Feed Aggregator

by ra30R

Does this mean anything in particular? Example?

by MacEricG

Since this is out-of-print I was wondering if anyone has a breakdown of all the cards and their statistics or has scanned the cards so they may be printed at home

by cayluster

Maybe this is obvious and I just missed it in the rulebook, but does eliminating all of your opponents units end the game (with 2 players)? And if so, is it an automatic victory, or is it decided on VPs?

by JacquesDeMolay

Anyone have a scan or good file image of the port tokens. I intend on picking up the expansions at some point, but having just gotten the base game and been advised by many that ports are an "auto-include", I'd like to get the actual images for now (though I know any old token could be used).

Thanks if this is possible, in advance

Craig

by pcsiegrist

So once Germany captures Paris, Germany gets all of France's money.

What happens to the other french units on the board? Do they fall under German control? Or ae they free french units still part of the allies?

by mattx

My set has 30 Gaul cards and 29 Romans which is one extra Gaul. The instructions don't mention the mix of cards in each suit so I don't know what I have an extra of.

If someone could post the card mix I'd really appreciate it.

by ltux

...when considering the game-ending criteria?

by smeagol492

Hi. I need some clarifications about drawing alibis and the hourglasses on them.

From the rules I understood this process like this:

Inspector draws an alibi, if the character isn't already eliminated, the he turn the character's tile over.

Jack draws an alibi, he adds the number of hourglasses from the alibi to the other hourglasses he has.

But just in case things are more complicated..I have these 4 scenarios:

What happens if...

1.Inspector draws an alibi card and the character isn't eliminated.
- He flips over the tile, eliminates that character.(Do the possible hourglasses on this card affect Jack?)

2.Inspector draws an alibi card and the character is eliminated.
- Does Jack get any possible hourglasses from this alibi, or just nothing happens?

3.Jack draws an alibi and the character isn't eliminated.
- Jack mentally adds the number of hourglasses from this card to his previous acquired ones\/

4.Jack draws an alibi and the character is already eliminated.
- Does Jack get the hourglasses from this card?

A detail explanation of the alibi drawing would be appreciated.
Thanks for the clarification.

by ebridge

I just picked up an unopened copy of this today at the flea market, but I can't find it on E-Bay anywhere. How much would a new copy of this go for? (I guess I'm taking offers too at this point). Thanks for your help.

by shnar

The rules for monster movement are rather vague, they pretty much either move adjacent to a hero or they move a tile. However, which square on the tile do the move to? And when moving adjacent, can it still be one tile away (for example, the hero is on the edge of a tile, half his adjacent squares are on the other tile)? And who decides all this, the active hero or the controlling monster player?

I've just noticed that I can make the game easier if I move the monsters to where they are advantageous to my hero (i.e. keep them one tile but adjacent, etc), so it's making me question if I'm doing this right...

-shnar

by gpsilberman

If you have not seen them, those interested in Dust Tactics might want to check out the Dust Tactics Premium Edition Models up on the Designers Web site. It looks like you can order the pre-painted game as well as two additional single models.

http://www.dust-tactics.com/products.php?nid=2

The models are available either painted or unpainted. The link above is to the pre-painted models that look to match the ones in the game. While the models look great, the price point makes the deluxe game seem like a bargain.Though I do admit to loving the look of the Fury of Ivan and the Jagdluther.

by eTownBGG

Two scenarios, same idea/question...I think.

#1
SM on overwatch facing down a corridor with a closed door and a row of stealers behind the door.

GS opens the door, SM fires overwatch shot at the GS and kills it, removing it from the board. This of course gives the SM line of sight to the GS behind the one that was just killed.

So does the SM get another OW shot at the newly revealed GS? If he does, he could potentially continue to mow down a row stealers assuming he kept making 6s.

#2
SM on overwatch facing down a corridor with a closed door and a GS behind the door and a blip behind the GS.

GS opens the door, SM fires OW shot at the GS and kills it, removing it from the board. This causes an involuntary conversion of the blip that was behind the GS, revealing a 3 blip and the stealers are placed in a row.

SM gets an overwatch shot at the first GS in the line up, since it was just placed, and kills it. This now makes the next GS visible. Does the SM get another OW shot at this GS? And so on.

by quietstorm

[poll=58440]

I am new to this game. In my quick playthrough of the sample year I felt as though the map got crowded and I couldn't find space to put the gray blocks out. I wonder if other people find these helpful or if they just sit in the box not being used.

by bfundak

I have been obsessively gaming over the last year and have managed to grab about 20-30 euro-games in that time. I was brought into the fold by Settlers of Catan and quickly got hooked on Agricola. But one of the games that always intrigued me was Friedemann Frisse's Power Grid, a game that a lot of people talked well of, but that I had never played. Around the Christmas holiday, my friend John brought his copy to a game night we were having, and when my wife gave me the gift of a Thoughthammer shopping spree as a belated Christmas gift, Power Grid was a must have on my list. Here's why.

