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Yeah, I got the upgraded Tash-Kalar from CSI a few weeks ago. It's awesome, if you like games like Puzzle Quest you'll feel right at home.The Narrator posted:He's not a fan Hehe I know, I was just seeing if I could provoke another Few Good Men style rant out of Broken Loose regarding another highly regarded single deck builder. Keep your chin up BL, I can see how these games wouldn't seem fun if you perceive that you are unlucky *pokes a pin into his King Philip voodoo doll* Joking aside, something I find interesting is that there are very passionate arguments both here and at BGG about how people don't like luck in games, but it's interesting that a few of the most highly regarded games, like TS, GtR, and RftG, feature quite a bit of luck in any given Sunday. Do they just work in spite of luck? Or is there a silent majority that maybe actually likes some of the swinginess introduced in these deck-based games. I feel like I might be in that category, without really having the ability to articulate why as effectively as the opposite camp. But I like these games more than say 'Gric or Caylus. I even kind of get a big kick out of that 5 copper starting hand in Dominion sometimes. Or that throne-room-with-all-the-right-cards early turn that feels like lightning just struck the rest of the table. The unpredictability of it all is comforting for me. fozzy fosbourne fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Mar 6, 2015 |
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Mar 6, 2015 23:09
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Bottom Liner posted:At this rate I doubt I'll ever even get the damned thing. I'm curious about your harsh thoughts about the game, as every early review I've read has been positive and even said it is better in every way. OK, but bear in mind I played it at Essen. I've slept in the four months since then and it wasn't a good enough game to make me want to remember it. First, the tiles being double sided is not a great gameplay improvement because you are not allowed to look at the underside of a tile before you choose it. This causes issues as it's possible to get two tiles that are bad for you and not be able to play the other side. I don't know how often this happens, but in a four player game it happened to us two or three times so it must happen quite often. As a result, if you have played a few times and know some of what's on the other side of a visible tile you have a huge advantage - especially in a two-player game, where once you have chosen your tile for a turn you are guaranteed to know one tile that will be available to you next turn before you place it. It also makes the game very AP-prone, as you will often be faced with a choice of a tile that messes up your plans or a tile that will score hugely for an opponent if its other side can't be played. Second, scoring is unbalanced in favour of upgraded planetary systems. A four-tile nebula with three points of extraction will score a maximum of 37 points, less if you get it in the final turns. A two-tile planetary system with equivalent investment will score 34 points no matter when you get it. Third, it goes on too long. They claim 45 minutes for a four player game, which is crap. It's more like 75 minutes. There were other things, but as I say I don't remember them now.
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Mar 6, 2015 23:20
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Aggro posted:Despite the vastly differing opinions on the game, I bought Race for the Galaxy this week. My fiance and I will probably play it tonight -- any tips on the best way to teach it? I watched a YouTube turtles and played a few games with the free AI program, so I feel confident with the rules. She's been playing Rivals for Catan and Dominion with me for a few months now, but this is definitely a step up in complexity. Teaching RftG is tricky but if you follow the general advice of "start from the goal and work backwards" it's manageable. Explain how you win (points from chips and cards). Then explain how you get cards in to play (dev/settle) and how you get chips (consume). Then explain how you get cards (explore and trade) and finally how you get goods (produce). The issue with doing that is of course you've jumped all around the phase order but I find that starting with explore is kind of odd and starting with produce can be quite confusing because conceptually it's actually in the middle of the settle and consume parts of the game. Definitely use the 'starter' hands the game comes with. Tash-Kalar is a fantastic game BUT it's more directly interactive than anything else you're playing, so be aware of that. My wife doesn't like playing it 1v1 because your pieces can be wiped off the board in a second. She doesn't mind 2v2 though as her 'ownership' of the pieces and general responsibility is shared with someone else so it doesn't sting as much. fozzy fosbourne posted:Joking aside, something I find interesting is that there are very passionate arguments both here and at BGG about how people don't like luck in games, but it's interesting that a few of the most highly regarded games, like TS, GtR, and RftG, feature quite a bit of luck in any given Sunday. Do they just work in spite of luck? Or is there a silent majority that maybe actually likes some of the swinginess introduced in these deck-based games. I feel like I might be in that category, without really having the ability to articulate why as effectively as the opposite camp. But I like these games more than say 'Gric or Caylus. I even kind of get a big kick out of that 5 copper starting hand in Dominion sometimes. Or that throne-room-with-all-the-right-cards early turn that feels like lightning just struck the rest of the table. The unpredictability of it all is comforting for me. Most people quite enjoy some amount of randomness and luck in their games, depending on how it's implemented and how appropriate it is. BGG isn't really a haven of "luck is the devil!" type people (though they do exist - clearclaw comes to mind). Shorter games are also allowed to have more luck. Twilight Struggle is really the outlier here because it's a 2-3 hour game that can be decided on a dice roll and it's just so strong in other areas that I think people are willing to forgive it that.
