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His new capital SUCKED and you know it
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 18:58 |
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# ? Jun 13, 2024 04:51 |
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ETB posted:I enjoy the use of trackable hidden information so it speeds gameplay up. Plus it ruins the mystique of tiles where you grab keyples out of the bag. It slows the game way down for some groups, as some people will sit there and remember who has taken what. Which is why I hate it, it's totally memory based, not game based. What you call mystique, I call arbitrary, which is why I sold Keyflower soon after I got it. I got another copy once the hidden trackable information variant was discovered by me, now it's a great game.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 19:00 |
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HOOLY BOOLY posted:So you totally sold me on this i got it for myself! What exactly is the Feyman or whatever scenario the classic version comes with? I gave it a glance-over but haven't played it yet. It's an additional scenario / sub-game in which I think you can play the crew of the Feynman as they get invaded by the aliens. It uses some additional counters as well (provided on the punch-out sheet). Invasion of the Feynman posted:Masochistic players may wish to attempt the following scenario, which simulates the initial invasion of the ship by a small group of aliens. Co-designer Michael Wasson calls it "the survival scenario -- the one where you die." Expect to have trouble winning this one. Malloreon posted:It wasn't confusing because the component manifest on pages 2-3 clearly spelled out the different types of cards (color and number) and the setup cards and which card backs represent market cards. I don't really disagree, the information needed to play the game is absolutely present in the book. My issue isn't that the information is absent, it's how it's organized and presented & delivered. It could and should be much better, it's a shame that it isn't because the game is not convoluted to play or manage, and no particular part is especially complicated really.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 19:08 |
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Speaking of Keyflower, is there anywhere to get a copy for non-jacked up prices these days? I backed the Kickstarter just in case, but waiting until November sounds like torture.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 19:12 |
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quote:Do the expansions help prevent people just rolling VPs and deliberating not attacking to win the game because IMO if it wasn't for that KoT would be a decent enough filler for newer crowds but as is the game is too often anticlimactic and dumb There's another contingent of people who think VP is worthless and wonder why it's even there. Really, it should self-balance if you're playing reasonably (that is to say, if everyone is trying to farm VP, you should be able to win via damage; or, if one guy is winning via VP because players are blindly bashing into Tokyo and preventing splash damage, then they should stop because they're handing wins to farmers). The expansions are actually pretty bad. King of New York is a fairly different game that works better casually and feels more thematic, but lacks KoT's balance.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 19:50 |
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Has anyone tried Dead Men Tell No Tales? It's a co-op so I'm curious but it's not quite an impulse buy. Anyone got some feedback on it to share?
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 19:53 |
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Mister Sinewave posted:Has anyone tried Dead Men Tell No Tales? It's a co-op so I'm curious but it's not quite an impulse buy. Anyone got some feedback on it to share? I wasn't terribly impressed with it when I saw the demo, but it didn't help that the folk showing it didn't really recall all the rules, so the players were left with some vague explanations and the rulebook. You can lose it if you fail to 'build' the ship well enough to allow all the tiles to be placed, which I guess is alright but still not something I like very much. If you've seen the game "Level 7: Escape" it's actually pretty similar to that crossed with Pandemic. The premise is you're a bunch of lovely pirate subordinates of Roberts and he sends you into a ship you blew up most of to retrieve some loot, so the ship is on fire the whole time you're there, and part of what you need to do is manage the fire levels (represented by red/yellow dice between 1-5). The dice go up in value based on an end of the player turn event draw (Noted by the card saying red #4, which means all red 4s go up in value by 1), which also spawn skeleton crew that exist solely to impede your actions. These also spawn more or spread through the ship as noted on event cards. If a room die ticks over from 5 to 6 the room explodes, raising rooms its connected to in value by +1, and making the exploded room inaccessible and raising your explosion count, which is similar to Pandemic's outbreak track which will end your game if you hit 6. There are rooms that start with no