Board Games

Sell games? I thought the way it worked was you eventually just bought a new house because you couldn't fit all your games in your living room and closets anymore.

Sell? Crazy talk.

So is there an explanation for the completely fucked up organization of the Legendary cards out of the box? I'm sitting here trying to sort out the decks by hero, villain, etc and every deck I've done so far is the same. Two Black Widow cards, two Captain America cards, two Gambit cards, etc etc. Did they do this for a reason? Am I fucking things up by trying to organize it?

You need to organize it.

It's just the way the decks are collated. It sucks that there are so many to sort, but if you lay them all out on the table in the order they appear in the decks it goes pretty quick.

Things are sorted out. Any advice on how to put this together in the box so it won't explode when I move it?

So far I've got heroes in the big one, shield agents, soldiers, officers and wounds in the smallest one, schemes, scheme twists and master strikes in the next smallest one and masterminds, villain groups and henchmen in the last, all divided with the dividers that come with the game. It all works, but I have yet to put the top on and try to move it. Which I'm pretty sure will just cause horrors to occur. I tried looking to BGG for advice, but it being BGG it was less 'how to use what they give you' and more 'I printed out custom dividers using a 3d printer that has relief of each character in action poses on it'. And Baker, be very basic! I do not need to hear how you made your own storage solution out of carbon nanotubes and pipe cleaners which keeps your cards in an m-planar stasis realm out of time and space so with the press of a button (I imagine you made an app on your phone) the entire game teleports into being, ready to play! OKAY?!

Also, quick review of the game without playing it. I would have taken ten heroes and two masterminds for better quality in the cards. Or at least better quality control. I can feel a different thickness in different cards. Also, man, I understand why they did it, but different art, please. Or at least a different picture for Rogue. God, that's just awful. I have yet to play. Do Mastermind cards or any other villain cards ever get added to your hand? If not, there's no excuse for having the same back for everything. That's just asking for someone to drop the box, see a pile of identical backs on the floor and just kill themselves rather than deal with it. Why does Upper Deck want deaths on its hands?!

No matter what, I gotta go get myself five hundred sleeves. The copy of the game I got Quacks already has several bent cards.

Get some Hugo's Amazing Tape. It makes organizing cards super easy.

Oh, I have tons of Hugo's amazing tape, but considering how many subdecks you have to divide these 500 cards into I'd rather not use up pretty much an entire roll on one game.

As is becoming all too common for this jaded, middle-aged gamer, Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery failed to satisfy. Too long for the vicious "take that" game it really is. However, it's an innovative and clever design and I'm glad I tried it.

You know, now that you mention pipe cleaners, those would probably work pretty great to wrap cards in. I use Hugo's tape, but it's often a pain in the ass to remember which bit of tape goes with which deck if there are a lot of them. A pipe cleaner with soft bristles would wrap right around the deck without hurting it and go on and off instantly. Hmm...

As for Legendary, your best bet is to put a big sticker on the box that says DO NOT DROP OR TURN UPSIDE DOWN UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH AND/OR RE-SORTING (YOUR CHOICE).

I know what I would choose.

Hair ties are great for decks of cards.

How big are the decks? Are MTG-style deck boxes too big?

Man, I am tempted by the Battle Foam made for X-Wing. Less than $20, plenty of room for multiples of wave 1 and fits in the game box.



Then I see the slightly more deluxe Battle Foam and I'm doubly tempted.

http://www.krmulticase.com/ are a cheaper alternative, but I don't know how much the extra shipping will hurt you.

I've got two of their cases - one card one for my Dreadball stuff, one proper metal case for some of my Warmachine - and I can thoroughly recommend them.

I don't dislike battle foam but if I had to re-do boxing my Dreadfleet and Space Hulk Minis, I would just go with generic plastic cases that I stick some foam in myself. The fit of Battle Foam is really tight (pinch the foam to put in and remove), and because it doesn't really have a hard shell you need to contain it in something. I guess it's different if it fits in the game box, but neither of mine really do that.

But mostly I find it onerous to remove and replace things relative to what I do with my Plano boxes. Watching a Dreadfleet mast get stuck in the foam in mid extraction (which happens like every other time) breaks my balls, as does remembering what goes where (again, not an issue with symmetrically shaped stuff like yours).

I have this first battle foam and while it is nice, it does have some drawbacks. It fits in the original box, but is slightly higher so that the lid sits up a bit. Also the wells are a bit deep which can make it hard to get the models out (it's much easier if you put them in upside down so you can grab the peg). The square area is not big enough to hold all of the stuff that goes with the game if you have a few of the expansions. Since I have two core sets, I put all the models, spinners, bases, and movement templates in the battle foam and all the other stuff in my other core box. So I still end up lugging around two boxes.