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Mar 7, 2015 00:13
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I've always confused Catan and Agricola, but all the talk about it in the thread makes me think I've been needlessly cruel to Agricola.
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Mar 7, 2015 00:37
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Bubble-T posted:Teaching RftG is tricky but if you follow the general advice of "start from the goal and work backwards" it's manageable. Explain how you win (points from chips and cards). Then explain how you get cards in to play (dev/settle) and how you get chips (consume). Then explain how you get cards (explore and trade) and finally how you get goods (produce). Agreed except I think you should teach produce in between settle and consume. Like you said, that's where it goes conceptually.
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Mar 7, 2015 00:54
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Bubble-T posted:Tash-Kalar is a fantastic game BUT it's more directly interactive than anything else you're playing, so be aware of that. My wife doesn't like playing it 1v1 because your pieces can be wiped off the board in a second. She doesn't mind 2v2 though as her 'ownership' of the pieces and general responsibility is shared with someone else so it doesn't sting as much. See, I think my wife's biggest mistake is that she sometimes just focuses on blowing up my mans and then I get to use a flare to bag a task card. Many of the "summon 2 people this turn" types of tasks really really benefit from a flare, so we seem to be pretty cautious about roasting the board. But we're newblets and haven't even managed to summon a legendary yet so maybe things change when you get a bit better at really wiping out pieces.
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Mar 7, 2015 01:04
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No, you're right. It's more important to make enemy pieces useless rather than wiping them off the board, kind of like Go. (In fact, separating your enemy's pieces is as good of a strategy here as it would be in any other major abstract.)
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Mar 7, 2015 01:09
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Yo dudes and dudettes, Dungeon Lords Happy Anniversary is the deal of the day at CSI: http://www.coolstuffinc.com/page/1175
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Mar 7, 2015 01:38
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Impermanent posted:No, you're right. It's more important to make enemy pieces useless rather than wiping them off the board, kind of like Go. (In fact, separating your enemy's pieces is as good of a strategy here as it would be in any other major abstract.) Absolutely true. My wife's actually pretty solid strategically she just doesn't like destructive interaction much at all, doesn't really matter if its a good idea or not.
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Mar 7, 2015 02:16
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Yo dudes and dudettes, Dungeon Lords Happy Anniversary is the deal of the day at CSI: http://www.coolstuffinc.com/page/1175 Hey look, another reminder to never back kickstarters!
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Mar 7, 2015 02:24
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Crackbone posted:Hey look, another reminder to never back kickstarters! In a couple months I'll have a cooler combat board than the one in there. 
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Mar 7, 2015 02:36
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Crackbone posted:Hey look, another reminder to never back kickstarters! Unless you're non-American and these notices are simply a vicious knife in the back as you calculate the horrendous shipping fees. (shipping to the UK is literally more than the cost of the game)
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Mar 7, 2015 03:45
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Yeah, I've had my copy for a two months already and it was cheaper than it will ever be here due to shipping. In general I agree and back very few kickstartes because if it, but I'd back another by CGE for sure.
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Mar 7, 2015 04:02
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Yeah, I just got mine this week and I can't really be salty about that deal. It was customs, not a monster screw-up like Two Rooms and a Boom's continuing parade of delays. Plus there's KS-upgraded components that are really nice.
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Mar 7, 2015 04:20
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Echophonic posted:Yeah, I just got mine this week and I can't really be salty about that deal. It was customs, not a monster screw-up like Two Rooms and a Boom's continuing parade of delays. Plus there's KS-upgraded components that are really nice. I'm feeling a tiny bit of remorse over paying $25 for glass cubes, some cards, and a battle board.
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Mar 7, 2015 04:52
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Welcome back M Bison Good to see he's getting some work in the Eminent Domain expansion
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Mar 7, 2015 05:09
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Indolent Bastard posted:I'm feeling a tiny bit of remorse over paying $25 for glass cubes, some cards, and a battle board. Think of it this way: if you and everyone else who had supported the Kickstarter hadn't done it, there wouldn't be an Anniversary edition for you to have a tiny bit of remorse about. Big box reprints are not normally a good value, even for a successful publisher.
