Non-Wargames on your table right now

Started by bayonetbrant, June 20, 2017, 10:58:07 AM

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jamus34

#90
Quote from: airboy on April 14, 2020, 04:34:09 PM
Too Many Bones is running $250 on Amazon.  For that you can get all of the Mansions of Madness material.

I bought direct from Chip Theory. Although I think stock was limited so they might be sold out right now hence the gouging.

And it did deliver today (finally,) so I will give it a go tonight.
Insert witty comment here.

Nefaro

Quote from: jamus34 on April 15, 2020, 01:52:13 PM
Quote from: airboy on April 14, 2020, 04:34:09 PM
Too Many Bones is running $250 on Amazon.  For that you can get all of the Mansions of Madness material.

I bought direct from Chip Theory. Although I think stock was limited so they might be sold out right now hence the gouging.

And it did deliver today (finally,) so I will give it a go tonight.

As did I, right before they previously sold out.

I suppose repeatedly selling out of stock is a good indicator of it's popularity.  Their last Kickstarter, for the randomized end boss creator, raked in a pretty huge amount.  Included Core reprints of course.

Think I liked it most due to the wide variety of player powers.  Even though the core game mechanics aren't very difficult, despite the somewhat disorganized bits of the rulebook, each character still has it's own play style and varied level-up build options.  Seems like you could play the same character (yes, solitaire character is possible) multiple times and end up with a different build focus every time.  Plus all the powers largely being tied to the custom dice is great, so if you like dice-chucking and character building a bit like an action-RPG, then it's worth a look.  Even at the cost for the big Core game.

jamus34

Yeah, it can be fiddly with some of the rules. I understand that they are trying to keep the printed manual to a minimum as that is literally the only component that will wear out but there are so many things that are either not explained at all, explained poorly or straight up confusing.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game so far. But each game I have made mistakes. For example first time playing Tantrum I didn't realize you have to "buy" his Rage upgrade dice. I also missed some monster innate abilities and character innate's here and there too.

All that and the quirks being said I still really like it and look forward to when I can get it on my table again next weekend.
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jamus34

oh yeah, with the recent Cloudspire expansion kickstarter I pledged and picked up the following:

Cloudspire base game set (Also includes a dice tray and promo pack)
TMB - Ghillie, Tink, Nugget, Gasket
TMB - Undertow
TMB - 40 days in Daelor
TMB - Adventure Mat and Ally Pack

I also grabbed a chip tray so I can use my premium TMB health chips across both games.

probably went a little crazy but sanity is at a premium right now.
Insert witty comment here.

Victor

I find the holiday season is the only time when I get close friends and family around the battle for the time commitment to play Republic of Rome. Great game!

It's complex, it's time consuming but it's like Diplomacy if you were all one country instead of 7. As a bonus, you can play with more or less players than the standard 4 and there's a VASSAL module for it too.

Phantom

Playing Wilderness War at the moment (yes, this IS a wargame) but reason for posting here is that I was considering buying Pax Renaissance 2nd Ed (a semi-wargame) - anyone have any opinion on this? Don't worry about complexity - I play COIN games & own High Frontier.

Silent Disapproval Robot

I like it quite a bit .  The gameplay itself is really not that complex.  Learning it is harder than it should be due to the obtuse rulebook (A Phil Eklund staple) and the large number of symbols in use on the cards. Once you do learn the system, it all just sort of clicks and gameplay flows quickly and seems logical.  I'd recommend watching some let's play videos on YouTube and trying a few solo hands until you get a handle on it.

I think the biggest drawback is that you only use a small fraction of the available events cards in any one play session.  While this does mean there's a lot of replayability, it also means that sometimes the cards just don't mesh with one another properly.  When they do, it creates some tense and memorable gameplay.  When they don't, it can lead to some lopsided wins or playthroughs with little player interaction.

Phantom

Thanks - that sounds positive. I'll give the videos a shot, but on the face of it it sounds like my type of game.
Regards
 

JasonPratt

It doesn't quite count as "table", but my Crisis Grogs group has been binging hard on 18xx games for a while now, at the site "18xx.games" where fans and owners of the series use the forum engine to adapt games for computer play.

Play runs very smoothly, even on alphas and betas (and there are a lot of full releases, too), and can be played live or asynch with easy transitions between them.

For those who don't know, the 18xx series are railroad management games where instead of each player running one railroad and carrying freight, each player bids and buys certificate ownership in any number of available companies, hopefully profiting thereby. If a player owns a minor corporation, or the director's cert of a major, the player becomes responsible for managing that railroad on the game map by laying or upgrading track, placing offices in large cities (from which train routes can run, which can also block runs by other companies), and buying or upgrading trains including replacing obsolete trains as tech progresses. Each version of the game system has special quirks (sometimes mis-called "MacGuffins" by fans, though they aren't plot devices with unimportant details ;) ) and when fans especially like one recipe of quirks designers will often spin off sub-games along that line.

A few dozen 18xx games are available for play on the site for free registration.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Silent Disapproval Robot

Quote from: Phantom on January 15, 2023, 08:24:20 AMThanks - that sounds positive. I'll give the videos a shot, but on the face of it it sounds like my type of game.
Regards
 

I found this one to be the best walkthrough of the rules.  The Heavy Cardboard one is also OK but a bit long.