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The End posted:It's a surprising design choice that Antarctica only get used under specific circumstances. I understand that they want a certain modularity to it, but there should be a few more ways to get it into the game. I don't think there'd really be anything wrong with setting up the Antarctica board just for fun, even if you're not up against Rise of the Elder Things. There's really nothing down there that you can't do if Rise isn't your AO. Even just getting to Antarctica is super easy (You can spend 2 successes off any Acquire Assets roll to move to the Miskatonic Outpost). Its getting back that's the hard part. I'm using a non-plano craft organizer for all the tokens, ziploc bags for the small cards, and 4-compartment dragon boxes for the large cards. Everything except the large card boxs fits in the original game box perfectly, but you're right, as soon as we get another expansion, that's not gonna last. I wonder what the next expansion is gonna be, anyway. I'm betting another small-box expansion like Forsaken Lore, but without the focus on expanding all the existing decks.
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Dec 27, 2014 23:48
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So I got my Tuscany expansion in the mail. The Structures box came with an extra pack of structure cards, labeled "Open At Your Own Risk", and I figured what the heck, I'd see what they did. Spoiling this because I'm not sure if it's the same for everyone, or if this is like Risk Legacy where there were a few different "DO NOT OPEN EVER" packets. It had the markets from Euphoria in it, same names and I believe same art, but cropped differently. You build one and take the penalty, like losing all your money at the end of the year, or wine orders being worth 1 point less, or not being able to pick 3 on the wake-up track, and in return you get a victory point residual, scoring 1 point at the end of each year. Glazius fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Dec 27, 2014 |
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Dec 27, 2014 23:50
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ellbent posted:It would be really cool for people in this thread declaring a game as garbage to have actually paid attention when they played it, 'cause the exposure die is a big honking twelve-sided die and I don't see how people with so many complaints could confuse a caltrop with a baseball. Also, there's these handy cards all over the place that eliminate the risk entirely, because -- fancy that -- one of the core mechanics of the game is risk management. That's why cards like medicine and fuel are there; to force you to choose between protecting your characters and protecting your assets rather than hoarding them the whole game and being mad when a die you roll comes up bust when you have a fist full of "don't roll the die." You're right; I got the number of sides on the die wrong. You, however, neglected to address any of the points I actually stated about the game, which were not included in the bit you quoted. Hostile Intent & Hidden Agenda ongoing trip report the fourth: The new success/fail/rogue/chief/reverse cards have different colored backs. Within the same loving box. Misprint of the century. So, if you plan on getting this, buy opaque sleeves.
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Dec 28, 2014 00:22
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Broken Loose posted:Hostile Intent & Hidden Agenda ongoing trip report the fourth: Holy poo poo. How bad is it? Like light blue vs. slightly lighter blue, or just like straight up completely different colors?
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Dec 28, 2014 00:26
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Got Flash Point: Fire Rescue and Concordia for Christmas. Played three games of Flash Point with the parents this evening, holy poo poo after half a bottle of cava my mum is a total alpha gamer.
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Dec 28, 2014 00:27
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Aerox posted:Holy poo poo. How bad is it? Like light blue vs. slightly lighter blue, or just like straight up completely different colors? Here's a terrible photo of mine with terrible lighting. The Rogue Success cards match the old Resistance cards, while the other new mission cards match the replacement Success/Fail cards they included. One set is tinted red. 
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Dec 28, 2014 00:41
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Tendales posted:Look at Azathoth's card. It's the very first of Azathoth's special rules. Oh never even noticed the additional setup rule and this rule that went along with it. This would have made the game even harder! UrbanLabyrinth posted:I believe you read or described this wrong: from memory, you can spend 1 sanity instead of spending a clue. So you only need 1 clue before visiting the mystery location you talked about (where you spend 2 clues after succeeding the check to progress the mystery), as long as you're willing to spend a sanity instead. Yep I see that I managed to read it wrong all game or it just didn't register. I didn't even get my first clue until we got near the time we quit at 5 Doom though.