I think that second wave battle foam has enough space to hold everything in one set though.

While the second wave looks nice, LK makes a good point.

Some people on BGG are using a Plano 5231 case and it seems to work pretty well and is also like ten bucks.

Each hero deck is 14 cards. The wounds and bystanders are 30. I'm not sure about the villians and henchmen, etc.

I'm not sure about how this game is going to be organized. It's definitely one of the least stable box systems I've seen... but least it has room for expansion cards unlike a Dominion box.

Today at Target I cracked and bought the X-Wing core set 'cause it was just sitting there in the toy section, and I figured if my kid gets a toy I ought to get one too.

Man, you people weren't kidding -- this is a really awesome system.

Revised NYE plan: champagne cocktails, board games, and X-Wing with my wife, who is not hugely into miniatures but is a HUGE star wars geek.

Dear FFG: thanks for making a miniatures game she wants to play!

Had a somewhat disappointing New Year's gaming experience, in that Eclipse never made it to the table, nor did Steam. Yes, this is how far behind I am in gaming right now; I still haven't played either of those two games, and that didn't get remedied.

On the plus side, I did get to play more Dominion using the Dark Ages expansion. I was pretty down on it at first -- yay, more shitty cards to slow the game down, just what Dominion needs! -- but after 2-3 Dark Ages-heavy games, I had come around to quite liking it.

Anyway, my resolution for the New Year is to get back in the habit of going to boardgaming meetups, because I am feeling especially thwarted in my desire for more boardgaming, at the moment.

Actually did some gaming this weekend!

Dominant Species: The Card Game

We really liked this although my wife doesn't like it so much with only 2 players...was more fun when we played with our girls (ages 10 and 9). There was one even card ("Solar Flare") that honestly seems to break the game though and we banned it after it decided the outcome of the game in two consecutive plays.

Mice and Mystics

A cute RPG in a box. The girls like it better than Wrath of Ashardalon though it's really no less complex and not much shorter. It's also not easier and we lost the first time we played, partly due to a misunderstanding of some card text.

Don't feel bad. I won't even own Eclipse until UPS shows up on Friday.

So after wave 2, what kind of future does X-Wing have?

I figure wave 3 can have the B-Wing and the TIE Bomber, and maybe the Lambda shuttle if they want it bristling with armaments (and it'd be even more a deluxe than the Millennium Falcon, given its similar length but much greater height), but at what point do they have to start mining the EU? How long before we see Dash Rendar's YT-2400 Outrider, Kyle Katarn's Raven's Claw or Starkiller's Rogue Shadow? Or worse yet, Naboo Royal N1 Starfighters? They could go toe-to-toe with Vulture class droid starfighters. Roger, roger!

That's what I love so much about this miniatures system. Once I get my Wave 2 set (already on pre-order) I'm pretty much done buying ships. I don't care much about the B-Wing, and not at all about the TIE Bomber. I would never buy a shuttle (unless it's an assault gunboat). Or prequel stuff. Or EU stuff. So unless they release pilot packs and/or elite models for the existing ships I'll just proxy whatever cards they come up with and use my old stuff.

I might bite if they release a really low-point Z-95 Headhunter for a Rebel swarm. Or a pack of bounty hunter ships (the IG-2000 with tractor beams would be awesome). Or a Skipray Blastboat.

And there's always the TIE Defender. Cheat mode, baby!

Man, I love B-Wings.

Though you're pretty much right. Once I have a couple of TIE Interceptors and maybe another pair of TIE Fighters (oh gosh, another core set?!) I think I'll be good for any kind of fight.

I wonder which route they'll go first, prequels or EU. I'd probably pick up an Outrider. And hey, it's in the post DVD releases of the original trilogy!

All I know is that the people on BGG posting things like 'they should release scale sized Star Destroyer sections' or 'AT-ATs!' are the worst and should be ignored.

Sure, sure.

Doomed

Heh. My guess is that they're going to go straight to prequels/Clone Wars, at which point I can quit following the new releases.

I played part of a game of Eclipse. I'm not sure how I feel about it. We only played two turns to learn the game, but I felt like some good or bad luck in the early game can have a huge impact.

