|
Dre2Dee2 posted:By the by, what is an average game time for Mage Knight like? Are we talking TI3 long? 4~ hours if you're teaching new people. 3 or under if everyone knows how to play and plays fast.
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 18:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 20:37 |
|
|
TenjouUtena posted:We're going to go with Mage Knight as a game to play. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow morning, but are there good online resources that could be reviewed to get the game down, apart from the rulebook (Like a one page rules guide or tutorial video or something that is goon-vetted) I don't think it's possible to summarize the rules to Mage Knight in one page. There are a few walkthrough videos on youtube, some of which go through the tutorial scenario fairly comprehensively. I'd suggest playing along with one of those, or just playing through the tutorial page by page until you grok the game. You kind of just need to accept that the game will take several hours just to figure out how it works.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 18:06
|
|
|
I know everybody loves Mage Knight and all, but any game that makes Fantasy Flight stuff look simple by comparison is just too much for me. I watched some guy play it on youtube and the first 20 minutes was laying out all the cards/icons/tokens/sub-cards/slide rule.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 18:11
|
|
|
I really don't think it's that hard. I watched the YouTube video where the guy played through 1 day and 1 night, and then afterward the only thing I got wrong were the rules for how the healing works. I guess maybe because I've played a lot of games now? I dunno, it really didn't seem that complicated after watching the video.
PaybackJack fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Dec 31, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 18:14
|
|
|
Dre2Dee2 posted:By the by, what is an average game time for Mage Knight like? Are we talking TI3 long? We find it runs about an hour per player, plus an hour.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 18:17
|
|
|
Dre2Dee2 posted:
So much depends on whether you already know how to play and how quickly people make decisions. It does have a lot of tokens, but unlike a Fantasy Flight game, most of those don't track things. It's mostly piles of types of monsters you find or skills you unlock by leveling. Wounds are cards that go into your deck, for example. Honestly, play through the tutorial twice and you will be in really good shape.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 18:17
|
|
|
saint gerald posted:We find it runs about an hour per player, plus an hour. Don't play with 4 though, you'll want to shoot yourself waiting for your turn. Even three players can be rough if one guy is new.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 18:18
|
|
|
As I've heard it described before, Mage Knight uses a lot of mechanics you've seen before, but it's just figuring out how those mechanics mesh together that's the trick.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 18:31
|
|
|
Crackbone posted:I know everybody loves Mage Knight and all, but any game that makes Fantasy Flight stuff look simple by comparison is just too much for me. I watched some guy play it on youtube and the first 20 minutes was laying out all the cards/icons/tokens/sub-cards/slide rule. There's a tutorial scenario with the game that walks you through the concepts of the game little by little. It truly is a gem of a game and well worth your time and effort to learn it. The mechanics become intuitive after a while. Overall, it's probably not much more difficult than a fully expanded BSG game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 18:33
|
|
|
Cocks Cable posted:There's a tutorial scenario with the game that walks you through the concepts of the game little by little. It truly is a gem of a game and well worth your time and effort to learn it. The mechanics become intuitive after a while. Overall, it's probably not much more difficult than a fully expanded BSG game. I have to agree with this. While it is annoyingly long to setup and then play, it is actually a really fun and amazing game, even solo. The best advice is just to play the walkthrough and then a few games solo. When you have one person who knows the rules from actual play it really helps speed things along for newer players. Also, print the reference sheets from Board Game Geek on what all the annoying rear end icons do so you can have an easier reference than the little cards. Then you can lose on your last turn because you forgot to pay the 2 movement to move in to conquer a city 
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 19:50
|
|
|
My wife and I decided to dive into boardgames together this holiday season as a way of spending more time together. I've played boardgames for years (though I'm more of a grognardy ASL sperg) but she didn't have much exposure outside of the horrid Monopoly - Angry Birds Star Wars the Movie : The Game stuff. Started off with Carcassonne and one of my favorite mini expansions for it, Carcassonne: The Count which she loved. Through the Desert came next because I'm a sucker for pastel camels. She absolutely smokes me at this game. So she's a big Knizia fan now of course  Then for Christmas we ended up picking up: Castles of Burgundy - Holy crap this game is fantastic. Blue Moon City - This one was a surprise for me. Great two player game, we've played it about five times so far and the games always come within a turn of each other. Nail biting. I like the dual use card mechanic and wish more games used it as well. Samurai - More Knizia tile laying but a beautifully produced game. My wife has a bit of an AP thing going on and this brings it out pretty hard for her. Scarab Lords - Great filler game. Games are quick and fast paced. I enjoy how the base decks have a good amount of depth and play differently from each other. Rivals of Catan - It's Catan! In 2 player card form! I actually like this a whole lot better than Settlers honestly. Good flow but it suffers a bit from the classical Settlers 'WILL A FIVE EVER BE ROLLED' problem but not as severe since it provides more tools and events to work around that. Innovation - Crazy fun just... crazy really. Nexus Ops - I have an Avalon Hill first edition of this so we played through it as a Something Completely Different game and she liked it alot which made me happy. Need to explore more two player ameritrashy games (though I'm not sure I'd call Nexus Ops purestrain ameritrash). I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. Since she dug Nexus Ops I was thinkingEarth Reborn as an option. I also want to expose her to some worker placement mechanics. I'm leaning towards Caylus but have to admit Tzolkin looks really interesting. Not sure how well the latter plays with two players though. Based on these games (which she likes) any suggestions on two player games I should look at getting for us? Maybe I can convince her to play Napolean's Triumph with me soon 
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 20:15
|
|
|
Yeah, last night I played 2 games of Castles of Burgundy with the g/f. She won the first, which made the running total like 4 games to 3 in her favor, and was gloating about how she liked this game so much because she could beat me. Then I doubled her up in the 2nd game, something like 210-105ish. That was fun  orphean: Could you describe how you find Innovation? I've seen the ShutUp review of it, but you seem more in my typical situation (2P game with SO) than a couple odd Brits, and I was wondering how you think it stacks to some of the other games you mentioned. My gf also loves Settlers, so a 2P varietal would be pretty cool. It works okay?
