What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by quozl

We've been running through the scenarios in Earth Reborn. They add a little more rules in each scenario. This past scenario has LoS and interruption rules. Really cool how it works as you need to hide from figures if you don't want them trying to interrupt your turn and come over and attack you.

Next scenario we get to learn equipment and shooting!

I had Earth Reborn for a while but sold it. I liked it for sure and it was cool how you learned more and more stuff as you went, and there is a lot of stuff to learn. But after awhile, my nephew got too busy with school and work and it was hard to get to play this much. It's one that you really want to have the same partner to play against because you learn the game together. I just didn't see anyone in my group being committed to going through the paces to learn this so I sold it.

Lots of neat ideas for sure and I liked how facing of the figures mattered. Cool game that I wish I had someone that would want to play the heck out of it with me.

[quozl]

Yeah, that's the main advantage of having a regular gaming partner. There's a ton to learn and it's not one to just slap on the table and say, "Hey, anybody want to learn this?"

[rudyvalentine]

Originally Posted by 1Mmirg

Specter Ops - definitely enjoyed this one. If you like hidden movement games, this is great. It's different from others, because it adds in some combat and special powers that make it feel over interactive and less of just a guessing game. It's on the wishlist (if only my wife/daughter had liked it more...).

I really have enjoyed Spector Ops but can relate to that last line @1Mmirg . My immediate family is not as taken by it as I am. As much as I enjoy the deduction and guessing, they get frustrated. I've still got to play it a half dozen times and will get it out with them here and there, but I'm looking forward to trying this out with some friends I think will enjoy it.

The buzz developing around Arena of the Planeswalkers has me curious, and at $30 it's hard to resist, but for as much as actual HeroScape hits my table, I don't know if I can justify it. It could all but kill original scape in my collection.

[Hahma]

This morning I played a solo game of Conquest of Planet Earth: The Space Alien Game, with its expansion Conquest of Planet Earth: Apocalypse.

I've been wanting to get this game back to the table for awhile but it's just been put on the back burner for one reason or another. The game is by Jason Hill of Flying Frog Games, who also did Shadows of Brimstone, Last Night on Earth, Fortune and Glory and A Touch of Evil.

Conquest of Planet Earth can be played competitively or as a co-op game. I had heard that the competitive gameplay isn't all that great, but the co-op is really good, and allows for solo play where you can play as one or more Alien races. I have played it with others and they liked it, but today, I just played with 2 Alien races.

The game is set in the 50's and is about Aliens coming to Earth to destroy it. The theme is very strong and that goes well with those campy 50's alien invasion movies.

There are a lot of alien races to choose from and each has its own unique abilities, strength (for combat value) and intelligence (for hand-size of event cards to play). Each player also gets 4 spaceships of their color and conquest tokens in their color. There is a central board that has 6 locations surrounding the central location spot that has the Capital location, and each player has a similar board that butts up to the central board, but in place of the location in the center of it, that's where your spaceships deploy from.

At the beginning of the aliens turn, you roll d6 for each player to determine action points for that turn. It cost 1 action point to move 1 space with your spaceship for example, or 2 ap's to collect a token to be used to pay for certain abilities, or X ap's to pay the cost of some event cards.

Then one player does all their actions and if they land on a blank space they draw a location card for it that tells how many resistance (humans) battles you must face, as well as the terror value of that location. To win you must conquer and hold 8 terror points worth for each player playing, so 16 points for a 2 player(alien) game. During battle phase you draw a resistance card that tells you the unit and battle value of that unit, it may be tanks, soldiers, marines, navy ships for coastal locations and many more types. There are also heroes that boost the attack and make you draw another card to get a regular resistance unit. You add up combat values and roll the dice. If you win that battle, you fight any other battles that are there, or if that's the only or last battle, then you put your conquest token there and gain those terror points. If you lose, one of your spaceships is removed from the board (you can bring them back to your launching space for 1 ap each). You can choose to fight again with the remaining spaceships or escape to a valid adjacent location. If you don't defeat all battles at a location, the next time you go there you have to fight all of them over, with new resistance cards drawn.

You can play event cards to mitigate battles and do lots of neat things. There are also Space Stuff cards you can get that are neat alien tech that can help. There are also cool allies you can get (both card and matching mini) that can help a lot and care really neat.

There is a round track that moves up at the end of each round during the resistance phase. If it gets to 10 you lose because the humans have created a super canon at that point to destroy you easily. During each resistance phase, you draw a resistance event card that is usually pretty bad for you. You also roll to see if the humans get to draw a Human Tech card that is also bad for you. They get better chances to get these the longer the game goes. Every other round brings out resistance tokens that represent resistance units like tanks, fighter planes, soldiers, canons, helicopters etc. One is placed randomly on each player board in a random location there. They force you to fight them in addition to regular resistance if at the same place. Some of them have abilities to move during the resistance phase and that's a pain. Many of the resistance units, both cards and tokens have special abilities that can be tough. Also during the resistance phase, you check to see if a location is liberated. If there is a resistance token there and no alien ships, then you can remove a conquest token from it and the aliens (players) lose those terror points they earned and have to go back and retake it if they want those points.

