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echoMateria posted:It was quite obvious even from that play that the game was made of pieces that didn't work well together. There were some neat ideas in there, but the implementation was so hap-hazard. Even writing about it made me feel depressed... Just stay away. This sounds like Plaid Hat Games' usual schtick post Summoner Wars. fozzy fosbourne posted:I don't suppose anyone has played a majority of the following and could compare them to games like Mage Knight (good but long and fiddly) and Arkham Horror (less good and even more long and fiddly: I don't really like Robinson Crusoe since so much of it seems like it is just out of my hand. With only (at most) 2 actions a round per player to deal with like 5 different bad things happening, it felt like anything I did lacked strategic input and victory or defeat was determined mostly by luck. I think it was supposed to be a game of triage, but just ended up being a sorta fumbling mess without any sense of triumph, big or small. Also the rulebook is horrible and I felt there were way too many tokens. Eldritch Horror is basically a good version of Arkham Horror. The game gives the players a lot more direction that doesn't require them to wait around for Clues to pop so that they can gather them to close Gates that may or may not also pop up. There are a lot more reasons to have encounters in that they're (mostly?) mandatory now, instead of being optional if you were item hunting/healing, so if you like the flavor parts of it, it's got plenty of that. The game is a lot more streamlined, losing all the fiddly and kinda dumb parts, like rearranging stats, dealing with a Terror Track, dealing with monster movement, etc. It's still a bit fiddly since you tend to scour the board for Reckoning effects and still having approximately a billion tokens (I don't know why they didn't have generic +1/+2 tokens instead of individual ones for each stat, for example), but it's a lot better than dealing with all the useless poo poo in Arkham. Neither compare to Mage Knight in any appreciable way besides having tokens. GrandpaPants fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 21:53
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I play most of my board games in a pub, in public. Which has been the limiting factor in getting Space Alert. And assuming I know nothing of Space Alert other than 'It's good' and 'It needs its soundtrack', would there be any way to mitigate the soundtrack thing?
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Jan 12, 2015 21:55
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AMooseDoesStuff posted:I play most of my board games in a pub, in public. Which has been the limiting factor in getting Space Alert.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:00
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fozzy fosbourne posted:I don't suppose anyone has played a majority of the following and could compare them to games like Mage Knight (good but long and fiddly) and Arkham Horror (less good and even more long and fiddly: The only one I've played other than Mage Knight is Robinson Crusoe and I would play co-op Mage Knight any day over Robinson Crusoe.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:03
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fozzy fosbourne posted:I don't suppose anyone has played a majority of the following and could compare them to games like Mage Knight (good but long and fiddly) and Arkham Horror (less good and even more long and fiddly: If there is a spectrum of Ameritrash to Euro Mage Knight is on one end, Arkham Horror the other and Robinson Crusoe is exactly in the center. Robinson Crusoe feels very much like a Euro attempt at Arkham Horror; with an event deck and rolling tons of dice. Unlike Arkham you can mitigate most the dice and the events; but not all of them of course and the puzzle is in deciding which ones. I would recommend all three but Mage Knight is the best of them. VVV Oh yeah do not play Robinson Crusoe with actual people. It is a solo game only. I don't care what is says on the box. Rutibex fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 22:10
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thespaceinvader posted:The only one I've played other than Mage Knight is Robinson Crusoe and I would play co-op Mage Knight any day over Robinson Crusoe. 1. Several players of about equal skill level at board games experiencing it for the first time together (and their continued adventures of trying to master it together). 2. A marvelous solo game with a meta-campaign of learning to suck less. The quarterbacking problem in RC is atrocious, because of the punishing difficulty, and how difficult it is to just give decent 'general statement' good advice any more advanced than "don't forget about your roof, fucko". So if one or two players are significantly more experienced than the others ('significantly' in this case can even be 'almost completed the first scenario once'), it becomes them telling everyone else what to do, because otherwise you'll all lose and die. But learning it, alone or together, and overcoming each obstacle feels great, and can really test the collective brainpower and risk management skills of the player(s). If you're set for either of those situations, I recommend it whole-heartedly. Otherwise, I just can't in good conscience tell anyone to buy something that's just about the same cost and difficulty to teach as Space Alert. (Also, RC's instruction manual is hot garbage and should be burned immediately.) girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 22:11
