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Post by FraaOrolo on Oct 23, 2016 15:03:53 GMT 1
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Post by Bomber678 on Oct 23, 2016 17:29:39 GMT 1
Technically, yes. A monarch is not employed by their people like a government, they rule over them. It is their role.
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Post by lemmingrad on Oct 23, 2016 23:29:19 GMT 1
Seafall: Played the prologue with Pandemic Red Team -1 and +1 Blue Team member. The group enjoyed themselves. It was fairly lengthly (2 or so hours) but if your group is alright with complicated rules (I had to move back and forth in the rulebook about endevours and Explore+Raid so so many times) it might work with your groups. We definitely had our laughs on our Captain Booke misfortunes, and the plot twist at the end of the Prologue (therefore don't skip it) shocked everyone. For now, this isn't our official Seafall group, we're waiting on the missing Red Team member to pick up the 2nd copy, and we'll redo the prologue. This first prologue game was to get out of our system the confusions we had about the rules (one of our friends was very confused on the Captain Booke's explore map being a map, and not say, a list, cause he was like "But it looks nothing like the islands!") Pandemic Legacy - Blue Team
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Post by scymrian on Oct 24, 2016 15:38:17 GMT 1
As previously mentioned about these parts, Betrayal At House on the Hill is my partner's favorite game, so I play it a lot these days.
If you're a fan of it, the Widow's Walk expansion that just came out is really dang sweet, actually. Buncha new rooms, new floor of the house. New room feature "dumbwaiter" that makes it easier to switch floors (especially nice with regards to entering and escaping the Basement), the new items are cool, there's a little more goofing (the Chainsaw weapon requires you make Chainsaw noises to get the bonus). It's not gonna change the mind of anyone who isn't a fan, but if you already were a fan, it definitely improves the experience.
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Post by FraaOrolo on Oct 24, 2016 23:22:54 GMT 1
I'll have to look into that expansion once I've gotten a good number of games in on my copy of Betrayal
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Post by flagrantangles on Oct 26, 2016 19:29:05 GMT 1
Hmmmm, this expansion might cause me to like the game a touch more. MAYBE. I might subtly persuade my friend to buy it. I must find more people to play Codex with.
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Post by Plum on Oct 31, 2016 15:02:48 GMT 1
Oh man I played so many excellent games this weekend, including the new Mechs vs Minions LoL game from Riot! It was great fun Also, in no particular order, we played: Inis, Feast for Odin, Ice Cool, Pitch Car, Cottage Garden, Rock Paper Wizard, Fuji Flush, Bohnanza, Codenames: Pictures, Watchmen of Destiny, Pandemic Legacy (August), Dancing Eggs, Rhino Hero, Billionaire Banshee, and Click Clack Lumberjack. Those latter four were fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol which lifted them from cool kid friendly games to amazing drunken party games. Especially Dancing Eggs, holy shit we were crying with laughter.
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Post by Bomber678 on Oct 31, 2016 21:18:20 GMT 1
Oh man I played so many excellent games this weekend, including the new Mechs vs Minions LoL game from Riot! It was great fun Also, in no particular order, we played: Inis, Feast for Odin, Ice Cool, Pitch Car, Cottage Garden, Rock Paper Wizard, Fuji Flush, Bohnanza, Codenames: Pictures, Watchmen of Destiny, Pandemic Legacy (August), Dancing Eggs, Rhino Hero, Billionaire Banshee, and Click Clack Lumberjack. Those latter four were fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol which lifted them from cool kid friendly games to amazing drunken party games. Especially Dancing Eggs, holy shit we were crying with laughter. But you know what you didn't do? YOU DIDN'T COME TO THE UK MEET UP AND PLAY CODEX
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Post by Plum on Nov 1, 2016 10:07:40 GMT 1
But you know what you didn't do? YOU DIDN'T COME TO THE UK MEET UP AND PLAY CODEX This is my curse As well as gaming, I attended two parties and a dinner over the weekend; there was definitely no chance of slipping away to London. Which is to say, I have still not played Codex...
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Post by Plum on Nov 7, 2016 14:37:42 GMT 1
{Pandemic Legacy. September. Spoilers.} Holy shit you guys. Holy shit. Holy. Shit.
So the Quarantine Specialist basically kept a tight lid on the faded, pretty much single-handedly keeping the faded cities from descending into anarchy and guarding her quarter of the world like a bad-ass motherf*cker.
