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I wanted Yamatai so bad because it looks so pretty, but no one has had anything good to say. 
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Jul 18, 2017 15:05
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Kashuno posted:I wanted Yamatai so bad because it looks so pretty, but no one has had anything good to say. I have. My copy has already hit the table four or five times and nobody has been as negative as you guys.
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Jul 18, 2017 15:08
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I disagree on the negativity towards Yamatai, although honestly I struggle to explain why. I think it's better than core Five Tribes although I'm of the opinion that the Thieves expansion bumps up that game from a dry 5 to an exciting 9. Yamatai isn't a point salad, unless the definition has changed radically on me. There are only two actions that score with no hidden objectives, set collection, or any other hallmarks of a point salad. A 3 or 4 player game probably won't end with more than 30 points and I have yet to see a game where the spread wasn't greater than +/- 2 because economy is much smaller. The turn order structure is far superior to Five Tribes' auction which just exists as a trap to new players. From a balance standpoint it allows the last player, who will likely get screwed on taking resources or prime building spots, to set up both their current and next turn or force the hand o the players that go before them to choose weaker actions if they want to stay first in initiative. In Five Tribes you can only really plan around the player next to you in turn order, but in Yamatai your actions have farther reaching consequences. Clearing islands gives players the chance to build, building the red buildings gives players the chance to chain next to them, and dropping gold boats in open spots creates a rush to chain from it. The powers are crucial, none of them are bad or subpar. Socking away a building prevents another player poised to build it from doing so. Rearranging the top three lets you control what comes out, either clogging the building pool with things people can't work towards or (since it's a high initiative action) letting you setup a build you'll probably be able to complete. Destroying boats lets you place in that spot to cover an island that was completely surrounded. And yeah the specialist powers are highly situational, but all are at least worth a point or two. The resource tiles are there for players who can't get to a building and with a strict limit on resources and 2 coins on a specialist per turn, the game balances itself to give a return even when a specialist can't immediately help you. They're like the djinn in Five Tribes in this way, they're still worth points. After a half dozen or so players I struggle to think of critical thoughts for it other than "I disagree" but it gives me a better feeling than Five Tribes was when I first played it. I disagree entirely on the decision tree, every decision is impactful. But I think the initial problem (and my first reaction) is that Yamatai is a low stakes game. Your best move may be to score 6 points in a game that will end with a high score of ~25. You're nickle and diming to squeeze as much economy out of your actions as possible because unlike Five Tribes where it's practically impossible not to score every move, getting at least 1 point per turn in Yamatai is absolutely crucial. Compared to core Five Tribes, this is the game I would introduce. I'll always play Five Tribes with the expansion. As far as Yamatai stands in the pantheon of board games, it's a tougher sell for me as I lean towards the heavier stuff. It's not here to replace Through the Desert or other route building games, but it's pretty and interesting. I think the core game is far superior to boring rear end Kingdom Builder a lot of people love.
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Jul 18, 2017 15:37
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RA is good. My group discovered a couple of strategies and counter-strategies last night. A lot of fun, emergent complexity out of an elegant ruleset.
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Jul 18, 2017 15:47
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Anyone have experience with Leaving Earth? The art is super slick and the gameplay looks really good from Youtube videos.
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Jul 18, 2017 16:31
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COOL CORN posted:Anyone have experience with Leaving Earth? The art is super slick and the gameplay looks really good from Youtube videos.
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Jul 18, 2017 16:44
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Tekopo posted:Yep: it's not really a game and more of an experience/exercise. The victory conditions for competitive gameplay are kind of weak, but it's fun trying to calculate what you need where and how to perform certain missions. Basically my opinion of High Frontier. Nonsense as a competitive game but fun to explore.
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Jul 18, 2017 16:57
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CSI has Corcondia back in stock, if anyone here was waiting. http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/197744
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Jul 18, 2017 19:01
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COOL CORN posted:Anyone have experience with Leaving Earth? The art is super slick and the gameplay looks really good from Youtube videos. Just play Factorio on the PC and call it a day. At least the computer does the math for you.
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Jul 18, 2017 19:34
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If there is a good version of Factorio as a board game I will never play anything else.
