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Zurui posted:What is Star Trek Frontiers? It says Vlaada on the cover so I almost bought it just for that. Mage Knight.
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Jul 9, 2016 00:33
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Zurui posted:What is Star Trek Frontiers? It says Vlaada on the cover so I almost bought it just for that. Mage knight with Star Trek pasted on. Literally. I hear the combat is a little easier.
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Jul 9, 2016 00:39
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Is it 1:1 compatible with Mage Knight if you swap the blue dilithum crystals for blue mana or whatever? Or did they change too much? Basically what I am asking is, can I harvest Star Trek Frontiers for additional unique Mage Knight content?
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Jul 9, 2016 00:47
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Anyone know of any place in the US that sells these? https://www.chaoscards.co.uk/accessories-c1/deck-boxes-c3/ultimate-guard-ultimate-guard-mini-deck-case-60-mystic-space-p136632 I can only find links to purchase in EU locations and not even the large online board game retailers in the US has them. Seems like it would be a great purchase for lots of board games but none of the LGSs I've talked to were even interested in purchasing them. Maybe they aren't available to US distributors? I also learned that Ultimate Guard was based in Germany. That's neat.
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Jul 9, 2016 01:09
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Some Numbers posted:I have a rule to not buy a game unless I've played it at least once. I have a similar rule, but I will allow exceptions for games for which I have seen a playthrough. Basically, I never buy a game without understanding the rules and having a fair idea of how it plays. If I can get a play in, even better. I see friends buy games and they tell me "I liked the cover art" or some other poo poo, and every tightwad cheapskate rear end in a top hat impulse inside me seizes up. Yes, I am more miserly than most, but there's no excuse for that nowadays. For most games, you can get some guy on the internet to give you the barest overview of the basic concepts in less than 15 minutes.
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Jul 9, 2016 01:14
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Magnetic North posted:I have a similar rule, but I will allow exceptions for games for which I have seen a playthrough. Basically, I never buy a game without understanding the rules and having a fair idea of how it plays. If I can get a play in, even better. Board game Cafes are great for this and to tell if it's the sort of thing you'd want to play enough times.
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Jul 9, 2016 01:20
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Chill la Chill posted:Anyone know of any place in the US that sells these? https://www.chaoscards.co.uk/accessories-c1/deck-boxes-c3/ultimate-guard-ultimate-guard-mini-deck-case-60-mystic-space-p136632 Ultra Pro makes an equivalent. Go to Magic the Gathering stores, they'll have tons. There's no point in importing something from Europe when there's already a well established brand.
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Jul 9, 2016 01:23
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Magnetic North posted:I have a similar rule, but I will allow exceptions for games for which I have seen a playthrough. Basically, I never buy a game without understanding the rules and having a fair idea of how it plays. If I can get a play in, even better. That's actually fair and rephrasing the rule that way allows me to cover my "exceptions." I like it.
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Jul 9, 2016 01:25
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Rutibex posted:Is it 1:1 compatible with Mage Knight if you swap the blue dilithum crystals for blue mana or whatever? Or did they change too much? Stelas posted a link to a rough partial changelog higher up in the thread. Short answer is, not quite. The most incompatable element is the mana/data color distro, which has been changed from 4-base, 2-special to 3-base, 3-special. (Also, all the colors have been swapped. The basic colors are red/blue/gold, the special colors are white/black/purple. You could probably make a 1-to-1 conversion chart, but it'd probably be confusing to most players.) Other than that, the whole crew/captain/ship dynamic works differently from the hero/unit dynamic, and tracks two different types of wounds (injuries and ship damage). Of course, if you're willing to kitbash a specialized Talisman with Pathfinder: ACG cards, I'm sure you're already writing the conversion in your head.  Good luck.
