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I just bought Keyflower, which I'd had my eye on for a while, because hearing it described as a knife fight in a car trunk makes it sound fantastic. On the slightly related topic of hexagonal tile-laying games, though, are people still enjoying (did they ever enjoy?) Suburbia or has it been too gentle to maintain long-term interest?
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Feb 23, 2016 09:52
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COOL CORN posted:Now, I'm someone who plays huge complicated wargames, but... I just finished punching Fields of Arle and... It really is a lot of fun. So many ways to play it and still make a decent amount of points. What I really like about it is that there is no real pressure. Just do your thing and try out a lot of stuff.
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Feb 23, 2016 09:57
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 Boardgamebliss has 5 copies of Food Chain Magnate @ $129.99 CAN each as of this post
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Feb 23, 2016 10:01
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One hundred and thirty canadian dollars. I get that the game is fun, but is it THAT fun? Are you one hundred and thirty dollars for a board game worth of hyped?
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Feb 23, 2016 10:59
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Esposito posted:I just bought Keyflower, which I'd had my eye on for a while, because hearing it described as a knife fight in a car trunk makes it sound fantastic. On the slightly related topic of hexagonal tile-laying games, though, are people still enjoying (did they ever enjoy?) Suburbia or has it been too gentle to maintain long-term interest? A friend of mine has Suburbia as one of his favourite games, and whilst I'm a bit more lukewarm on it it's something I'm usually happy to play. I do prefer Keyflower but sometimes it's nice to have something a little less cutthroat.
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Feb 23, 2016 11:32
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Bobfly posted:One hundred and thirty canadian dollars. I get that the game is fun, but is it THAT fun? Are you one hundred and thirty dollars for a board game worth of hyped? You haven't seen the exchange rate recently, I think that is American MSRP 
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Feb 23, 2016 15:03
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Rutibex posted:You haven't seen the exchange rate recently, I think that is American MSRP This. Ordering games from Canada is an amazing deal right now if you're in the US.
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Feb 23, 2016 16:24
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If I have Viticulture/Tuscany should I look into Vinhos? Is it goon-approved?
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Feb 23, 2016 17:52
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It's pretty good and the deluxe version looks neat. I prefer Kanban/The Gallerist, though. The Gallerist has a better general flow/logic to it, and Kanban is more interesting (it's one of the few WP games where every action feels thematically different -- in fact each space is almost a bit of a minigame unto itself). If you really want another wine themed game, go for it, it's a good game -- but if you're just thinking about picking up a Vital I would check out The Gallerist/Kanban (Kanban being his best I think, although the Gallerist is very good and easier to learn).
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Feb 23, 2016 17:55
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I have had the gallerist on my wish list for a while now. It seems like a perfect theme and weight for me.
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Feb 23, 2016 18:19
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That exchange rate is pretty good. Just ordered FCM, Marco Polo, Valley of the Kings & Afterlife, and Then We Held Hands.
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Feb 23, 2016 18:21
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Big McHuge posted:That exchange rate is pretty good. Also, instead of styrofoam peanuts, all the games come packed in capsules of cheap, generic, prescription drugs.
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Feb 23, 2016 19:12
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Yeah, with the exchange rate and shipping, that Board Game Bliss price comes to ~$105.00 USD, which is probably about what you'd pay to CoolStuff or other US vendors. I'm seriously thinking about it, but I need to play more on BoardGameCore to sell me a $100 game.
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Feb 23, 2016 19:17
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FCM might be my first extensive PnP because I find it hideous.
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Feb 23, 2016 19:43
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How do The Great Zimbabwe and Indonesia hold up? Was just checking what's available by Splotter and these two stood out.
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Feb 23, 2016 19:56
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Speaking of PnP games, what are the best Print 'n' Play games available? I was thinking about printing Utopia Engine and I have the PnP version of Puzzle Strike which I much prefer to holding the chips.
