-
Welcome to the Heroscapers 2.0 site! We've still got some dust to clear and adjustments to make, including launching a new front page, but we hope you enjoy the improvements to the site. Please post your feedback and any issues you encounter in this thread.
What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?
- Thread starter EternalThanos86
- Start date
I have a decent Summoner Wars collection. Master Set, Jungle Elves, Filth, Mercs, Tundra Orcs and Phoenix Elves, (first summoners only) and all corresponding Reinforcements packs, and the three promo Mercs.
I've wanted to try Bolvi's 'Tower Defense'-style deck for a while. Miniature Market has many SW product still in stock at $4/deck.
Ordered the 2nd Summoner decks for Cave Goblins and Guild Dwarves, plus Grungor's Charge. Total cost before shipping was only $12.
Now I have 14/16 factions represented, with at least the Reinforcements for each for a reasonable amount of deckbuilding. Always a great experience, and so easy to teach. @truth , @Grungebob , anything planned for Summoner Wars' 10th anniversary? 2nd batch of fan art summoners?
I've wanted to try Bolvi's 'Tower Defense'-style deck for a while. Miniature Market has many SW product still in stock at $4/deck.
Ordered the 2nd Summoner decks for Cave Goblins and Guild Dwarves, plus Grungor's Charge. Total cost before shipping was only $12.
Now I have 14/16 factions represented, with at least the Reinforcements for each for a reasonable amount of deckbuilding. Always a great experience, and so easy to teach. @truth , @Grungebob , anything planned for Summoner Wars' 10th anniversary? 2nd batch of fan art summoners?
I've been wanting to try Starship Samurai! Looks awesome.
Played Star Wars Rebellion this last weekend. One of my favorites and it doesn't hit the table often enough. Messed up a few minor rules which would have saved me, but alas the Empire crushed my base at the last second.
Played Star Wars Rebellion this last weekend. One of my favorites and it doesn't hit the table often enough. Messed up a few minor rules which would have saved me, but alas the Empire crushed my base at the last second.
If you like Rebellion, consider War of the Ring. Similar in theme, (good guys with low resources vs. bad guys with all the things, good guys win by destroying the macguffin, bad guys win by conquering).
However, it thematically holds together better. You won't draw a card that says 'plot important character does this.
However, it thematically holds together better. You won't draw a card that says 'plot important character does this.
Unstable Unicorns last night. Man, that game is cutthroat!
This. +1000.
@YK - Once you get a few games in of War of the Ring, you should be able to play in about 2.5 hours.
Above and Below. Beat Kathy 63 to 50.
I got Red Alert: Space Fleet Warfare last Saturday, mounted its 149 spaceships Sunday morning with a single tube of Krazy Glue, and hosted the two tutorial games that afternoon between two pals. Now I've played it eight more times myself, with four other people individually in its two player format; only two of them having been solitaire games! So far this has included the two "training" games and four of the numbered scenarios--6 different battles of the 25 that came with the giant Kickstarter package.
If you take the scenarios in order, they each add a new situation, terrain, or rule. The numbered games include the Task Force fleet building system, which usually gives you 100 building points worth of ships to your fleet and allows you to add 40 more, and then place all the ships in certain designated hexes as you wish to deploy them.
The game has very fast action, with many Star Tokens available to operate both your second deck cards and your fleet itself. The other major difference in this new Commands & Colors series game is Red Alert, a critical hit that can sometimes be bought off if you take only one at a time by paying Star Tokens, or are next to your Flagship, but otherwise forces a retreat that leaves you immobile and with diminished fighting capacity until you can repair the damage!
Your ships include Long Range Fighters, CAP Fighters (Combat Air Patrol), Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships, your Flagship, with "Heavy" versions of most of these, which add a fourth mini to its unit type. There are four additional Victory Conditions possible mixed into various scenarios in different combinations, besides the default one of finishing off the last ship of a unit for a Victory Point. Units are worth more points the larger its ship type or more numerous its minis.
The six expansions allow you to add a second "Vice Admiral" flagship, Dreadnought (super battleship), Carrier (with a third type of Carrier Based Fighter), Transports, a Space Platform (orbital Station), and to the core game Asteroids and Planetary Groups, the additional space terrain of Meteors and Space Rifts.
Its lots of fun! Designer Richard Borg has already posted more frequently than usual on the boardgamegeek game forum to clarify rules, and we're having some good discussions over there as we learn how to play, post additional player aids, and etc. Three additional expansions are planned, including a ground warfare module called Planetfall.
