Be Excellent To Each Other

First non-Pandemic-Legacy gaming session for a long time.

Started with 'Cosmic Encounters'. I loved the stackable UFO counters when we unpacked. The rules were quite simple to grasp and it swiftly became a riotous 90 minute long session of completely arbitrary back-stabbing and deal breaking and laughing. I came very close to winning but someone allied with the other person so they crossed the line first

We also played 'Flashpoint', using the heroic setup (lot of fires, hazards, and hotspots) because we're manly men like that. We managed to rescue four people, accidentally incinerated another three, then completely lost control and the building collapsed. When I first played this a long time ago, I wasn't too keen but it's grown on me and the tactical decisions are varied enough to keep interest. It also has the best pieces of any board game ever, which helps.

Incorrect.

Netrunner Club tonight! Hurrah! 2 kill decks for the corp side and a Criminal deck for the runner. Let's atomize some hackers! Let's steal some agendas!

Well. First game lost first turn....

Lost the other games as well, but these were a little closer.

There was a netrunner tournament at the weekend in Reading. Looming at the results, the corporation ID i have most recently played appears only 4 times out of 87 players, and the runner ID doesn't appear at all. So that explains a lot

Libertalia: pirate game with rules that sound really complex but are actually quite simple (pick card, play, resolve, get points, stab others, or take penalties).

One Night Ultimate ['Mafia'-ed.] - this works really well and having time-limited rounds with no deaths removes a major complaint about this family of games.

We also discovered that Ticket to Ride:UK doesn't really work with five people.

Bought Agricola and i'm absolutely loving it. Still haven't made the step to advanced mode, and i'm sure that with cards it's even more awesome.

I took it to family lunch last weekend, but i fear it wasn't as popular as pandemic. My killjoy brother in law found it to be boring, but in his defense, the game took 3 hours (which was mostly his fault for being so slow)

Netrunner club tonight! I have refined my Corporation Strategy and have made a deck that is I AM A BANK AND I HATE MY CUSTOMERS where the primary aim is to demolish the home of the runner and surrounding area. Because subprime, right?

The Runner deck is largely unchanged as it didn't get a decent run out last time.

Um. Yeah. That went ok. Mostly happy.

Hey, curio... lizzy sends her regards...

Netrunner night tonight! I am taking my Furious Bank run by Lizzy M which hates You, the customer, and wants to burn your flat down. And those around it. Because foreclosure is a dirty word. It is fuelled by Hedge funds, Restructures and a surprise wolf.


Runnerwise, I am taking Jezzy S in a new deck of hope, dreams and failure. This will hit Where The Plans Are a lot and hopefully work.

I need MOAR CARDS to get Furious Bank to work though, and EVEN MOAR to get a jesminder running nicely.

I now see "twilight struggle" regularly in mainstream store chains translated in Portuguese reasonably cheap (40€). It's worth it? The game always seemed boring to me, but now that i took more time to read about it properly, it actually sounds interesting.

I would love to play it but it looks like a long game. What i have read says it is well worth it.

What Mali said. My boss has it but he says that trying to convince the wife to learn how to play it is tricky. But we need more heavy two player games so probably worth the effort.

The Angry Bank was a Winner! Closed out 7 points with a decent scoring remote. Nobody died.

Jezzy S did not do so well. Having a think about her....

I have made Angry Bank even MORE FURIOUS by adding EVIL SPIRITS and HOUSEKEEPING which makes the runner discard a card everytime they play one.

JezzyS has had some refinements to supply her with more money to use each turn using what I like to call The Gaywood Gambit.

We shall see tonight! Hopefully.

It is probably my all time favourite game. I only play it with my wife (so we learn the game at the same rate), it takes about 3 hours to play, and it's complicated as fuck.

Once you've suffered the first game, you'll realise it's actually rather straight forward to play.

We play it once or twice a year, and I feel it's a game we will play the rest of our lives. It is just a piece of magic.

Well, that was a disaster.

Played my second game of 'Dead of Winter'. Unlike the first game, we weren't in a deserted village hall in rural Oxfordshire, but in somebody's house in early Autumn so we didn't quite get the mood right. We came very close to meeting the objective, but ran out of morale and food before we could. It was only then we noticed that one playuer had been hoarding cards and read his 'betrayal' text with glee. I'm enjoying it, especially the 'crossroads' cards that force players to make tricky moral choices. Need to play it a few more times to nail down the rules, though. I lost my soldier because I forgot about frostbite. Careless.

