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Ordered the Big Box version of Carc. Can't wait to try out the expansion. I got a friend hooked with the iPhone app and we hope to get people hooked with the box. (Starting with vanilla 1st of course)
 
I finally got to try Arkham Horror this past weekend and I loved it! We played with 4 people and actually won by sealing all the portals. I'm sure there are a lot of subtleties I will learn over time. I was also impressed at how many different ways the game can play just from the sheer number of different items, characters, encounters, etc, etc.

Can't wait to play again! :D
 
Magicked said:
I finally got to try Arkham Horror this past weekend and I loved it! We played with 4 people and actually won by sealing all the portals. I'm sure there are a lot of subtleties I will learn over time. I was also impressed at how many different ways the game can play just from the sheer number of different items, characters, encounters, etc, etc.

Can't wait to play again! :D
It's an awesome game; especially if you can consistently get a good group of people together to play it.

Playing Carc on iPhone makes me wish so hard that Dominion and RftG were available too (by the same dev -- with online play most importantly!). My wife is huge into Carc now all of a sudden.
 
I finally got around to ordering Arkham Horror last night. I'm quite excited to learn how to play and teach it to others. From what I've seen it is probably a good thing that I like lots of fiddly bits.
 
ultron87 said:
I finally got around to ordering Arkham Horror last night. I'm quite excited to learn how to play and teach it to others. From what I've seen it is probably a good thing that I like lots of fiddly bits.
Wow, you will be in heaven. One of the fiddliest non-wargames out there. I would recommend reading the rules real closely, playing a solo game (or part of one), then checking out a few of the BGG rules forum topics afterwards. Once you get the rules down pat it's actually quite easy to teach, but if you don't it can be a nightmare.
 
W00t, delivery has arrived!

I totally love deboxing my games. Also reading the instructions. Want to play now, damn it.

At the Gates of Loyang seems a bit closer to Le Havre than Agricola, and I'm the most confused as to how it plays (skimmed while watching the end of Spain/Portugal, which was dumb).

Galaxy Trucker is awesome sounding. I already am interested in expansion and I haven't even played.

Dungeon Lords is more on the Through The Ages side of the spectrum as far as Vlaadi's games go, complexity wise. Looks pretty epic and enjoyable.
 
Man I love BG companies. Bought Catacombs a while back but hadn't opened it yet. Open it today and the wooden pieces were all mangy (moldy I guess per BGG). Check the site and it looks like they were giving free replacements to everyone but they ended that June 30 (not totally unreasonable since they have to cut it off sometime and did a whole new run of pieces just to address the issue). Thought I was screwed, but I emailed the company and bingo bango they're sending me out a new set. Replied within an hour, on a Saturday no less.
 
It's nice to deal with companies that aren't megalithic monstrosities, isn't it?

Going to get some gaming in tonight and tomorrow. I think tonight is Dominion + first go at Alchemy. Still pretty scared Alchemy is going to be the set that disappoints, but everyone seems to like it ok so far, so maybe I'm hating for no reason.

Tomorrow my sister-in-law gets to pick what we play. This might mean more Alchemy, or it might mean RftG with Brink of War for the first time. Outside chance she'll want to play one of my new games (I'm pulling for Galaxy Trucker, the other two are probably too long for her).
 
What should be the first dominion expansion one purchases? I normally play with 4 people, but there are always people left out. But at the same time im going away in a few weeks, and they'll only be 3 of us to play.
 
My friend bought my wife and I a copy of Pandemic out of nowhere.
It was really good.
As usual, you guys were right. My wife and I have played 6 games and won twice:lol
Still, its intense and interesting each time.
Since I got it for free, I was considering investing in the expansion.
Any opinions?

I'm thinking of buying him Ticket to Ride or Robo Rally to repay his kindness, but as a big Dungeon Twister fan, Dungeon Twister 2 (aka Prison) is a darkhorse favorite as my wife and I would like to get someone else into it....
Ticket to Ride will proabably still get the nod, but its a bit expensive.

Also, I was wondering if anyone here had played Ants! Board Game...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/60035/ants
I thought it looked pretty cool...
 
