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If it really plays in 15 minutes per player, it seems like it will be a big departure from Argent. That's my only real dig on that game, it still takes us a long time and so we don't really have room for more Argent. But this sounds different, so I'm intrigued. I kind of recall Trey posting much shorter playtime estimates for Argent than we ended up seeing, too, though. Hmmm.
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Feb 10, 2017 18:47
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GrandpaPants posted:I'm normally excited for Argent the train game since adding powers to a worker placement game was a great fun time. Archon and Tuscany do exactly the same thing with 100% less Harry Potter.
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Feb 10, 2017 18:47
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Bottom Liner posted:Carcassonne is the only game we house rule. We do two stacks of tiles and the top of each is face up, adds a ton of strategy and thinking about what to do/what to let your opponent have. Tikal has an auction version which might work well for this. You flip tiles = players and bid victory points for tile selection order, simultaneously. Ties are evaluated from first player, which moves every round. Start with 20 points.
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Feb 10, 2017 18:52
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Jedit posted:Archon and Tuscany do exactly the same thing with 100% less Harry Potter. Check out this informed, factually accurate take.
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Feb 10, 2017 19:52
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jivjov posted:Dominion.games is the official online implementation. It's still a little beta-ish, but functional. To follow up, where is the best place for dominion discussion these days?
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Feb 10, 2017 20:13
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http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/
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Feb 10, 2017 20:23
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Viticulture Essential plus Tuscany Essential is a super game  I like Viticulture a lot but Tuscany makes it much more of a gamer's game, it's really well done and hums nicely together.
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Feb 10, 2017 20:52
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And a Dominion thread in this very forum as well: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3803643&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=6
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Feb 10, 2017 21:05
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Mister Sinewave posted:Viticulture Essential plus Tuscany Essential is a super game Just got these in the mail yesterday after seeing they were sold out everywhere but CSI, excited to give them a shot. Probably try a solo game without Tuscany tonight to get the hang of it.
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Feb 10, 2017 21:19
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Mister Sinewave posted:Viticulture Essential plus Tuscany Essential is a super game I've played a lot of Viticulture and only one game of Tuscany and I'm curious how other Viti veterans feel about something I've been noticing more and more, which is how goddam swingy and random the cards are. What I mean is that, I've gone games where I've been drawing like crazy to try and get a red/white grape but all I can get is one of the two, or every visitor card I've gotten is garbage/inappropriate, and/or every order is borderline unobtainable. My other Viti fanatic friend agrees as much but sees no solution beyond working with the randomness. My solution was to try and house rule or create a market row of sort with the grape and order cards, whereby you could choose from X amount available (maybe based on the player count?) in an attempt to avoid just blind drawing and ending up with crap after crap. At least Tuscany gives you a way to get rid of bad cards for various things, but Viticulture Essentials seems utterly kneecapped by the random draws. I still love the game and think it's great but I'm starting to sour on certain aspects.
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Feb 10, 2017 21:38
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It's certainly possible to get nailed to the wall by a player that lucks into some really good card draws. But drawing visitor cards and using them is just another type of resource; if you ignore them and allow another player to take all he or she wants then they will be at an advantage as a result. That being said, it is absolutely possible to play Viticulture and practically ignore the cards (obviously, use the ones you get that are worth using but don't go out of your way to get them) and still be competitive regardless of what grapes you do or don't draw. It's not the easy route, but it absolutely can be done. Going through the solo "campaign mode" in Viticulture Essential will guaranteed develop those skills. With Tuscany Essential here are the main changes:
Even in Tuscany it's possible to use a strategy of Cottage (for visitors every year) plus whatever else you can to churn through and play as many cards as possible to seek out the most combos and bonuses. However I think this is really most effective when other players let a player do it -- i.e. no one competes with them to get or play cards at all and they can do it all they please. It's possible to be competitive without aggressively pursuing cards but ultimately Viticulture is a card-enabled game. With Tuscany it's much more of a gamer's game but the same roots are under there. Still, I maintain it's a great game and I say this as someone who finds the cards tiresome. I like the idea of lessening the impact of cards but I don't think a market row is the solution because that would just turn the game into a cherry-picking contest where people can snipe after whatever suits them best without the risk of drawing crap; i.e. it would increase the impact of cards on the game, not lessen it.