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Dec 28, 2014 00:52
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Tekopo posted:Also the main issues with the game is how the traitor/personal game elements affect the game. The traitor can just play along (and it is actually advisable to do this) until he tanks the checks right at the very end, and it's impossible to work out if someone is a traitor because the only thing you can ask is 'well why are you hoarding cards?' and that doesn't help because almost everyone has to hoard cards. There's no reason for the traitor to sabotage before his reveal, since it is extremely easy to track down cards and trying to cover the fact that you are sabotaging (by following people around) is in itself suspicious. Is this actually the case, though? Just like in Battlestar Galactica, a traitor can't do infinite damage in a single turn - he might well need two or more turns in order to do sufficient damage to win the game, so waiting until the last minute to reveal might well be a losing strategy. I do think before playing the game you need to make a house rule about victory conditions, however. Either: 1. If you're in a situation where you literally cannot complete both of your victory conditions (for non-traitors these are always "make the good guys win" and "do something for yourself") before the game ends, you should do your best to complete the "make the good guys win" victory condition. Or: 2. If you're in a situation where you literally cannot complete both of your victory conditions (for non-traitors these are always "make the good guys win" and "do something for yourself") before the game ends, you should do your best to fail the "make the good guys win" victory condition. Obviously each of these rules would skew the game for or against the good guys, but it would probably help to avoid any disagreements if you make the decision on which way to go as a group before you play, as otherwise it's a role-playing thing with no actual right answer. The other thing to keep in mind is that some victory conditions synergise really well, and others do the opposite. Having to hoard fuel in a scenario that requires lots of fuel sucks, having to build barricades in a scenario that requires lots of barricades is easy. As a result, getting too worked up about winning or losing is probably not a good idea. Gort fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Dec 28, 2014 |
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Dec 28, 2014 01:17
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Got Castles of Mad King Ludwig for Christmas, and get this, actually played it. A great game for sure, especially so if you're like me and don't have something like it or Surburbia in your collection.
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Dec 28, 2014 01:35
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In defense of the Codename: Merlin thing, that was also used in the famous spy novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It's not really that weird and is better than "False Chief" etc by a mile
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Dec 28, 2014 01:35
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Gort posted:Is this actually the case, though? Just like in Battlestar Galactica, a traitor can't do infinite damage in a single turn - he might well need two or more turns in order to do sufficient damage to win the game, so waiting until the last minute to reveal might well be a losing strategy. The fact that a traitor has to stay hidden makes this way way harder. In BSG, if you get found, you're still in the game and you can still impact it. In DoW, if you get found, you're exiled and you get a completely different win condition that you might not be able to complete.
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Dec 28, 2014 01:48
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You absolutely can tank Dead of Winter with one turn as a traitor. Everybody completes their turn in sequence, including putting down any 'secret' thing to resolve a crisis, before a check crisis step happens. Traitor can just wait until he's last in turn order for a full round (something that just swings clockwise at the end of each crisis) and bomb the game after everyone has had their turn. Yes you can do this. Yes it has happened to me. No this isn't a good game.
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Dec 28, 2014 05:24
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Trynant posted:You absolutely can tank Dead of Winter with one turn as a traitor. Everybody completes their turn in sequence, including putting down any 'secret' thing to resolve a crisis, before a check crisis step happens. Traitor can just wait until he's last in turn order for a full round (something that just swings clockwise at the end of each crisis) and bomb the game after everyone has had their turn. Yes you can do this. Yes it has happened to me. No this isn't a good game. Worse, the way this works is that the traitor gets 2 turns in a row when it happens. They spend the first turn bombing a crisis and the second turn making noise and otherwise sabotaging everything. Even worse, this is the only reliable way for a traitor to win. With the already-mentioned problems, traitors simply don't have any other options that will actually be effective. It's either "kill everybody by abusing turn order" or bust.
