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GEMorris posted:What is the thread opinion on Power Grid? Really well-designed game, but very mathy and kind of dry so know what you're getting into.
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Sep 20, 2016 01:05
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Ojetor posted:Yeah, the four player minis are pre-painted and there's also 100 minion miniatures as well as a secret miniature (part of the legacy elements) that's larger than all of the others and was called "easily the most expensive piece". Seems ridiculously good value for the price, I have to wonder if Riot is even making a profit from this game. They might be selling at cost or even at a loss and marking it off as publicity. After reading their preliminary rulebook, I'm shocked at how much better the game appears to be, and shocked at how much worse the rulebook appears to be. This has to be just a reference rulebook. There's no way in TYOOL 2016 someone would think people could learn to play from a glorified glossary.
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Sep 20, 2016 01:25
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GEMorris posted:What is the thread opinion on Power Grid? Resource market is cool, but I like Chicago Express for auctions and networking better (also shorter).
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Sep 20, 2016 01:29
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golden bubble posted:After reading their preliminary rulebook, I'm shocked at how much better the game appears to be, and shocked at how much worse the rulebook appears to be. This has to be just a reference rulebook. There's no way in TYOOL 2016 someone would think people could learn to play from a glorified glossary. It is an odd rulebook for sure. Maybe there is a play walkthrough...
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Sep 20, 2016 01:51
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Once I find Star Trek Frontiers I will run a PBP of it and then you can all learn about fiddly rules. See how you like it when all that poo poo you internalized is ever-so-slightly different once Mage Knight Goes To Space.
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Sep 20, 2016 02:14
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golden bubble posted:After reading their preliminary rulebook, I'm shocked at how much better the game appears to be, and shocked at how much worse the rulebook appears to be. This has to be just a reference rulebook. There's no way in TYOOL 2016 someone would think people could learn to play from a glorified glossary. They're doing the FFG-style rulebook thing. One regular rulebook and an alphabetical reference rulebook for looking up specific stuff. As for why they would upload the glossary and not the other one, who knows.
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Sep 20, 2016 02:16
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jmzero posted:Showing the icons on the board is easier for a first time player without impeding an experienced player. I mean, Vlaada made this same decision, but the other way, for other parts of the game. Was he wrong in those cases? I mean, imagine an alternate game where each monster token was just a picture and had a definition on a card somewhere - like a Medusa token is just a picture, and so when you're fighting one you find the Medusa card and see it has Petrification and read what its stats are. Obviously that would be better because we don't want to hold a new players hand? And it would be better because instead of having to look at the symbols on the token you could just know what a Medusa does? And you wouldn't have to lean over the table to see those stats? jmzero posted:Well, uh, yes? By default creatures would spawn face up and not be rampaging - just like, by default, creature tokens don't have haste or poison. Is that fiddly that they have poison, except when they don't? We could phrase all sorts of rules in nonsense ways to try to make them sound confusing. Alternatively, we could recognize that this pattern of default intuitive properties, with exceptions called out by icons or keywords, is normal across a variety of games that people like, and which people find easy to learn. jmzero posted:In general, you seem to be treating my suggestions like they'd be houserules on top of the completed game of Mage Knight - like you'd have to explain to people that creatures don't attack you when you walk by them. Nobody would have thought that's what they do. Rather, they'd correctly assume they didn't - and then when you got to one with the marauding icon, you could explain what that means. (Or, honestly, you could get rid of the whole concept and not lose all that much, but I can't imagine you'd like that). Similarly, when you flip over a tile with monsters on it, you put the monsters the tile shows on that space face up. That is a really intuitive default that would confuse nobody. Nor do I think you'd create a bunch of confusion when you found a space with the hidden icon, where you don't get to see the monster until you move onto it (or, God forbid, until you move next to it in the night time - another whole branch of rules that aren't worth their weight). I'm not treating your suggestions as house rules, I'm pointing out that if you designed the game from the principles you want that you would wind up diminishing the variety that I and others value because you couldn't have the wild swings in power between the different token piles. It completely changes the way you have to approach balancing the game, and I pointed it out by showing that when the game actually does this in cities it becomes problematic. No, I wouldn't ditch rampaging enemies because they create roadblocks and interesting movement puzzles. I wouldn't ditch the night rules either because they are thematic and broaden the number of factors that go into strategic decision making. I realize your tastes are different and I respect that, but I'm pointing issues with your proposed design goals along with how they would narrow the strategic space of the game and you're just being pretty aggressive and rude about the whole thing so I'll not say any more.
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Sep 20, 2016 02:22
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Magnetic North posted:Videos also dropped today from Watch It Played and The Dice Tower. At first I thought it might have been a huge media blast for everyone they could, but instead it seems they just actually know who's popular and/or good and who they wanted on board. Which is probably a good sign, or at least shows some awareness on their part. They did say the main guy behind the project at Riot has 1200 board games, probably keeps up on the big names in reviewing.
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Sep 20, 2016 02:59
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All this MK chat is making me twitchy. Gotta get a game on.
