What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Astroking112]

I got Bloodborne: The Card Game from Amazon what feels like a year ago, and it feels very mechanically satisfying. The game really shines with a full five players, when everyone is secretly making decisions and figuring out how to maximize their points without getting themselves killed.

Players have to work together to kill a randomized set of monsters and then a final boss that has some unique gimmick to change how the entire game is played (such as reducing the maximum health cap, replacing monsters that aren't killed, or buffing all enemies), but the game can still be slightly competitive for points. It's led to some great stories, mostly of me deciding to kill the entire group with a cannon instead of killing the boss with them because it would be better for me.

I will say that the game has a serious lack of variety that becomes apparent by the end of the second playthrough, though. There are only seven minibosses, of which three are used every game, so we often see the same monsters pop up, and we rarely finish a game without seeing every upgrade/attack card in the deck at some point.

Thankfully, the upcoming The Hunter's Nightmare expansion is looking to remedy this, but it's still worth mentioning for those looking to get the game. I still highly recommend it to anyone who's enjoyed Bloodborne, though!

[chas]

Setting up for our first ever 5 Player game of Star Trek Ascendancy on Dec. 23, a day before my birthday. By then I'll have The Borg Assimilation expansion, extra ship/control node packs, and even a new outer space player mat. Sherman Davies and Tablewalker will be there, and I'll get to meet TWs son for the first time, as he'll be up from where he lives in Florida.

I'll also be getting the Cry Havoc Aftermath expansion and Pendragon (new GMT COIN series) this month.

Just played a good game of Fire & Axe, and then Corto. Both were enjoyed by the group. Yesterday a long game of the Tricorne scenario Monmouth, which eventually turned into an exciting point game! Lots of fun. Heroscape is coming up Saturday with a fourth new player to fill in for Kolakoski, who is away on vacation this month. Also expect to play our annual Firefly game this month with a pal from NJ who comes to visit. My Canadian pal will be here Christmas week and we'll be gaming our brains out with lots of other stuff. Good times!

***Happy Holdiays to All***

[TREX]

Played imperial assault without a grid on my 4x4 battlefield board. We had 5 players playing skirmish in a free for all. We placed start zones in a pentagon fashion. We used 2 inches per move/range value. Los rules were true line of sight giving cover defense bonuses to the defending figure. It was an epic game. Played to a 40 vp total with the standard rules for skirmish play. We didnt use additional objectives this game but will in future games. This was a great format for skirmish. With the new app for campaign play this game is quite a win.

[Hahma]

Good stuff Trex. It looked fun from the pictures you shared on FB.

[chas]

My new holiday toys have begun to arrive, with the advent of the Cry Havoc Aftermath expansion, and the enhancement packs and official player mat for Star Trek Ascendancy. I also received the Boardgamegeek Store's brand new set of 12 Bit Bowls, a zippy new design which allows you to make up containers from 6" square sheets of silicon to organize small game components on your table.

Had a great day of gaming with my new Heroscape Glyph rules. To check them out and read about our adventures yesterday, you can now click below on my very first site signature, which is a link to our group thread for The New York City Gang of Four, created for this low tech old school old timer by Sherman Davies. Thanks, Sherm! Here you can see the longest running group Scaping thread on the site (as far as I know), featuring many exciting ideas, custom scenarios, session reports, and auxiliary rules for Heroscape itself, since we've been playing together now for almost ten years!

Sherm and I finished up a day of Scaping with a play of Commands and Colors Tricorne. Following one of the greatest triumphs of my entire Scape career, I went down to a miserable American Revolutionary defeat during my 32nd play of this new design by Richard Borg. But hey, you want the British to lose, right?

[Hahma]

My nephew Tyler came home from college (Purdue) for Christmas break and we were able to get in a game of The Walking Dead All Out War. His first time playing and my first time playing 1v1.(previously played 2v2, 4 player co-op and solo). Very fun and Tyler liked it a lot.

I also taught him Concordia, which he also liked a lot.

I plan on bringing his game that he designed, called Cube Hog, to game night tomorrow night, and hope to get it played. He and his business partner (who is on Christmas break back in Belgium, where he's from) are kickstarting their game in March.

[japes]

Originally Posted by Hahma

My nephew Tyler came home from college (Purdue) for Christmas break and we were able to get in a game of The Walking Dead All Out War. His first time playing and my first time playing 1v1.(previously played 2v2, 4 player co-op and solo). Very fun and Tyler liked it a lot.

Just curious...is it a true co-op or does someone have to play the other side?

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by japes

Just curious...is it a true co-op or does someone have to play the other side?

