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My Archipelago solo expansion finally arrived from France. It's smaller than a deck of cards and I paid 30 bucks for it (after international shipping). This is my boardshame
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Jan 30, 2015 03:16
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fozzy fosbourne posted:My Archipelago solo expansion finally arrived from France. It's smaller than a deck of cards and I paid 30 bucks for it (after international shipping). This is my boardshame It was worth it.
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Jan 30, 2015 03:17
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Scan the cards for me
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Jan 30, 2015 04:05
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Goon with Cthulhu Wars, you out there? I'm skeptical because [kickstarter, miniatures, cthulhu] but interested because [chaos in the old world] Played our first game last night. The asymmetrical factions seem pretty balanced and all four players, myself included, immediately set a date for tomorrow night to play a second time. The miniatures look and feel fantastic and the cardboard chits are very thick, about twice the thickness from most comparable games, which gives them a weightiness that feels like it matches the massive miniatures. The game also doesn't outlast its welcome. It has a slow-building early game, a little bit of jockeying in the mid-game, and then a quick strike end game and 3 of the 4 players felt in it til the end (with the 4th just falling prey to a few bad decisions coupled with bad dice luck as well). It has a surprising amount of control for a "Roll xd6" combat game. It's a quick favorite and a definite worthwhile prestige/collector's item buy. It's easier for me to rationalize the purchase at the high price when I compare it to GW but, frankly, if Hyperborea can sell for $100, $200 for this is a comparative bargain (from a components standpoint absolutely, but the design also feels tighter).
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Jan 30, 2015 04:35
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This kind of owns if you don't mind feeling a little larpy while you play your boardgames http://tabletopaudio.com.
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Jan 30, 2015 04:51
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For those euro gamers out there, what are you favorite heavy euros that play well with 2? I'm talking real heavy, like 4+ on BGG. I have a lot of great mid weight euros but I want something that will really burn my brain. I've been thinking about Vinhos in particular but I'm open to suggestions.
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Jan 30, 2015 05:03
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These Loving Eyes posted:What is the goonsensus on Abyss? From what I have read, it has been criticized for a lack of real strategic choices on your turn, so that some options are obviously better than others. I am also afraid it will feel too repetitive too quick. On the other hand, our group loves short to medium lenght games that strike the balance between light enough for chit-chatting but not meaningless in terms of player choice (e.g. Libertalia, Condottiere, 7 Wonders or the trick-taking game Wizard). Therefore, it could be engaging enough for our gaming habits. It's not talked about too much because well, it's a alright game, it's has some very amazing artwork, it's perfectly playable, easy to teach/setup, and lasts about ~40-60 minutes. But it's mechanically not memorable. Had it come out 6 years or more ago it would have been a bit more popular, but as it is it's well, an non-offending nor memorable game. It does have some mostly minor (although very obvious after you'all get it) balance issues, and really doesn't offer that much choices but there are some still to be made but given it's mostly a light good-looking game, these aren't too much of a problem except once everyone else starts to get the same realizations. I think it's good for a half-dozen sessions or so before it starts to get repetitive, although I wouldn't play more than one round of this a night; however, it wouldn't hurt to have it in your collection if it's on the cheap.
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Jan 30, 2015 05:17
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Forbidden Island and Ticket to Ride on the newest BBT. In good news, I got my copy of Dominion today. Is there a way to play solo with the actual cards? I have been playing online a good bit but it would be handy to play the game even if my partner was not interested at the time.
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Jan 30, 2015 05:54
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goodness posted:Forbidden Island and Ticket to Ride on the newest BBT. I've seen a couple solo Dominion variants on BGG, haven't actually tried any of them out though, so god knows if they're any good.
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Jan 30, 2015 05:56
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goodness posted:Forbidden Island and Ticket to Ride on the newest BBT. You could always practice against big money.