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Dec 28, 2014 05:38
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Also, the first player marker goes anti-clockwise. So, if you are the traitor and haven't revealed yet and are last in the turn order, you can tank a check, create waste and eat all the food, then get another turn to tank checks/make noise etc. e;fb
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Dec 28, 2014 05:42
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That's an incredibly hilarious image, just some people huddled into a corner looking at the weirdo, who was their trusted companion moments ago but is now shoving cheese wheels and cans of beans into his cheeks and banging pots and pans together really loud.
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Dec 28, 2014 05:48
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Broken Loose posted:Here's a terrible photo of mine with terrible lighting. The Rogue Success cards match the old Resistance cards, while the other new mission cards match the replacement Success/Fail cards they included. One set is tinted red.
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Dec 28, 2014 05:52
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Countblanc posted:That's an incredibly hilarious image, just some people huddled into a corner looking at the weirdo, who was their trusted companion moments ago but is now shoving cheese wheels and cans of beans into his cheeks and banging pots and pans together really loud.
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Dec 28, 2014 05:54
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Broken Loose posted:Here's a terrible photo of mine with terrible lighting. The Rogue Success cards match the old Resistance cards, while the other new mission cards match the replacement Success/Fail cards they included. One set is tinted red. I'm not familiar with the game in question, but is a slight color variance going to really be that noticeable in play? I mean, if you've got someone at your table whose carefully inspecting every card, sure it'll get caught, but if you're just sitting down with non-rear end in a top hat players...
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Dec 28, 2014 05:58
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jivjov posted:I'm not familiar with the game in question, but is a slight color variance going to really be that noticeable in play? I mean, if you've got someone at your table whose carefully inspecting every card, sure it'll get caught, but if you're just sitting down with non-rear end in a top hat players... And the difference is probably more evident in real life than in the picture.
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Dec 28, 2014 06:04
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Bobby The Rookie posted:Yes. Even if it's just the picture anyone even remotely paying attention will be able to tell who played the fail cards and the game 100% falls apart at that point.
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Dec 28, 2014 06:17
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Aerox posted:Even if it's just the picture anyone even remotely paying attention will be able to tell who played the fail cards and the game 100% falls apart at that point. I can't tell the difference between the cards from the picture. From this, I conclude that only colourblind people should play.
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Dec 28, 2014 06:31
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Had an awesome night of five player Space Alert thanks for the recommendation goons  Plan to break open Diplomacy or Game of Thrones this week. I definitely want to introduce the BSG game to our group too, but are there some other shorter Space Alert style (as in length, not necessarily gameplay) games that we could rotate in and out to keep poo poo fresh?
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Dec 28, 2014 08:01
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Bought my nephew Zooloretto for Christmas. The adults ended up playing a nasty cutthroat game of it at night. It was pretty :3
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Dec 28, 2014 08:10
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Glazius posted:So I got my Tuscany expansion in the mail. My copy of Tuscany came before Viticulture  It's just sitting there teasing me.