TLDR: Yes, it's a true co-op when you want to play it as such. You have to come up with your own scenario with a mission or objective to accomplish, but it's very easy to do. There is a neat AI system to control the Walkers, who will be what you have to deal with in order to accomplish the objective/mission. It doesn't seem to be specifically designed as a Co-op game, but it is designed to be either vs or Solo, whereby the Solo gameplay is basically the same as you would play co-op.

This is an interesting game system actually. When I first saw this game played on Beasts of War awhile back, it was as a 1v1 game, like the one I played against Tyler today. In this version, both players agree to a point limit for their group. This point limit is for the total of the character cost as well as any equipment cards you choose to give them. For example: our point limit per side was 150 points. One side had 97 points in characters and maybe just shy of 150 when equipment cards were added. The other side had 99 points in characters and just shy of 150 when adding equipment cards. Kind of like X-Wing in that regard. Then you would place a supply token in dead center of the play area, and one on each car because it's a supply hub. So that's 5 so far, and 4 remaining, with each player placing 2 of them and not within 2 inches of another one. Then a walker is placed adjacent to each supply token and any remaining are placed in the walker zone but not within 2 inches of another one. You can't place terrain pieces, cars, supply tokens within 5 inches of either player edge. They are placed in that space between called the walker zone. There is 1 walker for each 15 point game it is. This was a 150 point game (based on limit per side), so there were 10 walkers in play at the start of the game. This type of play had it so that the player in control of 7 of the 9 supply tokens at the end of the round wins. By being in control, it means that you have searched the token on the board as an action and place the token on that character's card and draw a supply card to see what it was, if anything. If a character dies, any supply tokens are dropped and are free to be searched again and taken by the other player.

Okay, so that is what I had expected this to be, and the first time I played it at a game store it was 2v2 and in a similar manner as above. Each player on a team controlled 2 characters in this game, to keep it quicker and easier. This was taught to us by someone wanting to demo it at a convention in this manner.

So when I got the game, the core set rulebook only had 1 scenario in it, and it was the generic 1v1 version that Tyler and I played. Though it has different rules for terrain pieces worth points for being chosen and some other stuff, as if it were in a tournament setting.

When I got the Days Gone By expansion, it had 6 scenarios in it. And I was surprised to see that 5 of them were solo. This though, was following the storyline from the comics. So in the first one you would have Rick, Morgan and Duane starting from one corner of the map and having to cross through the walkers to break into the police station in the opposite corner. The next 4 were similar in being solo, but having bigger amounts of characters and some spread in different places on the board. The final scenario was 1v1 with Rick and Shane having a showdown.

So here's the thing. When not palying 1v1 or solo, you can play co-op pretty much as you would play it solo, though playing solo you advance the threat level by 1 automatically at the end of each round, because of solo rules. But basically, the walkers are controlled by a really good AI system that is clever and easy. There are event cards that also can affect the walkers and it's very easy to work. There are some event cards that you can use to affect other players in a sense because some allow for movement of walkers or more entering play. So when playing a vs. game, you would use that to hurt the opponent, but when playing solo or co-op, you would use those in your favor.

When playing co-op, you have to come up with your own scenario, but that's really easy, it's like playing solo in that regard. So come up with a certain mission or objective to accomplish that involves having to go through walker controlled area and you're golden. The rounds work in a way so that all characters act 1 at a time until all have acted with their 2 actions each. Then you see if you have any of your figures in the kill zone of any walkers (2 inch radius that they have a nice template for) and if there is, then the walker moves into base contact with that character. Then an event card is drawn and acted on. Then any figures that are in base to base with any enemies will have a melee with them. All melee happens in this phase and resolved one battle at a time. Then you roll to see if any prone walkers stand back up and then to see if any "bitten" characters get an extra wound from being bitten. Then you start back again with the action phase with characters taking actions.

[TREX]

Great stuff @Hahma . Could you add me to the walking dead group on fb. The one I joined only ended up being for the show and full of spoilers. I got bit by the starwars terrain bug after how epic that gridless starwars imperial assault skirmish was. I really got to get to walking dead all out war as well.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by TREX

Great stuff @Hahma . Could you add me to the walking dead group on fb. The one I joined only ended up being for the show and full of spoilers. I got bit by the starwars terrain bug after how epic that gridless starwars imperial assault skirmish was. I really got to get to walking dead all out war as well.

I just added you Trex. Sadly though, it's not as active as the Star Wars Legion terrain one or the Frostgrave ones. But if you join and add more stuff to it, then that will help it grow. I think there are lurkers looking on, but maybe waiting to add their stuff.

[TREX]

Did. I got a bit "like" happy and youve posted alot on there. So sorry for that.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by chas

I also received the Boardgamegeek Store's brand new set of 12 Bit Bowels

Eww.