And then, early in September, she disappeared. We suspect that her paramilitary escort turned on her but we'll never know her fate - she's not been seen since. We immediately appointed a replacement, but she was little more than an untrained civilian. By the end of September, virtually every city in Europe and Eurasia had worsened, with many going from controlled outbreaks to fully Fallen. We succeeded in our goals only by the grace of God. And by God, I mean John Medic, who heroically sacrificed himself twice to see us through. The veteran had so far escaped the horrors of this new world unscathed, but September left him a broken husk, suffering from PTSD flashbacks and insomnia. Two of our key players are now either missing, or badly damaged. Just as we were getting a handle on things, everything got turned upside down again and the whole of Europe is burning.
I have no idea what October will bring, but I know that we're not ready. Can never be ready. John Medic has once again signed up to active duty, but you can see in his eyes that he's expecting this to be his last job, one way or another.
Holy shit.
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Post by Kraetyz on Nov 7, 2016 16:57:19 GMT 1
I played Ubongo with my parents. It was a very fun, pleasant experience. They both enjoyed the game a lot, since it's a game that really trains your brain while taking less than half an hour to play.
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Post by scymrian on Nov 10, 2016 15:04:29 GMT 1
My partner loves Smash Up. It's fun enough so I don't mind playing it with her from time to time, although I wouldn't call it a great game. It brings some chuckles, though. She just got the Monster Smash expansion, and I was infuriated and also greatly amused by the fact that the majority of the Giant Ant cards are named after Queen songs.
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Post by Bomber678 on Nov 10, 2016 15:12:54 GMT 1
My partner loves Smash Up. It's fun enough so I don't mind playing it with her from time to time, although I wouldn't call it a great game. It brings some chuckles, though. She just got the Monster Smash expansion, and I was infuriated and also greatly amused by the fact that the majority of the Giant Ant cards are named after Queen songs. The entire game is like "haha, references and/or stereotypes and memes" with some basic gameplay thrown in there. I rate it as "ok" because it is pretty simple so you can get people into it pretty quick, but if I'm after a real game I don't turn to it.
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Post by scymrian on Nov 10, 2016 15:27:15 GMT 1
Yeah, that's fairly accurate. I can engage myself with the very simple board-state math for about a game or two at a time every once in a while. The card art is cool enough.
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Post by Plum on Nov 11, 2016 10:47:40 GMT 1
Played a whole bunch of PushFight last night. It was super fun! I'm considering now making a travel set as it's pretty space efficient.
Also won my first Blood Bowl game all season! Seven games in and my team is finally hitting its stride, with three games remaining. I'm playing the long game though, with a eye on carrying the team into next season
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Post by Star Slayer on Nov 12, 2016 19:41:30 GMT 1
Day one... So, what about day 2, day 3 and day 4? I realized that I never posted what I got at the Spiel in Essen. That list is far less impressive though: SimurghA good worker placement game with cool artwork. You trade goods for vassals, raise dragons and then go on quests (the main source of victory points). Or you build buildungs or set up an engine to convert goods into victory points. I didn't own a worker placement game already, so I thought I'd go for this one. Avalon (The Resistance) The best version of Werewolf, I hear. Should be great for meetings with 6+ players. Puzzle Strike (German version for 5€!) I was shocked to see it go for 9€, but then one store dropped the prize even more during the cleanout phase (afternoon of day 4). Seeing it at such a low price could mean that it isn't selling well in Germany. What a shame. The low price also meant that the three of us each bought one copy. You can't go wrong with PS for only 5€! I also wanted to get INIS on day 4, but it was already sold out everywhere. A friend got Pandemic: Cthulhu. He says it was quite fun. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my boardgame evening because I got sick the day before.
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Post by Plum on Nov 13, 2016 14:34:48 GMT 1
So, what about day 2, day 3 and day 4? I realized that I never posted what I got at the Spiel in Essen. That list is far less impressive though: SimurghA good worker placement game with cool artwork. You trade goods for vassals, raise dragons and then go on quests (the main source of victory points). Or you build buildungs or set up an engine to convert goods into victory points. I didn't own a worker placement game already, so I thought I'd go for this one. Avalon (The Resistance) The best version of Werewolf, I hear. Should be great for meetings with 6+ players. Puzzle Strike (German version for 5€!) I was shocked to see it go for 9€, but then one store dropped the prize even more during the cleanout phase (afternoon of day 4). Seeing it at such a low price could mean that it isn't selling well in Germany. What a shame. The low price also meant that the three of us each bought one copy. You can't go wrong with PS for only 5€! I also wanted to get INIS on day 4, but it was already sold out everywhere. A friend got Pandemic: Cthulhu. He says it was quite fun. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my boardgame evening because I got sick the day before. Day One was probably half of our total haul, since we wanted to grab all of the hot properties before they sold out (Hello Inis!). The rest of the purchases were mostly things that just caught our eye as we were wondering around the show. Regarding cheap Puzzle Strike, quite a lot of companies had brutal price cuts on the last day because they would struggle to get their stock back home. The company I was with had rented a van for the return journey because they could fill that with new stock and sell it through their online store. Most sellers though want to sell everything they have so that they're not renting a near-empty van for a couple more days.
