What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[IAmBatman]

A) I don't know if it has any expansions. I've only played with the base set and enjoy it just fine.
B) Its core mechanics are really quite simple, but I can't think of anything else just like it off the top of my head.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

A) I don't know if it has any expansions. I've only played with the base set and enjoy it just fine.

There are five smaller expansions. Each of them adds 20 or more new alien races. The first three each add an additional player, so it will accommodate up to eight players with those three expansions. There are also some smaller rules additions in each of them.

You can easily find the expansions for under $20 each online.

Expansion #1 Cosmic Incursion:


Expansion #2 Cosmic Conflict:


Expansion #3 Cosmic Alliance:


Expansion #4 Cosmic Storm:


Expansion #5 Cosmic Dominion:

[IAmBatman]

All of which makes it sound like the expansions could be fun but aren't really necessary to enjoy the game.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

All of which makes it sound like the expansions could be fun but aren't really necessary to enjoy the game.

Exactly. Unless you have more than five people who want to play at the same time.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

@Hahma That game looks amazing! Loved Pandemic Legacy! My friends and I just got a new copy and are about to play through it again. Have you played Risk Legacy? My friends love Risk and Axis & Allies, so I'm trying to look at it as a gift for one of them.

Also @IAmBatman , I've heard nothing but great things about Cosmic Encounter and the fact that both of you like it, has me seriously considering this. I have two questions for you both on this game: a)Does everything come with the one purchase or does it have expansions? b)I know this game is older, is there anything that's newer, prettier, and/or kinda replaces it via same theme and mechanics?

I haven't played Risk Legacy or Pandemic Legacy (didnt call dibs in time for either of the 2 games of it going on in my group ) But definitely wanted in on Seafall and barely got into the game, even though it won't start for another 6 months or so

Originally Posted by Jim

Exactly. Unless you have more than five people who want to play at the same time.

The more the merrier But probably best with at least 4, but 5 would be better.

[Arch-vile]

I've been playing through Pandemic: Legacy with my best friend. We just finished July and are loving it. SeaFall looks really interesting!

I also tried Ticket to Ride for the first time about a month ago. It was a hit with my friends (two had played it before, the rest had not), and we've played about 6-7 times since then. I picked up the 1910 expansion and was really happy with how it balanced the game.

[Johngee]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

Also @IAmBatman, I've heard nothing but great things about Cosmic Encounter and the fact that both of you like it, has me seriously considering this. I have two questions for you both on this game: a)Does everything come with the one purchase or does it have expansions? b)I know this game is older, is there anything that's newer, prettier, and/or kinda replaces it via same theme and mechanics?

@mad_wookiee brought Cosmic Encounter to our Eastern PA HeroScapers casual gaming day events several times and it was always a big hit. With the right group of players (people who don't get their feeling hurt too easily and then pout) it is Laugh Out Loud funny. I'll never forget M_D's explanation to @tom when he complained that several of the Alien Races special abilities are mechanically broken. He said that EVERY Alien Race's ability is ridiculously broken in some way, that that's exactly what makes it so much FUN.

[chas]

***MAJOR BORG NEWS AS OF YESTERDAY***

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea!"
--Walter Winchell radio opener, 1940's

GMT Announces Commands & Colors Napoleonics
Expansion 6: Epic Napoleonics
Now on P500 List for ordering!

In a bombshell yesterday, the GMT monthly update featured the unveiling of the much awaited and anticipated CCN Epic Expansion. It will actually feature two new game systems:

1. Epic Napoleonics: the expansion will feature two double sided boards so that pairs or teams of players can fight double board battles! These will use the two new card decks featured in Expansion 5 as well as other brand new elements, and over 100 new blocks.

2. La Grande Batailles: Want to create a super gigantic format? LGB allows you, using two sets of CCN and two expansions, to put four of the new boards together and go nuts. The new double sided boards will feature two different sizes; use the larger of the two for this option.

Although its not on the GMT production schedule yet, over 300 orders (including mine) have been counted on a single day of the 500 necessary to green light production. This one is a no-brainer, folks! Hopefully it will be added for late 2016 or early 2017. The expansion will feature new scenarios for all three formats: standard single board, EN, and LGB!

