Board Games!

[ChannelDelibird]

Played what I think was called Ultimate Werewolf Inquisition the other night. Rather than being in a mafia game, it kind of has a smaller group of you (with one or two werewolf sympathisers) manipulating a game of mafia. I liked the attempt to do something different with the concept but I think I've played too much mafia to forgive some of the necessary thematic wonkiness (we won by making the last werewolf eat itself at night, so, y'know, don't think about it too much). Found it quite interesting though.

Also tried Suburbia and Inkognito, both of which were better. The latter in particular I really enjoyed - like a combo between deception games and Cluedo.

[ChannelDelibird]

Were you following the rule about merging columns that only had one card left in them?

The person teaching us the game said we only merged columns if there were two columns with one card left, but I didn't check the rules myself so it may be that we shouldn't have won.

The BSG-lite comparison is a good one, although I think our game suffered for only having four players and therefore just the one wolf sympathiser. I would have liked to have seen a scumteam - I think more than I tend to worry about it in BSG, but maybe that's the mafia player in me getting too thematically involved.

Our game was also pretty dependent on the Seers - we had one full Seer and one Apprentice Seer and almost all of our actions ended up just being to use them. It struck me that it would have been quite a different game (and a much harder one) without them.

[ChannelDelibird]

I really want to play Risk Legacy but do not have people to play with. This irks me.

[ChannelDelibird]

Finally got around to playing Avalon, the King Arthur-themed variant of The Resistance! We didn't use all the possible roles - just Merlin, Percival and Morgana - but I enjoyed the Assassins in the Palace twist on what was otherwise pretty much the exact same experience. Neither better nor worse, methinks, and which you'd rather play will probably be impacted by mood or how much you like AITP.

[ChannelDelibird]

Home with family for Christmas. Expecting to play a fair few games but, for variety's sake, wondering if anyone can suggest any good three- or four-player games that need only pen & paper, cards, dice or any combination thereof?

[ChannelDelibird]

You could play Fiasco or Psi*Run?

Probably going to be a level too high for my family - roleplaying games aren't really their thing, plus they would take a little longer than is ideal.

Liar's Dice might be a good, quick one.

[ChannelDelibird]

Love Letter and Once Upon a Time for Christmas. The packaging for the latter is

astonishingly

wasteful - all it is is three small packs of cards and a rules sheet but the box is the size of a large hardback book. Can't wait to play it again, though.

[ChannelDelibird]

That haunt was such bullshit.

Will talk about Hanabi and Mascarade and also Legendary later, but goddamn that haunt was stupid

[ChannelDelibird]

I know plenty people who went to the Reckoning have frequented this thread, so give me some thoughts! What type of people liked those games? I've looked into both but they just seem like they cater to specific types of people.

The type of people who seemed - to me at least - to be enjoying Mascarade the most were those who wanted to take it seriously enough to facilitate a high level of fucking with people, but not so seriously that the frequent inability to have better than a vague idea of what's actually going on bothered them. I was a little too skewed to the latter end of the spectrum, I think, and even though I won perhaps half of the games I played I don't think I had as much fun as others. Mind you, they were often more drunk than me.

Like Faraday, everyone with whom I played Hanabi seemed to enjoy themselves. As long as your players won't throw a hissy fit if they can't win at something straight away, the challenge of finding that elusive perfect score is really attractive. Would recommend to more or less anyone.

[ChannelDelibird]

Nobody played Space Cadets with me. Was sad.

I would have played!

[ChannelDelibird]

Libertalia

<3<3<3

[ChannelDelibird]

Love Letter and Coup are both great suggestions; I think Love Letter is the most essential purchase but neither would let you down.

Las Vegas is really growing on me, too. Easy to grasp, everyone always feels like they have a chance and the gambling is very enjoyable without being over the top.

[ChannelDelibird]

Alternatively, if you fancy something silly, Cheating Moth is a cheap and entertaining favourite of mine.

[ChannelDelibird]

It's here! Though that reminds me to put it on the wiki.

[ChannelDelibird]

ONLINE HANABI? THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

[ChannelDelibird]

Wow! This needs a bump!

Has anyone played any of the Spiel des Jahres nominees this year (Camel Up, Concept, Splendor)? All three of them look interesting, though I think my group would go for Concept way before Camel Up and then way way before Splendor.

I've played Concept a few times and think it's great. Forces some fantastic out-of-the-box thinking - if everyone in your group is the kind to enjoy a good brain-teaser even a little then it'll get a hook into them. Would strongly recommend.

Played Camel Cup (the branding is seemingly intentionally vague about whether it's Cup or Up but I vote for Cup) for the first time tonight and I enjoyed it well enough. It's pretty quick to learn and the games will go fairly quickly when everyone knows what they're doing. Not sure if there's enough there for the price (the funky pyramid dice-tumbler looks like the main reason it's going for about £25 in the UK, and it's honestly just kind of annoying and fiddly to use) but the guys with whom I was playing it have all really taken to it in a big way and I can understand why.

Splendour is getting a lot of play at my local games night but I haven't had a chance to try it yet; must be doing something right, though.

[ChannelDelibird]

how do you get to play all these games

I'd be amazed if there weren't a specialist store or regular meetup group for games in a place as large as Raleigh. Mind you, my local shop is 10 minutes' walk away, so it's not hard to seek out.

[ChannelDelibird]

ordered coup yesterday, should be right up my street with the bluffing/deception element

Coup is the shit. Big, big fan. Can't believe you ordered a proper set rather than a custom UK Scummers Meet 2014 homebrew design, though. I hear that's great.

[ChannelDelibird]

The Captain is too awesome to be visible through a camera.

[ChannelDelibird]

Would people be interested in organising a game of Battlestar Galactica on Vassal some time soon? I've just downloaded the engine and I'm pretty much always up for a game, plus got a few good BST afternoons/evenings free over the next few weeks.

If you fancy it, there's a good instructional video here on how to play on Vassal (note: not how to play the game, just how to work it on the engine) and then we can fire up Skype for voice chat during it.

Supposedly you need a physical copy of the game and any expansions you're using to play on Vassal but the method it claims enforces this rule (text blanked out on Loyalty cards) doesn't seem to apply on the latest version so that may not be the case. Hopefully it's possible to play without, in that case, but maybe someone knows another problem that might come from doing that.