After a long drought we finally played an honest to goodness boardgame. I had a friend over on Friday and I pulled out Cyclades. I know I said it before but that game is great. I've only played it with three players before Friday and it was good, but with four the game really shined. I totally recommend it.

As for today I'm going to play in a poker tournament so it's a card game. I haven't played poker in, what feels like forever so it'll be interesting to see how I'll fair.
 
Which expansion is the best for Settlers of Catan? Seafarers, Cities and Knights, or Traders and Barbarians? Or is the base game the most fun?
 
zzoram, i'm not a huge catan guy but i believe c&k is by far the favorite

posted about this briefly in the carc iphone thread, but been playing carc + traders&builders + inns & cathedrals with our group and it is so damn fun. can't believe we took this long to get on the bandwagon
 
Seafarers looks like it stays closest to the base Catan in simplicity and game length. Cities and Knights seems to add a lot of complexity, and apparently makes the game take twice as long to play. Traders and Barbarians seems to be a collection of very different scenarios, so it would be the most difficult to learn because you have to remember so many different rulesets for different scenarios.

I'm rather turned off from Traders and Barbarians after reading about them all. Also, Seafarers and Cities and Knights apparently work together really well so that puts them even further ahead.
 
Holiday weekend wrap-up:

Carcassonne + Traders & Builders + Inns & Cathedrals: We played about four games of this. Definitely our hot game of the moment. Can't wait until the expansions come out on the iPhone/iPad version. Delicious game and the expansions balance things out beautifully.

Robo Rally: We've actually been playing a ton of Robo Rally recently, probably six games in the past month after not playing more than a couple over the past year. Most importantly, we found some great 3-4 player maps and we implemented the timer rule that most people (including us) usually house-rule away. Makes the games really tense. And if you're the odd man out while everyone else is powered down, you have a mere 30 seconds to program all your registers. Good fun for all.

Agricola + Farmers of the Moor: We played the super-hardcore variation where you play with all the FotM rules and 7 occupations and 7 minor improvements. I think I was the only one who enjoyed the game out of the three of us that played but that counts for something! Oh took like 2.5 hours too. I like this variant but I may be the only one 'core enough for it among our group.

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries: Another old favorite enjoying a revival. My favorite TtR by miles, but I had an absolutely brutal game where I just needed one orange card to complete my big route and win the game, but had to go what felt like ten turns without drawing it. No wilds to bail you out on regular routes here either. Just love the conflict the game creates.
 
Ok, so if I buy this Carcassonne app, how does multiplayer work? Do we exchange phone numbers or some sort of account info?

It has a play be email style feature right? Where I can take my turns at my leisure? Does it push through your opponents moves? Or do I have to load up the app periodically to check?
 
Correct on all points. This is the GAF Carc crew: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397985

To add friends you send an email through the app. So you could give me your email and I'd have you on my list. Probably wouldn't need to exchange much more than that if you don't want b/c I have almost everyone on there. Yes, it has push notifications for whenever your turn comes up.
 
Zzoram said:
Seafarers looks like it stays closest to the base Catan in simplicity and game length. Cities and Knights seems to add a lot of complexity, and apparently makes the game take twice as long to play. Traders and Barbarians seems to be a collection of very different scenarios, so it would be the most difficult to learn because you have to remember so many different rulesets for different scenarios.

I'm rather turned off from Traders and Barbarians after reading about them all. Also, Seafarers and Cities and Knights apparently work together really well so that puts them even further ahead.

The original Settlers is a good gateway game and you can play it with people who think of Monopoly when they heard board games. I find the original Settlers kind of boring.

Seafarers doesn't add too much complexity, but I wouldn't start out with that for people who are new to Settlers. Seafarers adds some interest through the scenarios and ships, but it's still pretty much Settlers.

Cities and Knights makes Settlers a great game in my eyes. It adds just enough complexity so that an experienced gamer can get interested. It's long though, I don't think I've ever finished a game in one sitting.
 
I like Carc on ipad, but as its pretty much a zero setup game anyway, there isn't much advantage except for the online element. Plus if you have expansions the game can get quite large and its good to be able to scan the entire map.

ipad works better for longer setup games, like 'hey thats my fish'. That also has the benefit of being a single screen game so no scrolling/zooming necessary.

