Game: Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill

Thread: Re: An expansion that will please Illuminati fans

leonardocr — 2008-10-19T02:57:55+00:00

I really liked it as a hole.
The two expancions "events cards" added more bluffing to the game and "money" to make deals with the other players, and as sayed before the rule, to have at least 2 groups in the table made destruction of groups lucrative!!! After all when u kill a group (when are 2 in the table) you are given the other player a new group, that can be better than what is at the table, so why not as for a little money for that (5 mb is fair).

Not telling about the efects of the arctifacts in play, they gave the game a 3 dimension, after all, some artifacts together can be very cool !
Just put together the perpectual machine and the (artifact that destroy groups and give u cards , sorry i forgot the name, soon i will correct it) you can get a lot of events cards and make a good bargain to keep some groups "alive" at the game.

As a entusiast of this game, its a must to buy(the two expancions by the way)

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Aubigny — 2008-05-19T12:11:17+00:00

German Pegasus Edition: 10 additional group cards and 2 altered cards

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Aubigny — 2008-05-19T10:17:36+00:00

German Pegasus Edition: Box Cover

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Aubigny — 2008-05-19T10:17:21+00:00

German Pegasus Edition: Back of the Box

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Aubigny — 2008-05-19T10:17:03+00:00

German Pegasus Edition: Content

Thread: Custom Illuminati Cards

ScottMcChesney — 2008-01-28T04:43:23+00:00

If anyone is interested, I’ve started making custom cards for Illuminati. Below is a link to the first batch I’ve posted up on the Geek, containing four groups and four artifacts.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo/29956

Let me know if you have any suggestions for the next batch of cards.

If you would like your very own custom card made to your specifications send me a message with what you want on it and 0.25 Geek Gold and I will email the image to you. If you want a card made and sent to you I can do that as well if you cover the cost of postage and materials.

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jwilhm — 2008-01-28T00:14:50+00:00

2 artifacts

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jwilhm — 2008-01-28T00:13:29+00:00

2 artifacts

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jwilhm — 2008-01-28T00:11:55+00:00

2 artifacts

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jwilhm — 2008-01-28T00:10:19+00:00

2 artifacts

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jwilhm — 2008-01-28T00:08:24+00:00

2 more artifacts

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jwilhm — 2008-01-28T00:06:53+00:00

2 more artifacts

Thread: Re: Illuminati Bavarian Fire Drill, What's it Like?

ScottMcChesney — 2008-01-09T04:48:31+00:00

I think in Y2k they decided to raise the ratio of specials to normal groups since they had added rules making special more important. Or it could just be that people like the specials so they raised the numbers.

Thread: Re: Illuminati Bavarian Fire Drill, What's it Like?

DrFaust — 2008-01-09T04:10:48+00:00

While I can’t be sure I think most of the special cards were added to address small game imbalances and to keep the ratio of special to normal cards the same even with adding new groups.

Shortly after BFD came out, I counted the number of special cards and non-special cards in the core set versus the core set with the expansions Y2K and BFD. I can't find my notes at the moment, but the expansions significantly increase the ratio of specials to non-specials.

Unfortunately, I didn't think to compare the specials ratio of core set plus Y2K against core set plus Y2K plus BFD. It may be that more specials was a design choice they implemented with Y2K and so BFD maintained that ratio.

Thread: Illuminati Bavarian Fire Drill, What's it Like?

ScottMcChesney — 2008-01-08T20:51:01+00:00

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Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill is an expansion to Illuminati: Deluxe Edition; both are made by Steve Jackson Games. Bavarian Fire Drill has its work cut out for it trying to add new, fun rules to a game that has been in play for over twenty years and seen many expansions. But it succeeds in this goal better then any Illuminati expansion to date.

What’s it Like to Open?

Bavarian Fire Drill comes in a small tuck box. Inside are over 100 cards and a one page sheet of instruction with new rules and tweaks to old ones. The box is of rather low durability and most players will probably throw it out after opening. Luckily that is OK as the cards are meant to be shuffled into the main Illuminati cards, and there is enough room in the Illuminati Deluxe box for the new cards with room to spare even if you already have previous expansions.

