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Sup boardgoons. It's been a while since I poked my head in here, but the board game itch is taking a hold of me again, and I feel like the time's right too start growing out my collection again. Here's a list of what I have, ignoring games I've kept out of nostalgia, and stuff like LCGs: King of Tokyo (no expansions) Agricola (no expansions) Robo Rally Dominion (1e base set, with Prosperity, Alchemy, and Guilds) Lord of the Rings (I don't think the expansions are even in print anymore) Cutthroat Caverns Twilight Struggle Ticket to Ride (no 1910 expansion yet) Ascension (look, a friend gave it to me for free, ok?) 7 Wonders (no expansions) Space Alert (no expansion) Carcassonne (with Traders and Builders) The Resistance (with Kickstarter expansions, plus Avalon as a travel copy) Two Rooms and a Boom (have the Kickstarter expansion, but waiting on a replacement due to marked card) Coup (no expansions) Love Letter The friends I play with aren't usually in the mood for a long board game; usually Agricola length is how long they can keep their attention on a game. (As a result, I've only been able to get Space Alert on the board a few times, and TS has only been brought out once  )Biggest hits tend to be The Resistance and Dominion (I have a friend with the 2e updates to base and Intrigue, along with Seaside and Hinterlands), with Ticket to Ride and (another friend's copy of) Cosmic Encounters getting some pretty decent playtime as well. So with all that in mind, what would be some good choices for growing out my collection?
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Aug 4, 2017 21:57
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| # ? May 25, 2024 20:42 |
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Lord of the rings? War of the ring? If you mean that, both expansions are about to pick up but I wouldn't bother as your group doesn't like long games. Take a peek at Gloomhaven. 1 hour ish legacy/campaign game. Might be right up your aisle. Goes retail in September. Castles of burgundy is a lightish game, easy to learn with lots of variety. Race for the galaxy had endless variety and plays well 2-4. Getting to grips with iconology of the is a pain the first few games and you'll have your head in the book a lot but it comes with a preset jump start to help new players. Power grid is really worth a look at.
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Aug 4, 2017 22:09
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I tend to push my group towards longer and heavier games but Istanbul and Isle of Skye are two really good medium-light ones I keep coming back to. In Istanbul you take turns walking around a bazaar, performing location-specific actions in a race to get to 5 rubies. It's great because the average turn takes less than 30 seconds, yet it still maintains reasonable depth. In Isle of Skye you build a little kingdom using tiles, and score different sets of features each round. Each round you draw some tiles from the bag and you must price them and offer them on sale. If you price them too low, you'll be hitting yourself because you could've gotten more money, and if you price them too high, you must pay that price to the bank, so you're hitting yourself again. Because every single tile acquired goes through this process, there's a lot of thinking about the other players at the table and what plans they might have. Finally, I would heartily recommend Broom Service. I qualify it as a medium game, it definitely does not have a complex rule-set, but the decision process can get hard at times, and the penalty for making the wrong decision can be harsh. You have two witches going around the map, collecting and delivering potions. The gist of how it functions: There are 10 action cards. In each round, each player selects 4 of the 10 that they will take with them. The leading player will announce what action they're taking, and everyone around the table must also take that action if they have it. The catch is that each action has a "cowardly" and a "brave" version you can choose to go for, whereas you can only go through with the brave version if no-one else decides to be brave after you. This leads to a lot of considerations whether you can risk losing an action entirely in exchange for the greater pay-off. Of note: The last player to call "brave" is the player who must lead the next card. This can be good (because you decide in what order the actions will happen), but it also leaves you with the entire rest of the table acting after you, so you'll probably have to be cowardly.
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Aug 4, 2017 22:18
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For LotR, I'm talking about this one: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/823/lord-rings It's a co-op board game that I got WAYYY back around Christmas 2000, so it's an original printing, and not the FFG rerelease that apparently shrunk components down. It's a cool game that captures the burden of getting the Ring to Mordor quite well, but I've only been able to pull it out a couple times. Gloomhaven sounds neat, but I have doubts about getting my friends together to run through a Legacy-style game; I've had trouble bringing them together consistently for RPG games in the past.
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Aug 4, 2017 22:19
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Ye I thought it might be the typical roll 5+ for a hit or something but the card combat and semi coop thing looks really good along with not being nailed to one character for 80+ missions.
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Aug 4, 2017 22:45
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NuclearPotato posted:The friends I play with aren't usually in the mood for a long board game; usually Agricola length is how long they can keep their attention on a game. (As a result, I've only been able to get Space Alert on the board a few times, and TS has only been brought out once Ethnos is basically Ticket To Ride: Better Edition (with a somehow less appealing theme) and also pretty cheap as far as designer games go.