I think ttr will be my next purchase - Nordic countries probably as its usually just 2-3 players.
 
said it before, but i don't see ipad at all as being an acceptable substitute for a physical game in a live context, so yours would be my position almost regardless.

htmf without the penguins? beh :p
 
Alright so Alchemy is indeed awesome, I had no reason to fear, and I shant doubt again. Bring on Prosperity!

(Had a really good combo going with vineyards and universities, my vineyards ended up being worth 5 points each, and I had six of them)
 
Going to be "that guy" and double post so I can talk about a new game:

Dungeon Lords!

This one is by Vlaada, the guy who did Galaxy Trucker which I know is well loved here (bought, arrived, haven't tried yet), and Through The Ages (which I think most of you will remember that I'm absolutely gaga for).

The elevator pitch: Remember back before Peter Molyneux went crazy, when he still made really awesome games, and he made that one called Dungeon Keeper? Imagine that as a competitive board game. Bam!

Got a couple of fun mechanics working their way around here:

* A couple varieties of worker placement mechanics (imps in rooms, minions delivering orders, and monsters in combat). Minions are closest to what you'd traditionally term worker placement mechanics, but with some twists that make you bend your brain in some acrobatic ways.

* Resource juggling (food and gold as base resources, with imps/traps/evil being sort of secondary resources).

* Regression (the adventurers that invade your dungeon can set you back a bit)

Ultimately, you carve out your dungeon, build rooms in it, and then deploy monsters and traps to kill incoming adventurers. The adventurers come in five varieties:

* Warrior - basically tanks, dmg-sponges
* Thief - prevents trap dmg
* Priest - heals after combat
* Wizard - casts a variety of nasty spells
* Paladin - can do all of the above, and is a total prick

When they invade, there will be 3-4 of them, and the ones you get are based on how evil you are compared to other players, so you can sort of game the system to get the heroes you're most capable of dealing with (no traps? load up on thieves if you can). These heroes than do their thing in a set predictable and gameable way, and you use traps and/or monsters to delay/capture the heroes.

Variety of adventurers/monsters/traps/rooms/spells/events all drawn fairly randomly (some ordering occurs to create a progression over the 2-years of actions--1 year of prep, invasion, repeat with tougher adventurers etc). Score at the end based on a variety of metrics including:

* size of dungeon
* wealth
* prisoners
* titles awarded based on performance

We played it 2 player, which BGG says is the worst way to play it, and I definitely think it's one that would be better with (ideally 4, but even 3 would be an improvement). That said, 2 player works totally fine, and my wife likes it (it was a tough sell, with the dungeons and all), so we'll probably 2p it up a bit. It took us 2 hours, but we could get that down to about 90 with just 2. Probably a 4p game will always be 2+ hours.

Looking forward to playing it again though!
 
Yeah, Dungeon Lords is great. And a totally unique experience. The puzzle solving of how to attack and kill the invading heroes is nuts. I haven't thought that hard around a board game in a long time.
 
Played Warior Knights for the first time tonight. Despite the unfortunately awful name (I just call it Wario) it's actually a very interesting and amusing game. Much like Caylus, though, it's the sort of game that I'll have to play a few times to get all the rules down. We'll probably try it again tomorrow.
 
well, since I havent been in here in a while, thought I would post a quick update.

LNoE has an epic fail with my wife and her family, except for her 12-yo nephew. So, it is now on the trading block, preferrably for TtR: Europe or Marklin. :D (Thanks to everyone here for the help when i needed it!)

Got Dino Hunt for the kids; they seem excited to play it. Plan on playing it this weekend.

Kids are loving Mexican Train, which is cool.

Games I still need to play: Ideology, High Stakes Drifter, Netrunner (like that will ever happen), RftG+GS, Dominion.
 
Yay my copy of agricola finally arrived, I played a round yesterday on http://agricolaonline.com/ to get accostumed to the rules. Can't wait to play it later with the wife.

