|
Bomb-Bunny posted:I got it over Christmas and I found people are pretty good at keeping track of their own and others, but my group also plays a lot of Resistance so tracking who has/did what has become second nature. DeepSpaceBeans' suggestion about 'lighter' Euros is a good one -- although it might be helpful to learn what she didn't like about KoNY and Space Alert that she did like about TTR and Dominion. Assuming that she liked TTR and Dominion because of the sensation of building something up (tableau building), limited direct conflict/actions against other players, and fairly quick/simple turns, I think that your best bets are going to be Carcasonne and Castles of Burgundy (which seems way more complex than it actually is). If you want to branch into Vlaada games, I would suggest giving Galaxy Trucker a try over Space Alert, because it fulfills a lot of the same spaces as TTR and Dominion -- there is still a timed element but the satisfaction of building something is much stronger and you don't have to worry about harming 'the group' if you screw up (which is sometimes a problem with Space Alert, I find). Finally, although you might not get as much replay out of them, Suburbia and Castles of Mad King Ludwig are also good games about building either a Sim City style city or a crazy palace that I think fit the bill as well. Feel free to ask about details for any of those games -- and most of them (Carcasonne, Suburbia, and Galaxy Trucker) have iOS apps that will let you try them out at a fraction of the cost (My wife and I actually prefer playing Carcasonne on the iPad).
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 19:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 02:15 |
|
|
Mister Sinewave posted:Can someone tell me a little about how Alien Frontiers plays? Like for example where does it fall on scales of cut-throat competition on one side, to multiplayer solitaire on the other? Does it feel like barely keeping your head above water? I really, really wanted to like Alien Frontiers, but the fact that you roll your dice at the start of your turn really makes the game drag. There's a lot of gamestate to process and you can't really do any of it until you know what you've rolled. Crackbone fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jan 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 19:38
|
|
|
God. Ugh. Zombies!!!, Munchkin, and Fluxx were the board games I started with back in high school. I didn't give a poo poo about board games at the time because I was playing 40k, so it makes sense that I didn't understand what bad games were. Although, somehow, 40k has actually gotten worse sense then. Oh well. Now I just can't wait for my BattleCon kickstarter to arrive and I'm psyched to play Galaxy Trucker, Tash-Kalar, and Imperial Assault any chance I can get. I need to start picking up worker placement games for my library though so I'm thinking Dominant Species is a good start, and I wanna actually find out if Argent: The Consortium is going to be good or not. I also need to sit my regular play group down and actually loving play this copy of Eclipse and expansion that I bought, like, 2 years ago  Crackbone posted:I really, really wanted to like Alien Frontiers, but the fact that you roll your dice at the start of your turn really makes the game drag, as there's a lot of gamestate to process and you can't really do any of it until you know what you've rolled. This is a very fair criticism even though I really love the game. But seeing as how much of a big deal action denial is in worker placement games, having your ability to do so being based on dice rolls can be a big turn off when analyzing the game and frustrating in practice, even though you're at least going to have something to do with your dice by using them to advance colony construction. S.J. fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Jan 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 19:41
|
|
|
Mister Sinewave posted:Can someone tell me a little about how Alien Frontiers plays? Like for example where does it fall on scales of cut-throat competition on one side, to multiplayer solitaire on the other? Does it feel like barely keeping your head above water? It's an interesting concept but like Crackbone said the fact that you roll at the start of your turn means you have to do all your planning on your turn, which slows things down a lot. It's got a couple of interesting ideas, and I like the idea of a yahtzee-based game in theory, but it tends to drag a lot. Scyther posted:I remember busting open my copy of Zombies!!!, reading the rules, quickly putting it back in the box and gifting it to my brother. Yeah I ended up giving my copy to the same friend who liked the resident evil deckbuilder and then cutting off contact
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 19:43
|
|
|
