The NEW New Boardgames Thread

[Syt]

Monster Island

Is it just a name and actually a peninsula?

[Tamas]

I am hoping to try the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Rise of the Runelords Core Set this weekend.

At a cursory glance and a quick test game in which I died rolling badly with my d8s, it seems like a very well done conversion of RPG (the moving around killing monsters and overcoming obstacles part at least) into a card game.

It has some deck building elements to it, although less profound than a proper deck builder, and you build your deck over the course of several scenarios as your character advances. And your deck is basically a big common pile of your items, spells, weapons, armor, allies etc, AND your deck is basically your hitpoints: if you run out of your deck, you die.
Most cards give you a basic little bonus just by showing them and keeping them in your hand, but they give a more significant bonus if you discard them, in exchange damaging you in effect. And if you get damage you discard cards.

[The Brain]

Monster Island

Is it just a name and actually a peninsula?

It's the name of a book.

[celedhring]

I am hoping to try the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Rise of the Runelords Core Set this weekend.

At a cursory glance and a quick test game in which I died rolling badly with my d8s, it seems like a very well done conversion of RPG (the moving around killing monsters and overcoming obstacles part at least) into a card game.

It has some deck building elements to it, although less profound than a proper deck builder, and you build your deck over the course of several scenarios as your character advances. And your deck is basically a big common pile of your items, spells, weapons, armor, allies etc, AND your deck is basically your hitpoints: if you run out of your deck, you die.
Most cards give you a basic little bonus just by showing them and keeping them in your hand, but they give a more significant bonus if you discard them, in exchange damaging you in effect. And if you get damage you discard cards.

I love the basic mechanics of the game and the whole "keep your character and improve it through several games" RPG aspect of it, which is something deckbuilding games rarely do. However, the scenario design is pretty dull and we found it repetitive at the end. Every game is just about cornering the overlord, with only the difficulty of it changing up via the cards you encounter. Only one mission in three or four changes up things a little, so it got old pretty quick for us. However, if they experiment with objectives a little in future expansions I will get them without a doubt.

[Tamas]

I am hoping to try the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Rise of the Runelords Core Set this weekend.

At a cursory glance and a quick test game in which I died rolling badly with my d8s, it seems like a very well done conversion of RPG (the moving around killing monsters and overcoming obstacles part at least) into a card game.

It has some deck building elements to it, although less profound than a proper deck builder, and you build your deck over the course of several scenarios as your character advances. And your deck is basically a big common pile of your items, spells, weapons, armor, allies etc, AND your deck is basically your hitpoints: if you run out of your deck, you die.
Most cards give you a basic little bonus just by showing them and keeping them in your hand, but they give a more significant bonus if you discard them, in exchange damaging you in effect. And if you get damage you discard cards.

I love the basic mechanics of the game and the whole "keep your character and improve it through several games" RPG aspect of it, which is something deckbuilding games rarely do. However, the scenario design is pretty dull and we found it repetitive at the end. Every game is just about cornering the overlord, with only the difficulty of it changing up via the cards you encounter. Only one mission in three or four changes up things a little, so it got old pretty quick for us. However, if they experiment with objectives a little in future expansions I will get them without a doubt.

Yeah I know thats a complaint and was my worry. One of the things I will try if it starts getting stale is using a variant where you limit the locations you can visit, so kind of making a map out of them on which you walk around, instead of jumping around.

[celedhring]

Played Dead of Winter yesterday. It's a really well done zombie survival game, with a "traitor" and hidden objective mechanics ala Battlestar Galactica (one of my favorite boardgames). It has some fun ideas and mechanics, and conveys the whole survival part better than other zombie games I have played; you need food, keep your base clean, protect it from attacking zombies... in addition to venturing out to scavenge and advance mission objectives. The mission we played (obtain 12 zombie samples for a vaccine), ended up being too easy though. The game recommends this mission for your first play, so I assume it's a bit of a "tutorial" before getting to the real stuff. We'll play this again soon.

Crossroads cards are really fun when they trigger.

[Syt]

Played Dead of Winter yesterday.

Someone's watched the last Table Top episode.

[Habbaku]

I've played it ~20 times.  It's good times. 

My group defaults to the red (harder) side of the objective cards every time now.

[Tamas]

anyone knows anything about this?

http://compassgames.com/index.php/preorders/balance-of-powers-7/balance-of-powers.html

[CountDeMoney]

anyone knows anything about this?

http://compassgames.com/index.php/preorders/balance-of-powers-7/balance-of-powers.html

Just a little too early in production for it;  although the Compass Games page has his draft of the rule book.  Infantry is corp level.  Big.

[CountDeMoney]

Or not.

Design Note: Unit sizes vary based on type and theater.  While referred to as "corps" for all game purposes, AF, tank, and siege units are actually battalions of 500-1,000 men with 50-250 machines.  True corps have 25,000 troops (infantry) or 8,000 mounted troopers (cavalry).  Fortresses include about 12,000 men.  Naval units represent squadrons of 4-12 vessels per unit (vessels per piece are: BB-4, CC-6, SS-12) with again as many "built-in" destroyers for surface ships.  Air units include about 50 fighters or 12 bombers per step. 

Naval combat looks fiddly.  Then again, their example in the rule book is Jutland. 

[CountDeMoney]

Cold Wars convention is coming up this weekend;  saw an entry for Friday that's right up Languish's alley--

F-114 - Zulus vs the Civil War- Theme Game
Fri. 10:00 AM, 4 hrs, 8 players
GM: David Kasper and NOWS
American Civil War 28mm, Rules: LAWS of War

The Zulus, tired of being slaves, decide to attack all foreigners.
They capture a large fleet of slave vessels and land in South Carolina with a large impi. Slaves and black soldiers swell their ranks. The Confederacy and Union cease all hostilities and unite to repel the onslaught. Sherman and Johnston send in their troops to stop Mpande and the Zulus.

[Tamas]

anyone knows anything about this?

http://compassgames.com/index.php/preorders/balance-of-powers-7/balance-of-powers.html

Just a little too early in production for it;  although the Compass Games page has his draft of the rule book.  Infantry is corp level.  Big.

I am very tempted to preorder and then have a vassal game going eventually. Diplomacy via bargaining chips you get due to the territory of your enemies becoming available to you to promise away sounds quite interesting: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1230510/balancing-act

[CountDeMoney]

Look at Compass's website again; they just announced a 2nd strategic WW1 game.

[dps]

Look at Compass's website again; they just announced a 2nd strategic WW1 game.

It's called Fatal Alliances and it's a WWI version of WiF?  Did they license this, or are they about to get sued by ADG?