Roborally arrived too, I must say I'm somewhat dissapointed with the quality of the components :/ but the game seems lot of fun though. I'll wait for a bigger group to try it, I'm not sure how good it is with just the two of us.
 
Wait wait wait wait, there's an Agricola online and we haven't done any GAF games yet? Is it something that can go PBEM style turn based, or do we all have to be at the PC at the same time? If it's more turn based, we are getting a game going, oh my yes.
 
platypotamus said:
Going to be "that guy" and double post so I can talk about a new game:

Dungeon Lords!

This one is by Vlaada, the guy who did Galaxy Trucker which I know is well loved here (bought, arrived, haven't tried yet), and Through The Ages (which I think most of you will remember that I'm absolutely gaga for).

The elevator pitch: Remember back before Peter Molyneux went crazy, when he still made really awesome games, and he made that one called Dungeon Keeper? Imagine that as a competitive board game. Bam!

Got a couple of fun mechanics working their way around here:

* A couple varieties of worker placement mechanics (imps in rooms, minions delivering orders, and monsters in combat). Minions are closest to what you'd traditionally term worker placement mechanics, but with some twists that make you bend your brain in some acrobatic ways.

* Resource juggling (food and gold as base resources, with imps/traps/evil being sort of secondary resources).

* Regression (the adventurers that invade your dungeon can set you back a bit)

Ultimately, you carve out your dungeon, build rooms in it, and then deploy monsters and traps to kill incoming adventurers. The adventurers come in five varieties:

* Warrior - basically tanks, dmg-sponges
* Thief - prevents trap dmg
* Priest - heals after combat
* Wizard - casts a variety of nasty spells
* Paladin - can do all of the above, and is a total prick

When they invade, there will be 3-4 of them, and the ones you get are based on how evil you are compared to other players, so you can sort of game the system to get the heroes you're most capable of dealing with (no traps? load up on thieves if you can). These heroes than do their thing in a set predictable and gameable way, and you use traps and/or monsters to delay/capture the heroes.

Variety of adventurers/monsters/traps/rooms/spells/events all drawn fairly randomly (some ordering occurs to create a progression over the 2-years of actions--1 year of prep, invasion, repeat with tougher adventurers etc). Score at the end based on a variety of metrics including:

* size of dungeon
* wealth
* prisoners
* titles awarded based on performance

We played it 2 player, which BGG says is the worst way to play it, and I definitely think it's one that would be better with (ideally 4, but even 3 would be an improvement). That said, 2 player works totally fine, and my wife likes it (it was a tough sell, with the dungeons and all), so we'll probably 2p it up a bit. It took us 2 hours, but we could get that down to about 90 with just 2. Probably a 4p game will always be 2+ hours.

Looking forward to playing it again though!
Twice I've had the chance to play Dungeon Lords with 4 players and both times it took well over 2 hours. But both in both instances we had new players though I would still agree it would be tough to finish in under 120 minutes unless you are playing with people very familiar with the game (and can assist with setup and break down).

I had a new order from CSI come in the other day and have managed to play, at least once, every game I bought. Some quick thoughts:

Leaping Lemmings - only played a 2 player game but it seems like it could be a nice, quick distraction for 3 or 4 players (5 or 6 may be pushing it).

Roma/Arena (Roma 2) - for a quick 2 player game my daughter and I were caught in some type of space-time causal loop that had us destroying/replacing cards. The box says app. 30 minutes to play but I called it after 75 minutes conceding the win. I haven't given up on it though, I see plenty of potential.

En Garde - what a nice little gem this is. 2 player fencing game where you play numbered cards to move and attack with the playing pieces. You can also parry and/or counter-attack. The round ends with a single hit from either player or when the deck runs out (there are only 25 cards in the deck with each player starting and replenishing up to 5 in their hand). This means the rounds move quickly and the first person to win 5 rounds takes the match. There is a surprising amount of strategy as you do the quick math in your head to determine whether you are exposing yourself to an attack as you move forward to play your own. Again, using my daughter as a baseline, even though I quickly ramped up to 4 rounds to 1 in our first game, she quickly bounced back until we were forced to play a tense 11th round tie breaker. Games last maybe half an hour.

