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BonHair posted:I've played Trains thrice, and Dominion a handful of times over the years, so I'm no expert. I disagree that trash discourages building on the board, since buying buildings also adds one trash and effectively another because during the game, the building is just as useless. I get that you would tend to buy them towards the endgame unlike the rails and stations which you buy along the way, thus causing less bloat in your deck. A big part of the game is dealing with the waste you get, yes, but various cards help with exactly that. My second game included the Freight Train, which lets you remove thrash from your hand for one money-thingie per card, which meant that trash was pretty easily removed, and the third game used the Dump Site (I think) to prevent other cards from generating trash. The feel of those two games were very different, but we all managed to get rid of waste efficiently enough. I'll have to give it a go with some of the more powerful waste management cards I guess. Looking through the card list I'm still concerned that there's not enough of them to create interesting board play often enough with a random setup, but maybe it's ok to make sure one of those piles is included every time. Malloreon posted:This is exactly the reason 7 Wonders is a bad game. Best with fewer players, when there are way better games to play, more and more random as you increase the player count and are thus more likely to play. I understand why some people don't like high numbers of players for 7 Wonders but in comparison to Citadels at least it doesn't balloon out in play time as you add more players and the higher variability isn't as punishing as "I lost all my gold/cards/turn for no reason". You could certainly have no need for it if you have a drafting game for 2-4 players and something else you'd rather play with 5+, but 7 Wonders "works" far better than Citadels as a flexible-numbers game at least. Bubble-T fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 07:41
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Bubble-T posted:I'll have to give it a go with some of the more powerful waste management cards I guess. Looking through the card list I'm still concerned that there's not enough of them to create interesting board play often enough with a random setup, but maybe it's ok to make sure one of those piles is included every time. The rules explicitly recommend having (one specific) waste-removal card in play for beginners, so it fits the spirit of the rules pretty well. I also like having the board, because as one of my friends noted, Dominion feels too much like it's just a mechanic without an actual game attached. And again, playing aggressively on the board to avoid the other players getting to the skyscrapers before the game ends seemed to be a good tactic.
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Jun 3, 2014 08:01
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BonHair posted:Dominion feels too much like it's just a mechanic without an actual game attached
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Jun 3, 2014 08:03
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Poison Mushroom posted:This is my major complaint, and also part of the reason I love Puzzle Strike so much. I'm really really tempted to buy Puzzle Strike 3E to play with my wife. I'm a bit put off by the character art (nothing terrible, just not our style) but that's really only on the box/character randomiser cards right? BonHair posted:The rules explicitly recommend having (one specific) waste-removal card in play for beginners, so it fits the spirit of the rules pretty well. I'll make this suggestion to the game owner and give it another shot. Landfill itself looks pretty underwhelming so I'm not sure it would have changed that game but the others do look interesting. Thanks 
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Jun 3, 2014 08:09
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Citadels is a terrible game because without the Assassin (or Witch), the game becomes "grab the Architect -> King". (Remember why they had to change the Imperial card for Twilight Imperium?) Also, the Assassin (or Witch) is an absolutely terrible mechanic that shouldn't exist in the game. I understand by saying that I'm oversimplifying by ignoring the Thief and Magician, but games with a "lose a turn" mechanic better justify it by having it be avoidable, rather than necessary, like a lot of worker placement games (Dungeon Lords, Caylus). Also, the Thief and Magician don't actually shut down the Architect, because the Thief can't affect their hand, while a Magician swap still lets the Architect draw more cards. The game uses a bad mechanic to enforce balance.
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Jun 3, 2014 08:18
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Malloreon posted:This is exactly the reason 7 Wonders is a bad game. Best with fewer players, when there are way better games to play, more and more random as you increase the player count and are thus more likely to play. I don't know if you've tried it, but the team variant in the Cities expansion solves this problem quite nicely. It's quickly become the default way my group plays. we won't play 7 Wonders at all if we have an odd number of players.
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Jun 3, 2014 08:21
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Bubble-T posted:I'm really really tempted to buy Puzzle Strike 3E to play with my wife. I'm a bit put off by the character art (nothing terrible, just not our style) but that's really only on the box/character randomiser cards right? One thing worth noting is that the game can make even slight differences in skill be magnified significantly, so if one of you is much better than the other, either the stronger player will need to pull punches or the weaker player will need to take this as a challenge to improve.