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Aug 4, 2017 23:00
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So, goon sirs. I come to y'all hat in hand. I've mentioned a few times that I've been working on a game design called MELTWATER. Well good news is, in about 2 weeks, I'll be putting it in front of publishers at Gen Con. The awkward news is, I've recently stumbled across a couple important changes to the game, and I need to cram in some hardcore playtesting data before the con. And I'm a little short on local testers right now. Thankfully, Andarel has graciously put together a Tabletop Sim module for the most recent iteration. And that's where y'all come in. I need as many interested goon testers as I can cram together. If you're interested in testing Meltwater, please let me know and I'll hook you up with a copy of the module. Ideally, I'd like to personally sit in on as many sessions as I can, but if that can't be finagled, I can provide you with a testing sheet to mark things down on. The most recent version of the rules (v0.70) is here. For those of you who've played Meltwater before, we'll be looking at the following changes:
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Aug 4, 2017 23:05
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Good luck! I always liked MELTWATER. Something about it, possibly helped by the cold-war-ish vibe, always appealed to me.
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Aug 4, 2017 23:13
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NuclearPotato posted:Sup boardgoons. It's been a while since I poked my head in here, but the board game itch is taking a hold of me again, and I feel like the time's right too start growing out my collection again. Here's a list of what I have, ignoring games I've kept out of nostalgia, and stuff like LCGs: Depending on how much you like RoboRally, Mechs vs Minions is right up that alley.
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Aug 4, 2017 23:22
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NuclearPotato posted:The friends I play with aren't usually in the mood for a long board game; usually Agricola length is how long they can keep their attention on a game. (As a result, I've only been able to get Space Alert on the board a few times, what? space alert's literally 30 minutes if you stretch it: 5 to setup, 10 to run, 10 to resolve, 5 to argue about who to blame for your failure and put it away again
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Aug 4, 2017 23:53
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PlaneGuy posted:what? space alert's literally 30 minutes if you stretch it: 5 to setup, 10 to run, 10 to resolve, 5 to argue about who to blame for your failure and put it away again It's the tutorial that turns people off a bit. The fact that you have to play several cut-down games for the full game to make sense turns them off a little, I think.
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Aug 5, 2017 00:01
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Yeah, I've got Space Alert to the table for something like 4 different combinations of gaming friends, we go through the tutorials and I'm like "okay, now we're actually gonna play for real!" And they all groan and ask to play something else
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Aug 5, 2017 00:24
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After going through the tutorials with just one guy, I've gone through a fair number of people for Space Alert and I've been lucky enough to find several who could just grit their teeth and start with the full game (even if we only used the lowest tier of threats). Now whenever I feel like it there's a good chance there will only be one complete newbie at the table and the rest of us are comfortable enough explaining it so they just roll with it.
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Aug 5, 2017 00:28
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jivjov posted:Yeah, I've got Space Alert to the table for something like 4 different combinations of gaming friends, we go through the tutorials and I'm like "okay, now we're actually gonna play for real!" And they all groan and ask to play something else Yup. I like space alert but I'm probably going to sell it for that reason.
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Aug 5, 2017 00:28
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God I hate that book. look, figure out how the game works on your own, then yell this: SPACE ALERT TUTORIAL quote:Sound tells you what to do. Sometimes it makes you move to the next part of the action board (phase). Sometimes it'll tell me to draw cards and I'll play them and explain them1. Sometimes you get new cards or can give cards. Sometimes it's funny. THEN YOUR FIRST GAME before you start, offer to answer any rules questions during what is usually radio silence. this is a one-game only offer. use the pause button of your minidisc player to stop the sound explain new threat cards and what they do to the group. don't take too long to keep the pressure on. I know some people hate "just do it" and need to know everything before playing, but they aren't the kind to get bored during an rules explanation anyway. 1 DON'T YOU DARE EXPLAIN THEM NOW YOU PUTZ quick edit: learning/teaching the game from the tutorial book is like reading the rules aloud what are you thinking
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Aug 5, 2017 00:56
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Agreed. The best way to see space alert hit the table is to ignore the manual and jump in after a quick intro. Round 1 will be a disaster, and round 2 will be better. Just make sure you know the rules. But then, it's space alert, so round 17,584 will also be a disaster in the best way.
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Aug 5, 2017 04:42
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Ojetor posted:I'd say 3-4 is the sweet spot. Never played with 2 so I can't say for sure, but it doesn't seem like it would be a good 2p game as the various attack mechanics would suddenly become zero-sum. I have played with 5 a few times and found it way too chaotic with that many players, though still fun. I'd say the bigger issue with Argent at 5 players is it's going to turn a two hour or so game into a 3+ hour game, or at least that's been my experience. I've played a lot at 3 and some at 4 and I agree that this is the sweet spot to aim for. It doesn't play badly at 5 but I would absolutely recommend not trying to introduce four brand new players to Argent in a single 5-player game unless you just really don't have anything planned for the day and/or you don't care about causing severe burnout.