Don't mind any level of experience and happy to teach if necessary though I'm keen to use some expansions (namely Pegasus and the shiny Daybreak box that should be making its way to me later this week).

[ChannelDelibird]

I'd be free all day next Sunday (27th) - how would people be looking for a try that day?

[ChannelDelibird]

Any more for any more re: Sunday BSG? If we were to start as promptly as possible around 7 BST, we should be able to get it all done and still let Nexus go to bed at a reasonable hour.

[ChannelDelibird]

what time is 7 bst in edt

I make that 2pm

[ChannelDelibird]

Sad to hear, BC - hopefully another time.

BSG players, make sure you have me added on skype (same username) and the game installed on Vassal ready for this evening so we don't have to faff around with waiting - worth adding the Pegasus & Daybreak plugins as well.

[ChannelDelibird]

How many expansions are we planning on playing with?

I'm thinking Pegasus & Daybreak.

[ChannelDelibird]

No Exodus?

No - I don't have a physical copy so wanted to make sure I have everything should we find the one thing that they may or may not have blanked out to ensure you have to own the game to play it, plus Exodus is the most fiddly expansion for any players just used to the base game. If it all works smoothly, now, we can bust it out next time.

[ChannelDelibird]

Fair enough. Daybreak is the only expansion I haven't played, though, so I guess it's time to look it up.

I figure, for time, we'll play with Kobol destination, so you can ignore all the Demetrius/Search for Earth stuff. Mutiny, new Treachery, Heavy Raptor and updated Cylon Leader motives the main changes.

[ChannelDelibird]

In case anyone is interested: the humans survived!

Players:
Nexus (Romo Lampkin)
Prozac (Bill Adama)
Sudo (Lee Adama [Daybreak version])
CDB (Boomer)
LLD (Dee)

The humans had the upper hand throughout thanks to no pre-sleeper Cylons and great destination picks all the way through. There was a hairy moment when Prozac, trying to XO somebody in order to brig 'known' Cylon LLD, overlooked CDB for Sudo, who then revealed before taking his next turn immediately afterwards, but he and Cylon buddy LLD just didn't have enough time. In the end, Supreme Overlord of Humanity Lampkin (yes) busted the disgraced Mr Adama out of the brig to punch FTL control and escape with only fuel in the red.

Thanks to everyone who came on; it was lots of fun. Hope we can do it again sometime.

[ChannelDelibird]

Anyone up for more BSG this Sunday?

I can't do this Sunday, sadly.

[ChannelDelibird]

Played Firefly for the first time this afternoon. I enjoyed it quite a lot, though I had to go before we could finish - it captures the feel of the show really, really well. Really want to try it again sometime now.

[ChannelDelibird]

I could definitely be persuaded to do some D&D/similar.

[ChannelDelibird]

Played Witch's Brew tonight. Really liked it. Out of print in English. FFS.

[ChannelDelibird]

can confirm Arkham Horror is worst game

[ChannelDelibird]

Smash Up is enjoyable, silly filler.

[ChannelDelibird]

Anyone have experience with

Among the Stars

? It seems like it mixes the card drafting of 7 wonders with a bit of the tile-laying that Suburbia uses.

I like Among the Stars quite a lot, and that's a pretty good description. I much prefer it to 7 Wonders thanks to greater reactions to what every other player is doing, and it's breezier than Suburbia but Suburbia fans won't find it in danger of supplanting that game in the way that it has supplanted 7 Wonders for me in terms of a card-drafting game.

[ChannelDelibird]

Thinking about arranging another game of Battlestar Galactica on Vassal - Saturday October 4 would be the next convenient day that I'd be free; anyone else fancy it? Relevant information on how to play on Vassal here.

[ChannelDelibird]

I can be very flexible on times that day - depends what works for others.

[ChannelDelibird]

Saturday is significantly more convenient for me but, if it suited everyone else, I could do evening (British time) on Sunday.

[ChannelDelibird]

I'm going to be working until 7 BST on Sunday so does a start time of around 7.30 (2.30PM EST) suit?

I make that four at the moment - would love more but with four we can bring out a Cylon Leader. Muahahahaha.

[ChannelDelibird]

Eeeeexcellent.

[ChannelDelibird]

I would be able to start that late as I'm not working the Monday but depends on how it's looking for Prozac and Patrick, really.

[ChannelDelibird]

Looks like we'll have to go with 7.30, I'm afraid, Sudo. Next time!

T'other three: Reckon we'll go with same configuration of expansions as last time so LLD/Prozac you shouldn't need to do anything to be ready - Patrick, you should look to install the Pegasus and Daybreak modules on Vassal. Poke me if you need a hand with that.

I've got a friend of mine vaguely considering popping up as a fifth (though more likely not), as a heads-up (Patrick and possibly Prozac, it's the guy you met briefly at MANCHESSKID), but most likely is that we have a slightly breezier game with four, and one of us as a Cylon Leader.

[ChannelDelibird]

There certainly is! You'd be most welcome.

[ChannelDelibird]

Man, if Mina is playing I should make the effort.

But

Destiny

don't be a cunt

[ChannelDelibird]

chamber - if you're in or out could you let us know soon please?

[ChannelDelibird]

Anyone here seen, played or heard about Among the Stars?

I'm debating it as my next pickup.

http://forum.mafiascum.net/viewtopic.ph ... 5#p6224975

I like it!

[ChannelDelibird]

Well, that took about twice as long as it was supposed to, but the humans pulled out an extremely unlikely victory long after everybody had assumed that they were done for.

The crew:
Patrick (Helo [Daybreak pilot])
Prozac (Roslin)
CDB (Doc Cottle)
LLD (Caprica Six)

A tough crisis deck gave us a slow start as Six inflitrated to briefly pretend to be helpful before brigging everybody and spamming their hands with treachery - but nobody could deal with her because of the constant Cylon fleet attacks. Eventually, with Helo in the clink, Admiral Cottle took the fleet into sleeper and promptly heard the music, leading the next jump to a wasteland before revealing on 6 distance with both fuel and morale creaking ominously.

