M.A.R.S. at Mechanicon Multi-Day NHSD Event: Updated

[mad_wookiee]

Originally Posted by grunttactics

This sounds like a great event. My personal preference is to minimize glyph usage. What do you need in terms of volunteer work?

I"m not sure yet - I'll know more as we get closer to the event. Right now, I have two priorities: getting all of our info up on the Mechanicon site, and drumming up some prize support. We should be able to get NHSD support but I'd love to blow this thing out of the water with sheer awesome. Then we need to start generating buzz on the site for the event - some of the OH guys have already chimed in, which ROCKS, and I'd love to hear from the NY folks about joining us.

[Dad_Scaper]

I already PMed JohnGee, but what the heck, I'll summarize what I wrote him here:

I wouldn't recommend Dominion for him personally. My guess is he likes games with strong theme, and that's not one. I am also perhaps betraying my own preference for Thunderstone here, though my objection to Dominion - I find it unforgiving with relatively few decent options at any one time, similar to chess that way - might not be his.

Monsterpocalypse I don't know but I think I've read (one of you guys confirm or deny, please) it's *not* cheap to get into that hobby.

Battleship Galaxies and Summoner Wars are both 2 player games, with Battleship Galaxies being, at the moment, stand alone, with minis, and SW frequently compared to 'Scape but faster setup and cleanup time. Also SW is a more fully developed game.

Thunderstone might be the right one if he's looking for something theme-heavy; it's a fun deck builder. It can take a long time, but it also accommodates 3 or 4 players easily, which is, I suspect, important to this particular gamer.

[mad_wookiee]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Monsterpocalypse I don't know but I think I've read (one of you guys confirm or deny, please) it's *not* cheap to get into that hobby.

The 2-player battle box is a steal at $50. It's perfectly playable out of the box - you don't need anything else. But you'll want everything else. It depends on whether your self control is greater than your desire for more stuff.

[Arcus]

Originally Posted by spidysox

Love the formats, but 400 pts. for general wars seems a little slim to me. I'm a fan of the 500pt ones, but I understand keeping it changed up if that is what you were thinking.

I like the 400pt total. It doesn't completely cut out the cheese armies, but it should make for quick matches.

I do not perfer glyphs to begin with, but after GenCon I'd rather never see a glyph again in my life.

[grunttactics]

Originally Posted by Arcus

I like the 400pt total. It doesn't completely cut out the cheese armies, but it should make for quick matches.

I do not perfer glyphs to begin with, but after GenCon I'd rather never see a glyph again in my life.

I hate glyphs too! And was not even at GenCon!

[mad_wookiee]

Two links from the Mechanicon site:
Main article
Registration link

[Johngee]

Originally Posted by Johngee

@ Everyone ~ Being a little tight on cash... I've been avoiding picking up any new "collectible" or "expanding" board games, but if I have any money left after GenCon, which ONE would you reccomend and why... ?
1. Monster-pocalypse (MonPoc)
2. Summoner Wars
3. Battleship Galaxies
4. Dominion
5. Thunderstone
6. The [new] Lord of the Rings [Living] Card Game
7. Sumtingelse

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

I already PMed JohnGee, but what the heck, I'll summarize what I wrote him here:

I wouldn't recommend Dominion for him personally. My guess is he likes games with strong theme, and that's not one. I am also perhaps betraying my own preference for Thunderstone here, though my objection to Dominion - I find it unforgiving with relatively few decent options at any one time, similar to chess that way - might not be his.

Monsterpocalypse I don't know but I think I've read (one of you guys confirm or deny, please) it's *not* cheap to get into that hobby.

Battleship Galaxies and Summoner Wars are both 2 player games, with Battleship Galaxies being, at the moment, stand alone, with minis, and SW frequently compared to 'Scape but faster setup and cleanup time. Also SW is a more fully developed game.

Thunderstone might be the right one if he's looking for something theme-heavy; it's a fun deck builder. It can take a long time, but it also accommodates 3 or 4 players easily, which is, I suspect, important to this particular gamer.

Thanks Dad_Scaper for the informative comments. Yes indeed THEME is very important to me when selecting board games... along with quality of construction, learning curve, re-play-ability, price, but mostly will it appeal to my local group of family and friends - because even if I LOVE IT - if they don't, then it will just be another dust collector in my closet.

I've realized that I already have a Living Card Game in "Race for the Galaxy" that's not being used and even though my preference would be to swap it for the new "Lord of the Rings Card Game" I know that I will only get to play it when I'm at a Gaming Event where other LotR fans will have their own copy of it available. So I don't NEED to own it.

The same hold true for "Dominion" and "Thunderstone" and "Warriors" and unfortunately also "Summoner Wars." I'd be willing to learn and play all of these games occassionally, BUT the local group I'm with most often are still content to play "Settlers of Catan," "Carcassonne," "Apples-to-Apples," and "Dominoes." I had to twist arms a few weeks ago to get them to try "Stone Age" and "Ticket-to-Ride." At GenCon I picked up "Railways of the World" and "Conquest of the Empire" at what I thought were great prices, but it looks like I may be playing both of them in the solitaire mode.

I did see several "MonsterPocalyspe" on eBay yesterday for under $20, so I might pick up a starter set just to try and have available as something different and unusual, but I have sufficient will power to resist collecting anything more than a few items from the clearance rack.

