Board Games: Have you heard of this Settlers of Catan thing?

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Fate Accomplice: Nov 30, 2006

silvergoose posted:

Struggle of Empires, hoo man. What is literally my first Martin Wallace game, with a full complement of 7. An hour or so of rules, and then it took a long 5.5 hours to play. Didn't feel that long, though. I played Britain and, randomly, got almost all colonial controls and was kicked off the mainland quickly, so I had colonies in India and the Americas, with Press Gangs and the trained natives and the East Indies Company. Basically, exactly as it should be.

By far, the most interesting mechanic is the alliance auction. The game is in three wars, each war lasts five or six rounds of players taking actions. Before each war, though, people propose two powers to be at war, and other people can outbid that to change who is at war with whom. Once everyone passes, that opposition is set in stone, one on alliance A, one on B, then a new proposal is made for two new powers. Eventually, you get two alliances of three or four powers, and you cannot attack allies or ally with enemies during that war. It leads to a fascinating auction round where you're trying to get the people you're afraid of onto your alliance while being able to attack the people you want to attack.

Anyway, overall I loved it, doubt I'll ever play it again, but loved it all the same.

If you would like another, shorter game that uses this same alliance auction mechanic, check out Conquest of the Empire. It comes with two rulesets - one that's pretty much roman legion risk, and the other is adapted from Struggle of Empires by Wallace himself.

I played a four player game of it a few months ago and it was super exciting. full game took about 2.5-3 hours.

# ? Nov 10, 2012 19:21

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 20:32

Harlock: Jan 15, 2006; Tap "A" to drink!!!

McNerd posted:

Played my first session of Mice and Mystics last night. Unfortunately we only got through half of the first chapter, since we started over after realizing we had the cheese rules wrong. We were putting cheese on the minion wheel every time they or we rolled cheese in combat. It was not a good time. After that it was pretty fun, although really the combat seems a little too brainless at times.

Has anybody else considered houseruling the catnip? "Instantly eliminate Brodie" seems not only incredibly overpowered but also unfun: I want to fight the drat cat! Off the top of my head I'm thinking something like a decoy effect on his next chase action, then for the rest of the battle he treats rats and roaches and possibly spiders as if they were mice (i.e. he may target them depending on the usual criteria). Even that might be overpowered sometimes if you're fighting Brodie+elite rat warriors or something, but I don't know if that ever happens, and at any rate surely it can't be worse than before?

Our first session also ended in defeat, but at least we made it to the courtyard tile. It took us a while to get started at first, but I feel like the rulebook isn't helpful enough. We had questions about certain aspects of the game that couldn't be found anywhere except on the Youtube video that explained how to play the game. I suggest anyone who is about to play M&M for the first time to watch that Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3ytmBjB6bY

I don't think you need to houserule the catnip, since Brodie can also attack minions. When we first encountered him in the kitchen, he used his pounce ability and landed on a space with 6 roaches on it (the kitchen counter) and killed all 6 of them with that attack. It helped us out immensely in clearing out the tile which would have taken us who knows how much longer if we had killed Brodie early.

Harlock fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Nov 10, 2012

# ? Nov 10, 2012 19:31

Golden Bee: Dec 24, 2009; I came here to chew bubblegum and quote 'They Live', and I'm... at an impasse.

Played Who Would Win last night, with a variant.
Everyone had 5 cards in their hands and selected who they thought would win, then revealed.
I won by proving JFK is the best mountain climber ("There is uh no mountin' greatah than tha moon!"). The best round was WHO WOULD WIN AT: ESPIONAGE. Everyone chose
two cards. My opponent played a team of Zorro and Bruce Lee. I responded with Shirley Temple and Albert Einstein, then pitched a CW show.
SHIRLEY AND AL: "Every Jew needs a Temple."

# ? Nov 10, 2012 19:36

St0rmD: Sep 25, 2002; We shoulda just dropped this guy over the Middle East"

Sokani posted:

Contrary to the other posters, I would reccommend you take at least one pass through the handbook to try to famiiarize yourself with the core concepts. It's pretty tough to teach people how to play a game when you don't know the rules, and nothing is more boring than sitting around while someone tries to figure out the manual. One of Space Alert's greatest aspects is that it can be played multiple times very quickly with barely any set up or tear down between games, and you'll lose that if you're scratching your head trying to figure out what you should be doing.

