Board Game Thread 4e: The Call of Catan

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Board Game Thread 4e: The Call of Catan

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Cthulhu Dreams: Dec 11, 2010; If I pretend to be Cthulhu no one will know I'm a baseball robot.

Who is actually good other than Shut up and sit down?

# ? Feb 4, 2017 03:04

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# ? May 14, 2024 08:24

Neurotic Roleplay: May 20, 2005

i found Michael Wi�ner to be pretty good too:

https://www.youtube.com/user/HoloDoc42

also i play cosmic encounter with my work friends during lunch and we always get a decent laugh from it, gently caress you guys

that being said we do realize how the game is considered poo poo. the first few rounds are always interesting, but then it just becomes attack the leader and there are no interesting decisions after that, just random spiteful and unblockable flare cards.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 03:12

silvergoose: Mar 18, 2006; IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS

Neurotic Roleplay posted:

i found Michael Wi�ner to be pretty good too:

https://www.youtube.com/user/HoloDoc42

also i play cosmic encounter with my work friends during lunch and we always get a decent laugh from it, gently caress you guys

that being said we do realize how the game is considered poo poo. the first few rounds are always interesting, but then it just becomes attack the leader and there are no interesting decisions after that, just random spiteful and unblockable flare cards.

As always, "Game is badly designed" and "I can find enjoyment playing game" are separate so don't yell at people for hating on a game you like.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 03:20

Mustached5thGrader: Oct 1, 2011; My mother won't let me grow a goatee.

Keep reading gloomhaven in a jerry Lewis voice

# ? Feb 4, 2017 03:41

Positronbob: Jul 5, 2007; Right through the pants

If you wouldn't play games with Rodney you have no heart or soul hth

# ? Feb 4, 2017 03:52

homullus: Mar 27, 2009

PerniciousKnid posted:

I've recently discovered that most edited and scripted board game content is much worse than anything rahdo does. For all his faults he's still like the fourth-best reviewer on YouTube.

I was convinced his wife was a Garfield's-family scenario, though. Her being real is much more boring.

If she weren't real, though, she couldn't make handmade glass meeples.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 04:03

Spikes32: Jul 25, 2013; Happy trees

angel opportunity posted:

So like, the component quality isn't GREAT, but the player aids look like menus at a restaurant, and the art and design on the game is--to me--very good. It's a minimalist + retro kind of art style. The board is very easy to read, and the cards have nice, muted colors and are easy to read. The little food tokens are wood. The house and advertising things are made of thicker cardboard. It comes with paper money which kind of sucks--if I bought it I'd probably buy like separate metal coins or something.

The game is just really good though. If I bought it, that's why I'd be willing to pay that much more for it. When people say it's a "gamer's game" what they mean is that an experienced player will win against new players 100% of the time, and it will be a crushing defeat too. The milestone system feels--to me--like doing a build order in Broodwar, because there are a lot of really interesting routes you can take with milestones and initial hires, and it will dictate your entire strategy in the game going forward.

To properly teach the game, I think you have to tell new players example openings for certain milestones. When I first was taught, the guy teaching didn't do this, then he took two milestones that won him the game for free just as the rest of us were wrapping our heads around how powerful milestones are.

Once the "build orders" of the milestones go down, you are firmly into "mid-game," and where in the early game you have a few turns with some people making $0 and others making like $5-10 max, in mid-game people start suddenly pulling in like $20, $30, $50 per turn. The bank will "break" very soon after the mid-game starts accelerating profits, and after the reserve goes in--depending on the reserve amount that players voted in secretly--the end game will be a few turns at most of just breaking that reserve money dry. It has a really clear progression from early-->mid-->late game, and it feels very satisfying to compete with people during each stage of the game. You can definitely COMPLETELY put yourself out of the game though by doing a bad opening, a bad placement, or a bad hiring order, etc. That's the main trade-off of having the game be so fun to compete with people, is that unlike a lot of boardgames, it's probably not going to be fun to people who just want to have a chill experience and are not "playing to win."

If you have a group that you think would actually be into the game and play it a lot, it's really worth it. If you have to peddle the game and force people into it, they aren't going to like it. If you can only get it played like 2-3 times, and it's with new players every time, it probably won't be worth buying.

I really wish this game would be on some electronic medium where I could just play games really fast online with timed turns or something. Matchmaking would be really cool too.

Thanks for this writeup! I do have a regular gaming group and some of them really like head to head competition, others less so. I'll keep thinking about it for a few more days I think.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 04:59

Impermanent: Apr 1, 2010

EvilChameleon posted:

What's the March of the Ants expansion like? Or, I guess if you haven't played it, could you post about it? I thought MotA was a nice game, wondering what the expansion does.