dice and a powderkeg instead, and some cards add a die to the room which if it hits the value on the tile will just pop. You find loot by exploring and spawning skeletal lieutenants or something similar to that, which you have to fight and defeat in order to flip and get whatever they have. Rooms have skeletal spawners and those spawns are dictated by the aforementioned end of turn event draws. Fighting itself is basically a dice roll taking into account any of your bonuses compared to the number on the crew's token, and the result is compared to a chart that says you got hurt, made them retreat, killed them etc. The rulebook doesn't explain the one doublesided crew token or how to deal with it, but according to the listing for fighting the crew you're supposed to flip it after beating the crew so i guess it's an endless crew that cycles between a strong and weak version? I don't know. The rulebook could have been much more clear about some things. During the first round of play each player places two tiles on their turn, and one after that, but a section of the rules says "if you can't place a tile you lose". You stop being able to place tiles pretty quickly since the ship isn't really all that huge, so the rule is unclear on if that is only in effect if you actually have to place a tile. The game doesn't last forever since the event deck gets reshuffled on ending, and there are events that just arbitrarily raise the explosion count, which you have to keep track of, so two deck cycles is the most you can get out of it if everything is in your favor and no rooms explode. You can manage the fires by using an action to drop the die by one. There's a rudimentary health system that's a catch all in terms of wounds and fatigue, and you take fatigue if you enter a room with a higher fire level than the one you left - you take the difference in value. The more fatigue you have built up the less actions you get. Sort of disjointed but it's a basic summary of the mechanics. Probably an OK game if you're drinking since you get to crack dumb pirate jokes. Not sure how well it holds up to scrutiny on mechanics, you can't really 'solve' the game like you can pandemic, and randomness plays a huge part in it and what is actually dangerous on a given turn, so the only thing you really know is A) Don't let a room sit at 5 and B) don't let powder keg rooms get to whatever number sets them off, but they're not dangerous until they have a die in them. Sloober fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Jun 30, 2015 |
# ? Jun 30, 2015 20:25 |
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GrandpaPants posted:Who cares about being a king when you can be a pharoah, or whatever the hell you are in Kemet. I'm always impressed at how a game literally named "The Black Land" in an African language can feature so many white people in its art. EDIT: Quoted wrong post. gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Jun 30, 2015 |
# ? Jun 30, 2015 20:32 |
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Gutter Owl posted:I'm always impressed at how a game literally named "The Black Land" in an African language can feature so many white people in it's art. It's referring to the soil, not the people. I get your point, but...yeah.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 20:41 |
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Sloober posted:Dead Men Tell No Tales Thanks for that, that's super helpful to me.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 21:07 |
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Oldstench posted:It's referring to the soil, not the people. I get your point, but...yeah. Okay, the meaning of k'm't is still a topic of debate amongst linguists and Egyptologists. It's not actually a resolved question, although the black soil interpretation is the prevailing one, juxtaposed against deshret ("red land," referring to the greater desert region). But the "black soil/fertile soil" interpretation rose to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th century following the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, at a time when euro-american academia was "unsure" (read: in deep denial) that a black population could establish one of the great civilizations of the ancient world. So the methodology is a bit suspect. More recent scholarship casts doubt on this theory, particularly in comparison to other neighboring Afro-Asiatic family languages. And by modern, I mean Chiek Anta Diop was calling shenanigans on european Egyptology in the '70s. Point still stands, though. gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Jun 30, 2015 |
# ? Jun 30, 2015 21:28 |
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Gutter Owl posted:Okay, the meaning of k'm't is still a topic of debate amongst linguists and Egyptologists. It's not actually a resolved question, although the black soil interpretation is the prevailing one, juxtaposed against deshret ("red land," referring to the greater desert region). Oh.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 21:59 |
