The Actual Table

[OhBollox]

Inducted a new player into Tyrants with Drow and Undead. I personally had a blast, and the game ended 84-84-82, which was a good result that kept everyone on board. Virtually no-one devoured any cards, only one player did much promoting (I promoted two whole cards), and the new player simply killed enough troops to stay competitive.

Our second game was 120-102-100, which I am mildly pleased to say I won. Drow and Dragon this time, and I managed to pick up enough influence to buy all the big dragon cards from the market, or devour the ones I couldn’t afford. I also managed some promoting this time, and got rid of a mixture of both my standard cards and some high-value ones. I don’t use promotion as my main means of scoring like some, but it’s very very useful.

I’m wising up and moving away from Underdark Ranger and Advance Scout, as they can only target white troops, they lose relevance in the mid-game, and likewise with Ravenous Zombies, even though it has some small additional utility. I’d rather buy more priestesses and upgrade my purchasing power and buy mid-level cards from there, my promoting is mostly getting rid of Noble/Soldier cards and high VP cards, so I’m left with anti-white cards clogging up my deck. Wyrmlings were very useful, couldn’t get enough of them, and I ended up with two Wyrmspeakers and didn’t regret it.

[Mirefox]

I really want to play this game and without having played it yet I really want to own it.

[OhBollox]

The second edition should be easy to find and is choice.

The new edition of Libertalia is bright and colourful, though I find the animal sky pirates to be overkill in terms of ‘no serious discussion about the theme, ever’ insurance. Some mild screwage, card abilites, etc. It’s perfectly pleasant.

[OhBollox]

Another weekend another series of Tyrants. Our first game, Demons and Aberrations, ended 103-80 in my favour. Not a lot of devouring, but my opponent picked up a Demogorgon and dropped plenty of Insane Outcasts into my deck. It didn’t help him much, and I outscored him across the board except for promotion. Especially in terms of sites, where I scored 38 to his 3. I did manage a nice Elder Brain - Nalfeshnee promote, which ended up being a very efficient option in terms of VP generation, but felt very risky during the game. Just blindly promoting the top card of my deck didn’t feel smart, but I ended up with three cards doing just that, and it worked out.

Our second game, Drow and Undead, ended 111-65 which was an unapologetic arse-kicking, as he doesn’t like the Undead deck and finds devouring counterintuitive, and I lucked into several solid turns flipping his holdings over to me.

We had a third player for our third game, and it went 114-108-99, again to me, and again with Drow and Undead. Gauntlgrym turned into a hotly-contested city for some reason, as we all ended up spoiling each other’s full control at one point or another, and then supplanting and assassinating into it. I managed to recruit and play and promote both a Lich and a Vampire, which made up most of my promotion points, and we had some big deck value (42 and 46). I didn’t make too much of any one particular card, but Mummy Lord in particular was handy for taking VP from my opponents via redeploying troops they had taken and insulating my sites.

[OhBollox]

Designer Diary 4 - Two Types of Time in Arcs | Arcs

And news of an expansion for Oath. I am taking my wallet to the gym to get it pumped.

[whovian223]

Did my March “New to Me” boardgames post.

Massively delayed due to writer’s block and then COVID, but since there won’t be an April one (haven’t played any new to me games), it’s not too bad.

[biffpow]

Glad you’re feeling better, Dave : )

[whovian223]

Thank you! Of course, now I won’t be able to beat Hardco at anything…

[OhBollox]

My long run of wins had to come to an end at some point, and tonight was that point. First game went 70-65 to my opponent, who outscored me on sites, VP, and deck value, and kicked the shit out of me on the board. I picked up a lot of white troops, but it did me no good. Dragon and Demon was a pretty potent combo, and I managed to salt away a fair few Insane Outcasts in my opponent’s deck, to little avail. I got some solid promotions in, clearing out almost all of my starter cards. Truly dispiriting.

Second game saw my opponent go promotion mad with Drow and Aberrations; while I picked up a couple of promoters, my opponent ended up with 57 points in promoted cards alone, often doing a double promote in his turns, which helped me in some respects as his deck was very slim towards the end of the game, and I had some choice purchases, including two Mindwitnesses, which turfed up my opponent’s troops as quickly as he put them down, and chipped away at his hand of cards consistently too. My opponent, Elder Brain in one hand, and Death Tyrant in the other, won 126-116.

Our third game was a slaughter, Elementals and Demons, ended 147-82, and I despaired by the mid-game. My oppo topped 30 points in promotion to my zero because he bought every promote card that came up, his deck value topped 50, he scored 15 VP to my one, and I managed to get about even in trophies and sites.

My main problem is I’m too reliant on the spy game, which isn’t that useful at 2P; with three cities available, even a good place/return spy engine just isn’t able to get that much done, and in the second and third game, I bought too many cards (especially in the third game where my expensive cards were allowing me free purchases) and diluted my deck far too much. The second game in particular was mine to win, at one point my oppo was down to single-figure troops on the board because I was pursuing him so fiercely. Shit game for cunts anyway, hate it.