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Feb 23, 2016 20:16
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FulsomFrank posted:How do The Great Zimbabwe and Indonesia hold up? Was just checking what's available by Splotter and these two stood out.
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Feb 23, 2016 20:18
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Radioactive Toy posted:Speaking of PnP games, what are the best Print 'n' Play games available? I was thinking about printing Utopia Engine and I have the PnP version of Puzzle Strike which I much prefer to holding the chips. I made pnp copies for Austerity and maquis, which are both solo games. Maquis is a Worker placement game where you play as resistance fighters trying to achieve goals and evade Police and later on soldiers. In austerity you are the major of a small country and you try to get rid off your national dept. It's a cube drafting and push your luck game. Making them took mehr like an hour per game. I can post pictures tomorrow if you are interested. You can find the Files on bgg
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Feb 23, 2016 20:25
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FulsomFrank posted:How do The Great Zimbabwe and Indonesia hold up? Was just checking what's available by Splotter and these two stood out. I like Zimbabwe a lot, Splotter managed to distill much of what I enjoy about their designs into a non-fiddly concise 30 minute per player game. There's the usual focus on logistics and transportation, but abstracted down to single discrete moments so there's no fiddling around with a million tokens like R&B. It also borrows the select-your-own-win-condition-with-a-bonus thing from Antiquity, except that once you make your choice you're locked in with no way to change. And of course, zero randomness outside of setup.
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Feb 23, 2016 20:34
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Selecta84 posted:I made pnp copies for Austerity and maquis, which are both solo games. Maquis is a Worker placement game where you play as resistance fighters trying to achieve goals and evade Police and later on soldiers. In austerity you are the major of a small country and you try to get rid off your national dept. It's a cube drafting and push your luck game. Awesome, I would love to see some pictures. I'll have to check these out.
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Feb 23, 2016 20:38
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If that's the same Maquis as I'm thinking of, there's a free implementation of it on the Android app store. It's good quality and works fine on a phone.
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Feb 23, 2016 21:10
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hoiyes posted:If that's the same Maquis as I'm thinking of, there's a free implementation of it on the Android app store. It's good quality and works fine on a phone. Yeah, there is an app for maquis. Also a vassal module
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Feb 23, 2016 22:13
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Dirk the Average posted:This. Ordering games from Canada is an amazing deal right now if you're in the US. Hrmm... any good places online? I for one would like to import from our frozen north
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Feb 23, 2016 22:50
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Maquis is an interesting mechanic and theme, but it gets frustrating when you realize that no matter what strategic decisions you make, you'll lose to unlucky draws.
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Feb 23, 2016 22:52
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Dre2Dee2 posted:Hrmm... any good places online? I for one would like to import from our frozen north Boardgamebliss is what I use.
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Feb 23, 2016 22:53
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Dre2Dee2 posted:Hrmm... any good places online? I for one would like to import from our frozen north 401 games, board games bliss, hitgames, starlit citadel, gameshack, J&J cards... 401, BGB, and J&J's are my go-tos, 401 in particular but they just raised their min buy amount for free shipping so I'll be less likely to make impulse buys from them. A lot have a flat rate to ship to the states. Funny, I remember when the dollar was at parity or greater what a deal it was to get stuff shipped from the states 
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Feb 23, 2016 22:56
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FulsomFrank posted:How do The Great Zimbabwe and Indonesia hold up? Was just checking what's available by Splotter and these two stood out. Indonesia is in a lot of people's top tens(Tony from Heavy Cardboard put this in his number one spot). It's an economic game focusing on producing goods, shipping goods, and merging companies to make the most cash.
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Feb 23, 2016 22:57
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Are Epic and Star Realms good? I want some small games that I can play with my wife that are quick to set up and tear down.