Its long been known that Richard Borg's favorite period is Napoleonics, and this was the first of his Commands & Colors games to be created. But he waited to give it further development while the C&C series was being produced for other periods by various companies. With all of the other Borg news this year, this is indeed the crowning glory of Borgness, Borgnicity, and Borgaliciousness.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled first playings of The Great War, his new WWI design, which is lots of fun, and already expecting its first expansion for KS backers this month.

[Johngee]

Originally Posted by chas

***MAJOR BORG NEWS AS OF YESTERDAY***
<~snip/snip~>
... With all of the other Borg news this year, this is indeed the crowning glory of Borgness, Borgnicity, and Borgaliciousness ...

Thanks @chas for adding to my lexicon of board gaming jargon (~~lol~~)

[chas]

Today will mark the sixth day in a row when I've played a board game(s), either face to face (mostly) or solitaire--a record, even for me. Yesterday four of us played Eclipse, the space empire building (4E) classic for the first time. Although I've played many games on this topic, this one had some unique ways of doing things. It took us a while to learn and play, but hey, for me that's the point of it all. The owner of the game (the guy who just organized the new local board game group) pulled way ahead of the rest of us: me, Taeblewalker and Sherman Davies. I came in third, but the rest of us were grouped very closely at the end. We will be glad to try it again, and there are certainly subtleties we don't have down yet. Plus we all played Humans, and so playing Alien races would be another add. I won the biggest space battle, although we spent most of our time as I predicted beating on the "Ancients" or neutrals (aka Barbarians). We played with he first expansion, which boosts their presence up quite a bit.

After leaving host Matt to walk his dog in the coldest NYC weather of 20 degrees and lower we've had so far this winter, we had dinner at my place and played Yashima, playing it correctly for the first time! I like it more, now that we understand the rules, and I actually won a game. Maybe I'll keep it after all, now that the mechanics make sense to us! Not only is there a learning curve, but the rules book could have used some more editing.

Today will be a scenario of my newest acquisition, The Great War. After two learning "hypothetical" scenarios which I've skipped, the rest are grouped around three battles: Loos 1915, The Somme 1916, and Vimy Ridge (Canadians) 1917. The five Loos battles I'm playing through right now include a British attack, a larger British attack, a German counter attack, a neutral game, and a final British attack.

The game starts out with countryside, wire, shell crater, and trenches, and then slowly adds more terrain: hills, buildings, building ruins, mine craters, and forests. Your off board Reserve Artillery can modify some terrain by damaging it during the game. In fact, each game varies the terrain at start with a pregame barrage, so replayability is high because of changing the terrain a bit at the beginning of each scenario (and for other reasons as well).

The Tank! expansion, coming out this month for Kickstarter backers and the next (for retail) will be adding tanks, waterways both passable and impassable (canals) and Field Artillery, which I expect will be placed directly on the board, and be more accurate but limited in its targeting--the current Res Art can fire anywhere on the board if the right cards are played for it.

If you've got this game, I recommend a one page player aide by a local NYC guy I know called "Know Your Dice" in the Files Section of this game's forum. It shows each of the five types of dice faces on the custom game dice and how it affects each type of possible hit (artillery, ranged, close combat, and possible terrain reduction. This nicely complements to two sided player aide provided with the game itself which shows a unit summary and terrain key.

[Hahma]

Good stuff Chas!

I have enjoyed Eclipse the few times I've played it, and can't wait for the Tank expansion for The Great War.

[Johngee]

I've only played "Eclipse" once a couple of years ago when @mad_wookiee brought it to an E-PA casual game day. I loved it and immediately put it on my Wish List as my favorite Space Exploration/Empire Building board game. Unfortunately, I knew that no one in my local group would be interested in anything so 'complex.'

@chas , every time you mention it you're making me jealous that I didn't also support the KS for "The Great War" and Tank Expansion. But I knew that it never get played around here and just become another dust collector.

Over all, I had a better than average week, having played Carcassonne (with a double set of Cult & Siege tiles added to the basic game), Elder Sign (1st time), and 5x Star Wars: X-Wing ( 4x standard 100 pt. games and a huge multi-player 300 vs. 300 pt. demo on a 4' x 8' map that I brought to the monthly meeting of the local War Gamers Club.