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I would recommend Concordia over Puerto Rico or Power Grid every time. If you really want auctions from buy a Knizia game (or Chicago Express, as mentioned).Lottery of Babylon posted:Okay. How would you design the components to implement this for, say, Battlestar Galactica? Or, going to the other end of the spectrum, for Hanabi? Print the rules on the back of every Hanabi card. That was actually pretty easy! QnoisX posted:Okay, so I sold Dead of Winter at Gencon. Now the highest rated game I own according to BGG is Battlestar Galactica at #29. If I wanted to buy one game out of the top 10-20, which should it be? Hopefully something in print, so accessible. Help me Something Awful Goons, you're my only hope! If you just want to suggest your favorite of the bunch, it's fine. Only thing that bugs me about games is heavy dice rolling. Most of them are resource Euros, the best of which are Le Havre and Caylus - I haven't played Brass though, I hear it's good. If you want more of a 4X look at Through the Ages (though the 2nd edition is coming within a year and sounds like an improvement) or Eclipse. If you want the military stuff without any cubes/minis then Twilight Struggle. Kai Tave posted:Straightforward and one note describes my Power Grid experience perfectly. Once I figured out my general grid layout and expansion pattern during auctions and resource purchasing I said to myself "well it looks like I've actually secured myself the lead and unless I drastically gently caress up then I've probably won." And I did, having never played a game before. The rounds that followed were basically a formality and at no point did I feel challenged or threatened by someone else overtaking me. Even when there is a challenge for the win it devolves in to awful endgame calculations. I was really underwhelmed by Power Grid. Bubble-T fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Aug 6, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 04:34
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homullus posted:What's a game with better auctions and a comparable (or better, obviously) resource market? Because those are the things I like about Power Grid and am totally open to a better experience. I wish I knew of one.
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Aug 6, 2015 05:01
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unpronounceable posted:I got to try a neat little game on the weekend, Deep Sea Adventure. Thanks for the writeup on this, I think I'll check it out.  TREASURE is a hit with some people I play with.
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Aug 6, 2015 05:13
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Oh poo poo Codenames and Mysterium preorders up on Cardhaus  Tragery Looper extension too
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Aug 6, 2015 05:22
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For anyone who hasn't played it yet, Mysterium is really damned good.
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Aug 6, 2015 05:24
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Just learned about Hostage Negotiator - a solitaire game. Interesting concept, I wonder how well it's executed.
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Aug 6, 2015 05:30
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I only got 1 game of Mysterium in at GenCon, and it was indeed really good, but the ending felt kind of "...oh. Okay we won!" Hard to explain, but felt anti climactic. I enjoyed Codenames a lot more overall.
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Aug 6, 2015 05:47
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Has anyone played with the old Polish rules? I heard you can play with those with the new edition
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Aug 6, 2015 05:48
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Has anyone played with the old Polish rules? I heard you can play with those with the new edition I've played both plenty, imo Ukrainian rules are better for endgame, Polish are better for giving clues.
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Aug 6, 2015 05:53
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Merauder posted:I only got 1 game of Mysterium in at GenCon, and it was indeed really good, but the ending felt kind of "...oh. Okay we won!" Hard to explain, but felt anti climactic. I enjoyed Codenames a lot more overall. Jealous! We tried to get into a Mysterium demo, but they said they were already booked up for the whole con on Thursday. One guy I was with was just going to straight up buy it after they told us they were going to have 100 per day. Then we rushed the booth on Sunday and they didn't have any. Not the first time we got bad info.
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Aug 6, 2015 05:55
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homullus posted:What's a game with better auctions and a comparable (or better, obviously) resource market? Because those are the things I like about Power Grid and am totally open to a better experience. Scepter of Zavandor does the auctions better (because they're a hell of a lot more important), but it doesn't have a resource market like Power Grid. Also, it's out of print.
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Aug 6, 2015 05:55
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QnoisX posted:Okay, so I sold Dead of Winter at Gencon. Now the highest rated game I own according to BGG is Battlestar Galactica at #29. If I wanted to buy one game out of the top 10-20, which should it be? Hopefully something in print, so accessible. Help me Something Awful Goons, you're my only hope! If you just want to suggest your favorite of the bunch, it's fine. Only thing that bugs me about games is heavy dice rolling. twilight struggle twilight struggle twilight struggle Dr. Video Games 0069 posted:On the topic of getting heavier games to the table, I think that game designers should start designing components in a way such that the game can be learned without reading the rules. A lot of games use icons on the board as reminders of what things do anyway, and sometimes indicators of what to do during a turn. If you're familiar with modern board games already you can usually extrapolate 90% of the rules from those plus your player aid card. Imagine if you could just unfold the board, punch out the components and put them in the designated spots, arrange or shuffle the decks the way the 4 - player symbol on the board tells you to and then you just look around the board for how to start and what to do from there. I like how the COIN series basically gives you four copies of a 'menu' with all the different actions each faction can take plus two other reference cards for the rest of the rules. Saves a lot of time explaining when you just hand somebody the menu and say 'alright, you're green.'
