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clockworkjoe posted:I heard extremely vague rumors about some drama at Gen Con, in connection with a walk out at the Ennies or something like that? Does anyone have any idea what happened? Zak S won some Ennies. That's what happened. Some people who think he's a class-a shitlord walked out after that. edit: Oh good, top of the page. In lighter news my friends had a great Gen Con this year. Our seminar was packed, we got to meet some fans, and I got to see a bunch of people who I only get to see at Gen Con. All around a great time! 8one6 fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Aug 3, 2015 |
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Aug 3, 2015 20:08
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8one6 posted:Zak S won some Ennies. That's what happened. Some people who think he's a class-a shitlord walked out after that. I saw somebody wearing a T-shirt that said: ZAK S SAVED D&D 
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Aug 3, 2015 20:17
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I don't know what a Zak S but some minor googling makes it seem like he's the Phil Fish of D&D so gently caress yeah, Zak S, do you, bro. Update: Never mind, dude's pretty bad! Oh, Internet. Deathlove fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Aug 3, 2015 |
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Aug 3, 2015 20:21
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Deathlove posted:I don't know what a Zak S but some minor googling makes it seem like he's the Phil Fish of D&D so gently caress yeah, Zak S, do you, bro. If you ask Ettin Zak S is not a great person
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Aug 3, 2015 20:39
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8one6 posted:If you ask Ettin Zak S is not a great person Yeah, the thing with people with sealions is that sometimes you need more than basic google. Thanks!
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Aug 3, 2015 21:02
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Bucnasti posted:I saw somebody wearing a T-shirt that said: Apparently they were free. Not that I had any idea who Zak S was prior to this discussion.
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Aug 3, 2015 21:46
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QnoisX posted:So how do you manage that? Do you work for them all the time or sign up somewhere? Know a guy, who knows a guy that works at Iello. E: That isn't a cocky answer, just the truth. I got an email out of the blue asking if I'd like to volunteer and that was that. Merauder posted:Heyo! Hope the show went well for you guys and you enjoyed it. First time volunteering? I did it for years with CZE before coming on officially, it is exhausting work, but a lot of fun, and as your haul of product showed it can be fairly lucrative. It was my first time. According to all sources it went great, from sales, to promotion, to meeting with designers and artists, everything went great. It is exhausting, but it was a great way to get into Gencon. E: I am still tired as great is a great word, but I am greatly overusing it. Indolent Bastard fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Aug 3, 2015 |
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Aug 3, 2015 22:07
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Bucnasti posted:Somebody mind explaining what's up with Codenames? Why was everyone so keen to get hold of it? Codenames is a Vlaada game which explains the hype and all that. It's also pretty fun to play so yeah. The gist is there are two spymasters, and 25 words laid out in a 5x5 grid. The spymasters know which ones are their dudes (There is a large selection of cards that show which ones are yours, and the card itself can be rotated for more variance), and have to give a word + number for a concept behind specific words and the number of words you are linking to that concept.Your team then chooses which words they think you are implying. If they pick the right ones, you can keep guessing (using past clues or whatnot, or even just by chance, which is largely not a smart way to do it). However if you pick the other team's dudes, they basically get a free word completed for them, and if you pick a bystander your turn is also done. There is an assassin word that basically ends the game and your team loses if you were the ones that picked it. It's fun to do both the roles so good stuff. I also appeared to have caught somebody's cold down there, luckily I stayed home from work today to recover from con overload.
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Aug 3, 2015 22:13
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Bottom Liner posted:Damnit Will, you just couldn't ignore that orifice. Space is lonely, man.