Rounded the evening off with 'Citadels'. I've always liked this simple game with its interesting drafting mechanic and the interactions between the players. Again, however, I forgot a key part of a character's powers and threw away an easy win.

I could have told you that.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/0 ... hino-hero/

Sounds like a fun game

(If your looking for something to read then anything by Rab on this series is always great)

My board gaming is pretty limited to Scrabble, we used to play a game called Articulate at Christmas but people started to take that too seriously as the drinking went on so it was dropped

Although I would be interested in D&D and Scifi type games my wife won't have any of that so need something outside of those genres that it easy to pick up.

Note from the cottage thread that a large amount of games are to be played, so any recommendations for a game to play over Christmas?

We're all big fans of the 'Ticket to Ride' series. The rules are pretty easy to explain but there's plenty of strategic choices to keep people interested. Start with the original USA set or the Europe one.

Ok will give that a try, will take a lot of stick from family on this one as I spend all my spare time playing with a big Thomas train set with my son, so my family are all taking the piss and sent me Thomas birthday cards this year!

There are computer (and tablet) versions of it as well if you want to practice or understand more about how it all works , I'm sure it was on a humble bundle at some point and there may be keys for the steam version in the 'free stuff' thread if you want to check there (i know i had multiple copies of it but i'm not sure if they were all used now)

If you like it then definitely get the board version but it will at least give you some ideas about also if you have the time watch 'tabletop' on youtube - here is the Ticket to Ride episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHmf1bau9xQ

'Le Harve' - I've tried a few times over the years to play this with my Dad but it never quite clicked with us. I played it last night with two from my usual group and I'm still not sure about it. We played the long game (18 turns) , and whilst there were fun moments of 'screw you buddy' and agonising decisions about what items to grab before they go, it felt like playing patience in front of others for three hours rather than competing to win. I'll give it another go now I've got through a game, but fear it might be one for a long wet afternoon when nobody's in the mood for anything else.

Title

'Le Harve'?!

and le Harve nots.

Captain Sonar: team battleship. Most of the box is taken up with a heavy board which becomes a screen to separate and hide the two teams of submariners whilst they try to hunt down and destroy the other team. There are four roles on the boat - captain, first mate, radio officer, and engineer. As there were four of us we were in teams of two with each player doing two roles. Each role has its own custom wipeclean map, and the radio officer, tasked with tracking the direction of the opposing submarine, overlays his with a clear sheet so as the game progresses you can try to match up the route with the layout of the islands on the map to work out where the hell everyone is.

You can play the game in real-time but we were playing the turn-based version, which was nasty and confusing enough. On a turn the captain announces the direction the boat will go, and joins the dots on his sheet. The other team's radio officer will log this on his map. The first officer can then charge one energy block of either a weapons system (mines or torpedos), a navigational aid (drone - you ask the other team which of the four map sectors they are in, and they must tell the truth; sonar - the other team give two of either sector, eastings, and northings, but one must be a lie and the other a truth), or silencer (zoom up to four spaces without telling the direction). Moving makes one of the bits of the boat to break down, and the engineer chooses which and crosses it out. When certain conditions are reached that part of the boat is repaired but the first officer can't use anything that the engineer has broken.

We spent most of the hour wandering aimlessly around until the other team activated their sonar, saw through our obvious lie, and fired a direct torpedo on it. All the while, we were unable to retaliate because my engineer (I was captain and radio man, obviously) hadn't been speaking to the first mate (himself) and kept on breaking bits that would allow us to do things. Then the radio man got confused and misheard an enemy's direction and we got confused and fatally struck. Oh well.

I really liked it, and although our maps and charts were hidden by the screen, part of the fun came from overhearing the debates, arguments, and expletives from the other team and trying to elucidate what they meant. Definitely wanting to play this with a full ship's complement, possibly in a red-lit narrow room that smells of cabbage. Playing real-time sounds like a recipe for carnage.

Arboretum - this was supposed our relaxing cool down after the tense marine-based conflict but became extremely bitchy and backbiting as we tried to make the prettiest woodland walks for our visitors. Some devious scoring rules allowed for agonising decisions. Apparently as a two-player game it becomes brutal.