The thing about space alert, like other vlaada games, is that the manual, although long, is written with the intention of reading it aloud to your group. Yes, it'd kind of long, but out's also fun. If you're trying to read it, internalize the rules, and then explain what you read to the group, that's probably not the right way to do it. Just take the time, ham it up, try to enjoy the camp, and accept the fact that tonight, we're gonna spend more time learning to play than actually playing.

Use the red text parts to talk informally about the rules, ask each other questions, play with the pieces, and pass the book around a bit, before moving on to the next "in character" bit

# ? Nov 10, 2012 19:52

McNerd: Aug 28, 2007

Harlock posted:

I don't think you need to houserule the catnip, since Brodie can also attack minions. When we first encountered him in the kitchen, he used his pounce ability and landed on a space with 6 roaches on it (the kitchen counter) and killed all 6 of them with that attack. It helped us out immensely in clearing out the tile which would have taken us who knows how much longer if we had killed Brodie early.

Oh, I haven't actually seen Brodie so wasn't clear on his rules. I guess that makes my proposed houserule look silly.

I still feel like it needs something though, because what's the fun of skipping boss fights? When I turned up the catnip card in a search I just discarded it for cheese, and I imagine this is what I'd always do unless I came up with a change. (Or unless Brodie himself turns out be fantastically unfun, I guess.)

# ? Nov 10, 2012 21:19

Bombadilillo: Feb 28, 2009; The dock really fucks a case or nerfing it.

Perfect timing!

Trip report, Mice and Mystics. Like most of the time, I played with my teenage daughters. Just 2 this time so it was me and a 13 year old and a 15 year old.

This was an amazing experience. I surprised them with the game and right off the bat they loved the theme. "WE GET TO BE THE MICE!!!!!!!!" was exclaimed. We watched the rules video on youtube, which I have to say is a really awesome idea. There was still a lot of rules checking during the game, but the idea of getting the basics in a rehearsed form from someone who knows what they are talking about should be standard.

This game hit a good spot for us. We have tried D&D before and it fell a bit flat, a combination of too rules heavy and shyness in roleplaying from the girls. So here we hit a good combination of story giving some background and motivation as well as mechanics that were picked up quickly. I noticed that we (including me) did not end up using our abilities a lot, we horded cheese and did 'level up' but only the healing was used consistently.

13 year old played the scamp and the healer. Nobody wanted to be the healer so it was doubled up.
15 year old played Nez, it was a hard choice for her between that and Collin.
I played the mystic.

THESE CHARACTERS WERE NOT PLAYED OPTIMALLY Filch the scamp ended up being the worst, dying twice and not doing much positive. Healer was a beast, consistently killing a minion on turns it didnt heal, very valuable. Nez the 'tinkerer' was devastating in consistently getting 4 dice. Only missed killing a minion twice, when it rolled 3 cheese :v:

. The mystic was disappointing, seemed generic ranged and the times I tired chain lighting I rolled poorly and missed everyone. Maybe a bad session but whatever.

All in all we ended the first chapter on page 3. I meta gamed a bit by positioning my mystic by the exit while ranging people to explore as soon as we killed the minions. The kids just focused on battling and had a great time.

The session did end up going a bit too long, 2:30 including watching the how to play video and setting things up. I imagine the next time will be quicker of course but the girl started getting distracted by the end.

Future thoughts.
Going to be more liberal with the power use and encourage the kids to that end.
I want to try Collin next time. The mystic was pretty bland, (please tell me if Im missing some way to play it)
The healer was the best player for consistently contributing and looked like fun to play!

So there it is. Great game that went over well, rules are simple enough for the most part (there are a lot of water rules for the small amount it seems to be in the game). And while the session went a bit longer then I would have liked it reassured me that there is longevity in the game, I was a bit worried about the story aspect of the game and replay value.

Great game to add to the coop collection.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 02:34

atholbrose: Feb 28, 2001; Splish!

I got a wonderful bounty of games over the last week -- the new version of Merchant of Venus, Mice and Mystics and Keyflower, three games I'm really excited to play.

Had to pick one to play first, so today we played Merchant of Venus using the new "Standard" rules (i.e., the FFG version). Three players took near four hours, including the rules, split into two sessions around dinner. We all had fun, even though the game caused more arguments than we usually have during a game. I haven't played MoV for... fifteen years? It was a lot like I remembered it, fun and frustrating at the same time. (drat dice.) We're definitely going to play it again, but maybe not real soon...