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Mar 7, 2015 05:18
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I've kinda been hoping for a sale on Dungeon Lords. So...got to hit $100 for free shipping. Which game from my wishlist should I add: Archipelago, Suburbia, or XCOM? I've only played Suburbia on the app, which is great btw... The other two I've never played but heard good things. Concerns? Archipelago is down to 7 in stock and the expansions are out of stock. While I think I would really enjoy the game from watching reviews, not sure my group would. They are really terrible at BSG, when I can get them to play it. Humans have never won, usually the game does with whomever happens to be a cylon going along for the ride. Do I think someone might just refuse to put in on a crisis in Arch and make everyone lose? Maybe. It actually happened last time we played BSG. A human suicided. It also does seem similar in game type to Dungeon Lords, so sure if I need to get two games like that at once. Suburbia, the app is great! I'm perfectly fine playing it solo and 2 player with pass and play (Android doesn't have online). Would pass and play work for 4 players? Dunno. I think the physical game would be better at that point. Plus there's the expansion which isn't on the app version. It looks good, but it is half the price of the base game. Plus the base game is 10x as much as the app. Plus I'd totally be tempted to get the go7gaming insert and the 5 Star expansion later this year. So yeah, definitely the most expensive option of the three games. Worth it? Not sure. XCOM is the cheapest game and uses the companion app which is pretty neat. I really like the XCOM video games, so the theme is good. So far the reviews here have been good. My biggest problem though? Dice. I'm just not a huge fan of games that use dice for everything. I bought Galaxy Defenders last year thinking it would be a good game, but not so much. The dice combat just ruins it. I know this isn't the same, it's more push your luck. But then I have King of Tokyo which is push your luck and I really don't like that game either. I spent an entire game once just trying to roll 3 hearts to get an evolution card and never did..finally got someone to put me out of my misery. He had 3 evolutions. gently caress that guy. The only time I've even got close to winning (did win) was when I got stupid lucky and rolled 6 claws while in Tokyo, putting 3 of the 4 other players out at once. So, will I hate XCOM. Is dice that important? Really wish I had a local shop that demoed games.
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Mar 7, 2015 05:44
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Archipelago. By a crazy margin.
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Mar 7, 2015 06:01
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Sale is over, guess they're on Eastern time.
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Mar 7, 2015 06:24
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QnoisX posted:Sale is over, guess they're on Eastern time. I believe they're in Florida.
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Mar 7, 2015 13:48
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Just joined the BGG group on Facebook, because it popped up in the right panel. It's a real time stream of bad opinions right in my browser!
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Mar 7, 2015 14:16
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Speaking of kick starters, I've barely seen BL shill Final Attack at all. It's in the last few days and only like halfway there. 
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Mar 7, 2015 17:13
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Poison Mushroom posted:Speaking of kick starters, I've barely seen BL shill Final Attack at all. It's in the last few days and only like halfway there. Generally, a ton of funding happens in the last 24-48 hours.
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Mar 7, 2015 17:31
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Some Numbers posted:Generally, a ton of funding happens in the last 24-48 hours. Yeah, there's generally another surge when people are sent their kickstarter reminders, but whenever I've followed projects that have had that, there's also a steady stream of backers throughout the campaign. I just don't know if this has hit enough eyeballs to get that much of an influx at the end.
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Mar 7, 2015 17:53
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Does anyone have any thoughts on Golem Arcana? I've been on the fence about picking it up for awhile now, and was just wondering if anyone has played it and had any thoughts about it?
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Mar 7, 2015 18:51
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I thought BL said rahdo had been in touch, but not seen any videos go up. Then again, it doesn't sound like much of a two player game.
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Mar 7, 2015 19:09
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Randalor posted:Does anyone have any thoughts on Golem Arcana? I've been on the fence about picking it up for awhile now, and was just wondering if anyone has played it and had any thoughts about it? I think the best one word description of Golem Arcana is unnecessary. The underlying game is fine, but having it be both digital and physical is not adding anything to the experience. From what I understand, the game could just be run 100% digital or physical without much trouble. It was more annoying than interesting to have to touch the stylus to the map tiles and figure bases to do anything, especially since that precludes the use of 100% custom terrain on your tabletop. I do like how your side gets X AP per turn and you can dump all of it into one creature if you're willing to take on escalating AP costs and cooldown on said costs. The custom scenario support through the app also looks decent. The figures look great and are pre-painted if painting isn't your thing. However, you only get 6 of them in the starter box, which is retailing for $80 USD direct from HBS' webstore. I'm used to more minis for my buck in starter sets, so that's a turnoff. But all that aside, the critical aspects of Golem Arcana (and any minis game, really) are support from FLGSes and an active player base. In my area, I don't even see the starter box on shelves, let alone more minis to expand my set. And I have never seen anyone playing the game, which is a killer. All in all, I had my chance to play the demo and run out to buy the game afterward at a convention last weekend, and I passed on it. It's too expensive, unspported in my area, and unlike, say, XCOM the boardgame, having an app with the game isn't much of a value-add. A good experiment and I'd like to see more people trying to work smartphone apps into board games, but Golem Arcana isn't it for me.