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Post by Kraetyz on Nov 13, 2016 19:58:46 GMT 1
So, these are the games I've played this weekend and my opinion on them:
Settlers - Cities & Knights The real Settlers. The original feels bland and boring compared to this fantastic expansion. Even though it was one of my worst rounds of it ever, it's still an amazingly fun game. City building feels meaningful and fun without being the only thing you have to do, the barbarian raids are an awesome way to pace the game, and everything players can do with their knights is so exciting. I assume everyone here has played Settlers, so if you haven't picked up C&K and made it your primary way to play the game - what the hell are you waiting for? It's the best thing since candy was invented.
Drakborgen - Legenden Childhood classic of mine. It's a Swedish dungeon crawling game where you take on the role of an adventurer venturing into the Dragon Fortress. Collect treasure, fight monsters, get out before the sun sets! It's all kinds of exciting... in theory. In reality, the game usually plays like this: Player enters room. Portcullis falls down behind them. It's a dead end. There's a Minotaur in the room. Kill the Minotaur, be left at 3 health. Spend 5 rounds trying to rest to re-gain health. Give up. Spend 8 turns trying to get the portcullis back up. Meanwhile, other player takes one step in, finds random treasure, and leaves for the win before they can get stuck. You get stuck SO MUCH in this game. 40-80% of your turns might be spent futilely rolling dice trying to get a portcullis, door or a pile of garbage out of the way. And, when you do, you'll probably end up dying to a minotaur or demon or just walking into a dead end. I love it.
Tempvs Tempvs is a "civ-lite" game, meant to play as a Civilization building game without all the micromanagement details. It plays in an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and it feels good! We played it on three people (game can take 3-5 players), which felt fun. The players together build a map and place their tiny civilizations on it. You take (usually) quick turns making choices such as spreading your borders, increasing your population, battling your opponents and building cities. At the end of each round, players advance at different paces to different Eras, which provide simple boosts to the different actions you can take. It's very straightforward, but provides you with very cool, interesting choices. The game has a huge disadvantage, though. Well, two actually. First off, the rulebook is... not great. It's about two times wordier than it has to be and does not feel optimized for finding rules. It'll take a little while to actually learn the rules, but they're very easy to explain once someone gets it. Second off, and this one's big: The visual design is HORRIBLE. the game has 4 important terrain types, and three of those are different shades of dark green. wtf?? The player colors are also hard to distinguish, especially the purple and black tokens, and the purple and red city tiles. Worse yet, about 1/3rd of the play mat is taken up by a HUGE progress track that lists in gigantic text information about each Era of play... information that could have easily been placed on the information sheets that every player has in front of them either way. Very poorly thought through. Still, a very entertaining game once you learn to accept its flaws.
Quoridor I love Quoridor. It's intelligent, it's non-random, and it's exactly the type of very basic logical thinking that I can handle without feeling stupid. Abstract strategy games with rules you explain in 30 minutes, 5-10 minute rounds and a gorgeous wooden play set. Can't praise this game enough (even if it has a potentially enormous second player advantage, though I'm sure there's a way to play around it...).
Yomi Yomi is alright. David Sirlin sucks cocks, though. I regret spending money buying it, but the game's fun so I might as well enjoy it.
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Post by scymrian on Nov 14, 2016 3:23:04 GMT 1
I got out to the cafe for the first time in a good long while yesterday, it's been hard with my partner's new job. Owner made us play Karuba for the first time. It was an awful lot of fun. I immediately liked it a lot and we'll probably be picking it back up.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 14, 2016 16:15:53 GMT 1
I'm excited for this weekend. I have some friends coming up and we're about to play so many games. It's gonna be a bonanza! I'm going to teach them how to play Codex and they're going to teach me how to play Ashes. A good time should be had by all!
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Post by Plum on Nov 15, 2016 17:18:09 GMT 1
I have a 24 hour gaming marathon this weekend for charity (Children in Need), whoop whoop! It's a perfect chance to break out some of my big games, athough given that my brain shuts down after about 9pm, I suspect that the last eleven hours will be Love Letter...