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Feb 23, 2016 22:59
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signalnoise posted:Are Epic and Star Realms good? I want some small games that I can play with my wife that are quick to set up and tear down. I think a lot of people knocked Star Realms, but I don't personally mind it that much. You can play a game in like 10 minutes or less, it's head-to-head and life totals (or whatever they call it) are generally a good indicator of how close you are to winning or losing, which I sort of prefer over the dominion-style of scoring. It suffers from all of the usual issues with market-row deckbuilders, but it's definitely quick to setup, quick to play and quick to put away. edit: for what it's worth, I got bored of the basic set pretty quickly, but the game and expansions are still like $10 or less, so it's not a huge investment and you can add to it incrementally if you end up liking it Hauki fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 23:21
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signalnoise posted:Are Epic and Star Realms good? I want some small games that I can play with my wife that are quick to set up and tear down. Star Realms has a pretty decent Mobile implementation, if you want to try it out. Android
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Feb 23, 2016 23:26
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star realms is quick. it's also a very very bad game.
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Feb 23, 2016 23:39
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CaptainRightful posted:Maquis is an interesting mechanic and theme, but it gets frustrating when you realize that no matter what strategic decisions you make, you'll lose to unlucky draws. This is almost every solitaire and co-op game because good designers don't generally design solitaire games and not-good (I don't want to say bad because that's overstating things) designers aren't capable of having enough randomness to give a variety of play experiences without having some of those experiences be unwinnable - or, alternatively, making the game extremely easy. It's a tight line to walk because if you balance so the "hardest" outcome is winnable, then the average outcome will be by definition easier. Therefore you need a very small difficulty range (so the average outcome is still a challenge) while still having a variety of play experiences (so the game isn't boring) and required strategies (so the game isn't solvable). This is extremely, extremely difficult to do, so it's not a surprise that most games don't quite measure up. Mage Knight and Ghost Stories probably come the closest, but even they aren't perfect.
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Feb 24, 2016 00:07
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blackmongoose posted:This is almost every solitaire and co-op game because good designers don't generally design solitaire games and not-good (I don't want to say bad because that's overstating things) designers aren't capable of having enough randomness to give a variety of play experiences without having some of those experiences be unwinnable - or, alternatively, making the game extremely easy. It's a tight line to walk because if you balance so the "hardest" outcome is winnable, then the average outcome will be by definition easier. Therefore you need a very small difficulty range (so the average outcome is still a challenge) while still having a variety of play experiences (so the game isn't boring) and required strategies (so the game isn't solvable). This is extremely, extremely difficult to do, so it's not a surprise that most games don't quite measure up. Mage Knight and Ghost Stories probably come the closest, but even they aren't perfect.
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Feb 24, 2016 00:14
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quote:Are Epic and Star Realms good? I want some small games that I can play with my wife that are quick to set up and tear down. I'm not really a fan of either. Epic is another in a long line of games that attempts to "fix" MtG (in this case, by mostly getting rid of "instant" effects, mucking around with combat rules, and replacing mana - mostly - with "you get to play one real spell a turn") without actually coming up with good new ideas. It's not all bad; it doesn't make some of the mistakes many other MtG alikes make. For example, it preserves MtG's "normal damage only lasts this turn" rule, which means that it's not a fiddly garbage game that buries you in damage counters, and means that combat has some interesting thresholds. So yeah, for the most part it's Magic, which is mostly good - but it's also mostly Magic, meaning it's complicated to learn, and it opens itself up to a very direct comparison, where it doesn't really score well. Compared to Magic, there's just not enough progression to the game, there's no tempo. You don't play a bunch of small things early into a measured rhythm of big game changing bombs or something. You just kind of exchange bombs from turn 1 to turn end - and you just sort of hope you draw a good balance of stuff to play on your turn, free cards, and cards on your opponent's turn. The lack of mana progression saps the game of design space; it ends up feeling very stale very early. It's like the Dominion clones where they decide to get rid of limited Buys and Actions. If