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BonHair posted:Is this place actually in business? No kids and no Good Games™, not even Ticket to Ride (but I guess Catan), but you get to pay for a deck of cards or a set of dice that most pubs will just let you borrow for free. It's a bar in Dupont Circle in Washington DC, so the clientele is primarily made up of people who aren't into board games, but like to indulge in childhood nostalgia and pay way too much for not-so-great drinks. I would say board games are more of a gimmick for the bar than anything they're actually serious about. It is definitely in business, I have been there, and I was sad the whole time when I saw their selection.
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Jul 27, 2015 18:06
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Dre2Dee2 posted:What faction were you? Chaos Marines
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Jul 27, 2015 18:14
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I played Forbidden Stars again, 4 players, took about 4-4.5 hours with explanation. I played the Eldar as a sort of self handicap since I tend to be the best at these types of games and loving hate playing the Eldar in every 40k game I've played, including Dawn of War, Conquest, and now apparently Forbidden Stars, since their general playstyle tends not to mesh with mine. I'm starting to feel the game just isn't for me, since it's one of those games where another player's poor play can very easily ruin the game for someone else (me in this case, so there is some element of bitterness involved), but with games taking 3+ hours, it's not something I can really shrug off. If anyone cared for the details, imagine if the map was vaguely divided into four quadrants (where the "homeworlds" are more or less), with me in the southeast quadrant, Orks in northeast, Chaos in southwest, and SM in northwest. What happened was that on round 2 or 3, Orks got an event that allowed them to teleport their troops away to an uncontested planet, teleporting their stuff on an empty objective planet in the far SW. This one move made things kinda clusterfucky, since they more or less abandoned their NE corner and instead set up shop in the SW corner, making that entire thing a clusterfuck of Orks, SM, and Chaos. Unfortunately, what it meant was that the entire western half of the map was up to me to defend, which is not exactly a thing Eldar do. I claimed 3 objectives within 2 rounds (since ork space was more or less cleared) and painted a giant target on my back, but because the western half of the map was so dense with poo poo I couldn't penetrate through in a timely manner, allowing Chaos to basically pierce through my "defenses" and claim 2 objectives in a round for the win. I probably would have won a round earlier if people didn't conspire against me to block the objective I needed with Warpstorms (I couldn't have maneuvered my way into any other one within a more timely fashion, since they were all through the western clusterfuck), but that one round gave people the opportunity to build up. One thing I did notice was that it's really, really hard to pierce through a heavy defense/morale set of cards. Also, that Orks are loving impossible to take on in ground combat, holy poo poo. Their level 0 cards were matching my level 2 cards, which is some hosed up poo poo, especially since I didn't have the time to set up orbital strikes beforehand. I don't think Space Marines lost a single unit in combat, although it lost a few when they lost morale and had to retreat to the void and when I bombed them from space. Eldar orbital bombardment is pretty satisfying.
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Jul 27, 2015 18:26
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GrandpaPants posted:One thing I did notice was that it's really, really hard to pierce through a heavy defense/morale set of cards. Also, that Orks are loving impossible to take on in ground combat, holy poo poo. Their level 0 cards were matching my level 2 cards, which is some hosed up poo poo, especially since I didn't have the time to set up orbital strikes beforehand. I don't think Space Marines lost a single unit in combat, although it lost a few when they lost morale and had to retreat to the void and when I bombed them from space. Eldar orbital bombardment is pretty satisfying. You seem negative here but the whole paragraph sounds like it's working as intended since the factions aren't supposed to be symmetrical? Orks being an attrition nightmare and Elder having space supremacy is exactly what I would expect out of a 40K strategy game.
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Jul 27, 2015 18:37
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Chomp8645 posted:You seem negative here but the whole paragraph sounds like it's working as intended since the factions aren't supposed to be symmetrical? Oh that bit wasn't a negative, it was more of a "wow holy poo poo orks are hardcore" type of reaction that I didn't expect since I didn't flip through their combat cards. Although I really didn't like the Eldar combat cards that much, so that probably contributes a bit to it. Although part of the weird asymmetry was that Eldar are supposed to be pretty mobile, but they felt slower than when I played Chaos since I would almost always have to lead with a bombardment because their units suck.