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Feb 10, 2017 22:11
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Gzuz-Kriced posted:I know this has come up before, but I wasn't able to find the recommendations. My wife and I met another couple who are interested in board games, but are also very new to them. They've only played playing card games and Ticket to Ride. The problem is that their english isn't super so I was looking for games with little to no language dependency. Dude who wanted 4 player games for newbies with very little explaination: Cottage Garden Mysterium Pandemic Lanterns Dice City China Town La Boca Thebes Splendor All pretty easy to teach and get people heading in the right direction in terms of what is out there. Texibus fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Feb 10, 2017 |
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Feb 10, 2017 22:56
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Mysterium is a great choice. No text at all.
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Feb 10, 2017 23:09
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Gonna add Uptown, plays in 30ish minutes, is a pretty basic abstract that takes <5 minutes to explain, no text other than row letters, and it's pretty vicious while being very easy to play.
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Feb 10, 2017 23:26
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After some month of it gathering dust, I have finally found the time to give Not Alone a go. It's good, y'all. Quick, portable, easy to explain, scales really well (2-7 players) and offers a nice mix of deduction and bluffing. It's basically like a reverse scotland yard/whitechapel style game so distilled it doesn't bother with the spatial aspect. If there's any caveat to it, try to get a decent player count for the learning game - it can feel very unfair for the survivors until they grok how to be slippery in few turns. The two player game in particular can be really tight - liie, say, two player Coup.
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Feb 10, 2017 23:55
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Coup, Love Letter, Dixit and Sushi Go are all 4p games that are consistently hits with just about every group I've played with. Dixit relies more on familiarity with one another than language. e: they are all card games though so maybe not what you're looking for. I find cards are much more approachable for people though.
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Feb 11, 2017 00:00
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Since every game I've been even remotely interested in lately has sold out and otherwise been unavailable since release I'm gonna be ground-floor on 2 Argent 2 Furious.
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Feb 11, 2017 02:03
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Thanks for the extra replies. My wife hates Coup and virtually any other game you need to lie, so that's a no go. But almost all the others I either have and forgot about or are now on my wishlist. We both have young kids so I'll probably pick games that have less tiny pieces but most of these seem to be fine. On a side note, I played Fiasco for the first time last weekend and it's the bees knees. I wasn't sure if our group was right for it and it took a while for people to get a good feel for it, but then everyone had a lot of fun and seemed interested in playing it more.
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Feb 11, 2017 02:20
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Kai Tave posted:Since every game I've been even remotely interested in lately has sold out and otherwise been unavailable since release Seriously, this trend is getting annoying as gently caress. Everything is getting snatched up super fast and becoming impossible to get unless you get lucky on day one or Kickstart it. Scythe, A Feast for Odin, The Colonists, Star Wars Destiny, Gloomhaven. The industry is growing at record rates but publishers are not even coming close to keeping up (and leaving money on the floor because of it). It really fucks over anyone that wants to wait and see if things are actually good before buying.
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Feb 11, 2017 02:21
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Bottom Liner posted:Seriously, this trend is getting annoying as gently caress. Everything is getting snatched up super fast and becoming impossible to get unless you get lucky on day one or Kickstart it. Scythe, A Feast for Odin, The Colonists, Star Wars Destiny, Gloomhaven. The industry is growing at record rates but publishers are not even coming close to keeping up (and leaving money on the floor because of it). It really fucks over anyone that wants to wait and see if things are actually good before buying. That's why you have friends that buy/Kickstart these games as soon as possible. I'm glad that at least these hyped games are actually living up to the hype. I'm the idiot who bought Panic Station and Dark Moon before people realized they were crap.
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Feb 11, 2017 02:39
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I have unplayed games and am rather more trigger happy than I should be pretty much because of a you snooze you lose kind of environment when it comes to modern cardboard.
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Feb 11, 2017 02:49
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Just ordered Not Alone, Scythe Expansion and Great Zimbabwe. Life is good. Also played 1775 and Ice Cool over the weekend. Had a good time with both, but boy howdy is Ice Cool simply adorable and accessible.
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Feb 11, 2017 03:14
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Bottom Liner posted:Seriously, this trend is getting annoying as gently caress. Everything is getting snatched up super fast and becoming impossible to get unless you get lucky on day one or Kickstart it. Scythe, A Feast for Odin, The Colonists, Star Wars Destiny, Gloomhaven. The industry is growing at record rates but publishers are not even coming close to keeping up (and leaving money on the floor because of it). It really fucks over anyone that wants to wait and see if things are actually good before buying. To be fair, I can completely understand that nobody wants to be the one holding the bag on the boardgaming equivalent of the ET Atari fiasco, designer boardgaming as a mainstream American hobby is still comparatively new, but some reprints would be nice.