I've been playing in this hobby for so so long, thirty years last year. Diplomacy was my drug. What's different now is that I don't have to get up at 5AM to call Just Games in London to order games. The long distance charges at 5AM were a mere dollar a minute. Just Games were the only place that spoke English and that would translate the German game rules. Looking for translations back in the late 80's was nearly a full time job. You guys don't even think about what it takes to properly translate these games that are originally done in German. I also don't have to pay the ridiculous over-the-top prices that Games People Play in Boston used to charge. I played a lot of Settlers back in the day, but I don't like it now. By the time I was exposed to Munchkin I already knew I wouldn't like it, but my kid did for awhile when he was pretty young.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:01
|
|
|
S.J. posted:I need to start picking up worker placement games for my library though so I'm thinking Dominant Species is a good start, Oh, Christ, no. Dominant Species is by repute a very good game and I'd really like to try it, but the main reason I haven't yet is because it's too deep and long for a typical evening session. If you want a game you might actually get on the table it's your worst choice. Also play Eclipse. Play lots of Eclipse.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:07
|
|
|
Countblanc posted:Rolling dice is the poo poo, I completely understand what your mom is saying. But Catan is still bad by modern standards, and dice rolling has been used in much better ways since then. Alien Frontiers, while not my favorite game, is really easy to learn, looks nice, and involves lots of dice rolling while still being a better game, but I know it used to be - and still might be - hard to track down a copy. I'm selling my copy of AF, just so everybody knows. $50 + shipping. New condition. PM me for deets.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:08
|
|
|
Jedit posted:Oh, Christ, no. Dominant Species is by repute a very good game and I'd really like to try it, but the main reason I haven't yet is because it's too deep and long for a typical evening session. If you want a game you might actually get on the table it's your worst choice. Oh, no, I've played Dominant Species and I really enjoy it, and I know some of my regular group will enjoy it as well. I just haven't bought it yet because there are so many things to play.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:10
|
|
|
Thanks for the talk about Alien Frontiers, that really paints a good picture. For some reason I just couldn't really get my head around what to expect from the game and whether to pick it up and try it out. I remember looking at it once and going "Nah", then recently looked at it again and couldn't remember why I had felt that way but at the same time couldn't really get any sort of sense of whether I'd dig anything in it or not. The comments about dice rolling & processing/planning at the start of your turn, yeah I hear you on those.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:38
|
|
|
As for World of Warcraft the board game, oh wow I remember that, feast your eyes   I only played it once, though despite the clunky parts I would have played it again except my wife was all like  My nephew just borrowed my copy. I'd be interested in playing it again just to see how differently I would see it today. If that happens I'll share  One interesting thing about the game is that it has a mechanic called "spotting", and it actually works well to get a feeling of combo-making. Short version is that finding and equipping weapons and equipment that work well with each other is a part of effective play. It's neat because in most games, which weapon or items to use is really just a straightforward decision with a correct/optimal answer: use the one that does (or prevents) the most damage most efficiently. But in the WoW game while some items are objectively better than others you'll more often be wanting the items that are better for you - i.e. they have good synergy with whatever else it is that you've found or purchased or whatever. I remember it being very satisfying to manage to put together good combinations, and decide when to move on from the comfort of the ones you have when they have outlived their usefulness.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:39
|
|
|
Mister Sinewave posted:As for World of Warcraft the board game, oh wow I remember that, feast your eyes A friend of mine bought that but never even opened the box; amusingly he neither played a warcraft game nor played an MMO of any type, so I don't know why he got it. He doesn't have particularly good taste in games though, and tends to get frustrated if he's not "Doing Good". (By doing good I mean actually realizing his position in the game is not bad, as he can be doing awesome and still get frustrated).