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Jul 27, 2015 19:04
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bobvonunheil posted:Does anyone have good role recommended combinations for different player counts? I've just got One Night and Daybreak and I'd like to prevent an introductory few games from falling flat. Until you're familiar with the game you should always have the core of: Seer, Robber, Troublemaker, Villager x3, and Werewolf x2. Daybreak lets you swap out villagers for more interesting minor roles like the Apprentice Seer, but for new players having the easy cover of "I'm a villager, honest" will help smooth out the first few games. If your group is mostly new people add in simple roles who's actions are explained by the soundtrack like the Drunk, Apprentice Seer, Insomniac, and Masons. From there you can just swap in new roles every game or every other game to keep things interesting. This starting set should be tilted fairly heavily toward the villagers, so once everyone has things figured out you'll want to add the Tanner or the Minion to keep it competitive. A few things to watch out for: don't have the Village Idiot and the Revealer at the same time, it creates too much information. Don't use the Doppleganger with the Minion, as it adds a very significant amount of time to the soundtrack. Roles like the Thief, Doppleganger, and P.I. can create situations where the majority of people at the table think they're a werewolf, this can be ok occasionally, but if it's happening too often consider swapping out some of those roles. Unlike in The Resistance, even the Villagers should be lying A LOT; look for your group being too open with information and try to use it against them.
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Jul 27, 2015 19:24
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Tanner is a good role if people are too prone to "solving" the game imo.
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Jul 27, 2015 19:30
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The Doppleganger in general is a pretty lovely role, it adds way too much time and complexity for most players to grasp. It ruined a round the one time we used it.
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Jul 27, 2015 19:37
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Scyther posted:Tanner is a good role if people are too prone to "solving" the game imo. I think the Tanner is a must. The wolves need it so there's always threat of loving up and killing the tanner. Doppleganger can be interesting, but never play it unless everyone at the table knows every role by heart. Paranormal Investigator is sort of a dopple-light if you want to try that. Also looks like the Kickstarter for the next expansion is coming out August 1st, and then soon after pre-orders will be up on their site. They posted the info in the update for the android app.
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Jul 27, 2015 20:02
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OmegaGoo posted:If there is a goon consensus, I don't know it, but here's my glowing review. I'm just going to leave this here without comment: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/18955/posted-posterity-barnes-article-game-ruined-euroga 
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Jul 27, 2015 20:26
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fozzy fosbourne posted:I'm just going to leave this here without comment: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/18955/posted-posterity-barnes-article-game-ruined-euroga
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Jul 27, 2015 21:00
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fozzy fosbourne posted:I'm just going to leave this here without comment: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/18955/posted-posterity-barnes-article-game-ruined-euroga "Hmm yes, this auction-based game is in fact multiplayer solitarie."
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Jul 27, 2015 21:38
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Dre2Dee2 posted:Doppleganger can be interesting, but never play it unless everyone at the table knows every role by heart. Best I've seen is Dopp + Alpha Wolf and moving around the center wolf card twice. 
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Jul 27, 2015 21:45
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So I introduced my 13 year old niece and 15 year old nephew to proper board games this week while they were visiting. I've played a couple dozen hands of MtG with borrowed or pre-built decks, and bought FFG's Star Wars LCG core set and the LOTR core set. I had played one LOTR game previous, and hadn't cracked the Star Wars box. We played 3 rounds of the FFG LOTR LCG core set and they loved it. I was impressed that they were making good decisions without annoying "quarterbacking" from either me or each other. It helped them when they'd play a card or use an ability that seemed weird to me, I would ask "tell me your thought process that led to that decision". They would talk through it, and would usually uncover a tradeoff they didn't think about, or an unintended consequence. The introductory Mirkwood quest is gettin' pretty easy for me after 3-4 games, so it wasn't real high stakes. We got clobbered on Journey Down The Anduin though during the second quest card though, ending the game at 1 AM after losing a hero (seems like the right kind of introduction to these games). I got real brave on game 4 and did a mixed sphere deck  They didn't like Star Wars LCG as much. Probably because if you get screwed by a mechanic you didn't fully understand from an unexpected shadow card, it's luck of the draw. If you get screwed by a mechanic you didn't fully understand from a card played by your opponent, then it's a different kind of frustration. I think of the two, I'll probably spend more time and money on Lord of the Rings. Most of my gaming these days is 2 player tops, and my wife prefers the LOTR LCG. Now I have to figure out what expansions/packs to pick up if we keep getting stymied by Anduin. They really liked King of Tokyo also. That game is fast to teach, easy to follow, and fast to setup and complete. The 15 year old was interested in playing Munchkin, having heard about it but never played it. I sent him home with it to keep forever. I haven't cracked that box in five years and I'm happy to never play that game again.