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Jan 30, 2015 06:01
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quote:In good news, I got my copy of Dominion today. Is there a way to play solo with the actual cards? Obviously you'll need to choose boards without interactive cards (attacks, etc..), but it's easy enough to just race yourself to 6 Provinces (or whatever) - see how few turns you can finish in. This is actually a reasonable way to get better, too, as in real games you often get a wrong idea about how you played based on where you finished. Obviously there are some interactive skills to Dominion (and it's important to know how fast you need to be, and which interactive cards are coming out)... but learning "how fast would this deck goldfish" is a really interesting puzzle, and something playing solo can give you a good feel for.
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Jan 30, 2015 06:13
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Or you can play against yourself using different strategies to see how each one would pan out.
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Jan 30, 2015 06:50
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fozzy fosbourne posted:My Archipelago solo expansion finally arrived from France. It's smaller than a deck of cards and I paid 30 bucks for it (after international shipping). This is my boardshame My boardshame is that I backed, received, and actually tried to play (more than once) the kickstarted game Damage Report. Sort-of interesting central mechanic idea but holy poo poo is that game garbage. With terrible and terribly inconsistent art and design, to boot.
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Jan 30, 2015 08:19
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Merauder posted:So I've had a chance to get in a couple games of Scoville since I picked it up earlier this week and have really enjoyed it, and figure I'd do a run down of the game. I got my own copy of Scoville to the table last night, initially only my dad wanted to play, then just as I finished the 2-player setup my mum comes in saying "Oh no actually I will play." You've given a run down of the game so I won't repeat, but your conclusion is spot on. My mother found it a bit too intensive and that there was "too many things to think about". I wouldn't give that assessment too much credit though, she always makes comments like that after learning a new game and really she dealt with the game just fine. She's quite prone to AP so I think she made a rod for her own back by trying to really crunch the numbers on the best planting and harvesting spots. My dad really enjoyed it and would like to play again, we've played so much Catan recently he liked playing a game that has basically no luck component. Our scores were quite close, my dad got 79, me 78 and mum 72. My only gripe would be that the chilli recipe cards really should use the whole card face. As they are half of the card is taken up with the word "RECIPE" with the name of the chilli and the neccesary peppers crammed into the other half of the card. If the cards are on the far side of the table from you it's not easy to see the different colours you need. I think it's pretty redundant as the card backs all say "RECIPE" on them anyway, and once you complete a recipe it's not like you ever need to refer to it again. The money tokens are awkward to handle as well because they're so drat small, the coin sizes in 7 Wonders or Concordia are preferable. Scoville's are tiny in comparison. All in all, it's colourful, fun, the components are gorgeous. There's enough meat to it that those who like to really think about their turns can do so, but it's also forgiving enough I think that you can take things a turn at a time.
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Jan 30, 2015 10:12
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Played my first game of Kemet yesterday. 2 hours for a 2 player game, from rules explanation to packing poo poo up and discussing the game a bit, I guess a little less of 90 minutes of real gameplay. Explaining the rules was a little more convoluted that I expected (we went through every power tile), and I was quite surprised at how fast events developed after we both picked up some steam. I think the entire game lasted 4 or 5 night phases tops. How do you usually explain Kemet? Everything is so tied together that I felt the need of jumping from one topic to another. "So you win VPs by winning battles and occupying temples. Oh, and having level 4 pyramids. And you get to level 4 pyramids by using an order and pay PPs. PPs you get from occupying temples and..."
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Jan 30, 2015 10:24
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Fat Samurai posted:Played my first game of Kemet yesterday. 2 hours for a 2 player game, from rules explanation to packing poo poo up and discussing the game a bit, I guess a little less of 90 minutes of real gameplay. Explaining the rules was a little more convoluted that I expected (we went through every power tile), and I was quite surprised at how fast events developed after we both picked up some steam. I think the entire game lasted 4 or 5 night phases tops. It's crazily tied together! After a bad attempt, I now * Do a very quick look at the board (temples, cities, obelisks) with little explanation * go through the actions board, starting with money and pray, then upgrade pyramids, then buy upgrades, then recruit. With recruit and pyramids I explain city districts. Then I mention that the temples on the board have a temporary victory attached without needing to build them up to level 4 and explain movement and fighting. It works nicely, as it initiallygives the impression you sit back, raise money and spend it on upgrading pyramids, which everyone gets an easy grasp on. Then when you point out the temples give money and victory points and so does fighting over them, people's eyes light up and they're ready to attack!