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What’s its Rules Like?

This expansion adds two main things to Illuminati. First more group and special cards, some of these from the Steve Jackson CCG, Illuminati: New World Order. Second a new card type, Artifacts that represent an item of importance and the people who care for/protect it. These cards use the same style of art and humor as previous Illuminati cards. They will have no trouble blending in with older cards and the humor implied thru a cards name or image is often quite funny.

The down side to this is that the cards blend it too well. There is no symbol on any of the new cards to show it comes from an expansion making removing it from the main deck quite a hassle. Steve Jackson Games website does included a list of all cards in Bavarian Fire Drill but the basic game has hundreds of cards and if your using the Illuminati: Y2K expansion finding 100 cards out of all them by name alone is going to take a while.

The new groups are fun and variety is the spice of life but for the most part none of them are that interesting. Some do throw in neat special abilities but most of those abilities are weak enough or on a small enough scale that they won’t seriously impact the game. The image below is an example of what you'll find.

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The new special cards are much the same. Some are very similar to old cards and some where added so there would be special cards that affect the new Artifacts. While I can’t be sure I think most of the special cards were added to address small game imbalances and to keep the ratio of special to normal cards the same even with adding new groups.

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The artifact cards are the real meat of the expansion. These are a new type of card. However for the most part these new card act like regular groups with some minor differences. Artifacts are never placed as part of your power structure; instead they are set off to the side. Artifacts do not have power or control arrows so can never attack another group. All artifacts have special ability or effects that the controller of the card has access to. There have always been groups in Illuminati that had special abilities but because of the lack of arrows and changes to card orientation, artifact cards have more room for more elaborate rules. Most of these special abilities are interesting and powerful. Some can make a player that is lagging behind become a serious threat.

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The rule sheet also has two tweaks to older rules. The first helps keep uncontrolled groups on the table and is so simple I feel a little dumb I never thought of it. The second is another use of special cards that was already in the Y2K expansion. Both are show in the image below.

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What’s it Like to Play?

The artifact cards behave mostly like regular groups but these minor differences give them plenty of variation and make them a great new addition to the game. The real problem is one of impact. There are less then twenty artifact cards. The basic game has hundreds of card and the Bavarian Fire drill expansion adds over ninety non artifact cards. Combined that with previous expansion and you may have quite a massive deck. With only a handful of artifacts to draw you probably won’t see one most games. If you want a visual aid to the chances of drawing an artifact card look at the image below. I enjoy the variety of all those cards, its fun to see different things every time you play but most of what make this expansion interesting is in the artifacts and the fact that they won’t impact most games is a little disappointing.

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I think this is a good expansion. If you play Illuminati semi regularly this is a pretty good investment of $17. But if you play it only occasionally or if you looking for something to improve parts of the game you don’t like then this may not be worth your while.

Thread: Re: An expansion that will please Illuminati fans

DrFaust — 2007-11-06T22:00:48+00:00

waddball wrote:
Again, not sure how I feel about this. It's not that it's bad, but it's different. If I had only played with expansions, I'd likely think nothing of it. But the original made a much bigger deal out of owning Specials. If you had one, it mattered, as they were (almost all) powerful--often potential game-winners. It's not like Illuminati is a finely-tuned game, but without getting into a really exhaustive analysis, I would have preferred to see fewer Specials with more powerful functions, more concentrated transferrable power groups, more Artifacts (only 1 in 19?), and of course a new Illuminati or three. Maybe the idea here was to ignore Y2K altogether (a view I'm not entirely unsympathetic toward).

Well, they are reprinting Y2K, so I guess SJG isn't being completely revisionist.

I played several games of Illuminati this weekend that consisted of the basic set plus Bavarian Fire Drill. I was surprised by how many artifacts showed up over the course of events. One game including the Network probably helped, but still.