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Even if everyone has similar experience levels, I definitely found that the two players who were less skilled at games generally didn't wind up doing a lot. It just didn't feel like it was a team game, it felt like it was a solo game played by committee. It was fun, but it was nowhere near the best co-op game I've played.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:15
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AMooseDoesStuff posted:I play most of my board games in a pub, in public. Which has been the limiting factor in getting Space Alert. Tekopo posted:To be honest, I tried to do the Pub Space Alert thing and it just doesn't work. You can have someone read out the soundtrack but you still need to be able to hear stuff. The App does have everything on the screen but its still better to hear stuff rather than read it from a screen. Agreeing with Tekopo. If you can only play in a pub then just skip it. Playing Space Alert in a pub sounds like a great way to be a group of loud, obnoxious fuckwads for everyone else in the building to hate, and trying to play it quiet just won't really work.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:18
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thespaceinvader posted:It just didn't feel like it was a team game, it felt like it was a solo game played by committee. It was fun, but it was nowhere near the best co-op game I've played. What other co-ops do you like after thread favorites / bg standards like Space Alert/Forbidden Desert/Pandemic/Flashpoint? Is Descent any good? The D&D board games? Mice & Mystics? Pathfinder? Anything else to recommend ?
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Jan 12, 2015 22:28
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fozzy fosbourne posted:I don't suppose anyone has played a majority of the following and could compare them to games like Mage Knight (good but long and fiddly) and Arkham Horror (less good and even more long and fiddly: Haven't played Arkham Horror, but I can compare it to MK at least. Preparation time is much, much shorter with AoD, you just shuffle a few decks, pick some cards to construct your characters and the adventure, and you are basically done. Unlike MK, AoD is fully co-op. In fact it's so co-op, that quarterbacking can be a huge problem. The adventuring phase especially is played with the whole group acting as one "character", which wasn't a problem when I played it with just me and my brother, but I can see how it can become problematic when you want to have equal input from 4 players. In the battle phase everyone gets to do his own thing, and the better you can cooperate as a group the higher your chances to survive. Speaking of combat, it's definitely not the efficiency puzzle of MK, but it's definitely tactical without taking up a lot of space on the table, and most importantly it lets people fight the monsters together, which is a huge plus for me! There are no cool little plastic dragonman figurines though. Difficulty is really higher than MG, and not because it's a harder puzzle, but because the numbers just aren't on the player's favor. I think next time we play it we will houserule more time units during adventuring. Oh, and one last word about the game's "humor". See, "Assault on Doomrock" is kinda sorta supposed to be a "zanny" take on the adventuring genre. It has a bunch of normal monsters, and then also has an encounter where you fight exploding tomatoes, and about one fifth of the items are named "X of Doom", because it's in the title, you see? Anyway, it falls completely flat and it's better if you ignore it. The random character generator got a couple chuckles out of us though, so I guess it's ok? All in all, if you are looking for a co-op in general there are better games out there, and if you want a primarily well designed game with a fantasy theme I would first suggest Mage Knight, but if you especially want Dungeons and Dragons in board game form, I will definitely suggest this.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:33
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T-Bone posted:Is Descent any good? The D&D board games? Mice & Mystics? Pathfinder? Anything else to recommend ? 2. Yes, though they're actually more like 'crisis management'/'dungeon race'/'fantasy SWAT team' games than traditional dungeon crawlers. 3. Everything I've heard says that's it's cute and pretty, but is very shallow and gets old quickly. 4. Fiddly as all goddamn hell. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 22:36
