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So my brother picked up Rune Wars (or something like that), which he says looks incredibly complicated - moreso that Civ. He hasn't had a chance to completely go through the rule book, due to his kids. So instead we'll be playing our first 4-player game of BSG this weekend. Possibly 5 if a maybe shows up. The rules didn't seem all that complicated, and I figure we'll stumble through battling for a bit at first. Any advice to make sure the game runs smoothly?
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May 24, 2013 22:21
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Yes, don't play it with 4. Ok, in truth: play the official No-Sympathizer variant if you're playing 4, and make sure people remember their drawbacks. BSG, however, is basically only good with 5, so keep that in mind. The rules for BSG are rather fiddly, so make sure someone has gone through the rulebook fairly thoroughly before you start playing.
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May 24, 2013 22:30
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Crackbone posted:Anniversary Edition is not limited, but they're printing it in small stock batches. You will probably be able to get it for cheaper if you can wait for restocks. I wouldn't have been playing the expansion stuff straight away, it's just the Anniversary edition I saw was 75, the base game is 40-58 depending on if I support my local store or buy online and each expansion is around 30. So that Anniversary edition was a pretty good deal. I think I'll just buy the regular edition soon and leave the expansion for awhile though rather than wait some nebulous period. Thanks for the info the other day and today anyway gents. Going to be kicking myself for awhile about that deal.
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May 24, 2013 23:15
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thebardyspoon posted:I wouldn't have been playing the expansion stuff straight away, it's just the Anniversary edition I saw was 75, the base game is 40-58 depending on if I support my local store or buy online and each expansion is around 30. So that Anniversary edition was a pretty good deal. I think I'll just buy the regular edition soon and leave the expansion for awhile though rather than wait some nebulous period. This was my plan, honestly. I've never played it before, but everything I've seen about it looks amazingly fun. The individuals game + 2 expansions are quite a bit more than what they were selling the AE for. I wouldn't mix everything up at first, but slowly introduce stuff over time. While they print more Galaxy Trucker AEs, I bought Space Alert to keep me occupied until then (and much, much longer than that, I presume). Does that make me an official boardgaming goon now that I have Space Alert? 
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May 24, 2013 23:27
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First post on this quite awesome thread, I'd like to talk about a recent board game I haven't seen mentioned yet: Quarantine. Disclaimer: this has nothing to do with Pandemic, it's actually more of a tabletop version of Theme Hospital without the micromanagement. If that doesn't pique your interest, then I don't know what's up.  It's rather on the euro side of the fence, with nice little wooden cubes and tokens (it's a pleasure to just rustle those cubes inside the bag before picking some) but the theme doesn't feel placated at all. The effects of the tiles that you use to build your hospital are all very logical and straightforward. For example the morgue will allow you to dismiss cubes (patients) for your opponent's (or your own) hospital, the triage room allows you to reorder the waiting line, the ER allows you to treat an incoming patient immediately instead of putting it at the back of the line etc ... The gameplay mainly revolves around tile placement and action points allowance, with a lot of subtle twists. For example, special tiles are purchased through a "price drafting" mechanism that allows other players to purchase a tile you want at the price you set it. This means you bid on a tile, and then a full turn happens before you can place it on your hospital. If you set your price too low, other players will jump on the bargain and buy the tile before you get to see it again, but if you set it too high you will probably end up overpaying it. Each turn new patients will arrive at your hospital, including grey ones infected with "graysles" that will allow you to quarantine areas of your opponent's hospitals. (or even your own, because the way the contagion spreads means you can setup your hospital to contain it...) In the end, the aim is to score better than your opponents by running your hospital as efficiently as possible despite all the poo poo you're going to get thrown at Since I got it by mail yesterday I didn't get the chance to play it yet but I will certainly remedy that tomorrow. I'll be sure to report back if you guys are interested.  I honestly can't wait to make up stupid diseases. Firstly because I'm immature, and secondly because let's face it, that was half the fun of TH. 
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May 24, 2013 23:37
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That actually sounds pretty awesome: I'd be interested to hear about your thoughts once you get a chance to play it.