The components of Power Grid are some of the best I have seen. The grid maps (of the US and Germany on a double sided board) are very stylized, invoking memories of Fritz Lang's Metropolis and the steampunk movement with all of the conduits linking the cities. At the bottom of the map is a strip that represents the market for the different fuels needed to power the power plants. The fuel markers are a series of wooden cylinders painted different colors to signify the different fuels available (coal, oil, garbage and plutonium.) The power plants themselves are simplistically represented in deck that is shuffled and dealt out to an auction market that the players use to put them into play (more on that later.) The money used in the game is nothing special, owing much to the ubiquitous nature of Monopoly money, but making money isn't the ultimate goal of this game, so the fact that it appears to be an afterthought compared to the other components isn't a total shock and does not detract from game play, and it is that game play where this game truly shines.

The idea of the game is to create a power grid amongst the cities on the map while your opponents do the same. The ultimate goal is to be the player that can power the most cities when the end game conditions are met. In the rounds leading up to that moment, players grow their networks by bidding on power plants that gradually allow for supporting more cities, staking claims to cities adjacent to the player's network and buying resources to fuel the plants. It is how these events occur that make Power Grid one of the best games out there. The way the game is designed, it would be easy for one player to run out to the front of the pack and bury everyone else. However, Friese has brilliantly split the game turn into phases that prevent this from occurring. While the starting player gets to start the bidding process for the power plants, it is the players who are in last place who get first crack at buying fuel and expanding their networks. This encourages competitive balance, as growing your network too fast will put you at a distinct disadvantage for growing your network and fueling your power plants. This, in turn, makes sure most games are going to be played tightly, with no one trying to pull ahead. In addition, for the first two "steps" of the game, the auction block contains both a current and "futures" market for plants. The mechanism for this auction are a little too complex to go into detail here, but it is designed in such a way that the most powerful power plants end up placed back in the power plant deck and not brought into play until the last step of the game, when they will not give a particular player an unfair advantage (namely, the player who loses all of the bids and gets to buy the power plant at cost.)

One problem with the game, however, is that in its attempts to be balanced, it actually detracts from some of the game. The game plays 2-6 players, but every different number of players invokes different rules and charts for fuel distribution, which can be confusing. You never want the rule book to be further than 3 feet from the play area at any time for reference. Complicated rules may discourage some of your casual gaming friends from joining in. Also, the beautiful map that comes with the game is divided into six colored segments, but to get the game to play right, you always must eliminate at least one of the segments to get the game to balance right. It's a little disappointing to play on a game board that is beautifully designed, but that you have to ignore a section of it to have balanced play. That said, Friese has managed to take multiple countries and create balanced maps for them. The game comes with maps of Germany and the United States, and many more have been published, which I think is quite the accomplishment, given the varying shapes of those regions.

The flaws with Power Grid are too small to outweigh a game that has really nice balance and is a true joy to play. I will never turn down a chance to play this game. I would highly recommend giving it a try if you haven't yet. Just remember to be patient and be sure to keep that rule book handy.

by bfundak

I have been obsessively gaming over the last year and have managed to grab about 20-30 euro-games in that time. I was brought into the fold by Settlers of Catan and quickly got hooked on Agricola. But one of the games that always intrigued me was Friedemann Frisse's Power Grid, a game that a lot of people talked well of, but that I had never played. Around the Christmas holiday, my friend John brought his copy to a game night we were having, and when my wife gave me the gift of a Thoughthammer shopping spree as a belated Christmas gift, Power Grid was a must have on my list. Here's why.

The components of Power Grid are some of the best I have seen. The grid maps (of the US and Germany on a double sided board) are very stylized, invoking memories of Fritz Lang's Metropolis and the steampunk movement with all of the conduits linking the cities. At the bottom of the map is a strip that represents the market for the different fuels needed to power the power plants. The fuel markers are a series of wooden cylinders painted different colors to signify the different fuels available (coal, oil, garbage and plutonium.) The power plants themselves are simplistically represented in deck that is shuffled and dealt out to an auction market that the players use to put them into play (more on that later.) The money used in the game is nothing special, owing much to the ubiquitous nature of Monopoly money, but making money isn't the ultimate goal of this game, so the fact that it appears to be an afterthought compared to the other components isn't a total shock and does not detract from game play, and it is that game play where this game truly shines.