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T-Bone posted:What other co-ops do you like after thread favorites / bg standards like Space Alert/Forbidden Desert/Pandemic/Flashpoint? Mage Knight is still my favourite co-op, Flashpoint is the only other one from that list I've played more than once and is good. Space Alert I've played once and enjoyed immensely but not yet had the energy to play again. Descent 1e is not very good, it's WAY too long for its content. 2e is OK-to-decent if you play it quickly. Neither is strictly a co-op game, they're traditional D&D adversarial GMing incarnate, the PCs are playing competitively as a team against the Overlord ayer.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:38
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Tekopo posted:To be honest, I tried to do the Pub Space Alert thing and it just doesn't work. You can have someone read out the soundtrack but you still need to be able to hear stuff. The App does have everything on the screen but its still better to hear stuff rather than read it from a screen. Chomp8645 posted:Agreeing with Tekopo. If you can only play in a pub then just skip it. Playing Space Alert in a pub sounds like a great way to be a group of loud, obnoxious fuckwads for everyone else in the building to hate, and trying to play it quiet just won't really work. Aye, I guess my initial judgment was right. Thanks thread.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:45
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AMooseDoesStuff posted:Aye, I guess my initial judgment was right. Thanks thread. Yeah, you had the right of it. If your group ever ends up meeting at someone's house/apt though then bust out Space Alert post haste! Great game, just not at all suited to public places.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:48
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Crossposting from deal thread because it needs to be done: Dominion is loving $14 at Walmart right now. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Rio-Grande-Games-Dominion-Board-Games/20576526 BUY NOW
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Jan 12, 2015 22:53
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I get the feeling I would've played a lot more Descent (both editions) if it hadn't been one-versus-many and had instead just been everyone playing against automated opposition. The trouble with competitive games is that any balance problems get magnified, and that goes double if there's a positive-feedback loop going on where the side that wins gets greater rewards than the side that loses. Descent is not a meticulously balanced game. Pretty much every Descent campaign I've played has ended in one side getting disheartened and not wanting to play any more. I've never seen past the half-way "interlude" adventure.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:56
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silvergoose posted:Yeah it can be pretty brutal 2p, it's a little more forgiving more-p since not all the spaces are blocked by one worker. The key to heavy tools is to then be able to send one guy out hunting while the rest gathers resources and cards. So, like, send one guy getting food, two guys getting wood, and two guys can take a card or hut each, and the last guy assuming you grew once, say, gets tools whenever he can. It usually goes decently well, but yeah, not the easiest. Glad you're having fun! Finally won a game, 281-274, focusing on farms and growing up to 7 peeps moderately early. I ended up with kind of a crazy food surplus at the end (22 food) but going farm so much forced the other player to hunt more and tie up his extra peeps. The growth/production curve in Stone Age is pretty interesting and I'm sure it'll take a few more games to get a better sense for things. The random element seems a little swingy and unpredictable near the end, but that's not entirely a bad thing; all of the games we've had so far have been pretty nail-biting even though there's hardly any hidden information in the game (unless you get one of the cards with a face-down-card reward).
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Jan 12, 2015 23:14
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Gort posted:I get the feeling I would've played a lot more Descent (both editions) if it hadn't been one-versus-many and had instead just been everyone playing against automated opposition. The trouble with competitive games is that any balance problems get magnified, and that goes double if there's a positive-feedback loop going on where the side that wins gets greater rewards than the side that loses. Descent is not a meticulously balanced game. Yeah, Descent is very death-spirally if you play the campaign. Descent with an AI would be great, if they could design a good enough AI, but I tend to thing games with mobile enemies want a directing intelligence rather than the sort of AI you can get in a hardcopy boardgame. Descent would be a lot easier if the monsters were algorithmic. Our problem with it though, is always that everyone wants to play it, but no-one wants to be Overlord...