With those experiences under my belt, I've begun to consider drafting a heavily overhauled core Illuminati deck of about 110 cards -- essentially the size of one of the expansions. It would retain the original ratio of specials to groups, as well as the overall proportions of powerful groups to weaker ones, and alignments. It would probably skew to the newer cards, for topicality's sake, while including classics like the Orbital Mind Control Lasers and such.

This just popped into my head and it seems more and more like a large undertaking, but I think I'd like to try it out.

Thread: Re: An expansion that will please Illuminati fans

Thunder — 2007-10-28T21:17:32+00:00

I have also been an Illuminati player for a long time, I own all the various editions. I am concerned with the number of specials as well, they should be rare and powerful. In our games, if someone drew one, they were a target for other nastyness because of it.

The card backs were done well, too bad the actual cards are different sizes than the original sets!

Thanks for the breakdown of the different alignments, thats helpful information.

Peace

Thread: Re: An expansion that will please Illuminati fans

waddball — 2007-10-23T15:08:41+00:00

After a full game, and the helpful link above, I dug up some more facts:

DI has 8 Illuminati, 15 Specials, 83 Groups
Y2K has 2 Illuminati, 26 Specials, 76 Groups
BFD has 0 Illuminati, 31 Specials, 63 Groups, 16 Artifacts

Alignments stack up like this [DI/Y2K/BFD]:

Conservative: 37 (16/10/11)
Liberal: 43 (17/13/13)
Straight: 40 (14/14/12)
Weird: 53 (18/18/17)
Peaceful: 31 (8/11/12)
Violent: 45 (23/6/16)
Government: 30 (9/10/11)
Communist: 24 (9/6/9)
Criminal: 31 (10/13/8)
Fanatic: 33 (12/9/12)

So proportionally to BFD only, Weird went down (Y2K was 16%, BFD 14%), but it's still vastly overrepresented as a whole, with 14% of the overall card set. I like the alignment distribution to be asymmetrical, but the victory conditions should keep pace (so Discordia needing 6, or maybe even 7, seems obvious, and that's factoring in the weakness of a Weird power structure). Shangri-La meanwhile gets 8% of the set to work with. Assassins did get a boost with BFD, but it was already common. I didn't do a check of transferrable power, but just off the cuff the Network is still hosed.

The new Specials ratio will impact every game. It's clear SJ wanted to change the feel: in the original you'd see a Special in 6.5 draws; in Y2K, 4.8 draws; and in BFD, 4.3 draws. This hits the Network pretty hard (rather, it grants everyone else about a third of their special power) and eases Bavaria's privilege stranglehold. In fact, privileged attacks (and interference/Deep Agent counters--which are now lame draws, BTW) are commonplace. Most of the new Specials are very INWO-like, so they're quite situational (add 10 to Straight defense, or 10 to an attack on Liberal, or immediately gain income for Criminal, etc.). I think our 6p game saw perhaps 12 drawn, with 3 used as written, 4 or 5 used as privileged attacks, and 2 used as "Deep Agent" (the balance were unused when the Network won a conventional victory).

Again, not sure how I feel about this. It's not that it's bad, but it's different. If I had only played with expansions, I'd likely think nothing of it. But the original made a much bigger deal out of owning Specials. If you had one, it mattered, as they were (almost all) powerful--often potential game-winners. It's not like Illuminati is a finely-tuned game, but without getting into a really exhaustive analysis, I would have preferred to see fewer Specials with more powerful functions, more concentrated transferrable power groups, more Artifacts (only 1 in 19?), and of course a new Illuminati or three. Maybe the idea here was to ignore Y2K altogether (a view I'm not entirely unsympathetic toward).

Thread: Re: Great Pyramid: Group text over Special Card Text?

MobiusTubes — 2007-10-20T06:46:53+00:00

If I understand what you're saying correctly, I would say yes ... the Great Pyramid trumps the special cards (such as "Nuke Them From Orbit").

Reasoning: Artifacts are groups. Since they don't have a power rating, they cannot be destroyed except by special cards. But having the Great Pyramid means that your artifacts cannot be stolen, neutralized or destroyed. The only thing that could possibly relate to is being destroyed by a special card.