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Lorini posted:It slows the game way down for some groups, as some people will sit there and remember who has taken what. Which is why I hate it, it's totally memory based, not game based. What you call mystique, I call arbitrary, which is why I sold Keyflower soon after I got it. I got another copy once the hidden trackable information variant was discovered by me, now it's a great game. I haven't played Keyflower, but I'll chime in and agree that hidden trackable information always feels really lazy to me as a "complexity" modifier. It feels like people can have such varied short-term memory that it can unnecessarily give some players an advantage. I know it's supposed to prevent AP (the overload of perfect info) or make kingmaking less clear cut (like Small World, although it's arguably always easy to tell who's winning anyway), but in both cases I feel like the game design should have just been better to prevent those scenarios. Are there any games that use this mechanic to positive effect? Maybe kinda sorta Hanabi, but it's co-op, so that's OK by me.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 22:23 |
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Power Grid and its various successors are the only ones I can think of; money is not public knowledge but is theoretically trackable. In practice, it's not trackable at all unless you're prepared to take notes at the table. I've won a game of First Sparks in the past because I hid a piece of corn in my shirt pocket in the first turn and remembered it right at the end when it turned out to be a tie breaker. But in those games enough happens elsewhere and there are enough ways to spend it in odd amounts that money is really not easy to track. Dominion is another; it's functionally not possible to prevent point tracking unless Masquerade is in play, but it doesn't stop it being a good game, and in person I rarely manage to track anyway. Online I always liked to use the points tracker.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 22:27 |
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Gutter Owl posted:Okay, the meaning of k'm't is still a topic of debate amongst linguists and Egyptologists. It's not actually a resolved question, although the black soil interpretation is the prevailing one, juxtaposed against deshret ("red land," referring to the greater desert region). Why would they name their land after their skin colour? Surely whatever nomadic tribe that decided to settle the Nile can't have encountered enough foreigners of differing skin tone for that to be an important part of their culture.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 23:37 |
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Rutibex posted:Why would they name their land after their skin colour? Surely whatever nomadic tribe that decided to settle the Nile can't have encountered enough foreigners of differing skin tone for that to be an important part of their culture.
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# ? Jun 30, 2015 23:45 |
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Rutibex posted:Why would they name their land after their skin colour? Surely whatever nomadic tribe that decided to settle the Nile can't have encountered enough foreigners of differing skin tone for that to be an important part of their culture. Sure didn't. Which is why we have no idea what the Baradi and Naqada, the neolithic cultures that migrated into the Nile River Valley during the agricultural revolution, called themselves. (Both civilizations being posthumously named after the towns where their remains were discovered.) But by the rise of the first pharaonic dynasty under Menes/Narmer/Hor-Aha, the region likely had contact with the neighboring Mesopotamian civilizations that would later become the Assyrians, or the early Semitic peoples of the Levant, who would have been comparatively lighter-skinned. I don't think we know the exact point at which the unified peoples of the Upper and Lower Nile region began calling themselves and their kingdom "Kemet?" A lot of the records of pre-Roman Egypt come from the New Kingdom (circa 1550-1050 BCE), during which Egypt was a huge trading power in the region. And the Rosetta Stone, the principal source of our knowledge of hieroglyphics, wasn't created until the Hellenistic Ptolemaic Kingdom, when Egypt had already been conquered several times by the Nubians, Macedonians, and Romans. But they certainly weren't an isolated culture by the time we know the term kemet was being used. So it's entirely possible that they described their culture in terms of their own blackness, the same way Ethiopia and Sudan come from roots meaning "black" or "burnt." In conclusion, BOARD GAMES. gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Jul 1, 2015 |
# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:16 |
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Gutter Owl posted:But the "black soil/fertile soil" interpretation rose to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th century following the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, at a time when euro-american academia was "unsure" (read: in deep denial) that a black population could establish one of the great civilizations of the ancient world. So the methodology is a bit suspect. The civilization was deep in de Nile too.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:24 |