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Aug 3, 2015 22:19
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Bucnasti posted:Somebody mind explaining what's up with Codenames? Why was everyone so keen to get hold of it? Mostly because you have to use clever clues to for words without accidently leading your team down the wrong train of thought and making them pick...well, anything but your words, but especially the assassin word. I had one grid with paste and unicorn, while it also contained loch ness and shoe. So I thought I was being clever and said "glue". Since paste is another word for glue and unicorns are horses with horns...and horses are turned into glue... and I dunno. Either way, my teammate got paste no problem. But then he picked box. I didn't even notice that glue and shoe rhyme or I wouldn't have used that code word. I just didn't want to use horse, because horseshoe is obvious. This kind of thing happens lots when you're trying to give clues for multiple words at a time to beat the other team. One word at a time is easy usually, but if you do that, you will lose. Heck even the 2 and 3 player games are based around beating 1 word at a time clues. Edit: Sorry had that wrong. You cover up one word each turn for the bot team. You still can accidently pick their word, but they won't pick yours. It's fun dammit.  Indolent Bastard posted:Know a guy, who knows a guy that works at Iello. Ah, so hard for newbies. Well if they want help next year. I'm a guy. Not that you know me. QnoisX fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Aug 3, 2015 |
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Aug 3, 2015 22:33
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QnoisX posted:Ah, so hard for newbies. Well if they want help next year. I'm a guy. Not that you know me. Regarding getting a volunteer gig with a company, I can say that for us (Cryptozoic) we put out a public call for volunteers for all the major events we attend (usually Origins, GenCon, BGG). We have a lot of regulars, especially from back in the day when we had WoW TCG events, and a lot of them will get recruited first, but we usually take on a few new people every year. Basically you just email in an application and we go through and select people based on various stuff. Different companies offer different compensation; we cover the hotel stay (Westin for GenCon), give daily food stipends, and then give a bunch of credit for products for each day worked for people to keep or use to trade with other exhibitors like Insolent was saying. Travel is usually the only thing you have to cover.
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Aug 4, 2015 00:02
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Gen Con loot haul from my girlfriend and I! Nothing as rare of a find as the orange B3 I found last year but still happy with what we found and the deals on most of it. I think that dungeon master patch is my favorite individual item, especially since it was free. Sad I couldn't make TOVA even for a little bit this year, but was glad to show three gen con newbies the ropes and see that they loved it. nesbit37 fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Aug 4, 2015 |
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Aug 4, 2015 00:05
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Merauder posted:Regarding getting a volunteer gig with a company, I can say that for us (Cryptozoic) we put out a public call for volunteers for all the major events we attend (usually Origins, GenCon, BGG). We have a lot of regulars, especially from back in the day when we had WoW TCG events, and a lot of them will get recruited first, but we usually take on a few new people every year. Basically you just email in an application and we go through and select people based on various stuff. Different companies offer different compensation; we cover the hotel stay (Westin for GenCon), give daily food stipends, and then give a bunch of credit for products for each day worked for people to keep or use to trade with other exhibitors like Insolent was saying. Travel is usually the only thing you have to cover. That sounds good. We ended up driving and my part of the gas bill was only $20. It's the room that hurt! I'll keep a look out for next year.
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Aug 4, 2015 00:18
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you breakin my tables, son.
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Aug 4, 2015 00:35
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nesbit37 posted:Sad I couldn't make TOVA even for a little bit this year, but was glad to show three gen con newbies the ropes and see that they loved it. I could live in the auction all weekend. TOVA!
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Aug 4, 2015 01:11
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Deviant posted:I could live in the auction all weekend.! Which one of you guys paid for the old calendar and hug from the girl in the chainmail bikini?
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Aug 4, 2015 01:16
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Not me, but I'm sure he enjoyed it. My WETA t-shirt is baller, though.
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Aug 4, 2015 01:44
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Well, another Con down and another year I managed to not see any goons. Or as far as I know. I didn't schedule a lot of events but spent a lot of time demoing stuff and walking around. Staying out near the airport wasn't horrible thanks to Uber but I missed being downtown. I think my favorites this year were Hoplomachus and WWE Superstar Showdown.
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Aug 4, 2015 02:21
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Yeah, my hotel was something like 15 miles from the ICC and I'm resolved to do whatever is necessary to secure housing attached to the con next year. gently caress driving 20 minutes to my hotel.
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Aug 4, 2015 02:32
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Pez posted:Well, another Con down and another year I managed to not see any goons. Or as far as I know. I didn't schedule a lot of events but spent a lot of time demoing stuff and walking around. Staying out near the airport wasn't horrible thanks to Uber but I missed being downtown. Tell me more about Hoplomachus. I saw it then I saw it had monster box expansions(versions maybe?) and I liked the general idea but the mass amount of chips overwhelmed me.