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Dec 28, 2014 08:27
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Got a chance to play Mysterium tonight. It is a ridiculously fun game. As the ghost you throw out what you think is an obvious dream indicating colors, and the players immediately see the knight in the corner of the card, drawing them towards the absolute wrong option. Every card has a lot going on, and there are a ton of repeating motifs. The art is very well designed for rewarding, tense play. I also have to say I'm very happy with uplay.it/en. I ordered the game at the end of last week, and it showed up on Friday in perfect condition. e: To expand, I think the game profits most from the myopic nature of human (or at least my) understanding. Each location and suspect card has major colors, as well as several major and minor signifying aspects, like the type of room or small objects appearing in corners of the art. When people scan the cards, they'll note some, but not all of these things. Each dream card is structured in the same way, almost cluttered with things. Desperate players will latch on to these small things, ignoring the other small things that could just as much link the dream to other cards. Between the ghost and the psychics, this leads to a lot of failed communication, something that's inherently funny and fun. And when the dreams work, it's all the more rewarding. Prairie Bus fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Dec 28, 2014 |
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Dec 28, 2014 09:46
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I really, really like Mysterium and I bought it mostly because I knew my SO would love it (I was right), but I feel it has a few flaws that stop it from being a good game and instead force it to be kind of mediocre. These flaws, I feel, are acerbated by playing it 2P only and with the same people. First of all, we have played like ~10 games of it and we had a few 'oh hey you played this card last time to indicate this card, so going by the same logic, it is this card again this time'. This is kind of annoying when it happens because you are going to see most of the deck after just a couple of games. The fact that there are a lot of how/where/who cards can help and some of the dream cards are well-designed because they can be used to point to several different cards (and this is where playing more than one card is useful), but some dream cards feel almost too specific. The other point is that the time restriction can end-up in situations in which you are certain of victory, even when you guess wrong. For example, in a 2P or 3P game, if you manage to get to the end-game on night 6, you have won, no questions about it. Alternatively, it is possible to lose the game before night 7 if someone doesn't have enough time left to guess the who/where/how, making early mistakes much more damaging than latter mistakes.
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Dec 28, 2014 10:16
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A buddy of mine got a copy of Evolution, and we gave it a go. I'd say it's a fun game, with some pretty neat mechanics that mimic how actual groups of animals work. Everyone draws a hand of traits for their critters, and can either play those traits on their critters, or add different critters to their pool, or buff existing ones. Then, there's a common pool of veggies everyone eats from. If the food runs out, critters start starving and may die, or go extinct. However, there are carnivore traits that make it so your critters don't eat the veggies, but other player's critters. Not enough food in the common pool? Go eat other players. But, if there's too many carnivores, or the herbivores develop a defense you can't crack, you have to go try to eat other carnivores or starve. Defenses on your herbivores cost a valuable slot, that otherwise could be going to getting you bigger/more efficient eater/what have you, so if there's no pressure to be defensive, it's better to lean into getting huge. Every go-round where people played new traits or shifted strategies or went all in was an exercise of the Red Queen Hypothesis with plays, counter-measures, and counter-counter measures.
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Dec 28, 2014 10:38
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Tekopo posted:Mysterium issues All of those make sense as long term problems. We played four rounds with four players, each person getting a chance at the ghost, so there wasn't time for the cards to develop additional, outside meanings. We definitely ran into the timing problem you mentioned - we only made it to the seventh day with a chance of winning once. If we got to a point where we couldn't possibly solve it in time, we would call it and start again, switching the ghost player. I'm also a little worried that dreams based on color might be too often the best strategy, but we'll see if more plays bear that out. It's clear that the game will go stale eventually. I bought the game hoping to be able to use Dixit cards to keep the longevity of the game, but I'm not sure if they'd work as well - the dream cards are such a carefully cultivated ecosystem. I hope that the game does well enough to merit several expansions. That said, I'm not at all disappointed in it. Aside from the purely mechanical, the game is beautiful. If anyone reading this hasn't seen the cards, check BGG. I can't stop thinking about how great the theme is, and how it melds so well with the dream cards. Very happy with the purchase, warts and all.
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Dec 28, 2014 11:30
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jivjov posted:I'm not familiar with the game in question, but is a slight color variance going to really be that noticeable in play? I mean, if you've got someone at your table whose carefully inspecting every card, sure it'll get caught, but if you're just sitting down with non-rear end in a top hat players... The problem is that it's not like most games with hands of cards - it's a game of hidden allegiances, and the cards are used in what are essentially secret votes. A small group of people gets one success card and one failure card each, chooses one, and then their choices are all shuffled together and revealed. If you have proof that someone has played a failure card then you know their allegiance and the game is essentially over for them. So unfortunately it's a pretty big deal - you might be able to come up with a workaround, but without one the game is unplayable. (And the easiest workaround would be throwing the cards that come with the game away and using red and black playing cards instead.)