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Jul 9, 2016 01:29
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Lorini posted:Ultra Pro makes an equivalent. Go to Magic the Gathering stores, they'll have tons. There's no point in importing something from Europe when there's already a well established brand. It's odd since UG deck protector and binders are all over LGSs. (All the LGSs I know sell MTG so I assumed it was a given.) Ultra-pro doesn't sell any mini-sized deck boxes as far as I know. I would love to be wrong. I inquired about this from time to time last year when x-wing started to become big because it uses a damage deck with mini-american size. I heard about the UG mini deck case box from a tweet months ago and was excited about it, then was disappointed to see none of the LGSs I have access to, both east and west coast, have this type of product. It's really odd since board games are a huge thing now and LGSs could sell these as part of board games like tokaido or ticket to ride. e: The usual recommendation I've heard is to buy the normal deck box and just insert the sleeved mini-american cards sideways, but not only is it hard to pull back out, it usually ruins the edges.
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Jul 9, 2016 01:33
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So I'm about to play Cuba Libre for the first time tomorrow with friends who know nothing about it, and we are likely to only have 3 players. I see there are two ways to play 3-player: one player plays two factions (July 24 and Directorio) and tries to get them both to victory; or playing with the NPC flowcharts for the fourth faction. Which is better for a bunch of newbies? If we go flowcharts, which faction should be NPC?
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Jul 9, 2016 01:40
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Gutter Owl posted:Stelas posted a link to a rough partial changelog higher up in the thread. Short answer is, not quite. The most incompatable element is the mana/data color distro, which has been changed from 4-base, 2-special to 3-base, 3-special. (Also, all the colors have been swapped. The basic colors are red/blue/gold, the special colors are white/black/purple. You could probably make a 1-to-1 conversion chart, but it'd probably be confusing to most players.) Hmm, that looks like it's a lot different than a simple reskin. It might be worth just playing on its own!
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Jul 9, 2016 01:46
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Jimbozig posted:So I'm about to play Cuba Libre for the first time tomorrow with friends who know nothing about it, and we are likely to only have 3 players. I see there are two ways to play 3-player: one player plays two factions (July 24 and Directorio) and tries to get them both to victory; or playing with the NPC flowcharts for the fourth faction. I personally like using the flowcharts in 3p since having allied factions undercuts the dynamics a little. Syndicate is probably the best choice since they're very simple, but the Directorio is a runner-up (a NPC Syndicate is a little less interesting politically). Also a quick hint: new players who understand the rules can get a leg up on strategy by looking over the AI flowcharts. (Do they know the rules yet? If not make sure you emphasize the Operations menus.)
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Jul 9, 2016 01:52
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StashAugustine posted:I personally like using the flowcharts in 3p since having allied factions undercuts the dynamics a little. Syndicate is probably the best choice since they're very simple, but the Directorio is a runner-up (a NPC Syndicate is a little less interesting politically). Also a quick hint: new players who understand the rules can get a leg up on strategy by looking over the AI flowcharts. (Do they know the rules yet? If not make sure you emphasize the Operations menus.) No, I'm the only one who knows the rules. I'll be teaching them. I've read and played through the playbook and I'm reading over the rulebook tonight.
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Jul 9, 2016 03:02
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It may be easier to do syndicate and government vs M26 and DR
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Jul 9, 2016 03:05
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When I first got Cuba Libre, I attempted to learn it in a 2p game where I took Govt and Syndicate and my opponent took M26 and DR. It's still playable like that but we found it pretty frustrating playing 2 factions at once, because a lot of the game is in the interplay between the different factions. For 3p, I would probably just let DR be run by the bot, since playing as Syndicate gives you more options to influence the whole board (Bribe, mainly). e: Also if your friends are not wargamers, you might want to emphasize that your guerrillas are a means to an end -- their job is to fight and die for the cause. New players seem to worry too much about keeping their guys alive, which leads to a dozen M26 units holed up in the Sierra Maestra, doing nothing useful. Vivian Darkbloom fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Jul 9, 2016 |
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Jul 9, 2016 03:08
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Chill la Chill posted:It's odd since UG deck protector and binders are all over LGSs. (All the LGSs I know sell MTG so I assumed it was a given.) Ultra-pro doesn't sell any mini-sized deck boxes as far as I know. I would love to be wrong. I inquired about this from time to time last year when x-wing started to become big because it uses a damage deck with mini-american size. I heard about the UG mini deck case box from a tweet months ago and was excited about it, then was disappointed to see none of the LGSs I have access to, both east and west coast, have this type of product. It's really odd since board games are a huge thing now and LGSs could sell these as part of board games like tokaido or ticket to ride. One of our two UG distributors at the LGS where I work doesn't show it at all and the other I can't login to on my phone, but it's something we would have picked up if available since the UG wang size 9 pocket binders have sold insanely well. This style of cheap Ultra Pro deck box works well for sleeved mini American sized cards. I fill any open space with leftover hunks of pluck foam to stop the cards from rattling around too much. The original Nyan Cat version is out of print but we can still order the sideloading style from our distributors in a Valentine's Nyan Cat or weird Diner print, so most stores should be able to special order one for you if they don't have any sitting around.
