CmdrKiley | 22 Feb 2010 6:08 p.m. PST |
OK, so just to balance things out from the most disapointing game product you own. What was the most surprisingly pleasing game product you own. Something that you didn't have high hopes for but tried it out anyways and not only found that you liked it, but really really loved it. What didn't you like about it that set your expectations low and what turned it around? Mine would have to Rezolution by Aberrant Games. When the game first came out, I looked at the funky minis that had a mix of sculpts that leaned mostly to what I really wasn't crazy for. The paintjobs on the original studio miniatures really didn't help either. The artistic style I wasn't too thrilled with either. Our FLGS tried it out on a suggestion from one other regular, who's known for buying just about everything and well not having time to play it. So the guys and I would stop by the shop at lunchtime and check out the new stuff at the store. For over a week we'd look at the starter boxes on display and scoff at them. However I had started hearing good things about the rules from the free demo rules. And one day I took the plunge and bought the APAC starter pack. I picked the APAC faction because the sculpts looked the nicest of the 4 starter sets and being an asian faction I thought if the game sucks I could incorporate them into my Warzone Mishima or Urban War Triads forces. Not too crazy about the half-shirts of the Enforcers and such but the Arashi struck a chord that reminded me of Big Trouble in Little China that I recently had on. So I get the set home and find the minis looking a lot better than I expected. The packaging and materials inside reminded me a lot of my first Warmachine set. A whole warband with starter rules, fancy deviation dice, and this cool CD with paper terrain. Wow, that was the thing that hooked me into Warmachine. So I go over the rules and really sort of got into the whole opposed rolling mechanic. I told a friend of mine, one of my fellow scoffers, and he was intrigued. Both of us were tired of 40k and liked Warmachine for the small scale of it. This seemed us like a cyberpunk version of it. After reading the starter rules I was so impressed that I went back the next day and picked up the rulebook and a few blisters. Reading the rulebook, I really liked the other stuff you could do like hacking, weapon jams/out of ammo situations, robots and the wound system. Furthermore the background fluff seemed very intriguing and touched on all sorts of cyberpunk sources. I really got to like my APAC faction after reading the fluff on them. Furthermore, the weird half shirts my enforcers had I sort of grew out of it when I thought of them as Yakuza and decided to tattoo their bare torsos. I even got a bunch of tiger face decals from Hasslefree to put on their bellies as the starter for my tattood yakuza gang. I played a few games with a my friend and we both liked it so much he went out and bought the book. He wasn't too keen on the CSO minis but decided to use his Urban War Viridians instead. A few other guys in my group now were getting interested, mostly due to the mechanics. Again the alternating activation opposed rolling seemed to really stand out as one of the favorite features as well as the small size of the game. By the time GenCon came around, a good portion of us had a starter set and/or the core rulebook. We had the opportunity to meet the guys from Aberrant at their booth and had got to talk with them for a while. Made some friends and even provided some frank comments on what we liked and disliked about the game. They're a great bunch of guys and I always looked forward to seeing them at Gen Con. I had been logging my game plays on Boardgame Geek for years now, and I look back on the data and I find that Rezolution is by far the most played game I own since I started keeping track of my games. So much that it's more than double Urban War or AE-WWII. |
John the OFM | 22 Feb 2010 6:32 p.m. PST |
Flames of War. I was eally prepared to dislike it, particuarly since I had never tried WW2 before. However, I love the game, warts and all. |
pavelft | 22 Feb 2010 6:32 p.m. PST |
I have to go with Fairy Meat. One of the most fun and underrated games out there. |
Pierce Inverarity | 22 Feb 2010 6:38 p.m. PST |
Last week I bought a used copy of WRG's Armour & Infantry 1925-50 from 1973. I had zero expectations. The point was simply to educate myself in gaming history a bit. Well, I read it, and while it has its moments of opacity I rilly want to play it now. It's got simple resolution mechanisms, but it does differentiate between various kinds of armor, and its commo rules sound like the may cause some serious nailbiting at just the right time. |
McWong73 | 22 Feb 2010 6:40 p.m. PST |
Avalon Hill's Battlecry ACW game. I believe the original "Command and Colours" game. Hands down the best gaming investment I have ever made, I and my gaming buds have played this more than any other game. Otherwise Flames of War. Was expecting 40k WW2, and got something much, much better. |
Hexxenhammer | 22 Feb 2010 6:40 p.m. PST |
I'd have to say Song of Blades & Heroes. I'd kind of mentally scoffed at it for no particular reason
too simple
blah, blah