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Jul 18, 2017 19:58
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isaac childres named factorio as one of his inspirations for his new euro kickstarter.
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Jul 18, 2017 20:00
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COOL CORN posted:Anyone have experience with Leaving Earth? The art is super slick and the gameplay looks really good from Youtube videos. I'm gonna agree with Tekopo (as usual) on Leaving Earth. It's got absolutely gorgeous art and a unique way of making the solar system feel different every time you play it thanks to the way it has multiple cards for things like Low Earth Orbit, the Moon surface, or what's on Mars. The experience it generates is really cool to me. That said...it's not great for playing against other people. The victory condition (score more points by completing missions) generally penalizes you for completing low-point missions since any time you complete a mission, everyone else gets $10,000 and immediately get to spend it. There's also pretty much only one way to interact with other players, and it's almost always to one person's disadvantage. So generally it means everyone is gunning for the highest-point missions and there's very little secrecy since everyone can see what tech you're developing and testing. I do a lot of solo stuff with it because I'm a sucker for space, and the theme/art are 100% my poo poo. However, you can try doing a co-op game in which people are essentially given roles (such as Program Director, Research and Development, or Engineering), and each aspect of the game is managed by that player. I've done that a couple times, and if your friends enjoy crunchy, brain-burning math problems as everyone decides whether to develop multi-stage rockets or ion thrusters and what mass/thrust calculations are necessary to reach Mars, it can be a unique way to spend your time at the table.
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Jul 18, 2017 20:02
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SettingSun posted:I finally got the expansion decks to Tyrants of the Underdark in the mail. Say what you will about the base game, but I have a bone to pick with the quality of the expansion. The new cards are of different make. They are thicker and are glossed rather than matte. This deepens their color as well. This makes them completely impossible to integrate with the base cards, a serious crime for a deck builder. I don't think even sleeves could help here. When I bought the harbor expansion to machi koro I got cards that were a slightly different size and it drives me absolutely loving insane
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Jul 18, 2017 20:05
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Skypie posted:I do a lot of solo stuff with it because I'm a sucker for space, and the theme/art are 100% my poo poo. Wicked same. Might pick it up for that reason.
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Jul 18, 2017 20:07
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al-azad posted:I disagree on the negativity towards Yamatai, although honestly I struggle to explain why. I think it's better than core Five Tribes although I'm of the opinion that the Thieves expansion bumps up that game from a dry 5 to an exciting 9. I guess a few things, I agree it's not a point salad per se and I probably shouldn't have called it as such, but there's definitely a couple different strategies to focus on and earn points even those those are all the same "points" for the most part. It's maybe light-ish salad at most. I also agree and mentioned the turn-order structure is actually pretty drat novel and cool. I think it's a fair and neat improvement (and much better than ~auctioning turn order~ like FT); however, I felt seeing the exact same alternating set of turn-order tokens was pretty dull, especially in a 2P game because you just run through almost the exact set each time. I don't know if there's a way they could have implemented duplicate 1-10 turn-tokens but with different powers or something. I still dislike the Specialists, I felt Djinns in FT added a lot more variety and power to the game and this is mostly just weak conciliation "ok you didn't build but you could enough for a 1 pt Specialist!" But yes, at it's core you are right that I think it's a very low stakes game and making "0.5 point plays" is unexciting and that the spread typically comes down very small makes it feel like you are not really making exciting or big plays (nor can you). Some people may prefer this and games where everyone comes in very close and the only difference is eeking out a slight advantage 1 pt here or there, that's alright and sounds like that you'rs type of jam. Nothing wrong in that. But for me I dislike this (there is a balance to be had of course) since I never felt like I was able to do anything exciting (except for the first ~30 minutes or so which was actually pretty fun) and after that mostly just sort of same-y-same, and given how long the game can take I was pretty much checked out both times by the end. I agree it's a lot better than Kingdom Builder though! Xaris fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Jul 18, 2017 |
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Jul 18, 2017 20:16
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Kashuno posted:If there is a good version of Factorio as a board game I will never play anything else. speculation is the next Splotter game will be factorio-esque.
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Jul 18, 2017 20:25
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I'm comfortable saying Yamatai only works with four. A three player game was jarring enough, at two I can see how it would be utterly boring. With four you'll cycle through the actions faster, the board state changes rapidly, and fighting over turn order is more exciting.