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Jul 27, 2015 22:41
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canyoneer posted:The 15 year old was interested in playing Munchkin, having heard about it but never played it. I sent him home with it to keep forever. I haven't cracked that box in five years and I'm happy to never play that game again. You're a bad uncle for gifting him that.
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Jul 27, 2015 22:51
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ETB posted:You're a bad uncle for gifting him that. Look, sometimes you have to let teenagers make mistakes. I tried Munchkin in college and I turned out fine.
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Jul 27, 2015 22:53
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Ojetor posted:"Hmm yes, this auction-based game is in fact multiplayer solitarie." look at this guy who has never actually played princes of florence
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Jul 27, 2015 22:57
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Bottom Liner posted:THIS. Everyone is going gaga over this mess of a game and I can't figure out why. It's like Dice Masters + Magic but everything about it looks terrible. v  v I think it looks okay. Admittedly, I've only seen Rodney's videos, so maybe I am getting ahead of myself here.Played Good Cop, Bad Cop yesterday. That is some quick fun. Kind of like Coup, but a bit less bluffing and a bit more deduction, and no fiddling with money. The only problem is the game can eventually become a "Agent/Kingpin is being pointed at, don't bother picking up guns off the floor because if we don't draw an equip to save him instead, that's the end of the game" I also like how that first edition fits in a tiny card box. I know microgames are becoming a bit trendy, but if the game is still good then it is quite practical too.
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Jul 27, 2015 23:10
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ETB posted:You're a bad uncle for gifting him that. Probably. I like to justify it in the same way that parents who let their teens drink at home do. "They're doing to do it anyway, it should at least be in a safe environment." Maybe it keeps him away from the grognard stuff, right?
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Jul 27, 2015 23:24
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fozzy fosbourne posted:I'm just going to leave this here without comment: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/18955/posted-posterity-barnes-article-game-ruined-euroga I'm gonna offer the opinion that yeah, Princes did inspire a bunch of lovely games, but not because it was bad, but because of lovely cargo cult game design. Not like it's particularly good.
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Jul 27, 2015 23:32
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Since we were talking about it the other day, Bezier just update the Prefundia page for One Night Ultimate Vampire. Looks like it's an extension of the Curator mechanic, with your role not changing, just your allegiance via the moving of 'Mark' tokens. Looks like they're offering sleeves, too. They're also doing a handful of 'complete' pledges, which sounds like it'd interest some folks.
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Jul 27, 2015 23:48
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PlaneGuy posted:I'm gonna offer the opinion that yeah, Princes did inspire a bunch of lovely games, but not because it was bad, but because of lovely cargo cult game design. I agree, every popular game spawns lovely imitators, just look at Dominion! However, this dude is saying Princes caused the "ruination of the Eurogame genre" and mentions Caylus and Agricola as examples of the now ruined genre. That sure is an opínion.
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Jul 28, 2015 00:04
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Ojetor posted:I agree, every popular game spawns lovely imitators, just look at Dominion! However, this dude is saying Princes caused the "ruination of the Eurogame genre" and mentions Caylus and Agricola as examples of the now ruined genre. It's Micheal Barnes, dude. He's like the King REOL of BGG.
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Jul 28, 2015 00:13
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PlaneGuy posted:It's Micheal Barnes, dude. He's like the King REOL of BGG. I disagree. Barnes happened to be on BGG at a time when the community there was much smaller and more of a hugbox, so he stood out more and got less tolerance. He wouldn't have been banned there today for doing the same thing. He's also not much more acerbic and/or hyperbolic than the typical goon in this thread when asked to describe Talisman.
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Jul 28, 2015 00:56
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I think Barnes is just mad Knizia stopped making good games and wants to blame something else for it.Ojetor posted:"Hmm yes, this auction-based game is in fact multiplayer solitarie." http://keithburgun.net/why-eurogames-are-inherently-single-player-games/
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Jul 28, 2015 00:58
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I remember hearing there were different versions/editions of Tash-Kalar, and that some people recommended one over the other? Anyone got more info on that? Edit - Ah, I see the upgrade pack online-- Z-Man was 1st edition, Czech Games Edition was the second.