Then I kept reading that people were playing it with their kids, which interested me because I was actually trying to write some rules to play with my daughter. So, I bought it since it's only $4.00 USD in a pdf. Lo and behold, I love it, my daughter loves it and I'll be using it for "grown-up" gaming too. I went on to buy Song of Gold & Darkness and now Flying Lead. I'll probably buy their RPG when it comes out too. |
jizbrand | 22 Feb 2010 6:41 p.m. PST |
I have to go with Fairy Meat. One of the most fun and underrated games out there. Just so! I constantly keep my eyes open for fairy figures in all the toy stores. Another favorite is Prehistoric Settlement -- lots of replay value, simple and easy, and has some surprising effects (like lines of communication/supply). |
Toaster | 22 Feb 2010 6:53 p.m. PST |
Mutants and Death Ray Guns, I really like Song of Blades and Heros but was never into post apocalypse and I only picked up MDRG because I found a Star Wars mod on the yahoo group, My first though was that it was too strongly tied to its background and campaign system to use for anything else but the whole clup now loves rolling up random warbands and running them for three games or so. Robert |
CmdrKiley | 22 Feb 2010 7:04 p.m. PST |
Song of Blades and Heroes would also be on my list. I scoffed at the title and the cover art. Heard some good stuff being said about it on TMP. Later decided to try Mutants and Death Ray Guns, because something about it reminded me of old school Gamma World (which I have fond memories of) and the name just didn't seem as silly. Read the rules and really found it simple yet elegant and it did scream old school Gamma World to me. Turned out I really liked it. Another friend took the plunge with SoB&H and taught his nephews it and found it to be a great game. He then taught us to play and I'd have to say I too really liked it. I just went and bought the bundle of SoB&H a few weeks ago. |
Paintbeast | 22 Feb 2010 8:00 p.m. PST |
Blood*Bowl
I remember thinking it looked ridiculous and only picked it up so I could run demos at the store and improve the sales (back when I worked at a game store). Now I own all the official teams and have even tracked down many of the older figures. It is easily the most played game I own. |
nsolomon99 | 22 Feb 2010 8:12 p.m. PST |
"Le Feu Sacre" Napoleonic Rules from the TooFatLardies. First rules from this publisher I had ever tried and I was a bit suspicious. Read them through and thought .. ho hum
dont seem so special
then played them solo for about an hour, 2 or 3 turns and wow!! Best Napoleonic Rules I have used in 20+ years of napoleonic wargaming. Since then I've looked at others, Lasalle, Black Powder, etc and they dont even get close. I'm still amazed by them. |
dglennjr | 22 Feb 2010 8:37 p.m. PST |
I second 'Bloodbowl' but also would like to add Necromunda to that list. I'm still anti-GW, with the exception to these two games. Both games were great for the gamer in that you only had to buy a single team or gang in order to play, and not a lot of terrain needed. Unfortunatley for the game company, it doesn't translate into big miniature sales, unlike WH40K and etc. That's a big reason why both games don't get a lot of support from GW these days. -David G. |
Doctor X | 22 Feb 2010 8:59 p.m. PST |
Mordheim. They took the WHFB engine and made it better. I thouht I'd have to do a lot of tweaking to it once I started but this is one of my Top 5 favorite games to play. |
Wellspring | 22 Feb 2010 10:06 p.m. PST |
Battlefleet Gothic. I expected a cheesy, unrealistic space game. The game wasn't very realistic, but the rules encouraged great play styles and had wonderful tactical richness. The minis that came with the box set were great, and the overall deal for the box set was awesome. For a game I was prepared to hate, this turned into one of my favorites. |
Ivan DBA | 23 Feb 2010 12:01 a.m. PST |
Warmaster. When I first saw it, for some reason I thought that GW was trying to kill DBx with it. One of the old veterans at my FLGS back then (Little Wars in Baton Rouge!) had read the rules, and thought there was something to it. I then had this epiphany looking the High Elf figs, and envisioned them in bronze armor with black and red uniforms. With not much more to go on than that, I bought the rules, and a High Elf starter army. Money and time well spent. Warmaster is a great game, with elegant mechanics, and great play balance between armies. I played in the very first Campaign Day at GW Headquarters in Lenton, and have the dubious distinction of being the first player to lose a battle in a Campaign Day event! |
Fat Wally | 23 Feb 2010 3:24 a.m. PST |
The original 'Bag the Hun' from TFL. Air warfare never had much appeal for me before. Played a game of BTH and was amazed at how compelling it was. There just seemed so many subtleties and depths to what on the face of it seemed a simple and somewhat abstract set of rules. I was totally hooked. Games and results just seemed to feel just right. Bags of flavour and definately a case of playing the period. Can't wait to get to grips with BTH2 now its out. |
Martin Rapier | 23 Feb 2010 3:24 a.m. PST |