Zombie State: Diplomacy of the Dead - this was the game I was most looking forward to playing, realizing it might never actually get played. I know my family won't go near it so it was all hinging on the group I game with. Luckily there was some interest and we got a game off last week. This is not a feel good Euro. It's a brutal and relentless onslaught of trying to repel zombie hordes through the use of technology and military. Whomever has the most population still alive at an end game trigger wins.
 
Yeah En Garde seems quite fun. Got it recently myself and played a couple of games with my wife. Those pieces are damn weapons though :lol.

Got in some 2 and 4p action this weekend.

Taught to friend:
-San Juan: Really rediscovering and enjoying this game again.
-Battle Line: Now probably my favorite 2p game since RftG got too complex for my tastes (for now). Like Lays, you can't have just one (game).

3p:
-Nordic Countries: Always fun; always screwage. Taught to my mother-in-law and it was surprisingly easy. Had probably my best game ever, completing eight tickets, which is like TtR Switzerland numbers.

4p:
-TtR 1910: Mother-in-law's favorite game, never a disappointment.
-Robo Rally: Think we picked a too-difficult map for the crowd.
 
Seems like most online retailers are currently sold out of the Battle of Napolean that just came out. Shit flew fast, tempted to pick it up now more than ever.
 
I am still batting around whether to go to Gen Con. Have the tickets and a few event tickets, so I'd probably have to eat that regardless, but looking at the hotel bill is just wow. And going far away and commuting isn't an option, just out of personal preference. Hmm.
 
AstroLad said:
I am still batting around whether to go to Gen Con. Have the tickets and a few event tickets, so I'd probably have to eat that regardless, but looking at the hotel bill is just wow. And going far away and commuting isn't an option, just out of personal preference. Hmm.

Yeah, we wound up deferring the cost by cramming a bunch of people to one room.
 
AstroLad said:
I am still batting around whether to go to Gen Con. Have the tickets and a few event tickets, so I'd probably have to eat that regardless, but looking at the hotel bill is just wow. And going far away and commuting isn't an option, just out of personal preference. Hmm.

I made reservations to go couple years ago but then I figured how much it was going to cost. The plane tickets were the cheapest part surprisingly. The hotels in the area can get very expensive, the cheap stuff gets booked up way ahead of time. Then toss in that you will be pretty much eating out every meal, money you will spend at the con, and every other little thing you will spend on, and it's a ton of money. I ended up cancelling the trip as I figured it wasn't worth it for just some gaming.

I know people who go all the time to it, but they usually carpool and split most of the costs to keep it somewhat affordable.
 
BattleMonkey said:
I made reservations to go couple years ago but then I figured how much it was going to cost. The plane tickets were the cheapest part surprisingly. The hotels in the area can get very expensive, the cheap stuff gets booked up way ahead of time. Then toss in that you will be pretty much eating out every meal, money you will spend at the con, and every other little thing you will spend on, and it's a ton of money. I ended up cancelling the trip as I figured it wasn't worth it for just some gaming.

I know people who go all the time to it, but they usually carpool and split most of the costs to keep it somewhat affordable.
Yeah, the cost is something unless you really split things up or get rooms like a year in advance or something. Would end up costing quite a bit more than the really nice Bermuda cruise we went on a little while back. I do think it would be a great, fun experience though. BGGcon which we are definitely going to will be for pure gaming but GenCon seems quite a bit more varied and exciting in terms of events. otoh, my wife and I aren't really into fantasy stuff other than to just appreciate the quality that companies like Fantasy Flight put out.

/does balancing hands
 
One of the big things about going to Gencon is to see all the new stuff coming ahead of time. Playing in some of the events is fun too and getting to try things, but you can often get similar at smaller and closer cons. Gencons main attraction is buying products early before release, free swag, and seeing coming soon stuff. If you can wait, it might not be exactly worth it for the cost.
 
Anyone else excited for Axis & Allies: Europe 1940? Coming out end of August. I can't wait to get a big honkin game going with that combined with Pacific 1940. It shall be epic (I hope).
 
Played a 3P game of Dungeon Lords the other day, and as expected, it does indeed get better with more players.