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:45
|
|
|
Mister Sinewave posted:Thanks for the talk about Alien Frontiers, that really paints a good picture. For some reason I just couldn't really get my head around what to expect from the game and whether to pick it up and try it out. I remember looking at it once and going "Nah", then recently looked at it again and couldn't remember why I had felt that way but at the same time couldn't really get any sort of sense of whether I'd dig anything in it or not. For what it's worth it's got an iPad app, so there's a cheap way to try it out without spending a bunch of money and gathering up someone to play with. My group has enjoyed it, but the criticisms leveled at it are definitely sound.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:46
|
|
|
Sloober posted:A friend of mine bought that but never even opened the box; amusingly he neither played a warcraft game nor played an MMO of any type, so I don't know why he got it. He doesn't have particularly good taste in games though, and tends to get frustrated if he's not "Doing Good". (By doing good I mean actually realizing his position in the game is not bad, as he can be doing awesome and still get frustrated). I have a friend like that who seems like he needs a pep talk every time a game gets difficult. I'm sorry for your loss (of being able to actually play a game instead of being a life coach.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:51
|
|
|
Well, I don't know a lick about WoW besides what'd I'd call common or general knowledge. But I do like trying new things and seeing how designers try to solve different problems. At the time, a big-scale fantasy game that featured competitive - but not necessarily confrontational - play with a big players-versus-environment thing going on and didn't require a player to play as the environment/DM... that wasn't exactly common.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:52
|
|
|
Scyther posted:For what it's worth it's got an iPad app, so there's a cheap way to try it out without spending a bunch of money and gathering up someone to play with. My group has enjoyed it, but the criticisms leveled at it are definitely sound. Thanks for the pointer, I think I'll try that out. iPad app versions are great for a number of things, some of them being setup and upkeep and shuffling. For example I really enjoyed playing a shitload of Elder Sign digital version a while ago. But it's a game that's got so many moving parts that I just  at the thought of having to manually set up and upkeep everything. It wouldn't be worth what I get out of it if it weren't for the computer handling everything.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 20:56
|
|
|
Mister Sinewave posted:As for World of Warcraft the board game, oh wow I remember that, feast your eyes FFG must have its manufacturing adjusted down to a science. All the FFG games are starting to blend together in my head. "Over here you'll have our sweet-looking-map machine. Over here are the miniatures molders. Over in that warehouse is every card printer ever made, all running at maximum capacity. We don't need any other equipment."
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 21:00
|
|
|
Mister Sinewave posted:Well, I don't know a lick about WoW besides what'd I'd call common or general knowledge. But I do like trying new things and seeing how designers try to solve different problems. At the time, a big-scale fantasy game that featured competitive - but not necessarily confrontational - play with a big players-versus-environment thing going on and didn't require a player to play as the environment/DM... that wasn't exactly common. Yeah I agree, I actually love a lot of the ideas of the WoW board game, but the play time and randomness absolutely kill it. Honestly it probably sparked my love affair with team based games (which there still aren't that many of), and now that I'm thinking about it probably inspired the central mechanics for two different games I've designed. But holy lmao I had forgotten that the game didn't even have unique artwork, they literally used the models from the game for enemy portraits.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 21:05
|
|
|
Lorini posted:I've been playing in this hobby for so so long, thirty years last year. Diplomacy was my drug. GPP still charges those incredibly horrible prices, by the by.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 21:13
|
|
|