I actually got it off of the recommendations of this thread, so I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants on how it'll actually play out. I just heard "good, involved 4x game" and backed. The expansion adds some cards that look like they'll increase tactical engagement in combat (which probably won't mean too much because my normal opponents lean against antagonism in games like this) but also a few "predator insects" which I guess are strong units you can use. We'll see! But I have a soft spot for a good area control game which makes me buy them even when few people I regularly play with like that style of game. it's all euros and The Colonists and Vital Lacerda over here.

Speaking of, classic Vinhos is still Vital's 2nd best game in my opinion. Not as good as Kanban, but frankly quite a bit better than The Gallerist. The Gallerist is fun but it moves ponderously compared to Vital's other work, which speeds along merrily. Vinhos also has some of the most cutthroat scoring mechanisms of any boardgame. A good game if you want to make someone else in the room furious at you.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 05:55

Null1fy: Sep 11, 2001

Got my copy of Gloomhaven in the mail today. I feel like I got a year's worth of entertainment in a box. I sure hope my wife likes it. I sure hope it's fun with two players.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 06:32

Cthulhu Dreams: Dec 11, 2010; If I pretend to be Cthulhu no one will know I'm a baseball robot.

Null1fy posted:

Got my copy of Gloomhaven in the mail today. I feel like I got a year's worth of entertainment in a box. I sure hope my wife likes it. I sure hope it's fun with two players.

From the print and play the core combat mechanism works fine in 2 player

# ? Feb 4, 2017 06:49

Big McHuge: Feb 5, 2014; You wait for the war to happen like vultures.
If you want to help, prevent the war.
Don't save the remnants.
Save them all.

Saw a friend of mine playing his new copy of Gloomhaven the other night. It looked... fiddly. The hero minis looked pretty nice, are there plans to make them for the enemies as well?

# ? Feb 4, 2017 07:33

Impermanent: Apr 1, 2010

Big McHuge posted:

Saw a friend of mine playing his new copy of Gloomhaven the other night. It looked... fiddly. The hero minis looked pretty nice, are there plans to make them for the enemies as well?

nah there's 25 of those bad boys.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 07:34

angel opportunity: Sep 7, 2004; Total Eclipse of the Heart

gently caress I think I just convinced myself to burn $97 on FCM lol

# ? Feb 4, 2017 07:41

Cthulhu Dreams: Dec 11, 2010; If I pretend to be Cthulhu no one will know I'm a baseball robot.

Big McHuge posted:

Saw a friend of mine playing his new copy of Gloomhaven the other night. It looked... fiddly. The hero minis looked pretty nice, are there plans to make them for the enemies as well?

There are a few hundred bad guy standees so that would be super expensive. Someone worked out it would be $700 USD to buy it from Reaper minis in PVC at list price

# ? Feb 4, 2017 08:44

Corbeau: Sep 13, 2010; Jack of All Trades

So Tyrants of the Underdark is pretty good. If you can get past the color and layout choices, that is. Very enjoyable game - easily the best deckbuilder I know of! - but I think it gave me actual painful eye strain. I've almost never had that happen except from prolonged computer use in poor lighting, but trying to read Tyrants cards managed to do it.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 10:18

Afriscipio: Jun 3, 2013

discount cathouse posted:

german board game culture in a nutshell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwGi2XMel-0

Heh. My German friend found a box of her old childhood boardgames. That exact game is called "Don't Get Angry." We tried it, it's snakes and ladders with randomly loving over other players added to it.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 11:36

SixFigureSandwich: Oct 30, 2004; Exciting Lemon

I have that same game in a drawer at my parents' somewhere, it's a staple of old boardgame collections. It's also literally "roll a die, move one of your guys" and not really anything else.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 12:21

CaptainRightful: Jan 11, 2005

Isn't that Parcheesi?

# ? Feb 4, 2017 13:34

Pierzak: Oct 30, 2010

u brexit ukip it posted:

and not really anything else.

Wrong.
It is also a popular base to paste a P&P board on.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 13:36

Neurotic Roleplay: May 20, 2005

silvergoose posted:

As always, "Game is badly designed" and "I can find enjoyment playing game" are separate so don't yell at people for hating on a game you like.