Looking at a week of no games coming up though, probably :(
 
platypotamus said:
Played a 3P game of Dungeon Lords the other day, and as expected, it does indeed get better with more players.

Looking at a week of no games coming up though, probably :(
I NEED this game. I might have to make a Thoughthammer order soon.
 
joey what happened to you on carc? don't have the iphone anymore? you're missing out on all our fun!

This is pretty neat -- at least for Gric nerds like my wife and friends are now -- comes out August.
Over the past years, many small expansions for Agricola were released, mostly in German language. Lookout Games, the publisher, also introduced deluxe wooden pieces to complement the game. The Goodies Expansion contains:

The legendary X-Deck containing 24 cards with alien encounters all over the farm. Every time a player visits a stone quarry, a card is drawn from the pile. And then? Resistance is futile!
The O-Deck was created under the guidance of the Austrian Games Academy. 12 new Occupations and 12 new Minor Improvements including a wunderkind, the guy with the couch, the singing family from the Alps, and of course that one specific Governor.
The C-Deck (12 Occupations and 12 Improvements) is based on famous people, places, and historic events from the Czech Republic. It is illustrated in the spirit of the legendary artist Josef Lada. This expansion was initiated by the Czech Publisher of Agricola-Mindok.
The L-Deck. Nobody knows exactly what the L stands for. Some tend to believe Lookout, others insist on Looneys. Decide for yourself; but don't take it too serious.
All 5 double-sided theme boards: Western, Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Mars (just in case you wondered where the aliens from the X-Deck have their interstellar base).
A sheet with 70 stickers: 35 adults, 33 children, 1 alien, and even a werewolf.
Wooden Meeples: Veggiemeeples, Animeeples, and Resourceeples. They're cute and nice to look at, but don't hesitate to cook, eat, sow, or use them in any possible way that supports your family and your farm.
Already have the theme boards and eeples but the decks would be cool an some of my boards are dinged up anyway. Prosperity also comes out around that time period so I don't think I'll have too hard a time putting together a $100 order in September.
 
AstroLad said:
joey what happened to you on carc? don't have the iphone anymore? you're missing out on all our fun!

This is pretty neat -- at least for Gric nerds like my wife and friends are now -- comes out August.

Already have the theme boards and eeples but the decks would be cool an some of my boards are dinged up anyway. Prosperity also comes out around that time period so I don't think I'll have too hard a time putting together a $100 order in September.
I think I may have accidentally deleted you as a friend from Carc. I can't seem to find you under the friends section. I think I still have your email address somewhere I'll send you a friend request.

As for the Agricola goodies expansion I definitely have to pick that up when it releases. I would preorder but I hate having my money tied up for that long.
 
Anybody here ever read the magazine Spielbox? Just today I was perusing my local game store, and the owner was very proud of the fact that he carried the magazine. Apparently, it's been alive and kicking over in Germany for 30 years, but only in the past few months received an English translation. Being intrigued, I picked up the first issue. Now, I haven't had a chance to read it at all, but I was just curious as to whether anyone here has read it.
 
I got one of those b/c it had Carc and Stone Age expansion tiles (Carc was one of the little ones that now comes with Big Box; Stone Age was New Huts which I think still isn't available elsewhere). I can barely read German but it did make me pine for a similar English-language board-game magazine.

Digression: There was a discussion about that topic on BGG once and as with here 90% of the people just said LOL YOU CAN GET THE SAME THING ON THE INTERNET FOR FREE, which is even more bullshit than it is for video games but whatevs. Cheapasses.
 
AstroLad said:
I got one of those b/c it had Carc and Stone Age expansion tiles (Carc was one of the little ones that now comes with Big Box; Stone Age was New Huts which I think still isn't available elsewhere). I can barely read German but it did make me pine for a similar English-language board-game magazine.
Well, it's officially IN English now. Full color, glossy paper, and everything else. It impressed me enough to drop $15 (I think you can get it from the interwebs for $10 - $12) on it. If nothing else, I might keep buying it to support the idea even if the actual content isn't all that great. I think there's 3 issues out right now of the English version.
 
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