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Aug 4, 2015 02:34
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BlackIronHeart posted:Yeah, my hotel was something like 15 miles from the ICC and I'm resolved to do whatever is necessary to secure housing attached to the con next year. gently caress driving 20 minutes to my hotel. Yeah I think I spent like 100 dollars on Uber this year... gently caress.
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Aug 4, 2015 03:02
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Pez posted:WWE Superstar Showdown. This game was surprisingly good. $50 is too much though. Maybe when CSI gets it at $34. Deviant fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Aug 4, 2015 |
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Aug 4, 2015 04:19
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Razzled posted:Yeah I think I spent like 100 dollars on Uber this year... gently caress. What'd you pay for your hotel? I have the feeling that any attached hotel is going to end up way more expensive per day than just ubering to the con and back. That said, the convenience is super nice. I made the mistake of agreeing to share an AirBnB with a classmate before asking what his sleep schedule was, then finding out they were only giving us one key. It was super cheap, but I feel like I missed out on a lot.
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Aug 4, 2015 05:16
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It would be more expensive, certainly. Some back-of-the-envelope math for myself is the hotel room at $360 for three nights and then we spent approximately $100 on gas and $100 on parking. The room was split in half and the vehicle expenses were shared among 4 people. I think a similar room at the Fairfield went for about $1200 for three nights. If we took out the parking costs and had 2 more people in the room then we'd still be above what we paid but we'd be at the ICC and not 15 miles away. Being in a room attached to the ICC means I can buy a board game/huge books in the morning and not carry that weight around for 18 straight hours. Or do cosplay and be able to easily get to my room for repairs/sweat maintenance/anonymity. Or have a guaranteed room for games with goons. Sooooo... Yeah, I'll gladly pay extra for those things.
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Aug 4, 2015 05:30
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Thanks to all the GenGoons for a great weekend! Considering hiring myself out to stand in dealer's room lines next time. I accept cash, beer, and snacks.
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Aug 4, 2015 05:39
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sithwitch13 posted:Thanks to all the GenGoons for a great weekend! Considering hiring myself out to stand in dealer's room lines next time. I accept cash, beer, and snacks. You would make a loving KILLING in the FFG line alone. Thanks again 
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Aug 4, 2015 07:22
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I haven't read this thread since about Friday night, so here's my GenCon breakdown: Wednesday Arrived around 2:00 or so Indy time driving from Chicago and parked over in the museum underground parking to go wait at Will Call for my envelope of event tickets. The line only took me about 15 minutes to get through , but it's always great seeing people complain about how long the line is because you know they are new to the whole thing. Thursday is the day where the line is really long and it take a long time to get through. After getting my tickets, I went to my buddy's house just west of 465 to park my car for the weekend, and we drove back into town to dine at Fogo de Chao; it was expensive, but the food was really good, however, my $10 whiskey sour wasn't. After dinner I went back to the JW room that one of my other friends had booked for the duration of the convention. Only played a casual game of Magic or two, but didn't do anything else of note. Thursday My first event was Caverna from 8am - Noon. I had never played Agricola before, so I really had no idea what to expect going in to it, except that it was a worker placement, feed your dudes so they don't die type of game. All of the players were new except for one, so the game took the entire 4 hours plus some for scoring at the end, and I ended up coming in third out of five players. I can see how once you know hwo to play, things can move much faster when you know what strategy you are playing. Adventures seem really powerful as they let you just pick what you want to do for cheap and you end up getting at least two or three more "free" actions for the cost of placing your worker on the spot/card. I wanted to buy the game immediately after I played it. My second event was playing 7 Wonders at 2:00 and I'm still a littler torn on the game. We only played the base game and had the full seven people only three of which were new. I felt a little constrained by the player board I was given (Babylon), but I'm not sure if I should've been focusing on trying to build the pyramid parts or just dealing with the cards that I was passed and have the pyramid be more of a secondary goal. I was trying to collect the green cards (science, I think), and got most of my points out of that. I did like how I could build some stuff for free if I had built the correct building in the previous age and had it passed to me. I skipped my third even for the day which was supposed to be sitting in on the D6 Generation live podcast thing, but that started at 9pm, and I knew it was going to go pretty late, but I was tired. Plus I don't really listen to the podcast anymore anyway. Friday Woke up bright and early at 6:30 for my event at 10 to play Le Havre. I'm not really sure where to fall on this game, but I am leaning more towards enjoying it. The best strategy seems to just build buildings and not really ship stuff for points. Not sure if this depends on the placement of the resource circles at the bottom of the board. I didn't build many ships or buildings so I ended up losing by a lot because I wasn't really sure what to do and I didn't really plan out my turns. Two of the people at the table were pretty experiences with the game and the winner had over 210 points at the end while I had 94.  