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quote:In practise it can be difficult disguising whether or not you've added DI cards. We play it like this: you always put all your DI cards under your battle card. The ones that are face up are the ones you're actually playing. We play on a low table, so trying to hide your other cards somewhere or something seems awkward.
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Mar 16, 2015 15:46
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Bubble-T posted:Figures it would happen just after I post this. Turns out the solution is first turn freighter, second turn Cutter, win the Brain World lottery and win half an hour later because neither player has a deck that does anything but gain life and hope to buy Brain World first. Great game. How the gently caress is this winning awards? People are desperate for a more interactive version of Dominion. Star Realms is just the least bullshit member of a group of poorly made, bullshit games.
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Mar 16, 2015 15:57
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jmzero posted:We play it like this: you always put all your DI cards under your battle card. The ones that are face up are the ones you're actually playing. We play on a low table, so trying to hide your other cards somewhere or something seems awkward. This is an excellent idea! Totally stealing this.
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Mar 16, 2015 15:59
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golden bubble posted:People are desperate for a more interactive version of Dominion. Star Realms is just the least bullshit member of a group of poorly made, bullshit games. It's also dirt cheap. Doesn't make it any better though.
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Mar 16, 2015 16:04
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golden bubble posted:People are desperate for a more interactive version of Dominion. Star Realms is just the least bullshit member of a group of poorly made, bullshit games. The weirdest thing to me is the number of people who seem to believe that negative VP is 'interaction'. Or that a base which literally forces you to attack it is 'interaction'. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills so often when people discuss Star Realms. The instant-death endgame is a good example of why Euros tend to have 'last round' triggers instead of sudden death, and the 3-card hand to work around 1st player advantage is terrible. Puzzle Strike does all of this more effectively and elegantly.
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Mar 16, 2015 16:04
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golden bubble posted:People are desperate for a more interactive version of Dominion. Star Realms is just the least bullshit member of a group of poorly made, bullshit games. Star Realms is Ascension with a single obvious dominant strategy.
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Mar 16, 2015 16:07
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Bubble-T posted:The weirdest thing to me is the number of people who seem to believe that negative VP is 'interaction'. Or that a base which literally forces you to attack it is 'interaction'. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills so often when people discuss Star Realms. The instant-death endgame is a good example of why Euros tend to have 'last round' triggers instead of sudden death, and the 3-card hand to work around 1st player advantage is terrible. Yeah, this is a good point. I don't think the technical terminology surrounding "interaction" in boardgames is very mature. People most commonly use it to describe actions that remove victory points from an opponent or destroy a thing they built. However, that's hardly interactive if the decision is not meaningful. What's the difference between someone deciding to destroy my most expensive built card vs a card in a solitaire game that says "destroy your most expensive built card"? If there was no strategy involved in getting to that point (i.e. it was some powerful random market card you happened to buy and draw into) and there is no tactical depth in using that ability (using a removal card on the obvious target), then it's hardly any more interactive than a random bad card coming out of a solitaire deck. For example, it's not that "interactive" playing a torturer in dominion if it's your only terminal action. You just do it. It's like if someone drew random bad card. (there *is* interactive strategy involved in that though, to some extent) A lot of what is described as "interactive" is no more interactive than what comes out of the player-less, autonomous encounter deck in a game like LotR:LCG. Eminent Domain + Escalation has more interesting interaction in my definition because you actually are trying to anticipate your opponent's decisions and react to them. Both on a tactical level ("are one of my opponents going to call survey before my next turn?") and on a strategic level ("both of my opponents seem to be buying up the colonize and research stacks so this game is going to end soon"). Without very much "destroy your tableau card or hand or vp pool" types of interactions at all. And then there is something like Chaos in the Old World, where the blinders are taken off, and you can target just about anyone you like, is ripe with all sorts of tactics and strategy. "Destroying a thing you built" becomes much more meaningful when you have 3 different player targets to choose between. It creates all sorts of potential for kingmaking and politics, but it's definitely a much more rich decision than simply destroying your opponent's thing. Strategically, things like behavioral psychology enter into play, as you might know how a certain player might play Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, etc vs another. Player tendencies and the shifting attitudes and perception of the game state all develop over the course of the game and make for really rich decisions. I really think that FFA games, as much as they have pitfalls in kingmaking and politics, really have the most potential depth of interaction. That's why I think CitOW is such a brave design premise. TL;DR: destroying a thing another player built or stealing some vp from them is not intrinsically more interactive than simply building your own thing in solitaire if the decisions are no more complex than random or so obvious that a simple algorithm could make the same choice. fozzy fosbourne fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 17:19