you don't understand the game you're aping, it seems great, you just reduced a bunch of complexity. But when you play those games, you feel what's missing very quickly - without those factors to balance different cards and build out variety, you just end up making the same effects again and again. Games work better with more variety; when everything is special, nothing is. Star Realms is a single deck/market-row head-to-head deckbuilder. There's skill to this game in the long-haul. Play 10 games, and it'll reward you for knowing the deck and really keeping up on what you and your opponent have going. But game to game it can be brutally swingy. Often, a card can be amazing for your opponent and really unexciting for you (because of various synergies and the way colors chain off each other), and if the deck gives you a run of these you can quickly find yourself in a hole (whether you buy them or your opponent buys them, the result is that their deck is getting better faster and you don't have much you can do). Add to this, there's tremendous swings based on what you draw together; it's like the worst case of the Dominion Alchemy potion problem, but in every game forever. Draw your blues together and you win. Draw your colors mixed up and you lose. Obviously you can set up your deck to minimize or maximize this problem, but, again, on a game-to-game basis you'll normally have to accept some exposure to this kind of coin toss. I don't mind the swings in Star Realms when I'm banging out a game on my phone against the computer in 5 minutes, but it's a long enough game in real life that it's unsatisfying to lose like this to a human. Lastly, there's just not enough variety; the first expansion adds "gambits" that can effectively fiddle with the setup, but mostly it's the same thing again and again (note, I haven't tried the further expansions, and I don't think there's anyone here who would still be up for a game of this). jmzero fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 24, 2016 00:18
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Valley of the Kings is the true answer here
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Feb 24, 2016 00:22
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Archenteron posted:Valley of the Kings is the true answer here Yup, probably the best game that fits in a really small box.
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Feb 24, 2016 00:38
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signalnoise posted:Are Epic and Star Realms good? I want some small games that I can play with my wife that are quick to set up and tear down. No, they are bad games. Instead you should get Race for the Galaxy, It's just as small and easy to set up, but 100x better.
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Feb 24, 2016 00:39
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A pretty good fast playing (15 minutes or so once you have the rules and set up down) 2-4 player "small" deck builder and you're going to hear the name and see the art and reject it but: Pixel Glory. Instead of doing a traditional line or pool style system the game uses an auction phase at the beginning of the game. You do not pick cards randomly durring this auction you are given limited or in two player full knowledge of what cards will be effective in the main phase of the game. It also allows for deeper combo strategy through sacrifice of cards which shortens up your deck and allows for powerful effects (but controls them through resource). The game is also non-confrontational in that you do not directly attack other players and only compete for points. It's kind of thematic for people who need that in their lives. edit: Rutibex posted:No, they are bad games. Instead you should get Race for the Galaxy, It's just as small and easy to set up, but 100x better. Too bad you need a Rosetta Stone for new players to learn to play it. 4outof5 fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 24, 2016 00:48
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4outof5 posted:Too bad you need a Rosetta stone for new players to learn to play it. The game comes with 4 
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Feb 24, 2016 00:53
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Radioactive Toy posted:Speaking of PnP games, what are the best Print 'n' Play games available? I was thinking about printing Utopia Engine and I have the PnP version of Puzzle Strike which I much prefer to holding the chips. Tontine is one of my favorite big group games right now. It's heavier than something like Avalon or Mafia but still plays as quickly. Last week Clockwork and I looked at an 80's stock trading game called Fresh Bigtime that completely nails it's aesthetic. It's an 18 card microgame so it isn't a life-changing experience or anything, but I found it very worthwhile. Karmaka is probably the best game we've looked at overall, even if it's not my favorite pnp. It does some real interesting stuff with hand management and the theme is interesting and atypical. You play as monks, racing through the karmic cycle from dung beetle to transcendence. Not to relentlessly plug the show but you can find links to all of those at http://www.printnplaycast.com/ Except for Fresh Bigtime, that one isn't up yet but I imagine it will be soon.
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Feb 24, 2016 01:55
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