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Jul 28, 2015 01:41
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jeeves posted:I remember hearing there were different versions/editions of Tash-Kalar, and that some people recommended one over the other? The first English printing was licensed to Z-man and had lovely components. The second English printing was done by CGE, the original publisher, and has better quality components. You can identify the editions by the Z-man logo, if it's there, it's a first printing. If it's not present it's the second printing. Both versions have the CGE logo. There's also an upgrade pack you can buy with the better components for the first printing. PlaneGuy posted:It's Micheal Barnes, dude. He's like the King REOL of BGG. Ah, my bad, I didn't know this guy was a known bad opinion haver.
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Jul 28, 2015 01:47
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Got Eclipse on the table last night, I like a lot of things about it but that combat system is just horrendous. It's the kind of thing that might seem reasonable in a video game with the computer hiding all the dice rolls but it's a massive pain on the table, even with targeting upgrades.
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Jul 28, 2015 01:52
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A friend of mine goes to Gencon every year and he's nice enough to pick up a few games for me ever year. I gave him the following list and 200 dollars: Codenames Eminent Domain: Microcosm Code of Nine Ryu Spirits of the Rice Paddy Chaosmos Mottainai Mysterium Flick Em up Broom Service Funemployed That's also roughly my order of preference as well. Does it look like I accidentally included any complete stinkers?
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Jul 28, 2015 02:05
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Bubble-T posted:I think Barnes is just mad Knizia stopped making good games and wants to blame something else for it. Yep, he sounds exactly like the guys who told me Race for the Galaxy & Roll for the Galaxy are multiplayer solitaire.
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Jul 28, 2015 02:29
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golden bubble posted:Yep, he sounds exactly like the guys who told me Race for the Galaxy & Roll for the Galaxy are multiplayer solitaire. Why isn't Race multiplayer solitaire? I can't remember anything that can even affect your opponents. I haven't played my copy in over a year though.
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Jul 28, 2015 02:48
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Lord Frisk posted:Why isn't Race multiplayer solitaire? I can't remember anything that can even affect your opponents. I haven't played my copy in over a year though. Your role choices? Multiplayer solitaire implies that there is 0 interaction. If you're not riding your opponent's choices, you're playing Race wrong.
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Jul 28, 2015 02:51
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Lord Frisk posted:Why isn't Race multiplayer solitaire? I can't remember anything that can even affect your opponents. I haven't played my copy in over a year though. The phase selection. Taking advantage of what your opponents select is a huge part of the game.
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Jul 28, 2015 02:52
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Ok, that sounds familiar. As an unrelated aside, anyone wanna buy a copy of Race?
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Jul 28, 2015 02:54
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Lord Frisk posted:Ok, that sounds familiar. As an unrelated aside, anyone wanna buy a copy of Race? 
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Jul 28, 2015 03:02
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So, Mike Barnes is a good friend of mine and I just want to say in his defence that his personality as it comes out on those old posts on BGG is pretty far removed from who he is in the real world. He's an incredibly passionate and knowledgeable gamer and will play just about anything with just about anyone and make sure a good time is had all around. Played Scoville tonight with 5. Harvesting was incredibly frustrating as everything was so tight towards the beginning. The really interesting part of the whole game was that I was convinced that the owner of the game was winning the entire time and that I was dead last. Turns out I lost the game by 1 point and he came in 4th. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I don't particularly care for keeping track of everyone's score the entire game, and I'm not a huge fan of trackable hidden info, but the game was cute enough to make me want to play again. I think 3 would be a better number than 5, though. I also Medieval Academy. You draft 7 Wonders-style and then use the numbered cards to move your tokens on playboards that give positive or negative points every round, every 3rd round (of 6), or on the final round. Some of the boards reset on the 3rd round, and one of them allows 1st through 3rd place to move one of their tokens an additional 1-3 spaces at the end of the round. It's not a deep game by any stretch, but it's certainly fun, moves fast, and apparently has loads of variant ways to play built in. Each of the 7 playboards has a reverse side that adds complexity to the base game, but I didn't read the rules, so I don't really know what they add. Give it a try if you get a chance.