Thread: Re: Great Pyramid: Group text over Special Card Text?

TheNinja — 2007-10-19T18:26:19+00:00

Alright, thats definitely the way I wanted to play it. I just wanted to make sure I can smack the next rules lawyer who decides to argue with me.

Thread: Re: Great Pyramid: Group text over Special Card Text?

mrbeankc — 2007-10-19T17:14:33+00:00

I'd say no as well since it's only through special cards that an artifact can be destroyed.

Thread: Re: An expansion that will please Illuminati fans

DrFaust — 2007-10-19T14:48:04+00:00

waddball wrote:
I haven't yet gone through the groups to confirm this, but it seems like there are fewer Weird groups than in Y2K (which had too many, IMO, and made the Discordians too strong, as well as filling up everyone's structures with junky little oddball groups), and more Violent groups. Again, not sure, just offhand impression after opening it last night.

According to a poster on the SJG forum, there are 17 Weird groups, plus Voice Mails, which change their alignment to that of whomever controls them. You can find the rest of his census here: http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=470128&postcount=3

waddball wrote:
One thing that I'm still unsettled on is whether I like having so many specials in play. It feels like it's trying to be INWO, but I'd rather preserve the distinctions between them. Don't get me wrong, I love INWO, but one of the charms of the original was just how rare specials were and thus how most of the action was right there on the board, but now hand management begins to figure a bit too prominently into the equation.

Agreed. Just before BFD hit stores, I was fiddling with a pared down deck using elements from Deluxe and Y2K. At the time, though, it was mostly removing alignment-specific specials and many of the power-less dead end groups.

Now with BFD in the mix, I think I'd still reduce the number of specials, just to reduce the number of privileged attacks in a game. I mean, when they institute a rule that two specials can negate privilege, I think that's an indicator that are too many special cards flying round.

Thread: Re: Great Pyramid: Group text over Special Card Text?

Warbanner — 2007-10-19T14:24:55+00:00

Those cards do so regardless of when it was played, NOT regardless of *anything*. So I'd say no.

Thread: Great Pyramid: Group text over Special Card Text?

TheNinja — 2007-10-19T13:55:58+00:00

It states on the "Great Pyramid" group that artifacts cannot be captured, neutralized, or destroyed. Does that trump the special cards that Neutralize And destroy artifacts immediately regardless of when the card is played?

Thread: Re: An expansion that will please Illuminati fans

waddball — 2007-10-18T17:40:27+00:00

Nice review. One thing I'm pleased by is the inclusion of a new rule that ensures there will always be at least two groups in the unclaimed pile. Group lockup was often an issue for us even in the original, but with so many specials added with Y2K and BFD, this new rule seems essential.

I haven't yet gone through the groups to confirm this, but it seems like there are fewer Weird groups than in Y2K (which had too many, IMO, and made the Discordians too strong, as well as filling up everyone's structures with junky little oddball groups), and more Violent groups. Again, not sure, just offhand impression after opening it last night.

One thing that I'm still unsettled on is whether I like having so many specials in play. It feels like it's trying to be INWO, but I'd rather preserve the distinctions between them. Don't get me wrong, I love INWO, but one of the charms of the original was just how rare specials were and thus how most of the action was right there on the board, but now hand management begins to figure a bit too prominently into the equation.

Thread: An expansion that will please Illuminati fans

mrbeankc — 2007-10-16T19:00:31+00:00

FNORD

Illuminati: A History

There is an expression in movies about a film having legs. Meaning that a film has staying power at the box office and doesn't quickly fade away. A film with good legs comes along only once in a while and the same can be said about games in our hobby. After over two decades I think we can say Illuminati definitely has legs.

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Illuminati will soon celebrate it's 25th anniversary. It was originally published by Steve Jackson games in 1983. Back then it came in a snap tight case. The cards were small and featured black & white illustrations but it became a good seller for Steve Jackson and resulted in several expansions. It was a gaming mainstay for me and my gaming group in the 1980s.

