|
I attended a board game night with some coworkers over the weekend. There were enough of us that we split into two tables, with one starting out with Castles of Burgundy, which I was playing, and the other playing Glass Road. I had played neither before. The intent was we would switch when we were both done because the owner of the games said they would take approximately the same amount of time, and none of us minded spectating if one ran a little longer. We finished Castles in about 90 minutes with 3 players, and I quite enjoyed it. I agree with what I've read about it being super dry but it was mechanically engaging. I didn't win, of course. I was in the lead until bonus points from knowledge tiles were tallied, and I was promptly left in the dust. Now, the Glass Road table somehow managed to stretch their 3 player game to 4 1/2 hours .  We ended up playing another round of Castles and then a bunch of plays of Pandemic Contagion which is short enough not to overstay its welcome. The other table was still going after this. I didn't get to play Glass Road.
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2016 22:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 07:42 |
|
|
Glass Road is generally a short game but it's an AP monster.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2016 22:55
|
|
|
Gimnbo posted:Glass Road is generally a short game but it's an AP monster. It is, but even so, that's 90 minutes/player, where I would expect a long 3 player game to last maybe a third of that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2016 22:59
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:The reason why in EXCEED the art is inappropriate is because I didn't buy EXCEED to titillate me: I bought it because I loved the rules and mechanisms of the game. The game would be in no way diminished if you removed the objectionable art: it would remain fundamentally the same game. These are just your personal preferences, not everyone believes that all things in life must be entirely compartmentalized. You seem to think that anyone that buys Tanto Cuore does so to jerk off to it, but that's not the case at all. Tanto Cuore is a mechanically sound game, in addition to having anime boob girls. Could it be that some people like Tanto Cuore as a game, but also find the cheeseball art to be an enhancement?
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2016 23:02
|
|
|
The premise of Tanto Cuore is a bit messed up in that players are the "Masters" and the action cards are maids that they're acquiring. Combining the art facet with the conceit is what makes it a bit problematic
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2016 23:14
|
|
|
I picked up two games designed by Alban Viard, self-publishing French dude who's a few glossy components and pretty website above making complete shoebox games. Both games are about complicated tile-building euro-scoring stuff. In both cases, the rules aren't particularly complicated (once you get past some really sub-par rulebooks that really do need you running to boardgamegeek to figure out what the hell is going on), but the geometry puzzles of placing tiles mixed with point optimizing creates an inferno of a couple of brain burners. Clinic is the earlier title, and hearkening back to the self-publishing stuff this game comes in a god drat corrugated-cardboard box. The quality of materials is very low-budget "I made this game" kind of stuff, but the graphic designs and clever usage of Gameplay-wise, Clinic's selling point to me was it using a kind of three dimensional tile-placing layout, where your 2D player board is laid out in perspective so that you place parallelogram-shaped tiles and are representing that you can build upwards as well as across. It's a very unique take on tile-laying that also can be mind-bendy as gently caress. Just, like, look at this and realize you have to try to make sense of adjacency rules in six directions.  Yeah. What this all plays out as is you placing rooms (the tiles) to fit doctors, patients, nurses, office staff, and all their cars (all of which are cubes) into that 3D space, 2D player board. Not only that, but any people moving in your hospital cost "time" every space they move--each move will roughly count against a third of your score at the end of the game. You have to puzzle not only how to cram all these rooms into the all-too tiny space--especially when you have to make room for parking dear god do you--but also puzzle how to get people to their spots as fast as possible with that crammed space. And you have to handle the weird spacial reasoning. Good luck. I love this kind of stuff, and the game uses enough piece limits on rooms, patients, and clinic hires to make it more than multiplayer solitaire. That being said, this is the kind of game where you're going to want to be a heavy eurogame kind of gamer--the kind of eurogame that's tight on actions and