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Feb 11, 2017 03:28
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Bottom Liner posted:Seriously, this trend is getting annoying as gently caress. Everything is getting snatched up super fast and becoming impossible to get unless you get lucky on day one or Kickstart it. Scythe, A Feast for Odin, The Colonists, Star Wars Destiny, Gloomhaven. The industry is growing at record rates but publishers are not even coming close to keeping up (and leaving money on the floor because of it). It really fucks over anyone that wants to wait and see if things are actually good before buying. I imagine it drives them nuts too, though - at a local board gaming convention I saw stacks of stuff going for 1/3 retail price or less just because they didn't catch the public imagination. Like Porta Nigra came out here (Australia) for about $100 retail and was being sold for $30, with like fifty for sale. Someone is wearing that cost. Feast for Odin should have been a shoe in but in the past I've seen similar discounted stacks for Glass Road and Ora et Labora, so even big names probably aren't a sure thing. I seem to remember understood print runs are really expensive for everyone in the chain due to storage and logistics combined with tight profit margins. God knows how many sold copies of Gloomhaven 100 unsold ones cancel out given all the stuff in the box.
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Feb 11, 2017 04:11
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Sometimes I wonder if the hobby should move to packaging games in the smallest boxes possible, so that the industry doesn't have to worry as much about warehouse space, shipping, storage, etc.
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Feb 11, 2017 04:15
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Clearly all games should be paper maps and chits, hex and counter supremacy
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Feb 11, 2017 04:17
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I fit all of buildings from The Colonists in three GMT counter trays, which also fits in the coffin box along with all the other poo poo (although I had to shave the trays a bit on the sides to prevent bulging). The rest of the setup for the game really isn't that bad as long as you have some dishes for the resources, so I'm pretty satisfied with this solution.
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Feb 11, 2017 04:28
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Sometimes I wonder if the hobby should move to packaging games in the smallest boxes possible, so that the industry doesn't have to worry as much about warehouse space, shipping, storage, etc.
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Feb 11, 2017 05:12
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Sometimes I wonder if the hobby should move to packaging games in the smallest boxes possible, so that the industry doesn't have to worry as much about warehouse space, shipping, storage, etc. It absolutely should for those reasons and others (environmental concerns, storing for owners, etc.), but games with smaller boxes sell less. Capitalism is a blight.
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Feb 11, 2017 05:26
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Every game of Pandemic: Iberia I've played so far has ended in a loss with less than one full round to go before we were going to research all 4 diseases. Iberia is a good Pandemic variant y'all.
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Feb 11, 2017 05:31
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Have played two 2-player games of Keyflower in the last two days, doubling my previous playcount since I got the game a year or so ago. Game's good y'all! I seem to recall not 'getting' the game to start with (as far as seeing the winter tiles first-up so you can adapt your strategy from there, buying the tiles you *really* need for that strategy so you're not constantly bleeding keyples, etc). I've won both games 55-45 and 78-36 - my gaming partner hasn't been as into the game as I have so she's slower off the mark to really get a gameplan going. edit: I also finally took my new copy of Captain Sonar for a spin the other day, I'll just cross-post my after-action report/thoughts on it from another thread: The Narrator posted:We got real-time two games in. Because we were at 7 players, I took on the combined captain-first mate role in game 1, my friend who had a decent grasp of the game took on that role in game 2 (I played as Radio Operator). The Narrator fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 05:39
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I'm actually really glad I got to play Captain Sonar because it convinced me pretty hard that I'm just not into real-time games that much anymore. When I'd read about it without playing I was thinking how it sounded like some really awesome game I'd probably never ever get to play. Then I got to play it by chance like a month ago, and I was really excited, and I just didn't like it at all once we got going. The "STOP!" clunkiness was one of the biggest faults for sure to me. One guy was arguing pretty hard that he should be able to think and discuss a bit with his crew after yelling STOP! which no one else agreed with, but he said "The game doesn't work if you don't do that" and refused to play by the spirit of the rule. You could argue that it was just one annoying guy ruining the game, but I think that it's simply not a tight enough design and it does leave it up to players to enforce or make certain judgement calls about what is or isn't allowed. Even if that problem were solved somehow, I simply did not find the act of playing the game itself very fun. I tried one as captain and one as engineer. Captain was a bit more fun--but still not super fun--while engineer was incredibly tedious and not interesting really. Even when we managed to work together, find the other sub, and hit it with a torpedo, I didn't really feel any satisfaction from it. I could MAYBE see myself getting into this if I had a regular group of actual friends who I like hanging out with anyway who wanted to play this. Playing it with boardgame group people that I don't know too well was pretty rough. It definitely feels more like a party game than anything else. I'm really glad I didn't buy the game for some reason and try to force other non-boardgame people to play it with the, "I promise it will be fun once we get going" type talk.