In the late 90s the game was re-released in a deluxe edition that combined the original game with it's first two expansions. This deluxe edition featured larger cards and color artwork. Some cards were removed and some added but over all it was the same game that was released in 1983. Then in 1999 a new expansion was added called Y2K. It was pretty much just an addition of new cards for the game which helped upgrade the original with more socially current groups.

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Bavarian Fire Drill

Bavarian Fire Drill was suppose to be the follow up expansion to Y2K but the problem was it kept getting delayed....and delayed....and delayed and.... Well, you get the picture. It got to the point that it was thought by many that this long awaited expansion was never going to come out. However after years of delays the game is finally out. Was it worth the wait? Well I am not sure any game expansion is worth this much waiting but it definitely is a great expansion.

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What you get in the box

Ok, you want to know what you get in the box. Well, you get a lot of cards. 110 to be exact featuring new groups to control, new special cards and of course the much talked about artifacts. The cards themselves are of the same quality as the original cards from the Deluxe Edition and Y2k expansion. In fact they've actually matched the card backs color wise so perfectly that you won't be able to tell which cards are from which release which is excellent.

One fear I had when I picked up Bavarian Fire Drill is will all the cards fit in the Deluxe Edition box. The good news is the answer is yes. All of the cards from the original Deluxe Edition, Y2K and BFD will fit in the Deluxe Edition box rather nicely. You'll likely have to have 2 card decks to draw from on the table but the additional variety the new cards provide are well worth such a simple concession.

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New Groups

The new groups in BFD bring the game more up to date with today's society. While most of the original groups are still applicable to today a few are a touch dated such as the SLA and the Phone Freaks. The new expansion brings in a number of new groups dealing with today's technology such as Cell Phones, Bloggers and Online Auctions. While at the same time we also see some of the fun oddball groups that made the original game so much fun such as the Church of Elvis and the Paranoids. Another interesting new group is The Great Pyramid of Giza which seems a bit odd as a group but will be a very valuable card for those who wish to control artifact cards. Lastly the Reformed Church of Satan from the 1983 edition has returned after being left out of the Deluxe Edition.

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Special Cards

I was a bit concerned with the new edition about balance, in particular when it came to special cards. Special cards are important to the game as it allows players to make privileged attacks and more importantly to abolish them. The good news is the new expansion features a nice number of special cards that should preserve the original balance nicely. These new cards also provide a number of unique uses. Rather than the specials in BFD simply being a rehash of special cards from the older editions the new specials effect the game in a variety of new ways including being able to add extra income to groups of a specific alignment or to give you an extra action.

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Artifacts

This is without question the biggest addition or change to the game provided by BFD. There has been a lot of speculation about what the new artifact cards will do for the game. These cards which include such things as The Holy Grail, The Perpetual Motion Machine and Hitler's Brain add a new dimension to the game by allowing their owners certain special abilities such as extra income or the ability to draw an extra card. They are for the most part treated like a regular group, thus you can control them and even steal them from other players. In rare instances you can even destroy them. However they are not added to your power structure like other groups but simply held and placed on the table alongside it. Once controlled they receive the same +10 resistance as a card in your power structure that is connected to your main Illuminati card.

I was as curious as anyone as to how these new artifacts would effect the game but I'm happy to say they are a great addition. They are great cards to own but at the same time they aren't overpowering. This is in part because first they are rather rare (Of the three games I have played so far only three have shown up all total) and secondly they are about as powerful as a mid level card although some artifacts definitely hold more advantage for some such as the Midas Machine which will especially benefit the Gnomes of Zurich.

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Summery

One thing that has impressed me with this expansion is the balance that it has achieved. I was concerned originally that the expansion might unbalance the game due to the effects of artifacts or simply that to many cards might be overwhelming. That has not been the case. I've found the expansion extremely well balanced with all that it contains adding to the original game without having any off kilter effects.