those actions will bump into other players plans in mean ways. Small City is the other game by Viard, and while it trades out the three-dimensional game space for an easier-to-grasp flat city tile-laying space, this newer title makes up for any logistical nightmares with wonderfully stressful player dickery and pollution-filled cities. In an Antiquity-style manner, you're grabbing a bunch of tetris-like pieces in a simultaneous build phase to connect your city zones in the most profitable ways possible. Every turn, players get to grab a special ability card that (usually) helps their city building in some way. The "gently caress-you" player interaction begins here, because the first player is going to get a Mayor meeple placed on two joined, vacant spaces on their city board courtesy of the other players, and that mayor blocks building there. The first player then gets to be mean and choose his card, and because the cards are randomly laid out in a rondel-style circle, other players have to pay extra cash if they want to pick a card that's farther away from the mayor's choice. After this bit of meanness comes the agonizing city-building. City building is all about adjacent zone tiles relying on other types of adjacent tiles. Larger residential tiles (which score votes that win the game) can be built if they're next to culture buildings, culture buildings need factory goods built by factory tiles, factory tiles can't be built next to residential zones, and holyfuckwhatdoIdomindmelt this game will brain burn even if it doesn't have a 3D building game going on. Add on a layer of worker-placement citizens that have to work buildings but also cause pollution (along with factory goods) that can kill your workers, deduct points at the end of the game, and possibly eliminate you from the game if you polluted your city into an garbage dump of death; AND THEN have other players be able to place one of their citizens as "tourists" that can block spaces and steal their effects--and you have an incredibly punishing and mean game with adorable art. Both of these games absolutely fall into the "particularly brilliant games for a niche audience and very few other people" categories. If these mean, mind-churning building games interest you, you may want to stop by AV Studios Games while you can to get them. These are self-published, small print run titles that will probably not be reprinted soon if ever (it's kind of a miracle Clinic has a second printing). Be warned that both games' rules have some translation gently caress-ups and outright vagaries, and even though the games are solid when you know the rules, the rulebooks are pretty crap. Heavy Cardboard also put up an episode on Small City (with brief talk on Clinic), and it's worth a listen if these games interest you.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2016 23:34
|
|
|
please stop quoting rutibex so i don't have to see his stupid loving first-year-libertarian-philosophy-major-rear end posts
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2016 23:48
|
|
|
Clockwork Gadget posted:please stop quoting rutibex so i don't have to see his stupid loving first-year-libertarian-philosophy-major-rear end posts These are just your personal preferences, not everyone believes that all things in life must be entirely compartmentalized. You seem to think that anyone that buys Tanto Cuore does so to jerk off to it, but that's not the case at all. Tanto Cuore is a mechanically sound game, in addition to having anime boob girls. Could it be that some people like Tanto Cuore as a game, but also find the cheeseball art to be an enhancement?
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2016 23:51
|
|
|
Trynant posted:I picked up two games designed by Alban Viard, self-publishing French dude who's a few glossy components and pretty website above making complete shoebox games. Out of curiousity, have you played Town Center? It's one of my favourite games and it's by Viard and it melts minds in that special way and only an hour to play.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2016 23:59
|
|
|
Lottery of Babylon posted:These are just your personal preferences, not everyone believes that all things in life must be entirely compartmentalized. You seem to think that anyone that buys Tanto Cuore does so to jerk off to it, but that's not the case at all. Tanto Cuore is a mechanically sound game, in addition to having anime boob girls. Could it be that some people like Tanto Cuore as a game, but also find the cheeseball art to be an enhancement? It is a mechanically sound game, because it's Dominion. Dominion already exists, without the art. So.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:00
|
|
|
please no
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:03
|
|
|
I just started playing Keyflower so pardon if this is a dumb question. Is this vape guy employing a valid strategy or just loving around?