KISS Rommel. Looks completely stupid (battalion stands firing at each other at a scale 6km range??) but is a really good game as well as being an interesting simulation with lots of eminently blaggable ideas. An honourable tie with De Bellis Navalis by Colin Standish. DBA with battleships. Again, a stupid sounding idea, but works really well. Rekindled my interest in naval warfare . |
Feet up now | 23 Feb 2010 5:49 a.m. PST |
Combat Zone was a good find. Main reason why it is liked by a small group of us here is because we were big fans of the old laser squad and X-com games and this set of rules seems to emulate those classics with the action point system. The core rules can be learned easy and adapted to different game backgrounds .We have done the old Laser squad games and X-Com along with 2000AD games involving Dredd ,Strontium dog and Rogue trooper.The Combat Zone Chronicles website is really good too.Not ground breaking ,just a fine fun game. Will also mention Song of Blades system aswell.Great game for introducing the youngsters and playing a series of games in one evening. |
Doctor Bedlam | 23 Feb 2010 6:31 a.m. PST |
"Last Night On Earth." I expected another zombie swat-and-shoot-fest. The game does a surprisingly good job of recreating the FEEL of a spooky low-budget zombie movie. One of the few horror games I've ever played that actually kind of creeped me out. |
Patrick R | 23 Feb 2010 6:36 a.m. PST |
SenZar, officially the most hated RPG in history. The writing is childish, stuid and is aimed at power players and munchkins, but scratch the surface and you'll find one of the most logical, well thought out D&D-like game systems I've seen in years. 3rd edition would have been a lot better if they had taken a cue from these guys. |
Pierce Inverarity | 23 Feb 2010 7:32 a.m. PST |
Since we're in SenZar territory I will say that Rifts(c)(TM) was one of my most pleasant RPG surprises. This in spite of the fact (actually, probably *because* of it) that I first read it when I was 30 rather than the usual 13. |
richarDISNEY | 23 Feb 2010 9:57 a.m. PST |
Minis game
. Pirates! – Flagship Games What a game. I saw it at a con, didn't play it, but it looked kinda cool. Bought the basic box, and they my club spent the next three years playing that almost religiously. RPG
Witch Hunter: The Invisible World Boardgame
Formula De. |
Dr Mathias | 23 Feb 2010 10:13 a.m. PST |
'Mausoleum', a card game where you try to off your relatives, and use your inheritance money to build tombs. Bought it on a whim, and just about everyone who plays it loves it- my mom, son, students, wife
its been played a lot whenever we get together for holidays. Make sure to buy two decks and mix them together, tombs get hoarded! "Modern Art". I'm still not sure how to win it. It does a great job of simulating the subjective nature of the 'value' of paintings. Wargames
hmmm. Probably "Chain Reaction" from THW. I bought it a LONG time ago ('Guns and Girls' cover, LOL!) and the mechanics are a blast, I was really shocked. If the creator(s) had better editing and technical writing it would be very popular, as it stands there is a lot of murkiness with regard to resolving action order in certain situations and the rules have a very 'conversational' delivery. To be fair, if you have a question Ed is very accessible though the Yahoo group- but based off the questions that constantly get asked there it is evident that people have a hard time deciphering what the rules intend sometimes. That said
'Chain Reaction' and 'ATZ'
super fun systems. |
dglennjr | 23 Feb 2010 10:26 a.m. PST |
"Bang", the card game if you can get 5 or more players. It's based on spaghetti westerns and I never laughed so hard in several games. (In one game, I was the sheriff, and managed to shoot/kill both of my deputies. Classic.) |
dglennjr | 23 Feb 2010 10:28 a.m. PST |
"Dead Walk Again", a free set of miniature rules for great zombie action. It's a simple game with lots of zombie killing. The more the gorier. Plus, the price is right. |
Captain Apathy | 23 Feb 2010 2:09 p.m. PST |
"Dead Walk Again", a free set of miniature rules for great zombie action. It's a simple game with lots of zombie killing. The more the gorier. Plus, the price is right.
Speaking of which, do you know where you can find the rules? |
Captain Apathy | 23 Feb 2010 2:11 p.m. PST |
I would have to say Up Front from Avalon Hill. When it was pitched to me as ASL in a card game my first thought was "ugh!" But I have to say I have played that one single game more than any other. I have worn out at least two copies. |
Acharnement | 23 Feb 2010 5:46 p.m. PST |
Captain Apathy: link seems to have a lot of the rules there. I am not sure if it is complete, though, having never played the game. |
CmdrKiley | 23 Feb 2010 5:59 p.m. PST |
Dead Walk Again is a fun game. One guy in our group got it and setup a big game for us last year. It was a hoot. link |
evilleMonkeigh | 07 Jul 2010 6:01 a.m. PST |
Song of Blades. I kinda dismissed it as too 'kiddy' but I must say a closer look has impressed me a lot. Jovian Chronicles. Obscure, and ships are too complicated. But that's why there's only aq couple on each side. But it's all about flying mechs – what other game allows you to dogfight jets and giant robots in space. A well-laid-out rulebook, too. |