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Jedit posted:Well, yes, but then he got stabbed 23 times by the other players because it turns out history has one hell of a runaway leader problem. That's pretty clever if you also are aware of the perceived runaway leader problem with Arcadia Quest. The premise of making a FFA skirmish and loot hunting game streamlined enough to realistically play a few sessions and track progression through rounds is neat; Eric Lang said he was inspired by Necromunda and Mordheim but was trying to make something distilled down to the bare essence of a game like that so it would go quick. But the runaway leader problem becomes a big issue (just like it can be in other "season" games with progression like Necromunda, Mordheim, Blood Bowl, etc). I guess arguably the same sort of agreed upon dynamic collusion to keep the leader in check could occur like with CitOW. But I doubt anyone plays with that kind of sophisticated strategy and it doesn't have the type of mechanics CitOW does to penalize the table if they ignore any particular player for too long. Seems like the latter mechanic goes a long way towards motivating the table to avoid piling on the leader too hard and is critical for FFA games. fozzy fosbourne fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 17:44
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So I was the guy who asked about Dominion several days ago. I ended up getting just the base expansion to see how me and my brother liked it. If there was any board game that demonstrated the validity of "Keep it simple stupid", it's this one. It was actually kind of shocking reading through the rule book in 10 minutes and then thinking in my mind "wait, is that it? Is that literally the entire game?" Especially so coming off, say, the Star Trek deck builders which, while enjoyable (especially with my friends who are all Star Trek nuts) is kind of a complicated mess of various systems, game mechanics, and other craziness that compounds further with some of the stuff the cards let you do, making it difficult to learn and develop strategies for. Meanwhile with Dominion, after taking roughly 5-10 minutes to look at the cards and think about how they work together and what kind of strategies we want to use, we were blowing through our turns quickly and painlessly as if we'd been playing the thing for weeks. Of course there are the zillion expansions to worry about. Do any of them significantly alter the base mechanics in any way or are they all basically "here's 20-30 new cards with new poo poo to do to mix in with your existing stuff, go nuts"? I won the first game using the recommended starter card set by using a combination of Mines and Remodel cards to convert all my treasure cards to Provinces. I had hoped to clear the deck myself before my brother but he ended developing enough of an economy to get several provinces for himself, keeping it relatively close by the end. On the second game we used the Big Money recommended set. My brother went for heavy Bureaucrat/Mine spam to get enough money to buy VPs outright whereas I used Bureaucrats and Chancellors to get several silvers/golds, then planned to use several chapels to cull my deck to just high level treasures, adventurers and throne rooms and just buy out as many VP as I could from there. I never quite got rid of all the cards I wanted to which came to bite me in the end on a few turns, but I still nearly won. With one province remaining I miscalculated the number of provinces I had and thought I needed more VP to overcome my brother's buying spree, so I went for lower victory cards to extend the game and hope I could grab the province on my next turn. He ended up taking it to finish the game, but upon counting it turns out that had I taken the last province myself I would have won by one point. It's pretty hilarious how quickly the game transitions from "let's develop our economy and our kingdom and get a nice deck going" to "BUY THE LAND, ALL OF THE LAND BUY BUY BUY" In short, this game owns, my brother loves it and we're totally playing this several times when we get the chance. And then the expansions will come and we'll get more cards and oh god how many different setups can you play with all these cards? 
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Mar 17, 2015 00:10
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Super Jay Mann posted:In short, this game owns, my brother loves it and we're totally playing this several times when we get the chance. And then the expansions will come and we'll get more cards and oh god how many different setups can you play with all these cards? Literally over 14 quadrillion, and I don't think that includes the cards in Guilds.
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Mar 17, 2015 00:21
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Welcome to your addiction 
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Mar 17, 2015 00:27
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It might just be because I'm not great at dominion, but many random setups seem less enjoyable than many of the premade ones.