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Jan 30, 2015 11:51
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EBag posted:For those euro gamers out there, what are you favorite heavy euros that play well with 2? I'm talking real heavy, like 4+ on BGG. I have a lot of great mid weight euros but I want something that will really burn my brain. Twilight Struggle is an obvious recommendation. Kanban seems pretty brain-burny. Not sure how it plays 2. Caylus is great with 2.
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Jan 30, 2015 13:00
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EBag posted:For those euro gamers out there, what are you favorite heavy euros that play well with 2? I'm talking real heavy, like 4+ on BGG. I have a lot of great mid weight euros but I want something that will really burn my brain. I've been thinking about Vinhos in particular but I'm open to suggestions. Kanban: Automotive Revolution was recommended as a great 2 player heavy euro by rahdo. Check out his channel for similar 2 player game recommendations excluding direct conflict/wargame-ish stuff.
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Jan 30, 2015 13:07
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I have Twilight Struggle and it's great but we tend to more economic focused euros. Some of the heavier games we have are Agricola, Ora et Labora, Trajan, Eclipse, Bruxelles and Keyflower but most of these I would still consider medium or medium-heavy. Kanban looks interesting but I'm not sure my wife would be into the theme, I'll show it to her and see what she thinks. Has anyone played Arkwright?
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Jan 30, 2015 15:33
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I think I would have some sort of panic attack playing Kanban since I went to school studying that poo poo at a mathematical level. I was graded on how well I performed on some factory just in time simulations that are probably like the board game. It was not fun for me.
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Jan 30, 2015 15:39
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Rutibex posted:Honestly I think the "stress" is good for new players. It focuses your strategy in a game that would otherwise be incredibly open and nebulous. There are only a few paths through any Agricola game that will get you a 5 person stone house with no begger cards. Agricola gives you feedback as the game goes on. After a bit of experience with the game you aren't going to ever take a begging card; the purpose of the cards is to act as a bludgeon to narrow the options and make the game more understandable. Sure you can build a Joinery in the first week, or a Well, or do a million other things but if you do you will not have enough actions to feed your family and it will not be worth the points. It allows you to easily discard a lot of potential actions and laser focus on one build order. Speaking of Agricola I have a rules question. I've been playing a fair bit of solo Agricola recently and have been playing such that excess food gets eaten at every harvest because this was a rule I remember existing. I looked it the rulebook and didn't see this rule listed, am I playing it wrong? For example: you have 12 food at the end of stage III and 3 people to feed, do you have 3 food at the start of stage IV or 0?
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Jan 30, 2015 15:43
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Yes, you keep excess food.
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Jan 30, 2015 15:45
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The End posted:Brilliant game. Combat is a bit dicey, but everything else is genius, especially with the expansion. Is there a good way to handle combat in these kinds of games without dice? I feel like if you don't have dice you are just stuck playing Diplomacy.
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Jan 30, 2015 15:48
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disperse posted:Speaking of Agricola I have a rules question. I've been playing a fair bit of solo Agricola recently and have been playing such that excess food gets eaten at every harvest because this was a rule I remember existing. I looked it the rulebook and didn't see this rule listed, am I playing it wrong? You don't have to give away all your food after a harvest; you just need to feed them what they need. Though that might be an interesting rule, maybe you could total up all the excess food you 'spent' and get a Feast Bonus or something at the end worth a few victory points.
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Jan 30, 2015 15:49
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Combat cards? Kemet does it. Use a better dice roll system than X+ to hit?
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Jan 30, 2015 15:49
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disperse posted:excess food gets eaten at every harvest Board Game Thread 5e: My Agricola family is obese
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Jan 30, 2015 15:56
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Zveroboy posted:Board Game Thread 5e: My Agricola family is obese That is a pretty good "hard mode" kind of rules hack, though. One of my go-to tactics is to produce a messload of extra food in the middle of the game so I can concentrate on other things.