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Jun 3, 2014 08:28
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Poison Mushroom posted:One thing worth noting is that the game can make even slight differences in skill be magnified significantly, so if one of you is much better than the other, either the stronger player will need to pull punches or the weaker player will need to take this as a challenge to improve. Hrmm.. oh dear. I already struggle to keep Race for the Galaxy competitive (I think I'll have to forbid myself from playing 6-cost developments soon). Thanks for the advice.
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Jun 3, 2014 08:30
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The best tip I can give to offer to her is to remember that any chips she buys will be in her bag permanently. If she's new to deckbuilders, you may have to walk her through a game or two until she can learn to make a "deck" that functions as a whole rather than as just a collection of impulse buy chips.
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Jun 3, 2014 08:32
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Can anyone offer some advice on card sleeves, particularly the differences between Mayday's standard and premium ones? The premium ones are obviously cheaper, but some reviews say that they can be inconsistant in size and don't always fit the cards. Are Ultra Pro sleeves any better?
Zveroboy fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 13:01
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Twilight Struggle is back in stock.
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Jun 3, 2014 14:20
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FrancoFish posted:Seemed like the best place to post this, so here. I've put together FFG's Descent 2nd Edition in roll20. All resources (cards, tokens, dice) scanned in, functional custom dice, etc. I'm happy to share a copy of the campaign and the files needed to run it with anybody who would like it. If the offer´s still up, I´d love to get my hands on this. I´m planning to try and do some conversions for tabletop simulator for me and my pals (if you're cool with me doing that of course).
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Jun 3, 2014 14:59
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Zveroboy posted:Can anyone offer some advice on card sleeves, particularly the differences between Mayday's standard and premium ones? The premium ones are obviously cheaper, but some reviews say that they can be inconsistant in size and don't always fit the cards. Are Ultra Pro sleeves any better? I can't comment on those particular brands; the Mayday ones look like penny sleeves. I buy a lot of sleeves because I like adding my own custom cards to games. You want to avoid any sleeve that are entirely clear they make shuffling really irritating. Get the kind that has a hard plastic back; you can shuffle them very easily by just mashing them together. My favorite brand it Dragon Shield: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002H0MWWK
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Jun 3, 2014 16:01
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Zveroboy posted:Can anyone offer some advice on card sleeves, particularly the differences between Mayday's standard and premium ones? The premium ones are obviously cheaper, but some reviews say that they can be inconsistant in size and don't always fit the cards. Are Ultra Pro sleeves any better? I've gotten three brands of sleeves in the past, trying to find one that will fit both the cards and the box that they come in (Ascension and Card Wars, incidentally). It's a futile struggle. But this is what I learned: UltraPro sleeves are my favourite - I've got the 66 x 91 mm and the 62 x 88 'ultrafit' ones, and they both have matte backs and fit the cards tightly. I've also got the FFG 'standard' size ones, clear - these ones, despite being for 63.5 x 88 cards, are actually larger in dimension that the UltraPro 66 x 91 ones I mentioned earlier. I didn't like that fact. While they're definitely higher quality than actual penny sleeves, they do have a clear back and are slippery. I've tried penny sleeves, and you get what you pay for. I've also tried a single blue Dragon Shield that my friend lent me - it was smooth on the back, and felt slippery to the touch. I'd prefer the UltraPro, but then, the matte finish means that there's more thickness (slightly) to the card, if that bugs you. Edit: just realized I didn't actually try the Mayday ones, which is exactly what you asked about. Sorry! Far as I can tell, the only difference between regular and premium is that premium ones are a little higher quality, and thicker.
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Jun 3, 2014 16:11
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They're a tad pricier, but I really like the KMC hyper mattes. I almost exclusively use them for my MTG decks because they shuffle well and are very durable. I ended up getting a few packs of clear sleeves for my copy of Arctic Scavengers. I shy away from Dragon Shield these days because the quality seems to be inconsistent from pack to pack.
