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Gremlins: Inc is a board game on PC (although there is a print-and-play version) that has really been hitting the spot for me. Ranked matchmaking is available with a four-player game running from 30-50 minutes, and single player games against AI aren’t bad either. Players have a hand of six cards, which have a movement value of 1-6 to move around the non-linear board, or can be played for actions. It has tableau-building elements with an objective to reach a certain amount of VPs. It has fairly simple mechanics but a nice depth and variety of strategies. There is a fair amount of RNG. There is also a lot of interaction with your opponents and many opportunities to sabotage them. It’s laid-back yet exciting, particularly the endgame, and I have won and lost many games by just one or two turns. Finally the art and theme is very good. It’s a steampunk hyper-capitalist society with delightfully amoral characters. 
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Apr 18, 2020 20:34
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Infinitum posted:(Like I bought my best mate Marvel Champions just before this poo poo went into turbo drive and I've been dying to play it) I believe OCTGN has a Marvel Champions module if you want to try it out digitally!
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Apr 18, 2020 20:43
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Does anyone know where I can order custom sized neoprene? need a ~27" by 57" mat for our game table.
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Apr 18, 2020 20:47
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Bottom Liner posted:Does anyone know where I can order custom sized neoprene? need a ~27" by 57" mat for our game table. Patroit Games does it in the UK if that helps?
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Apr 18, 2020 20:54
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Jarvisi posted:The digital version of spirit island is out and I fully now realize how bad I am at the game. Any tips for winning? Its the most brutally hard board game I've ever played The big stumbling block for newbies seems to be getting used to the timing on slow powers. When you're planning your turn playing slow powers to hit lands that are ravaging this turn is usually pointless, you need to use slow powers to hit lands that are about to build so that you can get rid of newly added invaders before the ravage next turn. Generally speaking, as long as a ravage does at least 2 damage it doesn't really matter how much more damage it does. So it's usually better to stop two 3-damage ravages than it is to stop one 6-damage ravage. Similarly, when you're pushing invaders out of a land you usually might as well shove them into a land that already has a bunch of invaders rather than pushing them to an empty land: that way you only have to deal with 1 problem land later instead of 2. Do not underestimate your innate powers. Unless you have a REALLY good reason to take a specific power it's usually better to take something that matches your elements even if the power itself sounds less useful than other off-element powers. (If you branch out into major powers this becomes less important, but for minor powers you almost always want to draft towards your innate elements.)
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Apr 18, 2020 21:07
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Jarvisi posted:The digital version of spirit island is out and I fully now realize how bad I am at the game. Any tips for winning? Its the most brutally hard board game I've ever played So every spirit is bad at something--but by working together, you can overcome these weaknesses. Is the digital version of Spirit Island single player?
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Apr 18, 2020 21:10
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Bottom Liner posted:Does anyone know where I can order custom sized neoprene? need a ~27" by 57" mat for our game table. I got one from Big Viking Mats that's pretty solid but they are a bit pricey, especially since you want to go above 50" on the long end you would need to order their largest size which is $142. If you're comfortable with a few inches on each end of your table not being covered, their smallest size (max 28" x 50") will do the trick at a more reasonable price point. 5mm is a bit on the spongey side for me, but it's still perfectly good for most things - don't know how it would effect the balancing of a dexterity stacking game. There's an option to skip the logo for no additional charge. If you're up for some DIY though, I've seen FoamOrder.com recommended a few times on BGG and other places. You can get a 51" x 83" sheet of 3mm nylon backed neoprene for $44+s&h or a non-nylon backed sheet for $33+s&h (a bit more for higher thicknesses) which you can then use some spray adhesive and a cloth of your choice to cover. You have to cut it down to size yourself though.
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Apr 18, 2020 21:25
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Also you should try to go as many turns as you can before you do a "reclaim all cards" growth option. Maximize the numbers of turns you can play before you have to reclaim (within reason). Also pushing/pulling can seem like a small way to address big problems, but don't overlook push/pull. Another good beginner's strategy is to find ways to get Dahan into a land that is going to ravage, and then use whatever power you can to defend or weaken the ravage (either through an explicit "Defend" power, or by picking off some invaders in that land in the fast round). Give the Dahan some cover and they will pay you back.
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Apr 18, 2020 21:26
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armorer posted:And the dev is ChipTheory at that, chip stacks and high production values are kinda their thing. I've been interested in Too Many Bones and Cloudspire as well, but I'm reluctant to part with that much money having never played either of them. I've played both and was not a big fan of either. It's interesting how some parts of the games are so over-designed and some are so under-developed. When we played Too Many Bones and we played the easiest boss first and then the encounter design for the boss was "Only one of you gets to fight while the others watch" and I was kind of shocked in how that got through development. After playing a couple more I realized "Oh, because there probably was no development."