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Jan 12, 2015 23:21
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Mice and Mystics would be a wonderful game to play with children, so I hate to badmouth it; but if you don't have any around, pass. I don't have anything against adults doing young-adult things or anything like that, but this game is not made for you.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:23
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I tried some new stuff and am ready to share  Dominion I recently learned to play Dominion. It was never in any of my circles or anything so I didn't actually know anything about it besides the chatter in this thread. After a bunch of games I feel like I know it reasonably well. It's very sharply designed and I love several things about it:
The Minority Report: Hands down the #1 best game I will never buy. There are problems with how I'm going to describe this, but the game feels like a toolbox more than anything. A set of tools for playing your opponent(s) with as little game in the way as possible. It does this fantastically, of course. It's hard to articulate but Dominion feels less like I'm playing a game and more like I'm competitively spreadsheeting via memory. Personally I need some other handle in there somewhere for my brain to hang on to before I can really engage fully. Side note: the tutorial on playdominion.com is really well-suited to introducing people to the deckbuilding concept. It begins by playing a limited game with only some of the kingdom and victory cards, which introduces concepts separately and helps the wheels start to turn in the correct ways in the player's head. Space Alert Like Galaxy Trucker, it's like a board game from a parallel universe where board games evolved completely differently and are therefore unlike anything else. Well-documented. Vibrantly and cheerfully designed. A treasure trove if you're interested in how different games like to try to make different things work. The Minority Report: It's fun to lose in chaos - unless you don't like chaos. The game feels like playing two simultaneous games of Scrabble with 10-second turns while people shout the dictionary at you. In a group that includes a chaos-loather, a perfectionist who isn't AP-prone but hates time pressure, and the Hearing Impaired, this game is admired from afar. Dead of Winter I really wanted to like this game more than I did. It was only OK. It's too easy for a traitor to glide under the radar and just torpedo things at the end. We realized we coudn't even go "Okay Ricky, we know you are probably not a traitor but we can't be sure and you'll act last so git rid of all your cards before the last round or we vote to expel you - it'll be too easy for you to torpedo us otherwise". You can't do that because everyone has legit secret objectives and no one will accept voluntarily losing just so the rest can win. But taking the traitor out of the game completely would muck up some other things. I liked the crossroads cards concept, but the execution is rocky - partly because the cards aren't all written in a consistent voice which is really clunky (some cards are written from the perspective of the active player, other cards are written as a 3rd person Narrator, others are written in first person for some specific character. It gets to the point when a card starts "You suddenly feel a tightness in your chest and..." and you have no idea until you read the rest who it's talking about and who you should be addressing when it says "You" because none are consistent.) The Minority Report: The game does warn you that - for example - some hidden goals will be harder than others and other possibly "unfair" things if you're not cool with that, don't play. Honest disclosure of a different approach, or hand-waving away of flaws? You decide. I liked several things about the game, such as the feeling of ramping pressure but even I'll admit that while some bits are interesting to me, it's a game that as it exists is really only fun once or twice. Alien Uprising I really wanted to like this game. But I got progressively more irritated, beginning with the poorly-written and poorly-organized rulebook. I did like some things about it: the theme, and the increasing difficulty. But too much just got in the way of trying to enjoy the game. It's hard to see what's going on. Also there is an "Event Deck" that does something I find annoying when the rest of the game is already too fiddly: lots of "For this next round, <special rule> applies". One-off special rules and exceptions to keep track of (and forget) while trying to slog through poorly-documented rules on a board where it's hard to see what's going on... in the end I just got tired of it all. The Minority Report: It might make a decent tablet game; have the computer handle all the bookkeeping, give good visual cues for other game state stuff so you can take in the board state at a glance, and take care of applying all the "bungee rules" from the Events deck.  Ancient Terrible Things This game has hit the table quite a lot. It's not too long, it's easy to play and explain, and it has a rock solid art design that is consistent with the theme (pulpy horror). The underlying game isn't too complex and is sort of Yahtzee-ish. It's about pushing your luck and making some positioning/placement choices. The game describes a doomed river expedition for 2-4 players. Each round a player visits a different Fateful Location where they have an Ominous Encounter. If they overcome the encounter they obtain Ancient Secrets (victory points) but if they fail, they unleash a Terrible Thing. The winner goes to the insane asylum, the rest are Never Heard From Again. I also discovered there is an expansion for Theseus: The Dark Orbit which adds a faction: Bots  I am going to be all over that poo poo. I really like Theseus 
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Jan 12, 2015 23:28