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Jun 3, 2014 16:44
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Every Dominion card I own is in Mayday premium sleeves. That's only the case because the first several batches I got were sized appropriately and I wasn't about to resleeve everything a second time once I started getting duds. (I had originally bought a bunch of mayday penny sleeves; they didn't even last 10 games). Towards the end I was trimming the top 3 mm off of all the new sleeves. These days I tell people not to bother sleeving Dominion, just pick up a few copies of the base cards expansion, since those are the only cards that will get any wear.
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Jun 3, 2014 16:45
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I recently acquired the base game of Rune Wars Revised Edition. Can anyone tell me the main differences between revised and the original? I'm guessing that mostly the revised ed. is streamlined and cuts out some content (considering the original game was a loving tombstone box). Also purchased: Warparty (looking into it I feel like I'm going to regret this one...) and Hegemonic (looks cerebral and plotting enough to be right up my alley). I ended up buying, playing, and unfortunately gifting Gravwell. What a great example of minimal moving parts to create really engaging design! The game is just a linear track (players are racing around a spiral to try to get out of titular gravity well), and the game is just putting down move cards and revealing. The great trick to Gravwell is that cards resolve through a written initiative value via alphabet (e.g. player with an A card will go before a player with a Z card) and that movement is relative to other ships. Cards either move you towards the closest ship, repel from closest ship, or pull other ships towards you. This means if you time your cards wrong, you could end up moving backwards a drastic number of spaces. It's a really simple, clever, and quick game. I'd absolutely recommend Gravwell if you're looking for a family-level game with enough meat on its bones to keep everyone engaged while still being accessible to about anyone. Against my better judgment, I played Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre, and it was both better than I expected and disappointing. I really thought this would be a crappy luckfest player-elimination game, and it is. The saving grace of Spell Wars, however, is that the card art is loving radical, and the mechanic of forming cards to shape a spell with names like "Mr. Prickly's Flaming Gore-nado" is probably my favorite use of "humor through card names" (better than Cards Against Humanity at least). Epic Spell Wars biggest flaw is that for a light party game, it has a lot of fiddly text on its spells that create far too much downtime for how little is being pulled out of its cards. It sucks to play a radically-named set of cards to form this epic spell only to trudge through tedious card effect text that has no player interaction. Given that player elimination is involved (although the game is played in rounds), the extended length of the game due to card text really bogs the game down. What really should be done is a game akin to Epic Spell Wars with amusing card combinations and great art but with simpler card effect resolution to speed up play. The biggest joy of these games is humorous chaos; and Spell Wars interrupts this chaos with some attempt at gameplay. The We Didn't Playtest This is still my favorite "light party game" (game is a loose term here), with Love Letter, King of Tokyo, and the excellent Rampage scratching the itch of "light party game with actual loving gameplay." Spell Wars just doesn't rank near these better titles. Shame, the card art is fantastic.
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Jun 3, 2014 16:57
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Is Suburbia any good?
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Jun 3, 2014 17:07
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Rutibex posted:You want to avoid any sleeve that are entirely clear they make shuffling really irritating. Get the kind that has a hard plastic back; VVV: Yeah, they're good for P&P, but I still prefer clear sleeves for original cards. Pierzak fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 17:13
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Pierzak posted:Wrong. The better clear boardgame sleeves (FFG, UltraPro, maybe Mayday Premium (but definitely not regular Maydays)) will do that as well. I also get the ones with a back because I can put a playing card and a print out in there and they blend in with the normal cards 
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Jun 3, 2014 17:18
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King Burgundy posted:Is Suburbia any good? Yeah, it has interesting decisions, decent interaction via zoning tiles that trigger bonuses off of all/other players/your tiles, and captures the feel of building a city fairly well. Definitely recommend it.
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Jun 3, 2014 17:18
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UltraPro Matte sleeves are my favorite, but if I just want simple grease protection on cards that aren't necessarily handled too often, penny sleeves work fine. What annoys me are cards that aren't MTG sized. Summoner Wars, I'm looking at you.
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Jun 3, 2014 17:19
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quote:Is Suburbia any good? If you have an iOS device, I recommend trying the app first. It even has some legitimate single player content. (Personally, the game didn't really grab me and I don't think my group would go for it - but it gave me enough entertainment to warrant the app purchase). quote:What annoys me are cards that aren't MTG sized. Summoner Wars, I'm looking at you. I'm sure there's lots of other considerations... but when cards are reasonably close to Magic size, it would sure be a courteous thing to make them exactly match (or at least match some other very common game).
