Legion Of Honor

Nefaro · January 16, 2015, 02:37:59 PM

Anyone scope Legion Of Honor from CoA yet?

It's another one of those narrative style games capable of solitaire (although this one has a competitive system by default).

Instead of running any number of WW2 machines or squads, as has been done so often before, this one has you taking the life of a French soldier in Napoleon's Army attempting to move up the ranks (and survive??). I was fenced at first but after seeing the many attractive components and cards in this unboxing vid, I'm near buckling.

bayonetbrant · January 16, 2015, 03:12:04 PM

I've seen it, and it looks MAHR-velous. But (1) I'm tapped out, and (2) Napoleonics aren't really my schtick, so I'm going to defer to someone else for taking lots of pics and sharing with the rest of us :)

PanzersEast · January 17, 2015, 10:27:24 AM

Actually mine should be in next week.... been looking forward to it. I should also receive Shadows of Malice as well..... Have to say, it looks very promising!

PE

Nefaro · January 17, 2015, 08:41:09 PM

Quote from: PanzersEast on January 17, 2015, 10:27:24 AM
Actually mine should be in next week.... been looking forward to it. I should also receive Shadows of Malice as well..... Have to say, it looks very promising!

PE

I'm in the middle of my first Shadows Of Malice solitaire game right now! O0

It certainly lacks in artwork but at least the cards are all cut evenly. One thing that burns my ass is paying $50 to $80 for a beautiful fancy ass game and having a deck of cards with six slightly different lengths.

As for gameplay, it has been fun thus far in my two-character/three hex tile game. It's not at Mage Knight Board Game levels of awesome but it's somewhat similar in the wider strategy scope. The monster randomization, and especially their Ability cards, can give surprises you hadn't planned for.

PanzersEast · January 18, 2015, 05:15:57 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on January 17, 2015, 08:41:09 PM
Quote from: PanzersEast on January 17, 2015, 10:27:24 AM
Actually mine should be in next week.... been looking forward to it. I should also receive Shadows of Malice as well..... Have to say, it looks very promising!

PE

I'm in the middle of my first Shadows Of Malice solitaire game right now! O0

It certainly lacks in artwork but at least the cards are all cut evenly. One thing that burns my ass is paying $50 to $80 for a beautiful fancy ass game and having a deck of cards with six slightly different lengths.

As for gameplay, it has been fun thus far in my two-character/three hex tile game. It's not at Mage Knight Board Game levels of awesome but it's somewhat similar in the wider strategy scope. The monster randomization, and especially their Ability cards, can give surprises you hadn't planned for.

I picked up Fortune and Glory a while back and thought I would not like it, and I was right.... I love that game. I've had 2 play throughs now with base game and will now introduce the expansions. I have A Touch of Evil on a trade and I am pretty sure I will like it as much..... good fun!

PE

Nefaro · January 19, 2015, 12:37:21 AM

Quote from: PanzersEast on January 18, 2015, 05:15:57 PM

I picked up Fortune and Glory a while back and thought I would not like it, and I was right.... I love that game. I've had 2 play thoughts now with base game and will now introduce the expansions. I have A Touch of Evil on a trade and I am pretty sure I will like it as much..... good fun!

PE

I got Fortune & Glory months ago. Did a quick paint job of the character minis, but still haven't played it. Guess I've not been in an Indiana Jones mood yet. Having done some of the other FFG games, it will have many similarities except for all the thematic bits. Of course, that's why we play those (along with the solitaire option). I would like to pick up the Red Hand expansion.. because everyone likes fighting Crazed Cultists about as much as Nazis. Not so much the Mob.

Of the earlier FFG adventure games I've played, A Touch Of Evil is definitely one of the best. I picked up the Something Wicked expansion in an FLGS back when it was out of print and hard to find but still haven't played it with that expansion. The gothic horror theme is something I generally enjoy, despite not liking FFG's use of live actors instead of artwork in this one. The hidden town elder stuff is a great mechanic!

At the rate I'm buying boardgames, I'll never catch up on my backlog.

Thankfully I haven't been spending much on PC games lately. Perhaps because I play them less than I used to, some of that time being replaced with tabletop gaming & painting. New boss same as the old boss. :P

Also... I didn't expect to see my back-ordered copy of Dead Of Winter arrive for a month or more. I must've had some sixth sense that another shipment was gonna show up in Plaid Hat's stock again soon because they just shipped me one last week. ^-^ So if you're aching to see what all the commotion is about, there may still be some stock left for order on Plaid Hat's site. I'm sure they'll run out soon again too, just like all the others, because no store fronts have even restocked it yet.

Nefaro · January 19, 2015, 12:48:32 AM

As for Shadows Of Malice, I think it has some good points. Notably the randomized monsters & specifically the many different special abilities they can have from the Ability Deck.

But I also think the many different low-numbered die rolls are a hindrance to the combat system. You'll be using d6s like crazy, which is no big deal by itself, but you'll be using many of them in screwy lower denominations like d6, d2, d3, and d* (which is a 0-1 roll) to modify the main d6 rolls up or down. Having to use the different sized dice of different colors, mixed together for your combat rolls, and then having to convert them into their proper results is a needless annoyance IMO.