My attention has now turned to a long term consideration: What shall I get myself (or ask Santa to place under my tree) for Christmas? At GenCon I was really impressed with the several Outer Space tactical games with flying vehicles that are available or soon to be released to the public. But I'm torn between which one would be the right one or me, since I did NOT get to play any of them - I only watch portions of demo's.

#1. War Rocket - it looked really cool on the table, probably because I'm an old Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon fan and could relate to the traditional space ship and flying saucer designs, but as soon as I heard that they are sold as white metal kits that must be assembled and PAINTED (aaarrgh!) it was a total turn off.

#2. StarWars Miniatures Starship Battles - yeah the theme is there (the grandsons love SW), and it looks cool, but it is out of print, unavailable, and would be a nightmare to begin now starting a collection, even though those nice young men at GenCon swore that they were going to single handedly revive the game with custom cards and errata fixes for the inherent problems. It's best I leave this one alone.

#3. Battleship Galaxies - Hmm, I'd love to support our own Craig Van Ness and the design team, but I have to be practical. If I can only afford one game at a time, why should it be this one? The jury is still out - everyone says that it's FUN, but it needs expansions to be FUNNER. And typical of Hasborg it may be over simplified to accomdate the "target audience." But I love the pegs in the base concept to track the defensive shield strength and damages, very visual. I'm glad they didn't drill little peg holes directly into the ships for that purpose.

#4. Star Trek FLEET CAPTAINS (not the new S.T. EXPEDITIONS game) - The WizKids' rep at GenCon said it would be available this fall. With 12 ships that have familiar shapes, and character names that are household words, the theme is definitely there. But from what I saw - it may be quite complex with lots of cards for various actions, and lots of bits for keeping track of energy resources and damage, etc. One interesting feature was when you come out of WARP'ddrive you land on a black hexagon tile about the size of those in Settlers of Catan, then it is flipped over to reveal a randonized effect, i.e. you could be right in the middle of a Quasar or Asteroid field, which will then affect your tactical situation. However at $100.oo, I think I'd rather buy two of the Battleship Galaxies to enable four player scenarioes.

#5. Leviathans (the Monsters In The Sky) - WOW... this game looks awesome and two of our MARS members (TOM & Fallow) are hooked on it. The ships are huge in comparison to any of the others and I've been told that the mechanics are straight forward and easy to learn. Catalyst Labs is putting a lot of effort into this one and it should catch on. But do I need to jump in head first and collect entire fleets of ships for ALL of the factions (English, French, German, Italian, Russian, & Japanese) as they are released, or hold back for now and only get one set of my own to bring to tournaments when that eventually happens? I'm not quite sure that I can get over the "1910 Altered Universe 'Steam Punk'" theme though - it reminds me of the crazy "Wild, Wild West" and Jules Verne's ...more Science-Fantasy than Science-Fiction.

#6. Oh yeah that "Sump-Ting-Else" - might be the "Lord of the Ring" HeroClix set that is also by WizKids and due out this Fall. With Peter Jackson working overtime to get his version of Tolkien's "The Hobbit" out of production and into theaters in the 'near' (not too distant) future, this might revitalize all things Middle-Earthish and Medieval-fantasyish. Besides I already own about a thousand pre-painted, 28mm, LotR miniatures from the SaberTooth Games Combat Hex system, which should be compatible.

Decisions, decisions...??? What to do, what to do...??? The voice inside my head says, "Patience mee preciousss, in due time we'lls figures it all out and eventuallies makes a spontaneous purchase, because we wants it."

[mad_wookiee]

Can we start a running attendance list? We'll need to show that in order to get the best prize support that we can. Preferrably, I'd like to see who's planning on being there for what days.

Tom and I are discussing maps right now too and should have a preliminary list up in the next few days.

Friday:
mad_wookiee
Jay

Saturday:
mad_wookiee
Jay

Sunday:
mad_wookiee
Jay

[Dad_Scaper]

Put KidScaper and me down for both Saturday events, MW. Any chance the General Wars will be able to reward best of each general somehow?

I'm sure it's too early to tell, but inquiring minds...

[mad_wookiee]

Not sure yet - it's a great idea though. I'm working on prize support as we speak.


Current list (I'm adding what I can from memory, please correct if I'm wrong):

Friday:
mad_wookiee
Jay
tom
Northgate
Justine
Mason

Saturday:
mad_wookiee
Jay
Dad_scaper
Kidscaper
tom
Northgate
Justine
Mason
clancampbell
spidysox

Sunday:
mad_wookiee
Jay
tom
Northgate
Justine
clancampbell
Mason


I know there were a few other folks who said they'd be attending but I'm not sure what days you were planning.

[Johngee]

M_W ~

Put me down as a definite for all three days, I'm planning to be there.

[tom]

Originally Posted by mad_wookiee

Can we start a running attendance list? We'll need to show that in order to get the best prize support that we can. Preferrably, I'd like to see who's planning on being there for what days.

Just to confirm, I will be there for all three days. I think Arcus is also planning on attending all three days, but he will have to confirm that. I will also be bringing a few extra games along for some after hours gaming! This event is going to be great.

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Put KidScaper and me down for both Saturday events, MW. Any chance the General Wars will be able to reward best of each general somehow?

I'm sure it's too early to tell, but inquiring minds...

I really like the idea of rewarding the top contenders from each general. Otherwise I doubt we will see Ullar represented at all. My only concern with this approach would be if someone were to be the only player to show up with an Ullar army and "win" without even playing a game. Maybe each general who has three or more players representing them would be eligible for their own prize. Any faction with less than three armies representing it could be grouped into a miscellaneous catagory.