What games are you BUYING? ARCHIVE

Well, it was targeted at the recipient. Still, what a pussy.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that your email was reported to an admin. What a complete tool.

However, is it possible you misread the condescension in the previous message? Tone is often easily misunderstood in email.

ThirstyMan wrote: Well, it was targeted at the recipient. Still, what a pussy.

Presumably this is the guy that got his nose out of joint about sending a game to a proxy?

Right, same guy. No didn't misunderstand.

If someone threatened to shoot me, that's something I'd report. If someone called me a "cuntwagon with a broken wheel", no. I don't get it. Just walk away, folks...

Anyhow, here's what I've got with my illicit Lords of Middle Earth money (still can't believe it sold for that much):
Doom and Bloom Survival (because it is so like my game design, and it looks cool)
Eldritch Horror Mountains of Madness
Vampire Hunter (and now I am looking at LED packs to make the lamps brighter)
Vegas Showdown
The Adventurers: Temple of Chac bootleg prepainted miniatures pack direct from The People's Republic of China
Shipping on Sons of Anarchy (someone gave it to me)
Shipping on Dead of Winter (trade)
A bunch of DVDs so that I have something to do over the next 4 days of 6-10" of snow.

just bought Battlelore 2nd edition for a gift. And a couple of Duels packs for MTG. Also gifts.

I found some heroscape on craigslist today.
2 RotV
1 forgotten forest
1 volcarren wasteland
1 Orm's return
A couple handfuls of extra units that are really nice. Minutemen, werewolves, demons,etc.
All for $100

It had been sitting there for almost two weeks. I'm not so sure the prices are increasing just because a lot of bozos on ebay are charging a mint. This is even cheaper than what I paid for the same stuff a few years ago. I wouldn't even count it as a lucky find. All that seems pretty reasonable for a bill, asking and receiving.

Buying continues in the wargame area. Picked up:

Prussia's Defiant Stand
Caesar's Gallic War
Julius Caesar
Kingdom of Heaven
and Fury of Dracula.

Think I'm good for a while.

picked up Hanabi and a copy of Arctic Scavengers. Given that i still motorbike or cycle to gaming eves small boxes are still the way forward.

Didn't 'buy' it yet, but did decide to pre-order Churchill from GMT, by Mark Herman. I find Herman's games hit or miss, so usually I wait until they come out before taking the plunge. But Churchill seems like it's really trying to do something novel with a strategic level WW2 game, and I'm always in favor of a different angle.

For those who aren't familiar with it, no one plays the Axis. The game assumes the Axis will lose. The players represent the Allied powers, and are manipulating the war events in an attempt to be in a better post-war situation at the conclusion. I've read several session reports (like this one ) and a game overview, and it seems pretty compelling.

I recently bought Quartermaster General , which offers WW2 strategy for 2-6 players in 90 minutes. The buzz is good about this one, both online and among gaming buddies who've seen it already. I should be getting it to the table tomorrow.

And I've just today pulled the trigger on Merchants and Marauders in my quest to find multiplayer cutthroat buccanneering.

Today on Tanga I picked up Masquerade, a new addition to their lineup of misfit products from the Island of Lost Toys. This is an extremely underrated and obscure game by the Japanese designer of Fairy Tale. Most pass it up because Masquerade has a few Japanese to English cultural issues, causing its backstory, theme, and artwork to appear initially awkward. Don't make this mistake, however. Hidden beneath Masquerade's cultural awkwardness is a legitimate Ameritrash game in disguise. It offers just about the same amount of fun and entropy as Cosmic Encounter and Wiz-War, but, in an extremely portable package. I've often played it while camping and on hiking trips.

In this "all card" game of 72 cards, each player assumes the identity of one of five gods who has a unique bonus victory condition/goal. The identities and bonus victory conditions/goals are kept secret at the start of the game but can also be revealed at a player's option to get a combat advantage. Because of this initial secrecy, each god is said to hide behind a mask--hence, the reason for the game's Masquerade title. During the game, each player god competes for dominance by manipulating a cast of human fantasy heroes who all have differing talents. The gods make their heroes (a/k/a dancers) "dance" by pulling their puppet strings, choosing what they do and where they go in the game. They send them to various locations, a tower, chapel, library, healing fountain, circle, and an arena. Depending upon which location chosen, your hero gets to earn victory points, screw with other players, and introduce game changing chaos into the game. More specifically though, on your turn, you fight monsters, win magical treasures, fight other players, gain new spells, play spells, steal stuff, disrupt the environment to foil plans, and reassign heroes. All of this combined creates a fun player-to-player conflict game in a unique fantasy setting making this game a smart addition to an Ameritrasher's collection. I'd say that if this game were ever rethemed to Warhammer in a Chaos in the Old World fashion, then it would rocket to the top.

While I like Masquerade quite a bit actually you and I are the only people I've ever known who played it. And I think there's a reason for that - the flow through the game is clunky. A lot of turns you do basically nothing at all while you gear up for your next run at something. And it takes the dreaded couple of plays to understand what you're trying to do in the first place, which in today's world is basically anathema in a small card game.

That said I really do like the way attacks and magic work and the end game scoring. Plus the artwork is gloriously cheesy/weird.

iguanaDitty wrote: While I like Masquerade quite a bit actually you and I are the only people I've ever known who played it. And I think there's a reason for that - the flow through the game is clunky. A lot of turns you do basically nothing at all while you gear up for your next run at something. And it takes the dreaded couple of plays to understand what you're trying to do in the first place, which in today's world is basically anathema in a small card game.

That said I really do like the way attacks and magic work and the end game scoring. Plus the artwork is gloriously cheesy/weird.

I don't mind the weirdness of the artwork either. LOL, I'm strange that way. I also recall being frightened of the War Maiden.



I think that its clunkiness is due to the poor Japanese-to-English translations. As I suggested with a retheme and a bit of tinkering, this game could rock. I only stumbled on to it by chance because one of my old hiking buddies was once into everything Japanese. We played it because it could slip into the outer pocket of our backpacks. It's a lot of game for the space. It also rewards repeated plays because you need to get to know the cards. I'm glad that I picked up my own copy today because I had forgotten all about it.

iguanaDitty wrote: While I like Masquerade quite a bit actually you and I are the only people I've ever known who played it. And I think there's a reason for that - the flow through the game is clunky. A lot of turns you do basically nothing at all while you gear up for your next run at something. And it takes the dreaded couple of plays to understand what you're trying to do in the first place, which in today's world is basically anathema in a small card game.

That said I really do like the way attacks and magic work and the end game scoring. Plus the artwork is gloriously cheesy/weird.

I played it. It was tough to get a grip on but what I could see of it didn't make me eager to explore more.