Jun
14
2017

Reply: Sword & Sorcery:: General:: Re: Just arrived

by TheGargoyle
My box arrived today in Germany. Yay, stuff looks fantastic!

Jun
14
2017

/u/bboomslang on DVG Leader Series, which to choose

The leader series are quite diverse. There are some that are closer – Phantom Leader, Hornet Leader, and I think the upcoming Israeli Airforce Leader – but both Thunderbolt Apache Leader and B17 Flying Fortress Leader are quite different in play and feel (and different to each other, too). What all of them have in common (and probably the Tiger Leader and the tow submarine ones, too) is that you have to outfit your troups and then run your missions. But the way they are done is different. Phantom Leader and it’s similar games are very tactical with giving you an abstract “fight overview” on which you manage single fighters against single bandits. Thunderbolt Apache Leader gives you an randomly created map with positioned ground forces, where you fly your Thunderbolts and Apaches (and other close air support vehicles) against them, so it is far less abstract but still very tactical. B17 Flying Fortress Leader has you equip whole groups of bombers and fighters, being a game on the operational level. You then fly those groups into missions and have them go against groups of enemy fighers, flak fire and stuff like that. So it doesn’t have a high tactical level at all. So it depends on what you want out of your game, a very tactical dog-fight or some more “realistic” map over which you fly missions or the operational scale.

Jun
13
2017

/u/bboomslang on Pauper Challenge with UG Combo Tron

Man, that’s a sweet looking tron list – I dig that it is a honest tron list and not one that just happens to run tron lands (like I feel with Murasa and Dinrova Tron – they seem to just play control and accidentily stumble into Tron). What do you feel is the matchup with Kuldotha Boros, Bogles and Elves? Asking because your deck doesn’t run any “boardwipes” and go-wide strategies as well as hexproof are a bit hard to handle without them, I feel. Or do you just go fully into the fogging plan for those, like with Stompy? And what is your plan against Burn or other super-fast non-combat damage decks? Pulse of Murasa looping through walls?

Your plays are definitely fun to watch and I love how you take existing decks and tweak them into quite different directions. Even though I still think your UR Delver list is my unbeaten favorite so far 😉

Jun
10
2017

/u/bboomslang on Twilight Struggle – Possible Alternate Theme?

Another similar game is 1989 about the changes in the east of europe when the soviet union fell apart. And a new one in the make is Imperial Struggle, from the same designers. 13 Days is kinda similar, too, allthough more condensed, and about the cuba …

Jun
10
2017

/u/bboomslang on Twilight Struggle – Possible Alternate Theme?

Another similar game is 1989 about the changes in the east of europe when the soviet union fell apart. And a new one in the make is Imperial Struggle, from the same designers. 13 Days is kinda similar, too, allthough more condensed, and about the cuba …

Jun
10
2017

/u/bboomslang on Favorite solo game?

My favorite by far is Lord if the Rings: The Card Game. But for me the main driving factor is that it allows (and actually requires) deck building before playing, just like I have with Magic the Gathering. So LOTR:LCG is my MTG fix for when I have no o…

Jun
10
2017

/u/bboomslang on Favorite solo game?

My favorite by far is Lord if the Rings: The Card Game. But for me the main driving factor is that it allows (and actually requires) deck building before playing, just like I have with Magic the Gathering. So LOTR:LCG is my MTG fix for when I have no o…

Jun
10
2017

/u/bboomslang on Why pauper?

Another one for me is the power level. You play with really powerful cards, but combine them with a slow land base for multi colour decks. That combined gives you a really interesting situation where you still get the time to setup your board state, but still have to be aware of turn 4 kills. You can still play some stuff that is way too slow for other formats (like Evincar’s Justice for example), since you have the tools to keep yourself alive, but at the same time can play some super fast decks. That gives a very interesting balance, which I really like. And hey, it is a format where a 100 card control deck is viable.

Jun
10
2017

/u/bboomslang on Why pauper?

Another one for me is the power level. You play with really powerful cards, but combine them with a slow land base for multi colour decks. That combined gives you a really interesting situation where you still get the time to setup your board state, but still have to be aware of turn 4 kills. You can still play some stuff that is way too slow for other formats (like Evincar’s Justice for example), since you have the tools to keep yourself alive, but at the same time can play some super fast decks. That gives a very interesting balance, which I really like. And hey, it is a format where a 100 card control deck is viable.

Jun
02
2017

/u/bboomslang on What games are strategically deep but travel well?

Red7 is the perfect travel game, since you can teach it quickly to get others into the game, it plays well with 2-3 (cards can run low with 4) and it is adaptable in complexity due to its modular ruleset. And it is super compact, essentially being just…

Jun
02
2017

/u/bboomslang on What games are strategically deep but travel well?