The idea of the game is to create a power grid amongst the cities on the map while your opponents do the same. The ultimate goal is to be the player that can power the most cities when the end game conditions are met. In the rounds leading up to that moment, players grow their networks by bidding on power plants that gradually allow for supporting more cities, staking claims to cities adjacent to the player's network and buying resources to fuel the plants. It is how these events occur that make Power Grid one of the best games out there. The way the game is designed, it would be easy for one player to run out to the front of the pack and bury everyone else. However, Friese has brilliantly split the game turn into phases that prevent this from occurring. While the starting player gets to start the bidding process for the power plants, it is the players who are in last place who get first crack at buying fuel and expanding their networks. This encourages competitive balance, as growing your network too fast will put you at a distinct disadvantage for growing your network and fueling your power plants. This, in turn, makes sure most games are going to be played tightly, with no one trying to pull ahead. In addition, for the first two "steps" of the game, the auction block contains both a current and "futures" market for plants. The mechanism for this auction are a little too complex to go into detail here, but it is designed in such a way that the most powerful power plants end up placed back in the power plant deck and not brought into play until the last step of the game, when they will not give a particular player an unfair advantage (namely, the player who loses all of the bids and gets to buy the power plant at cost.)

One problem with the game, however, is that in its attempts to be balanced, it actually detracts from some of the game. The game plays 2-6 players, but every different number of players invokes different rules and charts for fuel distribution, which can be confusing. You never want the rule book to be further than 3 feet from the play area at any time for reference. Complicated rules may discourage some of your casual gaming friends from joining in. Also, the beautiful map that comes with the game is divided into six colored segments, but to get the game to play right, you always must eliminate at least one of the segments to get the game to balance right. It's a little disappointing to play on a game board that is beautifully designed, but that you have to ignore a section of it to have balanced play. That said, Friese has managed to take multiple countries and create balanced maps for them. The game comes with maps of Germany and the United States, and many more have been published, which I think is quite the accomplishment, given the varying shapes of those regions.

The flaws with Power Grid are too small to outweigh a game that has really nice balance and is a true joy to play. I will never turn down a chance to play this game. I would highly recommend giving it a try if you haven't yet. Just remember to be patient and be sure to keep that rule book handy.

by jdakapluto

Session Report – Scenario 17.5 AAR – Two Viewpoints

AAR from Greg’s Point of View

J.D. had a day-long layover in Columbus on Monday, so he drove over to Dayton to visit the USAF Museum. Chuck Turner and Dave Harner took some time off work to tour the museum with J.D., and Russ Anderson and I caught up with them at dinner. Afterwards, we went to Dave's house to play one of the Buffalo Wings scenarios.

J.D. wanted to play Scenario 17.5, "Biplanes Pay the Price", which has 4 Russian I-15s bounced by 3 Finnish Fiat G.50s, the Fiats starting with positional, speed, and altitude advantages. To add to their potential misery, the Russians also were restricted to "Horizontal Fighting Tactics".

J.D. and Dave each took two I-15s, Chuck, Russ, and I each a single G.50. We used the Whistling Death full rules instead of the BW rules.

The initial bounce did no damage to the I-15s. The Finns overshot the Russians: I flew through their formation and came out facing NW, Russ went through and came out to the SW, while Chuck pulled out in a climb to the NE. J.D. and Dave split up, with J.D. following me and Dave going after Chuck, leaving Russ free.

I hadn't scrubbed off much speed in the initial bounce, and was able to use the G.50's top speed advantage over the I-15 to fly away from J.D. Chuck had scrubbed off enough speed that Dave was able to catch up to him and take a couple of shots. However, the bad armament of the I-15 (only 16 gun factors at range 0, a crit rating of 4, and a telescopic gun sight) meant that Dave needed good dice to be a threat, but he didn't get them. Eventually, Chuck was also able to use the Fiat's speed advantage to get to safety.

I turned and went after Dave, with J.D. following me, putting we three and Chuck in a horizontal turning battle. We took some shots, but didn't do any significant damage, save for a "plink" here and there, the shooters frustrated by the combination of Gs, weak armament, and bad dice.

Russ, meanwhile, had been left free to maneuver, and pulled over the top in a climbing reversal. He dove down into the furball with a positional and energy advantage and took advantage of that to get a couple of decent shots at the Russians, getting single crits on one of Dave's planes (damaged landing gear) and one of J.D.'s (fuel loss).

We ended after 15 game turns, which took about three hours to play, with the position neutralized and the Finns with a 2-0 points lead. Nine total shots, six of them long bursts, but resulting in only two crits, which shows just how weak the armament of these planes was.

The Fiat entered service at about the same time as the Hurricane I and 109E. Its ADC is dramatically inferior to theirs and at least somewhat inferior to many of its other monoplane contemporaries. But, it's relatively minor top speed advantage over the I-15 biplane (5.0 vs. 4.5) allowed the Finns to dictate the terms of the combat in this scenario, even though I don't think we played particularly well.