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Jul 18, 2017 20:34
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^^^ I'm pretty sure you were playing it wrong with two. Two players take two actions each turn, so the fleets cycle at the same rate as in 4-player.Doorknob Slobber posted:When I bought the harbor expansion to machi koro I got cards that were a slightly different size and it drives me absolutely loving insane Why? Machi Koro is a tableau builder, you never have to make a deck of the cards.
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Jul 18, 2017 20:36
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Jedit posted:^^^ I'm pretty sure you were playing it wrong with two. Two players take two actions each turn, so the fleets cycle at the same rate as in 4-player. It makes it a market row, so you do have to shuffle it. Also it sucks and destroys the game.
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Jul 18, 2017 20:39
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Silly question but have any of you ever been to CruiseCon? Did you have fun? I dunno why but I feel like something like CruiseCon kinda defeats the purpose of going on a cruise if you're mainly going so you can play tabletop games, but I assume anyone that drops the cash to go to something like that is going to make sure to do other cruise-related poo poo too aside from just the tabletop gaming part.
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Jul 18, 2017 20:43
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How does Scythe play at 2 players? Or is it much better with higher player counts?
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Jul 18, 2017 21:17
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Henker posted:How does Scythe play at 2 players? Or is it much better with higher player counts? It's playable, but just okay with 2 players. There's generally much less interaction on a 2 player board, with exception to fighting over the factory. The game really shines with 4-5 players, as the territory control aspect of the game is a lot more pronounced.
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Jul 18, 2017 21:26
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Henker posted:How does Scythe play at 2 players? Or is it much better with higher player counts? Two player Scythe works fine but depending on what races you get it'll either be multiplayer solitaire or a melee. It's way better at higher counts but two player is fine for general play and/or learning.
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Jul 18, 2017 21:28
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Kashuno posted:If there is a good version of Factorio as a board game I will never play anything else. Roads & Boats, except your conveyer belts/robot arms are assorted donkeys and vehicles, and other players can steal your poo poo. Great game.
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Jul 18, 2017 22:01
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Kashuno posted:If there is a good version of Factorio as a board game I will never play anything else. Founders of Gloomhaven is supposed to be factorio-esque, where you're turning raw goods into finished goods via a collective combination city/conveyor belt. Alternatively there's Roads & Boats
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Jul 18, 2017 22:03
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taser rates posted:Roads & Boats, except your conveyer belts/robot arms are assorted donkeys and vehicles, and other players can steal your poo poo. Great game. poo poo -> ducks Do not let your ducks sit in an unguarded duck pond, you will regret it.
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Jul 18, 2017 22:03
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Has anyone played this game before? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/337635364/railroads-a-game-for-dealmakers/description My friends and I are really tempted to get it to play the game and for any 18xx games on it. The board is beautiful and it sounds like an 18xx derivative but $300 for that huge board is pretty steep too.
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Jul 18, 2017 23:16
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Out of curiosity, does Ares usually have stock or demos for War of the Ring at Gen Con? Interested in testing it out before I dump $100 and I'd like to see if my fiancee digs it since she's a huge LotR dork
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Jul 18, 2017 23:19
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Skypie posted:Out of curiosity, does Ares usually have stock or demos for War of the Ring at Gen Con? Interested in testing it out before I dump $100 and I'd like to see if my fiancee digs it since she's a huge LotR dork They usually have stock but I've never seem them demo it.
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Jul 19, 2017 00:30
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Triskelli posted:Founders of Gloomhaven is supposed to be factorio-esque, where you're turning raw goods into finished goods via a collective combination city/conveyor belt. There's also The Colonists, but this thread seems to have been super-quiet lately about it after the initial flurry of interest (I've only played one 1-era game myself and I liked but didn't love it).
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Jul 19, 2017 01:14
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Got Patchwork as an early birthday present last night. I mostly play board games with my girlfriend, so a custom-built two-player game works great (we've played it before, but it's such a handy game to have in a collection). I won our first game by a great margin, I think on the back of getting a good income early. Neither of us ended up earning the 7x7 card, though I didn't really need it. It's a great, pretty light game, the simple mechanic of arranging shapes is tactile and satisfying. Makes me awful keen to try out A Feast for Odin and see how Rosenberg builds on the concept as one part of a big beefy experience.