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Mister Sinewave posted:I also discovered there is an expansion for Theseus: The Dark Orbit which adds a faction: Bots I think you were the only person I've seen who said words about Theseus, so thanks for the recommendation. I really enjoyed the couple games I've played. I'd be totally cool if they added more cards for the various factions though so that they don't overlap so much (I still don't know why Greys get landmines) and had some more cool, unique cards though. But yeah I'm totally down for Bots.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:30
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English version of Orleans will be coming later this year from TMG, there's a KS up for it if you want some deluxe version. Not much of a deal for the regular version though, probably just gonna wait for it to hit retail. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaelmindes/deluxe-orleans-best-of-essen-2014
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Jan 12, 2015 23:37
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I really need to switch up my Splendor strategy because in the three games I've played with my parents since I introduced them to it they've thrashed me every game.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:50
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Oof, told myself I wouldn't buy any more board games cause I don't play much as is but I picked up Puzzle Strike Shadows (over the base box because it's a standalone and for god knows what reason it was 10 bucks cheaper) over christmas and it's a winner for sure so I don't regret it. It's like Dominion with pogs where you're way more aggressively trying to gently caress one another making it real good two player. I haven't even had it a month and we're playing it so much that I'm already tempted to buy the base box to compliment it. It's great for people who like Dominion but have a bit more of a competitive streak. The characters all give it some real fun personality. I haven't played it long term enough/I'm probably not enough of a power gamer to pick apart the balance, but I'm having a great time with it.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:52
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We talk a lot about how real-time co-ops like Space Alert and Escape evade the quarterback problem, or hidden information/limited communication games like Hanabi, but I think there are a couple other games that manage to be "co-op" (in the sense that they aren't head-to-head and everyone can lose) but don't have as much of the quarterback problem. The first that springs to mind is something like Mage Knight or the classic HeroQuest which can end up being a little bit like a race game in disguise some aspects. Marvel Legendary can also be a little like this. These games end up being pretty fun beer and pretzel games but are generally less competitive. Then there are the "4 people staring pretty hard at the same puzzle" games, which can work sometimes if there's enough information that it becomes very hard for 1 person to manage all that cognitive load (Lord of the Rings LCG). But I really don't like them much when they are like Forbidden Island which has everything out there in plain sight and is just about impossible to play without quarterbacking. Arkham Horror combines some of that race element with much more of that puzzle stare-fest as the game goes on and falls apart spectacularly when several players are bored in hour 3+ and 1 person is solving the gate resource puzzles for everyone. It's not a good game but I still have some fun memories buried in between the hours of everything else. A few of us fondly remember the gangster guy with the tommy gun and 1 sanity point hallucinating his way through other dimensions and destroying everything until his luck ran out. Edit: Hidden agendas is another mechanic that fixes the quarterback issue. Battlestar Galactica or Archipelago (this one is more traditional with bits of co-op than the other way around). Really wish someone would pull the Eclipse:Twilight Imperium liposuction on BSG. The Resistance games are fun but too thin to capture BSG for me. fozzy fosbourne fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 23:58
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Mister Sinewave posted:I also suck at it. I have beaten a bot on playdominon.com maybe twice. I am a weak strategic player and it shows. This game is very much about strategy since most of the time what you do is all about managing your own personal "snowball". i.e. Very little immediate effect but sets things up to happen later (and to a much larger and more prolonged effect.) There's a number of good Dominion strategy articles on the web and on YouTube to peruse through. I watched the three videos made by this guy on Dominion and it really helped me gain a good understanding of a few basic Dominion strategies and principles which is why I've currently been cleaning house with my friends. A few basic fundamentals go a long way with this game, it seems. burned through like 10 odd games recently and holy poo poo the Chapel is loving amazing you guys weren't joking, if it's in the game I probably want it. It's weird how goddamn fast I can reach a point where I'm guaranteed to draw $8 every turn. Chapel thus experience, I think I'll see about mixing Intrigue in next time. SuccinctAndPunchy fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 00:00
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Mister Sinewave posted:The Minority Report: It's fun to lose in chaos - unless you don't like chaos. The game feels like playing two simultaneous games of Scrabble with 10-second turns while people shout the dictionary at you. In a group that includes a chaos-loather, a perfectionist who isn't AP-prone but hates time pressure, and the Hearing Impaired, this game is admired from afar. The hearing-impaired player has a legitimate excuse, but the others are dumb and lame and hate fun.