If you take the scenarios in order, they each add a new situation, terrain, or rule. The numbered games include the Task Force fleet building system, which usually gives you 100 building points worth of ships to your fleet and allows you to add 40 more, and then place all the ships in certain designated hexes as you wish to deploy them.
The game has very fast action, with many Star Tokens available to operate both your second deck cards and your fleet itself. The other major difference in this new Commands & Colors series game is Red Alert, a critical hit that can sometimes be bought off if you take only one at a time by paying Star Tokens, or are next to your Flagship, but otherwise forces a retreat that leaves you immobile and with diminished fighting capacity until you can repair the damage!
Your ships include Long Range Fighters, CAP Fighters (Combat Air Patrol), Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships, your Flagship, with "Heavy" versions of most of these, which add a fourth mini to its unit type. There are four additional Victory Conditions possible mixed into various scenarios in different combinations, besides the default one of finishing off the last ship of a unit for a Victory Point. Units are worth more points the larger its ship type or more numerous its minis.
The six expansions allow you to add a second "Vice Admiral" flagship, Dreadnought (super battleship), Carrier (with a third type of Carrier Based Fighter), Transports, a Space Platform (orbital Station), and to the core game Asteroids and Planetary Groups, the additional space terrain of Meteors and Space Rifts.
Its lots of fun! Designer Richard Borg has already posted more frequently than usual on the boardgamegeek game forum to clarify rules, and we're having some good discussions over there as we learn how to play, post additional player aids, and etc. Three additional expansions are planned, including a ground warfare module called Planetfall.
On the topic of Summoner Wars, one more Alliances set would be quite neat.
Jungle Elves/Swamp Orcs: One linked to animals, the other to plants.
Phoenix Elves/Filth: If Elien makes a deal with the undead, I could see Maldaria making a deal with the corrupt.
Shadow Elves/Deep Dwarves: Both seek knowledge, and avoid the light.
Vanguard/Benders: Imagine a former Bender Summoner turned crusader, using powers of the mind to convert the heathens.
Mountain Vargath/Guild Dwarves: Both defend mountainous regions. May make for a turtle-type gameplay, but could be fun.
Fallen Kingdom/Cave Goblins: The Filth have had their way with the Cave Goblins, next ought to be the Undead Army's turn. I have a picture in my head of an undead Feeder champion or Mole Dog commons.
Sand Goblins/Tundra Orcs: While initially weird, I think the combination of potentially conjuring blizzards and sandstorms to be quite synergystic
Cloaks/Mercenaries: The faction most mercenary-like already paired with the normal Mercs, I think would go well.
Jungle Elves/Swamp Orcs: One linked to animals, the other to plants.
Phoenix Elves/Filth: If Elien makes a deal with the undead, I could see Maldaria making a deal with the corrupt.
Shadow Elves/Deep Dwarves: Both seek knowledge, and avoid the light.
Vanguard/Benders: Imagine a former Bender Summoner turned crusader, using powers of the mind to convert the heathens.
Mountain Vargath/Guild Dwarves: Both defend mountainous regions. May make for a turtle-type gameplay, but could be fun.
Fallen Kingdom/Cave Goblins: The Filth have had their way with the Cave Goblins, next ought to be the Undead Army's turn. I have a picture in my head of an undead Feeder champion or Mole Dog commons.
Sand Goblins/Tundra Orcs: While initially weird, I think the combination of potentially conjuring blizzards and sandstorms to be quite synergystic
Cloaks/Mercenaries: The faction most mercenary-like already paired with the normal Mercs, I think would go well.
Last edited:
I think it's highly unlikely that we see any more SW. It's a great game, but it wasn't supported well and wasn't released properly. The last SW event at GenCon was 2-3 years ago, so I don't really foresee a continuation.
I would like to see a reboot, but there'd have to be changes in OP, release model, and design/development/playtesting. It'd have to be a large-scale project, and I can't see PHG doing it.
My son got me the Joust board game for my Birthday. It's a fair adaptation of the video game. It's fairly light, plays quickly and the momentum mechanic makes it interesting.
Why not? If they think it's a viable product that would sell, they should have the resources, given that they're under the Asmodee banner at this point.
I guess it all comes down to R.O.I. though. If there's not a market for it any longer, they probably won't.
I got a starter set for it back in the day, but two player, non-coop games don't really hit the table for me.