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May 24, 2013 23:49
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Played 5-player Caylus last night, took 2nd place by a point. 
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May 24, 2013 23:49
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Ledhed posted:Played 5-player Caylus last night, took 2nd place by a point. No one expects the Provost double down.
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May 24, 2013 23:54
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Played the new Dungeon Pets with the work in progress expansion with the Czech games people. I told them it would be funny if they have something where they mix the poo poo in with the meat to feed to the creatures.
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May 24, 2013 23:55
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Played an 8-player game of Robo Rally tonight. Great fun, but only one player actually managed to get past the second checkpoint and eventually win while everyone else was busy swarming the first checkpoint and killing each other.
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May 25, 2013 00:00
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nimby posted:Played an 8-player game of Robo Rally tonight. Great fun, but only one player actually managed to get past the second checkpoint and eventually win while everyone else was busy swarming the first checkpoint and killing each other. Yep, exactly as I remember.
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May 25, 2013 00:15
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Tekopo posted:Caylus isn't about winning, it's about WELL OKAY, IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE A DICK I'LL MOVE THE PROVOST EVEN FURTHER BACK! The provost is such an amazing mechanic but it really limits the groups I can play Caylus with because I'm the only one who would be enough of a dick to put it to use and then everyone gets upset.
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May 25, 2013 01:02
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Poopy Palpy posted:The provost is such an amazing mechanic but it really limits the groups I can play Caylus with because I'm the only one who would be enough of a dick to put it to use and then everyone gets upset. I feel the same way in The Manhattan Project with bombers, except that plays out like a game of Civ where everyone decides I'm a warmonger and do their best to keep me down.
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May 25, 2013 01:05
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I just learned that in Caylus when you build over your own buildings they become available to be built again. So apparently you can chain that stone building that gives you a favor and get 2 favors out of it in one turn. This has been my goal, not even trying to win,the last few times I've played Caylus but the timing is so difficult.
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May 25, 2013 01:16
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Drighton posted:our first 4-player game of BSG this weekend. Possibly 5 if a maybe shows up. OmegaGoo is correct. Don't play BSG unless you have exactly 5 players.
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May 25, 2013 05:55
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New favourite word of the day: “glossmonger". Oh SU&SD, never change.
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May 25, 2013 05:57
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Admin Understudy posted:I just learned that in Caylus when you build over your own buildings they become available to be built again. So apparently you can chain that stone building that gives you a favor and get 2 favors out of it in one turn. This has been my goal, not even trying to win,the last few times I've played Caylus but the timing is so difficult. Church favour abuse is a standard strategy in 2-player Caylus.
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May 25, 2013 10:07
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Malloreon posted:OmegaGoo is correct. Don't play BSG unless you have exactly 5 players. 7 is also good, for what it's worth. 4 is very bad, though.
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May 25, 2013 11:44
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Saw the review of the starwars LCG and thought there really, really, really should be an LCG implementation of vampire: the eternal struggle as its hands down the best multiplayer (4-6) cardgame i have ever played. really. i am *so* mad that this doesn't exist.
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May 25, 2013 15:49
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nimby posted:Played an 8-player game of Robo Rally tonight. Great fun, but only one player actually managed to get past the second checkpoint and eventually win while everyone else was busy swarming the first checkpoint and killing each other. There is a newish game called Spin Monkeys that has dethroned RoboRally for our group. It is so much quicker and lets newbies have fun.