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Jul 9, 2016 05:45
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BXCX posted:One of our two UG distributors at the LGS where I work doesn't show it at all and the other I can't login to on my phone, but it's something we would have picked up if available since the UG wang size 9 pocket binders have sold insanely well. Oh, I should try the sideloading version. I have a couple anime ones since they're more often done in that fashion compared to the US deck boxes. I'll have to retrieve them from storage. I guess I could put an insert and make two rows of cards. It's just baffling to me since it seems like a perfect product for board games and should've been out for years. How long have mini-american/european sleeves existed? Three, four years now? I was wondering why UP doesn't make one but apparently they completely ignore the non-magic/YGO card sizes so they don't even make smaller sleeves.
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Jul 9, 2016 06:47
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GrandpaPants posted:Many years ago, I once tried to do this with Twilight Imperium 3. Luckily, cutting all the figures out of their sprues was enough of a labor that we nixed the idea of learning how to actually play the game This is how learnt to play TI3. I was a younger and more vital man back then.
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Jul 9, 2016 07:57
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Gutter Owl posted:Stelas posted a link to a rough partial changelog higher up in the thread. Short answer is, not quite. The most incompatable element is the mana/data color distro, which has been changed from 4-base, 2-special to 3-base, 3-special. (Also, all the colors have been swapped. The basic colors are red/blue/gold, the special colors are white/black/purple. You could probably make a 1-to-1 conversion chart, but it'd probably be confusing to most players.) It also doesn't have a day/night cycle IIRC. I really, really wish someone would buy the rights to the Mage Knight system off WizzKidz and reprint it well.
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Jul 9, 2016 08:26
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So i had some quick questions on Pandemic Legacy that doesn't pertain to actual events so i'll just ask here. 1.We are suppose to open pack 8 or whatever whenever we lose 4 games in a row. We lost our first month entirely so do we only have to lose both halfs of February or is it counting 2 whole months as 2 separate games? 2.The Dispatcher can move any pawn to any city with another pawn in it, does this also include himself? Also i had forgotten how hard Pandemic gets even normally, i kinda call bullshit that we've almost always lost because we'll 2 or 3 epidemics pop up back to back that are infecting cities the next. But on the bright side this is my first Legacy game and i'm really,really excited that we have far reaching conseqences, we had our medic die in the second half of January so i'm really wondering how we're gonna pull this off in the coming months.
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Jul 9, 2016 09:05
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If 3 epidemics are popping up back to back you're not seeding the deck correctly.
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Jul 9, 2016 09:47
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3 is a bit of an exaggeration. Although we definitely did have have 2 epidemics pop up within 2 turns of each other in both games.
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Jul 9, 2016 10:10
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I know there are some UK people in this thread - I am in Edinburgh for three weeks and staying with some friends who I want to do some heavy boardgaming with. But their collection sucks and I didn't bring anything with me. So I'm going to buy a few 'gifts' for them so I have something to play. What's the cheapest way to get games over here? Amazon? Local stores? (I see there is one called the black lion nearby). I'm also in London for another day before heading up if it would make more sense to pick stuff up here. I now also want to try Via Nebula very badly as I am a Wallace/Brass fan so I might get it for them then pick it up again back in Australia.
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Jul 9, 2016 11:12
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To answer your question, yes and yes; losing january twice and february twice means open it. And dispatcher can move any pawn to any other pawn for one action, so yes, including himself to someone else. I guess, git gud? We found it reasonably easy at first; remember to increase funding level (i.e. you get to seed the deck with more events, giving you even more time between epidemics) when you lose and try to keep cities at not-ready-to-explode levels.