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Jan 13, 2015 00:05
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GrandpaPants posted:I think you were the only person I've seen who said words about Theseus, so thanks for the recommendation. I really enjoyed the couple games I've played. I'd be totally cool if they added more cards for the various factions though so that they don't overlap so much (I still don't know why Greys get landmines) and had some more cool, unique cards though. Rahdo gave it a glowing review but SUSD guys hated it. EBag posted:English version of Orleans will be coming later this year from TMG, there's a KS up for it if you want some deluxe version. Not much of a deal for the regular version though, probably just gonna wait for it to hit retail. Oh yes, thanks for posting this. I had this on my shopping list but had to mark it off as "I only want the US version when that's printed" after watching Rahdo's playthrough and seeing the English/German First printing was German, as in had texts in German all around, with a tucked in English manual.
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Jan 13, 2015 00:16
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SuccinctAndPunchy posted:There's a number of good Dominion strategy articles on the web and on YouTube to peruse through. I watched the three videos made by this guy on Dominion and it really helped me gain a good understanding of a few basic Dominion strategies and principles which is why I've currently been cleaning house with my friends. A few basic fundamentals go a long way with this game, it seems. Aaaaah a convert. Now try King's Court/King's Court/Bridge/Bridge/Bridge. If you really want to go down the rabbit-hole, try dominionstrategy.com - though, be warned, that rabbiit hole is DEEEP and full of way more obsessed people than Broken Loose or myself. And the online community is a lot less satisfying with Goko dominion's slower, less reliable play than it used to be. Be warned though, our friends may get tired of your sharking the poo poo out of them if you spend too long there. Mine did. Fortunately I've forgotten most of it now, so we can play IRL again.
