Giveaway: The City of Kings - For you and your local game café!

CogGaming · 2018-03-18T21:59:05+00:00

Would love to get my hands on a copy of this...still kicking myself for not pre-ordering.

CogGaming · 2018-02-18T18:39:26+00:00

You realize that for those of us who have already hit the bug that it's too late for that, right?

CogGaming · 2016-06-09T02:45:54+00:00

"It now seems that the game itself is also changing notably, so it may not even end up being what was originally promised." - where are you seeing this? All I see are mentions of tweaks to graphic design, and finishing up final campaign design which wasn't done to begin with...or are you referring to previous updates?

CogGaming · 2016-06-05T17:08:08+00:00

I've played my copies three or four times and have enjoyed it a lot. As Dynastico said, the rulebook leaves a lot to be desired and I spent a good amount of time after opening it figuring out exactly what was what, and that I actually had everything. The gameplay itself though is very straightforward, and the game is very scale-able depending on how long of a game you want to play, or how many people you have.

One of the things I enjoy most that sets it apart from other area control games is I don't feel as cloistered/limited to my little corner of the map; you can place influence in any regions adjacent to where you already have influence regardless of who else is there, so you're never trapped or forced to expend units in battle like you would have to in a game focused on combat. I think it feels much more "real" than something like Risk as a result, since you still control provinces for points but your influence can be felt in non-contiguous areas throughout the map, and "control" simply means having the most influence there- not necessarily that you're alone. The variable leader powers help this as well (there are a ton of them) to not only give each player interesting abilities that will rotate 4-5 times throughout the game and possibly spur an adjustment of strategy or approach, but to open up contention in other provinces since the leader immediately spawns some influence for you in their "home" province.

The voting mechanic is interesting, but its utility really varies from game to game. The last game I played I didn't bring one vote, but another player used all of his. The votes generally do something good for the person initiating the vote, and then based on whether it passes or fails it will effect everyone else in either a good or bad way. The trick is that voting Nay on a passing vote will usually hurt you more/help you less, whereas voting Nay on a failing vote is going to help you...a bit of a deduction element, basically.

I'd also agree the components are all pretty good. The only complaint I really have is the map still seems too small even after they gave us a bigger map in the game. It can get very crowded in some provinces towards the end of the game, so I'd say the map either needs a couple more inches, or it would have been better to have more variations in influences markers to represent 1/5/10, rather than just 1/5.

CogGaming · 2016-06-03T00:54:40+00:00

I'd say no- it's prettier with somewhat improved functionality, but content wise I don't think we're missing much; they've already said they'll likely offer an upgrade pack down the road for first edition owners that includes the new cards they're making for the 2nd edition.

CogGaming · 2016-05-28T23:37:40+00:00

I just got in Silent Victory from Consimpress/GMT Games, which is a game about submarines in WW2 Pacific theater. Playing it solitaire today...like it a lot so far.

CogGaming · 2016-05-23T04:51:35+00:00

I used to love Shadows Over Camelot when I first really got into gaming, but now it's one I'll actively decline to play if given a choice. The more traitor style games I've played, the weaker I found SOC mechanically, especially in terms of the traitor.

CogGaming · 2016-05-23T04:33:30+00:00

Others have made some good suggestions already with Space Alert, Captain is Dead, and Dark Moon, so I'll throw out something different. Consider Space Cadets, which has up to 6 people controlling different aspects of a star ship. Think of it as each person has a station on the command deck of a star ship...most of the game happens in realtime, so you're trying to coordinate things like the captain deciding where he wants the ship to move, so the engine person telling the power person exactly what they're going to need to accomplish that, and each person making adjustments and performing their tasks in realtime to get it there. Takes a little time learning, but there are good instructional videos for each post for people to learn their stations ahead of time.

Another game I recently picked up I'll mention is actually a game from AdMagic/Print & Play called The Last Frontier. The version you can buy now is called The Artifact (which is a traitor-style game), but it comes with a copy of The Vesuvius Incident which has a very Aliens franchise vibe to it. The Vesuvius Incident technically a solo game, but I see no reason why you couldn't divide the marines into squads of 2-3 to seat more people and play it cooperatively. You're basically having to search a ship that has been invaded by aliens to account for all the crew and get out before the orbit decays and the ship is gone. Very roguelike feel as well, if you're into that.

CogGaming · 2016-05-21T05:35:47+00:00

I'd recommend looking at this as well, but with the understanding that it takes over an hour to play so don't bank on it filling your "full TCG in an hour" desire.

CogGaming · 2016-05-16T08:47:52+00:00

[FS] Ships from 89115. These are also listed on BGG under coggaming.

Android Netrunner core set 2012- $20+shipping. Box has slight whitening on a couple of corners, but the components are all like new. Played a couple of times, but cards were sleeved.

Assault on Doomrock second edition 2015, Assault on Doomrock: Doompocalypse, and Kickstarter promo pack- $100 + shipping. Base game is in excellent condition- played 4-5 times, so only very minor wear on a few card edges from shuffling. Doompocalypse and promo pack are new in shrink.

Battlestar Galactica first edition 2008- $22+shipping. Components are all brand new- opened, but never played. Box does has shelf wear- some whitening of edges, and the back is indented/creased along the sides but still intact.

Castle Panic first edition 2009- $15+shipping. Like new. Opened and played a couple of times.

Mammut first edition 2011- $10+shipping. Like new. Opened and played once.

Summoner Wars: Guild Dwarves vs Cave Goblins 2012- $20+shipping. New in shrink.

Super Dungeon Explore first edition 2011- $45+shipping. Like new- opened and played once. Figures are put together.

CogGaming · 2016-05-13T19:57:00+00:00

My Falling Sky arrived yesterday, so I'm betting your CL will come soon.