Six, openly clamouring for a swift Cylon victory, hammered Caprica with Cottle while Helo and Roslin tried desperately to haul first the latter and then both of them out of the brig against an alarmingly treacherous destiny deck. But the Cylons just couldn't find that final crisis to push fuel down from 1 and it cost them too many jump preps digging for it - eventually the humans finally found a way to circumvent destiny and spring Roslin out to hit FTL Control and narrowly escape with 1 population. The very next crisis would have killed them on morale. Six had all of the minutiae of her motives fulfilled, just not the crucial allegiances, so the humans won alone.

Today's lesson: Scummers take too long to debate their turns.

[ChannelDelibird]

I am always up for BSW.

I've actually been looking for more games like Love Letter, Hanabi, Mascarade, and Coup. Our group has definitely gravitated towards the quick burst micro games to space out other activities. Our usual hangouts involve people coming and going at random times, so being able to start and finish a game in under 30 minutes is pretty important.

If you like Love Letter, it's worth trying Lost Legacy, which is a slight complication of that game.

Also worth considering is Mai-Star, which plays a little differently to all of the above but is cheap, quick and fun.

I'll probably think of some more later.

[ChannelDelibird]

Splendour's alright and pretty good fun-to-price ratio but it didn't leave a huge impression on me and I'd probably only play it again if somebody actively asked me to.

[ChannelDelibird]

Eight Minute Empire: Legends

Good buy.

[ChannelDelibird]

I haven't played the original version of Eight-Minute Empire but the Legends version didn't spring any such issues for me.

[ChannelDelibird]

I have been nearly, neeearly playing Cosmic Encounter for about two years now. I really want to finally try it.

Highest on my to-do list at the moment, though, is

Dead of Winter

. Looks fantastic.

[ChannelDelibird]

Finally, finally played

Cosmic Encounter

tonight and now I can't wait to play it again.

[ChannelDelibird]

I

adore

Galaxy Trucker. Anniversary Edition will probably be my first big purchase whenever next I get any kind of excess money (so, a while).

Just come back from playing a bunch of new games fresh from Essen!

Spellcaster

is a sort of Magic-the-Gathering-lite for two to four players in two teams (you can play one-v-two as well). Not a collectable money-sink like Magic but one box where you're vying for control of four schools of magic to either earn enough gems to win or to run down your rivals' life to zero. I liked this quite a lot; it's pretty fast-paced and chaotic and you'll spend much of the game

so close

to executing deadly combos but mostly just narrowly foiling each others' setups. All the cards are apparently unique and the teamwork relying on instinct (you can't confer) is a nice challenge.

Castle Crush!

is a construction-and-destruction game where four players build small castles out of wooden pieces of various shapes, trying to make them sturdy enough to protect your King and General figurines while also earning more points for the higher you stack your pieces (and therefore the bigger the risks you're taking of it falling apart). Then you drop a small hammer on each other's castles and get points for the buildings and figurines you knock down as well as the parts that are left standing on yours at the end. There's lots of giggling building your stupid fortresses but sadly it's not quite as satisfying to destroy them as I'd like, partly because you can't really build them big enough for a hilariously massive collapse to be possible. Worth a try but not sure there's enough pure joy in there once the initial amusement has worn off.

7 Red

is a quick, 10-minute card game where, if you aren't winning the game after you play a card for your turn, you immediately lose. On your turn you can play a card for its value, or play one to use its colour to replace the previous colour-based wincon, or both. Easy to pick up and devilishly clever. Should be well worth the small-box price.

Robin

is a set-collecting and trading game that plays up to six which I really enjoyed. You have to be wheeling and dealing to get seven of the same type of card at the end of anyone's turn to win while jostling for position on a board, your position on which determines how good a draw you get at the start of the turn but also how much you risk being bumped back to the bottom of the track as well as each space giving a bonus to a certain type of card. There's a little bit of memory involved in figuring out who's going for what and a few good twists.

Sushi Draft

is a super-simple drafting game that takes about 10 minutes and that's really all there is to say about that. Good introductory game for drafting mechanics, decent filler stuff, I imagine would be pretty good as a cheap app game.

Polish game, name of which I cannot remember because the box was in Polish

GOD DAMMIT I wish I could remember what the title was (there were English rules in the box, at least, not that you'll really need them). It's a storytelling and memory game, like Once Upon a Time in that you have to fit a certain number of elements into your story but you don't interrupt each other, just tell a quick story one by one before reversing direction and telling a second one each. When everyone's done two stories you then start taking turns naming the elements from each other's stories to score them, losing points if you have cards left over that nobody was able to remember. This was the only one that I played twice tonight and could see myself doing it a lot more. It distills some of the better parts of OUAT and you can adjust the difficulty of the memory game to suit the players by changing the number of cards everyone uses per story. I'll post here again when I find out what it's called.

[ChannelDelibird]

Is

Spellcaster

worth it if you have

Seasons

,

Summoner Wars

and

Mage Wars

?

I feel like from your description its treading over old ground.

7 Red looks like an amazing goto for a quick filler game.

Of the three, I've only played

Seasons

and have had

Summoner Wars

explained to me briefly. If you love Seasons then

Spellcaster

probably won't be worth it for you; Spellcaster is more accessible and quick to learn without having to figure out what all the cards are in Seasons and what's going to combo well with what, because it's so quick and reactive rather than becoming as much of an engine-builder as Seasons. If you wanted one game to play regularly with the same group, Seasons is probably the better bet - personally, given that I'm more likely to play with a variety of people at less regular intervals, Spellcaster's probably the better value. I suspect that Spellcaster's overall feel is a little closer to Summoner Wars than Seasons but not really got a proper reference for that.

The main difference would be the team aspect, though that's mitigated somewhat by not being allowed to confer.

CDB is Sushi Draft a different game from Sushi Go!?

Yes. I've not played

Sushi Go!

; same publishers, I believe, but different game.

[ChannelDelibird]

I just played the Hunters variant from the new expanded edition of

The Resistance

and I liked it a lot! As someone who has played a crap-ton of

Avalon

, it was a real breath of fresh air without removing all of the information that flies around in Avalon. I had been sceptical of whether or not the new Resistance would be worth investment for someone who already owns Avalon but the Hunters stuff was an enjoyable alternative and there's still more things that I haven't tried. At the very least, it looks like being the definitive set for someone who doesn't already own Resistance in some form.