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Sep 20, 2016 03:56
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Turtlicious posted:Dead of Winter is amazing, and no-one say anything bad about it. It's my baby. Did you get your settlement cheque from the makers of Thalidomide yet?
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Sep 20, 2016 03:56
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golden bubble posted:Still a classic, but you shouldn't play it with only two players. Is there any auction focused game that works with two players? I liked 5 Tribes more as a two player game than with 3 or 4. That being said, it's auction mechanic is fairly simplistic, but still pretty important to devising a strategy.
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Sep 20, 2016 03:58
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Ojetor posted:Here's an article that talks a bit about Quinns' consultancy. He was apparently the one to suggest adding a legacy campaign and modular boards, making them delay the release for over a year and a half to add those things. Legacy is whatever but modular boards are such an obvious and good idea I'm kind of surprised they didn't have them already. Also this quote is loving amazing: quote:"We had Tom come out first," Cantrell said. "At the end he said, ‘I don’t know why you’re worried. I think you’ve got a great game!’ We were doing high-fives. And I remember somebody even asking, ‘Well, do we still even want Quintin to come out?’ But he already had his flight, so we might as well. itsjustfun.gif
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Sep 20, 2016 04:22
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I can't remember if I asked this already. Were and of the Coup or Resistance spin-offs (other than Avalon) worth checking out? Yes I am aware the publisher is terrible.
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Sep 20, 2016 04:45
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dishwasherlove posted:I can't remember if I asked this already. Were and of the Coup or Resistance spin-offs (other than Avalon) worth checking out? Yes I am aware the publisher is terrible. Resistance Sci Fi expanded enough to be strictly better than Avalon. Coup: Reformation is good, Coup 54 is not. My problem with 54 is that it's incredibly hard to bluff when you don't have a firm hold on what the roles actually are/do, which is much easier in vanilla Coup than for every game of 54.
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Sep 20, 2016 04:55
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I'm not a huge fan of Power Grid, it's so much a maths exercise and it doesn't have the nice route building of 18xx. Like its a competently built game but it doesn't feel like fun to play for me.
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Sep 20, 2016 05:50
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The auctions and route building in Power Grid are rather dull and I agree with whoever said they would rather play Chicago Express. Shame about the resource market. Every time I played Power Grid there seems to be little reason to bid aggressively on the plants since if someone gets a good one you'll probably just get a better one later, due to the way the deck functions. Or, alternately, the person going last will get an absurd bargain on a lucky draw. Contrast to Chicago Express where you should be aggressively auctioning shares of opponents' companies in order to dilute the share value. There's so much more interaction with every action in Chicago Express.
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Sep 20, 2016 06:08
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I don't think I've ever soured on a game as fast as Power Grid when the last round hit. There's lots of clever stuff in it but that last turn is SO unsatisfying and vulnerable to kingmaking. Broom Service has a similar problem.
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Sep 20, 2016 06:16
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Welp, played my first round of Cuba Libre. It took a little over 4 1/2 hours to teach, set-up and play with four new players. What a tight freaking game man, at no point did I feel like I could manage to win till the very last round! Even when I got comfortable with my strategy for a win, It was thwarted by a card that forced me to miss the last turn when I was planning to make a mad dash to control a point and win. Which lead to no one meeting the victory condition, so it came down to a 2nd tiebreaker where my faction won only because it was ordered first for some reason in the rulebook /shrug. I played as the Directorio faction, which was pretty much a different shade of the main insurgent faction 26 July. Pros: -Lots of interesting choices -Eligible/Ineligible mechanic makes for some tough calls -The scoring is tight and you can have some HUGE momentum swings or little taps to victory -How differently 3 of the 4 factions play, some nice asymmetry, would enjoy playing any of the 4 and working out strategies. -You can negotiate freely with the other factions, "sure, I'll fund your slaughter of government forces in that forest!" Cons: -The asymmetry of the factions causes a bit of information overload and keeping track of 4 victory conditions can be hard to monitor, especially on your first play through. -Rules are dry, however they're thorough. -Lots of actions, which only can be activated while certain board conditions are available like control of territory, levels of support, or when a type of troop is present in an area (looking at you underground troop). So you'll start planning a turn only to realize that you can't perform one of your actions due to changes on the player board. Overall, I had a great time with it and would happily play again, but would not want to teach this thing to new people. Texibus fucked around with this message at 08:56 on Sep 20, 2016 |
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Sep 20, 2016 06:29
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Teaching COIN is always the problem, it takes ages to do because you have to explain all the actions to all the players or they will struggle to understand what is an actual threat within the game and what isn't. The rule of thumb is that underground insurgents are threatening, while exposed ones aren't really (which is why Che is such a great capability to have). Also keep in mind that Cuba Libre tends to have the most powerful card events, which is an intentional part of the design and meant to represent that sometimes the various factions were more influenced by outside events rather than the actual situation on the ground during the revolution.