# ? Nov 11, 2012 04:28

Lord_Pigeonbane: Nov 24, 2002; Just the ladies, now!

Bombadilillo posted:

Filch the scamp ended up being the worst, dying twice and not doing much positive.

...

All in all we ended the first chapter on page 3.

It sounds like you may have missed one of the rules about advancing the page. It advances every time that the cheese wheel fills up, and it advances when a mouse is captured. Also, cheese gets added to the wheel when the last player finishes their turn, if there are no bad guys on the board.

In my experience, the mystic can be pretty fun. His double cheese gain means that he can take full advantage of their skills and/or level up early for more options. Of course, if the dice don't cooperate, then he suddenly becomes pretty weak.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 04:49

Bombadilillo: Feb 28, 2009; The dock really fucks a case or nerfing it.

Lord_Pigeonbane posted:

It sounds like you may have missed one of the rules about advancing the page. It advances every time that the cheese wheel fills up, and it advances when a mouse is captured. Also, cheese gets added to the wheel when the last player finishes their turn, if there are no bad guys on the board.

In my experience, the mystic can be pretty fun. His double cheese gain means that he can take full advantage of their skills and/or level up early for more options. Of course, if the dice don't cooperate, then he suddenly becomes pretty weak.

We dId the cheese rolls and turn end right. But we did miss the advance when captured. Good call.

Bombadilillo fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Nov 11, 2012

# ? Nov 11, 2012 06:41

Diskhotep: Jan 4, 2008

McNerd posted:

Has anybody else considered houseruling the catnip? "Instantly eliminate Brodie" seems not only incredibly overpowered but also unfun: I want to fight the drat cat!

Just don't use the catnip. It isn't mandatory. You can either just dump it for cheese if you don't want to have it at all, or try to fight for a while and if things go badly you have an ace in the hole to save you from a TPK. Sometimes it is fun to fight it out, but there are times when the clock is running out and you really need to get back into those tunnels or clear the tile so you can get a captured mouse back.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 06:58

Kiranamos: Sep 27, 2007; _{STATUS: SCOTT IS AN IDIOT}

Fun games today. Didn't get to try Mice and Mystics but I heard from others that it was overly simplistic with no strategy - just use magic if you can, otherwise melee attacks, which made me sad.

Tried Goblins Inc, a new CGE game. It's basically Team Duel Galaxy Trucker. You pair up with someone and take turns placing tiles onto a board to build a robot almost exactly like Galaxy Trucker, and then you blast away at your opponent's robot using dice in a grid...again, similar to Galaxy Trucker. While the system is similar, the game itself is wildly different. Each combat round you can rotate your robot (and subsequently rotate the game board) which changes how many forward-facing weapons you have depending on how you built your robot, and you can also choose which side of the opponent's robot you want to fire at. While you work in teams, you also secretly pick hidden agenda cards that score you points for destroying certain parts of the robot or keeping certain parts of your own robot alive, which creates humorous situations in which your "partner" is yelling at you for not going for the easy shot and instead doing something completely different. The initial impression before playing is that the game would be highly chaotic and random, but it turned out to be quite the opposite - there was a lot of strategy and bluffing involved in which way you wanted to rotate and fire. Pretty fun game overall, although the scoring seems a bit difficult.

Then Seasons, which was fun but long. All the ideas are fun in theory, but I think the game is a little too involved for the lightness of the mechanics. I would play it if offered but wouldn't buy it. Shame because the artwork is nice.

Escape from the Cursed Temple is the new 10-Minute Realtime Cooperative Game� (Copyright Vlaada 1954) from Queen Games, where everyone is revealing tiles to get to the exit of the temple, but to make the escape you have to activate a bunch of magic gems along the way. You continuously roll a set of 5 dice to perform extremely simple actions to move and match sets of symbols to activate gems. There is basically no structure to the game at all besides the timer, so teamwork and communcation are pretty wishy-washy. It was a nice distraction but definitely doesn't have the staying power a short game like that needs. The included expansion just basically adds some bad stuff that makes you roll more dice to overcome.