The event ended around 2:30.I didn't have anything scheduled until evening so, I wandered around the Vendor Hall for a while just looking at various things. At 5:00 I was went to a NSDM seminar on the strategic capabilities and importance of Russia. The seminar was being given by a professor of political science from a military college in Georgia, and was extremely interesting. However, had I know that it was going to be a series of seminars (three in a row), I would have gotten tickets to all of them, but my friends and I had made reservations at Scotty's for 6:30. Hopefully this guy will be back next year giving a similar seminar and I can sit through all of them, because it was fascinating. Friday night I met up with some goons to play Legendary (the Alien one). Things got really bad really fast as someone got turned into an alien during the first round (sorry I don't remember who all was there!). He ended up killing all of us along with the aliens present on the board. I only got through one game because I had a killer headache, but Carteret was kind enough to come to my rescue with Tylenol and I went back upstairs to sleep because that's the only way I can really beat a headache. Saturday Only had one event scheduled 10am which was a game called Time 'n Space. The game has a set time limit of 30 minutes. In this game you produce goods by putting a 1-minute sand timer on your player board and placing your cube on the space provided. You also produce demands for goods the same way and there are 4 different colors: brown, yellow, blue, and gray. You move the good you are shipping to your cargo with the timer as well. You only have two sand timers. You trade goods by moving around the board 1 minute at a time to the other players' home planets. Along the way you can pick up upgrades for your player board that produce more goods, produce more demands, or can increase cargo space. Each upgrade has 2 levels that you have to research by putting it into the research spot and using a sand timer. To score points, you have to drop off cubes at other player's home planets and that allows you to take the little chit they put on their board. One must either get rid of all chits of a single color to be able to score any points from collecting that color from other players. This game was simply ok. It's a lot of hurry up and wait downtime, but you also need to manage your time and make efficient use of your trips. I probably won't be picking it up in the future. After lunch I wandered around the Vendor Hall again with friends and we sat down to a demo of Tragedy Looper. I am going to reserve judgement because the demo was complete poo poo. The guy teaching it didn't know what the hell he was doing and didn't actually tell use what we were supposed to be doing until we prompted him 20 minutes into the demo. This guy was a replacement while the actual person supposed to be running the demo was at lunch, and I think we would have had a much better experience with the second guy as he was basically playing for the guy giving the demo when he came back with a burger and fries. Later I was able to find a copy of Caverna in the Mayfair area to purchase and I think I made some lady quite irritated because she was going for it as well, and I just snatched it off the shelf in front of her and hugged the box. Went to Claddaugh's for dinner and got a free beer glass. That night I got to play Tzol'kin in the bar not High Velocity at the JW. Our waitress completely ignored our table after we said we wanted to start with some water. We got through the entire teaching and playing of Tzol'kin without seeing the waitress come to our table, and it's not like she wasn't nearby because she was serving the table next to us. I really wanted a Manhattan, but I guess she thought she wasn't going to get any tips, oh well. We complained to the manager, and he offered us round on the house, but we were already done with the game and packed up. Sunday Only thing scheduled was the puzzle version of True Dungeon. Unlike my friends I haven't spent $400 or more on After TD, I went to my friend's house on the west side for dinner and was coerced into playing Dead of Winter. I guess I can see how it can be interesting, but I don't really like the individual secret objectives. Enough people have written plenty of  about that game, though, so I won't beat a dead horse.Drove home Monday morning.
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Aug 4, 2015 16:15
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pakman posted:Sunday This sounds like our adventures with Horizon Starship Simulator, which was going very well until Sithwitch's husband drove us into the surface of Mars.