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Aug 6, 2015 06:08
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Spotted a copy of argent in the wild today which is hard to track down here so I snagged it, even if I might have some trouble actually getting it on the table with a willing group. Does it play at all well with two?
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Aug 6, 2015 06:44
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Lottery of Babylon posted:Okay. How would you design the components to implement this for, say, Battlestar Galactica? Or, going to the other end of the spectrum, for Hanabi? Maybe it's not appropriate for every game, stuff that's got a lot of bits or moving parts like BSG might be too complicated, although maybe that new BSG-lite game could work. But like, there's a lot of mechanics and ideas that are similar between games in the same genre. If you open a brand new worker placement game, you know that the different colored but otherwise identical sets of bits are for each player, the ones that there are only one or two of go on the scoring / turn order tracks, the medium sized ones are workers, the coins go in a central pile, the decks get shuffled and put on the corresponding spaces on the board, the numbered tiles either get stacked in order or shuffled as well, etc. So you can set up the game, follow your player aid for what to do on each turn, then there's indicators on the board for what to do between rounds or when to replenish resources, and maybe the back of the player aid or the bottom of the board tells you how to get points or the victory conditions. I think some games come close to this, and if the designers just considered using the components to teach the game and not just as reminders, it would work in a lot of cases.
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Aug 6, 2015 07:23
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Dr. Video Games 0069 posted:On the topic of getting heavier games to the table, I think that game designers should start designing components in a way such that the game can be learned without reading the rules. It's by no means "you don't need the rules" but Legends of Andor does some interesting things where there are components used exclusively with the first "Legend" that say things like "If you end your turn on this token, turn it over" and on the other side says (for example) "this is a Fog token, it works like this" and so on. The "learning to play" part of Legends of Andor is really very well done. It's in sharp contrast to say, the product of someone who's already well-steeped in a game banging out a manual & barely considering that people will be seeing it all for the first time when they open the box.
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Aug 6, 2015 07:49
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QnoisX posted:Need to find a good playthrough video. Just refer to our own fuckin' brilliant PBP thread.
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Aug 6, 2015 07:59
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Broken Loose posted:Just refer to our own fuckin' brilliant PBP thread. That PBP gave me PTSD
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Aug 6, 2015 08:05
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bobvonunheil posted:That PBP gave me PTSD Was your wedding that horrible? (belated goongrats)
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Aug 6, 2015 08:11
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Dr. Video Games 0069 posted:Maybe it's not appropriate for every game, stuff that's got a lot of bits or moving parts like BSG might be too complicated, although maybe that new BSG-lite game could work. But like, there's a lot of mechanics and ideas that are similar between games in the same genre. If you open a brand new worker placement game, you know that the different colored but otherwise identical sets of bits are for each player, the ones that there are only one or two of go on the scoring / turn order tracks, the medium sized ones are workers, the coins go in a central pile, the decks get shuffled and put on the corresponding spaces on the board, the numbered tiles either get stacked in order or shuffled as well, etc. So you can set up the game, follow your player aid for what to do on each turn, then there's indicators on the board for what to do between rounds or when to replenish resources, and maybe the back of the player aid or the bottom of the board tells you how to get points or the victory conditions. I think some games come close to this, and if the designers just considered using the components to teach the game and not just as reminders, it would work in a lot of cases. It's easy to forget, but people are getting into the hobby every day and they aren't starting with the genre-defining titles we did. Ascension and Star Realms are tons of people's first deckbuilders. ONUW has probably been plenty of people's first traitor games. Code of Nine is gonna be someone's foray into worker placement. It's entirely possible for someone to open up the copy of Nevermore they got at Gencon because it had a cool display and have no idea that drafting games are a genre. Games should strive for clear boards and aesthetics, but I don't see rulebooks going anywhere - even for simple games - if the industry is interested in keeping new people coming in.