And then there was this game Infarkt, this weird action selection party game where you try to manage your levels of cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, depression, cancer, and obesity to stay alive the longest. It is as ridiculous as it sounds and was oddly realistic.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 07:44

Triple-Kan: Dec 29, 2008

Got to place some Seasons tonight myself. We scoffed at the game's recommendation of using a limited deck for a first try and instead just drafted from the full hundred. Halfway through, once we began to get a handle on the flow of the resources, we all looked at our third year deck's simultaneously went, "WHAT WAS I THINKING." A fun game to explore, as long as your group doesn't mind the longer turns at the end as everyone checks they growing tableau after every other action to see if they've activated any triggers. The art is gorgeous, though.

I guess if you wished 7 Wonders was more involved, had more resource management, and played best with 2-3 players (4 if no one's that hurried), you'd have Seasons. A pretty great fit for my group, but I could easily seeing it fall flat for a lot of people.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 08:45

Jedit: Dec 10, 2011; Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

Kiranamos posted:

And then there was this game Infarkt, this weird action selection party game where you try to manage your levels of cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, depression, cancer, and obesity to stay alive the longest. It is as ridiculous as it sounds and was oddly realistic.

Can't you do that while playing other games by choosing your snacks with care?

# ? Nov 11, 2012 10:54

PaybackJack: May 21, 2003; You'll hit your head and say: 'Boy, how stupid could I have been. A moron could've figured this out. I must be a real dimwit. A pathetic nimnal. A wretched idiotic excuse for a human being for not having figured these simple puzzles out in the first place...As usual, you've been a real pantload!

Today was going to be Mage Knight but after a game of Thunderstone with a new player we decided to check out something new in Castles of Burgundy.

Overall I think it's probably the best of the Euro-y dice games. I think Alien Frontiers is probably better, just because it's smoother and easier to see the end game, though not as deep. I don't particularly think these Euro games have much depth from game to game because the actions I find pretty boring most of the time. For example in this game I went ship and city card heavy, finishing first in Mines/Tech/Buildings/Castles the other players went for farming, if I played the game again I feel like a lot of these games your choices are dictated mostly by what the players in front of you do and you usually end up doing everything to some degree. I'd say the dice were a lot bigger factor in this than Alien Frontiers because Alien tech is a lot easier to get, while burning actions to replenish workers can definitely hurt you a lot more.

Other downsides were the large amount of tokens, we're talking close to FFG level here. Seems like they could have streamlined things like the workers and the money into the same resource.

Overall I'd say Stone Age(smoother) and Alien Frontiers(more interesting) are better, but this was definitely better than Macao or Troyes. As usual with Euro games if you don't give a poo poo about the theme and it's all just numbers on cardboard, this is probably a fine game for you.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 11:24

Rudy Riot: Nov 18, 2007; I'll catch you Bran! Hmm... nevermind.

PaybackJack posted:

Today was going to be Mage Knight but after a game of Thunderstone with a new player we decided to check out something new in Castles of Burgundy.

Overall I think it's probably the best of the Euro-y dice games. I think Alien Frontiers is probably better, just because it's smoother and easier to see the end game, though not as deep. I don't particularly think these Euro games have much depth from game to game because the actions I find pretty boring most of the time. For example in this game I went ship and city card heavy, finishing first in Mines/Tech/Buildings/Castles the other players went for farming, if I played the game again I feel like a lot of these games your choices are dictated mostly by what the players in front of you do and you usually end up doing everything to some degree. I'd say the dice were a lot bigger factor in this than Alien Frontiers because Alien tech is a lot easier to get, while burning actions to replenish workers can definitely hurt you a lot more.

Other downsides were the large amount of tokens, we're talking close to FFG level here. Seems like they could have streamlined things like the workers and the money into the same resource.

Overall I'd say Stone Age(smoother) and Alien Frontiers(more interesting) are better, but this was definitely better than Macao or Troyes. As usual with Euro games if you don't give a poo poo about the theme and it's all just numbers on cardboard, this is probably a fine game for you.

We play the poo poo out of Castle of Burgundy, and the main things I find that compel you towards one path or the other for victory points are A. the player board you get (if you play with random ones) and B. what yellow "knowledge" tiles come out during the game. I never really feel too screwed by bad dice rolls because workers are easy to come by, and you can usually do SOMETHING to help your final score like selling goods for money/points. You're right that there's a poo poo load of chits but since all you have to do is make a bunch of face down stacks, it's pretty fast to set up. When it comes to upkeep between rounds, everyone around the table helps fill in the slots so that goes by quick for us too. I just bought the Spielbox issue that had 8 new maps in it because we're such CoB freaks.

