for the more complex role setups, you need a storyteller who knows what he's doing. But the recommended starter setup should be doable for a completely new group. The storyteller should probably invest at least an hour before the game to read all the material and get familiar how the roles from the starter scenario work and think about how he's going to track who did what and how to communicate with the players at night. And the first game might still fail horribly because of a big blunder on his part.
But when it works, it's the best fun I've had in a long while. If anybody is interested, we could try to set up a session through their online app. It supports voice and camera, but you can also do it using text only. It's much better in person, of course, but can still be fun through the app as well. And you can test it this way without having to spend 150 quid on the box. There is also an unofficial app for tracking game state, and you can use discord using that instead of the official one.
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Post by rhaegyr on Mar 5, 2024 10:44:22 GMT
7 of us played it last week at a mates house after a big piss up in Manchester (6 Players, 1 Storyteller) and we had an absolute blast - could've played it all night. We've been playing Secret Hitler for years but this is much more fun.
Count me in for a go with the app if you get enough people.
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Post by Leolian'sBro on Mar 6, 2024 7:55:41 GMT
FFG really wants me to know about Star Wars: Unlimited but I’m struggling to see why it’s worth it. It looks like MTG-lite with a Star Wars theme, and doesn’t seem to do anything new. Sure, it might grow into something more, but I bet it doesn’t, this is like the sixth or seventh attempt to make a Star Wars build-a-deck card game (didn’t they do another one just last year?)
Plus I don’t care for the CCG boosterpack idea at all. Just sell me the game that I want to play, don’t make me gamble for components.
Am I missing something?
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Mar 11, 2024 16:55:06 GMT
My copy of Fallen Land 2nd Edition arrived today. Whoop.
Have wanted this game for ages and have been patiently waiting for the new addition. Time to get post apocalyptic.
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Mar 13, 2024 14:29:01 GMT
FFG really wants me to know about Star Wars: Unlimited but I’m struggling to see why it’s worth it. It looks like MTG-lite with a Star Wars theme, and doesn’t seem to do anything new. Sure, it might grow into something more, but I bet it doesn’t, this is like the sixth or seventh attempt to make a Star Wars build-a-deck card game (didn’t they do another one just last year?) Plus I don’t care for the CCG boosterpack idea at all. Just sell me the game that I want to play, don’t make me gamble for components. Am I missing something? Doesn’t sound like you’re missing anything, no. I’ve never played one of these CCGs though and Magic is way too daunting a proposition these days, so I’ve just ordered one of the starter sets of this to take a look, purely out of intrigue. It's fairly inexpensive, until they get me and I disappear down the booster pack rabbit hole of course… |
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Vandelay
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Post by Vandelay on Mar 13, 2024 14:47:22 GMT
I've only ever played LCGs (actually, quite a few of them), but could be tempted by this Star Wars card game if it turns out good. Where as LCGs let everyone play on a level playing field, CCGs can open themselves up to a little more wackiness, which could be fun if they decide to go that route with it.
Was quite tempted by Flesh and Blood recently, but I so rarely get to play tabletop games nowadays that it would likely be a waste of money (and the last two or three times I've played has been at boardgame cafés). I've had to stop buying tabletop games until I actually get some use out of the ones I already own.
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Post by Leolian'sBro on Mar 13, 2024 16:20:57 GMT
SCH: you could do a lot worse than try Netrunner. It’s s beast to learn but I don’t think there’s a finer deckbuilder (or boardgame, frankly), it’s entirely free to play on jinteki.net, and it’s currently undergoing a huge resurgence - we’re in the middle of a drip feed of new cards ahead of a new set release on the 18th.
It is fantastic, I’ve never known a game with such depth, let alone from two decks of cards. I play it every day.
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Mar 13, 2024 18:32:41 GMT
I’ve actually got a bunch of Netrunner stuff from back in the FFG days, but never found a local scene for it. Plus it’s such a headfuck to learn there’s not a chance I can sling it out for a casual game with my other half or some mates.
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Post by 😎 on Mar 13, 2024 19:00:21 GMT
I find Netrunner kind of hilarious the way it’s drifted through about four different IPs. It was Cyberpunk, then it was Android, then it became its own thing, then it was abandoned and is now this weird community/business hybrid thing. It makes compatibility for old sets an absolute nightmare. I have an old core set and some expansions floating around somewhere, but like sch I couldn’t find any local scene for it.
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Vandelay
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Post by Vandelay on Mar 13, 2024 19:06:18 GMT
Netrunner is great. Can understand not wanting to play it with "casuals", although I would say that it is surprisingly straightforward when you get your head around the terminology used. It was actually the first tabletop game that I played (outside of your Monopolys and what have you).