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Sep 20, 2016 06:43
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Some people I know made a silly video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbGSUYLehQw
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Sep 20, 2016 07:30
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Tekopo posted:Teaching COIN is always the problem, it takes ages to do because you have to explain all the actions to all the players or they will struggle to understand what is an actual threat within the game and what isn't. The rule of thumb is that underground insurgents are threatening, while exposed ones aren't really (which is why Che is such a great capability to have). It's such a blessing once you have a core of COIN-experienced players in your group. Teaching each new one takes practically minutes after the first game.
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Sep 20, 2016 09:18
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For all the people who replied to my previous post, I did indeed mean Fury of Dracula, not Letters from Whitechapel. I blame sleep deprivation. In any case, thanks for the replies, guess I'll bite the bullet and plop down 47,00€
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Sep 20, 2016 12:00
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I had no idea there was a catan world championship tournament
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Sep 20, 2016 14:17
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MrDru posted:I had no idea there was a catan world championship tournament
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Sep 20, 2016 14:20
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Tekopo posted:Friend of mine was the catan UK champion once. I still joke about it nowadays. A friend of mine came second in the seven wonders tournament at the UK board game expo this last year.
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Sep 20, 2016 14:37
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Thanks for the power grid feedback. It's currently a favorite of my group and I have all the expansion maps, but I was wondering if there was something "bad" about it or if there were even better similar games. Sounds like we should try out Chicago express.
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Sep 20, 2016 14:37
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Some people I know made a silly video. The ending should've been playing Catan and dude just grabs an axe to chop the table in half because he's playing Catan.
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Sep 20, 2016 14:43
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MrDru posted:I had no idea there was a catan world championship tournament I worked on the live broadcast team for the 2012 Champs in Valley Forge. The finals were played on a giant Catan carpet...which we found out about an hour before said finals, so getting the camera setups in position was "fun." Sorry for the 480p video quality. We weren't using the best broadcast equipment back then, and Livestream was still kinda new. (You can see me sitting at the far left end of the broadcast table, in the back of the opening shot. I'm the blonde loving around with the monitors.)
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Sep 20, 2016 14:45
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Rumda posted:A friend of mine came second in the seven wonders tournament at the UK board game expo this last year. The difference being that 7 Wonders has skill and knowledge involved. Catan is won by rolling dice really well.
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Sep 20, 2016 14:46
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MrDru posted:I had no idea there was a catan world championship tournament I played in the Canadian championships this year at a con. Had I won I would have gone to worlds in... Colorado? I sat down to play and realized that I couldn't remember the rules, and then I quit after one round to go play something else.
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Sep 20, 2016 14:55
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I managed to grab a copy of Factory Funnner before it sold out, oh yeah. I tried out the online version to see if it was my poo poo, and it was indeed my poo poo! Very, very much! 
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Sep 20, 2016 15:35
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Mister Sinewave posted:I managed to grab a copy of Factory Funnner before it sold out, oh yeah. I tried out the online version to see if it was my poo poo, and it was indeed my poo poo! Very, very much!
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Sep 20, 2016 15:37
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I love the name of the remake: Factory Funner  Hexes instead of squares and a few other things probably who cares take mah munny   
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Sep 20, 2016 15:48
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GEMorris posted:Thanks for the power grid feedback. It's currently a favorite of my group and I have all the expansion maps, but I was wondering if there was something "bad" about it or if there were even better similar games. Sounds like we should try out Chicago express. While I do think Chicago express is the better overall game, you don't have to throw out power grid or anything - the lower level of direct aggression might be what some groups want. While Chicago express enforces interaction, it makes almost every move about either incentivizing a partnership to your benefit, or loving over people who've turned down your generous offer of partnership. You should absolutely get CE though, it's got a super interesting decision space with a lower rules overhead than PG.
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Sep 20, 2016 16:13
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Couple of Power Grid questions; is starting on the west coast of the US map a bad idea and why or why not? And wind plants; how much of a trap are they?
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Sep 20, 2016 16:46
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:I think I'm putting in treasure map for theme, but otherwise, I think I took your advice in blocking off +treasure cards: I played a version on Dominion.NET. I lost to the AI, but that may be because I swung into Pirate Ship too late for thematic reasons. Not a bad board.
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Sep 20, 2016 17:46
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I'm interested in games built around auctions, so that I can become more familiar with existing designs for a design I'm noodling about in my head. Aside from Power Grid and Chicago Express (which have both been mentioned multiple times), what are people's favorite games featuring auctions?
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Sep 20, 2016 17:47
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foxxtrot posted:I'm interested in games built around auctions, so that I can become more familiar with existing designs for a design I'm noodling about in my head. Keyflower
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Sep 20, 2016 17:48
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foxxtrot posted:I'm interested in games built around auctions, so that I can become more familiar with existing designs for a design I'm noodling about in my head. Keyflower and Archipelago.
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Sep 20, 2016 17:50
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foxxtrot posted:I'm interested in games built around auctions, so that I can become more familiar with existing designs for a design I'm noodling about in my head. RA! IT'S SOOOOO GOOD. Panic on Wallstreet is great too, but I don't think that's the kind of auction you're looking for.
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Sep 20, 2016 17:50
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