I've only played Alien Frontiers as the iOS app, so I don't know how it plays with real people, but I can't imagine enjoying it half as much as CoB. There were some cool elements to it for sure, like the ship yard and being able to dump dice into the slower way of putting out dome-things, but I got bored with it pretty quick. Still want to play with real people to see if there's more fun to be had.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 12:37

Broken Loose: Dec 25, 2002; PROGRAM
A > - - - LR > > - - LL > - - -

Wow, somebody hates me. Was gonna post a late night Lifeboats trip report but my custom title happened.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 13:35

Tippis: Mar 21, 2008; It's yet another day in the wasteland.

Broken Loose posted:

Wow, somebody hates me. Was gonna post a late night Lifeboats trip report but my custom title happened.

I know it's mean and rude to laugh at others' misfortunes, but I'm sorry, I just can't help it. It's just too perfect.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 13:57

Crackbone: May 23, 2003; Vlaada is my co-pilot.

Broken Loose posted:

Wow, somebody hates me. Was gonna post a late night Lifeboats trip report but my custom title happened.

How is that custom title stopping you from posting a trip report? Toughen up, it's a funny title, not a death in the family.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 14:06

Gravy Train Robber: Sep 15, 2007; by zen death robot

I know I'm kind of behind on both board gaming and this thread, but I've been playing the Lord of the Rings card game finally after craving some more co-op games. I can still only barely beat the first scenario in solitaire, but I'm enjoying the difficulty of it. :smaug:

I haven't run any games (PBP or otherwise) in a few months after taking some time off, and was feeling like running a Let's Play! for the LOTR CCG (partially as a festive run-up to the Hobbit coming out). Would there be any interest in seeing it demonstrated/playing along or has all the excitement for it died in the year and a half or so its been out?

Edit: Here's the game thread! Shadows of Mirkwood

Gravy Train Robber fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Nov 11, 2012

# ? Nov 11, 2012 14:06

Zombie #246: Apr 26, 2003; Murr rgghhh ahhrghhh fffff

Absolutely! It's a great game and gets very tense at times.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 14:32

Broken Loose: Dec 25, 2002; PROGRAM
A > - - - LR > > - - LL > - - -

Crackbone posted:

How is that custom title stopping you from posting a trip report? Toughen up, it's a funny title, not a death in the family.

The only part I really need to post is my saying the following to a close friend of mine who had never played before and was certainly convinced that we were a "team" all game long:

"Either two of your dudes can die now, or three of your dudes can die in about 30 seconds."

It was a ship-jumping phase wherein he had 3 dudes alone in a boat with 3 leaks. I even left a free spot open in another boat for him to jump into as a token of good will. Even worse, the player marker was about to shift to me, giving me tiebreaker power in case anybody tried anything funny during the next leaks phase.

Everybody spent about 5 whole minutes in tears, cracking up, after I murdered his entire crew. I got almost all my dudes through alive and left a pile of bodies behind me. I'm a really awful person, apparently.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 14:36

PaybackJack: May 21, 2003; You'll hit your head and say: 'Boy, how stupid could I have been. A moron could've figured this out. I must be a real dimwit. A pathetic nimnal. A wretched idiotic excuse for a human being for not having figured these simple puzzles out in the first place...As usual, you've been a real pantload!

Rudy Riot posted:

I've only played Alien Frontiers as the iOS app, so I don't know how it plays with real people, but I can't imagine enjoying it half as much as CoB. There were some cool elements to it for sure, like the ship yard and being able to dump dice into the slower way of putting out dome-things, but I got bored with it pretty quick. Still want to play with real people to see if there's more fun to be had.

I really recommend you(anyone) don't judge games based on iOS apps. I'm saying this as a defense of Alien Frontiers, because I can honestly take it or leave it. But there's a lot of good games that just aren't as good on the iOS as they are in person or with an actual board. Caylus, Settlers of Catan, Le Havre, Nightfall are all much better in person than on the iOS app. Even Summoner Wars which is great as an App I would much rather play in person.

On the other end of the spectrum, I will never play Ascension in person again for as long as I live, but I am perfectly content playing it on my iPad.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 14:50

The General: Mar 4, 2007

Kiranamos posted:

And then there was this game Infarkt, this weird action selection party game where you try to manage your levels of cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, depression, cancer, and obesity to stay alive the longest. It is as ridiculous as it sounds and was oddly realistic.