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Aug 6, 2015 08:28
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StashAugustine posted:twilight struggle twilight struggle twilight struggle Wait, introducing players to COIN games is easy? I've been holding out because of the combination of theme and inaccessibility, but if they're accessible like you say, I will have to get one straight away. Also, why can't I find any solid info on the european (Danish) release of Codenames and the Mage Knight expansion? I want those now!
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Aug 6, 2015 08:30
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I'm going to be playing Here I Stand on Saturday. What kind of experience am I in for?
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Aug 6, 2015 09:58
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nimby posted:I'm going to be playing Here I Stand on Saturday. What kind of experience am I in for? If you make sure you know where you stand, and that others are well informed re: your standing status you should be good. Jokes aside there's this useful-looking Here I Stand in 20 Minutes document that looks worth reading.
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Aug 6, 2015 10:16
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bobvonunheil posted:That PBP gave me PTSD The title of that thread is so very, very apt.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:06
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Keyflower: The Merchants and Village Inn are pretty cheap on Amazon right now if you're into that sort of thing. Both ship from Europe though.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:08
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Merchants is kinda fiddly but definitely worth it if you play lower player count regularly. I wish there were more ways to get contracts though.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:11
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GrandpaPants posted:The only games that aren't good games, according to the opinions of an internet stranger, are Robinson Crusoe and Dead of Winter. There are some there I don't particularly like (Power Grid, Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico), but I can't really call them bad games. Whether the rest are "top 25" material is very, very questionable, doubly so since that ranking is weighted by popularity, but after that it's down to personal taste, weight class, player count, etc. This internet stranger you're talking to is dumb as hell. Robinson Crusoe is a fantastic co-op. If by 'internet stranger' you mean this thread - sometimes the goon hivemind is dumb as hell. If by internet stranger you're referring to yourself....well, you know. Different strokes, etc. Kaddish fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Aug 6, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 14:18
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But there is no hive mind *waves a hand and removes the illusion*
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Aug 6, 2015 14:21
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Tekopo posted:But there is no hive mind There is no hive mind, but a lot of individuals who have similar preferences. Also we tend to mock people who like bad games and/or needlessly nitpick about all the things that makes any given fun game bad.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:28
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Kaddish posted:This internet stranger you're talking to is dumb as hell. Robinson Crusoe is a fantastic co-op. If by 'internet stranger' you mean this thread - sometimes the goon hivemind is dumb as hell. I thought there were serious balance problems with Robinson Crusoe though.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:29
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I thought opinions in this thread regarding Robinson were decidedly mixed. I think even a PBP was run of it at some point. Overall some people liked it and some people hated it, but there wasn't entirely one consensus on it.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:32
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Kaddish posted:This internet stranger you're talking to is dumb as hell. Robinson Crusoe is a fantastic co-op. If by 'internet stranger' you mean this thread - sometimes the goon hivemind is dumb as hell. Man you're dense. Robinson Crusoe really isn't a good game. It's a plodding mess by a designer whose games, upon reflection, seems more and more like a Polish (?) Isaac Vega, in that he puts themes above mechanics, but fails to integrate them in a way that makes for a good experience or anything resembling an elegant design. He also fails to understand how luck affects the outcome of a game (this becomes remarkably clear if you've ever played Imperial Settlers). It implements too many instances of random chance, which come up often enough by necessity of the game's design of not having enough actions to do what you actually need to do. What this ultimately means is that your decisions mean jack and poo poo, and victory is attained through the whims of the die rolls. So the game could either seem really easy or really hard, but never through any agency on the player. You can literally make all the right moves in a game and still end up losing horribly, which is a mark of a really lovely co-op experience. I gave the game two tries and that is all the time I'm willing to waste on it. This doesn't even begin to touch on how terrible the rulebook is. Pandemic, Space Alert, the Lord of the Rings LCG, and if we're including 1v3 type games, then Tragedy Looper, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective and Letters From Whitechapel are better co-op games. poo poo, even Eldritch Horror is a better game and experience generator, and even I admit that EH is more of a guilty pleasure than a genuinely good game.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:36
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Tekopo posted:But there is no hive mind hosed up if true
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Aug 6, 2015 14:36
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silvergoose posted:I thought there were serious balance problems with Robinson Crusoe though. I'm not sure what balance problem you're referring to specifically. It's true the event deck can be a bit a random, as well as the dice, and some games seem like a breeze while others feel like they're doomed at the start. None of these things make it a bad game, in my opinion. If someone would like a co-op game with perfect information and no luck then this wouldn't be for them I guess. Of course, this would exclude some very excellent games. Robinson Crusoe isn't my favorite co-op but its incredibly solid. GrandpaPants posted:Man you're dense. You played a game twice and have a terrible opinion. It's true that luck of the roll and the draw of the event deck can gently caress you in this game. This doesn't detract from the experience for me at all. The rulebook is indeed not the best but the mechanics are just fine. I've played this game -more- than twice and I absolutely know that correct plays/decisions lead to better outcomes. Kaddish fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Aug 6, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 14:37
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Kaddish posted:You played a game twice and have a terrible opinion. It's true that luck of the roll and the draw of the event deck can gently caress you in this game. This doesn't detract from the experience for me at all. The rulebook is indeed not the best but the mechanics are just fine. I've played this game -more- than twice and I absolutely know that correct plays/decisions lead to better outcomes. Then tell me why this game deserves more than a couple plays before binning it? Just saying "Nuh uh, you're wrong and dumb lol" doesn't do anything to create discussion, but just makes you look like a dick. Explain why this quote:It's true that luck of the roll and the draw of the event deck can gently caress you in this game. isn't inherently bad in a co-op game and strips player agency. Or is your final conclusion going to be "it's just fun"?