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 20:56
|
|
|
Pander posted:orphean: Could you describe how you find Innovation? I've seen the ShutUp review of it, but you seem more in my typical situation (2P game with SO) than a couple odd Brits, and I was wondering how you think it stacks to some of the other games you mentioned. My gf also loves Settlers, so a 2P varietal would be pretty cool. It works okay? It's probably one of the most direct conflict screw you games we play so if emotions are running high things can get a bit snippy It plays really well with two players. It took us about 2 or 3 plays before it really started clicking. It's one thing to read in the ShutUp review each card is a little death machine but quite another to start to get the implications of that. The fact the next era's 'upgrades' can be nonsensical doesn't bug us as much as it bugged the ShutUp guys. I got a copy for my sister and her boyfriend and they've had great fun with it too so there's two data points to consider as a 2-player couple game.As for Rivals, it's really really well done. The base game comes with a basic introductory set and then three theme decks where the game really starts to shine. It feels like Catan but it's streamlined. There's a bit of direct confrontation in the form of event cards but mostly it's a tableux game like Castles of Burgundy where you're building your own little principality. There's an expansion pack out now for cheap that adds more theme decks and then another coming out soon which supposedly completes the game. There are tournament and deckbuilding rules as well so you're not stuck with the premades.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 21:16
|
|
|
orphean posted:My wife and I decided to dive into boardgames together this holiday season as a way of spending more time together. I've played boardgames for years (though I'm more of a grognardy ASL sperg) but she didn't have much exposure outside of the horrid Monopoly - Angry Birds Star Wars the Movie : The Game stuff. Well not so much based on what she likes, but perhaps as a way to enjoy part of your love of ASL together, why not give Memoir '44 a go? a really simple, hex-based war-game. I used to play a decent bit of tabletop war games and while I could never really get any of my girlfriends into plastic space soldiers, Memoir 44 is almost always well-received. It is the Ticket to Ride of wargames for me. Speaking of Ticket to Ride, if you are playing mostly just together, the Nordic countries version is great for 2-3 players and so is the Switzerland one too, I've heard (never played it though)
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 21:21
|
|
|
DeepSpaceBeans posted:Well not so much based on what she likes, but perhaps as a way to enjoy part of your love of ASL together, why not give Memoir '44 a go? a really simple, hex-based war-game. I used to play a decent bit of tabletop war games and while I could never really get any of my girlfriends into plastic space soldiers, Memoir 44 is almost always well-received. It is the Ticket to Ride of wargames for me. Yeah, I'll echo the Memoir recommendation. I have gotten both my girlfriend and my friend's to enjoy it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 21:26
|
|
|
Syntaxed posted:The best advice is just to play the walkthrough and then a few games solo. When you have one person who knows the rules from actual play it really helps speed things along for newer players. Also, print the reference sheets from Board Game Geek on what all the annoying rear end icons do so you can have an easier reference than the little cards. I do have one question, are people allowed to visit ancient ruins more than once or is that just a dead tile once it's been visited? The walkthrough didn't say anything about putting a player token on it after claiming a prize so can it be visited again? Seems like in a 4 player game people get low on enemies to fight since the marauding orcs don't renew, leaving only keep/tower garrisons and dungeons/monster dens to adventure in. As a change of subject, I went to a game night to teach 5 friends Space Alert and afterwards my buddy pulled this out:  3D Carcassone printed on a his 3D printer. It was pretty cool how he made the edges notched so you could only fit the pieces where they would legally play (for the most part anyway). Although randomly pulling textured tiles did make you question the honesty of someone pulling out that perfect piece at the last minuet, especially in a 5 player game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 21:34
|
|
|
I saw this on reddit (I know, I know.) How do you guys handle the random tile selection? There were some suggestions in the reddit thread on severely limiting the amount of time someone has to pick a piece. Have you guys tried that?