That game sounds awesome and hilarious.

Yesterday I played Dungeon Lords, Three Dragon Ante and Cuba (With expansion) I lost at all of them, I am terrible

# ? Nov 11, 2012 19:17

PaybackJack: May 21, 2003; You'll hit your head and say: 'Boy, how stupid could I have been. A moron could've figured this out. I must be a real dimwit. A pathetic nimnal. A wretched idiotic excuse for a human being for not having figured these simple puzzles out in the first place...As usual, you've been a real pantload!

Finally got around to checking out The Ares Project, anyone have any opinions on it? I think it emulates Starcraft/RTS games pretty well but I felt like the three card hand limit is really limiting and actually knowing what your opponent was up to was under-represented. Granted you get to choose two cards to start with so you can't get screwed out of not being able to build units. It seemed like the four races all played quite differently as well. Obviously the dice play a pretty large factor in the game which I found odd considering how important and finely tuned the rest of the game seems to be. The strategy of holding the frontier and scoring attack cards, versus trying to demolish your opponents base was hard to grasp in the initial play as well. I feel like attacking should have always been an option as opposed to having to draw a card to do it. That element being 'out of my control' was a bit frustrating. I thought the Terran ability to discard a card to see what you're opponent was up to was interesting and that should have been a core mechanic. I think the game could have been streamlined a lot more.

Oh, and also the design and art of the cards was really, REALLY loving bad. Absurdly terrible. I have to imagine that if they'd gone online someone could have done something for free, if they'd just shown them the current design.

I would like to play again, but it was pretty mediocre and I really hope someone takes the idea and runs with it a bit further.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 20:52

Pierzak: Oct 30, 2010

Broken Loose posted:

Wow, somebody hates me. Was gonna post a late night Lifeboats trip report but my custom title happened.

What's so bad about your custom title? I love it :allears:

# ? Nov 11, 2012 21:16

Trynant: Oct 7, 2010; The final spice...your tears <3

Trynant posted:

I can't decide if I like The Ares Project or not. It's basically what Starcraft (the video game) would be if someone translated it into a card game and added a giant mech as a playable race. That's cool and all, but as someone who enjoys Starcraft (the video game), I'm disappointed at how boring the combat is in Ares Project. It does a great job at simulating building and preparing units under fog of war, but actually utilizing the armies you've built comes down to some pretty heavy dice-rolling which is somewhat opposite of how fighting in Starcraft (the video game) feels like.

Also the rulebooks are atrociously written. Like, Fantasy Flight rulebooks have been easier reads, and the books are useless as references.

So yeah, I can't figure out if I like the (rather awesome) base-building mechanics of The Ares Project enough to overlook the (rather lovely) dice-slogging combat.

That's my old opinion on Ares Project, and my thoughts haven't changed much.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 21:58

Trash Ops: Jun 19, 2012; im having fun, isnt everyone else?

Ares Project owns, and the rulebook has a very usable index which is a rarity. The dice combat just rewards good positioning, like SC does.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 23:17

AgentF: May 11, 2009

Trynant posted:

That's my old opinion on Ares Project, and my thoughts haven't changed much.

How do you feel about the combat in Starcraft (the board game)?

# ? Nov 11, 2012 23:35

jadarx: May 25, 2012

PaybackJack posted:

Oh, and also the design and art of the cards was really, REALLY loving bad. Absurdly terrible. I have to imagine that if they'd gone online someone could have done something for free, if they'd just shown them the current design.

I remember hearing an interview with the designer stating that they had issues with artists dropping out or just not producing correct art. That being said, the design has prevented me from picking it up.

# ? Nov 11, 2012 23:50

Trynant: Oct 7, 2010; The final spice...your tears <3

The issue I take with combat in the Ares Project is that it seems so blunt and clumsy compared to the creative, elegant building mechanism. It's jarring and diminishes the value I place on the combat system. I guess what really gets me is in Starcraft (video game) there's no die-rolling/random numbers in its systems and to see Ares Project rely so much on it during combat feels like a cop-out. That being said, at least part of the game is really, really good.

AgentF posted:

How do you feel about the combat in Starcraft (the board game)?