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Aug 6, 2015 14:45
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Nobody said anything about a co-op requiring perfect information, though. The maxim of this thread should really be 'randomness is good, if implemented well'. I haven't played Robinson Crusoe but games swinging from really easy to really hard without any changes in initial setup (which seems to be what you and GrandpaPants are saying) are actually a clue that the randomness is implemented badly. Take, for example, the co-op game Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil is hard as balls and sometimes you fail out of random luck, but the game is ALWAYS (and intentionally) hard. This makes a game where you win feel rewarding regardless of the fact that you got lucky or not. A game where the difficulty shifts from really easy to really hard when player skill is constant does suggest that the win condition is entirely dependent on luck: you can't optimize if you have no way of knowing if the difficulty is not constant. Is there actually a way to affect the difficulty setting on Robinson Crusoe?
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Aug 6, 2015 14:45
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GrandpaPants posted:He also fails to understand how luck affects the outcome of a game (this becomes remarkably clear if you've ever played Imperial Settlers). The effects of luck on Imperial Settlers final scores are often vastly overstated, in my experience. Especially with WCWBF, but base game definitely isn't that luck-driven. I think Eldritch Horror's got enough skill and crisis management involved to have graduated to "good game", but sometimes it just decides to gently caress you over and there's not much you can do about it. A badly-timed mythos card can end the game if players are unlucky (see: Bermuda Triangle, Wanderlust, Tide of Despair) and there is definitely a tiny bit of stuff that should be removed (Azazoth research encounter #8, you know the one - I wish they'd replaced it in Forsaken Lore) but the mechanics are rock-solid for that kind of game and it's got some of the best tension of co-ops I've played. Robinson Crusoe's theme is cool but the mechanics are too puzzle-y, and if you want to do well it becomes more of a push your luck and hope to do well than actually fun. Also the whole thing with hunting doesn't feel right, it's not like the only animals you run into are ones that try and destroy your camp...
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Aug 6, 2015 14:46
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GrandpaPants posted:Man you're dense. All of this is pretty much true, but I find myself liking the game anyway. It's an experience generator like Arabian Nights and SMERSH, but there's just a tad more game in RC (even if it's dice roll upon dice roll) and it's entertaining as a 'bash your head against the wall' challenge like Ghost Stories. It also is beautifully made and works well solo. But it is a loving mess. It's like the blind old incontinent dog that keeps pissing on your carpet, but it's got enough charm you can't bring yourself to get rid of it.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:46
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Tekopo posted:Is there actually a way to affect the difficulty setting on Robinson Crusoe? You can add Friday and a dog to basically get extra actions. As far as I remember that was the only way as written in the rules. Some scenarios are probably inherently harder/easier than others too. I imagine you can also adjust it so that certain things (like the end of the game or when weather turns bad) happens later or sooner, as you prefer.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:47
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Tekopo posted:Is there actually a way to affect the difficulty setting on Robinson Crusoe? Nothing built in, but you could pretty easily tweak when the weather starts getting worse, or give yourself some additional morale, items or pawns.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:48
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nimby posted:I'm going to be playing Here I Stand on Saturday. What kind of experience am I in for? Are you playing a six-player game? How many people are new to the game? Do you know what Power you're playing?
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Aug 6, 2015 14:52
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