I wasn't yelling at anyone, sorry you took it that way. I was essentially just making the point you made, giving a real example of a group of people who knows its bad game design wise but still enjoy it for what it is. i decided to call everyone fuckers because it's funny. I don't hate anyone here and I respect their opinions

# ? Feb 4, 2017 13:54

Magnetic North: Dec 15, 2008; Beware the Forest's Mushrooms

Neurotic Roleplay posted:

I don't hate anyone here and I respect their opinions

That was your first mistake.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 14:53

Neurotic Roleplay: May 20, 2005

in these troubling times its important to love and not hate

except rubitex

# ? Feb 4, 2017 15:00

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Ayy, someone at the local board game swap FB group has seen the light:

Cards Against Humanity (up to the Bigger Blacker Box) and Joking Hazard (just got an played once)... just giving to a nice home (maybe trade for Cave Troll - yeah, that's random). The shock value of these games are nice/funny initially but there are other things to play while drinking...

Been seen by most of the group already and no takers yet.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 15:13

Jedit: Dec 10, 2011; Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

CaptainRightful posted:

Isn't that Parcheesi?

Yeah, also known as Ludo to non-Yanks or Frustration in its 20th century incarnation from Milton Bradley.

Played a four-era solo game of The Colonists this morning. Starting colonies were Lord, Alchemist, Labourer and Scholar, most of which are weaker in a solo game - you get no benefits from the Ambassadors, and there was nothing that used the Fee. I positioned the Developer roughly in the middle and next to the Librarian, then went full Scholar and heavy on the Improvements. Finished with $273 if I did all the scoring right, but I'm sure I could do a lot better than that. It's definitely an interesting game.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 15:28

Rutibex: Sep 9, 2001; by Fluffdaddy

u brexit ukip it posted:

I have that same game in a drawer at my parents' somewhere, it's a staple of old boardgame collections. It's also literally "roll a die, move one of your guys" and not really anything else.

Afriscipio posted:

Heh. My German friend found a box of her old childhood boardgames. That exact game is called "Don't Get Angry." We tried it, it's snakes and ladders with randomly loving over other players added to it.

CaptainRightful posted:

Isn't that Parcheesi?

Its called Ludo, jeez thats like one of the basic elemental board games. How could people in this thread not recognize it instantly? Its like Chutes and Ladders, every kid has a Ludo set.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 15:36

homullus: Mar 27, 2009

Parcheesi being called Ludo elsewhere explains why Clue is called Cluedo elsewhere.

or, for non-Americans, Ludo being called Parcheesi in America is why Cluedo is simply called Clue here.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 15:44

ElNarez: Nov 4, 2009

I'm sorry, as someone who' lived in France for his whole life, I only know your "Ludo" as "Small Horses".

# ? Feb 4, 2017 15:49

Rutibex: Sep 9, 2001; by Fluffdaddy

homullus posted:

Parcheesi being called Ludo elsewhere explains why Clue is called Cluedo elsewhere.

or, for non-Americans, Ludo being called Parcheesi in America is why Cluedo is simply called Clue here.

My family is from England, my mother/grandmother always called it Ludo. I just assumed that's what everyone called it, I see the game everywhere :shrug:

# ? Feb 4, 2017 15:52

bobvonunheil: Mar 18, 2007; Board games and tea

discount cathouse posted:

german board game culture in a nutshell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwGi2XMel-0

Lost it at the mother telling her surly son "the game is called 'Man, Don't Get Angry' " after knocking his second piece back to the start

# ? Feb 4, 2017 15:55

silvergoose: Mar 18, 2006; IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS

Rutibex posted:

My family is from England, my mother/grandmother always called it Ludo. I just assumed that's what everyone called it, I see the game everywhere

Bad assumption, you should do more research before posting like that!

# ? Feb 4, 2017 15:56

al-azad: May 28, 2009

discount cathouse posted:

german board game culture in a nutshell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwGi2XMel-0

Oh, this is how serial killers and mass shooters are made.

It also looks like an opening scene from an 80s horror film. That kid is totally going to feed his cartoony snickering dad to the things living in the basement.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 16:26

Golden Bee: Dec 24, 2009; I came here to chew bubblegum and quote 'They Live', and I'm... at an impasse.

There's an online version of food chain magnate. Someone posted about it in this very thread. I would search but I'm on phone.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 20:17

gutterdaughter: Oct 21, 2010; keep yr head up, problem girl

http://play.boardgamecore.net/main.jsp

FCM, Antiquity, and Wir Sind Das Volk.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 20:24

angel opportunity: Sep 7, 2004; Total Eclipse of the Heart

Golden Bee posted:

There's an online version of food chain magnate. Someone posted about it in this very thread. I would search but I'm on phone.

woahhh, sick! Thanks, checking this out

# ? Feb 4, 2017 20:51

T-Bone: Sep 14, 2004; jakes did this?

