Cosmic_Guru

It's also a masterpiece of simplicity which is kind of counter-intuitive given the weight of the box. There are so many dungeon crawler style games that bog down in different enemy behaviours or fiddly rules on statuses, actions, movement, line of sight or combat mechanics. The basic GH gameplay loop is also very easy to remember and to control (from the SP perspective) on the table - it doesn't matter if you take extended breaks from it. This is just as well since it's been a long time for me, although I'm pretty sure another session is not too far off. I wouldn't return to Descent but it's still a decent enough game for those less experienced - now I would replay Sword & Sorcery with a new team combination if I wanted that sort of campaign experience, because I adore it, despite it's many quirks and degree of fiddlinesses.

Descent is great, even when I played through as both the DM and the team; I'm sure you will enjoy it. Maybe you can move onto Gloomhaven later.

Coming to console (at last) on 28 January. I hope they have reduced the loading times - cumulatively they are really annoying in 1 with all the screens for different rooms etc.

I'm sure I will pick this up sooner or later - a good reason to return to Scythe (which I actually get out from time to time just to look at the artwork). Updates on two Kickstarter games for now. Rurik: Dawn of Kiev. A lightweight area control game set in Kievan Rus in 1015 on the death of Vladimir the Great whereupon there was a bloody struggle for succession. This translates into you taking over as one of the contestants for the throne, each of whom naturally have an individual power. Then it's a case of deploying troops, taxing resources, building structures and fighting opponents (using a very simple system) over 4 rounds. Pretty standard stuff but there is a nice power / speed (or initiative) conundrum at work - your action placement meeples are numbered and the lower numbered ones will act first but will be bumped down to a less useful space by a higher ranked one of your opponents. Brilliantly, you may add coins as a bribe to get the best of both worlds with a low numbered meeple. There is also a bonus action which is a bit of a lottery but can give you additional actions, as can converting your resources in the end game - 4 rounds is pretty tight and there will always be more things you want to achieve but can't. The game includes some detailed protagonist miniatures but these increase the cost - it's hard to recommend this game at this price point (£70 on BGG). It's a keeper for me however because of the rock solid solo mode - this becomes a very tight 2P skirmish over the central 8 areas at different difficulty levels. In the picture below there is an error since the outer dark brown areas shouldn't have been used in a 3P game, but you can see the numbered meeples in play. Unbroken. This is a solo rogue like experience with an infamous KS history. Putting all that to one side for a moment, it's actually rather good. The idea is that you are the lone survivor of an expedition far underground and have to battle your way back to the surface by facing and defeating 4 monsters of increasing difficulty. There are 4 classes to choose from, all of whom have skills which may be used a limited number of times based on level - rogue, mage, hunter and warrior. You have a certain amount of time before the monsters will appear, and you have to use this time wisely to prepare as best you can - to obtain food, to upgrade a weapon and to do a bit of scouting to see what you are up against (very important indeed for the L3 & 4 monsters). If time runs out and you are still faffing around you get ambushed, which is not good. Most of the gameplay during this travel phase comprises drawing 2 encounter cards (from a deck of around 100) and choosing one to action. Each encounter takes a certain time and involves the exchange of resources. Ah, resources. The key concept in this game is "effort". This is an efficient single measure of life force which is often split over health, stamina, action points and so forth. You use it for lots of things, may concentrate it and convert it into cunning, recover it by resting, and lose it in combat when injured. Ideally you will have improved your position and have a good level of effort before fighting each monster, but there is a lot of luck involved and trying to figure out how to make the best of things (this is where the scouting comes into pay - it enables you to see what will be required to win the next combat). The combat is simple and based on a d6 menu of effects for the enemy and a choice of actions for you based on your equipped melee weapon. A nice (well unpleasant really) feature is that many enemies give you de-buff conditions for the following level. For each level there are 6 possible monsters, which I think gives 1,296 combinations. Lots anyway. Beating each monster results in gaining a skill and various loot - alternatively you may stealth past L1-3 and not obtain these benefits. In the photo the Huntress has just beaten the troll boss pretty comfortably using her maul and with the extremely handy impale skill (the troll had a disarm action). 4 food in hand as well so all is well (you need to eat after each battle). None of the Huntress's skills are useful in a combat context but the warrior for example has an enemy re-roll option.

Sutton Utd 3: Harrogate 1 Only the second home win of the season for Us and we could not have scored 3 finer goals - the first a stooping header from Beautyman, the second a stupendous long range effort which begs to be goal of the week from Tommy Wright and then a trademark finish from him coming in from the left to wrap up the points. Their goal was a catalogue of errors again, but for once it didn't matter.

And it's a neat enough game. I'll post in the what are you playing thread if I have time. One thing which leaves a bad taste, although perhaps we shouldn't be surprised, is the predominance of Golden Bell staff in the credits, giving themselves rather grandiose titles to boot. You get he impression Safarov was just a bit part in this, despite the fact that GB were only involved late on in the KS.

