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Post by Plum on Jul 3, 2020 13:47:14 GMT 1
Were they already included in the veteran pledge? I had assumed they weren't but I didn't check. Nevermind, it was only a few euros and I can always use them for D&D Acid Arrow dice
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Post by Zejety on Jul 3, 2020 18:12:34 GMT 1
My understanding is that The expansion already inclused Pyramids that match what comes in the new edition of the base game. The separate add-on is for when you prefer the last-edition d4 pyramids
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Post by Plum on Jul 4, 2020 15:52:07 GMT 1
Ah I hadn't noticed. Not to worry, I'll put them to use for D&D - lots of acid attacks require d4
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Post by lemmingrad on Aug 12, 2020 5:31:22 GMT 1
So, my cousin’s girlfriend happened to be at the boardgame store I order online from near Toronto.
I realize I hadn’t pre-ordered Return to The Forgotten Age, so that saved me on shipping, heh...
My cousin asked for Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. I also feel like we will never finish our Gloomhaven campaign.
I decided to check if there was anything I was interested in, and I saw and remembered Horrified. A friend of mine tried to pre-order it last year in hopes of having it by Halloween, but it was you know, got reviewed by Dice Tower at the time, so he couldn’t get a copy, and cancelled out of bitterness. Well, now I have a copy and wonder if I should await his reaction in person.
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Post by Plum on Aug 12, 2020 10:24:35 GMT 1
You could just push through the Gloomhaven main quest line, which is probably only a third of the total content in the game We've also picked it up but have yet to start gaming in person again. Still, my bf and I have been playing through a whole bunch of games 2p. We finished the AH LCG dreamlands campaign (our dreamers won and awoke, our other team 'won' but remained lost), and we've been playing a bunch of Terraforming Mars and Underwater Cities - just solid euros that work great with two. This weekend we're going to try the Norwegians expansion with Feast for Odin, which I'm looking forward to! Plenty of roll20 based D&D this week, one group tonight and another group on Saturday! Hype!
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Post by Zejety on Oct 18, 2020 19:43:19 GMT 1
First Gloomhaven scenario today! Core party consists of Spellweaver (me), Scoundrel and Mindthief with the recommended starting items. We did the first scenario on normal difficulty (1), but started muddled and with -2 hp from a road event. Still managed to beat it with 1-2 rounds to spare. We actually wanted to delay the end for another round to get some more lootin, but I drew a +1 attack modifier. I left the scenario with 1 coin lootet. Pretty sure the Scoundrel grabbed 5 with just her last action alone. Won't help my personal quest. Was also the only one who didn't get their checkmarks. It was fun! We'll hopefully continue next week! Traching and character creation obviously took a while, and everyone had evening plans. The only bummer was that our first city event would have been an amazing opportunity for the card to interact with having a Mindthief in the party, but there was no reference of them. (the event was about dealing with a rat infestation)
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Post by Plum on Oct 19, 2020 15:10:04 GMT 1
Oooh awesome! Scoundrel was my very first character and yeah, she gets a ridiculous amount of loot. I was a good girl and mostly looted coins that weren't on the critical path, so that our low moving characters could pick up some as they went. Spellweaver I struggled with at low levels. I found it required a lot more planning than the other classes and things with shields really hurt it, but in classic Wizard fashion it becomes awesome after a while Glad you enjoyed it!
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Post by Zejety on Oct 19, 2020 16:23:17 GMT 1
Oh also, we're probably gonna switch to using thazt one highly-rated gameplay assistant app next time. I think it was good to learn how the systems work, but outsourcing monster management from 3 types of components to one app seems like a good deal!
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Post by Plum on Oct 19, 2020 20:05:51 GMT 1
Oh yeah we use an app for monster management. We have a nice sized tablet so it's easy for everyone to see and saves on messing with tokens. We also use an editable PDF to manage the campaign itself, which works really well and makes it easier to see what missions we have available. Just don't lose the PDF...
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Post by Zejety on Nov 3, 2020 23:25:10 GMT 1
We've played one more 4p game of Gloomhaven before effectively turning it ointo a dedicated 2-player game. My friend who is most excited about the game also lives closest to me and has the most compatible schedule, so we got the oky from the rest of the group to go ham on it. I've got to say, it was the right call! The game really benefiits from a fast pace both during a scenario, but also on a meta level. The teamwork also feels more deliberate (though we might be pushing the communication rules occasionally). Anyway, I think we are 6 or 7 scenarios in (including side-missions) now - and we had to play two of them twice. I remain impressed by how tight the balance is, though I feel like we've gotten the upper hand now after leveling up a few times. Character progression is fun too btw.