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 21:42
|
|
|
orphean posted:I saw this on reddit (I know, I know.) How do you guys handle the random tile selection? There were some suggestions in the reddit thread on severely limiting the amount of time someone has to pick a piece. Have you guys tried that? Yeah, I would say don't let people feel around in the bag. Reach in and grab the first one you touch. If people can't be trusted to do that you probably don't want to play with them anyway.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 21:47
|
|
|
VoodooXT posted:Pass the duchy on the left hand side... You know I said that at my local gaming group and they started chuckling. I said it wasn't 'that' funny. They then told me how they used to play wargames with one guy many years ago and that he was the arresting officer for Musical Youth.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 22:06
|
|
|
Jabor posted:Militia is the bane of my existence Some of the later sets have pretty devastating attacks - and some of them are just good self effects that can mess with opponents. Scrying pool and Mountebank come to mind as very nice attacks to have. Torturer is great when you have villages to go with them and play multiples in one turn. Militia can be decently strong early on but ends up as pretty bad value against some reactions like horse traders and tunnel, also ends up being worse than a silver later on in the game when people are just gonna discard vp. Pirate ship can go pretty nuts but is often just way too slow. Swindler is also a pretty cool attack. Ghost ship is one of the nastiest hand size disruptors and Minion can be very good for action chain decks. Followers is obviously very strong but for a good (bad) reason (tournament is an awful card). But the best attack in the game is hands-down Ambassador.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 22:19
|
|
|
Zoness posted:(tournament is an awful card) Uh, no. Early game, before anyone has Provinces, it's a Market that costs 4 (minus the extra Buy, which you don't usually need at that stage), late game it gets some of the best cards in the game into your deck. Tournament rocks my world.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 22:40
|
|
|
xopods posted:Uh, no. Early game, before anyone has Provinces, it's a Market that costs 4 (minus the extra Buy, which you don't usually need at that stage), late game it gets some of the best cards in the game into your deck. Yes but replace you with the other guy. It's awful when you lose the province race (I'm adverse to province racing) - or when you win the province race but are bad at drawing your province - you know you're gonna have a bad time when all your tournaments fizzle after you both reshuffle. It's me I'm Zoness - professional tournament race loser.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 22:47
|
|
|
Zoness posted:It's awful when you lose the province race (I'm adverse to province racing) Isn't losing the Province race just the same as losing? (Assuming no Colonies, of course, and that it isn't e.g. a Gardens/Fairgrounds kind of game.) As for being unable to draw your Province and the Tournament at the same time, that just requires deck culling and/or hand management cards (Cartographer or whatever). xopods fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Dec 31, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 23:54
|
|
|
Apparently, I have officially lost my mind. I got my FLGS to order me a copy of Twilight Imperium 3. Anything in particular I should know going into this? I'm fully aware it's a monster of a game, but I have at least one person willing to play already, so that's a start. I wasn't going to use an entire Saturday anyway.  
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 00:28
|
|
|
Zoness posted:Some of the later sets have pretty devastating attacks - and some of them are just good self effects that can mess with opponents. Mountebank-Chapel is the single most powerful opening in Dominion, if it's on the board. It's a much, much nastier attack than Ambassador, which is situational and gets weaker the more you use it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 00:33
|
|
|
Echophonic posted:Apparently, I have officially lost my mind. I got my FLGS to order me a copy of Twilight Imperium 3. Anything in particular I should know going into this? I'm fully aware it's a monster of a game, but I have at least one person willing to play already, so that's a start. I wasn't going to use an entire Saturday anyway. I've so far resisted TI3's siren song. I'll never have enough people to play it but I want it so bad so. bad.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 00:46
|
|
|
My copy of Twilight Struggle just showed up. Any pointers or tips before I get it on the Table? I've read through the rules, and listened to the How To Play podcast. Should I be good? Anything off the wall?