Hanabi - I've played this several times before and whilst I've enjoyed it I've always felt it's missing something. It's a co-op involving laying down cards in order with the twist that you hold your hand outwards so everyone but you know what you're holding. The rules prohibit hints (unless you play a 'hint' token) or really any in-game communication other than asking others to repeat what they know about their hand.

A fun night, but far more mentally taxing than I was expecting.

Captain Sonar sound like it would be great fun drunk!

You can't cross your line, so are at risk of trapping yourself, but you can surface to clear your old route and effectively start over. Of course, the enemy then know where you are and get three turns in a row to meet you for cocktails.

Sounds awesome.

For the record, i lost every game of netrunner again.

I love this game. It works really well with six players and it's funny when things go terribly wrong, which they invariably do. I like Hanabi as well although I've never won it. It's a real brain burner. I'd recommend Diamonds as a really good quick cooldown game. I got it as one of nine to take on holiday and it got played a few times each night.

I'd also recommend this excellent video from shut up and sit down. It's their review of Captain sonar and it sold me on the game.

https://youtu.be/Yjo4iXyDPtw

"Miss 100℅ of the shots you don't take" but, by fuck, variance is killing me at netrunner club!

However, after 12 rounds, my cirporation deck "Angry Murder Bank" has changed into "Mortgage not approved" and is hella slick.

Runner deck is not so good and nothing positive ti say about it.

I'd be interested in playing if I've got the time.

Similarly, I played Hero Quest with some friends last night and we had a great time. I was the DM and they completed the first quest, have bought some items and are ready for the next quest.

I have mostly been playing Tumblin' Monkeys with my wife and daughter. It's like a better version of Kerplunk.

i wouldn't recommend it unless you have a small child.

I came up with rules for "Drinking HeroQuest" - basically you have a shot in front of you for each body point, and if you lose one (or more) you drink a (or more) shot. The potion of healing would literally be a bottle of alcohol, so you can refill your glasses.

I'm struggling to come up with a rule for the Evil Wizard player, though. "Each monster killed" is far too many.

Are you playing the UK or USA HeroQuest? What house rules do you have?

Just the standard UK set I believe. The only deviation from the rules so far is the searching for traps/secret doors and treasures rule. In the the instructions it says that player must specify whether they're going to search for treasure, <b>or</b> a trap/secret door.

In the interests of speeding the game up, we've said they can just search and find whatever is in the room.

It's the first time my friends have ever played it so I'm sure we'll come up with something else when the time comes.

What about if you have a Myp?

Can it be something along the lines of:
1) Turn glass right way up.
2) Refill glass if right way up, otherwise 1.
3) Down glass and place upside-down if full, otherwise 2.

That way it's still taking a shot, but cuts down the amount by a third, with an easy to remember mechanism. Obviously adjust for the actual kill rates as I have no idea.

I've never heard of anyone changing the searching rule before, that's a new one. Don't forget that you don't put "good" treasure back in the deck!

We normally have "creatures/heroes can push through doorways", "only rooms can be searched for treasure, and only once*" and "when the wizard uses all of a spell set he gets them back". Lots of people get rid of the dice rolling when moving, too.

* This might actually be the proper rule, but the wording is ambiguous.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas.

Whoops. I didn't know this.



This stops people from standing in a door way and having the monsters come to them one at a time, right?



I think this is a proper rule. When we played last night, when one character leaves the dungeon the other two had to carry on and work their way to the exit. Without this rule, there's nothing to stop them standing by the exit and searching every move until they get a monster, which they can then ignore and leave the dungeon.



This makes sense as the Wizard is pretty useless when it comes to fighting.



I can see why you'd do this but I also appreciate the randomness of a dice roll.

Yeah, basically the Barbarian stands in the doorway and hacks away at anything that comes close.

Well, my friends haven't figured this out yet but when they do, I'll introduce the rule! Strangely too, out of my three friends... no one picked the Barbarian. Weirdos.

Fucking Ian.

Certainly having a horde of monsters fuck Ian one at a time would take some time.

Or you can reduce their attack and defend dice to 1 to simulate the difficulty of fighting through a door (something monsters are fine with, of course). That soon puts a stop to it, and allows heroic "holding of the doors" moments.

We should probably be discussing this the the boardgame thread.