Already on the agenda is the Starcraft board game (+ Brood War), Forbidden Stars and Fief: 1429. Probably also Feast for Odin, Inis and Yashima. Oh, and Monopoly, Munchkin and Trump: You're Hired because my friends are a bag of dicks and donated money to torment me.
Gonna be greeeeeat!
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Post by scymrian on Nov 16, 2016 14:40:07 GMT 1
Can anyone give me, in the next 12 hours, the best advice for bidding in Spades, assuming that someone (me) once played for two hours, nine years ago, and not since? I've been drafted into a game tomorrow and want to pretend to be competent, thanks.
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Post by scymrian on Nov 18, 2016 19:37:21 GMT 1
Actually, it turns out, Spades is easy. Nevermind.
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Post by Plum on Nov 21, 2016 19:56:14 GMT 1
Wooo, completed our 24 hour charity gaming marathon! Here's a cut-paste of a write up I did elsewhere...
Bunny Bunny Moose Moose - my first game of the day! I should say that not all games played are great - people could donate money and force us to play bad games and this was one such. Personally though I loved it! :smiley:
Apples to Apples Junior - our second game and my god this was a struggle. An eight year old taught us the rules, which is to say an eight year old taught us what she decided the rules were on that particular day. As a result the game lasted four times longer than it should have and was like pulling nails! It's for charity, we kept telling ourselves to keep our strength up...
Arkham Horror - I was curious about this new LCG, so a friend ran through the first scenario with me. It was a lot of fun and I'm definitely curious to see how it grows over the next couple of months. It was a little disappointing that the base set only sits two players, but I suppose most groups will have a couple of copies lying around.
Pitch Car - we had a bunch of kids turn up around lunchtime, so I used that as an excuse to break out Pitch Car. Cue two hours of happy flicking, track building and rivalries. The kids seemed to enjoy building new tracks just as much as actually playing the game - it's a real shame that this game is so pricey and hard to get hold of.
Dream Home - I wasn't expecting much from this but it was surprisingly fun and clean. It feels like My First Quadropolis, and I think will serve as an excellent introductory game. Definitely a useful one to keep in the club library.
Three Kingdoms Redux - I love this game but don't get the chance to play it very often. Wei started strong as usual but went for the borders a little too soon and struggled to assert control through the rest of the game, while Wu and Shu played more conservatively. Shu did eventually move to their borders, but both they and Shu were more concerned with civic actions, and scored well on buildings, politics, development and tribal relations. The final result was incredibly close (as it usually is) because Wei's early aggression had given them a steady drip of points through the entire game, but it was Shu that took the win from them by a scant two points.
Fuji Flush - wow, this was a surprise. It doesn't look like much, but with a full table of eight players all catcalling, cajoling and smack-talking it was fantastic. We played several times through the event and it always led to laughter and cursing!
Skull - I taught Skull to a family and I think Dad was a little surprised at just how sneaky and conniving his kids were!
PushFight - with so many games going on, occasionally a person would fall out of sync with the main groups, so I had a number of quick and fun two-players to tide them over until another group finish. PushFight was ideal for this, since it took 30 seconds to teach, lasted no more than five minutes and generally made the winner feel like a tactical genius :stuck_out_tongue:
A Feast for Odin - probably my biggest game of the event, and one I brought back from Essen but hadn't had a chance to play. I had a great time with this and got utterly stomped, coming last! Definitely want to play it again though, now that I have an idea what I'm doing; pro-tip, don't leave one guy to do all the pillaging!
Wake Up, Cthulhu - Uuuugh this was a painful take-that game that we were all glad to see end. The rise of the Old Ones and devastation of the Earth would have been a welcome interruption...
Zombie Fried - the last of the games that we were bribed to play and it made us long to play Wake Up, Cthulhu again! Utter garbage take-that game, like Munchkin but without the charm or humour. After twenty long minutes we finally gave-in, rolled over and let the next player take the win unopposed.
Tak - another neat abstract and one that I've not played nearly enough to figure out what a good strategy might be. We enjoyed it but by now we were well into the night and I don't think we had the brain power to really focus.
Blood Bowl Team Manager - Oh man I love this game. We played the base game as I didn't have the smarts to figure out the expansion rules, but the base game is excellent in its own right. My Skaven gave a good showing but it was Chaos who stood head-and-shoulders above the other players. They actually won several match-ups with a single lineman after all opposing players got sent off, which felt suitable for a team that specialised in cheating :smiley:
My final game of the event was the always excellent Patchwork. I had the 'better' quilt, and took the 7x7 token easily but my opponent made the smarter buys and won handily thanks to a huge pile of buttons in reserve.