[OhBollox]

At last we found a third for our Gloomhaven JotL campaign, and so with Voidwarden in tow, we plodded on. Our first battle started in classic fashion, with our Red Guard immediately jumping into melee with four enemies, and tearing them apart on his blades and spikes, flurries of hurled axes from the Hatchet, and our Voidwarden making enemies hit each other, dish out heals, and poison us. There was quite a lot of damage to deal though, and we made it via the skin of our teeth, and I exhausted right before the end, all out of cards and axes.

Second battle went much better, we actually communicated like a team, and we exploded through the first group of enemies, used obstacles to slow their advance, and I chopped most of them into dog meat before they ever got into melee range. As we entered the last room, I stunned two minions with thrown hammers, giving us enough time to really tear into the boss, before I ended up exhausting again. I took this as a sign.

After rejigging my hands of cards a little for more stamina, our third battle was a fairly rough one, as we were cocky after our wins, and we were chased through a dungeon by a boss, who revived the enemies we killed. Our Voidwarden had real difficulty keeping up, our Red Guard had severe problems tanking all the damage as we smashed into successive rooms, with cultists ahead and their revived corpses and an invincible boss behind, and I had a nightmare trying to pick off enemies with my axes while still staying out of melee to avoid being disadvantaged. We chopped the cultists down, culminating in a final room showdown where we killed the last robed bastard and started on the boss, before the tide of zombies pushed through the door behind us and we all exhausted fighting them off. Not enough communication, and some really bad card draws late on nullified some critical attacks. I am going to go through my hand of cards once again and stick a few more big damage cards in there, and we will try again.

[Mirefox]

I love Gloomhaven classes.

[whovian223]

After posting AARs for 15 missions, I finally actually posted a review for Storm Above the Reich.

I can’t remember the last AAR I posted here, to be honest.

[OhBollox]

The Voidwarden is great, and maddening to have along.

[Mirefox]

Does anyone use the Gloomhaven Helper app?

I applaud the game for being so rich without the ridiculous fiddly-ness that you see in other dungeon crawlers (cough Fantasy Flight) but I am always open to apps that help me manage everything.

[halfvoid]

I thought Gloomhaven was way more fiddly than something like Descent 2nd Ed and ended up getting rid of the physical game. Love the digital version though since it manages 100% of the fiddle.

The only obstinately fiddly game I have left in my collection is Too Many Bones.

[OhBollox]

I’ve tried it. It’s fine. We run the game as a group (someone runs the enemies and their decks, someone runs damage, someone runs elements) and it works well as is. I don’t currently see any reason to use the app, personally, but if table space is at a premium or you are one player running the whole thing and everyone else just watches you, the app is no doubt invaluable.

We’re a little more into the groove of things now, and with a little tweaking of our decks, starting to spread out and fill our niches more effectively and also co-operate and synergise better. I’m still not creating/using many elements, but I am basically our team’s anti-tank missile, as the Red Guard rips through the mobs, the Voidwarden keeps us alive and manipulates enemies to hurt each other, and I do things like Power Pitch (6 Attack) + The Favourite (3 Attack) + Double Throw (x2 Attack value) + 2x damage modifier = 36 damage, which was enough to one-shot a titanic boss who almost buried us in a horde of Giant Vipers. I’ve invested heavily in stun, using twin throwing hammers, stun powder, and a +1 Stun damage modifier card, which means I can lock up several enemies in one turn if I want. That will often buy us a turn to heal, buff, or move.

The Voidwarden on our latest mission pulled a win out of the bag, poking an elite Black Sludge to death, as both I and the Red Guard exhausted thanks to some poor optimisation of our turns in the last room. We’ll not hear the last of our support killing his way to victory for some time. Also, to our Red Guard’s annoyance, I have more XP than him, and was the first to hit level 5. Abloo bloo bloo bloo bloo.

Despite also toting a stamina potion, I still need to have a more robust deck with less loss cards. I have too many powerful single-use cards, which means I’m invariably first to exhaust. My war cry really needs to be something more impressive than “Avenge me! For I am tired.”

[OhBollox]

The market for our first game was ridiculous. We both agreed devouring market cards was the mark of a true shit, and set about recruiting priestesses in order to buy them, and then devouring cards before the other got to them. In the face of multiple dragons, my Death Tyrant made holding cities extremely expensive, and I carefully constructed a win. My White Dragon was not as effective as it should have been as I kept using it too early on my turn. Won 95-80.

Second game was weird, we were both sure my opponent had won, especially as he went promote-mad and reduced his deck down to four cards at one point. This obviously compromised the rest of his game, but it wasn’t that much of a problem towards the end. I love Undead and I enjoy Demons, so this should have been my win, and somehow it was, 105-92. We were both certain I had lost before counting up.

Third game, my opponent carved out a win, and I didn’t get a lot done. 97-87, and I was regretting choosing Drow after about ten minutes. Why didn’t I choose Elementals? My opponent hates Elementals.

[whovian223]

I really need to get this to the table again.

[Baelnor]

Any of you manage to get and play Ark Nova?

I think I posted before, but I am struggling to get it to the table. My wife hates the scoring system, I love the icons!

Seems to have rocketed up the BGG charts…

[OhBollox]

Tried it didn’t like it. As close to multiplayer solitaire as they dared make Terraforming Mars.