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Jan 30, 2015 16:03
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I played my first game of Burgundy last night and I liked the dice mechanics quite a bit. The components are not the greatest thing in the world and it was slow going early until we gave everyone a rules cheat sheet, but I liked it a lot. For $26 you get a ton of game. Has me excited to break open my copies of Puerto Rico/Power Grid/Princes of Florence sometime soon. What other Euro classics are worth looking at? El Grande and Tigris & Euphrates I would imagine (especially since both are coming back this year)? I'd buy the poo poo out of Keyflower if it weren't OOP. Maybe another Feld like Trajan or Bora Bora? They're not exactly classics but Brass and Tzolk'in look really good. T-Bone fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 30, 2015 16:04
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El Grande is pretty good but it's about as dry as Castles of Burgundy imo. There is going to be a big, new release of El Grande though soon. If you are about to crack open Puerto Rico then take a look at Caylus as well. Those two games summed up my 2006.
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Jan 30, 2015 16:15
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Caylus is OOP as well it looks like  Definitely on my list. Although I'll probably buy Agricola or (definitely) Dungeon Lords before it comes back into print. e: looks like a lot of CGE games are heading over to the States by the way. Cardhaus is my go to retailer right now and they've got Dungeon Lords (normal version, anniversary version, expansion), Last Will, Shipyard, Dungeon Petz (+ expansion), Tash-Kalar (+ expansion), and Alchemists coming in. Actually they've got like every CGE game that I know of (+ expansions) available or on the way. T-Bone fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 30, 2015 16:23
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bobvonunheil posted:You don't have to give away all your food after a harvest; you just need to feed them what they need. OK, thanks all, that certainly makes the game a lot easier. I picked up "Holiday House" last night and had to eat a bunch of animals and spare grain during the 2nd Harvest in a row...
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Jan 30, 2015 16:51
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disperse posted:OK, thanks all, that certainly makes the game a lot easier. I picked up "Holiday House" last night and had to eat a bunch of animals and spare grain during the 2nd Harvest in a row... Holiday House is...really hard to play and have it be good. Really hard. Like don't play it hard, are you really going to get less than 8 points in the final turn? Should be at least a couple points per worker, ideally.
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Jan 30, 2015 16:54
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EBag posted:Has anyone played Arkwright? I played a 2p game with Trynant last weekend at Magfest, and it's a phenomenal heavy-weight game. The game does have a learning scenario with simplified rules (spinning jenny), but I think it's worth jumping straight into the full game (waterframe) if you're used to heavy games, since it has a predetermined setup that you can use anyways if you want. The actual actions you can take aren't all that complex individually, the game just gives you a ridiculous amount of freedom within those actions that can paralyze you for a bit when you're first starting out, which the predetermined setup should help with somewhat. We managed to knock it out in about 3.5 hours, but lorini I think has said her games can go up to 4.5 hours, which seems reasonable to me still, especially with more players.
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Jan 30, 2015 17:01
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taser rates posted:I played a 2p game with Trynant last weekend at Magfest, and it's a phenomenal heavy-weight game. The game does have a learning scenario with simplified rules (spinning jenny), but I think it's worth jumping straight into the full game (waterframe) if you're used to heavy games, since it has a predetermined setup that you can use anyways if you want. The actual actions you can take aren't all that complex individually, the game just gives you a ridiculous amount of freedom within those actions that can paralyze you for a bit when you're first starting out, which the predetermined setup should help with somewhat. We managed to knock it out in about 3.5 hours, but lorini I think has said her games can go up to 4.5 hours, which seems reasonable to me still, especially with more players. It looks so good but the cheapest I can find it is $130 CAD, and I don't know if I can justify that.
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Jan 30, 2015 17:04
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silvergoose posted:Holiday House is...really hard to play and have it be good. Really hard. Like don't play it hard, are you really going to get less than 8 points in the final turn? Should be at least a couple points per worker, ideally. That game may have been an anomaly but I ended up with something like 58 points, 6 stone rooms, 5 family members, 2 pastures with stables, 2 plowed fields, 3 cattle, 7 boar, 1 sheep, 8 grain, holiday house, and the super oven (2 grain make 5 food each). I really took advantage of the axe early on, building three rooms for six reeds and six wood and then upgraded all of them to stone at once after I let the stone accumulate. I also had the occupation that allows you to plow a field whenever you take grain which, in combination with the super oven, seemed OP. If I got the excess food rule right I probably would have had a couple more points worth of animals and maybe another major improvement.