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Post by Plum on Nov 4, 2020 14:06:26 GMT 1
Yes, we found that the two player was far more tactical and required closer co-operation between the characters. I'm curious how well the spellweaver works in 2p as in my play through I focused on area spells and using status effects on multiple enemies at once. At 4p there were always plenty of monsters to make this worthwhile - does fewer monsters in 2p make this less effective?
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Post by Zejety on Nov 4, 2020 22:21:48 GMT 1
I've been getting away with fewer AoEs when I had the <=7 XP objective.
It tends to depend on the mission. Opening a door and throwing in Fire Orbs remains good. Earth Eruption is close. I guess the actual area spells would be significantly worse, yes, and it has made my level-2 ability selection a lot easier. Icy Blast looked cool, but I'm really happy with my Flashing Burst pick.
Really my major disadvantage atm is that I do not get a huge amount of XP. The Mystic Ally summon is hard to protect with just 2 players, Retaliate and therefore Hardened Spikes don't make much sense without a tank, and both of my higher-level abilities don't grant XP. So the multi-targets moves make up the lion's share.
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Post by Plum on Nov 5, 2020 11:49:19 GMT 1
Huh that's interesting - I don't remember struggling for xp that much. Although more enemies meant I could often maximise the "xp per enemy hit" cards and there were more elements floating around, plus with three other players I could often play sub-optimally without the team suffering as much. I'd guess with only 2p then every action you take has far more impact and you have less elemental resource to work with. I did struggle for money though so it took me a long while to get fully geared up
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Post by Zejety on Nov 6, 2020 11:56:13 GMT 1
I think you hit the nail on the hat. By the way, I think "struggling" is a strong word. I think I'm about a ½-1 level behind my Mindthief friend, and I played the "gain 7 or less XP" goal twice. Although the fact that the 2nd attempt wasn't too hard tells a bit of a story. I do notice I loot a lot less than others (with rare exceptions) but the impact is harder to ignore because gold isn't a number that just goes up; it turns into cards that are harder to intuitively compare. Like, on paper with have roughly the same gold, but my friend has both hand slots full and I use no weapon at all. On the other hand, I was the lucky one to loot a chest that contained a 50g item. Also, we both could afford our first enhancement at the same time and that's enough to make me happy. Strengthen on Mana Bolt is just *chef's kiss*
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Post by Plum on Nov 6, 2020 13:50:04 GMT 1
I think I carried a piercing bow for most of the early levels. Dealing less damage but to more enemies means that shields really hurt and the bow let me bypass that. Likewise, a power potion was great because AoE gets more value out of it. I think I used an invisibility cloak as armour, mostly for those rare occasions when the tanks were unavailable and I had to open a door or rush a chest/objective.
I don't think I got around to enhancing any cards until I was around the mid-levels, and by then I had a bunch of powerful cards and a regular rotation, so the enhancements were mostly elemental to tighten up that rotation. That relied on the L3 AoE stun card which was great for me because a) lots of monsters and b) lots of teammates to burn the monsters down while they were stunned. I'm not sure how you'll value that same build though since you're fully half your team's damage
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Post by Zejety on Nov 6, 2020 16:12:21 GMT 1
Yeah, Piercing Bow would be the one to buy with excess money. But at this point I might as well wait and see what comes online at Prosperity 2. Strengthening Mana Bolt sounds crazy to me, and I admit I accidentally saw it suggested online.
Mana Bolt's heal is on the bottom ability, so if you put a Strengthen sticker on it, you can get advantage on an AoE attack that same turn and on the next one. Nevermind that Mana Bolt is also your fastest card so it really makes for an explosive first turn!
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Post by Zejety on Jan 11, 2021 10:51:41 GMT 1
Hey, does anyone have recommendations for recent games that aren't too expensive. Looking for either great solo play or something parent-compatible (complexity of Sushi Go Party at max).
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Post by Plum on Jan 11, 2021 14:31:42 GMT 1
My gold standard for solo games is Spirit Island, but that can be pricey. The Marvel Champions LCG base set maybe? Other games that I still play solo are Samurai Spirit and Ghost Stories. There's also the new Under Falling Skies space invaders style solo game that seems to be getting some great reviews. I've not tried it myself though. I'm not great with low complexity games, but (in the before times) I'd use games like Incan Gold, Just One, Letter Jam, Spectrum, and Codenames when we had beginners to our game club. And Jungle Speed, but given that usually results in injuries I wouldn't want to play it with my parents Probably some of the simpler Roll & Write games too - Cartographers, Railroad Ink etc.
