GNOIF: Run For Your Life GNOIF!

by A.J. Coltrane

GNOIF #24 recap — GNOIF: Run For Your Life GNOIF! (Horror/zombie/vampire themes.)

Games That Got Played: Dark Gothic, Exploding Kittens, King Of Tokyo, Mysterium, Pirates Ninjas Robots And Zombies.

Games That Didn’t Get Played: Betrayal At The House On The Hill, Blood Rage, Dead Fellas, The Doom That Came To Atlantic City, Dracula, Zombie Fluxx, Get Dr. Lucky, Guillotine, Last Night On Earth, Mr. Jack Pocket, Munchkin Zombies, Mystery Of The Abbey, Ultimate Werewolf.

A year ago I used Sharpies to “paint” the Heroes from Last Night On Earth. This week I got around to the Zombies, and I touched up the Heroes a little bit:

But we didn’t play Last Night On Earth.

SeattleAuthor did an amazing job of painting the miniatures from his copy of Blood Rage.

But then we didn’t play Blood Rage either. I think maybe everyone was afraid of damaging his incredible artwork.

We did play Pirates Ninjas Robots And Zombies. It sucks. The last player can either be the King Maker or win outright. Its best quality is that it doesn’t take a long time to play. (And that’s me being nice.) For what it’s worth, the game is ranked #7,259 on BoardGameGeek. The lowest ranked game is Tic-Tac-Toe at #12,913. The lowest “real” game is Snakes and Ladders at #12,912. Go Fish is #12,902.

Mysterium was a big hit. One player is the “Ghost” who uses “vision” cards with lots of potential “meanings” or “interpretations” to help “Mediums” suss out what happened the night the Ghost was murdered. There was lots and lots of post-mortem after each game, no pun intended.

We played a few games of King Of Tokyo. I enjoy it quite a bit. Players play as big, stompy, city-wrecking monsters, and the object is to dominate Tokyo and beat up everyone else — think Gozilla vs Mothra vs Kong. It’s fast and violent, and there’s an element of “chicken” to it. Good fun.

Thanks to everyone who played!

GNOIF: It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Zepplin?!

by A.J. Coltrane

GNOIF #23 recap — GNOIF: It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Zepplin?! (Steampunk and Transportation themes.)

Games That Got Played: Fluxx (Firefly), Forbidden Island, Get Dr. Lucky, Lost Cities, Rocketville, Steampunk Rally, Ticket To Ride Europe.

Games That Didn’t Get Played: Catan (Starship), Galaxy Trucker, Hanabi, Infernal Contraption, Pirate’s Cove, Power Grid, RoboRally, Ticket to Ride Card Game.

Really, the theme was based around our newest game – Steampunk Rally. A brief description from BoardGameGeek:

Using a unique dice-placement mechanism, players take on the roles of famous inventors from the turn of the last century like Nikola Tesla and Marie Curie, constructing fantastical contraptions that make use of steam, heat and electricity in an attempt to win a no-holds-barred race through the Swiss alps.

Contraptions like so:

The red dice represent “heat”, the blue dice are “steam”, and the yellow dice are “electricity”. The purpose of the Contraption is to generate resources, exchange one resource for another, and to convert the end product into (fast) forward motion through the Alps. It’s probably my new favorite game and should receive a “Recommended Game” post soon. (The metal cogs don’t come with the game. Those were a gift from SeattleAuthor. They’re way more fun to look at and handle than the cardboard pieces that do come with the game.)

Fluxx was played — I won one game entirely by accident. (I was getting a beverage when I won.) Rocketville went over well with a group that was mostly new to it.

Lost Cities was played — the winner was the person who didn’t try to start four expeditions. (I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone win when attempting more than three. To quote a 2010 post: Players must use caution — initiating an expedition has a steep price, and a “money-sink” venture can end the chances of winning.)

Get Dr. Lucky had the usual screw-your-neighbor finish. I didn’t see who won the Ticket To Ride Europe, though it occupied a good-sized group for a couple of hours.