Red7 is the perfect travel game, since you can teach it quickly to get others into the game, it plays well with 2-3 (cards can run low with 4) and it is adaptable in complexity due to its modular ruleset. And it is super compact, essentially being just…

Jun
01
2017

/u/bboomslang on [HOU] Nicol Bolas, God-Pharoah

I run Bolas himself, because it’s EDH and not commander, dammit 😉

Jun
01
2017

/u/bboomslang on [HOU] Nicol Bolas, God-Pharoah

I run Bolas himself, because it’s EDH and not commander, dammit 😉

Jun
01
2017

/u/bboomslang on [HOU] Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh / Bontu’s Last Reckoning / Samut, the Tested

Yeah, my Bolas EDH is just so happy. This is a really nice Bolas you have there. So much fun for me ahead! And that is all that Bolas cares for.

Jun
01
2017

/u/bboomslang on [HOU] Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh / Bontu’s Last Reckoning / Samut, the Tested

Yeah, my Bolas EDH is just so happy. This is a really nice Bolas you have there. So much fun for me ahead! And that is all that Bolas cares for.

Jun
01
2017

/u/bboomslang on SOLO mode in board games. Is it really so important to you?

Thematic games don’t hit the table often, especially if they are not in German, and man, solo gaming is fun! It is my favorites pastime when I have spare time and a spare table, be it on travels or at home on the balcony. It is relaxing and overall just as enjoyable as reading a book.

Jun
01
2017

/u/bboomslang on SOLO mode in board games. Is it really so important to you?

Thematic games don’t hit the table often, especially if they are not in German, and man, solo gaming is fun! It is my favorites pastime when I have spare time and a spare table, be it on travels or at home on the balcony. It is relaxing and overall just as enjoyable as reading a book.

May
28
2017

/u/bboomslang on Aetherling in Pauper?

I had fun with [Whirlwind Adept] as a Wincon I a control build. Hexproof helps keeping it around and prowess gives it some extra beats. Just no good evasion, sadly.

May
28
2017

/u/bboomslang on Aetherling in Pauper?

I had fun with [[Whirlwind Adept]] as a Wincon I a control build. Hexproof helps keeping it around and prowess gives it some extra beats. Just no good evasion, sadly.

May
17
2017

/u/bboomslang on What do you NOT like about Pauper?

I actually love the slow mana base, since it forces decks to adopt a longer game plan and not go for the super-quick hit, as soon as they go over mono-color. So the mono-color aggressive decks create the boundary in which we have to brew our decks to actually function. Sure, it could be nice to have some faster dual sources, but there are ways to fix your mana without big tempo loss (green land enchantments for example, or some mana rocks that draw cards), but then the decks that can pull cards from multiple colors with ease might get a bit too successful.

And really, look at the pauper metagame at mtgoldfish: there really isn’t a clear “mono-colored rules” scenario there. You can see that currently stompy is way up, but mono-u delver is down, elves is down and mono-r is nowhere to be seen. Mono-colored decks are hampered much more by the restrictions of what the respective color gets in tools, so this balances out: mono-colored might be faster, might be able to get nut-draws, but will be easily attacked with sideboard tech if you have access to more than one color. Multi-colored will be slower due to the mana base, but will have more tools at their disposal.

It’s simple to see at mtgoldfish: the second best two decks in the repeated 5-0 group is a mono-colored one and a multi-colored (UR) one.

The thing I really dislike is the disparity of online pauper and paper pauper with regards to what is a common. I think they should rule any common as a valid common, even if it wasn’t “printed” at common online. They might have to add some cards to the ban list, if they do it, but at least it would make using gather again a valid tool to decide on wether a card is legal or not and take away silly discussions.

May
17
2017

/u/bboomslang on What do you NOT like about Pauper?

I actually love the slow mana base, since it forces decks to adopt a longer game plan and not go for the super-quick hit, as soon as they go over mono-color. So the mono-color aggressive decks create the boundary in which we have to brew our decks to actually function. Sure, it could be nice to have some faster dual sources, but there are ways to fix your mana without big tempo loss (green land enchantments for example, or some mana rocks that draw cards), but then the decks that can pull cards from multiple colors with ease might get a bit too successful.

And really, look at the pauper metagame at mtgoldfish: there really isn’t a clear “mono-colored rules” scenario there. You can see that currently stompy is way up, but mono-u delver is down, elves is down and mono-r is nowhere to be seen. Mono-colored decks are hampered much more by the restrictions of what the respective color gets in tools, so this balances out: mono-colored might be faster, might be able to get nut-draws, but will be easily attacked with sideboard tech if you have access to more than one color. Multi-colored will be slower due to the mana base, but will have more tools at their disposal.