Overall this is a fantastic expansion that Illuminati fans will not be disappointed in. BFD adds tons of stuff to an already great game without altering the fun game play. The new groups and special cards will add a nice touch of variety for long time players while at the same time updating it to the 21st Century world we live in. Last and perhaps most importantly the addition of the artifacts adds a new element to Illuminati without disrupting the basic game itself. At less than $20 this addition to Illuminati is a must buy in my opinion for anyone who enjoys the original game. It was worth the wait.

I rate this a 10

FNORD

Thread: Re: In the shops

FnordChan — 2007-10-12T21:17:41+00:00

Just picked up my copy. Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an insidious plot by an illuminati! Well, we're not so sure about that last bit, but I am checking out the cards as we speak and look forward to playing with the expansion tomorrow night. Now to strip out the Y2K cards from the base set to keep things from being too diluted...

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

MobiusTubes — 2007-10-12T16:18:32+00:00

For those who are interested, I am able to fit everything (Y2K, BFD, Brainwash) into my Deluxe Illuminati box. There isn't a whole lot of room left over, but the box lid closes completely with no "smooshing"

Thread: Re: Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe?

MobiusTubes — 2007-10-11T14:35:52+00:00

It's available ... got my copy on Wednesday (10/10/07)

Thread: Re: In the shops

mrbeankc — 2007-10-10T21:15:22+00:00

Just got a call that it came in at my FLGS so looks like I'll have it for this weekend.

Thread: In the shops

riks — 2007-10-10T17:39:56+00:00

It is in the shops.

In the UK.

Now.

For real.

It exists.

I bought it.

Thread: Re: Update from SJG: It's out!

PhilReed — 2007-10-09T19:40:54+00:00

MobiusTubes wrote:
My local game stores (Tucson) keep telling me that their distributors don't have it. At least, not as of this writing. Have been waiting for this for a while, my frustration level is increasing exponentially with each passing day ...

www.thoughthammer.com says the street date is October 10. I've seen it in the Alliance warehouse (in Austin) and we started shipping to distributors a few weeks ago. The game is definitely printed and ready.

Thread: Re: Update from SJG: It's out!

MobiusTubes — 2007-10-09T13:32:02+00:00

My local game stores (Tucson) keep telling me that their distributors don't have it. At least, not as of this writing. Have been waiting for this for a while, my frustration level is increasing exponentially with each passing day ...

Thread: Re: Update from SJG: It's out!

PhilReed — 2007-10-07T19:41:30+00:00

FnordChan wrote:
Here's hoping copies start to show up at retail this week.

They should, the copies shipped to distributors a couple of weeks ago.

And on my desk I have the Y2K reprint, which is also in the new tuckbox.

Thread: Update from SJG: It's out!

FnordChan — 2007-10-07T19:00:40+00:00

No, really! Well, I'll believe it when I'm buying my copy from ye olde local game shop, but the Daily Illuminator at the Steve Jackson Games website says: "October 7, 2007: At Last! Some said it would never happen, but we have, indeed, released Bavarian Fire Drill upon the world! We have actual copies of it in the office, and your local game store should very soon as well (if they don't already)." Awesome. Here's hoping copies start to show up at retail this week.

Thread: Re: Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe?

MobiusTubes — 2007-09-23T03:33:52+00:00

According to Steve Jackson's website (www.sjgames.com), it was shipped on Sept 17, 2007 (Monday). My local game store says that, if this is true, they should have copies available Thursday (Sept 27).

Thread: Preorders being accepted everywhere September 2007

rramstad — 2007-09-20T21:03:35+00:00

It looks like this is really going to happen. Warehouse 23 is accepting preorders for Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill and states that this has gone to the printers with a release date of September 2007. I've seen at least three other major online retailers accepting preorders as well. List price is $17.95.

In other very interesting related news, they are also reprinting Illuminati: Deluxe Edition which is excellent, as a copy is required in order to play this expansion. List price is $34.95. Again, Warehouse 23 and many online retailers are accepting preorders now.

The only Illuminati game I have is a few starter decks of Illuminati: New World Order but have been keeping an eye out on this as it seems that many prefer the original...