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Mar 7, 2015 19:25
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Was somebody here trying to get hold of Age of Soccer recently, or did I imagine it? It's currently £20 on Amazon UK and is Prime eligible.
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Mar 8, 2015 01:27
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Finally played Splendor, and I'm hard pressed to think of a more boring, bland, perfunctory game in recent memory.
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Mar 8, 2015 01:35
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Crackbone posted:Finally played Splendor, and I'm hard pressed to think of a more boring, bland, perfunctory game in recent memory. Thank loving Christ someone else is willing to say that. I'm getting tired of being stared at like I sprouted a second head.
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Mar 8, 2015 01:37
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I thought the gooncensus was that it was pretty overrated? Nonetheless, I can't believe it got the praise it did on BGG. I guess it's accessible, but but so are half a dozen other games I can think of that are more engaging on a gameplay level.
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Mar 8, 2015 03:17
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I think the hype has gotten away from what it really is; a half hour filler with nice components that's easy to teach. I look at it as another (admittedly not as good) Carcassonne.
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Mar 8, 2015 03:27
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Jedit posted:Thank loving Christ someone else is willing to say that. I'm getting tired of being stared at like I sprouted a second head. I dunno, I've noticed the opposite. I haven't heard noticed anything but making GBS threads on Splendor in this thread in what seems like forever. I think it's just that everyone overreacted to the hype, which to be fair, is overblown.
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Mar 8, 2015 03:28
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The End posted:I think the hype has gotten away from what it really is; a half hour filler with nice components that's easy to teach. I look at it as another (admittedly not as good) Carcassonne. I look at it as a kids game. I mean, I like it -- but there's no depth beyond "buy the most gem-efficient poo poo you can for a while, then buy whatever gets you nobles"
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Mar 8, 2015 03:58
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Some Numbers posted:Generally, a ton of funding happens in the last 24-48 hours. I think it's very unrealistic to think there will be an amazing surge when there doesn't appear to be a huge amount of hype. I hope if BL launches another attempt that he'll put more focus on managing it to drum up interest. It almost feels like he thought the product would just sell itself.
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Mar 8, 2015 03:59
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Just nailed the answers "Carcassonne" and "Blokus" at trivia night. 
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Mar 8, 2015 04:39
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goodness posted:You make yourself "unlucky" by believing bad things will happen more and having a pessimistic attitude. If you are optimistic, you will make good things happen just by having a good attitude. Quantifying luck is always an interesting concept to me, because while we can all accept that the odds getting the result we need on a die roll is the same between us, we also accept that statistically speaking, some people will exist higher or lower on bell curve of the results distribution. Some people have just been shafted time and time again by random chance, just as some people have won the lottery multiple times. There may be no reason to believe that what happens in the future will be affected by your past luck, but for someone who's had a run of bad luck, that's a pretty lovely consolation prize.
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Mar 8, 2015 05:00
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Some "unlucky" people are - oddly enough - actually in the habit of expecting to be lucky and when they're not they figure it's because they're getting screwed. This can happen because they have a misunderstanding of what reasonable odds should be, and therefore - humourously - have a strategy which relies on luck. For example, let's look at a guy I'll call Bob. Bob needs to roll a 5 or 6 on a six sided die to succeed at something important. That's a 1/3 chance. He sees it as "almost 50/50" and therefore three tries should be plenty. Unless he's unlucky again  Bob needs this success so he buys three die rolls (or sets himself up for two rerolls, whatever) figuring that worst case he'll have to roll all 3 for that 1/3 chance of success. This is normal for Bob. When it doesn't work out for Bob he bemoans his "bad luck". But it could actually take up to six rolls of a six-sided die to get a 4 or 5 and still be within normal distribution. Bob's plan of mitigating the risk by buying three rolls is not the assurance of success for this important event that he thinks it is. Horribly, sometimes in a game Bob will need to do more than one thing, meaning he'll need to succeed twice or more times in a row. The times things do work out for him only highlight the times it falls apart, contributing to the feeling that he's always being set up for a fall. Bob never does realize and therefore never changes his approach. He therefore consistently has "bad luck" because he fails when he thinks he should succeed.
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Mar 8, 2015 06:25
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I just bought Mage Wars. I regret nothing.
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Mar 8, 2015 07:09
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