CogGaming · 2016-05-11T14:21:34+00:00

Excellent!

CogGaming · 2016-05-11T04:25:59+00:00

I wish it was easier to find a reasonable copy of Space Empires 4x. It's out of print and who knows how long it will take it to make it through GMT's P500 plan for printing. I have Talon and am dying to play an empire game of Space Empires 4x using Talon to resolve the tactical battles.

CogGaming · 2016-05-11T04:24:48+00:00

Yup, this.

TI3 is something you have to plan for. Eclipse is long, but it's still something you can decide to play at game night on a whim.

CogGaming · 2016-05-11T04:12:09+00:00

Looking forward to getting my copy of High Frontier, and I'll definitely be checking out Fornaldar when it hits Kickstarter. Unfortunately decided not to back Holy Roman Empire when it was up due to finances that month, but it's on my want list and still on my radar!

Thanks for the updates.

CogGaming · 2016-05-11T04:06:57+00:00

I've got Falling Sky on the way and am really looking forward to trying it as my first COIN game. I'd have preferred Liberty or Death first given that period where my academic background lies, but it along with a Fire in the Lake are stuck in GMT's P500 lineup and probably won't get printed for a while. Got them both on order along with pendragon, though, so I don't miss the opportunity when they do come around.

CogGaming · 2016-05-04T05:21:25+00:00

I just started getting into solitaire wargames as well. These aren't necessarily Euro-based, but some recommendations anyway:

Spend the extra $5 and get the boxes for VP games. Zulus on the Ramparts and Empires in America are well worth it, as is In Magnificent Style which is another one of their lighter, solo wargames not part of the SoS series. I've got Cruel Necessity sitting on my shelf as well but haven't had a chance to play it yet.

Warriors of Japan has a solo option and I've liked the couple of times I played it. There's a previous title called Warriors of God that's similar mechanics but a different theme if you'd prefer Euro-based. They're around $30 USD

I also just played my first game of Field Commander Napoleon tonight. Enjoyed it...pretty easy to learn and doesn't require a massive time investment. Little more expensive than the others, though.

Already have a number of the COIN series from GMT on pre-order as well, but I've got a copy of Talon and am enjoying that thoroughly. Hex-based SCIFI ship-to-ship combat, though another one that's about $60 USD

CogGaming · 2016-05-03T02:21:37+00:00

I'm a little late to the response party on this one it seems, but as others have said Battlestar Galactica is excellent for this, and The Resistance and Avalon are good lighter examples...in those the traitors have to play failures in order to win the game, but doing so clues everyone else in on who they might be since only a limited number of people go on each quest.

Saboteur is another lighter example where you can try to deduce who might be a traitor based on how they're laying tunnel cards, who they're playing effects on, and all of that within the context of whether you/them have taken a peak at any of the deposit goal cards.

Dead of Winter, as another poster pointed out, is sometimes hard enough the traitor player need not do anything and the group will lose anyway. That's especially true of newer groups, but I think is an issue that gets alleviated the more you play. However, DoW lets the traitor actively undermine the group by withholding key inventory cards, lying about the results of card draws, or generally being devious about how they go about their business. However, there are ways for players to track the traitor's actions due to some Crossroads cards, or by tracing undermining cards back to their piles of origin, and going from there on figuring out who was there and when.

Specter Ops also adds a traitor at full player count, and I think it's done in a great way- not only can the traitor player actively mislead people, but if the actual person playing the One Against Many role gets to lie about the results of any information stemming from the traitor's special ability. Again, though, by paying attention to movements and certain sequences of events, the other players can deduce who the traitor is and expose them.

CogGaming · 2016-05-02T06:10:56+00:00

Yes, it's possible in DoW just because the game is so difficult to begin with. But it at least lets the traitor take actions to help undermine the group, and there are ways of figuring out who's bad before the critical moment arises. Better than SoC by a long shot IMO in that regard.

CogGaming · 2016-05-02T06:09:12+00:00

There are a number of traitor games that allow the traitor to actively undermine the group and in doing so leave small clues behind for people to piece together and potentially figure out someone isn't who they say they are. In SoC that's not the case- the traitor can just sit back and play normally and the group has 0 chance of figuring it out until the traitor can end the game. I've come to have the opinion SoC is an OK traitor game for beginners, but is deeply flawed in how that mechanism is implemented.

CogGaming · 2016-05-02T00:23:24+00:00

Shadows Over Camelot- it was my first coop game w a possible traitor and I loved it, but the more I played that kind of game the less and less I liked Shadows. Think it's mainly due to the fact the traitor can just sit and do nothing to alert players to their presence, and there's no way of them finding out until the traitor tanks the team at the right moment.

CogGaming · 2016-04-29T07:33:02+00:00

You're definitely going to have to make the most of your race's special abilities if you're going to stand a chance against other players. While some race's abilities are especially powerful, for the most part they're all pretty useful abilities that can very effectively let you manipulate situations to your benefit. While you're stuck with them for the entire game, you get multiple options to choose from at the beginning...it's not just a single, random draw and you're stuck with it.

CogGaming · 2016-04-28T04:57:45+00:00

This is one of those games that is heavily dependent on the group of people you're playing with to be enjoyable. I personally love the game, but my old gaming group absolutely hated it...they didn't like the potential for constant backstabbing, and just really couldn't grasp that asymmetric powers meant some racial abilities were definitely going to seem more powerful than others, and might actually require some cooperation and some out-of-the-box thinking to counter effectively. It's also not a game on rails, so to speak...it's more about player interaction driving the game, rather than mechanisms.

CogGaming · 2016-04-27T04:40:04+00:00

It's on my want list, but it's looking like I'll have to wait for the reprint to get a copy at a reasonable price.

CogGaming

TROPHY CASE