FYI, it also appears that the Illuminati: Y2K expansion is getting reprinted, but somewhat later, as the estimated release date is November 2007.

BTW I had originally submitted this article asking for GeekGold and it was rejected. I don't really understand why, given that this game has been delayed repeatedly and the news that the original game is being reprinted is notable and new to many folks, but whatever...

Thread: Re: Card Proofs!

kj869 — 2007-09-16T23:41:07+00:00

I had already given up on this. I realy cant believe its coming out... Well.. Better wait for it to be in hands before being to cheerfull about it coming finaly.

Thread: Re: Card Proofs!

PhilReed — 2007-09-16T20:42:00+00:00

mrbeankc wrote:
I swear I had almost given up on this ever coming out.

It's definitely coming out. I expect final copies to arrive from the printer this week and the supplement to be in stores by October 1st.

Thread: Re: Card Proofs!

mrbeankc — 2007-09-12T10:01:05+00:00

I swear I had almost given up on this ever coming out. It's going to be a really big stack of cards with the Deluxe set, Y2K and now this all rolled together.

Thread: Card Proofs!

TeufelHund — 2007-09-12T05:35:18+00:00

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/img/2007/bfd.jpg

My favourites so far:

LARPers and "Talk Like a Pirate Day" (no idea what the later does though...).

Bring it on.

Thread: Sample Cards & Art

TeufelHund — 2007-08-23T03:03:48+00:00

Can be found:

http://www.sjgames.com/illuminati/bfd/cards.html

and

http://www.sjgames.com/illuminati/bfd/art.html

Enjoy!

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

Jowjow — 2007-08-20T01:47:24+00:00

This indeed did go to press about two weeks before Gencon, according to the folks at the SJ Games booth at that con. Not too much longer now!

Thread: Re: Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe?

PhilReed — 2007-08-07T13:08:01+00:00

mrbeankc wrote:
I swear this is starting to edge towards vaporware as the expansion was suppose to be out last year with the release date pushed back repeatedly.

I saw the card proofs this morning (and, in fact, need to go back and run a check on them) so it really is coming. I've also seen the tuckbox and rulesheet so it's very close to being completed.

Thread: Re: Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe

mrbeankc — 2007-08-05T14:20:35+00:00

I swear this is starting to edge towards vaporware as the expansion was suppose to be out last year with the release date pushed back repeatedly.

My only fear is how many cards are we going to see on the draw pile. You should see my games of Nuclear War. They consist of 4 very tall draw decks thanks to all the expansions.

I was actually thinking recently that maybe they should simply toss out the old game and rather than do an expansion do a completely new updated version. However when you think about it there are surprisingly few cards in the original game that are really that far out of date. The Phone Freaks of course are (I actually have met Captain Crunch a few times which is meaningless unless you know what Phone Freaking was and the story behind it all) as is the Semiconscious Liberation Army (wikipedia Patty Hearst if you don't know that one). But beyond a small handful most of the groups in the original game still work 20+ years later.

Thread: Re: Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe?

Gmsnctry — 2007-08-04T07:45:31+00:00

Yes not released yet- should be an expansion set

Thread: Re: Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe

sdonohue — 2007-08-04T04:49:57+00:00

According to Steve Jackson Games (via Warehouse 23) it is "at the printers" and scheduled for a September release.

http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=SJG1394

Thread: Re: Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe

Rokkr — 2007-08-04T04:27:38+00:00

I was under the impression it's not released yet.
I was also under the impression it was an expansion for Illuminati, so I'd think you NEED a copy of Illuminati to play it.

Thread: Re: Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe

sdonohue — 2007-08-04T04:19:46+00:00

The official title is Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill so I believe the answer must be yes.

Thread: Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe?

Itiac Nolcin — 2007-08-03T22:04:56+00:00

Can Bavarian Fire Drill be played with Illuminati Deluxe?
Thanks.

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

riks — 2007-07-05T06:48:28+00:00

Announced today that this is going to press for shipment in August!