Unbroken is finally on it's way. I half expect them to have put a single second class stamp on each package........ (they won't have, since they aren't doing it themselves - I gather they pulled a fast one in the US by using an inappropriate mail service).

And finished. I chose to side with against the establishment and only had to fire one shot in the final sequence owing to very high dialogue, hacking and lock picking skills (hint achieving 100 in lock pick with skill + gear enhancement is extremely useful). I also had help arriving from various quarters if it had actually come down to a battle. The only slightly surprising thing in the "what happened next" sequence was the I really enjoyed it and it brought back lots of Mass Effect vibes, far more so than Fallout ultimately.

Why are Frankfurt not receiving a ticket allocation for this fixture? Surely the problems with Cologne weren't sufficient to enforce a ban on fans from German teams? Bizarre.

I found this extremely difficult to get into, because Edgwater generally and Parvati specifically are so dull and the loot seemed poor etc etc. Over the last week though I've been playing it solidly and it's grown on me somewhat although it now seems a sort of Mass Effect homage with extra lethality (not really feeling the Fallout vibe other than TTD). Even a bit of Dishonored thrown in there from time to time. I guess the advantage to this is that if you don't care about losing potential quests downstream you can let rip, with no children to protect or anything. I've generally tried patching things up wherever I land, but Slaughterhouse Clive became just that in spades. Unfortunately, although initially going with melee, I've reverted to type with a much tinkered with electro rifle which is consequently OP, then rushing in with a 2H plasma weapon, and with lots of points in hack, lock pick, science, engineering and dialogue. It's so easy on normal that the defence options are unnecessary. Some of the science weapons are great to experiement with though. I doubt it will linger long in the memory after completion but I'm glad it's been made. Edit - the armour appearance and customisation is excellent in this. It's a bit unfortunate that you have to leave the controller alone a little while to get a good view of your character.

My tip would be to pay extra attention when a new enemy type is encountered - there is often a cut scene or example of how to defeat each one almost immediately e.g chucking stuff at the ones in the GUTS - also look around for specific tools which help. Then use the mods to specialise in some way - I forget now the best builds but there are multiple effective approaches (stealth and crits is good but iirc the best gun for that is some way off) - could be some earlier posts in this thread might help.

Sutton Utd 0; Bromley 2 Derby match full of niggle and playacting from Bromley. We have addressed troublesome RB and GK positions by bringing in short term loanees with FL experience but it didn't alter anything on the afternoon. Instead the usual situation in home games - we concede the first goal (this time following a free kick), huff and puff a lot without creating many clearcut chances and finding the opposition obdurate in the centre of our box each time we actually threaten, and then become vulnerable on the break. In this match I didn't see exactly what calamity gifted Cheek the ball to calmly move forward and score with ease, but whatever it was that was game set and match (to mix sporting metaphors). For the first time considerable numbers left early and there were mutterings about Gray out. With virtually half the season gone it's hard to be optimistic. I don't see us sacking the manager because we can't afford the compensation.

Basically this has gone really soapy, other than the Aberfan episode of course which was devastating. Lots of factual embellishment and mangling of timelines to get the somewhat heavy handed point of the episode over. Still enjoyable mind. Really liked Phil the Greek, his mum, Anne, Wilson in particular. Space hoppers during the moon landings .

Or Sword & Sorcery? Much better (more sophisticated) than the D&D games imo.

The patch makes dialogue text nice and large if you enable the option in the HUD. Not sure other text is affected though.

Yes. I might sell my PS4 code if anyone interested, not sure just yet.

Sutton Utd win at last!

How do I equip my bionic legs?

No, don't recall seeing that one at the show.

Yes.

Sorry, phone curtness creeping in. There is a pachinko type competition there where you specify which hole you want a baseball (I think it is) dropped from and it ricochets down the wall between pins, landing in one or other slot at the bottom. Most slots yielded 1 month GP, a couple were for 3 month cards and a single central one was for 12 months. The guy before me scored the 12 month card by going for a central starting point and I did the same, just one over from him (F for Freddy). The guy dropping the ball flicked it to his right (my left) and that ensured it came back firmly off the outer pins. Its a good reward for me coz my gold expires next month and I've given up gamepass. I also got an adapter to hold the phone for streaming when that goes live. The new elite is wonderfully heavy to hold and has a lot of moving parts. They have some event specific merchandise on sale such as the controller people were after but stocks of it seem limited. Bit of a strange venue since there is nothing much there, but on the other hand there was lots of space inside and all the eating / drinking options you care to name 10 minutes away in Westfield.

Good event. Lines not too long by and large except for flight simulator and the merchandise. As usual got shown up by some young kids on mine craft dungeon (I blame KB + Mouse). New obsidian kid shrunk game looks neat and not over simplistic . Scored 12 months free game pass plus from the wall comp which is a nice bonus.

Almost in!

You can manually save when not in the presence of BTs. That is invaluable for the long hikes.

Not out today though.