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Feb 11, 2017 05:52
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Wasn't there at some point a list of good board game apps for phones/tablets? I seem to vaguely recall someone was curating something like that.
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Feb 11, 2017 06:14
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We had a similar experience with "stop," where it would be followed by an immediate little discussion among the ship to make the final call. I might just say for the next game that no-one else can speak until the person who called "stop" makes their call. Agree that there's a huge ambiguity in how the rules are enforced which can negatively impact the game because suddenly you all have to make an arbitrary ruling. I think it's definitely a game that will be better with a consistent core of players (as it should be for my group, I think) who understand how the game works, agree on how certain things should be resolved, can get right into playing, and are confident enough to constantly talk, send information back-and-forth, etc. I also recognise that it's a highly situational game - being real-time doesn't leave any room for casual conversation as you play, the stress of constant information will put some people off, etc. It seems like a game for Type A personalities, in that as soon as you have someone who clams up or buckles under pressure (rather than working through that pressure) the whole crew is affected and the game becomes less enjoyable for it. I want to get another few plays in before I make a definitive call on the game, including turn-based - though I suspect a lot of the roles/interaction would be made fairly trivial without the real-time pressure.
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Feb 11, 2017 06:18
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dropkickpikachu posted:Every game of Pandemic: Iberia I've played so far has ended in a loss with less than one full round to go before we were going to research all 4 diseases. Seconding this. I played an early version of it some time in early 2016 or late 2015 and it was rad. Lots of neat changes to vanilla Pandemic. I haven't had a chance to play my copy of the finished version yet but I definitely recommend it based on the play test.
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Feb 11, 2017 06:19
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Kai Tave posted:Wasn't there at some point a list of good board game apps for phones/tablets? I seem to vaguely recall someone was curating something like that. Bottom liner has posted such a list several times.
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Feb 11, 2017 06:44
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heyo, list keeper here iOS board games (not saying they're all good games, but good app versions if you like the games), bolded are my favorite board game apps: Agricola Agricola: All Creatures Big And Small Tigres & Euphrates Puerto Rico San Juan Lost Cities Summoner War Ticket to Ride Ascension Carcassonne Galaxy Trucker Patchwork Pandemic Dominion Splendor Eclipse Twilight Struggle Le Harve Glass Road Lords of Waterdeep Small World Caylus Stone Age Neuroshima Hex Suburbia Castles of Mad King Ludwig Star Realms Warhammer Quest Galaxy of Trian Brass Scotland Yard Baseball Highlights 2045 Paperback Digital only games that I recommend for board gamers: New World Colony (Catan + Terra Mystica + 4xish) Polytopia (lite and fast 4x) Hero Academy (Chess + Fire Emblem) Guild of Dungeoneering (Kinda Mage Knight-ish) Coming soon to iOS: Terra Mystica Through the Ages Tokaido Codenames I'm really excited for Terra Mystica. Bottom Liner fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 06:47
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I just bought a copy of Food Chain Magnate online and all the whites (cards/board) look slightly beige to me. Is this a printing error or intentional and some older edition (and not as advertised)? I've played other people's copies and i swear they were white.
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Feb 11, 2017 08:06
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Fellis posted:I just bought a copy of Food Chain Magnate online and all the whites (cards/board) look slightly beige to me. Is this a printing error or intentional and some older edition (and not as advertised)? I've played other people's copies and i swear they were white. Steve bannon read this and now we're invading splotter hq.
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Feb 11, 2017 08:09
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I had a fantastic streak of good games with [b]Secret Hitler[b], both from seasoned gamers, Resistance vets, and non-gamers. After an ice breaker every new person really gets going and except for one game* I never had a stinker. *That one game involved 7 players, myself as Hitler. We managed to kill 2 liberals and we were rejected the Chancellor several times until it got to me and I figured out who the other fascist was... and the other fascist voted against me forcing the final liberal policy to flop out. We went through such a long series of nein's that I guess he got confused and mixed up his cards or something.
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Feb 11, 2017 08:19
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