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archives.html?y=2007&m=July&d=5

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

wylsonated — 2007-04-21T13:08:51+00:00

As of 20 April 2007,

The new releases schedule on the SJGames site lists BFD as a June release. Looks like this is becoming vapor to me.

Edit:

Update: 15 May 2007, BFD pushed back to July.

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

Henry Rhombus — 2007-03-31T19:31:42+00:00

Jowjow wrote:
So much for January - I just checked a local online game store and their "guesstimate" is now April.

As of March 31, the Steve Jackson website says May 2007: http://www.sjgames.com/newproducts/newrel.html?m=4&y=7

Eric
Editor, www.BoardgameNews.com

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

Jowjow — 2007-03-31T17:35:08+00:00

So much for January - I just checked a local online game store and their "guesstimate" is now April.

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

Jowjow — 2006-11-25T18:35:15+00:00

Bummer. thanks for the info. Gives me more time to cull in prep, I guess.

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

julien_crawford — 2006-11-23T22:39:20+00:00

Well Illuminati fans - Its been pushed again.
This time to January 2007.
As I said to them, I'll not be buying from them until it is released. So it looks like I'll have to find another site that ships games overseas for xmas presents.
Suggestions? (It needs to come to OZ)

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

Wave1921 — 2006-09-27T23:27:05+00:00

riks wrote:
finnianp wrote:
I've condsidered culling the cards a bit.I have always found that culling was of benefit when playing the game. Especially when the Y2K expansion was mixed in. BFD will just magnify the problem.

The important factor is which groups to cull.

Weak groups are an obvious starter for the cull, they can clog up the neutral area unwanted by most....

So, what criteria is best? And how will BFD change those criteria?

I can't wait to find out!

From the press release, I got the impression that BFD would be incorporating an element from INWO, Resources, now called Artifacts. The organizations would fill out the Deluxe with some other (more powerful?) groups from INWO that were not in the Deluxe set, and other newer organizations (Bloggers, Webcams, FEMA, Bird Flu (a Disaster?). Of course this is all speculation on my part, or taken from their page.

I have culled my Deluxe cards as well down to 70 or 90. I set up the game slightly differently by giving everyone one choice of 18 of the greatest Power or Income groups for starting their conspiracy (a la INWO), then the remaining are shuffled back into the deck.

I've tried to include plenty of Weirds (15-20) and Violents, and Low/High/Global/No Power for everyone's victory conditions. I leaned toward the original lineups of cards from the first editions when I needed to decide what Low or No Power groups to include; S.M.O.F., Evil Geniuses, Fiendish Flouridators, Punk Rockers, Cycle Gangs, Flat Earthers Comic Books, et al. Given that, there's still too many cards.

The Phone Phreaks card did sort of open the way toward a technology-related sub-genre of cards consisting of, but not limited to: Spammers, Web Designers, WWW, Barcodes, Virtual Pets, and others from the Y2K set. But none of them are quite as virulent toward the Phone Company as I want, so I include Phone Phreaks.

What I would WANT from an expansion (other than for it to be released as scheduled)--well--that's another story.

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

Jowjow — 2006-09-27T15:38:06+00:00

Is there any buzz as to why this keeps getting pushed back?

Thread: Re: Illuminati expansion

riks — 2006-09-09T10:14:26+00:00

Wave1921 wrote:
Well, looks like it's been pushed back to September.
It has slipped again, now it is due in November. My sense of humour is starting to fail.

Thread: Blank Cards

finnianp — 2006-07-11T23:27:43+00:00

What are some of the blank groups and illuminati that you have made?

Here are a couple ideas I have been considering:
---------------
Illegal Immigrants -

Power - 0/4
Resistance - 5
Income - *

* - This card collects 2 income from it's controlling group. If the controlling group cannont pay, this card is neutralized.
----------------
France -

Power - 1
Resistance - 0
Income - 5

This card can be surrendered to prevent an attack to your power structure.
------------------

The Illegal Immigrants provide some great transferable power as a backbone of your power strucuture, but put a strain on groups controlling it. France generates a lot of money, but it easily taken over.