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Jul 9, 2016 11:46
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Blamestorm posted:I know there are some UK people in this thread - I am in Edinburgh for three weeks and staying with some friends who I want to do some heavy boardgaming with. But their collection sucks and I didn't bring anything with me. So I'm going to buy a few 'gifts' for them so I have something to play. What's the cheapest way to get games over here? Amazon? Local stores? (I see there is one called the black lion nearby). I'm also in London for another day before heading up if it would make more sense to pick stuff up here. I now also want to try Via Nebula very badly as I am a Wallace/Brass fan so I might get it for them then pick it up again back in Australia. Black Lion Games is the Edinburgh game store, yes. It's not hard to find; just walk down South Bridge from the east end of Princes Street and keep going as it turns into Clerk Street. There'll be a pedestrianised road entrance on the right side called Gifford Park (opposite Rankeillor Street - if you get to Hope Park Terrace you've gone too far); follow that to the T-junction and Black Lion will be on the other side of the road. If you get games in London Orcs Nest probably have a better selection than Black Lion, with the drawback that you have to carry them north. The nearest Tube station is Leicester Square on the Northern and Piccadilly lines (black and dark blue). Exit onto Charing Cross Road and head north (that's away from Wyndham's Theatre) to Shaftesbury Avenue and take a right; Earlham Street is the second right and Orcs Nest is visible from the main road. Amazon aren't appreciably cheaper, so you may as well patronise the FLGSs. E: if you're doing a decent sized order use boardgameguru.co.uk. Prices are reasonable, shipping is £6 but they do discounts on orders over £50. Jedit fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Jul 9, 2016 |
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Jul 9, 2016 12:26
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thespaceinvader posted:I really, really wish someone would buy the rights to the Mage Knight system off WizzKidz and reprint it well. You are in luck, you can not copyright or patent "the mage knight system". Feel free to make your own clone game and publish it! I mean just look at Dominion.
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Jul 9, 2016 13:55
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Thanks Jedit, super useful. I'm actually staying very close to Orcs in London (near Waterloo) so it's within walking distance. Will try and check em out, I have some luggage room.
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Jul 9, 2016 14:14
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HOOLY BOOLY posted:So i had some quick questions on Pandemic Legacy that doesn't pertain to actual events so i'll just ask here. 1) If you lose both halves of February, that will be 4 games. One month spans either 1 or 2 games, depending on your performance. 2) It does. That sucks that your medic died, we advanced our Medic almost immediately to not get any more Scars (remember, you get 2 advances at the end of every game, win or lose). You should never have more than 2 epidemics be super close to each other, but it really sucks when it happens. It also seems that in our games, there is one person each game that pulls most of the epidemics.
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Jul 9, 2016 16:46
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Rutibex posted:You are in luck, you can not copyright or patent "the mage knight system". Feel free to make your own clone game and publish it! Except for the click wheel, that is a patent. But sure make your own deckbuilding adventure game out of cardboard and chewing gum.
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Jul 9, 2016 16:54
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Someone should buy the rights to Mage Knight and excise like a third of the rules so that it's playable without a Tony Stark - Jarvis interface to check the rules.
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Jul 9, 2016 17:53
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Shadow225 posted:Someone should buy the rights to Mage Knight and excise like a third of the rules so that it's playable without a Tony Stark - Jarvis interface to check the rules. You should play The Curious Expedition. It is basically computer Mage Knight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQZ-aA1c2hc
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Jul 9, 2016 19:00
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al-azad posted:Except for the click wheel, that is a patent. You can easly replace the clix bases with a reference card or even simply a chart in the rulebook. I always found it funny how transparently the whole clix thing is shoehorned into Mage Knight. You can tell Vlaada just added it in as afterthought just to fulfill some silly WizKids requirement.
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Jul 9, 2016 19:20
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I've got a question about GMT games. Twilight Struggle is a 4 on their scale, and I found that pretty easy to learn and teach. Paths of Glory is also a 4 and I cannot for the life of me figure it out. I'm curious about Cuba Libre but it's also a 4, and I have no idea how it stacks up difficulty wise to the others.