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May 25, 2013 16:51
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RE: QuarantineTekopo posted:That actually sounds pretty awesome: I'd be interested to hear about your thoughts once you get a chance to play it. I actually got to play a game last night, and I like it quite a bit. The short version: I like: - The theme: It really it satisfying to build your own little hospital, and it's a welcome change of pace from farming/trading spices/building castles. - Simplicity of rules: I'm hesitant to call it "elegant", but this is definitely a game without any fat or superfluous rules. The rulebook is 10 pages, but it's large print and half of those pages are huge illustrated examples. The basic rules could probably fit on two pages. - Variable "powers" setup: there are 16 possible hospital expansion tiles, and you only use 8 each game. I'm a sucker for this mechanic to keep games from feeling stagnant. The price drafting mechanic for tiles also means that every tile doesn't have to be balanced; some tiles are better than others, both in absolute terms and relative to a specific collection of tiles for a game. - Higher-than-normal interaction for a cube pusher: There are several core mechanics that encourage loving with your opponents. You draw 4 patients a turn, but can place them in line at ANY hospital. Patients can only be treated in the order they are in line. Sushi already touched on the price draft as well; there's only 2 of each tile available, so in a 4 player game it's very likely you won't get the tile you wanted unless you price it appropriately, or price-block your opponents by setting a color cube combo they can't match. I didn't like: - AP: You get 4 actions a turn, and there's 8 actions available to choose from, before adding in tile abilities. You also get 4 patients a turn. You can also draw patients and use actions in any order you want (draw one patient, use two actions, draw two patients, etc). Add in the price drafting, the ability to block/impede other players with those actions, and I could see this dragging on for indecisive players. -Lack of interaction: Despite all these different mechanisms, the game I played was pretty devoid of fuckery other than the obvious play of placing disease cubes in other hospitals. I'm inclined to believe this is from new players unsure of the benefits of doing so, but it's too early to tell. Bottom Line: It's a tight little Euro game, but right now I'm not sure if the "hooks" are truly deep, or are just a thin veneer covering a dry cube-pusher. Crackbone fucked around with this message at 18:22 on May 25, 2013 |
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May 25, 2013 17:20
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Ayn Randi posted:Saw the review of the starwars LCG and thought there really, really, really should be an LCG implementation of vampire: the eternal struggle as its hands down the best multiplayer (4-6) cardgame i have ever played. really. i am *so* mad that this doesn't exist. Well fwiw you can probably get into the game cheap because it's pretty much dead. That being said, I do agree that it's by far the best multiplayer card game that I've ever played. Of course part of it stems from it being built to be multiplayer, rather than a tacked on mechanic, but still it is a really well made game.
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May 25, 2013 17:42
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I was going to get Descent: Journeys in The Dark Second Edition with the current order for my group, but one member won't be available for 5~ months due to military service, so I decided to leave it for later when he's back and group is back to its stable number. Fwiffo suggested to grab one of those Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System Board Games instead in the meanwhile. There is also the Earth Reborn alternative that I have been delaying buying for a while. Now I remember people saying that Earth Reborn has almost infinite replayability with its much praised mission generator. But I don't remember any comments regarding the "life" of those D&D board games (The Legend of Drizzt Board Game, Wrath of Ashardalon Board Game & Castle Ravenloft Board Game). Would we get bored of them after finishing the packed scenarios? Do they have good replayability, and if they do, are there any differences between them aside flavor, any reason to chose one over the others aside liking one setting more than the others? Or should I just buy Agricola and play safer (always 2, most of the time 3 and rarely 4 players while one regular is away)? echoMateria fucked around with this message at 22:13 on May 25, 2013 |
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May 25, 2013 22:10
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thebardyspoon posted:I'm never going to get Galaxy Trucker Anniversary Edition for a price as good as that one I missed the other day am I? It was 70 quid and now the only one I can find is 150. That was my chance and I blew it by checking on here that it was great even though I knew it was supposed to be loving fantastic. What do the expansions actually add? Thinking of just biting the bullet, buying the base game and getting the expansions much, much later so the massively increased price over that deal won't sting as much.  Seriously though, the base game is what I'm most interested in playing, and it is really just a box with all the expansions thrown in there. The original (separate) manuals and everything  I've got a big order of stuff from CoolStuff Inc, it's been nearly two weeks and the order hasn't left Florida yet, hurry up, USPS!