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:18
|
|
|
Lump Shaker posted:I just started playing Keyflower so pardon if this is a dumb question. Is this vape guy employing a valid strategy or just loving around? loving no.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:19
|
|
|
Some Numbers posted:It is a mechanically sound game, because it's Dominion. You can even get Dominion with big titty anime girls, though you will have to learn Japanese to read the rules. It truly is the better game.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:23
|
|
|
Lump Shaker posted:I just started playing Keyflower so pardon if this is a dumb question. Is this vape guy employing a valid strategy or just loving around?  this is great
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:24
|
|
|
I just realized I have another game with him where he appears to be using the same strategy. Is he a genius or a madman?
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:29
|
|
|
Some Numbers posted:It is a mechanically sound game, because it's Dominion. I think that's his point, that some people consider the art an asset because they enjoy it more than the default art while also enjoying a good game. And in that respect, there's nothing wrong with enjoying that. I don't think someone enjoying the sexualized art should be considered a perv and a bad person anymore than someone that doesn't should be considered a prude and a bad person. In a vacuum, there's no issue with Exceed. Some people will hate it, some people won't. There's no need for nudity/sex scenes in movies and yet it exists. And some people don't watch movies they'd otherwise enjoy for that reason. Likewise, some people won't play Exceed because of the artwork, and there's nothing wrong with that. The publisher/designer made that decision and they'll lose sales because of it. The problem isn't one game doing it, it's that the industry does it. It would be like if every single tv show and movie had women doing nothing but wearing bikinis and waving, despite it being a show like Law and Order. Not everything needs it and for too long everything had it, so when it does exist in an otherwise "normal" game, it's rightfully going to be pushed back against. Gzuz-Kriced fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Jul 12, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:29
|
|
|
Lump Shaker posted:I just realized I have another game with him where he appears to be using the same strategy. Is he a genius or a madman? Please update us if this somehow works. I'm trying to figure it out.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:35
|
|
|
Lump Shaker posted:I just started playing Keyflower so pardon if this is a dumb question. Is this vape guy employing a valid strategy or just loving around? he is a hero to his people his complete lack of people (Serious answer: if they were all gold he might have a strategy. It'd be a lovely strategy, but it'd be a strategy, because gold does at least give you 1VP. As it is, yeah not in the faintest.)
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:36
|
|
|
Gzuz-Kriced posted:The problem isn't one game doing it, it's that the industry does it. This is my key objection to the entire line of reasoning. There is no monolithic organization called "the industry" that coordinates boardgame content. If we were in soviet Russia there might be a point to be made about what sort of content the state propaganda department provides (or what the BBC provides in Briton). This is not the case, "the industry" is made up of individuals who are all making their preferred game. Who is to say what the appropriate quota of women's representation is? Obviously some male focused game should be allowed. So who gets to decide which games are blessed with the privilege of free expression? If more than the appropriate quota of people want to make games that are not women focused than censorship is necessary.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:40
|
|
|
Hitlers Gay Secret posted:Okay, picked up the Serpent and the Wolf expansion, so now I've got everything for Spartacus. Where'd you get it? I've been having a hard time finding it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:42
|
|
|
Stelas posted:he is a hero to his people If he gets some fall tiles that score on various resources, he could get tons of points that way and a short route to transport. It's very risky though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:43
|
|
|
Rutibex posted:This is my key objection to the entire line of reasoning. There is no monolithic organization called "the industry" that coordinates boardgame content. If we were in soviet Russia there might be a point to be made about what sort of content the state propaganda department provides (or what the BBC provides in Briton). This is not the case, "the industry" is made up of individuals who are all making their preferred game. No one is asking for censorship, they're saying "we won't buy it because you are one of the individuals perpetuating the problem." It doesn't have to be a single group doing it for people to react against it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:48
|
|
|
Gzuz-Kriced posted:If he gets some fall tiles that score on various resources, he could get tons of points that way and a short route to transport. It's very risky though. He'd have a serious worker problem, since he's not getting ANY from anyone else. He'd be left with what he didn't spend and whatever his boat was, and that won't be enough, because if I saw that, I'd spite buy the fall tiles.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:53
|
|
|
Gzuz-Kriced posted:I think that's his point, that some people consider the art an asset because they enjoy it more than the default art while also enjoying a good game. And in that respect, there's nothing wrong with enjoying that. I don't think someone enjoying the sexualized art should be considered a perv and a bad person anymore than someone that doesn't should be considered a prude and a bad person. The problem with Tanto Cuore is not the art. It's the theme. The art is a side-effect of theme in this case. The reason it comes up in art discussions is because the art is an obviously gross thing, while you can mostly try to ignore that it's a game about hiring busty women so you can (presumably) sexually assault them. The manual actual uses the phrase "maid harem".