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Jul 28, 2015 05:36
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Oldstench posted:Played Scoville tonight with 5. Harvesting was incredibly frustrating as everything was so tight towards the beginning. The really interesting part of the whole game was that I was convinced that the owner of the game was winning the entire time and that I was dead last. Turns out I lost the game by 1 point and he came in 4th. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I don't particularly care for keeping track of everyone's score the entire game, and I'm not a huge fan of trackable hidden info, but the game was cute enough to make me want to play again. I think 3 would be a better number than 5, though. I have a fondness for Scoville, and I think it plays best with four. Three might also work well. Five is verging on too many players and six is right out, there are way too many recipes etc and the game bogs down completely. You really need to do a little bit of everything to win at Scoville; be the first to plant the valuable peppers, get trades out of the market, make a few recipes. I like the jockeying for player position, and how it's better to be first or last in the turn order at different points of the game. It's an interesting game, and relatively easy to teach to new players (after they understand the logic of the pepper breeding chart, anyway)
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Jul 28, 2015 05:53
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Jedit posted:I disagree. Barnes happened to be on BGG at a time when the community there was much smaller and more of a hugbox, so he stood out more and got less tolerance. He wouldn't have been banned there today for doing the same thing. He's also not much more acerbic and/or hyperbolic than the typical goon in this thread when asked to describe Talisman. That's fair. My only microbadge is the old "thumbs down" button for a reason. I should look at it more to remind myself why I put it there. edit: I am also mad knizia stopped making good games, but I know its his own fault. PlaneGuy fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Jul 28, 2015 |
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Jul 28, 2015 07:37
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Recently took my first dive into the hobby (beyond 2 player gaming at home) and have been going to a local board game club for the last few weeks and had the chance to try out a few games: Cyclades (base game) left me with somewhat mixed feelings. I really loved the bidding mechanic and felt like I generally had a decent amount of options that kept me engaged on making plans for the next few turns, but once we got towards the latter stages of the game it kind of devolved into a group activity of pointing out who could potentially win on a given turn and arranging to stop them until someone managed to slip under the radar and picked up the victory. Definitely felt like strategy was relegated to the sidelines. Is this just a flaw (feature?) of this type of game? Arboretum has truly beautiful cards but I went in not expecting much from the game itself, thinking it would be very much a multiplayer solitaire experience. Was happy to be surprised - it turned out to be far more interactive than I anticipated. The deck is several suits of tree-themed cards valued 1-8, on each players turn they get to draw 2 cards, place 1 to develop their arboretum, and then finally discard a card. Cards can be drawn from either the central deck or from any players discard pile. The scoring is what makes the game, though - only one player at the table can score points on each suit, and the person who gets to score it is the one holding the highest combined value of that suit in their hand. However the cards in hand only give a player the right to score a suit, they don't contribute any value themselves. It adds up to a pretty tough balancing act - trying to develop the highest scoring arboretum (which has a small spatial puzzle element) possible whilst simultaneously holding back valuable cards to both be able to score your own trees as well as deny scoring from your opponents. All of this added to forced discards which are open access for all players resulted in every move feeling like a meaningful decision. A 3 player game took about 30 minutes but as it capped off the night I only got the chance to play it once, but would love to play more. I actually went to buy it after the evening but depressingly it was out of stock in all the uk stores I checked.  I also played Stone Age which I found to be pleasant enough but not especially memorable - it was the first worker placement game i've played and i'm going to guess it served pretty well as an introduction. Street Fighter deckbuilder was the last thing that I played and it was good for the first ~hour but quickly overstayed it's welcome as it refused to end (4 players), despite being a SF fan I would probably not want to play this again. Nique fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Jul 28, 2015 |
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Jul 28, 2015 11:48
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Nique posted:Cyclades...it kind of devolved into a group activity of pointing out who could potentially win on a given turn and arranging to stop them until someone managed to slip under the radar and picked up the victory. Definitely felt like strategy was relegated to the sidelines. Is this just a flaw (feature?) of this type of game? I've noticed this too in Kemet and tbh, I think it's something unavoidable that comes as a side effect of the end condition "The games ends when someone has X points." This is one of the main reasons Kemet is half in, half out of my "Sell/Trade" pile because the last round of the game feels purely academic, with the losing players, already determined at the start of the round, taking whatever actions they can to simply lower the winner's margin.
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