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Mar 17, 2015 00:29
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ORutibex posted:Caesar is level 9 and Octavian is level 8, no one else is above level 5. Caesar had been winning the whole game and bragging about it so when he gets to level 9 everyone has had enough of his crap. They use their "screw-you" cards on him with relish. Ceasar loses to the Wight Brothers and is knocked out of the running. Only 1 person can help you in a fight.
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Mar 17, 2015 00:39
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Zombie #246 posted:It might just be because I'm not great at dominion, but many random setups seem less enjoyable than many of the premade ones. When I've been playing in person, I have been playing dominiondecks.com most popular decks and the 2014 dominionstrategy top kingdom runner ups and winner. It's fun. It's a shame that dominiondecks hasn't updated since before guilds though.
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Mar 17, 2015 00:47
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I got to try a bunch of new games on the weekend. First was St. Petersburg. I enjoyed it well enough, but I did screw myself over in the first round. I completely misunderstood how the 4 good market items worked, and that completely hosed over my economy. I'd gladly play it again. Second was Dungeon Petz, and I am terrible at raising pets. We played a 4 player game, all of us newbies, and the scores were pretty drat low. I think the winner just broke 60, whereas I was pretty far behind at low 40 something. None of us really understood how the points for selling worked until we were forced to at the first exhibition, and I had chosen a terrible (adorable) pet. Something we all did poorly was overestimate how many spaces there are on the board, and a lot of the time, made too many, too small groups. On the plus side, only one pet died, and one was lucky enough to go live on the farm. Last was Eminent Domain. I really don't know how I feel about it, but I really appreciate how it actually has a different economy to Dominion. It was a 4 player game, and we were all new, so we basically spent the game trying to feel out the economy. This was especially noticeable since none of us trashed anything. I ended up winning by one point, after getting lucky and getting some research cards early, and colonizing 4 planets. None of us got more than a few points with production/trading. I want to play again now that I have a basic feel for the economy.
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Mar 17, 2015 00:52
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What's the best way to play a regular good guy in Avalon, because a majority of our games have ended in good team winning but the bad guys knowing who Merlin is, and I don't think it's due to a super obvious Merlin so much as it is the good team not being able to cover for him. I think our group might just not be the right group for the game though so whatever
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Mar 17, 2015 01:02
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The Supreme Court posted:Nope, you hide them under your battle card when you place that face down, so your choice is totally hidden. Doesnt the rulebook say that you can play as many DI cards as you want, went you want, as long as you can pay it's cost (if any) i imagine you could do the same thing during combat as long as all the cards you're plyong can be used during combat.
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Mar 17, 2015 01:14
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Super Jay Mann posted:Do any of them significantly alter the base mechanics in any way or are they all basically "here's 20-30 new cards with new poo poo to do to mix in with your existing stuff, go nuts"? Each expansion has a theme. Some themes add new mechanics while others are just a coherent design philosophy. Intrigue's theme is "choices." Sometimes this means cards with choices on them. Sometimes this means unique new VP paths. Sometimes this means new degrees of versatility. Seaside's theme is "next turn." They introduce Duration cards, which stay in play a turn after they're played. There are also many cards that manipulate the top of the deck and/or exile cards from the game. Prosperity's theme is "big money." The whole set is filled with more expensive cards as a whole (as well as cards that introduce new effects during the Buy phase), but it also includes the Platinum (costs $9, worth $5) and Colony (costs $11, worth 10 VP) cards which alter the game's economy fundamentally. Alchemy's theme is "power actions." In order to get these new actions, you have to obtain a new currency that is only useful for getting these new actions. Cornucopia's theme is "variety." The cards have effects based off the contents of your hand or deck, with the effects improving as the number of duplicate cards decreases. Some cards add more cards to the supply after the initial 10 are chosen! Hinterlands' theme is "instant." When you purchase certain cards, they might give you an effect immediately upon being bought. Dark Ages' theme is "trash." New attacks, ways to gain cards out of the trash, new ways to trash cards, cards that do cool poo poo upon being trashed, a new way to set up your starting deck, and a new type of attack that puts mediocre actions into your deck. Guilds' theme is "investment." Cards give you coin tokens that you can spend later on. You can also pay too much to buy specific cards and they'll have a special effect depending on how much you overpay. Adventures isn't out yet, but previews will be airing soon. I know more than I should about it, but I can't really point out a theme in particular. There will be new durations, new tokens, and a new card type that goes counter to how Dominion has worked so far.