After the game was concluded, J.D. talked to us a bit about his research for WotM. He mentioned that the Russians had a first rate air force in the mid-1930s, with good equipment and the world's best pilot training program. But, in the late 30s, they shortened the training program and built lots of bad airplanes, trading quality for quantity in order to build up the size of the force. They ended up losing virtually all of these planes and pilots in the first couple of years of WW2. (There may be a lesson there.) Certainly, the Russian planes and pilots in these BW scenarios can be pretty bad, and it is easy to see how the Germans with 109s and 190s beat them so badly in 1941 and 1942. But, the Russians eventually reversed course and went back to their original policies, and were able to gain control of the air from 1943 onward.

I hadn't seen J.D. since Origins in 2006 or 2007, and hadn't played a larger FW scenario face-to-face since about the same time. It was nice to get everybody together and get this game in.

Greg Wurster (reprinted with permission)

------

AAR from J.D.’s point of view

After Dinner – the five of us retired to Dave’s house and began to set up in the kitchen for a game. We opted for the full rules and chose scenario 17.5 out of Buffalo Wings -“Biplanes pay the price”. What follows is a brief after action report. Everyone had some recent experience so the game moved along well.

The scenario begins with three Fiat G.50s diving in on top and to the side of four Russian I-15bis biplanes. “Fool” and myself “Pluto” each took a pair of Russians. “Underdog” was the Finnish leader with “Daffy” and “Homer” in trail as the wingmen. We played a full fifteen-turn game, with seven planes, accomplishing a total of 105 moves in close to three hours. This was a surprisingly brisk pace, given all the side chatter and jokes and distractions that were ongoing. This is just a little under a minute and a half per plane per move, including taking time out for resolving shots. I just mention it to show you what players familiar with the rules can manage.

The fight itself was neither bloody nor totally bloodless, as both of my planes were hit, as were one of “Fool’s” planes. No one was shot down and everyone more or less played tactically well. A fair number of shots were taken, though none by me. In the end, the Finnish squeaked a minor victory with two Vps for critical hits.

In the opening pass only “Underdog” got in a shot – diving in fast on my pair of biplanes. I should mention that the Russians were restricted to horizontal tactics per the period rules. I scissored to give “Underdog” a poor shot, which missed and then reversed bank direction, turning into “Underdog” and trying to force him out in front of me. Meanwhile, “Daffy” came in next, couldn’t get a shot and blew through pitching up into a high loop. Seeing the first two Fiats foiled by the quick turning biplanes, “Homer” opted to pull out of his dive early and camp high, turning left. As it turned out, “Fool” turned his pair of biplanes after “Homer” and rapidly climbed up after him. “Homer” was slow picking up on the threat and decided to run for it and climb when he started coming under fire. This allowed “Fool’s” planes to pursue him throughout the entire game. Meanwhile I tried to find angles on “Underdog’s” Fiat but he stayed fast in his dive and circled wide to the right staying just out of my gun range. With the four Russian biplanes thus preoccupied chasing “Homer” and stalking “Underdog”, Daffy managed a diving pass that took a shot or two at “Fool’s” planes and scored some hits before blowing outside and circling right.

I decided to abandon my chase of “Underdog” and climbed up after “Homer” cutting sharply across the fight circle to try to come to grips as “Homer” had been run down on energy dodging “Fool’s I-15s. This however took me across and in front of both “Underdog” and “Daffy’s” Fiats and they turned in after me. I easily dodged the first Fiat, but “Daffy got in a pass that scored good hits and another victory point for the Finnish before being spat off my tail when I circled my biplane extremely tightly. At this point, “Fool’s” biplanes had fallen out of range of “Homer’s” and both “Underdog” and “Daffy” elected to separate from us in dives.

All in all it was a very interesting fight, with veteran players looking for that edge. The Fiats start with height and speed and had little trouble keeping their speed up, which allowed them to be offensive for the most part. The biplanes were able to dodge passes or set up poor angles shots which kept them alive, but their lack of speed meant that counter-attacking was difficult. When we tallied the shots, the Finnish had taken a little more than twice as many shots as the Russians had (all by Dave’s pair). Lucky rolls in low odds, high modifier attacks provided the Vps to the Finnish.

Even though I got no shots in, I enjoyed the maneuverability of the I-15 and it was a challenge trying to corner Greg or anyone else for an attack. Every time it looked like I was close, I had to go on the defense from another Fiat swipe. Very tense and nerve wracking stuff. And – of course, fun. Especially playing with a good gang of friends and veteran players.

J.D.

by prizziap

Is there something in particular you are supposed to use as a turn marker? I don't see one in my game, and can't find any reference in the rules. Thanks.

by balaria

Hi Carrom players,

Touch Carrom, the iPhone game, already discussed in this forum previously is back. This time with multiplayer, smart AI and brand new design. Give it a spin at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/touch-carrom-2-multiplayer/id...

Thank you.

Abhishek
http://touchcarrom.com

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