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Dec 28, 2014 13:55
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pumpinglemma posted:The problem is that it's not like most games with hands of cards - it's a game of hidden allegiances, and the cards are used in what are essentially secret votes. A small group of people gets one success card and one failure card each, chooses one, and then their choices are all shuffled together and revealed. If you have proof that someone has played a failure card then you know their allegiance and the game is essentially over for them. So unfortunately it's a pretty big deal - you might be able to come up with a workaround, but without one the game is unplayable. (And the easiest workaround would be throwing the cards that come with the game away and using red and black playing cards instead.) Card sleeves would also be a decent work around, but you are right, its ridiculous in a game like this for the color to be off
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Dec 28, 2014 14:02
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OmegaGoo posted:Just played three fantastic 2-player games of Dominion and one dud. It was bad enough that we played 6 turns and called it, and I also started a list of "bad" boards. This is a few pages old, but it makes me think: Has anyone started maintaining a list of great Dominion boards?
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Dec 28, 2014 14:05
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Whoops, double posted.
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Dec 28, 2014 14:08
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Not really. There are SO drat many possibilities, and part of the fun of the game is working out for a given random board, what the strategy is. However, Dominionstrategy.com has kingdom design challenges every so often so you might find some interesting boards there.
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Dec 28, 2014 14:35
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A friend of mine loves zombies and zombie-related things (I don't know why, it's his "thing"), so his wife got him Zombie 15' for Christmas, which as near as I can tell was one of the best possible zombie game choices. I can't imagine playing through the 15 scenario campaign twice (each 15 minutes long real-time) after beating the game, since they are pretty linear as far as I could see, but it's definitely tense. We were playing with his two (teenage) daughters, and the game literally ended in tears after a stressful victory.
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Dec 28, 2014 17:37
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The End posted:On the same topic - if you're trying to fit everything in the base box, but want to use a plano for all the bits and pieces, a 3600 fits beautifully (and you can put the small cards inside it as well. Gonna be hosed when the next expansion comes though Thanks for posting this - I've got MoM arriving next week and have been trying to work out how to organise all the EH bits along with the first expansion. Was wondering which Plano box to try to get hold of...
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Dec 28, 2014 18:26
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Got a Saturday game night in, we played: (Everything was played 3 player) Star Realms as our opener, two copies so it could play 3. I haven't played 2 players yet but at 3 every game has been close. It is a deckbuilder where you have two main functions on ships. Attacking does damage to an opponent (Everyone starts with 50 "Authority" life points) and Money for buying things. You can buy and attack as much as you want/are able on your turn. There are two kinds of cards: Ships which are played like normal cards, they do their function and then are discarded. Bases which once they are played they stay in play unless destroyed and some of them are Outposts which must be attacked first before they can damage you. All non-basic cards come from one of four factions and they gain additional abilities if cards from the same faction are played together. The market to buy cards consists of 5 cards that once bought are immediately replaced by cards from a trade deck. There is also a static buy option of a basic but useful ship. We liked it a lot. It is a fast deckbuilder with little setup. A few of the games the first player got a pretty nasty lead but the other two player would shut them down enough while building themselves up that every game ended with everyone within 10 Authority of each other. Galaxy Trucker was the next one and it's the first time I have played it, the other two guys had played the app. Had to skim over the rules to cover any gaps not learned from the app but we eventually got it all hammered out. I really like it. It has the feel of "lets plan (build) something and hope it works (survives)" like Space Alert but doesn't have the reassurance of you working with other people. One of our players got too attached to his ships and didn't like how torn to poo poo they got in the travel portion but as he played he came to terms with it, his level 3 ship losing two tiles in all really helped. Questions: You flip the timer equal to the phase +1 correct? Also do you