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 00:57
|
|
|
foxxtrot posted:The problem with Tanto Cuore is not the art. It's the theme. The art is a side-effect of theme in this case. Makes sense. I've only seen the few photos posted here. Never knew that it even had more of a story than that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 01:03
|
|
|
Kruller posted:He'd have a serious worker problem, since he's not getting ANY from anyone else. He'd be left with what he didn't spend and whatever his boat was, and that won't be enough, because if I saw that, I'd spite buy the fall tiles. Presumably those workers are going to other players if he's getting efficient resource generation, making it even worse.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 01:04
|
|
|
PlaneGuy posted:Out of curiousity, have you played Town Center? It's one of my favourite games and it's by Viard and it melts minds in that special way and only an hour to play. It's the one that was out of stock at Viard's site so now it's in my cart and drat you.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 01:07
|
|
|
Azran posted:What's this thread take on Assault on Doomrock and Darkest Night? No idea about Assault on Doomrock, but Darkest Night is possibly my favorite of all my coop games. Yes, the resolution mechanic is dice-based, but it's not usually "roll a single d6 and nothing happens 2/3rds of the time", and if it is you've probably either made a bad decision or you're in a really terrible situation that will probably soon resolve itself via you losing the game. For any type of roll you will commonly have extra dice, rerolls, plusses, or some combination of the three from powers, consumables, relics and so forth and if you don't, there's probably something better you could be doing with your turn. Most die rolls aren't "succeed or nothing", also. You're either getting something good or you're losing something, either of which meaningfully changes the game state. The main situation where you might be rolling a single d6 with an outcome of nothing happening if you don't hit your target is searching (there are bonuses to it but they're less common than other types), and if you're doing that in the right spots, you have a target number of 3 or even 2, not 4. And man, everything beyond that is flavorful, varied, and cool. With all the expansions, you've got something like thirty characters, each of which is a hugely different play experience. You have a Necromancer who gathers up to two of dozens of really brutal Darkness Powers. You have a huge range of nasty blights making your life difficult across the map and so many cool artifacts and consumables to find. You have quests prompting you to go places and take risks instead of camping the optimal search zones. You have mysteries adding narrative and game effects to the process of recovering the relics. It's so great. My only real complaint is that certain characters are great supports but not super interesting to play as your only character, so maybe don't pick one of those if you're running with maximum player count.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 01:25
|
|
|
Rutibex posted:This is my key objection to the entire line of reasoning. There is no monolithic organization called "the industry" ... "the industry" is made up of individuals who are all making their preferred game. And why is it their preferred game? What shapes their tastes, and the tastes of the market? Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe, jerk.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 01:29
|
|
|
Rutibex posted:This is my key objection to the entire line of reasoning. There is no monolithic organization called "the industry" that coordinates boardgame content. If we were in soviet Russia there might be a point to be made about what sort of content the state propaganda department provides (or what the BBC provides in Briton). This is not the case, "the industry" is made up of individuals who are all making their preferred game. Are you delusional? Nobody is calling for censorship or banned games. Lorini was exercising her right to communicate her dissatisfaction to the company who made the game and you started openly mocking her. Also lmao at "male focused games". 90% of the people in here are male and I assure you these games are not made for them. They are made for pervy little twerps.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 01:29
|
|
|
Why do you guys (and gals) keep engaging with Rutibex?