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 00:57
|
|
|
tonedef131 posted:I picked it up when it was on that Amazon sale and while I've been reading over the rules for the last week or so I just finally got around to playing it today. I just finished a solo First Reconnaissance scenario and I don't think it was that hard to grasp, although I'm sure I'm doing some things wrong and obviously haven't played the full game yet. There was a lot of flipping through the rule book, but most of the rules were logical and made thematic sense, I feel like I can teach other people to play it now. Basically, it might turn you off if you're a person who is annoyed by having to think about poo poo...but if you're reading this thread, you will be fine. The problem with Mage Knight really boils down to if the people you play with take forever on their turns. The game does itself no favors by the random mana die having the potential to define your entire turn and really handicapping any off-turn strategy. If you have people that take forever then consider a timer or some other mechanisim or be prepared for long rear end waits. Four players is probably really awful, can't wait to try 5 with the expansion  Ancient Ruins are marked with a shield icon when conquered. If you defeat only one of the enemies that one is removed but the undefeated one stays. Once conquered (or pay the mana crystals) you remove the Ruin token, place your shield, take the depicted rewards, and no further action can be taken.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 01:07
|
|
|
Carteret posted:My copy of Twilight Struggle just showed up. Any pointers or tips before I get it on the Table? I've read through the rules, and listened to the How To Play podcast. Should I be good? Anything off the wall? Nothing weird, the rulebook is very clear the rules and includes an example of play. The only issue is where one or two card effects are unclear. For example, while stuck in Quagmire/Bear Trap, the discard + die roll takes up your whole action round.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 01:10
|
|
|
 I don't care how much that affects the draw. It is awesome and I want it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 01:28
|
|
|
I'm going to be a little contrarian and say while I love the 3d city walls it's pretty ugly. Next step in the 3D printing revolution: an easy way to print artwork onto the finished item.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 01:46
|
|
|
orphean posted:I'm going to be a little contrarian and say while I love the 3d city walls it's pretty ugly. Next step in the 3D printing revolution: an easy way to print artwork onto the finished item. Paint them by hand! more fun
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 01:50
|
|
|
Echophonic posted:Apparently, I have officially lost my mind. I got my FLGS to order me a copy of Twilight Imperium 3. Anything in particular I should know going into this? I'm fully aware it's a monster of a game, but I have at least one person willing to play already, so that's a start. I wasn't going to use an entire Saturday anyway. IMHO, any FFG needs the expansion to be a full game. The basic TI3 order and victory cards are bland and not varied at all.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 02:01
|
|
|
I'm so excited and disappointed at the same time. I'm excited because my copy of Netrunner shipped today from CoolStuffInc. I'm disappointed because I won't be home when it arrives because I'm in Michigan for the week. I also found a way to play it online through a program called OCTGN. Download the right plugins, and you're good to go. Had anyone tried it?
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 02:56
|
|
|
Boy, I've been playing the old Netrunner online since like two years before FFG made their version.  But yes, I've played the new one with OCTGN, and yes, it's quite a bit of fun, assuming you aren't matched up with an rear end in a top hat.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 04:12
|
|
|
Echophonic posted:Apparently, I have officially lost my mind. I got my FLGS to order me a copy of Twilight Imperium 3. Anything in particular I should know going into this? I'm fully aware it's a monster of a game, but I have at least one person willing to play already, so that's a start. I wasn't going to use an entire Saturday anyway. Houserule the first Order card to give 1 VP instead of 2. This will lengthen the game (ugh), but it will also make picking orders more interesting (for two points, it is never, ever not worth it to pick that card up). If I recall correctly, the expansion actually makes this an official variant.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 06:14
|
|
|
InShaneee posted:Houserule the first Order card to give 1 VP instead of 2. This will lengthen the game (ugh), but it will also make picking orders more interesting (for two points, it is never, ever not worth it to pick that card up). If I recall correctly, the expansion actually makes this an official variant. gently caress that, use the Strategy Cards from the first expansion, which don't have this problem at all. It also introduces a variant Imperial card for the original set of strategy cards, called Imperial II, which is a little different and only gives you a VP if you're on Mecatol Rex. But the expansion Strategy Cards have other merits (notably, Trade II/III and Diplomacy II are way better than the originals, making the decisions more complex than "don't take trade or diplomacy because they suck"). I consider the first expansion pretty much mandatory for this reason, but the expansions are both great and I'd recommend them.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 10:06
|
|
|
So I hate paying shipping for all these board games I have to order online and I was wondering if anyone knows of any local game stores in Rhode Island area? The one I could find seems to be out if business 
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 15:54
|
|
|
Dr. VooDoo posted:So I hate paying shipping for all these board games I have to order online and I was wondering if anyone knows of any local game stores in Rhode Island area? The one I could find seems to be out if business Coolstuff is free shipping for orders over $100 to anywhere in the lower 48 states. Their prices are better than most retail stores I saw in the US.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 16:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 20:37 |
|
|
Spincut posted:On the subject of the LotR LCG, I remember someone starting up an LP for that a while ago. Anyone have a link handy? Can't seem to find it now. Is this the one you were thinking of? We only got through one complete scenario and had to abandon the 2nd one half way through due to technical issues.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2013 16:53
|
|