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Apr 18, 2020 22:06
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Bottom Liner posted:Does anyone know where I can order custom sized neoprene? need a ~27" by 57" mat for our game table. That's about the size of the Cthulhu Wars 9-11 player map. I don't know how it will compare with your other alternatives in price, but it's one more thing to look at.
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Apr 18, 2020 22:16
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Mystic Mongol posted:So every spirit is bad at something--but by working together, you can overcome these weaknesses. Is the digital version of Spirit Island single player? The intro tutorial is 1 spirit but also just brutally murders you over and over. Playing with friends it's slightly easier, but I'm trying to figure it out myself before dragging friends in again
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Apr 18, 2020 22:28
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I got to play the tts Port of the Dark Souls board game. It's an excellent port and the game lends itself quite well to the TTS format. The game itself though I found... Very mediocre? Because everyone's moves are similar it has the potential to run into the trap of 'one guy directs the party', and there's something that seems very wrong about attack/defense/dodge elements of a Dark Souls game being dice based. The game has some really clever elements, especially in the way the boss fights are designed to establish 'attack patterns' that you can memorize and plan around, but all that kind of goes out the window and feels unsatisfying when you wipe because you rolled a 0 instead of a 2. The only situation I would ever see myself recommending it over gloomhaven is to a group of people that want a dungeon crawler but just hate gloomhaven's combat system. Has anyone here played it into the later levels? Does it get more interesting?
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Apr 18, 2020 22:48
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Jedit posted:Cthulhu Wars 9-11 next COIN game soundin good
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Apr 18, 2020 23:35
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Jarvisi posted:The intro tutorial is 1 spirit but also just brutally murders you over and over. Playing with friends it's slightly easier, but I'm trying to figure it out myself before dragging friends in again Which spirit have you been using so far? And does it pit you against an adversary to start, or is it just the base game?
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Apr 18, 2020 23:52
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Jimmeeee posted:Which spirit have you been using so far? And does it pit you against an adversary to start, or is it just the base game? It's literally just the base game, one board with water surges in sunlight. That's the tutorial
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Apr 19, 2020 06:28
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Jarvisi posted:It's literally just the base game, one board with water surges in sunlight. That's the tutorial Ah gotcha. Needing to play a solo game as the tutorial is sort of throwing you in the deep end, but I guess there's probably no easy way for them to work in an AI spirit to play along with you. That being said, here are some tips (some of which are repeats from other people above): -Preventing build actions is insanely strong and River is very good at doing so. River is also very good at dealing with Towns, so it's okay if you let a build action for a town go through as long as you can move/destroy the town before next turn's ravage. For your first turn, try to set up a situation where you can use Wash Away and your Innate to prevent two Builds or Ravages in the next turn. -Play River's Bounty early and often. The extra energy is nice and it lets you cover the board with Dahan, which will make it easier to kill invaders during ravages when they come up. Keep in mind Invaders hit first and the surviving Dahan only strike back, so make sure enough Dahan will survive to knock out towns or cities. -When choosing growth options, try to get to 3 cards (and, ideally, the Reclaim 1 space next to it) ASAP. Playing 3 cards per turn will likely let you use the second level of your innate, which can single-handedly clear out most lands as long as they don't have a City in them. Getting that Reclaim 1 space will also mean you won't have to take the Reclaim All growth option nearly as often. -In a solo game you can only get 2 Blight on the board before the island is Blighted, so it's virtually guaranteed to happen. Don't worry about it. The Blighted Island effect will probably just involve removing some presence from the board every turn. As River you're very good at putting down presence and the solo board is very small, so after the first round or two you can almost always afford to lose a presence. If you want more in-depth advice, this guide provides a walkthrough of the opening several turns of the game. I found those super helpful for learning the spirits and the flow of the game when I was first learning how to play.
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Apr 19, 2020 12:10
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Did CSI sell out of gulf mobile Ohio or is it their typical action of marking it sold out until they actually get some in stock? MM is already out. Didn’t know the game was already released, thought it was later in 2020.
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Apr 19, 2020 13:14
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Spirit island is a game of being on the back foot and feeling like you're a turn away from losing until you turn the corner and convert it into a win in the space of a turn or two. This usually coincides with you getting the elements online for the more powerful effects of your innate powers, and/or having the energy production to start taking and playing major powers. This can make it a little hard to tell, in the early treading-water stages, whether you're keeping up acceptably, or if you really are falling behind the board. As River, you really want to be hitting at least the first level of your innate every single turn. You can push an explorer out of the space they were placed in to prevent next turn's build, or you can push a town out of the space it was built in to neutralise the ravage. Given that in the early game you have an explore in two spaces, and a build in two spaces, that's solving 1/4 of your problems without even looking at your card actions.