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Aug 4, 2015 16:33
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Another Sorry I didn't meet up with goons post   Rapid fire notes from con People said it was more crowded, they are liars. It was about the same, even less at times. Codenames was the game of the con for me. 20bux for an awesome game I can play with anyone that is an entry to Vlaada! Nevermore sucks at 4+ Sleeper hit was Maze Racers The artist's alley needs moved to a room/hallway to allow diffusion if nothing else Holy poo poo Asmodee is HUGE FFG is not worth the fight Running a panel is easier than I thought Convincing my fiancée that we don't need to have our 15+ person group always together Pirogi truck was not on point. I apologize to out of towners, they are normally better Bee coffee upped their game
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Aug 4, 2015 17:09
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Deviant posted:This sounds like our adventures with Horizon Starship Simulator, which was going very well until Sithwitch's husband drove us into the surface of Mars. I am not letting him live that down, especially since he works for the space program. (Not flying things, though.)
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Aug 4, 2015 17:24
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sithwitch13 posted:I am not letting him live that down, especially since he works for the space program. How was the Horizon simulator? We played Artimis (which I've played before) and had fun, how similar are they?
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Aug 4, 2015 17:38
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djfooboo posted:
I wanted a word with that truck and the Shwarma one. I'm from metro detroit, neither of those items were what they claimed to be. Slandible fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Aug 4, 2015 |
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Aug 4, 2015 17:40
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Bucnasti posted:How was the Horizon simulator? We played Artimis (which I've played before) and had fun, how similar are they? Horizon felt very similar to Artemis to me, but I haven't played Artemis in a few years. (I was also on Communications. Piloting seems to be pretty different, though.) You also don't have to manage much internally, like routing power/cooling to all your ship parts.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:46
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djfooboo posted:People said it was more crowded, they are liars. It was about the same, even less at times. This was only my third Gencon so I'm not a super veteran but I thought it was pretty drat crowded. Slandible posted:I wanted a word with that truck and the Shwarma one. I'm from metro detroit, neither of those items were what they claimed to be. I went to several food trucks and every single one was out of something I waited in line for. I'd rather just go to Loughmillers or something, not worth standing in line for subpar food in my opinion.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:48
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Mr.Trifecta posted:Tell me more about Hoplomachus. I saw it then I saw it had monster box expansions(versions maybe?) and I liked the general idea but the mass amount of chips overwhelmed me. It's amazing but fairly pricy. There are 2 big boxes that I believe are both standalone plus Origins which is also standalone and has smaller maps and rules for quick 2 person games. The chips you use for your gladiators are heavy and high quality and the art is beautiful. It's very tactical and the game attack and move mechanics are well thought out. It also has a nice feature of as you earn Crowd Favor for kills, you move up a track and unlock more abilities. There are also special tactics tokens at each level that go to whoever is trailing in score (regardless of which side unlocked it) to keep one side from totally dominating the other. In our ticketed event we were trailing the entire game but the tactics helped us swing around and kill the other side's champions to win.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:52
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I went and sat down at a real resturant for dinner each night, but I needed something for mid day. And I was not touching that garbage they sold inside. The food trucks never are very filling, but there are usually a few good tasting ones. The Indian one last year comes to mind, but didn't try hunting it down this year.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:52
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I wanted to try some food truck action, but standing in line outside in the heat was not something me or my friends are prepared for.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:54
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Slandible posted:I went and sat down at a real resturant for dinner each night, but I needed something for mid day. And I was not touching that garbage they sold inside. The food trucks never are very filling, but there are usually a few good tasting ones. The Indian one last year comes to mind, but didn't try hunting it down this year. I went to the Indian one and it was fine but they were out of rice and for $6 I got a little scoop of palak peneer and a little scoop of tandoori chicken that wasn't tandoori chicken.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:54
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Taste of the Caribbean food truck is always good for a midday snack. Jerk chicken nachos 4 lyfe
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Aug 4, 2015 17:55
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I had a footlong at Subway every day for breakfast. Cheap and filling enough that I could just eat one meal later. Of course now I don't want to eat subway for at least a month. It was also a nice alternative to offset what I spent at St Elmo's on Wednesday at least.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:24
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