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Jan 30, 2015 17:27
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Anyone play Goblins Inc? There are favorable comparisons to Galaxy Trucker elsewhere on the Internet but I don't hear about it much here so I wonder if it has some flaw
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Jan 30, 2015 17:43
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Yas posted:It looks so good but the cheapest I can find it is $130 CAD, and I don't know if I can justify that. It's definitely a major point, and there were only like a thousand copies printed or something.
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Jan 30, 2015 17:48
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quote:That game may have been an anomaly but I ended up with something like 58 points, 6 stone rooms, 5 family members, 2 pastures with stables, 2 plowed fields, 3 cattle, 7 boar, 1 sheep, 8 grain, holiday house, and the super oven (2 grain make 5 food each). I really took advantage of the axe early on, building three rooms for six reeds and six wood and then upgraded all of them to stone at once after I let the stone accumulate. I also had the occupation that allows you to plow a field whenever you take grain which, in combination with the super oven, seemed OP. If I got the excess food rule right I probably would have had a couple more points worth of animals and maybe another major improvement. 58 is a very good score in a multiplayer game, but kind of middling for solo where you can take very efficient plays by letting stuff pile up (without someone else grabbing it). But yeah, Axe and Field Watchman are both very strong - and if you get more than one "take a grain" bonus (Market Crier, Grain Cart, Grain Scoop, Seed Seller, Fence Builder+Hedge Keeper, etc..) you can take care of your food needs for the game with very few actions (while often getting full field/grain/veg score as a bonus). Depending on the number of players and what you draw, you can put together strong combos for Day Laborer, Fishing, Sheep, or various other spots too. But yeah, Holiday Home is almost always weak, and is one of a bunch of cards I hardly even notice while drafting. In general, it seems the card balance was based around the expectation of smaller families than you'll normally end up with with "standard" play. And, unfortunately, there is kind of "standard" play: it's very easy for the actual "game" part of Agricola to fall into a rut. When you first play the game, it seems like there's lots of decisions to be made in terms of how to lay out your farm, etc.. - but many of these become non-decisions quickly (at least when playing with the base card sets). You end up building your fields, rooms and fences in about the same place every game, and there's little reason to change unless you get one of a few specific cards (eg. Window Planters or whatever it's called). There's decisions, sure, and very nuanced play around positioning yourself to, say, snag early Family Growths... but you quickly find out that lots of overall game paths just don't end in you winning often (eg. you're very seldom going to want to rush fences and start your animal farm in Stage 1). I really, really like the draft in Agricola (often it's the most interesting part of the game), but even that can get samey if you play with the same cards often; whatever the specific cards are, you default point to the same sort of overall composition: some way to rush building or cheat Family Growth, a few cards to help your food engine, and then tuck in whatever general efficiency or random bonus points fall your way. VVVV: Yeah, I haven't ever tried Farmers of the Moor - sounds good. jmzero fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 30, 2015 18:27
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My local Tabletop Cafe rocks. My wife and I went to try a few things out last night and they had XCOM (brand new) as well as Keyflower (isn't this out of print/hard to find?) on the play shelf. I even noticed Dungeon Twister (not the card game version) which as far as I know is supposed to be actually a surprisingly non-trivial game and also impossible to find.
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Jan 30, 2015 18:35
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jmzero posted:When you first play the game, it seems like there's lots of decisions to be made in terms of how to lay out your farm, etc.. - but many of these become non-decisions quickly (at least when playing with the base card sets). You end up building your fields, rooms and fences in about the same place every game, and there's little reason to change unless you get one of a few specific cards (eg. Window Planters or whatever it's called). This is what I like about Farmers on The Moor expansion. It makes you design your farm in completely different ways, even in solo. Trying to work around the randomized trees/peat patches makes the "geometry game" aspect of Agricola 10x better yet doesn't harm the base game or really make it take much longer.
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Jan 30, 2015 18:59
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