Never played it.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 01:33

Moogs: Jan 25, 2004; Proceeds the Weedian... Nazareth

Some guy put together an image catalog of the Dice Tower's People's Choice top 100 games. Worth a peruse.

http://imgur.com/a/lZnYt

Edit for question: which is better, the FFG or the Avalon Hill version of Cosmic Encounter?

Moogs fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Nov 12, 2012

# ? Nov 12, 2012 02:17

bobvonunheil: Mar 18, 2007; Board games and tea

So I just played Caylus for the first time on the weekend.

It was pretty fun! As it was our first game there were some issues with working out core concepts like the Bailiff/Provost, building green and blue buildings, and we built relatively few buildings so there were very few situations where buildings didn't actually 'fire' because of the Bailiff.

It's an extremely well designed game and I was impressed. I can see how different strategies can cause completely different games depending on what buildings people decide to get.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 02:29

Tekopo: Oct 24, 2008; When you see it, you'll shit yourself.

Moogs posted:

Some guy put together an image catalog of the Dice Tower's People's Choice top 100 games. Worth a peruse.

http://imgur.com/a/lZnYt

Edit for question: which is better, the FFG or the Avalon Hill version of Cosmic Encounter?

I think this list is more indicative of the people that watch the dice tower rather than anything else. I don't mean that as a bad thing, but if there is some sort of ranking, seeing stuff which is bad on all regards like 'Elder Signs' up there really seems to suggest that people that watch dice tower seem to prefer lighter games. On the other hand, Agricola was pretty far up.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 02:43

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

Moogs posted:

Edit for question: which is better, the FFG or the Avalon Hill version of Cosmic Encounter?

The FFG version of Cosmic Encounter is my fave and is possibly the best board game in the entire world.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 02:50

Tekopo: Oct 24, 2008; When you see it, you'll shit yourself.

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

The FFG version of Cosmic Encounter is my fave and is possibly the best board game in the entire world.

I think that's pushing it a tad bit for a game in which victory almost always feels out of your hands. If it's your favourite game though, fair enough.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 02:57

silvergoose: Mar 18, 2006; IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS

Tekopo posted:

I think this list is more indicative of the people that watch the dice tower rather than anything else. I don't mean that as a bad thing, but if there is some sort of ranking, seeing stuff which is bad on all regards like 'Elder Signs' up there really seems to suggest that people that watch dice tower seem to prefer lighter games. On the other hand, Agricola was pretty far up.

Saw Munchkin higher than Chess and immediately stopped reading. :c00lbert:

# ? Nov 12, 2012 03:06

Yarrbossa: Mar 19, 2008

Picked up Galaxy Trucker finally, and it was totally worth every penny. There is nothing like working so hard to just watch your beautiful ship fall to pieces with a little bad luck. Now to just wait for the expansion to get reprinted...

# ? Nov 12, 2012 03:10

Countblanc: Apr 20, 2005; _{Help a hero out!}

silvergoose posted:

Saw Munchkin higher than Chess and immediately stopped reading.

I liked the part where Pandemic beat Space Alert by 30-some rankings, and Arkham Horror somehow wound up at number 11. At least they reached the appropriate conclusion for Number One Best Game.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 03:11

Poopy Palpy: Jun 10, 2000; Im da fwiggin Poopy Palpy XD

Tekopo posted:

I think this list is more indicative of the people that watch the dice tower rather than anything else. I don't mean that as a bad thing, but if there is some sort of ranking, seeing stuff which is bad on all regards like 'Elder Signs' up there really seems to suggest that people that watch dice tower seem to prefer lighter games. On the other hand, Agricola was pretty far up.

It's pretty clearly a list of games ordered by how well their components dump out in slow motion.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 03:12

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 20:32

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

Moogs posted:

Edit for question: which is better, the FFG or the Avalon Hill version of Cosmic Encounter?

The Avalon Hill version is probably the worst version of Cosmic Encounter. It's missing a lot of elements of the other editions, such as flares, and the experience is relatively limited with only twenty aliens and the inability to play with more than four players. And it doesn't bring anything positive to the table to recommend it.

The FFG version is probably the best version of Cosmic Encounter. The components are very nice, it has the widest variety of aliens (fifty in base set and over a hundred total with expansions), and it has quite a few other nice tweaks that give it a leg up over other editions.

Unless you're dying to play with some very specific element from the Eon or Mayfair versions (like Lucre or Moons), FFG's edition is the way to go.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 03:14

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Board Games: Have you heard of this Settlers of Catan thing?

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