[ChannelDelibird]

Curse you Americans and your timezones.

Alchemists

: Takes a long time to figure out the first time that you play it but still enjoyed it quite a lot (even in losing) and imagine that it could get actually quite breezy when you've all played it once through. Worth a look (a slapdash description of it would be a kind of worker-placement version of Cluedo).

[ChannelDelibird]

I've been looking for a good 'Whodunnit?' type game. I guess similar to Battlestar Galactica, but with more Cluedo elements of gathering evidence and putting together the puzzle, but I'm not sure anything like that exists.

MYSTERY EXPRESS

MYSTERY EXPRESS

MYSTERY EXPRESS

[ChannelDelibird]

Hmm. Kind of want somebody to try out the X-Wing miniatures game with me.

[ChannelDelibird]

Why

It sounds kind of fun! But I definitely don't want to invest any money unless I'm sure that I like it.

Letters from Whitechapel

is probably your game for deductions. Or

Scotland Yard

Ooh, yes,

Letters from Whitechapel

is also very good.

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective

is the No.1 game that I want to try but finding a copy appears impossible at the moment.

[ChannelDelibird]

Ah, I wanna get a boxed set with a proper map of London and the newspapers, etc. Sounds much more romantic.

[ChannelDelibird]

CDB i have Sherlock Hilmes Vonsulting Detectove! I actually brought it to the first April Meet but it didn't get played... it's not really a meet style game, is the thing. but I can definitely bring it to the next thing and you'd be welcome to borrow it. Oh also my copy Has no box but it has all the relevant parts.

Arg, phones.

!!! THIS IS HUGE

[ChannelDelibird]

Maybe try

Mystery Express

. Had to look that one up (I vaguely remember the announcement not interesting me a while ago), but it's Days of Wonder, which means good component quality and playtesting, and it's meant to be an upgraded clue.

Mystery Express

is good. Takes the Cluedo mechanic of recording which locations/suspects/etc you've seen but muddies it by having two of everything except for the real answers and then forces you to constantly shuffle cards around the table. Played it a few times now and does a good job of leaving me feeling clever but that I could just do a little bit better the next time.

[ChannelDelibird]

Anyone for BSG on Vassal on either the 29th or 30th?

[ChannelDelibird]

I'd be open to adding in Exodus, though I'll have to brush up on some of the rules.

[ChannelDelibird]

Daybreak is the only expansion that I wouldn't play without. We've used that + Pegasus both times so far.

[ChannelDelibird]

I'd like to try the fleet board at some point but my suspicion is that it might be a bit too fiddly if people are learning it on Vassal.

[ChannelDelibird]

OH, NOW YOU TELL ME.

[ChannelDelibird]

BSG players - how does Saturday evening (GMT) look for you? Thinking around 7pm GMT/2pm EST

[ChannelDelibird]

Good point. I'm thinking maybe try the Exodus destination (with the Trauma/Allies stuff as a result) and Final Five loyalties before maybe introducing the Fleet Board at a later date? The trauma stuff seems like enough of a mechanic on its own to add in one go.

[ChannelDelibird]

I would like to try Earth at some point but it does take a little bit longer. For our record so far, that seems less than ideal.

[ChannelDelibird]

Actually, just did some testing with Vassal and it looks like neither Final Five nor Personal Goal loyalty cards are working properly. We may have to skip them (we'll live).

[ChannelDelibird]

Beyond the ability to handle them manually?

Yeah, as far as I can tell I can shuffle them into the pile of human cards but the Final Fives can't be drawn from that pile into the loyalty deck. There are always five cards left over in the human pile that just won't move. I've posted a query on the Vassal forums but those boards seem a little dead so I doubt we'll get a good answer.

[ChannelDelibird]

I've played around with it, and it seems you can shuffle them in from the other piles, just not from the human cards. So it would work if we were willing to move the human pile into a different stack, but I don't know how dedicated we are to Final Five.

Ooh! That's an easy enough solution. Good spot.

Prozac: Nexus can't do Sunday in case we overrun like crazy again.

PEDIT: Will follow up on that

[ChannelDelibird]

Yeah, Dominion's main flaw is a lack of interaction with other players. Intrigue doesn't solve that completely, but it addresses it much better than the base game. Difficulty spike is not a big one.

BSG players - Saturday is mildly better for me than Sunday but can do either.

[ChannelDelibird]

We're on GMT now and, aye, 7pm our time would be ideal.

[ChannelDelibird]

Prozac, since you asked: 7pm.

[ChannelDelibird]

Reminder for BSG players: In addition to Pegasus and Daybreak from before, you'll need to install the Exodus module on Vassal. There's a separate 'Exodus Cylon Fleet' module as well but DON'T install that.

[ChannelDelibird]

Much fun was had tonight. Thanks everyone for playing!

Spoiler: BSG session report

LLD (D'Anna 'What's That Coming Over the Hill, is it a Toaster?' Biers)
Porochaz (Bill Adama)
Sudo (Gaius Baltar [Political])
Patrick (Chief Tyrol)
GreyICE (Apollo)
CDB (Tory Foster)

Well, the first turn went OK. Ish.

Distrust and fear sweeps the remnant of the human fleet, with rumours that the mysterious Final Five Cylons are somewhere aboard the Galactica as they journey toward the Ionian Nebula. But the crew put their trust in noble Admiral William Adama and his brave son 'Apollo', poster-boys for the human spirit. Y'know, until a succession of the worst possible crises pop out of the deck, prompting legions of Cylon ships to scythe down nearly half the population and break various parts of the ship with harrowing efficiency.

President Gaius F. Baltar casually asks the Admiral if he'd mind the good doctor holding up a photo of a Cylon agent next to his head and doing a quick comparison. The Admiral mutters something about that being a bad idea, to widespread scepticism. After a few more parts of the ship explode, the Admiral's second-turn reveal is a surprise only because it came so close to a jump.