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Jan 13, 2015 00:16
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echoMateria posted:There was a print error on the progress board of Dungeon Lords Anniversary, which they first tried to fix with a sticker. Now Vlaada made a rules change to compensate for it, since people weren't particularly happy with the sticker idea: It was pretty rough seeing Vlaada talk about how people at CGE were basically going without sleep for a month to get the thing done and then the reaction from backers was so angry over tiny poo poo like a single phase printed one spot to the left on one board in a way that barely affects gameplay. I understand people being miffed if the game still hasn't turned up in countries were delivery should be finished by now but come on. One guy in Canberra recieved a box that had basically been completely destroyed by the shipping company and he seemed less annoyed than some people are about the print error. Poison Mushroom posted:I've said it a couple times, but I think it bears repeating: Robinson Crusoe is very, very good, but in exactly two mutually-exclusive situations. Rutibex posted:VVV Oh yeah do not play Robinson Crusoe with actual people. It is a solo game only. I don't care what is says on the box. Robinson Crusoe sucked as a solo game for me too because it has almost the same amount of setup for 1 person as it does for 4, except now you have to do it all yourself. Then you draw 3 books in a row and lose because the game decided to say "gently caress you". Basically don't play Robinson Crusoe, I try really hard not to call games "overrated" but Crusoe certainly is. If you want a quarterbackable co-op play Ghost Stories. Bubble-T fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 00:20
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fozzy fosbourne posted:I don't suppose anyone has played a majority of the following and could compare them to games like Mage Knight (good but long and fiddly) and Arkham Horror (less good and even more long and fiddly: Eldritch Horror plays quite differently from Arkham Horror and you need to be careful in the rules because some things look and sound the same as in AH but are actually very different in EH (e.g. clues - they are too precious to waste on mitigating die roll randomness; mitigate that in EH by buffing your character.) EH has some really good ideas with the mysteries, etc. The campaign against e.g. The Black Goat plays extremely differently than the one against e.g. Azathoth, and does it all within the scope of the existing ruleset - i.e. no huge swaths of special rules, etc. Comparing EH to Mage Knight is weird but EH will suit multiple players better and has far less brain burn. It'll play in a shorter time. It will probably tell a better story but but won't have the same depth nor does it have an exploration angle. MK has multiple scenarios but they are all kind of the same in a way if you want a co-op. Robinson Crusoe - I am in the minority here I guess but I love the game to bits. The rulebook is terrible but there is an illustrated guide online that does an excellent job of explaining. I agree that it plays best either solo or with a small number of like-minded players. In a way, it's all meta for a survival situation because if you're not ready or able to objectively co-operate, you'll die hard. The whole game plays super tightly in the way that everything is connected. Many things have one thing happen immediately, and have something else set up to happen later. It's possible to be unlucky at times but the game always gives you at least a chance to do something about the major stuff before it actually hits. You know that the weather will get snowy soon, it's up to you to get proper shelter before then. You injured your hand, it sooner or later it will get infected and if you don't have a salve by then well that's tough. The hungry predator is poking around, if you don't kill it or set up a palisade before it works up its courage well that's tough. And so on. It's hard but I never felt actually unfairly treated. Failing a game left me immediately seeing where I could have optimized or where I wasted effort and wanting to try again. Enough  from me, if you're OK with punishing difficulty that tells a story in the process and have a small number of like-minded players who want to basically role-play a survival situation, give it a shot.e: I think that ^^^ is going to be my go-to summary of Robinson Crusoe. GrandpaPants posted:I think you were the only person I've seen who said words about Theseus, so thanks for the recommendation. I really enjoyed the couple games I've played. I'd be totally cool if they added more cards for the various factions though so that they don't overlap so much (I still don't know why Greys get landmines) and had some more cool, unique cards though. If you also like Earth Reborn but have no one to play with we're probably long-lost siblings or something.
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Jan 13, 2015 00:22
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Every time the D&D Adventure Board Game series gets mentioned I feel the need to mention that I find them a blast to play. They scale very well from 2-5 players, are fully co-op, fairly easy to set up, easy to play, really the only downside is they rely on a whole bunch of d20 rolling.Poison Mushroom posted:[...]'fantasy SWAT team'[...] This is also a very accurate description.
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Jan 13, 2015 00:22
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Mister Sinewave posted:If you also like Earth Reborn but have no one to play with we're probably long-lost siblings or something. I'm pretty sure this is actually everyone that owns Earth Reborn.
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Jan 13, 2015 00:25
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Lottery of Babylon posted:The hearing-impaired player has a legitimate excuse, but the others are dumb and lame and hate fun. He does not. The app shows text messages. 