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Jul 19, 2017 01:22
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The Narrator posted:Got Patchwork as an early birthday present last night. I mostly play board games with my girlfriend, so a custom-built two-player game works great (we've played it before, but it's such a handy game to have in a collection). I won our first game by a great margin, I think on the back of getting a good income early. Neither of us ended up earning the 7x7 card, though I didn't really need it. A Feast for Odin is not very much like Patchwork.
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Jul 19, 2017 01:29
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Jedit posted:Why? Machi Koro is a tableau builder, you never have to make a deck of the cards. They don't match, its annoying
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Jul 19, 2017 01:39
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homullus posted:A Feast for Odin is not very much like Patchwork. No, but you can draw a line from Rosenberg designing Patchwork and then deciding to use the shape-arranging mechanic in in Feast for Odin. I know they're very different games, I'm just interested in seeing the evolution from "this is a neat little concept" to the concept being used as one part of a bigger game. edit: for instance, in AFFO you're incentivised to leave gaps in some places so you can get free resources, there's some pieces that decidedly are not allowed to be in contact with each other, etc. The Narrator fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Jul 19, 2017 |
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Jul 19, 2017 01:51
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Memnaelar posted:There's also The Colonists, but this thread seems to have been super-quiet lately about it after the initial flurry of interest (I've only played one 1-era game myself and I liked but didn't love it). it's still super good it just is also like an 8 hour game and I have less weekends free for that in the summer.
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Jul 19, 2017 01:56
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The Narrator posted:No, but you can draw a line from Rosenberg designing Patchwork and then deciding to use the shape-arranging mechanic in in Feast for Odin. I know they're very different games, I'm just interested in seeing the evolution from "this is a neat little concept" to the concept being used as one part of a bigger game. I'm about 98% certain he started with a feast for odin and then as he worked through it he made the other games.
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Jul 19, 2017 01:57
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:I'm about 98% certain he started with a feast for odin and then as he worked through it he made the other games. Ah, I had no idea. Mea culpa.
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Jul 19, 2017 01:58
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The Narrator posted:Ah, I had no idea. Mea culpa. Well, you're right as well. Like he set up to make a big box worker placement game that involved tile placement and as he worked through this he spun out variants on the tile placement stuff. I feel like it would have be good if he had of spent some time on the occupations side of things as well though. It just feels half baked.
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Jul 19, 2017 02:10
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So I was looking through the list of games based on player counts but there are so many. I'm looking for a game or two to play with the wife. We have a good group going of gamers to play gloomhaven, pandemic legacy, dead of winter, ticket to ride, mansions of madness and a few others but not many games that scale down to the two of us. Well gloomhaven but we are playing that in a campaign. We have been playing through Sherlock Holmes consulting detective which is good but I was hoping for something a little... gamier? I know when people posted that list many pointed out that there could be other games that are good but they are "better" with three so won't make the list. I'm hoping for something either cooperative or competitive but if competitive then nothing insane like in Cataan you are just cockblocking poo poo. I don't know if I'm really narrowing it down. How different is descent with the app va. mansions of madness with the app? Does descent work well with two? I saw castles of burgundy as well, how competitive is this?
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Jul 19, 2017 02:14
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teacup posted:So I was looking through the list of games based on player counts but there are so many. I'm looking for a game or two to play with the wife. Also does she like abstract games? I really like Santorini, heard Tak is a good choice too. And Hive. But not everyone likes abstract games. There's also 7 Wonders : Duel, Castles of Burgundy, and Dominion (best with 2 imo). Twilight Struggle is a pretty beefy game but it's a gold-standard 2P game. For co-op: you already have Pandemic Legacy so these may be redundant in some respect, but I like Pandemic: The Cure (a more quick portable and faster game) as well as Pandemic Iberia is fun two as well. For something different, there's Eldritch Horror which can easily run 3-5 hrs if that's not a problem. There's also Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Island (too simple imo). Xaris fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Jul 19, 2017 |
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Jul 19, 2017 02:21
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