What is it like playing on Jinteki? My experience of digital versions of these games is normally that you have to do a shit-ton of it manually and that just ends up being even more fiddly than playing in-person.
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zephro
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Post by zephro on Mar 13, 2024 19:11:31 GMT
We got the original starter for Netrunner and the first few expansions, it's a great game but we play so infrequently that the commitment of a LCG is just too high to keep up. Pretty sure I have a workable boxed game from it all though.
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Post by Leolian'sBro on Mar 13, 2024 21:52:44 GMT
What is it like playing on Jinteki? My experience of digital versions of these games is normally that you have to do a shit-ton of it manually and that just ends up being even more fiddly than playing in-person. It is imperfect, to be sure. You have to know when to wait for prompts from your opponent and it has nothing to help you learn the game. But as an ad-free, ftp labour of love it is extremely slick, intuitive and (once you understand the basic rules) a streamlined and straighforward way to experience the game. There’s an immense amount of variety too, with many ways to win on both sides. I’m currently trying to make a runner deck (think cyber hacker attacking an evil corporation) which burns through the opponent’s corp deck while sacrificing my own humanity and life in the process. Basically the plot of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners only I’m an ecoterrorist. And that plays out every single game! It’s a wild game, everyone should try it. |
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Mar 13, 2024 22:27:58 GMT
Wow, popped my head in here for first time in ages and people are talking about Netrunner! Is it 2013 again?! Aside from Skull, it's basically the best game ever made. I played several tournaments back in the day and even beat Quinns in one match. A personal highlight. I still play occasionally with a group of friends; we buy all the Nisei packs every cycle, but my knowledge of the latest cards and the meta is virtually non-existent. Still, it's fun flicking through all my cards and chucking some jank together which inevitably gets ruined by my friends  ANR holds a special place in my heart – many fond memories. |
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Mar 13, 2024 22:31:11 GMT
In fact, the EG forum was the very reason I got into board games. If anyone recalls, we used to play Tammany Hall online. I then met up with one of the forumites for a game of Study in Emerald, then we realised we both have Netrunner and I still meet up with him to this day.
If anyone in London plays Netrunner, give us a shout and might be able to fix something up.
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Mar 13, 2024 22:45:44 GMT
I member the Tammany Hall games, were the diplomacy games before or after that? Each game went on for bloody weeks!
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Post by Phattso on Mar 13, 2024 22:52:19 GMT
Sorry to disrupt the reverie, but has anyone here played Dune Imperium and/or Uprising on single player? I’d never get it on the table here, but really wanna get the game for some me time action.  |
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Mar 13, 2024 22:57:42 GMT
I member the Tammany Hall games, were the diplomacy games before or after that? Each game went on for bloody weeks! Oh good point. I think I played in one of those maybe. |
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Post by 😎 on Mar 14, 2024 0:00:38 GMT
Sorry to disrupt the reverie, but has anyone here played Dune Imperium and/or Uprising on single player? I’d never get it on the table here, but really wanna get the game for some me time action. Uprising is the better version if you were going to get one, though you can mix and match expansions. Very decent single player, well thought out bots that you can also use an app for for more variety. Does miss some of the political shenanigans you get in multiplayer but I wouldn’t expect automata to cope with that anyway. |
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Post by Warrender on Mar 14, 2024 10:37:33 GMT
Sorry to disrupt the reverie, but has anyone here played Dune Imperium and/or Uprising on single player? I’d never get it on the table here, but really wanna get the game for some me time action. Never played and it's one I have definitely wishlisted for my preferred solo play. I usually go to BGG or Youtube if I want to find out if a particular game is worth it for solo. |
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Post by Phattso on Mar 14, 2024 11:15:52 GMT
Yeah, I've done the rounds. I just value the experience of the folk in here more than randoms or YouTubers. I've nearly bought the game soooo many times, but the new Uprising version has me right close to the edge. |
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Post by 😎 on Mar 14, 2024 17:01:13 GMT
I’ve been having a big ol clear out of games, mostly for shelf space reasons, think my wife is fed up of an entire room being taken up with them. But then on the flip side I just impulse bought Aeon Trespass Odyssey so I should really have my credit cards taken away from me.
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Mar 14, 2024 17:08:29 GMT
I love the look of Aeon Trespass, but after seeing how much table space and setup it needs, realised I would never play it.
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Mar 14, 2024 21:15:23 GMT
Yeah, I've done the rounds. I just value the experience of the folk in here more than randoms or YouTubers. I've nearly bought the game soooo many times, but the new Uprising version has me right close to the edge. It’s literally just popped up on the Xbox (and I assume PS) store. I’ve played the solo version a few times and it seems like a pretty solid solo effort. Cracking game overall. I think Uprising is supposed to have an improved solo bot. |
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