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May 25, 2013 22:44
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I'm glad to be back into board gaming again, got to try out Keyflower today. Absolutely worth the price of admission. It's got a little too much in the way of downtime for me, but it'd definitely a brain-burner and is pretty good at saving the cutthroat nature of the game until the end. The general idea is you're the mayor of a small New World town and you're trying to build it up and attract new people to work there. You start off with some meeples, randomly picked from a bag of three colors. These are secret and live behind your adorable house-shaped player screen. You use these workers to bid on and work a set of tiles for the given season. Tiles can generate resources or do other things, like let you move resources around or get new workers and skills. Most can be upgrade to give you more, at the cost of some other resource. Later in the year, tiles tend to just give VP or have more powerful abilities. Turn actions are pretty simple. You can bid on any tile in the middle of the table or you can work any tile on the board. Bidding involves putting meeples on the edge of a tile. Once a tile is worked or bid on by a color of worker, no other colors can be used on it. You can also counter bids, but you always have to bid more. Losing bids can also be moved to other locations, but they have to stay together. You can add to those, though. Working tiles is similar. The first use costs 1 worker, the next is 2, then 3. Tiles can only have 6 workers, so you could theoretically open with 2 workers and force the next person to use 3. Whoever wins the bid for the tile loses the bid workers and can place the tile in their village. They also get any workers on the tile. Losers get their workers back, but I haven't seen a lost bid not get moved. It'd probably be more common in bigger games. I really like the way workers are used. The split between using them as currency to get new tiles to add (and get workers when they're used) and working tiles is unique and really compelling. There's a lot of bluffing and it really requires you to keep track of what boats of workers people get at the end of the season. The escalating cost to work tiles means you can use a color you're strong in to bully people out of resources AND win the tile at the same time. I'm not as impressed with the skill tiles, but they do spread the resources you can focus on out a bit. The bit I really like is the secretly distributed Winter scoring tiles. At the beginning of the game, each player is given some Winter tiles that have end-game scoring bonuses. The other seasons' tiles are picked randomly, but Winter's tiles are all picked by the players. You have to put in at least 1 of your Winter tiles and it's up for bid. This part is cutthroat as gently caress. This is the season where everyone's scrambling to get buildings they just got in Autumn upgraded and trying to get the bonuses they need. A proper use of workers can gut someone. I won my game this afternoon by paying close attention to what color workers everyone got at the beginning of the season and noting I was the only player with yellow. I used this and another ability I got to swipe some bonus tiles from another player. This game really is as good as everyone's saying. My only real complaint is the downtime. It's too hard to plan your turn in advance, since it's just one decision that is fully dependent on what everyone else does. If anyone has AP, you're gonna be there a while and it's a little frustrating.
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May 26, 2013 03:14
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Trip report for BSG: we got three games in but the first ended as soon as both cylons revealed themselves: I'm not sure how that second card got in, but it was enough for everyone to pick up the rules, so we scrapped it and started over. As Cylon-Chief from the beginning of the second game, I was immediately accused by one player from turn one, who used a quorum card to throw me in the brig by the second or third round. I did my best to sow doubt into the third but by the 3rd jump I was still in the brig and he was still on the fence, so I figured I'd do more damage from the Cylon locations. Cylons won just before the last jump by depleting a resource. We discovered afterward that I should have been maintaining a smaller hand. Third game, with our fourth arriving and playing the No Sympathizer variant per your suggestions, the previous accuser now revealed himself on round 3, hoping to take advantage of the massive Cylon fleet surrounding us, but humans made a combat jump with no losses and he found himself hindered too early. We pulled out a win, and then realized we should not have been advancing the jump track from the Caprica activated crisis cards. So a lot of mistakes and learning, but at no point did I feel the game suffered while playing with either 3 or 4 players. Or is the stance that the game just plays better with 5 players? We're going to have an impromptu game night on Monday, so hopefully we can get our fifth to join us.
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May 26, 2013 04:09
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The stance is definitely, 100%, that the game plays ideally with 5 players. 6 is probably a little better than 4 but 5 is more than just the sweet spot, it's pretty clearly the only way to achieve a well-balanced game.
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May 26, 2013 04:22
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Drighton posted:So a lot of mistakes and learning, but at no point did I feel the game suffered while playing with either 3 or 4 players. Or is the stance that the game just plays better with 5 players? The prevailing opinion is that with 5 players, you have the right mix (3 humans and 2 Cylons) to have enough intrigue to make the early game really tense and paranoid and the right balance of human and Cylon actions to make the late game really tense and nail-biting. With 3 and 4, there aren't enough Cylons. With 4 and 6, there are all these awkward balancing mechanics (Sympathizer, Sympathetic Cylon, Cylon Leader, No-Sympathizer variant...) 5 players is the cleanest way to play the game and has the maximum amount of what makes BSG a great game: intrigue, paranoia, backstabbing and tense, nail-biting endgames.
