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Surely this must be the precursor to Jurassic Park: Danger!/pic5094676.jpg)
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Jurassic Park: Danger!
Alan Grant and friends run and hide from a pack of dinosaurs who try to eat them.
Board Games
- Thread starter Plank
- Start date
The Awful Green Things from Outer Space & Starmada.
Got these two games out last weekend.
The Awful Green Things from Outer Space is a micro game that has been around for decades, and has multiple editions. The Green Things try to take over the good ship Znutar. The crew player has various objects and tools to use on the Green Things, but you don't know the effect until you try them the first time. Unfortunately for me, playing the Green Things, the gas grenade (an area effect weapon) pulled a 4-dice to kill chit. And the valiant crew of the Znutar, aided by the redoutable robot Leadfoot, made sure that they had a steady supply of them.
Afterwards we dusted off Starmada for a quick one-on-one battle. I haven't played this in ages, but have recently gotten interested again in space ship games and wanted to refresh my memory on how this plays.
I have Starmada: The Admiralty Edition, which came out in 2008. I never bought any of the follow up editions or variants. The ship building system in the basic game is very easy (there is even a spreadsheet helper), but we never really explored the options (so I am not a Starmada expert by any means). Although the movement system is a bit quirky, it does make sense, and the combat system is straightforward.
We picked a standard ship (Victory-class heavy cruiser) vs a custom 'Strike-Cruiser' (faster, better shields, but only two weapons, albeit that pack a punch) that I quickly made up. I plunked a couple of old Stardate:3000 minis on the hex sheet, and we were off. My 'tactics' were to keep my distance and launch missiles at maximum range, staying out of range of the heavy cruiser's secondary weapons. Unfortunately on the very first turn, at maximum range, my opponent rolled some hot dice and knocked out one of my two missile launchers. Half-a-dozen turns later, I lost my second missile launcher. Time to run for home.
Afterwards, remembering a little more about how it plays, Starmada is not really the game for one ship against one ship. With the basic rules, there are not a lot of tactics, nor a lot of decisions to make, unlike, say, Star Fleet Battles. I've recently picked up a copy of Squadron Strike! The rule book is a tad thicker than Starmada, so we'll see how that goes.
Got these two games out last weekend.
The Awful Green Things from Outer Space is a micro game that has been around for decades, and has multiple editions. The Green Things try to take over the good ship Znutar. The crew player has various objects and tools to use on the Green Things, but you don't know the effect until you try them the first time. Unfortunately for me, playing the Green Things, the gas grenade (an area effect weapon) pulled a 4-dice to kill chit. And the valiant crew of the Znutar, aided by the redoutable robot Leadfoot, made sure that they had a steady supply of them.
Afterwards we dusted off Starmada for a quick one-on-one battle. I haven't played this in ages, but have recently gotten interested again in space ship games and wanted to refresh my memory on how this plays.
I have Starmada: The Admiralty Edition, which came out in 2008. I never bought any of the follow up editions or variants. The ship building system in the basic game is very easy (there is even a spreadsheet helper), but we never really explored the options (so I am not a Starmada expert by any means). Although the movement system is a bit quirky, it does make sense, and the combat system is straightforward.
We picked a standard ship (Victory-class heavy cruiser) vs a custom 'Strike-Cruiser' (faster, better shields, but only two weapons, albeit that pack a punch) that I quickly made up. I plunked a couple of old Stardate:3000 minis on the hex sheet, and we were off. My 'tactics' were to keep my distance and launch missiles at maximum range, staying out of range of the heavy cruiser's secondary weapons. Unfortunately on the very first turn, at maximum range, my opponent rolled some hot dice and knocked out one of my two missile launchers. Half-a-dozen turns later, I lost my second missile launcher. Time to run for home.
Afterwards, remembering a little more about how it plays, Starmada is not really the game for one ship against one ship. With the basic rules, there are not a lot of tactics, nor a lot of decisions to make, unlike, say, Star Fleet Battles. I've recently picked up a copy of Squadron Strike! The rule book is a tad thicker than Starmada, so we'll see how that goes.
alexvss
Me doesn't knows no grammar.
I'm off to buy Terraforming Mars. Looks great. It's a sci-fi game where you play as a full-on capitalist competing with other capitalists (the other players) to colonize the red planet.
I hope it's worth it. Me, my brother and my sister-in-law are just starting to get into board games. We didn't know they were so expensive.
I hope it's worth it. Me, my brother and my sister-in-law are just starting to get into board games. We didn't know they were so expensive.