I really like this game because it's got a fun theme and it plays full of that theme. It's a neat idea to be playing as the aliens trying to conquer earth, instead of as the humans trying to stop the aliens. The action points available each round for each player is pretty random, but there are ways to mitigate that sometimes as there are event cards that can be played to give you more action points for that round if you want. I like the idea of variable alien races that are each different, as well as being able to get some cool alien tech or alien boss type allies to help out. When you lose a battle, you only lose one ship from that location and can continue or escape. Ships just cost 1 ap to bring back to launching space, so it's not too crippling to lose, and there are event cards that allow for bringing ships back for free.

The Apocalypse expansion adds more of everything, including 2 more player boards and sets of player pieces for a max of 6 player game. It also brings 4 more allies and their minis to be usable. The main thing it adds as well are coastal locations that can bring water based resistance units such as marines, navy seals, navy ships, new heroes and more.

I was lucky to get this game at a good price from a local FLGS when they had a nice sale a couple years ago. I got the base game for only $20 and the expansion for only $15. So for $35 total, I got a great deal on a cool game.

The only downside to me was that in the expansion, the player boards were a little warped.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Conquest of Planet Earth: Apocalypse [...]

The only downside to me was that in the expansion, the player boards were a little warped.

I just got the expansion about a month ago (for $5!) and it came with warped boards. A quick polite e-mail to FFP with some photos, and I now have new non-warped boards.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Jim

I just got the expansion about a month ago (for $5!) and it came with warped boards. A quick polite e-mail to FFP with some photos, and I now have new non-warped boards.

Wow, that's awesome Jim, and an awesome price too!

[Gurei-Ornery]

Had a mini-game day yesterday at the shop with my kids and a couple of their friends. We played Compounded, Boss Monster 2, X-Wing, Force of Will, and a couple of them played some Magic at the end. Fun time.

[IAmBatman]

Conquest Planet Earth is a game I got recently for my birthday (well, back in May!), but it hasn't seen the table yet. My group really enjoys co-op games, though, and took to Fortune and Glory, so I'm confident they'll like it when I do bring it to them! (Should probably try a few solo plays first, though). Now I wish I had the expansion, though, so six could play ....

[Cavalier]

Played a 6 player mad dash game of Dungeon Run, in my opinion, an under-appreciated offering from the PHG catalog.

[1Mmirg]

Originally Posted by rudyvalentine

I really have enjoyed Spector Ops but can relate to that last line @1Mmirg . My immediate family is not as taken by it as I am. As much as I enjoy the deduction and guessing, they get frustrated. I've still got to play it a half dozen times and will get it out with them here and there, but I'm looking forward to trying this out with some friends I think will enjoy it.

The buzz developing around Arena of the Planeswalkers has me curious, and at $30 it's hard to resist, but for as much as actual HeroScape hits my table, I don't know if I can justify it. It could all but kill original scape in my collection.

I love that Arena allows me to pull out Heroscape terrain again (though not needing as much of it). And I love playing with the Heroscape mechanics again, but with the twist of card play added in.

My next game we're going to try bringing in some Scape units alongside the Planeswalkers (not as units that can be summoned, like the ones in the game, but as starting units, each side having an equal number).

You're right that it could eclipse Scape, but for now I'm having too much fun playing with CVN's new stuff to worry about that. We'll see if I regret the choice later.

Originally Posted by Cavalier

Played a 6 player mad dash game of Dungeon Run, in my opinion, an under-appreciated offering from the PHG catalog.

Great game. My son saw your post on FB and he said, We have to play that again, Dad!

--

This weekend we played Steam Park, X-Wing, Splendor, Star Realms, Last Night on Earth, and Galaxy Trucker. A great set of games.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Conquest Planet Earth is a game I got recently for my birthday (well, back in May!), but it hasn't seen the table yet. My group really enjoys co-op games, though, and took to Fortune and Glory, so I'm confident they'll like it when I do bring it to them! (Should probably try a few solo plays first, though). Now I wish I had the expansion, though, so six could play ....

It would be a good idea to play a solo game or two before bringing it to the group. Anytime I've played it solo I played it as a 2 player game, but solo and control 2 alien races.

For co-op play, you'll need to separate the event cards, because some of them have a red box of text at the bottom that are used for the resistance (human) events at the beginning of each resistance phase. Once separated, just keep them in a separate baggie from the other event cards that the aliens will be using. This will make setting up quicker each time.

If your group likes it, it would be worth getting the expansion becasue there are more cards, more allies and some water themed locations and a water/coastal themed resistance deck just for those locations. Adds more variety for sure, as well as some nasty naval ships that are a pain.

[A3n]

Club day on Sunday, played Eaten by Zombies!, 2 & 3 player game. Won the first & first to die in the second.

Then played 3 player Tiny Epic Kingdoms, came 2nd by 1 point.

Then played 3 player Dominant Species. Started that I had dominance in 5 areas to 1 & 0, so I was the immediate target. Then for the rest of the game my main element didn't get drawn out of the bag & in 1 turn one of the players managed to wipe out my main element from the earth except for on 1 corner. I trailed the whole game but got into 2nd place in the 2nd last round & in the last round came within 6 points of 1st place. There was a speciation move that I made around one element that had I chosen a different one it would've stopped the 1st place player from getting 5 points for the survival card & might have given me up to 2 points extra depending on the outcome of the war that would've occurred in those positions. Love close games especially when I can come from behind. Really is a great game, but sure takes a long time to play. With 3 players this took us about 4 1/2 hours.

Yesterday I received my KS Viceroy, but haven't had a chance to play it yet. Looking forward to the opportunity.