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Okay, in actual conclusion: Whatever the hell forms the root of the word k'm't, the people of pre-Roman Egypt were primarily black African, not a bunch of white dudes in eyeliner. And I think it would be nice if the people depicted in the game were maybe a shade darker than mayonnaise.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:28 |
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Gutter Owl posted:Okay, in actual conclusion: Whatever the hell forms the root of the word k'm't, the people of pre-Roman Egypt were primarily black African, not a bunch of white dudes in eyeliner. And I think it would be nice if the people depicted in the game were maybe a shade darker than mayonnaise. Nah, but really, I'm pretty sure I can count the number of board games with non-white player characters or where race (and specifically how lovely everyone who isn't white has/had it) as primary primary-subject-matter on one hand. Edit: TotAN, Freedom: The Underground Railroad, and the one really depressing "loading Holocaust victims onto trains" game. Maybe Dog Eat Dog, if you allow simple roleplaying games, too. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Jul 1, 2015 |
# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:35 |
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Gutter Owl posted:Okay, in actual conclusion: Whatever the hell forms the root of the word k'm't, the people of pre-Roman Egypt were primarily black African, not a bunch of white dudes in eyeliner. And I think it would be nice if the people depicted in the game were maybe a shade darker than mayonnaise. Then why did they paint their statues like this:
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:36 |
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Rutibex posted:Then why did they paint their statues like this: For the longest time thoughout history, women believed that pale skin = beautiful (because it primarily represented not having to labor in the sun and therefore they must be well-off), so they used all sorts of cosmetics to make themselves look lilly-white. All sorts of cosmetics that primarily contained lead and/or mercury, so that inevitably ended well. Don't ask me why the statue of Billy Dee Williams is booping his own nipple, though.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 01:16 |
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Hey Rutibex! How's Talisman? (desperately trying to get us back on topic
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 01:17 |
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I think this stuff is fascinating. I had no idea Kemet was a real word, or for that matter, a place.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 01:26 |
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Yeah I am enjoying Egyptchat. Tragedy Looper won a dice tower award which is cool.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 01:34 |
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Lorini posted:Hey Rutibex! How's Talisman? Sorry, I get caught up in any kind of History Chat. Here's a picture of a Senet board in compensation:
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 01:38 |
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Bubble-T posted:Yeah I am enjoying Egyptchat. I saw that. At least they also recognized Five Tribes, one of my faves from last year. Didn't agree with Dead of Winter as GOY but that's not surprising.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:04 |
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Lorini posted:I saw that. At least they also recognized Five Tribes, one of my faves from last year. Didn't agree with Dead of Winter as GOY but that's not surprising. I'm just glad they didn't award DoW the most innovative game for the crossroad cards.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:06 |
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So, aside from Mage Knight, and me being the only person on the planet who likes Robinson Crusoe, what are some other solitare games that the goonmind enjoys?
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:32 |
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Poison Mushroom posted:So, aside from Mage Knight, and me being the only person on the planet who likes Robinson Crusoe, what are some other solitare games that the goonmind enjoys? But I like Robinson Crusoe too! I'd never even entertain playing it with another person, but it's great solo. Best solitaire game is Agricola, obviously but I'm sure you've heard of that before. As I am sure you have heard of Pandemic/Forbidden Island, Tales of Arabian Nights, and Arkham Horror, all of which play solo quite well. You may not have heard about Barbarian Prince, an 80's solo game. It's kind of like a more "gamish" tales if that means anything. I enjoyed playing around with Barbarian Prince, never beat it but I will eventually. It's free to print&play now: http://dwarfstar.brainiac.com/ds_barbarianprince.html
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:43 |
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Poison Mushroom posted:So, aside from Mage Knight, and me being the only person on the planet who likes Robinson Crusoe, what are some other solitare games that the goonmind enjoys? Pocket Pool. But in seriousness I have no idea, I know Battlecon has a single player dungeon thing that I have yet to try. Does anyone know if it is good?
