How Is Flip City? I own it but have yet to play it and rarely feel motivated to break it out.
It’s fun. Very light, but it’s a fun push your luck game.
I bought it as a throw-in to get free shipping, because it’s on Tom Vasel & Eric Summerer’s Top 100 Games of All Time list, but three of my friends hated it.
It was only $8, so I figured why not?
And I do like it. Wouldn’t be in my Top 100, but it’s good.
It plays solo, so you can get an idea of how it plays without having to drag anybody else into it if you want. 
Wait, Galeforce 9 did Tyrants of the Underdark? I didn’t give a shit before but I do now!
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Yep, they did!
And then they screwed up the expansion. LOL
I played Tyrants of the Underdark a couple times at Origins last year or maybe the year before, and it was a solid game. All of its elements are taken from other games, but they hang together quite nicely and give you several different paths to victory. I have no experience with the expansion. Gonna rope my girlfriend into trying co-op Nemo’s War this weekend. Will report back.
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I really like GF9’s stuff. Sons of Anarchy, Homeland, and Spartacus are all great, and they’re all actually fairly simple games, in terms of their design. It’s the social layer that makes each one special and keeps every player involved. I have sworn a solemn oath to try all of their games.
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I suppose I should probably explain what I mean by “screwed up the expansion.”
I haven’t actually played with the two factions that are included in it, but I do have it.
The cards are of totally different quality than the main game. They feel different, they’re actually slightly thicker than the base game cards, and there is a slight colour variance on the back.
I’ve sleeved them already, and I don’t think it will be that much of an issue because they’re sleeved, but the fact that this happened is really bad form.
If you don’t sleeve your cards, it will be immediately obvious as soon as you touch one whether or not it’s old or new (assuming you’re mixing an old and a new faction)
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This happened with he original Pathfinder Adventure Card Game base set as well, with a number of the adventure decks being a different print quality and shade than the base set. I’m their case it was an issue with the two different printers not having the same quality control; I’m just saying that GF9 may not be at fault.
That could be. I think it’s the same printer, though I could be mistaken on that one.
The thing is, the card quality in the expansion is actually better, so it’s sad that the original is so cheap.
Ahh, I’m very forgiving of publishers having to change printers or materials, usually, and I’m a habitual sleever. I will bear this stoically.
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Result: she liked it. We managed to be “Inconsequential”.
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I’m probably never going to get my hands on a copy, so I will selflessly recommend Ortus Regni to you colonial types in the Americas. I got to play it this week and I probably sat for a dozen games, refusing to move, and it was magic. It’s not available over here, only distribution is NA I think. Lucky swines.
I picked up The Guns of August on a whim, one of the few games I own that’s older than I am. I could use an old school WWI design, and from my experience with it, it actually gives a good impression of WWI warfare, constant grinding attrition.
My local FLGS/board game cafe is becoming more community-oriented, and I picked up a few games specifically for those who are blind or partially sighted, both from the same designer, Takashi Hamada. The Arabian Pots and The Mystery of Dattakamo are both fairly light and short, but both require no alterations or tweaks out of the box.
Are you aware that there is a free iOS version of Ortus Regni?
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There’s an app for that…
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ortus-regni/id894609436?mt=8
edit: failed to see Mirefox’s reply. Reading is fundamental. Also, the caveat - I haven’t played the app, although I have it, so can’t vouch for it. I remember firing it up and, having forgotten the iconography, not picking it up again.
edit2: @OhBollox, I’d grab a copy and ship it to you if you wanted.
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You may morning have seen my post, but you far surpassed it in content, so good job! I don’t know how to post those links, though I’ve never tried.
Haha! It’s a mere cut and paste - Discourse does the rest.
Oh, man, I love Ortus Regni. I played a bunch on iOS and Steam, and also own a physical copy which has been played (unlike some of my games). We tried to get a tournament going at the new old site, but server problems torpedoed it. Hopefully they’ve fixed those, and I would so be down to play again.
We completed the third mission for TIME Stories this weekend (A Prophesy of Dragons), and it was very enjoyable. We’d started it a couple weeks’ prior, had to break (after a 3 to 4 hours session) and came back to it for another couple hours. No spoilers here, so read freely.
The consensus in our group of four is that Prophesy was better than Marcy Case, but not quite as good as the mission that comes with the base set. The base set mission has more plot-relevant puzzles (which we all enjoy) and generally feels more thought-out in certain ways–they furthered the mystery. The decisions in that first mission also felt more “deep” in a way–it felt like the consequences matched well and made a strong story-sense in terms of the plot. Marcy Case’s decisions were similar in this quality, actually, but the overall experience felt thinner and the puzzle/mystery aspect was less satisfying.
Prophesy, meanwhile, was very deep in mystery and in activity–longer than the first two missions to be sure, which was very satisfying, and aside from the mission itself, there are also tangible elements of a long-arc plot that (we assume) stretches across all the mission expansions. This had us talking a lot after the game, which I always take as a mark of a great experience.
Where the mission didn’t please us as much was in its lower amount of puzzles and clue-gathering. There was one very challenging puzzle, and aside from that, I don’t recall any others. This is not to say that we’re playing these for puzzles (we’re not), but I think we appreciated the manner in which various puzzles and clue accumulation were integrated well into the plot progression of the first mission, and that has sort of spoiled us for wanting that in each mission.
What Prophesy lacked in puzzles, it made up for in character development, which was much stronger than in the previous two missions. There is a bevy of items that can be collected and used to enhance your character’s abilities, and real choices must be made about what to acquire and what to pass up, and then how to arrange your party at each location to balance your abilities. Having 8 characters (or vessels) to choose from at the start of each run is also a major plus, adding to the strategic aspects. I switched at one point as we started a new run, and it made a real (positive) difference.
It’s interesting to us as well that, so far, the three missions have all been very distinctive–not just in them being in very different time periods and settings, but in the way you’re expected to reach your goal and what you need to really focus on. Just because one manner of playing worked in one mission doesn’t mean it will work in the next. The developers have so far done a wonderful job of creating a feeling of very different yet clearly linked games. We’ve already bought the remaining available expansions and will likely be playing those exclusively on game nights until we run out : )
One last point–people here have asked about playing with less than 4 and whether that will detract from the experience. For this one, I really feel that 4 is very optimal. This can be achieved with 2 players handling 2 characters each if need be, which would work to much less detriment than in the previous missions (IMO). With three players…I think it could be done with three certainly, or perhaps let the most experienced player handle two characters. For this mission, 4 characters seems to me almost necessary to the experience.
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No iOS or I’d be on it!
Thank you, squire, that is an unmissable offer I will have to take you up on with my customary complete predictability. I will see what games tempt me less this month and shove them aside.
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Is it “no iOS” because they haven’t updated it to 64 bits, or…? Because there definitely is an iOS app, although it hasn’t been updated in over a year.