Since it was the first turn, most players did a lot of exploring. The first player explored three tiles (1,2,2) on during the first turn/round. Each time he found a useful tile. He got to establish diplomatic relations with another player. All together, I think he got an extra four cubes down on the board. I went 0 for 3 exploring tiles (1,2,3), each time I found a tile with a defender on it. Since he placed a lot of his discs, he was the first to pass, I explored a fourth time and eventually found a system (3) I could settle, and I got to put out a brown cube. At least I got something. :-/

On the second turn, since he passed first, he was start player he was able to get first pick on research. He also explored twice more getting to put out more cubes. I explored twice more (3,3) as well and I only got to put out one cube because the other tile was defended so I had to dump it. At the end of two rounds he was ahead with 12 points and by far had the most cubes out. We had planned on playing four or five turns, but it kinda seemed hopeless. The only way the other players could stand a chance were if they simply ganged up on him.

So, I like the feel of the game. I like the space theme. It seems like it's a lot faster than Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed. but it feels like luck can make such a huge difference. I'm willing to play it again, but at the same time, I'm perfectly fine with never playing it again too.

This looks like something my daughter would love, do you think a 7 year old could actually hold on to the rules though? She's pretty good with games, but this one looks like a bit much despite the 7+ suggested age.

So this thread is forty goddamn pages and I don't know where this discussion happened, but I'm sure it did.

What are the recommended rules for 3player newbie BSG? We've played all of one game.


(Also, only in Munchkin does someone throwing in a Wandering Monster and the other player foiling your attempts to successfully run away win me the game. Snerk.)

Holiday gaming this year consisted of:

10 Wonders - Good game and fairly snappy, but getting a bit tired. Closer matches now that everyone has figured it out though, and I do like the Cities expansion.
Dominant Species - Fun, but not as much replay value as I'd hoped. Same basic "wall off your own area" strategy seems to always win.
Netrunner - Played a bunch of this with my older son. I'd forgotten how much fun this is! Could use more variety, but the LCG format will undoubtedly cater to that.
Game of Thrones - 4 players. It was a very tight game with 3 players in tight contention over several turns. 4 players is growing on me, now that the local crew has adapted to offset the Lannister/Baratheon rush for easy Neutrals. I won as Pyke, sneaking in from behind as they wrestled over the south.

Not yet played:

Eclipse Expansion - Looking forward to this one the most!
Core Worlds Expansion - I burnt out on this one pretty quickly. I sort of like it better than Dominions, but there's far less variety... Hopefully this will help address that.
Some Damn Boardgame - that I ordered but don't even remember. :-/ At least it'll be a surprise!

I like it, too, but I've never gone nuts over it like some. Definitely a TI3-killer, though.

Get two more friends.

Your copy has three more wonders than mine! Bonus!

That's bad luck to some extent, but what winds up happening is that around turn 3-4 you smash the defenders, score the points and discovery tiles, and catch up. It just means your beginning strategy will be more focused on military than expansion.

Regarding the first player though, settling 3 tiles on the first turn would be 7 discs used, which is like a -10 or -12 on income. Unless he managed to settle all 4 cubes onto money he'd be hurting, at which point I question the decision that somebody gave him a diplomacy cube.

The recommended rule is that you don't play BSG with 3 players. This isn't snark - you flat out will not get the experience out of the game with that number of players, and it is both a good enough and long enough game that it's worth doing it right.

It's cutesy but there's a lot going on. However, if an adult was handling all the "game moves" stuff it's possible a kid could deal with moving the mice around and rolling attack dice. The biggest challenge I think is wrapping your head around the general strategy of the game, which is to try to figure out how many turns you can afford to spend just searching for equipment.

The back side of one of those 2VP tiles was like 8-12 bucks which made it worthwhile for him to consider the 3rd explore. I don't remember the exact value. I think he had three cubes in money, and one in research. The research he got on his next turn was the 1 extra disc.

Correct. You can play three players if you want to teach someone the game in a relaxed environment and don't mind that you're going to spend a decent amount of time for just a practice game. Overall however, if you only have three players and want a good game, you're better off finding a different game to play.

That's pretty blessed. I've played probably a dozen games and I've never seen anyone get quite that good a combination to start - usually money and disc limits wind up balancing out over the first 3 turns.

I played Suburbia last weekend, and I really wanted to love it: it's basically a board game version of SimCity, right down to the separate RCI tiles and NIMBY effects. Plus it does almost all of its scoring based on adjacency, which is a mechanic I've always liked for some reason.

The problem I had with it is that your population and income compound each turn, so the leaders shoot ahead quickly, while the losers (read: me) get stuck in a hole that's almost impossible to get out of. I got to a point where I had to let my population growth go negative just for the sake of getting $1 income a turn, while the leader was making $10 a turn and just ran away with the game. It's possible that I'd do better in subsequent games, now that I know how income is all-important, but the game made a bad first impression.

Why?

Money. Lots of it.

The best part is that Hasbro, which publishes Scrabble, also publishes this.