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Apr 19, 2020 14:24
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I like Concordia, and I'm looking to pick up a Mac Gerdts game with a rondel. Among Antike II, Navegador, and Imperial, which would you recommend, and why? I most often play with 2, but when we get a group together, it's usually 4 or 5. I don't need the game to play well (or at all, in the case of Antike II) at 2, but it would be a bonus if it did.
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Apr 19, 2020 16:27
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mellifluous posted:I like Concordia, and I'm looking to pick up a Mac Gerdts game with a rondel. Among Antike II, Navegador, and Imperial, which would you recommend, and why? I most often play with 2, but when we get a group together, it's usually 4 or 5. I don't need the game to play well (or at all, in the case of Antike II) at 2, but it would be a bonus if it did. Haven't played the other two but Imperial is great. You're basically buying shares in countries and having them spend the invested cash to expand on the board and generate more income for its investors. The rondel makes for interesting decisions, what you want to do may not be available, but you can spend cash to move further than normal. No idea if Imperial 2030 is different, though. Bellmaker fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Apr 19, 2020 16:48
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mellifluous posted:I like Concordia, and I'm looking to pick up a Mac Gerdts game with a rondel. Among Antike II, Navegador, and Imperial, which would you recommend, and why? I most often play with 2, but when we get a group together, it's usually 4 or 5. I don't need the game to play well (or at all, in the case of Antike II) at 2, but it would be a bonus if it did. Concordia. The others you listed are great but Concordia is honestly the only one that works with 2. Although while writing this I think Antike II plays at 2 and I haven't tried it yet... Bottom Liner posted:Antike Duellum is the 2p Antike and it is great. Good Lord why am I only finding out about this now??? FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Apr 19, 2020 17:26
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Antike Duellum is the 2p Antike and it is great.
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Apr 19, 2020 17:31
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FulsomFrank posted:Concordia. The others you listed are great but Concordia is honestly the only one that works with 2. Although while writing this I think Antike II plays at 2 and I haven't tried it yet... Sorry if I wasn't clear: I already have Concordia, and I'm looking to pick up one of the other three games. I do want one that plays with more than 2, so I pre-emptively excluded Antike Duellum.
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Apr 19, 2020 18:49
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Imperial is probably his best game, but I doubt it plays 2 well.
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Apr 19, 2020 19:49
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For another perspective, Concordia and Navegador are his only good games imo. However they are pretty similar to each other in terms of feel. They are different, but may or may not have space for both in the collection.
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Apr 19, 2020 20:19
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I like Navegador a bit more than Concordia in the long run personally, and it's also pretty decent with 2p as well as higher player counts. Princes of Machu Picchu is also very good imo, but changes drastically at all player counts, unsure of how it works at 2.
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Apr 19, 2020 21:10
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mellifluous posted:I like Concordia, and I'm looking to pick up a Mac Gerdts game with a rondel. Among Antike II, Navegador, and Imperial, which would you recommend, and why? I most often play with 2, but when we get a group together, it's usually 4 or 5. I don't need the game to play well (or at all, in the case of Antike II) at 2, but it would be a bonus if it did. With 2, Navegador is the go. All of those are great games though.
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Apr 20, 2020 00:05
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Is there a gooncensus on Hamburgum? I never hear anyone talk about it lately, but I heard good things back in the day,
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Apr 20, 2020 00:44
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Shadow225 posted:For another perspective, Concordia and Navegador are his only good games imo. However they are pretty similar to each other in terms of feel. They are different, but may or may not have space for both in the collection. While I can respect differences of opinion it strikes me as crazy to say that Imperial is not a good game. Even if you don’t like the game, it’s tightly designed and offers an experience unlike any other game I’ve played. Honestly, Concordia feels pretty different to me because it doesn’t have the rondel limit on turn order. Its definitely more accessible and a lot more varied game to game than navegador. I like navegador, but the market is pretty simple and the game to game play can feel a little samey if you dive deep. Haven’t played antike 2, but I’m not a huge fan of antike duelleum personally, so my view there would probably be biased.
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Apr 20, 2020 03:08
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Magnetic North posted:Is there a gooncensus on Hamburgum? I never hear anyone talk about it lately, but I heard good things back in the day, Mmm... hamburgum...
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Apr 20, 2020 12:26
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Oink has released another one of their cute stop-motion rules videos, this time for Troika: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX0IOzM9oHE also regular rules videos for Fafnir and Nine Tiles Panic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAfbUnULE_A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fElsuV06Q4s
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Apr 20, 2020 13:08
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The End posted:With 2, Navegador is the go. All of those are great games though. I didn't really enjoy Navegador at 2 to be honest. It felt like a lot of the race and market shenanigans was neutered at the low play count versus Concordia's gameplay which felt identical but just more condensed. That said it's been a while since we played it so maybe it's time for a refresh.