Next up will be the Horror/Zombie/Vampire night around Halloween. Games will include Last Night On Earth (B-movie style horror game), Zombie Fluxx, Betrayal At The House On The Hill, Bang! (A Spaghetti Western, though there’s plenty of death in that game), Guillotine (Off with their heads!), Deadfellas (undead mobsters), Ultimate Werewolf (peasants getting killed by werewolves), and a handful of others.

Thanks to everyone who played!

A Blast From The Past: Revolt On Antares

by A.J. Coltrane

Back in the early 80’s TSR (the D&D people) published minigames. A minigame would come in a small plastic case with dice, a short rulebook, and a small map:

For scale: An over-exposed nickel on the left

If you look closely at the top of the picture you’ll see the hole used to hang the game for display and sale. It’s a clever all-in-one package.

We played a lot of Revolt on Antares way back when. (It was published in 1981.) It’s a fun (if oversimplified) war game in the style of Axis and Allies. Little chits represent troops. You make little stacks of chits, move them around the hex map, and use them to attack other little stacks of chits/troops. Here’s a mid-game picture:

Note that same nickel, now up at the top of the photo.

The symbols on the map represent terrain features and resources. If you squint really hard at the light blue chit on the brown island at the bottom center you’ll see that it says: “Hovercraft”, and, “2-8”. That troop unit has 2 attack and 8 movement. “Laser Tanks” are 6-4. “Jump Troops” are 3-5 (and can ignore rough terrain). And so on.

I gave up my original copy for lost years ago. I got the bug to play it again, so I bought a copy online. Naturally it was at that point my own copy resurfaced in an old D&D box.

Then I mostly forgot about the whole thing for a while. Periodically I’d see the game the closet and want to give it a go, but I didn’t get around to playing until very recently. I invited a buddy over and we tried out the most popular of the old scenarios.

The scenario calls for the “Terrans” to fight the “Rebels”. The Terran player starts out at a numerical disadvantage but gets more reinforcements over the course of the game. The game lasts ten turns, and the object is to control the most resource nodes and capitol cities at the end.

I believe that when I was younger my opponent and I would set up on opposite sides of the map and be tactical about it. Unaware of the finer points of these strategies, my buddy and I both set up in the center of the map and got into a giant slugfest.

The fight went back and forth. He was massing for another assault when I loaded a nuclear bomb onto a hovercraft… and directed the hovercraft into his two biggest stacks of troops.

And that was that.

It may be that if we played a few more times then some real strategy would kick in. Our strategies basically consisted of making the biggest piles of force we could and using those to smash smaller enemy forces.

I think we had fun with it.

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In a related note: Shopping for games used to be a lot easier, but a bit of a crapshoot at the same time. If the game was by TSR or Avalon Hill then you were likely spending your money wisely, though without online reviews there was always an element of- “You pay your money and you takes your chances.” Still, the minigames were a cheap gamble, in contrast to some of today’s $60+ games..

BoardGameGeek page here.

GNOIF: GNOIF’s Three Hour Tour

by A.J. Coltrane

GNOIF #22 recap — GNOIF’s Three Hour Tour (Games about water, islands, and pirates.)

Games That Got Played: Avalon – Resistance, Dominion (Seaside), Pandemic, Pirate’s Cove, Pirate Fluxx, Forbidden Island, Ultimate Werewolf.

Games That Didn’t Get Played: Amerigo, Carcassonne, Forbidden Desert, Island Port.

I enjoy teaching new people Fluxx for the first time. It’s quick to learn, and players always have fun once they wrap their heads around the idea that the rules change almost every turn. It’s a goofy game, but planning still gets rewarded sometimes.

Fittingly, the forces of failure were everywhere — we managed to lose at least one game each of Forbidden Island and Pandemic. The evil team won two out of three games of Avalon. The werewolves won two out of three games of Ultimate Werewolf.