Sure, but based on how people like KC (lead play tester/designer) and others in the know have talked, it's pretty clear that PHG had no plans to continue it or revive it when it ended. I don't think that's changed.
I love the game, and it will probably never leave my Top 10. However, PHG mismanaged it:
1. OP was terrible; there was never any sort of tournament hierarchy/structure or prize support created. This makes it very hard to get any sort of competitive scene going. There was also never any official tournament rules until the very end of the game.
2. Release model was weird. Most people fall into one of two groups: either casual board gamers or competitive card game players. The casual board gamers don't want to hunt down small packs; rather, they'd like to just pick up box sets with everything in them. The Master Set was a great example of this. The competitive players want more than a couple expansions released each year, or else the meta doesn't shift enough. If they released everything in large boxes, they'd do a better job of getting the casual crowd into it. If they released everything in more of an FFG LCG style, they'd do a better job of getting the competitive crowd into it.
3. Release model was weird part 2: they didn't give you enough cards to fill out a complete deck. For example, if you bought the Jungle Elf first summoner, you got 4 Lioneers. You can run up to 10 of any common in your deck, and you generally want a maximum of 3 different commons to help with consistency. However, you would have to buy 2-3 of everything in order to be able to run the max number of any common. This could be solved with tournament rules stating you can only run the number of commons provided in any one set; eg, can only run 4 Lioneers in one deck. As previously mentioned, however, there was no competitive ruleset made. This is compounded by point 4.
4. Really bad balance. This is true in a lot of games, but SW had really, really bad balance. A lot of factions are just start with 10x of their best common and figure it out from there. For example, any Krusk deck should run 10x SG Shaman, any Ret deck should run 10x Warlock, etc.
5. Flaws in the core rules. The core rules include starting setups, summoning from walls, self-killing units for magic, and more.
Let me recap first by saying that I LOVE SW. However, a revamp would need to address these issues to be really successful in the current crowded market. With all the great LCGs and board games on the market, PHG would need to really give SW a complete overhaul. While it could be done, it would require a large team to revamp it. PHG have let so many of their games die and they seem to be pumping out game after game these days.
Edit: sorry, that was a bit of a rant. TLDR: SW should have been a great competitive game, but mismanagement really hurt it. For it to be profitable, PHG would need to fix some issues.
Edit pt 2: I would love to see a FFG revamp of it...
Point 1: I feel this to a point. Unfortunately, I've never been the type of person to actually get ultra-involved in any Organized Play for any game (not for lack of trying, just always have other commitments that prevent my attendance).
Point 2: Absolutely, there were only four large-to-semi-large box sets, the two original 2 player starter sets, and the two master sets. I guess there was also the super compilation box of alliance stuff, but that hardly counts.
Everything else in mini boxes was weird.
Point 3: The game really does feel far better with that rule (which, in most play nowadays is self-imposed by the fact that most players' collections consist of no more than 1 copy of any box anyways).
Point 4: Granted, it is a house rule, but imposing the card limit mentioned in point 3 patches this up significantly imo (at least before 2nd summoners and Alliances).
I've noticed a distinct shift in PHG since the sale to F2Z/asmodee.
It was around that time that the last few releases stopped getting flavor text on the website. Deep Dwarves link here. The back half of 2nd summoners and all alliances cards dropped that.
It obviously wouldn't fully patch up the balance, but part of the motivation for a 2nd alliances set would be to mitigate the huge deckbuilding options that the alliances summoners have.
As of now, an Alliance summoner like Immortal Elien can pull from the full set of PE and FK units, as well as all FP units and mercenaries. In contrast, Ret-Talus can only pull from the set of FK, FP, and Mercs. If a new set of alliances came out, say Phoenix/Filth and Fallen/Cave Goblins, Ret could pull from Fallen Kingdom, Mercs, Fallen Phoenix, and Fallen Cave Goblins, while Immortal Elien should be prevented from using Fallen Cave Goblins or Phoenix Filth units.
I love the game as well. I generally felt it was complete after the original 16+reinforcements were released (except for poor Rahlee), and I always felt the decks within the single-set building limits were reasonably well balanced. (I'm sure there are some Vassal players who actually tracked win rates, but I would be surprised if any given matchup exceeds a 60/40 win rate).
Point 2: Absolutely, there were only four large-to-semi-large box sets, the two original 2 player starter sets, and the two master sets. I guess there was also the super compilation box of alliance stuff, but that hardly counts.
Everything else in mini boxes was weird.
Point 3: The game really does feel far better with that rule (which, in most play nowadays is self-imposed by the fact that most players' collections consist of no more than 1 copy of any box anyways).