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Jul 9, 2016 19:47
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Regarding Pandemic epidemics: if you get two close together then it also means you have extra breathing room on either side of them (because the epidemic card wound up seeded at the bottom of one batch and near the top of the other) which is its own benefit, too.
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Jul 9, 2016 20:03
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Mister Sinewave posted:Regarding Pandemic epidemics: if you get two close together then it also means you have extra breathing room on either side of them (because the epidemic card wound up seeded at the bottom of one batch and near the top of the other) which is its own benefit, too. We had a epidemic come up as the first card once and then the second was almost at the bottom of the second stack, it was so easy to manage for a change.
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Jul 9, 2016 20:11
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I've been playing through Space Cadets: Away Missions and I want to recommend it, especially for people who enjoy Descent with the app. Space Cadets offers a similar cooperative dungeon crawl but with a very streamlined and clever set of rules. The basic premise is that your players are members of the Rocket Patrol sent to fight alien monsters. Each scenario offers a map made of randomly drawn hexagonal tiles; each tile contains a group of aliens and, usually, some treasure. The tiles all start face down, and on each turn each player "scans" one tile, which reveals it and spawns its aliens. You can field between one and six Rocket Patrolmen on most maps, so the scanning mechanic automatically adjusts the pace and the difficulty. Small teams reveal the map and spawn aliens slowly, whereas big teams end up facing huge groups of aliens very quickly. The Rocket Patrol officers all have different powers (there's a doctor, a captain, a soldier, etc), and so do the different types of aliens. The aliens have a simple script for their turn, but again the designers have managed to create some very interesting behavior from very simple ingredients. Leader aliens gather their troops and move them towards your characters and alien bugs form swarms, for instance. The resolution mechanic relies on ten-sided dice - rolling from one to three is a success, everything else isn't. More powerful actions simply roll more dice. If you get more than one success you trigger an overkill (the aliens can do this too), which lets you do something useful, like healing a teammate, stunning other aliens, getting a free move, etc. Overkill abilities can come from characters, weapons, equipment, or the target aliens themselves, so they often result in interesting choices - do I use my overkill to stun a Saucerman or to give an extra action to someone else in the squad? The theme, 1950s pulp sci-fi, is also terrific, and well integrated in the gameplay. The game is also wonderfully overproduced. You get lots and lots of alien miniatures, translucent plastic cubes to track health and oxygen, six sparkly dice, etc. Worth a look for sure.
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Jul 9, 2016 20:20
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MoreLikeTen posted:I've got a question about GMT games. Twilight Struggle is a 4 on their scale, and I found that pretty easy to learn and teach. Paths of Glory is also a 4 and I cannot for the life of me figure it out. I'm curious about Cuba Libre but it's also a 4, and I have no idea how it stacks up difficulty wise to the others. Difficulty ratings are set by the designer and thus kind of meaningless. Cuba Libre is a little deeper than Twilight Struggle and much broader (TS has four operations, CL has seven per faction and four factions, albeit with some overlap). If you can understand TS CL isn't that much tricker, but it will take more time to teach. The strategy is a little less straightforward, although fortunately there's less deck knowledge required to play well.
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Jul 9, 2016 20:25
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MoreLikeTen posted:I've got a question about GMT games. Twilight Struggle is a 4 on their scale, and I found that pretty easy to learn and teach. Paths of Glory is also a 4 and I cannot for the life of me figure it out. I'm curious about Cuba Libre but it's also a 4, and I have no idea how it stacks up difficulty wise to the others. Cuba Libre has a great tutorial if you're new to coin games and a strategy section for playing the factions. I think it's just as easy to "learn" as TS but the hurdle is understanding how your faction operates which won't be apparent until you've actually played.
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Jul 9, 2016 23:46
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I'm looking at getting a COIN game. Someone else in my group has Cuba Libre, which I really enjoyed, so I was going to get a different one. About how would you rank them in terms of complexity? I was looking at Liberty or Death, but it being between p500 runs is making me consider other ones.
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