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Apr 20, 2020 15:35
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FulsomFrank posted:I didn't really enjoy Navegador at 2 to be honest. It felt like a lot of the race and market shenanigans was neutered at the low play count versus Concordia's gameplay which felt identical but just more condensed. That said it's been a while since we played it so maybe it's time for a refresh. Tom Lehman of Race For The Galaxy has a 2p variant that makes the game a little tighter.
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Apr 20, 2020 15:51
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Fellis posted:Oink has released another one of their cute stop-motion rules videos, this time for Troika: Troika is pretty good! Similar vibes to Startups since it’s a good bit of screwing over others while set collecting.
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Apr 21, 2020 04:21
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Troika is a interesting game for me because I don’t hate it but I also don’t love it. However when I want to teach a 3 person filler game in 5 min and then turn my brain off while watching for other groups to finish or have a conversation while playing, it’s one of my go-to games. It also usually goes over well because of the simplicity and slight depth it has in trying to read your opponents. I’m looking forward to getting Fafnir sometime, I think it will be a similar niche, but with superior auction mechanics Taught myself the Arkham Horror LCG on tabletop sim this evening and drat that game is good. I’ve never been terribly interested in solo tabletop games, but it was very engrossing trying to work out the puzzle and see all my old arkham horror fav characters/art again Fellis fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Apr 21, 2020 |
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Apr 21, 2020 05:29
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Fellis posted:Taught myself the Arkham Horror LCG on tabletop sim this evening and drat that game is good. I’ve never been terribly interested in solo tabletop games, but it was very engrossing trying to work out the puzzle and see all my old arkham horror fav characters/art again
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Apr 21, 2020 12:14
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Redundant posted:I picked this up but haven't gotten around to actually starting it yet. Between this and Spirit Island I should have some good 1-2 player games to check out. I suppose I should really check out some rules first but that shouldn't be a big issue. It seems like there are some good how-to-play videos (the tabletop sim module had some embedded), but I just dove in with the how-to-play and it was fine. The thing that impresses me is between the psuedo-legacy campaigns, variety in deck construction/characters, and difficulty levels, there is a ton of replayability. I had heard the game was good but it really impressed me, more so than the demo I saw awhile back. To be fair I was seeing some stuff from expansions also, not 100% sure what the card pool looks like from a core set
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Apr 21, 2020 12:36
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I've been playing a lot of solo Feast For Odin lately, and I really like the Harvest Mini Expansion. You get 8 chits with either a harvest (1-1, 1-2, 1-3 or 1-4) or no harvest (4 times). At game start you randomly choose one of the harvest tokens, and from then on every harvest phase you choose one of the remaining 7 tokens randomly. So you could start with all the orange food if you pull the 1-4 harvest first, but you could also end up with a few non-harvests in a row in later rounds. I like the element of randomization this introduces without adding a lot of effort in setup/teardown. At game start you also pull an additional resource token that gets you a resource every harvest phase (front side if there is a harvest, different resource on the back side if there is no harvest this round). They've also changed setup so you select 2 starting occupations and keep one of them and they banned (or recommended the removal of) some overpowered or useless occupation cards. Oh, and there"s a new Island (Isle of Mull/Caithness) and new 1 square resources (berries/eggs and amber/gullgubber). I didn't yet try the revised short game rules that are also in the expansion, where you start with a bit of silver, an extra weapons card, extra resources and a pre-built artisan shed, so everything should snowball a lot faster. All in all a pretty nice set of changes for a very small expansion.
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Apr 21, 2020 12:44
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Barbelith posted:I've been playing a lot of solo Feast For Odin lately, and I really like the Harvest Mini Expansion. Where did you get your copy of the mini-expansion? I haven't seen it anywhere. I've never solo'd FfO but it's one of my favourite games of all time and I love it dearly. Still not good at it though but one day I can dream of the scores those guys on the geek post. There's been a bit of discussion with the upcoming Danes expansion and whether it's going to be another huge shift in the game again. I can't wait to see it. The designer is really, really passionate about the game.
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Apr 21, 2020 15:58
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^ I agree with you on everything. I dont think Ive seen a designer who seems to be as fully invested in the game as Gernot is. Every one of his posts on BGG seems like hes just so enthusiastic about his latest plan that he cant wait to tell folks. I just wish I could find the harvest mini expansion shipped to the us for a reasonable price. Edit: It looks like you can order it from z man games now: https://zmangames.com/en/products/feast-odin-mini-expansion-2/ Grundma fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Apr 21, 2020 |
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Apr 21, 2020 16:12
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