Point 4: Granted, it is a house rule, but imposing the card limit mentioned in point 3 patches this up significantly imo (at least before 2nd summoners and Alliances).
I've noticed a distinct shift in PHG since the sale to F2Z/asmodee.
It was around that time that the last few releases stopped getting flavor text on the website. Deep Dwarves link here. The back half of 2nd summoners and all alliances cards dropped that.
It obviously wouldn't fully patch up the balance, but part of the motivation for a 2nd alliances set would be to mitigate the huge deckbuilding options that the alliances summoners have.
As of now, an Alliance summoner like Immortal Elien can pull from the full set of PE and FK units, as well as all FP units and mercenaries. In contrast, Ret-Talus can only pull from the set of FK, FP, and Mercs. If a new set of alliances came out, say Phoenix/Filth and Fallen/Cave Goblins, Ret could pull from Fallen Kingdom, Mercs, Fallen Phoenix, and Fallen Cave Goblins, while Immortal Elien should be prevented from using Fallen Cave Goblins or Phoenix Filth units.
I love the game as well. I generally felt it was complete after the original 16+reinforcements were released (except for poor Rahlee), and I always felt the decks within the single-set building limits were reasonably well balanced. (I'm sure there are some Vassal players who actually tracked win rates, but I would be surprised if any given matchup exceeds a 60/40 win rate).
Played Above and Below with Kathy again! This time, we both scored 64 points; the tie breaker was amount of gold. I had one gold; Kathy had 0. It doesn't get any closer than that!
Matthias Maccabeus
Don't Need Range in the Knight-time & Gencon Main
Played 8 games of Journeys in Middle Earth so far. It’s definitely growing on me. I was pretty hesitant with diceless combat ala gloomhaven. Some classes feel more fleshed out than others, but the combination of hero cards and class cards plus the fact you can change classes while keeping the other class cards is pretty cool. The enemies are a bit samey but the scenarios are much different. I mean I can play Bilbo as a Guardian, which is how I love playing him in the lcg, so that’s gotta be worth something.
Its time for a Heroscape break in my Red Alert: Space Fleet Warfare initial run through. So far I've run two games and played in 23 more. These have included the 10 Core Game scenarios and 8 of the 15 expansion scenarios. Some have been solo outings, but six other players have come over to try it out with me.
I'm having a great time with this new giant Kickstarter package; see Boardgamegeek for many posts and new player aids about it.
I'm having a great time with this new giant Kickstarter package; see Boardgamegeek for many posts and new player aids about it.
Last edited:
Red Alert: Space Fleet Warfare News:
I'm now on the last scenarios with new expansion space terrain. The Fleet has been dodging Meteor Storms and Showers, and even destroyed some of them protecting a Planetary Group, although we took some strikes ourselves. But now we're entering a Space Rift and...
***
"...Huh, where are we now, Helm?"
"Captain, we appear to be in the middle of the enemy fleet! And the enemy Flagship and Battleship squadron nearby are powering up weapons..."
I'm now on the last scenarios with new expansion space terrain. The Fleet has been dodging Meteor Storms and Showers, and even destroyed some of them protecting a Planetary Group, although we took some strikes ourselves. But now we're entering a Space Rift and...
***
"...Huh, where are we now, Helm?"
"Captain, we appear to be in the middle of the enemy fleet! And the enemy Flagship and Battleship squadron nearby are powering up weapons..."
Last edited:
Last weekend I played a 6 hour game of Firefly! we had 5 players I believe. It was long, but just flew by. That game is a joy (unless reavers keep eating your crew). We all had quite a bit of bad luck which is why it took so long, but I pulled ahead pretty suddenly and my momentum didn't stop, so I took the win.
Then tried out Potion Explosion with my wife. I've never even heard of this game before, but CMON had a facebook contest and I somehow won! Exciting! The game itself was surprisingly deep and fun. My wife is clearly a prodigy at this game since she smashed me. Looking forward to more of it though! The concept is simple enough to teach anyone, so I'm going to be adding it to my good-for-family-gatherings pile!
Then tried out Potion Explosion with my wife. I've never even heard of this game before, but CMON had a facebook contest and I somehow won! Exciting! The game itself was surprisingly deep and fun. My wife is clearly a prodigy at this game since she smashed me. Looking forward to more of it though! The concept is simple enough to teach anyone, so I'm going to be adding it to my good-for-family-gatherings pile!