"Now look here, you traitorous, mechanical weasel. Know that you have wronged me and that I will hunt you to the ends of the galaxy. My vengeance will be eternal. Mark my words, Adama, you haven't seen the last of me," declares Baltar as he walks around the corner and is immediately destroyed in the fireball that used to be Captain Kelly, who had just that moment decided to spontaneously combust. In his final moments, Baltar is revealed to be one of the Five, causing everyone on the ship to lose basically all of their skill cards ever. After Tory Foster inherits the Presidency, Ms Helena Cain stumbles out of the shower, asking what year it is and glaring at pipsqueak Admiral Apollo.

With the fleet in disarray and in dire need of escape, Chief Tyrol slips on a banana peel and falls into the brig while on his way to punch FTL. Admiral Apollo stalls long enough for a centurion to board the ship just before the jump finally goes ahead, then gets an XO to deal with the intruder but instead opts to shoot himself in the head for a one-way ticket back to Papa Chrome's resurrection pad. Suddenly there are only three trustworthy humans left on the ship, the only one of whom with any cards in his hand sitting on his hands in the brig, while D'Anna runs around the Galactica unchecked, mostly just trying to stop all the doughnuts from catching fire.

It carries on in much the same way as Big Billy Toast and progeny ping the humans in and out of the brig like fleshy yo-yos, with the Galactica pretty much constantly about halfway to being destroyed. Impressively, the humans manage to string out their resources until distance 6, at which point they have to either attempt a desperate jump towards the Nebula in hope that they land somewhere which can give them a crucial fuel boost or stay and wait, allowing the huge Cylon fleet an odds-on chance of sniping the last doughnut left in the known universe out of Galactica's hold.

They jump. There's no fuel. The humans - all 1 population of them - run out of their remaining 1 food as they drift helplessly through deep space, though oddly they all seem quite happy about it all. D'Anna is just a single doughnut away from victory. The first family of warm bread reigns supreme.

[ChannelDelibird]

7 Wonders didn't wow me as much as it has clearly wowed your family, so YMMV, but if they love 7 Wonders then I'm sure that they would enjoy Among the Stars even if it doesn't eclipse it. Think there's an expansion for ATS somewhere but I haven't played that yet.

[ChannelDelibird]

Spontaneous-ish GMT game of Battlestar Galactica this afternoon...

Spoiler: Session report

The cast:
Patrick (President Laura Roslin)
Nexus (Cally Henderson-Tyrol)
CDB (Admiral Samuel 'Longshot' Anders)
Prozac (Brother Cavil)

While everyone wondered whose bright idea it was to give Nexus access to firearms, the early game was relatively peaceful, although Cavil's motives were called into question when an early but relatively innocuous spike surfaced, planting an extra civilian into an already sizeable and poorly defended cluster of them, with a force of raiders closing. The obvious disaster soon struck as the civvies were destroyed in a hail of bullets, dropping population to just 4 with only 1 distance travelled. At least the President had cleared the Admiral of toasteneity.

With not a lot else to do, the unhappily brigged Cavil simply took a ride back to the resurrection ship and spent several turns loading up on super crises, while simultaneously insisting that he had only humanity's best interests at heart, fooling precisely nobody (despite it later transpiring to have been half-true). In the absence of any major disasters, Roslin similarly loaded up on quorum cards for a rainy day, while Anders repeatedly and loudly prayed that she not turn on sleeper.

She turned on sleeper. Opportunity knocked immediately after the fleet passed the threshold. Despite an investigative committee forcing cards to be played face-up, Roslin showed her true colours by spiking hard on a crucial crisis. The humans decided it was worth a try to pull it out anyway but, with Cavil only too happy to contribute to the failure, they fell agonisingly short and drained of most of their hands. In short order, Roslin issued an arrest order on Cally to avoid being shot in the face with extreme prejudice.

What followed was a lesson in just how powerful a cancer-riddled, middle-aged person can be. The humans thought they were being clever in tanking the first of two checks to spring Cally from lockup but succeeded only in earning Anders enough mutiny cards to dump him down with her, while a sneaky Change of Plans from Roslin prevented what would have been a successful escape.

It took another hour to confirm it, but that really was the game-winning moment. There was a brief scare when Cavil began to worry that Roslin would win in the wrong way for him to share in it but a deft break *into* the brig from the then-deposed President to once again avoid Cally's gun smoothed over their differences. The humans lost on morale, with 6 distance reached.

--

Reflections:
Patrick's hand management was excellent and he thoroughly deserved the win.
Roslin's strength is enhanced even further by games of fewer than five players. It was clear from miles away that her drawing the Cylon card at sleeper would be a huge deal.
Daybreak's treacherous brigfests are the only real drawback of an otherwise essential expansion.

[ChannelDelibird]

Stars even if it doesn't eclipse

icewutudidthere.jog

Had a twinkle in my eye, etc...

[ChannelDelibird]

Immediately establish a meta of semi-randomly calling out first-turn taxers. It's fun.

Coup

is the balls. (I'd like to try the expansion but not compatible with our homebrew set! Also, I've heard good things about Coup 1945 or whatever it's called... will report back when I have a chance to play.)

No new physical games this Christmas but I've spent a lot of today playing a shit-ton of

Galaxy Trucker

on the iPad and it's a BRILLIANT conversion. Also working my way through some others but can already recommend

Ascension

,

Star Realms

,

Ticket to Ride

and

Hive

on iOS.

[ChannelDelibird]

Which expansions did we want to use? All minus the pursuit board?

Think so. I don't have time to re-learn the fleet board rules between now and then, but if we plan a bit more in advance next time we can have a go at that next.

And what's our destination?

We could possibly try Earth if people fancy, or have another go at the Ionian Nebula with the trauma rules. I'm fine with either (especially as I've since learned that poor old Baltar should not have exploded in that land mine last time we went there).

[ChannelDelibird]

Let's go with the Nebula, just to actually do it properly this time.

Have had a reread while explaining trauma to Nexus. There's a new basestar damage token that can make revealed Cylons draw trauma but none for humans if Galactica is hit.

[ChannelDelibird]

You volunteered to read

[ChannelDelibird]

No session report because I'm really really tired but Cylons Boomer-Sudo and Cally-LLD beat humans Gaeta-Nexus, Ellen-CDB and PolitiZarek->PilotHelo-Patrick on population after a tense game. Thanks all involved for a lot of fun.