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Post by Bomber678 on Jan 12, 2021 14:53:48 GMT 1
You primarily play spirit island solo? Interesting.
I don't play solo games because I'm a filthy extrovert
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Post by Zejety on Jan 12, 2021 14:58:11 GMT 1
I don't play solo games because I'm a filthy extrovert I usually don't play solo boardgame either but... *gestures around himself*
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Post by flagrantangles on Jan 12, 2021 22:14:01 GMT 1
I finally got around to playing Trickerion with my sister and we both loved it. I was surprised at how mentally draining I found it though since other Mindclash games (Cerebria and Anachrony) aren't as taxing to me. Either way, I had a good time but my sister is a fair bit better at it, but that's not a surprise. She's generally pretty good at Euro games.
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Post by Bomber678 on Jan 13, 2021 11:26:27 GMT 1
My gold standard for solo games is Spirit Island, but that can be pricey. On this subject, I was just looking up some stuff about it yesterday, and discovered Eric himself delivered some new errata, the most important being that during setup, add 1 more blight to the blight card. This is to make useable blight consistent across player counts, and makes 1 and 2 player games much easier.
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Post by Plum on Jan 13, 2021 12:07:44 GMT 1
I play a bunch of Spirit Island with my bf as well - we've been slowly working through the new expansion spirits and having a great time. If I'm playing solo I tend to play 2-handed so the experience is largely the same. There's a great implementation of it on Tabletop Simulator (though I think it's a paid DLC, maybe £5 or something), as well as a digital version (definitely on Steam, I'm not sure about tablets). It's just a really satisfying puzzle I hadn't heard about the extra blight errata - that will definitely make the Invader scenarios easier! I've only played Trickerion a few times but really enjoyed it each time. There's just so much going on in that game and it absolutely drips with theme. I've only ever played it with 4p though, so there's quite a lot of fighting over spaces and performances. Is it mellower with 2p? I figure it might be a smoother, higher scoring experience, but then it's also easier to track what your opponent is doing and mess with them more effectively
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Post by flagrantangles on Jan 29, 2021 21:28:54 GMT 1
Yeah, I feel like we were fighting over spaces in a different way. Mostly, going anywhere but the theatre twice was a risky proposition since each location only has two open positions. I feel like I'm not very good at paying enough attention at what people are doing to mess with them especially effectively. I will sorta do so with Market Row and changing what items are available. I feel like I don't plan in the right way for Trickerion or Anachrony for that matter. I do very well at Cerebria though.
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Post by Zejety on Mar 7, 2021 19:32:43 GMT 1
Gloomhaven: Retired my [Music Note] today in a real nailbiter of a mission! The mission was 62 (Pit of Souls, from a Personal Quest for unlocking [Eclipse]); mild spoilers ahead! We got completely swarmed and someone managed to fulfil the stop 1 of the victory conditions with [Triforce]'s big loss nuke, then focus fired step two down in a single round before the 8 (!) remaining skeletons could get to us again. What a crazy quest! We didn't think we would make it! I'm switching to [Sun] (mild spoilers ahead!) now and really looking forward to it. It was hard to feel impactful as [Music Note], so playing something straight forward sounds appealing! We never had a real tank in our group either, so i'm curious about that experience!
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Post by Plum on Mar 8, 2021 12:44:00 GMT 1
Sun was one of my favourites - it's a style that I usually play in games. I think my top three were probably Sun, Lightning and Two Minis, in no particular order (with Mind Thief an honourable mention). God I miss Gloomhaven
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Post by lemmingrad on Jul 9, 2022 4:46:40 GMT 1
So, new expansion announced for Arkham Horror the Card Game, and therefore, new investigators to make pixel art of.
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Post by lemmingrad on Jul 9, 2022 4:49:01 GMT 1
One of my online Arkham friends suggested for Kymani Jones, instead of a gun, depict them (they're the game franchise's first Non-Binary character) wielding a grapple hook. 4 hours of sleep and my internet providers having a country wide blackout made me get a bit carried and away and do a little animation.
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Post by lemmingrad on Jan 9, 2024 22:31:59 GMT 1
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Post by Plum on Jan 13, 2024 23:50:00 GMT 1
Amazing! Both the bead versions and the flavour you got into the swinging grapple I'm back on the City of Heroes train after it was recently given a bit more stability by NCSoft agreeing not to kill the fan run servers. My favourite MMO by far and it still feels great 20 years later. Also still playing Bloodbowl on tabletop (my New Vamps are joint top of the table with one game left of the season - odds are good for playoffs) and a bunch of Overwatch. I'm a creature of habit
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