Thanks to everyone who played!

Those Poor People….

Galaxy Quest: A must-see movie if you haven’t already watched it.

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In other news, we just passed 1 million sp*m, thank goodness for filters.

GNOIF Throws A Posse Together

by A.J. Coltrane

GNOIF #21 recap — GNOIF Throws Together A Posse (A fairly random cross-section of games.)

Games That Got Played: Dark Gothic, Forbidden Island, Letters To Santa, Seven Wonders.

Games That Didn’t Get Played: Castle Panic, Poo, RoboRally, Small World, Ticket To Ride Card Game, Tiny Epic Kingdoms.

#21 — GNOIF is old enough to drink(!) Last minute invites meant that lots of people already had plans. Turnout was small, which was ok. We got in some good gameplay.

Dark Gothic is the “new thing” — it’s a deck building “colonial horror” themed game. Each player starts with a slightly different deck and a different hero ability. That adds some welcome asymmetry to a genre that can get a little static in terms of strategy. The object is for the players to sort of work together to defeat evil villains before too many “bad things” happen. There’s still one winner.. so players cooperate, but not too hard. The game is by the same studio that does Last Night On Earth, and the “photo” artwork is excellent. It’s one of my new favorites. BoardGameGeek page is here.

I enjoyed Seven Wonders as well. My “Recommended Game” summary is here.

Thanks to the few intrepid folks who showed, and thanks to everyone who brought awesome beer and food.

Recommended Game – Deck Heroes: Legacy

by A.J. Coltrane

Deck Heroes: Legacy – An android-based free-to-play collectible “battle” card game.

Basically, you collect creature and hero cards, assemble a mini-deck of 7-10 creatures and one hero, then battle computer-run decks. When in combat the object is to either eliminate all of the opposing creatures, or reduce the opposing hero to zero hit points. There’s a campaign with around 100 nodes to clear. After that their idea is that you’re hooked enough to spend money in the pay-to-win endgame.

The creature and hero cards fall into one of four factions — human, faen (elf), mortii (undead), and neander (beast). Heroes are functionally “generals” — they don’t directly fight, but they can buff your creatures, or damage or impede the opposing creatures. Cards from the same faction tend to have synergies, such as “all cards of this type get +100 damage”. The cards can be upgraded (leveled), and can be augmented with collectible runes.

A couple of minuses:

Deck Heroes can be played as free-to-play, though the progress gets pretty slow after a while.

The art can be sexist, with ridiculous boobs everywhere. Here’s one of the tamer cards:

Flame Brave is a caster. The pictured card is level 0, with 238 attack and 849 health. A level 10 version of that card would have 428 attack and 1399 health.

All of the cards gain more and better abilities as they level up. Her level 0 version also deals 150-250 damage to one random enemy creature. At level 5 she gains the “deal 210-350 damage to all enemy creatures”. Then at level 10 she gets “inflicts ‘flaming’ on all enemy creatures, causing them to lose 120 HP after their action.”

Overall Deck Heroes has some decent depth and strategy for an Android title.

Recommended game if you can put up with the artwork.

Recommended Game: Bang!

by A.J. Coltrane

Title: Bang! (We own Bang! The Bullet, which includes the expansions.)

Game Type: Shoot ’em up card game.

Number of Players: 4-8. Better with more.

Complexity of Rules: Low. It’s a party game rather than a “deep” game.

Time to Play: The box says 20-40 minutes. With our group it’s usually 30 minutes or less.

The Concept: It’s a spaghetti western! One player plays as the Sheriff. All of the players know who the Sheriff is. Everyone else secretly plays either as a Deputy, an Outlaw, or the Renegade. The Sheriff and Deputies win if they kill the Outlaws and Renegade. The Outlaws win if they kill the Sheriff. The Renegade wins by killing everyone except himself. In addition to that, each player plays as a random (in)famous person from the old west — all featuring different bonuses and drawbacks.