Null1fy posted:

Got my copy of Gloomhaven in the mail today. I feel like I got a year's worth of entertainment in a box. I sure hope my wife likes it. I sure hope it's fun with two players.

I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a chit in my hand. I think it's the excitement only a man with 20 pounds between his two hands can feel, a man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can find someone else to play. I hope to see my wife finish a quest and not quit forever. I hope the game is as fun as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

T-Bone fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Feb 4, 2017

# ? Feb 4, 2017 21:03

fozzy fosbourne: Apr 21, 2010

T-Bone posted:

I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a chit in my hand. I think it's the excitement only a man with 20 pounds between his two hands can feel, a man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can find someone else to play. I hope to see my wife finish a quest and not quit forever. I hope the game is as fun as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

The answer, my friend, is to never play it. Then it will always be amazing.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 21:13

Jordan7hm: Feb 17, 2011; Lipstick Apathy

Elysium posted:

This is from a few pages back, and I haven't gone forward or checked to see if it was discussed further, but behold, the greatest board game reviewer of all time (RIP): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5fHzYtuHBA

I love him. I want more like him.

There was a guy posted about way back in the thread who also did really good reviews.

https://youtu.be/gehu_skcNXE

# ? Feb 4, 2017 21:36

Fellis: Feb 14, 2012; Kid, don't threaten me. There are worse things than death, and uh, I can do all of them.

Lord Hydronium posted:

On the subject of videos, any good gameplay videos of Tigris and Euphrates? I've read people saying it's good, but I can't really tell what the actual gameplay is like from text descriptions alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6kpuujBME

# ? Feb 4, 2017 22:09

TheNakedJimbo: Nov 18, 2004; If you die first, I am definitely going to eat you. The question is, if I die first...what are YOU gonna do?

I'm a teacher who posted a couple of weeks ago looking for games to play in my school's extended day program, with kids mostly 8-12 years old. Besides their all-time favorite, Love Letter Hobbit Edition, we currently have Mille Bornes (classic, and they love being able to wreck each other), Three Wishes (I think it's dumb, but they love it), Lost Legacy (they've also invented several house-rules variations which I think are really clever), Pairs (one of my personal favorites), and Sushi Go (took a while to catch on, but now they're all about it).

I'm pretty new to board gaming, and I just found out last Wednesday (thanks to, of all things, a Rutibex post) that there's a such thing as Print-and-Play games. My next move with the extended day group is going to be printing out a game for each of them - without me looking at the rules first - and tasking them with learning the game well enough to teach it to the rest of us. There are about half a dozen kids in the gaming group, and I've got at least that many games ready to go, but just wanted to ask if there any excellent PnP games for that age group I should be aware of. Ideally it'll be a game that plays fast, where you can complete a round in 5-10 minutes like Love Letter or Mille Bornes, but they may be up for tackling something up to 30 minutes. If there's interest I'll post a followup once things get underway; I'm kind of curious whether this is going to be awesome or a total disaster.

# ? Feb 4, 2017 23:25

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# ? May 14, 2024 08:24

Dancer: May 23, 2011

TheNakedJimbo posted:

I'm a teacher who posted a couple of weeks ago looking for games to play in my school's extended day program, with kids mostly 8-12 years old. Besides their all-time favorite, Love Letter Hobbit Edition, we currently have Mille Bornes (classic, and they love being able to wreck each other), Three Wishes (I think it's dumb, but they love it), Lost Legacy (they've also invented several house-rules variations which I think are really clever), Pairs (one of my personal favorites), and Sushi Go (took a while to catch on, but now they're all about it).

I'm pretty new to board gaming, and I just found out last Wednesday (thanks to, of all things, a Rutibex post) that there's a such thing as Print-and-Play games. My next move with the extended day group is going to be printing out a game for each of them - without me looking at the rules first - and tasking them with learning the game well enough to teach it to the rest of us. There are about half a dozen kids in the gaming group, and I've got at least that many games ready to go, but just wanted to ask if there any excellent PnP games for that age group I should be aware of. Ideally it'll be a game that plays fast, where you can complete a round in 5-10 minutes like Love Letter or Mille Bornes, but they may be up for tackling something up to 30 minutes. If there's interest I'll post a followup once things get underway; I'm kind of curious whether this is going to be awesome or a total disaster.

http://cheapass.com/free-games/timeline/
Longer than ten minutes, but I think 20 minutes would be a particularly long round. Easy to PnP because it's basically only cards (you can print -> stick onto a magic card -> sleeve, and you have a pretty solid quality deck).

# ? Feb 4, 2017 23:38

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