Fried Egg
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2006
- Messages
- 3,552
Yeah, they can seem expensive but what you've got to remember is that most of them have very small print runs and a lot of up front costs (to designers, artists, developers, etc.)
If you get many hours of enjoyment out of them then perhaps they will seem like good value for money.
If you get many hours of enjoyment out of them then perhaps they will seem like good value for money.
Titan --great for two three of four people. Game length is highly variable, can be over in fifteen minutes, or can take hours and hours.
Cosmic Encounter (Mayfair version) --Best with four or more. Odd combinations of events are regular enough that it requires a fair bit of time sort out the logic of the rules.
Junta four five or six players. Play as a ruling family in a banana republic. Winner is who embezzles the most money to their Swiss bank account before the country goes bankrupt. Easy rules, fast and fun.
Diplomacy best with five six or seven. Based on WW1. Simple rules though complex outcomes. Only random element is starting country. Takes a long time to play.
Carcassonne three four or five players works well. With numerous expansions, we found we had to tweak the rules a bit as some things became overpowered.
Scrabble a classic
Star Fleet Battles ship to ship battle in the Star Trek universe (pre next generation). Two players is best, though any number could potentially play. Have had games with teams operating fleets, but those become rather cumbersome. Overtime, the rule book became a tome.
Cosmic Encounter (Mayfair version) --Best with four or more. Odd combinations of events are regular enough that it requires a fair bit of time sort out the logic of the rules.
Junta four five or six players. Play as a ruling family in a banana republic. Winner is who embezzles the most money to their Swiss bank account before the country goes bankrupt. Easy rules, fast and fun.
Diplomacy best with five six or seven. Based on WW1. Simple rules though complex outcomes. Only random element is starting country. Takes a long time to play.
Carcassonne three four or five players works well. With numerous expansions, we found we had to tweak the rules a bit as some things became overpowered.
Scrabble a classic
Star Fleet Battles ship to ship battle in the Star Trek universe (pre next generation). Two players is best, though any number could potentially play. Have had games with teams operating fleets, but those become rather cumbersome. Overtime, the rule book became a tome.
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I still have a copy of Star Fleet Battles. Great fun!
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2011
- Messages
- 5,429
Another SFB captain here.
Cloaking produced hidden movement, at least in the version I played.
There was an inspired by SFB computer game that came out in the late nineties, Starfleet Command. I only played the multi-player and that was okay, not great. I might have only had the demo, though, and definitaly played before patches fixed some bugs.
There was an inspired by SFB computer game that came out in the late nineties, Starfleet Command. I only played the multi-player and that was okay, not great. I might have only had the demo, though, and definitaly played before patches fixed some bugs.
Avaliable here.
Star Trek™: Starfleet Command III
Sometimes, the only way to restore peace is to wage war. The alliance between the Klin
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2011
- Messages
- 5,429
I still have the same edition. Plus the Spice Harvest and The Duel expansions and all the rules and inserts from the Avalon Hill magazine The General. I would never part with it but you really need 5-6 players for the game to be truly great.
It's been republished but with some changes to the rules and setting a bit. I haven't played that version.
Astrocartician
Astrocartics Lab
I played this one twice in my life. It was hard to find other people interested in board war games. I own SFB and also Federation Space which was simpler but just as fun.
Same here as well. Figured out how to, sad to say, play it solitary.
Lady of Winterfell
Foxy Lady
We try to have a family game night about twice a month. Last night we played New York Zoo and Apples to Apples Disney edition. New York Zoo is fun and doesn't require a heavy dose of strategy, which I like. Some thought and planning is necessary, but overall it's simple and easy to play.
Fiberglass Cyborg
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2021
- Messages
- 666
I really miss gaming. Rarely get to do it now. I used to live in a shared house with 3 other board game nuts - it was basically all we did in that house, and it was great! Carcassonne is my all-time favourite - I still have my set, with 3 expansions. We also played a lot of Dominion, which is strictly speaking more of a card game.
I have an intensely nerdy interest in the history of traditional board games. It's patchily documented, but some games have been mutating and spreading across the world for over 4,000 years. I have even less luck convincing people to play Mongolian 17-Men's Morris or Indian four-handed dice chess....
I have an intensely nerdy interest in the history of traditional board games. It's patchily documented, but some games have been mutating and spreading across the world for over 4,000 years. I have even less luck convincing people to play Mongolian 17-Men's Morris or Indian four-handed dice chess....
I enjoy playing Latrunculi but I have to play it on my tablet or phone right now.
Ludus latrunculorum - Wikipedia
Ludus latrunculorum - Wikipedia
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