I was invited to, and very nearly joined, a game of A Crown of Roses. The players spent at least five hours on that one, and the board certainly looked cool when I walked past, but all of the players were wearing a Kill Me Now look. Chatting to one of the players after I asked how it went and if he'd play again? "Not even for money. If someone offered £100 to charity for me to play it, I would gladly pay £101 to avoid it!". Phew, I dodged a definite bullet there!
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Post by scymrian on Nov 21, 2016 20:54:07 GMT 1
Did you manage to dodge Trump: You're Hired, then?
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Post by Plum on Nov 22, 2016 0:19:14 GMT 1
Did you manage to dodge Trump: You're Hired, then? Ha yes. In light of recent events, it turns out that the price has jumped up. My friend sold it and gave the money to the charity instead! We played Zombie Fried in its place and I can honestly say I would have vastly preferred Trump!
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Post by Zejety on Nov 22, 2016 14:59:05 GMT 1
I so regret selling this one. But it didn't hit the table often enough to justify buying a new copy.^^ What am I playing now? I'm trying to get Blood Rage to the table as often as possible (meaning 2 times so far...). I've actually been preparing to glamoring up the miniatures a little (http://boardgamegeek.com/article/23923016#23923016). We've also played Oceanos and Steel Arena on Saturday (two Essen purchases by a friend) and broke out the old Flash Point: Fire Rescue after a long time. Flash Point made for a fun experience but it kind of falls flat as a game everytime we play it. It just feels like a lackluster Pandemic more often than not. Will probably sell or trade it away at some point... I really enjoy Oceanos for what it is. For those who have not played it: It's pretty much a scoring game, in which players try to score cards in a variety of way. In every round, all players but one "captain" are handed a number of cards and can play 1 (sometimes more) of them. The unplayed cards go to the captain and now he can choose 1 (sometimes more) cards out of those to play. So players should always keep an eye on what the captain will want to play. The theme is submarines exploring the sea and you can upgrade different parts of your submarine over the course of the game. The different ways to score all have different risks and rewards and the game is published by Iello (read: pretty). 2 player variant is also fun and a little more viscious.
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Post by Plum on Nov 22, 2016 17:33:59 GMT 1
I have a particular weak spot for multi-base conflict games, and BBTM is an excellent example of it. But yeah, with the prices rocketing now that FFG and GW have gone their separate ways I can understand if you just didn't play it enough. I haven't actually played Blood Rage for a while now, though that's more due to the Cult of New than anything that it does wrong. I have no doubt that we'll get back to it eventually and while we're still playing plenty of Inis (the other dudes-and-drafting game I have), I haven't yet been able to decide which game I prefer more. Inis has a lot of cleverness but there's just something viscerally FUN about dropping a fire giant on your enemies, then moving in to celebrate the end of the world. Hoping to get Phalanxx to the table this week, which is yet another dudes-on-a-map-with-a-twist. That was a wildcard purchase from Essen that I haven't seen much info about but I fell in love with the central dice mechanic. I just saw a Rahdo video about it which gives me hope that I chose wisely!
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Post by Kraetyz on Nov 23, 2016 20:19:33 GMT 1
I had a new board game delivered to me... or maybe it's a death metal album. Really, though. This is the tie-in board game for the Russian narrative/survival game Pathologic that's got a sick re-imagining under development (that I obviously backed on Kickstarter). It's a game that's got a lot of mechanics that are tied to the narrative and theme of the game, while being actually pretty light on mechanics. Which I guess is a long-winded way to say that: they know how to reinforce theme. Which I LOVE. At least that's my first impression of it, just reading the rulebook. Trying it out this weekend!
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Post by FraaOrolo on Nov 25, 2016 19:05:59 GMT 1
Played Sheriff of Nottingham last night with friends and it was really fun. In the last round of the game I managed to make a deal with the sheriff to give him theoretical apples out of my bag (they didn't exist) and theoretical contraband out of my bag (also didn't exist) as well as a couple apples from my stand. All of this to check the bag of another player who was smuggling all kinds of shit into town. When he made that offer instead of the bribe I had put on the table I could barely contain my excitement. Best part was I wasn't even lying about the contents of my bag so I really hoped he'd even search my bag to try and screw me over and just end up securing my lead even more. Ended up winning by a significant margin by mostly not lying and just bringing lots of goods into town.
tldr: buy and play Sheriff of Nottingham
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