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 01:33
|
|
|
Some Numbers posted:Why do you guys (and gals) keep engaging with Rutibex? because i'm severely depressed irl and want to feel something
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 01:35
|
|
|
Gilgameshback posted:Where'd you get it? I've been having a hard time finding it. I got it at my local game store. You could always try Amazon as well, that's where I had to get BattleCON because nowhere in my area had that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 02:03
|
|
|
Chill la Chill posted:Not interested unless it's campaign for north africa. Your gimmick is worse than Rutibex's. Some Numbers posted:It is a mechanically sound game, because it's Dominion. Google sexy village, sexy witch, sexy smithy and glue the art to your Dominion cards. That last one might not be what the maid fetishists are looking for, though. Ninja: you won't have to change Harem.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 02:35
|
|
|
Mr. Squishy posted:You can even get Dominion with big titty anime girls, though you will have to learn Japanese to read the rules. It truly is the better game. And it has dealers! Potentially NSFW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5vjvk3gw8A Originally made without permission, but now Donald X does get a commission
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 02:39
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:because i'm severely depressed irl and want to feel something Welcome, friend.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 04:02
|
|
|
Azran posted:What's this thread take on Assault on Doomrock No! NONONONO. Assault on Doomrock is awful. It's essentially a game split into two parts in three cycles. In each cycle you first go on an adventuring spree, balancing out time, money and health to get as much loot and experience as you can get. It's really fun and takes ten minutes tops. A++ game design. I'm a big fan. Then you go to combat with one of the big baddies. Jesus gently caress, the combat. It's a very abstract system that could have worked in the hands of a better designer, but they essentially took their neat little abstract disc game and then decided to stretch it out for much, much longer than it deserves. The enemies start with a ton of health and protection, and those that don't regenerate spawn new enemies, and those that don't spawn new enemies have damage blocking effects. Combat is a mind numbing see-saw where you start with 20 moles and whack 5 moles only to have 4 pop back up. You know you're going to win on turn 19 but man are you gonna wish you'd lost a long time ago. There are, from what I remember, 2 fights that don't do this. There are something like 10 that do. Budget about half an hour for the first fight. The 2nd cycle will take 40 minutes. That last one? Oh about an hour. Expect to move a lot of tokens around and roll a lot of dice. Expect to spend a lot of time reading instructions for the AI and watching them slowly nibble through your health. Ever played Descent? Imagine if the designers multiplied everyone's health by four and changed nothing else about the game. Because if hitting a beastman once is fun, holy poo poo you are gonna love hit #12. If you haven't played Descent, just think of lovely MMO combat where you cycle skills five times in a row over the course of two minutes to take down an enemy that was obviously toast five seconds into the fight. That's the philosophy of combat in Doomrock: Wouldn't it be fun if this took longer? The worse part is that the adventuring phase is super fun. You play through the first fight because you want to adventure again, and you play through the second for the same reason and the third fight you look at the bullet sponge bullshit in front of you and go "hey guys, want to just call this a win and play something else?" Seriously, it's hands down the worst thing I played this year. Watch some of the video reviews - there's a Marco guy who is really hard to listen to but who nails it (watch the last five minutes of his review). It's a bad, bad game.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 04:19
|
|
|
Exactly why I don't like Stonemaier as a designer. Right up there with dumbest rule ever. From BGG Scythe Rules forum https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1460460/why-rule-hiding-coins-so-woolly/page/1 Basically you are supposed to stack your metal coins of different colors but no one should actually look at them and if they do, they are bad players who people shouldn't play with. gently caress that. We play once seen always seen but I guess his apparently weak design can't handle that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 04:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 07:42 |
|
|
Lorini posted:Exactly why I don't like Stonemaier as a designer. Right up there with dumbest rule ever. quote:There is an important note in the rules (it's the one official variant in the rules) that says if you have someone in your gaming group who delays the game by calculating exactly how many coins each player might gain if the game were to end, you can activate that variant, and that player will lose 2 popularity. What the hell? Docking a player points for trying to figure out the correct move?
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2016 04:30
|
|