SofM just screams for custom dice for all these different ones, not just for looks but to ease the die roll interpretation work load. There are a couple user-made custom die faces for download on BGG but I don't think that I will be playing it often enough to spend the time and money making that happen.

Cyrano · January 19, 2015, 04:53:42 PM

You...you...f-ers...

Like I need another game I won't play.

Ran games of Slapshot! for Columbia at a local con this weekend, picked up one of DVG's iterations of "Down in Flames" as well as "King of New York" on ding-n-dent, and I've got to come home to THIS?

Ordered immediately...

VIVE L'EMPEREUR!

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

Nefaro · January 19, 2015, 06:19:43 PM

"Joinnnn Usssssss.."

(In my best Chaos Cultist voice)~~>

PanzersEast · January 20, 2015, 10:01:22 AM

Quote from: Cyrano on January 19, 2015, 04:53:42 PM
You...you...f-ers...

Like I need another game I won't play.

Ran games of Slapshot! for Columbia at a local con this weekend, picked up one of DVG's iterations of "Down in Flames" as well as "King of New York" on ding-n-dent, and I've got to come home to THIS?

Ordered immediately...

VIVE L'EMPEREUR!

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

BanzaiCat · January 20, 2015, 10:23:16 AM

I was trying to decide between Fortune and Glory and Shadows of Brimstone: City of Ancients...Nefaro's posts before the holidays pushed me to the latter but the former looks rather cool. I watched Table Top's video of the game, it looked like a LOT of fun. But Shadows of Brimstone...I've glued the minis together but have YET to play it. What else is new.

PanzersEast · January 20, 2015, 11:41:33 AM

I have not picked up Shadows of Brimstone as of yet.... but Fortune and Glory is a real blast to play, and I have not introduced the expansions yet and there is a lot of user created content (I am looking at doing my own Indiana Jones Expansion). Believe or not, I still have A Touch of Evil + expansions to play as well so that one is going in.

I purchased Boots on the Ground on clearance for $18.00 at Miniature Market.

Shadows of Malice and Legion of Honor are new ones I have not had a chance to open up, but looks rather good. I will post an AAR of Legion of Honor here soon as well.

PE

Nefaro · January 20, 2015, 12:43:33 PM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on January 20, 2015, 10:23:16 AM
I was trying to decide between Fortune and Glory and Shadows of Brimstone: City of Ancients...Nefaro's posts before the holidays pushed me to the latter but the former looks rather cool. I watched Table Top's video of the game, it looked like a LOT of fun. But Shadows of Brimstone...I've glued the minis together but have YET to play it. What else is new.

I think they're both good, in slightly different ways. Having enjoyed the old Warhammer Quest, Shadows Of Brimstone was a no-brainer for me. I'm a sucker for dungeon crawlers and RPG-Lite Phatlootz.

After gluing together both core sets of SoBS and painting a few figs, I was also a bit burned on the thing and only did one short game, with no gates to the other dimensions. Assembling those minis put me in a bit of a sour mood about it at the time, because some of them were poorly fitted and I was disappointed with the fine details on many. I can tell the gameplay is fun and I haven't even experienced all it's facets yet. Just decided to take a break after all the hours spent assembling, trimming, and painting. I have yet more trimming, puttying, and painting to do, if I want to improve the look further. Shit's big. ;D

Similar to SoBS, there is a user-created solitaire variant for Descent 2nd Edition that uses cards to control the keeper. It looks good. I plan on printing out the cards & such to give it a go eventually. Probably after revisiting SoBS. But I even had fun doing regular Descent solo. The presistent characters in SoBS reminded me of it. The custom dice and varied player powers are the biggest draw for me. It doesn't hurt that there is a ton of relatively affordable expansions with many nicely detailed minis available for it. For that reason, I haven't planned on picking up the Star Wars version anytime soon.

I have yet to play Fortune and Glory for the first time. Want the Crimson Hand expansion, I should remember to add it to any future CSI order. F&G really just reminds me of Arkham/Eldritch Horror with an Indiana Jones theme and FFG's mechanics from A Touch Of Evil. Not a bad thing, but I feel like I'm already familiar with how the game plays due to enjoying AToE so no hurry.

I should be getting Dead Of Winter in today and Legion of Honor around Thursday. My tabletop gaming overload resembles my PC one. I need to start thinking about selling or trading off a few of my less played ones.

BanzaiCat · January 20, 2015, 12:46:17 PM

When I saw the Table Top play of Fortune and Glory I knew I'd love it when Wil Wheaton felt the need to have a disclaimer at the beginning of the game, sorta apologizing for the swastikas. It's not that I like Nazi symbology, but I do admire their balls for publishing it. :)

Nefaro · January 20, 2015, 12:48:39 PM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on January 20, 2015, 12:46:17 PM
When I saw the Table Top play of Fortune and Glory I knew I'd love it when Wil Wheaton felt the need to have a disclaimer at the beginning of the game, sorta apologizing for the swastikas. It's not that I like Nazi symbology, but I do admire their balls for publishing it. :)

I did LOL when they ridiculed Felicia Day for rolling the Nazi invasion of England.