At the start of the game you only own a pistol, and you can only shoot at the person next to you. You can increase your reach around the table by drawing a rifle card, or a scope card. If you get a horse card it effectively makes you further away from your enemies. You can hide behind barrels. You can pass lighted dynamite around the table. You can recover health by drinking beer..

Why I Like It: It’s fun, fast, and violent. A big part of the game is figuring out Who is Who, or at least Who you think is Who. The secret roles mean that there’s often a feeling out process before the shooting begins in earnest, but once it does the game can get really chaotic. It’s light on strategy, but playing smart still helps.

We bring it out almost every GNOIF, and it’s always a hit.

No pun intended.

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BoardGameGeek page here.

GNOIF: What GNOIF Does In The Shadows

by A.J. Coltrane

GNOIF #20 recap — GNOIF: What GNOIF Does In The Shadows (Death/ Horror/ Zombie/ Vampire themes.) The title is a reference to this silly (and highly recommended) vampire mockumentary.

Games That Got Played: Bang!, Zombie Fluxx, Get Dr. Lucky, Guillotine, Ultimate Werewolf

Games That Didn’t Get Played: Betrayal At House On The Hill, Dead Fellas, Dead Money, Dracula, Last Night On Earth, Mr. Jack NY, Mystery of the Abbey, Small World.

GNOIF #20 actually fell on Halloween. That meant record attendance. It also meant more of a “party/casual” atmosphere than usual. Basically everything that got played could be considered a “light and social” game.

That meant that we didn’t play Last Night On Earth, though prior to game night we’d made a point to buy a 24-pack of Sharpies to give the figures some color.

I’d like to think the “painting” helps make the game a little more immersive — at the very least it’s definitely easier to tell the heroes apart. (Note that we could have painted them, but I’ve seen lots of stories on BoardGameGeek about how paint “bubbles over time” on the figures from this particular game.)

I played Zombie Fluxx for the first time with the Creepers. Maybe I’m an old school Fluxx curmudgeon, but I’ve never felt like Creepers add anything to the regular “Fluxx” game. I do feel like they add something to Zombie Fluxx — I think the zombie creepers make more thematic sense than the creepers the other Fluxx variations. Also, it’s fun shooting zombies, and redirecting their attention to the other players.

Thanks to everyone who played and made it a fun evening!

GNOIF: In The Heat Of GNOIF

by A.J. Coltrane

GNOIF #18 Recap — GNOIF: In The Heat Of GNOIF (Popular games and Games Of The Year)

Games That Got Played: Dominion, Fluxx, Forbidden Island, Guillotine, Lost Cities, Rocketville, Seven Wonders

Games That Didn’t Get Played: Agricola, Citadels, Forbidden Desert, Gardens of Alhambra, Power Grid

A hot evening meant that nobody felt like grinding too hard — I know at least I didn’t. The smallish crowd broke out into large games of Guillotine, Dominion, Fluxx, and Seven Wonders — relatively lightweight games that we’d mostly all played before.

We had fun with Fluxx, and the sheer amount of bloodshed in the 2nd game of Guillotine was satisfying in a morbid kind of way. (The first game of Guillotine was too short to result in a decent body count.)

As always, thanks to everyone who played!

Recommended Game (Assistant) — Roll20

by A.J. Coltrane

Over the years my old D&D crowd has become scattered around the country and around the world, but we can still play, thanks to Skype and Roll20. (Roll20 supports video chat — our group is more comfortable with Skype.)

Roll20 allows for most everything we could do if we were playing over the table, including making dice rolls, moving characters and monsters around, and the gamemaster can present downloaded maps:

Roll20 handles macros too — you can create buttons that handle common dice rolls. I’ve made a macro to roll for Initiative (1d20+3), another for attacking with my sword, and so on. To some degree it takes the fiddly math out of the game. I’m all for that.

Here’s an excellent introduction/tutorial:

It’s free. There’s also subscription service available if you love it and want to support the developers.

Highly recommended.