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Jun 3, 2014 17:25
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King Burgundy posted:Is Suburbia any good? Seconding trying the app first if you have the right device. I own the board version. Played my copy five times, a friend's with the expansion once, and now I'm looking to sell my copy. It's an interesting game, but I find it can get frustrating as often there are 1-2 tiles everyone's chasing after. Also I'm not a fan of the "every time you cross a red bar you lose one income/population" mechanic - I get why it's there thematically, but gameplay-wise it rubs me the wrong way. EDIT: VVV I should clarify. There are a bunch of reasons I'm looking to sell: 1. The game isn't that exciting to me. Even aside from the progress-slowing mechanic described above, generally on your turn there's maybe 2-3 things to choose from - until the late game you're usually cash-strapped, so paying more for further out tiles isn't an option. So you're left with picking the best of 2-4 tiles and pulping a tile for a lake/money. Generally that's not a tough decision. If the income generated by the tile outstrips the lake money after fewer than 2-3 turns, tile. Otherwise, lake. There are exceptions, and some variation to take into account your goals, but that's about it. 2. The afore-mentioned friend bought it and the expansion and loves it, so I always have an opportunity to play 3. I've got way too many unplayed games needing attention, so I tend to judge them pretty harshly after 4-5 plays. if it doesn't blow my mind I'm letting it go. Fate Accomplice fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 17:31
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Malloreon posted:Seconding trying the app first if you have the right device. I own the board version. Played my copy five times, a friend's with the expansion once, and now I'm looking to sell my copy. Is there a particular reason why you're looking to sell? I notice people keep saying it lacks replayability.
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Jun 3, 2014 17:34
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Trynant posted:The We Didn't Playtest This is still my favorite "light party game" (game is a loose term here), with Love Letter, King of Tokyo, and the excellent Rampage scratching the itch of "light party game with actual loving gameplay." Spell Wars just doesn't rank near these better titles. Shame, the card art is fantastic. I can respect that you like this, I just have a really hard time getting into this game because it's too random. I played it with about 7 people once and we all lost before we could even go around the table once and the game got immediately shelved for being anti-fun. It was gifted to me by my sister and I sold it for $5 - I definitely came out ahead, in my opinion. This game reminds me of a group of acquaintances who love this game and house-rule it all the time. My exposure to their "house rules" has definitely made me a member of the "a game should never need house rules to be good" camp. I used to support house-ruling based on my experience with Arkham Horror (  ), but after Eldritch Horror came out that support started to evaporate and when I was exposed to my acquaintances' house rules it immediately dried-up.For example: Lords of Waterdeep: If someone gives you a mandatory quest, in the last turn you can complete it and another quest instead of just one quest in the same turn! Why I have a problem with it: The reason someone would give you a mandatory quest in the last turn is an attempt to stop a runaway leader. This just allows the runaway leader to score more victory points in the last turn and prevent others from catching up. We Didn't Playtest This At All: If someone "loses", they can play a card and it immediately resolves! This should make the game more interesting/fun! Why I have a problem with it: The game's already super-random, and this just adds yet another layer of chaos and creates yet another series of actions that have to resolve and make the game more like bookkeeping to keep track of what's going on and decidedly less fun. I think there can be some decent house rules out there - case in point, the advice given to every GM that if a rule gets in the way of fun, fun should triumph. Also, the no-sympathizer variant for BSG (because the sympathizer rule itself was not a terribly well-designed rule) - but in terms of board games I think: -If a board game needs house rules to be playable, then it's not well-designed. -If people add house rules to board games they're typically not well thought-out, don't mesh well with the design, and tend to benefit the owners of the game more than the average player.