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May 26, 2013 04:29
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This might be a really stupid question, but how good are you expected to be to sign up for a BSG thread? I've thought about trying to get into one of them, but I'm really not all that good at the game - certainly not good enough to just reel off what I'm doing each turn or to avoid the occasional major gently caress-up.
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May 26, 2013 04:35
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alansmithee posted:Well fwiw you can probably get into the game cheap because it's pretty much dead. I do still play occasionally with a small group, i only got into it after it was long out of print, and australia being australia availability is basically nil except for grossly overpriced sealed boxes of hard to find sets on ebay. An LCG style non randomised series of reprints with maybe some updated card art & templating, and a base set with some preconstructed clan decks/staples, rules and a nice set of tokens would just be lovely. sleeved proxies don't have the same feel :/
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May 26, 2013 05:16
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Stelas posted:This might be a really stupid question, but how good are you expected to be to sign up for a BSG thread? I've thought about trying to get into one of them, but I'm really not all that good at the game - certainly not good enough to just reel off what I'm doing each turn or to avoid the occasional major gently caress-up. BSG threads tend to welcome new players. Just be sure to mention that you're pretty new and you don't have the strategies mastered. And don't feel aggrieved when people accuse for being a Cylon for not drawing an Executive Order or for suggesting what you think is the best course of action.
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May 26, 2013 05:59
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Some Numbers posted:And don't feel aggrieved when people accuse for being a Cylon for not drawing an Executive Order or for suggesting what you think is the best course of action. This is, however, quite accurate to a real-life game!
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May 26, 2013 06:11
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I think as long as you remember the cardinal rule of "never Executive Order the guy who's turn is right after yours" it's hard to gently caress a game enough as a newbie to really destroy it.
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May 26, 2013 06:21
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Just bought and played Spartacus, and it is a hell of a lot of fun (for my group). A huge amount of player interaction, bartering, bluffing, and simple but effective combat mechanics. The mechanics heavily support the theme. I only played it with 3 unfortunately, but 4 is very much ideal.
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May 26, 2013 06:27
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Spincut posted:This is, however, quite accurate to a real-life game! That has happened to me multiple times. I have been (correctly) painted as a Cylon for suggesting a series of plays that I would have suggested even if I was human. Basically, someone thought my play was by definition a Cylon play, despite it being commonly accepted as a human play. I hated that game.
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May 26, 2013 06:45
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Going to the UK Board Games Expo today, can't wait. Any other goons gonna be there?
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May 26, 2013 08:05
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Stelas posted:This might be a really stupid question, but how good are you expected to be to sign up for a BSG thread? I've thought about trying to get into one of them, but I'm really not all that good at the game - certainly not good enough to just reel off what I'm doing each turn or to avoid the occasional major gently caress-up. Total newbies are always welcome! We were all new once, and we remember how confusing our first game was. If something's not confusing or unclear, just ask. Also, gently caress-ups are what make games interesting.
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May 26, 2013 08:52
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Rondette posted:Going to the UK Board Games Expo today, can't wait. Any other goons gonna be there? No, you fucker.  Have a good time anyway.
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May 26, 2013 09:20
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Any Australian goons ever ordered through Unhalfbricking Games? They have Galaxy Trucker Anniversary edition in stock and I couldn't resist. Nor could I resist Dungeon Lords or Dixit.
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May 26, 2013 11:12
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Cassa posted:Any Australian goons ever ordered through Unhalfbricking Games? They have Galaxy Trucker Anniversary edition in stock and I couldn't resist. I sure have. They're handy as the guy will go to Essen and bring some stuff back with him with promo things and such included. He doesn't post super quick (I'm comparing to Games Empire who are ridiculously quick, especially since they only open 3 days a week), but he's not slow either, better than most places in Australia for sure.
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May 26, 2013 11:44
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