It’s simple to see at mtgoldfish: the second best two decks in the repeated 5-0 group is a mono-colored one and a multi-colored (UR) one.

The thing I really dislike is the disparity of online pauper and paper pauper with regards to what is a common. I think they should rule any common as a valid common, even if it wasn’t “printed” at common online. They might have to add some cards to the ban list, if they do it, but at least it would make using gather again a valid tool to decide on wether a card is legal or not and take away silly discussions.

May
16
2017

/u/bboomslang on Why do you play pauper?

It gives me the feel of legacy by allowing cards from all the years, but at a reasonable price point. I love the weird and crazy old designs, but full-on legacy is just bonkers, price-wise. Well, and it is tremenduous fun and varied in play, tons of vi…

May
16
2017

/u/bboomslang on Why do you play pauper?

It gives me the feel of legacy by allowing cards from all the years, but at a reasonable price point. I love the weird and crazy old designs, but full-on legacy is just bonkers, price-wise. Well, and it is tremenduous fun and varied in play, tons of vi…

May
15
2017

/u/bboomslang on does reclaim have a place in pauper? Maybe some UG Delver-Monkey?

Yeah, it’s not even close to Snapcaster. The only reason I thought about it was that it could provide a part of what I use Snapcaster in my Grixis Delver deck in modern: getting second uses out of spells. And I thought that in a Delver deck, it might provide the nice little synergy of guaranteeing a Delver flip and reusing spells at the same time. The deck I though about first was taking a Delver-Angler list and switching black to green, turning it into kinda a Delver-Monkey list. But I gues it’s still too slow to really work out. I only tried it in a fun little UR control build a little while ago, but there I went with three colors and outside of dedicated decks with color fixing, that didn’t really work that great. It was fun when it did do work (like recycling a counter), though.

May
15
2017

/u/bboomslang on does reclaim have a place in pauper? Maybe some UG Delver-Monkey?

Yeah, it’s not even close to Snapcaster. The only reason I thought about it was that it could provide a part of what I use Snapcaster in my Grixis Delver deck in modern: getting second uses out of spells. And I thought that in a Delver deck, it might provide the nice little synergy of guaranteeing a Delver flip and reusing spells at the same time. The deck I though about first was taking a Delver-Angler list and switching black to green, turning it into kinda a Delver-Monkey list. But I gues it’s still too slow to really work out. I only tried it in a fun little UR control build a little while ago, but there I went with three colors and outside of dedicated decks with color fixing, that didn’t really work that great. It was fun when it did do work (like recycling a counter), though.

May
15
2017

/u/bboomslang on Beautiful maps in boardgames.

Mare Nostrum is among my favourites. The map just looks gorgeous on the table and works very well during play. It is a little distorted to fit everything into a board game, without wasting tons of space to empty water, but still keeps everything recognizable. Really love its look.

The Birth of America series from Academy Games (especially 1775 Rebellion) is great, too. Really nice look, fits the theme perfectly, I think.

Same with the COIN series, each map really looked great to me. But the top one among them by far is the one from Liberty or Death – that’s a gorgeous one I would have no qualms putting on my wall.

Another one I enjoyed looking at was Comancheria. Allthough this one is leaning a bit more on the boardgame side of the “game board vs map” comparison.

And another one I really like for it’s cleanness is the one from “Wir sind das Volk”. But that might just be because I am German 😉

May
15
2017

/u/bboomslang on Beautiful maps in boardgames.

Mare Nostrum is among my favourites. The map just looks gorgeous on the table and works very well during play. It is a little distorted to fit everything into a board game, without wasting tons of space to empty water, but still keeps everything recognizable. Really love its look.

The Birth of America series from Academy Games (especially 1775 Rebellion) is great, too. Really nice look, fits the theme perfectly, I think.

Same with the COIN series, each map really looked great to me. But the top one among them by far is the one from Liberty or Death – that’s a gorgeous one I would have no qualms putting on my wall.

Another one I enjoyed looking at was Comancheria. Allthough this one is leaning a bit more on the boardgame side of the “game board vs map” comparison.

And another one I really like for it’s cleanness is the one from “Wir sind das Volk”. But that might just be because I am German 😉

May
13
2017

/u/bboomslang on Most "Sophisticated" Games?

For me a strong contender would be The Duke, because it puts just the right amount of randomness into an abstract strategy game. Not turning it into poker-chess, but keeping it in a state where the players never can be to sure about the flow of events due to the random tile draw. And pieces come with their move description right on the tile, so it is easy to grasp what you can do, but due to the tile flip, it is far more work to actually see what the effect will be, especially if you play with asymmetric tile selections. And the game system allows mix-and-match army setups and inventing new tiles, even throwing a bunch “thematic” tiles in the mix.

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