[ChannelDelibird]

Played

Spyfall

via an online client with some of the Commonwealth the other night and really enjoyed it a lot, although I somewhat fear the RL version as I'm struggling to picture how you make a list of possible locations browsable for the spy without everyone noticing, because you really do need to be constantly considering it. Can you shed some light, Faraday?

Tried

Quantum

for the first time on Monday and enjoyed it well enough for a fairly breezy game with a fun (if flimsy) theme and a mix of light strategy and luck. Wouldn't buy it, but would happily recommend to play.

Also want to mention how awesome

Star Realms

is if I haven't already. Tiny and cheap deckbuilder, very much like Ascension but a little quicker to the point. Great iOS app, too.

[ChannelDelibird]

Can't really afford this and dunno if I'll be able to break it out before April ... but who knows when next I'll see it in stock?

Spoiler: yes

[ChannelDelibird]

Tokaido looks very clever. Prozac, you should buy it so that I can play it. Thanks in advance.

[ChannelDelibird]

BSG players: Fancy trying either the Cylon Fleet Board or Earth on Saturday 31st or Sunday 1st?

[ChannelDelibird]

Oh, alright then.

[ChannelDelibird]

Was actually talking about next weekend, not this. I'm out tomorrow! But I think maybe just Fleet Board to Kobol/Nebula? One new element at a time seems about right to me, but happy to be overruled if others want to go all in

[ChannelDelibird]

Dead of Winter

isn't a direct BSG analogy, as it's more likely than not that you won't have a traitor and it's not so specifically a game of risk management.

[ChannelDelibird]

Sunday would likely work for me instead; would need to double-check that but probably fine. Any time on Saturday works for me so happy to go later if that suits others.

[ChannelDelibird]

Oh, aye, haha, forgot the Superb Owl was a thing.

As far as I know, assuming Patrick is in, we're currently five (us three plus LLD & GreyICE). Haven't yet heard back from Prozac.

[ChannelDelibird]

I think one day I might be able to work into a BSG game, if you'll have me of course!

Absolutely, we'd love to have you! Speak up whenever a proposed date suits you or suggest one yourself.

1) Superb Owl is an awesome name for that.
2) Grey and I really need a name we can refer to ourselves together by.
3) If I'm a FUCKING TOASTER AGAIN.

1. It's a hoot.
2. I'll go with Lord & Lady Lambdadelta until something more concise is proposed.
3. Well, let's face it...

Note for BSG players: As we'll try out the Fleet Board this time, you'll need

all

expansion modules installed.

[ChannelDelibird]

Dibs on being a Cylon leader, unless there's the wrong number of players or somebody else picks it or I change my mind or I forget.

I think Patrick's currently at the head of the queue for High Priestess of Ambiguously Warm Bread.

[ChannelDelibird]

I wouldn't mind spectating when you guys start though, which I should be able to do either way, so is someone could shoot me a message when you all are starting, that would be awesome!

Shouldn't be a problem. As of yet not clear whether we're on for tomorrow or Sunday (I'm assuming Prozac is out at this point but I'll check again and look to confirm either way tonight). If Patrick's available for a 6.30pm GMT start on Saturday and that suits t'others then I think that'd be slightly preferable for me.

[ChannelDelibird]

Ooh. Mysterium just arrived. Excellent.

I have heard very promising things.

[ChannelDelibird]

So is there a settled time? It sounds like we're veering towards Sunday; I've been enlisted to ensure that the server doesn't catch on fire or implode or something, so I should be fine to play, but I might be occassionally distracted. Given the speed of decision making some of us have, though, I don't foresee this being a problem

I'm gonna say Saturday at 18.30GMT. Patrick says he can get back for then (though that's the earliest possible point at which he will turn up) and, with Prozac out, you slightly distracted on Sunday and me slightly preferring Saturday, I think that's the best call.

[ChannelDelibird]

Not at all! If you're around, hop online and I'll add you in.

[ChannelDelibird]

Ho boy. This is a long one, mainly because overwriting the early game let me put off dwelling on my own mistakes at the end.

Spoiler: BSG session report

The cast:

Porochaz as President Dr Gaius F. Baltar [Political Leader]
Patrick as Cylon Leader D'Anna Biers
Sudo_Nym as Admiral Louis 'Some Guy' Hoshi
ChannelDelibird as Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace, CAG

Somewhere in the fleet, someone is a Cylon. Prozac picked Baltar. Does this need to take very long?

Baltar attempted to draw some sneaky Piloting on the sly on his very first turn, as well, which endeared him to precisely nobody, but otherwise the early stages seemed calm enough. D'Anna made a swift move over to Galactica, without coming pre-armed with the load of super crises that would ensure her a smooth ride back if she needed, but soon had to go home when Starbuck was forced to brig somebody. Why not the Cylon Leader, right?

On her way out, D'Anna gazed deep into Starbuck's eyes. Humanity's only pilot was not a member of the Final Five, and D'Anna declared her human through and through... but who can trust the words of a toaster?

A good choice of destination led Starbuck to voice strong support for the glorious admiralty of... er... y'know... kinda... short guy, I guess? Maybe brown hair? Dunno. Anyway. Baltar seemed keen enough to make up for his earlier mistake and the fleet made solid early progress, though a reasonable force was beginning to build in the pursuing Cylon fleet. Probably the only real problem was Starbuck's habit of having her ships explode. First the assault raptor then two top-of-the-line Mark VII vipers were obliterated thanks to repeated reckless flying under enemy fire.

Soon after the sleeper phase, the Cylon fleet jumped in and prompted a moment of crisis among humanity. With ships bearing down on vulnerable civilians, D'Anna bravely... filed some paperwork. Interpreted by some as an act of mutiny, she abandoned important duties to force a regime change, her partially confirmed faith in the CAG leading her to anoint a rebellious, self-destructive viper jockey as the lawful president of the colonies.

The battle raged on, now-President Starbuck repeatedly rushing out of sickbay to launch a daring solo mission against the Cylon raiders before rushing straight back into sickbay when her latest craft inevitably exploded, leaving the whims of the quorum largely unattended. The wheels began to turn, however, when Baltar took a reading of Starbuck's genetic makeup and declared her a Cylon agent.