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Jun 3, 2014 17:53
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LuiCypher posted:For example: I tend to disagree; people know what they like and if a gaming group makes a houserule it usually makes for a more interesting game. Of course if you are new to a group and are used to playing the game by the out of the box rules then you will find it annoying. I don't know if you can consider it house rules but we played D&D (and Munchkin) by the standards of common law. If a rules interaction was ambiguous than whatever conclusion was decided on would be considered a precedent and the rules would function that way from now on. The most egregious example was the Munchkin Cheat card which reads "The player may use and possess any one item the rules would normally disallow". It was one day decided that this could be interpreted to mean that not only could you use Thief specific cards as a Fighter but also that you could use it to steal other peoples cards
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Jun 3, 2014 18:49
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Re: Sleeves, I tend towards Ultrapros because I like how they shuffle, but they're prone to breaking. I've used Dragonshield in the past but while they've never broken on me, the glossy finish on them that keeps them slippery enough to shuffle well quickly comes off, and they start sticking to each other like crazy, becoming near impossible to shuffle as a result. I don't like how they have no texture, as well. My Netrunner cards are sleeved in KMCs; they feel decent, but I don't play Netrunner enough to speak to their longevity.
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Jun 3, 2014 20:01
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Mister Sinewave posted:What did you cut that out of? I like to use 1/8" hardboard but the residual smell takes a while to get rid of. 1/8" MDF I have a little less than 2 Tons of it in my garage. all pre-cut for my laser.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:21
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On sleeve chat, out of the hundreds of dragon shields I've owned only one has broken.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:25
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Dragon Shields are practically indestructible but there are lots of inconsistencies in the cut of the sleeves, and they get dirty and grungy real quick.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:29
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S.J. posted:Dragon Shields are practically indestructible but there are lots of inconsistencies in the cut of the sleeves, and they get dirty and grungy real quick. They have been ok for me on the dirt and grunge thing; however, Legion sleeves are terrible with regards to picking up that stuff. I was playing for a few hours and my new Legion sleeves felt disgusting at the end of the day as opposed to a day of playing with my dragon shields. This is from someone who is a chronic hand washer. This is from personal experience so your experiences may be different.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:34
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FutureFriend posted:If the offer´s still up, I´d love to get my hands on this. I´m planning to try and do some conversions for tabletop simulator for me and my pals (if you're cool with me doing that of course). I'm working on getting everything into a google drive file to share here, and I'll just copy the campaign for whoever wants it soon.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:47
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LuiCypher posted:I can respect that you like this, I just have a really hard time getting into this game because it's too random. I played it with about 7 people once and we all lost before we could even go around the table once and the game got immediately shelved for being anti-fun. It was gifted to me by my sister and I sold it for $5 - I definitely came out ahead, in my opinion. See you're making the mistake of assuming We Didn't Playtest This is:
I totally get why people wouldn't like it; We Didn't Playtest This is a game dependent on the group finding the absurdity of the card mechanics to be funny. Personally, I love games that get their jokes from how they play rather than some bawdy text on a card, but I'm equally expecting not everyone to get a kick out of what really is a non-game.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:56
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jmzero posted:I'm sure there's lots of other considerations... but when cards are reasonably close to Magic size, it would sure be a courteous thing to make them exactly match (or at least match some other very common game).
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Jun 3, 2014 22:05
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sonatinas posted:On sleeve chat, out of the hundreds of dragon shields I've owned only one has broken. It's just  * (which are good except for the awful QC)
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Jun 3, 2014 23:51
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Whoops I just bought Coup and Twilight Struggle
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Jun 4, 2014 06:19
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LumberingTroll posted:1/8" MDF I have a little less than 2 Tons of it in my garage. all pre-cut for my laser. Nice. I pegged MDF as too fragile - ends and sides "de-sheaf" (for lack of a better term) too easily - but maybe I was just using lovely MDF.
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Jun 4, 2014 06:22
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CNN Sports Ticker posted:Whoops I just bought Coup and Twilight Struggle My condolences on your purchase of Coup. Enjoy Twilight Struggle. We played Innovation last night. Everyone hated it. I have no idea why it's so highly rated on BGG, because it's pretty much Fluxx with ten decks and more complex goals that have to be memorised.
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Jun 4, 2014 07:52
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Jedit posted:My condolences on your purchase of Coup. Enjoy Twilight Struggle. Did you play it with more than two? That's half your problem. The other half is that your taste in games clearly doesn't include it, based on your previous posts, so I'm not sure why you bothered. Coup is also very good, once people realize that locking yourself into your card choices by telling the truth is a bad idea.
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Jun 4, 2014 07:55
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