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:50 |
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I try out some LotR decks solo from time to time but I usually play it with my wife or a friend. Doesn't lose much solo but it's more fun to laugh at bilbo getting sniped with someone else
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:54 |
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Poison Mushroom posted:So, aside from Mage Knight, and me being the only person on the planet who likes Robinson Crusoe, what are some other solitare games that the goonmind enjoys? Ghost Stories is the best solitaire after Mage Knight. For lighter options I also quite enjoy Onirim with selected expansion modules (2nd ed comes with 7 of them) and the Paperback solo variant is surprisingly good. Friday is probably the worst solo I see recommended often. It's broken if you're even remotely good at deckbuilders.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 03:20 |
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Hi fellow board game people! I wanted to ask your advice! So I fell into board gaming pretty hard a few years ago, and have been building up a collection ever since. Now I've gotten to the point where I have so many that I want to be more discerning in what I buy, so I'd greatly appreciate any opinions on any holes you think my collection might have that need filling. I'm very aware that this is an extremely broad thing to be asking, but I'm hoping that some of you will be kind or interested enough to indulge me. My main goal is breadth, as I am also the host of a moderately sized weekly gaming group that various people of all tastes come to. I'd love to have a representative from as many gaming families and styles as I can, so that I can accommodate whatever the group is in the mood for. Because we do get big groups sometimes, the collection has become a bit skewed towards light party games, but I want to have meatier options too. Previous big hits have included Dominant Species, Space Alert, and Tales of the Arabian Nights, so we really do get all kinds. Personally, my very favorite game is Space Alert, and if pressed to fill out the rest of a top five, I'd probably say: Twilight Struggle, Dominion, Letters From Whitechapel, and Pictomania. (I already know for sure that I'll be buying more Dominion expansions at some point in the future. And Galaxy Trucker.) Here is my collection! Any thoughts would be very much appreciated. Thank you
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 03:46 |
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Poison Mushroom posted:So, aside from Mage Knight, and me being the only person on the planet who likes Robinson Crusoe, what are some other solitare games that the goonmind enjoys? Fire in the Lake
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 04:19 |
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Poison Mushroom posted:So, aside from Mage Knight, and me being the only person on the planet who likes Robinson Crusoe, what are some other solitare games that the goonmind enjoys?
Enjoyable, but not as good as the above:
Two I own and have heard are good but haven't gotten to try yet are Navajo Wars and March of the Ants.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 04:52 |
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BeefyTaco posted:Here is my collection! Any thoughts would be very much appreciated. Thank you This is a really hard thing to answer, but maybe one of Suburbia or Castles of Mad King Ludwig? They're similar but suburbia is more fiddly and Ludwig is more prone to AP. It looks like you don't have any auction games either, I like Ra but there are tons of good ones. You also don't have any dexterity games. Whether this is a hole you want to fill is up to you but I can recommend Rampage/Terror in Meeple City, and the new edition of Catacombs that's coming out soon looks pretty good.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 04:55 |
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burger time posted:This is a really hard thing to answer, but maybe one of Suburbia or Castles of Mad King Ludwig? They're similar but suburbia is more fiddly and Ludwig is more prone to AP. It looks like you don't have any auction games either, I like Ra but there are tons of good ones. Those are great ideas! I've been hearing good things about Ludwig, and a dexterity game would be a good idea too. I don't know much about Ra, so I guess I'll have to look into that one.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 05:00 |
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To people who actually own Galaxy Trucker, how often do you get to play it? It seems like the sort of game you need to have some regulars who want to play it, and not really a newbie friendly sort of thing, but I have no idea.Millions posted:Speaking of Keyflower, is there anywhere to get a copy for non-jacked up prices these days? I backed the Kickstarter just in case, but waiting until November sounds like torture. You can get it from BoardGameBliss.com -- but you'll have to pay some amount of shipping since it's in Canada. I can't speak to that because I've never ordered from outside of Canada but others have said it's great.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 05:12 |
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# ? Jun 13, 2024 04:51 |
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EvilChameleon posted:To people who actually own Galaxy Trucker, how often do you get to play it? It seems like the sort of game you need to have some regulars who want to play it, and not really a newbie friendly sort of thing, but I have no idea. To be honest, it gets hopefully two plays a year for me (and I love it). My friends like it well enough even. It is the type of game that is great when it happens and I don't regret buying it...but it'd be a pad out our collection rather than staple buy for me.
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# ? Jul 1, 2015 05:16 |