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Mar 17, 2015 01:19
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Big Ol Marsh Pussy posted:What's the best way to play a regular good guy in Avalon, because a majority of our games have ended in good team winning but the bad guys knowing who Merlin is, and I don't think it's due to a super obvious Merlin so much as it is the good team not being able to cover for him. Are you playing with Percival?
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Mar 17, 2015 01:37
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Big Ol Marsh Pussy posted:What's the best way to play a regular good guy in Avalon, because a majority of our games have ended in good team winning but the bad guys knowing who Merlin is, and I don't think it's due to a super obvious Merlin so much as it is the good team not being able to cover for him. T-Bone posted:Are you playing with Percival? I think Percival/Bodyguard is degenerate without Morgana/False Commander, but if your group is really bad at playing Blue then that might not be true. How to blue shirt in Resistance/Avalon, beginner version:
Blue shirt is one of the best roles in the game. You have clear goals, clear enemies, and you can still bluff if you want. The strongest blue shirts will gather information quickly and then pretend to be Merlin/Commander for the rest of the game. Your goal should be to get shot.
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Mar 17, 2015 01:57
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unpronounceable posted:First was St. Petersburg. I enjoyed it well enough, but I did screw myself over in the first round. I completely misunderstood how the 4 good market items worked, and that completely hosed over my economy. I'd gladly play it again. Was this the newly released second edition?
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Mar 17, 2015 02:36
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Super Jay Mann posted:In short, this game owns, my brother loves it and we're totally playing this several times when we get the chance. And then the expansions will come and we'll get more cards and oh god how many different setups can you play with all these cards? Don't be in any particular hurry to load up on expansions. In my opinion, the game loses something when every kingdom is a pile of random poo poo you've never seen before.
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Mar 17, 2015 03:29
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Broken Loose posted:I think Percival/Bodyguard is degenerate without Morgana/False Commander, but if your group is really bad at playing Blue then that might not be true. I agree if you've been playing for a bit, but I think Percival (without Morgana) is good for a few games with a beginning group where evil (at least in my experience) tends to be stronger. We did put Morgana in pretty quickly after tho. But yeah I love playing a normal rear end servant and just being aggressive as hell. Probably my favorite role.
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Mar 17, 2015 04:05
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goodness posted:O But if nobody called anyone out for cheating, then history doesn't care!
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Mar 17, 2015 04:14
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goodness posted:O It's a bit of a stretched analogy I will admit. In reality the Roman Senate works more like the game Diplomacy than Munchkin.
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Mar 17, 2015 06:03
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There's too many heavy games (i.e. thread favourites) in my collection. Splendor came up on a lot of 2014 best-lists, is it any good?
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Mar 17, 2015 08:14
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jmzero posted:We play it like this: you always put all your DI cards under your battle card. The ones that are face up are the ones you're actually playing. We play on a low table, so trying to hide your other cards somewhere or something seems awkward. It's better when this is optional so you can choose when to bluff with a face-down card instead of none (actually your way is a better mechanic but mine is fun to exploit and my friends let me do it).
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Mar 17, 2015 08:29
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Krazyface posted:There's too many heavy games (i.e. thread favourites) in my collection. Splendor came up on a lot of 2014 best-lists, is it any good? It's bone dry and kind of dull. Apart from that there's nothing wrong with it, but if you want a lighter game that actually has some excitement then may I suggest... Carcassonne Coup Dominion (of course) Hanabi Hey, That's My Fish [edit] also sheriff of nottingham, ticket to ride, through the desert and the little prince are good lighter games but I haven't gotten to writing up those ones yet bobvonunheil fucked around with this message at 09:56 on Mar 17, 2015 |
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Mar 17, 2015 09:03
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Krazyface posted:There's too many heavy games (i.e. thread favourites) in my collection. Splendor came up on a lot of 2014 best-lists, is it any good? When I finished playing it, I was aware I had played a game, and there was nothing outright wrong with the game, but I knew I didn't want to play it again.