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Jan 13, 2015 00:27
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Mister Sinewave posted:Eldritch Horror plays quite differently from Arkham Horror and you need to be careful in the rules because some things look and sound the same as in AH but are actually very different in EH (e.g. clues - they are too precious to waste on mitigating die roll randomness; mitigate that in EH by buffing your character.) EH has some really good ideas with the mysteries, etc. The campaign against e.g. The Black Goat plays extremely differently than the one against e.g. Azathoth, and does it all within the scope of the existing ruleset - i.e. no huge swaths of special rules, etc. I don't know if I like Earth Reborn because I have no one who wants to play it  I still dislike Robinson Crusoe but that's not enough to make us mortal enemies or anything.On Eldritch Horror, the new expansion introduces a new action called Focus that gives you a Focus token that can be used to reroll stuff. It is up there with solid "I have nothing better to do" actions like getting a ticket or
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Jan 13, 2015 00:27
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edit: re:Dominion Yeah, I would advise riding out the honeymoon for a while and avoiding reading strategy for as long as can, unless you are confident some of your playgroup will also go deep. It's very hard to un-see when you only have the base set or another. It's not a big problem when you have a ton of expansions. I guess the solution to everything is to just buy everything  Incidentally, the dominionstrategy forums have pretty good discussion about other games. I pretty much go here, there, SUSD forums/comments, and reddit to get some real analysis of games. BGG has way too many weird outlier opinions and the actual SUSD reviews themselves aren't analytical enough. fozzy fosbourne fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 00:28
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thespaceinvader posted:Now try King's Court/King's Court/Bridge/Bridge/Bridge. it took me a while to puzzle through the mechanics of that but now I must have it in my life buying 10 provinces in a single turn sounds like the loving bees knees. fozzy fosbourne posted:Yeah, I would advise riding out the honeymoon for a while and avoiding reading strategy for as long as can, unless you are confident some of your playgroup will also go deep. It's very hard to un-see when you only have the base set or another. It's not a big problem when you have a ton of expansions. I guess the solution to everything is to just buy everything group has a couple of die-hard strategy game fans who are already diving head first down the rabbit hole with me, it's pretty great. SuccinctAndPunchy fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 00:31
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taser rates posted:I'm pretty sure this is actually everyone that owns Earth Reborn.   Lottery of Babylon posted:The hearing-impaired player has a legitimate excuse, but the others are dumb and lame and hate fun. Eh, different strokes for different folks. Some people enjoy putting things in order and their brain makes a happy sigh once the "puzzle" is completed. Not being able to do that (like being under time pressure and not being able to "finish") robs them of their payoff. They don't hate the game, it just doesn't work for them. I'm the hearing impaired one and I think the game is brilliant. It is very hard for me to effectively play, though. I have hearing aids that do a marvelous job of letting me pass for almost-normal most of the time but in any kind of edge cases or when more than one thing is happening or more than one person is talking that all nosedives. An all ASL Space Alert game would probably be  + 
The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 00:39
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Yeah, I would advise riding out the honeymoon for a while and avoiding reading strategy for as long as can, unless you are confident some of your playgroup will also go deep. It's very hard to un-see when you only have the base set or another. It's not a big problem when you have a ton of expansions. I guess the solution to everything is to just buy everything I rarely look up strategies for games because one of the most enjoyable things is to develop your strategies organically. I even lucked out with Dominion, because even though I talk strategy with people, most of the time, they only talk about the base game, which I don't have. I just recently got Hinterlands, then Seaside soon after. I've played a few games with random Hinterlands kingdoms, and I can't tell how to use them effectively at all. It's great, but I think I'm going to step away from it, and play with Seaside or Seaside+Intrigue before going back in.
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Jan 13, 2015 01:02
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GrandpaPants posted:On Eldritch Horror, the new expansion introduces a new action called Focus that gives you a Focus token that can be used to reroll stuff. It is up there with solid "I have nothing better to do" actions like getting a ticket or I played my first game of Eldrich Horror last week, and only just found out the focus action was added in an expansion. When we played, it seemed necessary to keep the game going through terrible rolls. I'm on the fence about picking up my own copy, but if I do, I'll be adding focus tokens.
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Jan 13, 2015 01:02
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