flip it as soon as possible or anyone can flip it anytime as long as it gets all of its flips before building is over? If the second option of the previous question is true when do you guys flip it in your games? Last game (besides a final game of Star Realms at the end of it all) was Steam Park. If I ever felt regret for ridding myself of my copy of Takenoko this game will relieve it. It has beautiful art/components, a fun theme, simple, and accessible. The game goes in phases: Roll phase has everyone rolling dice simultaneously, each face of the die has what actions you will use in the rest of the turn. When you get all of the dice you want banked you take a turn order marker which determines the order of who plays their actions and adds or removes dirt depending on which marker you got. Dirt phase has you get dirt tokens (these will penalize you at the endgame) for certain action rolls you kept +/- the bonus/penalty for your turn order. Then in turn order you do the actions from the dice you rolled. You can build rides and stands, attract robots, clean dirt, expand the park grounds or cash in bonus cards. Last you gain income for all of the robots you have on rides. Riders are a steady income but if you don't try and get the bonus cards fulfilled you won't get ahead. Sometimes the bonus cards will determine the kind of rides you want to build and there is only 1 of each ride size in each color so a lot of people will compete for some of them, this makes the real-time rolling phase even more important to the point that you may have some blank dice come through so you can get the 1st turn marker. SU&SD said in their review that most won't invite their friends over to play this game specifically despite it being a good game. It does make a good game to introduce people to a lot of little mechanisms all at once. If they said they liked any certain parts of the game then you could find a heavier game that uses them more prominently and with more depth. It has enough to it to satiate a gamer and not overwhelm a rookie. Overall a good experience and a game that will be a go-to for casual groups or introducing people to the hobby but not a game I will use often with my more serious game groups.
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Dec 28, 2014 20:32
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ThaShaneTrain posted:
If it's the first round, you start the timer on Round 1's marker (the 2nd one). To flip it onto the final spot, you have to have finished making your ship and grabbed a turn marker. For the other rounds, you start on their round marker, and you can flip it to the next lower marker once the timer runs out. You don't have to flip it right away, but if you think you're building a little better and faster than the others, flip it early. If you're doing bad or are stuck, hold off and hope no one else flips it. My first game, I flipped it every time I could, which made the owner of the game super-pissed at me, because apparently she HAS to have a perfect ship. I just wanted some tense building, otherwise what's the point of having a timer? When the 3rd round came up, she actually took the board and timer away from the middle, and in the corner next to her so I couldn't reach it. Luckily, a guy who was sitting next to her flipped it for me every time I said "Flip".
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Dec 28, 2014 20:50
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People trying to build 'perfect ships' are the worst. The best people are the ones that, after playing a game against a few people that hadn't played with me before, were glad that I was speeding the game up because it meant that they were pressured during the game.
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Dec 28, 2014 20:55
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Ravendas posted:My first game, I flipped it every time I could, which made the owner of the game super-pissed at me, because apparently she HAS to have a perfect ship. I just wanted some tense building, otherwise what's the point of having a timer? When the 3rd round came up, she actually took the board and timer away from the middle, and in the corner next to her so I couldn't reach it. Luckily, a guy who was sitting next to her flipped it for me every time I said "Flip". These are the loving worst people to play GT with. If you don't want that little bit of pressure (and fun), why not just take the timer out all together? Then why not just remove the Combat Zones? Then the Pirates? In fact, just have each card be Open Space and Planets.
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Dec 28, 2014 21:18
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So I realized that I'm missing a few pieces from my copy of Lords of Waterdeep + the expansion. The score track token for the grey expansion faction and one of the building markers for the green faction, specifically. Any suggestions on where to score replacements? I did some searching around and apparently WotC doesn't sell (or give out) replacements unless you bought a defective copy. Even just some place I can buy generic, colored wooden tokens would be fine.
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Dec 28, 2014 21:23
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