Though Admiral Somebody's humanity was now confirmed, he was unsure whether to believe the cowardly Baltar or the foolhardy president, who had behaved bravely but had the dubious backing of D'Anna. When the quorum grew fed up of Starbuck's idleness and made him Supreme Governor instead, he used his newfound power to make a judgement call and throw Baltar into the brig, noting that Starbuck could have used her political power for evil and had chosen not to.

Thanking him for his faith, Starbuck revealed herself as a Cylon, framed Redshirt McBlandington for collaboration and threw him into the brig, probably crashing another fighter into the side of the ship to book a one-way ticket to Casa Toast.

The two humans looked at each other from across their shared prison cell. "Well, frak," noted Baltar.

Supreme God-King Whatever paused, looked at the edict papers that he'd smuggled in with him, then up at Baltar. "How badly do you want to get out of here?" he asked. A few moments later, the corpse of Dr Baltar floated out of the prison airlock.

While D'Anna sat in the research lab, drawing tactics cards and eating pretzels, a slightly confused Apollo wandered out of the shower and asked what year it was before being unceremoniously shoved into a viper and crowned Admiral of the Fleet.

The fleet was making progress across the stars but the pursuing force of raiders was reaching incredible size, a daunting prospect without a pilot. Starbuck reached out to D'Anna to see if their agendas might be similar, electing to delay bringing to bear her deadliest revenge in the hopes of stalling long enough for her fellow toaster's interests to fall in line. Meanwhile, Some Guy escaped from the brig.

The fleet reached distance 7. Again, Starbuck reached out to D'Anna: Should she take a slightly riskier route by playing her super crisis, which would need D'Anna's help to be at its most effective, or just pound the Cylon fleet for a quicker, dirtier win? Rolling the dice, Starbuck went with the former, daring Apollo to let centurions on board or die preventing it. But the time to unleash that particular power was earlier, not now, and Apollo had little drawback to pulling the trigger on himself, summoning Laura Roslin from the aether for a late-game vision boost.

From then, the fleet made its final jump before Kobol and the Cylon fleet followed right after it. It was a straight race for the raiders to mop up the gaggle of civilians to extinguish the last of humanity's population before they could escape. Starbuck thought she had the humans on their knees when three ships were destroyed but one, a decoy, left her needing one last big score from the two remaining vessels. What she didn't count on, however, was Admiral Person's dutiful manning of the communications console to steer the civilians out of the grasping reach of her raiders. It bought enough time for the humans to escape, as D'Anna showed that she had been as pro-human as they come, winning handily with all four motives completed along with her team-mates.

---

In summary: Gaaah. This was a really fun game and an enjoyable close finish, but really should have been a Cylon win - just undone by some poor decision-making on my part at the end. In trying to court Patrick, I played my supercrisis too late and lost my chance to near-guarantee a win by raider hurricane, just as I subsequently overlooked Hoshi's comms skills to let the civilians out of my reach at the last instead of trying my luck on reducing jump prep to buy me the extra turn that I needed.

Due to some unfortunate scheduling confusion, a part 2 may follow tomorrow.

[ChannelDelibird]

I'm in (give or take 10 mins for food). Prozac is pencilled in. Go go double down!

[ChannelDelibird]

Yup, today. We can make sure we're quick.

[ChannelDelibird]

Thatsthejoke.jpg

[ChannelDelibird]

Spoiler: BSG session report

Helena Cain LOL

[ChannelDelibird]

Hopefully going to get my hands on

Sheriff of Nottingham

next week (looks like my FLGS is getting some new stock in anticipation of being Wheatoned) ... at this point I officially have no idea how I'm going to carry all the games that I'll want to bring to meets but I'm confident that this'll be worth it. Really excited about this game.

[ChannelDelibird]

The next time I'm at some kind of MS meet, I'm gonna bring Tragedy Looper. More people should play this game. I know I talked about it before, but I honestly miss playing it now that I'm not in Seattle.

I've played

Tragedy Looper

once and enjoyed it well enough, though our game ended in a bit of a fizzle as our evil player (or whatever they're called) gave away a little too much early on and it was a bit easy to foil his plans in the late game. Really liked how different it is, though.

Just got back from my first gaming night in a little while. Tried out

Witness

, which is an interesting mix of brain teasers and Telephone. You each get four individual snippets of a clue which you then have to whisper around the table, while remembering everything that's already been whispered to you and passing that on as well, without being able to write anything down before the end, where you put it together and hope that everyone has enough information to answer the final questions. It's nice and breezy (about five-to-10 minutes per case) although the flavour comes off a little bit too much like the sort of puzzle you'd get in a school textbook at times. Won't be for everyone, but worth trying if you like a puzzle. Some good laughs.

Got to try out the

Last Will

expansion, the name of which escapes me, as well as my first time playing the game proper in a while and it held up very well despite my playing badly and losing. The jobs in the expansion are good at forcing you to be a bit more diverse in your approach rather than just hit the same cards over and over again, although actually going bankrupt in the available time is definitely harder to do and almost certainly not going to happen to everybody. Marriage is a fun little twist as well, giving you some satisfying mini-blowouts. Recommend.

And got to give

Sheriff of Nottingham

a test run before I buy, which I will definitely be doing. It's as much fun as I'd hoped.

Then a couple of rounds of

Snake Oil

. Still a great party game.

[ChannelDelibird]

PSA: Don't play

Virgin Queen

.

[ChannelDelibird]

It might be, if I were still capable of imagining what 'fun' might be like. I'm trapped in this stupid fucking game.

[ChannelDelibird]

FUCK

FUCKING FUCK

DEAD OF WINTER JUST CAME BACK IN STOCK ON COOLSTUFFINC BUT I DON'T HAVE MY PAYCHECK UNTIL TOMORROW FUCK IT ALL FUCK FUCK

You know where else it's in stock

[ChannelDelibird]

playing battlestar galactica for the first time in years; I have all the expansions -- I'll be playing with people who have only played the base game a couple times or not at all.

Any recommendations for what to include?
I know for sure I'll be playing with Cylon leaders + Daybreak Agendas as an option
I'm kind of lukewarm on final five+personal agendas - if I include them I'm going to limit how many for sure.
I'll be using treachory from daybreak and mutineer depending on playing counts
I don't really like the idea of player elimination so am ruling out Ionian nebula.
My instinct to to *not* include the cylon fleet board, I like the panics and lulls from Cylon attack cards.

but I've really only played with cylon fleet board once, and pegasus once, daybreak zero times so would welcome advice.