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Mar 17, 2015 09:23
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Broken Loose posted:Blue shirt is one of the best roles in the game. You have clear goals, clear enemies, and you can still bluff if you want. The strongest blue shirts will gather information quickly and then pretend to be Merlin/Commander for the rest of the game. Your goal should be to get shot. Everyone I play with complains about getting Blue Shirt because it's boring but it's my favourite role. There must be some way we could set up an IRC bot to play Resistance online, right?
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Mar 17, 2015 10:52
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Fat Turkey posted:When I finished playing it, I was aware I had played a game, and there was nothing outright wrong with the game, but I knew I didn't want to play it again. No idea how it got Best Game of 2014 on BGG, Dead of Winter was miles better, if a totally different kind of game. Guess it was the year of the 'mathematical exercise as game'. Also a bit too much air in the box for me: 
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Mar 17, 2015 11:01
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TwoShedsJackson posted:No idea how it got Best Game of 2014 on BGG, Dead of Winter was miles better, if a totally different kind of game. Guess it was the year of the 'mathematical exercise as game'. Also a bit too much air in the box for me: Uhhhhh please don't listen to this guy, splendor was fine if boring for some people, dead of winter is utter trash.
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Mar 17, 2015 11:36
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silvergoose posted:Uhhhhh please don't listen to this guy, splendor was fine if boring for some people, dead of winter is utter trash. Truth. There's more game design in that packed corner of the box than there is in the entirety of the dead of winter box. Unless BSG but much worse is your idea of a good time.
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Mar 17, 2015 12:19
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Aston posted:Everyone I play with complains about getting Blue Shirt because it's boring but it's my favourite role. http://www.theresistanceonline.com/ ??
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Mar 17, 2015 12:33
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What good solo games are there? Either ones designed for solo-play or have solo gameplay as an option in the rules?
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Mar 17, 2015 12:57
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Randalor posted:What good solo games are there? Either ones designed for solo-play or have solo gameplay as an option in the rules? Goons will say Mage Knight. I can recommend Alien: Legendary Encounters but in all honesty just play a PC/console game. Board games are not meant for solo play.
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Mar 17, 2015 13:02
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snuff posted:Goons will say Mage Knight. I can recommend Alien: Legendary Encounters but in all honesty just play a PC/console game. Board games are not meant for solo play. There's also Navajo wars, a solo wargame, I hate your blanket statement by the way, some board games are explicitly designed for solo play.
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Mar 17, 2015 13:14
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Randalor posted:What good solo games are there? Either ones designed for solo-play or have solo gameplay as an option in the rules? Agricola and Mage Knight are the best of the best in terms of solo games. Both of these will provide you with near endless gameplay. Any kind of co-op game without a traitor can be played solo by taking two or more characters, like: Pathfinder Adventure cards, Forbidden Island, Pandemic, Robinson Crusoe, Arkham Horror, etc. snuff posted:Goons will say Mage Knight. I can recommend Alien: Legendary Encounters but in all honesty just play a PC/console game. Board games are not meant for solo play. 
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Mar 17, 2015 13:15
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Randalor posted:What good solo games are there? Either ones designed for solo-play or have solo gameplay as an option in the rules? Fields of Fire.
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Mar 17, 2015 13:17
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Krazyface posted:There's too many heavy games (i.e. thread favourites) in my collection. Splendor came up on a lot of 2014 best-lists, is it any good? Splendor is quite good, the gameplay is entertaining and the components are top-notch. The theme is pasted on, but it doesn't serve as a distraction. Honestly, Splendor reminds me the most of Dominion, in that there is a pace car strategy where you just buy middle row tiles, however assessing the board, figuring out whether that is going to be most effective, and turn order all heavily influence your decisions. Plus, since your coins are open information, you can use your reserve action to screw someone who looks poised to win or take another coin gathering action to prevent certain resources from becoming available to the rest of the table. There are a lot of decision points in the game. That being said, it isn't really a strategy game, the same way Dominion or most Euro games are, but much more of a tactics game, where you try and find the best move now.
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