Since we're trading origin stories: I'd been a video gamer from a very young age - I got an Amiga 500 when I was 8 years old, and played a huge variety of games on it. Even from a young age, I liked strategy games a lot though. I also played a bit of chess. I played some Car Wars and D&D with neighbourhood kids. Around that time (I was in primary school) was around about when Hero Quest and Space Crusade came out and most of my friends ended up with copies of HQ, which we played a lot - leading me to get my own copies of Hero Quest and Space Crusade. I also got Battle Masters, that huge game that had a floor sized map. That planted the seed pretty early on that table top games could be awesome. I played Magic in high school (Revised had just come out) and it was huge, so we played a lot of it, as well as Star Trek: TNG CCG. I also dabbled with Netrunner and Battletech CCG. There was a second hand book store near my house that had second hand games as well, so I picked up my own copy of Car Wars, which we tried to play at school but never got through more than a few turns. They also had some Avalon Hill bookshelf wargames, and since I loved wargames on the computer, I jumped in the deep end and bought Afrika Korps and Panzer Leader as well, and dipped my toe into Kriegspiel. By year 11, I'd discovered sports and girls, so that became my focus. I'd put table top games aside until around 2007/8 when Catan came out on Xbox Live. I played a bunch of that - became totally enamoured with it. I also was exposed to TTR that way as well. I'd picked up Zombies!!! somewhere in there as well (ugh.). I didn't fully take the plunge into modern tabletops until a few years ago, where I had heard about Risk Legacy through a bunch of gaming sites. I decided I must try this out, but I had no regular gaming group. I took a chance, bought the game anyway and put the call out to friends on facebook, until we'd assembled enough people to play it. That game sunk the hooks in, and we quickly expanded to play whatever gaming hotness we'd heard about and bought (I think we went Risk Legacy, Powergrid, Panic Station, Carson City, Eclipse... and it's a bit blurry after that!) and the die was cast.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 21:36
|
|
|
A new D&D Swat Team Adventure! quote:In the Dungeons & Dragons: Temple of Elemental Evil Board Game, you play as a heroic adventurer. With amazing abilities, spells and magic weapons, you must explore the dungeons beneath the Sword Coast where you will fight monsters, overcome hazards and find treasure. Are you ready for adventure? djfooboo fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Jan 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 22:33
|
|
|
Countblanc posted:Man there's so much iconography in Burgundy and little bits that it's a huge pain to teach someone who (I'm assuming) is coming from a straight Catan background. Also the game just looks really boring; the components are bad and the player aids are cluttered and feel cheap. I like playing it but I can't imagine trying to pitch it to someone who was already uninterested in moving past Catan. There's a review someplace that described CoB as looking like a cross between bad motel room art and a college math textbook (and then went on, rightly, to praise it).
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 22:51
|
|
|
h_double posted:There's a review someplace that described CoB as looking like a cross between bad motel room art and a college math textbook (and then went on, rightly, to praise it). I knew it had to be Shut Up and Sit Down. I don't know what Paul's doing but I want him back. Gimnbo fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jan 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 22:54
|
|
|
Quinns, on Castles of Burgundy posted:Maybe. It is a lovely game. Just a bit… there’s so much… I think I’d emerge at the end of the evening having been so endlessly teased and tested by the game that I’d have no idea if I had fun or not. I’d definitely place it at the more hardcore end of the spectrum.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:02
|
|
|
I've never seen a review so full of backhanded compliments that actually manages to make the reviewers look like they're insulting themselves instead of the game.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:03
|
|
|
Paul probably got tired of being endlessly mocked for being the only person with any idea about game design.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:08
|
|
|
Ahaha The guy from The Oatmeal is co-producing a card game that looks like it is essentially Uno with lol monkey cheese random humor. And NSFW expansions already planned.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:10
|
|
|
That part of the review always confused me, I've taught Castles of Burgundy to total board game newbies who grasped it easily and enjoyed it as well. Like, they'd certainly played and recommended more taxing and heavier games up to that point, it's really odd.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:11
|
|
|
This page is just the master of days-old news, isn't it?