If you're playing with people with limited experience, then you probably want to avoid most of the non-mandatory expansion elements. I'd take Kobol as the destination, leave out the final fives and personal goals, use cylon attack crises rather than the fleet board. Between the Pegasus board, Mutiny, Daybreak Treachery, Cylon Leaders and a mountain of new skill cards and characters, they've got enough to which to acclimatise.

[ChannelDelibird]

Also, man, this page reminds me that I don't get to play

Legendary

nearly as much as I'd like.

[ChannelDelibird]

YES PROZAC

[ChannelDelibird]

gamma ordered Doomtown Reloaded today :3

that game looks fun as fuck

I've only played it once but I really, really like it. As someone who really, really can't get into the theme of

Netrunner

, not to mention the terrifying money investment that it now requires,

Doomtown

's pretty ideal. If I hadn't just spent more than my games allowance on other stuff, I'd be all over it. The poker-hand mechanic is inspired; it feels incredibly thematic for a wild-west scenario. This is probably my next big buy when I can afford it.

Played a few new things today:

Hyperborea:

Played this with six and there was way too much downtime. That's not its only problem (there's not quite enough that you can accomplish on one turn to make it satisfying enough and the endgame mechanic can screw some players out of a turn for no good reason, for examples) but I think I'd probably enjoy this quite a bit with three or four. Some area-control mechanics mixed with deck/bag-building and fun minis. Definitely try before you buy, but worth trying. I'm interested to play again.

Greed:

No idea how I hadn't heard of this before, but it's a drafting game

a la

7 Wonders or Among the Stars by the guy who made Dominion, only MUCH more portable than those two cousins and a lot of fun. This was a definite hit.

Spyrium:

An interesting twist on worker-placement that didn't make me want to slit my wrists like many in the genre. Spent the first 40% of the game still not totally sure what I was trying to do and was annoyed by some often-unintuitive iconography but ended up winning thanks to falling back on the staple twin worker-placement strategies of RECRUIT ALL THE MEEPLES and dickery. Very interesting and well worth trying even if you're not normally keen on its ilk. I do wish the colour scheme were less dour and brown, though (Victorian steampunk flavour is not a good excuse).

[ChannelDelibird]

Also I played two games of Dead of Winter back to back. The first game, we forgot to place the zombies at the start of the game and still struggled massively, losing on round 3 to a betrayer.

Second game was even worse. Drew the secret objective of 'win + have more survivors than anyone else' then succumbed to a first turn in which my two survivors immediately died as well as somebody else. We rolled the exposure die 12 times and got five bites. Lost in round two. I'll have the scars for a while.

[ChannelDelibird]

CDB wants to know if any of you are up for a game of Virgin Queen?

CDB wants everyone involved in the design and propagation of Virgin Queen to be horrifically burned.

[ChannelDelibird]

Played

Shogun

for the first time yesterday and really, really enjoyed it despite coming dead last thanks to some bad decisions and bad luck. One of my fellow players described it as "Risk for adults", which is a little over-simplistic but does most of the descriptive heavy lifting. Strongly recommended.

[ChannelDelibird]

Play the damn game

[ChannelDelibird]

For something slightly different for a jump-in, jump-out game, perhaps

Ricochet Robots

might work. Very clever competitive puzzle game.

[ChannelDelibird]

Finally played

Castles of Burgundy

this evening and really, really enjoyed it. Fun, dynamic action selection, no risk of getting bored during opponents' turns, a dose of luck in its dice mechanic that keeps it from being too dry without ever risking a complete screw-over of your plans (that's just the other players). Can't believe it took me this long to try it.

The other new thing that I tried was

Loony Quest

, which is just coming out with an English rulebook (the only part of the game that needs langauge). You have to draw a path on dry-wipe sheets to get you through various mazes put in the middle of the table, on a short timer, while trying to pick up power-ups and avoid penalties. You might end up drawing with one eye closed, or without bending your elbows, all while attempting ever more complicated video-game style levels. It's quick, different and a lot of fun. Strongly recommend giving it a go.

[ChannelDelibird]

I don't recognise it but, if you find it, I must have it.

[ChannelDelibird]

I played

Wheedle

tonight, which is a servicable game of real-time negotiation and set-collecting. Mostly, though, I was very, very sad that nobody at the table understood my Kakuna joke.

[ChannelDelibird]

I'm actually starting to regret splashing the money on Dead of Winter. I like it, but I'm starting to get frustrated with some of the random elements in terms of the impact of dice rolls and the distribution of cards, and it also seems like, despite stock being low, a lot of people I know already have it so I'd probably still be able to play it if I really wanted to, and I'd definitely play BSG over it any day (even though I still don't feel like they're such direct comparisons to each other).

That being said, and I know it sounds nothing like an advert, if you haven't gone completely off it as well, Reck, I could maybe bring it with me and then just leave it with you guys if you try it and like it.

[ChannelDelibird]

Re: Tabletop Simulator, I'd probably need a look at the library available for it but I'm pretty sure I'd be in if we gathered some scummers to play together.

[ChannelDelibird]

That reminds me to play

Grog Island

again. I liked that game.

[ChannelDelibird]

Shogun

is becoming one of my favourite heavier games. Had a five-player last night where the top four were all within three points of each other, everyone having moments of triumph and total despair. Always come out of it thinking I could do a little better if I played again right now. Highly recommended.

[ChannelDelibird]

After many delays, the second edition of the Game of Thrones LCG is finally 'shipping now' on the Fantasy Flight website. I'm very excited - going to be my first taste of an LCG scene! Anyone else planning to get into it?

[ChannelDelibird]

I started Pandemic Legacy yesterday and I'm

really

enjoying it so far.

[ChannelDelibird]

Having played Two Rooms about 15 times now, I don't think that there's actually anything there beyond a bit of outguessing as to whether each team sends or keeps their VIP in the last hostage exchange. Everything else is just ineffective window-dressing - occasionally funny window-dressing, but not consequential.