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:11
|
|
|
h_double posted:Ahaha The guy from The Oatmeal is co-producing a card game that looks like it is essentially Uno with lol monkey cheese random humor. And NSFW expansions already planned. Yeah it's been discussed (and mocked) a couple times now. But this is as good a chance as any to mention that Quinns couldn't help but make a jab at the game's critics in today's news update by calling them "sneering boardgamers" and implying Pluckly Lil' Non-Game Players will use this (and CAH) as a bridge to play good games. I've been baffled before at SUSD's apparent access to groups of perfect playgroups, but it really comes across like Quinns hasn't ever played with anyone outside his bubble - 50-75% of people at my board game meetup just go there and play CAH or We Didn't Playtest This At All, week after week, and never have any interest in playing anything else. e: The people backing this, or their groups, are almost certainly the same people who play SUSD despised game Munchkin or similar things on the regular, not people looking to dip their toes into a new hobby. Countblanc fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Jan 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:16
|
|
|
Poison Mushroom posted:This page is just the master of days-old news, isn't it? yeah, but bad standards bear repeating
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:21
|
|
|
Exploding Kittens is currently closing in on $4,000,000 pledged. The zeitgeist might be garbage, but Oatmeal Guy has captured it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:22
|
|
|
Countblanc posted:Yeah it's been discussed (and mocked) a couple times now. But this is as good a chance as any to mention that Quinns couldn't help but make a jab at the game's critics in today's news update by calling them "sneering boardgamers" and implying Pluckly Lil' Non-Game Players will use this (and CAH) as a bridge to play good games. I've been baffled before at SUSD's apparent access to groups of perfect playgroups, but it really comes across like Quinns hasn't ever played with anyone outside his bubble - 50-75% of people at my board game meetup just go there and play CAH or We Didn't Playtest This At All, week after week, and never have any interest in playing anything else. Yeah, CAH doesn't really do much to get people into board-gaming. It makes them into CAH players. There's not really much of a link between it and more mechanics-heavy games. The idea of someone playing CAH and then wondering if there are games like, I don't know, Concordia or something like that is pretty absurd to me.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:26
|
|
|
My non-board/card gamer friends, who know that I'm into this stuff, are messaging me about that Kickstarter, saying "It is very neat". I politely reply "Uh.. huh, I know about it." and change the topic. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:33
|
|
|
The worst game I've ever bought was Robinson Crusoe, I have impeccable taste. I played magic and warhammer for years, not to mention a million awful video games And yeah anyone that thinks Exploding Kittens is a gateway is a moron, its not even in the tabletop category of kickstarter. Backers aren't going to see any other modern game ever, they're just going to think Uno is still the pinnacle of game design.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2015 23:44
|
|
|
If we're laughing at Quinns anyway:SUSD posted:I trust The Dice Tower
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2015 00:15
|
|
|
DirkGently posted:DeepSpaceBeans' suggestion about 'lighter' Euros is a good one -- although it might be helpful to learn what she didn't like about KoNY and Space Alert that she did like about TTR and Dominion. Sorry pick up and reply after a while (work-times posting!) but I should have talked to that point in my first post. My wife hates anything with long set-up or lots of bits, visually complex games are an instant no from her, which is why Suburbia was no a go for her. She didn't like KoNY because there wasn't an obvious strategy to win, she gets AP really badly. I think Castles of Mad King Ludwig might be a go. And she liked the sound of Carc when I explained it. Thanks for the advice everyone, I got started in this hobby about a year ago and this thread has been hugely helpful!
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2015 00:31
|
|
|
Just found Twilight Struggle for $20 at goodwill. I guess it's time to read about what makes this the #1 rated game on bgg. From what I've skimmed so far, I probably shouldn't read the cards so that I'm equally (un)prepared as whoever I find to play it with?
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2015 00:33
|
|
|
alathar posted:Just found Twilight Struggle for $20 at goodwill. I guess it's time to read about what makes this the #1 rated game on bgg. From what I've skimmed so far, I probably shouldn't read the cards so that I'm equally (un)prepared as whoever I find to play it with? Lol, that is strange. I can only imagine little Billy who likes Munchkin and Settlers telling their family they like boardgames. Said family member searches "board game" on Google and finds BGG. Then buys the #1 game, because of course it must be awesome for little Billy. Little Billy is a poo poo and doesn't appreciate it because it is realistic and a good game. Billy gives to Goodwill.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2015 00:41
|
|
|
alathar posted:Just found Twilight Struggle for $20 at goodwill. I guess it's time to read about what makes this the #1 rated game on bgg. From what I've skimmed so far, I probably shouldn't read the cards so that I'm equally (un)prepared as whoever I find to play it with?  That's a great find! I'm surprised they put it up for $20, that implies they knew what it was. Every time I found a "good" board game at Goodwill it was shoved in with the puzzles and priced at $5 just the same as the Monopoly Jr and Trivial Pursuits.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2015 01:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 02:15 |
|
|
In one of their podcasts, Quinns described 7 Wonders as 7 people cooking in the same kitchen. That analogy really fits for a lot of euros for me, for some reason.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2015 01:33
|
|