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Aug 5, 2017 08:18
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I've never played the tutorials for Space Alert, and I play with newbies all the time. I think the tutorials discourage play, because people have to learn how to play, then play the tutorial, then learn how to play all over again, having to remember the previous tutorial. Putting people into the deep end immediately is more effective, fun and gets people into the cycle of failure that you need in order to play Space Alert.
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Aug 5, 2017 10:14
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My modus operandi is skipping the tuts if playing with experienced gamer and using them if breaking in the casual crowd, as in the latter case there's inevitably someoneone who gets the central card mechanic wrong at a very base level. Also, the simplified game leaves me with more attention to spare for answering rules questions during the real time segment. Still, even when using the tutorials, I skip the last one, as it's pointlessly close to the full game.
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Aug 5, 2017 10:34
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I wish there was a space alert bot for Discord, I wonder how hard that would be actually...
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Aug 5, 2017 10:37
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Kai Tave posted:I'd say the bigger issue with Argent at 5 players is it's going to turn a two hour or so game into a 3+ hour game, or at least that's been my experience. I've played a lot at 3 and some at 4 and I agree that this is the sweet spot to aim for. It doesn't play badly at 5 but I would absolutely recommend not trying to introduce four brand new players to Argent in a single 5-player game unless you just really don't have anything planned for the day and/or you don't care about causing severe burnout. Yeah it can get sloggy with the amount of spell/counterspell and assessing the damage, that's why i like 3p. 4 is not bad and the university size is pretty cool to see, but AP prone players beware, as well, since the university tiles aren't fixed so you can't count on a certain room being out, and depending on how you decide which ones come out there may very well be a total lack of ability to really effectively gather certain things, like mana or gold Tekopo posted:I've never played the tutorials for Space Alert, and I play with newbies all the time. I think the tutorials discourage play, because people have to learn how to play, then play the tutorial, then learn how to play all over again, having to remember the previous tutorial. Putting people into the deep end immediately is more effective, fun and gets people into the cycle of failure that you need in order to play Space Alert. Hell yeah, dump them in the deep end. At most i strip the yellow encounters out.
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Aug 5, 2017 13:56
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At this point I'm basically holding onto Space Alert and Galaxy Trucker as a gamble that I will have kids who want to play them with me in a decade or so. It's hard to imagine a scenario where I play them with adults enough to be worthwhile. Edit: At this point I think leading a pack of newbies through Space Alert is marginally more fun than doing the same in Pandemic, although hypothetically more satisfying if we got to a third or fourth game. PerniciousKnid fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Aug 5, 2017 |
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Aug 5, 2017 18:50
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Alright folks, we played Tigris & Euphrates for the first time last night, and we had a miserable experience. I've heard it touted significantly here and elsewhere, so I'm a little concerned. Are there any commonly overlooked rules? How often do you think conflicts should be happening? I think part of the problem is people were trying to leverage external conflicts much harder than they should have been. I walked away with a pretty solid win because I tried to cull my hand before getting into any fights, but maybe the other players were just picking terrible fights.
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Aug 5, 2017 18:52
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I know some people were not super down with the Argent kickstarter because of the shipping costs, but they added some new tiers that make shipping for Canada, EU and Aus free so if you were just holding back because of shipping costs, you might want to go give it a second look. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/level99games/argent-the-consortium-2nd-ed
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Aug 5, 2017 18:57
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OmegaGoo posted:Alright folks, we played Tigris & Euphrates for the first time last night, and we had a miserable experience. I've heard it touted significantly here and elsewhere, so I'm a little concerned. In my experience, you usually have a couple of big external conflicts in the mid or late game to get points in your weak colors, though it depends on how the game plays out obviously. What was the problem you all had with it?
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Aug 5, 2017 19:28
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OmegaGoo posted:Alright folks, we played Tigris & Euphrates for the first time last night, and we had a miserable experience. I've heard it touted significantly here and elsewhere, so I'm a little concerned. Hard to compare since I don't know how your game went, but victory is based on having a balance of advancements. So the game should really be revolving around getting those, and conflicts surfacing as a possible way to get them but typically only if it's worth the cost (opportunity cost is a cost as well) involved.
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Aug 5, 2017 19:28
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A good tip if you're not enjoying T&E is to spend all your actions discarding and drawing tiles to end the game quicker.
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Aug 5, 2017 20:06
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OmegaGoo posted:Alright folks, we played Tigris & Euphrates for the first time last night, and we had a miserable experience. I've heard it touted significantly here and elsewhere, so I'm a little concerned. The one bad game I had had two players who just couldn't grasp any form of strategy for it and more or less took random actions
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Aug 5, 2017 21:44
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I'm going to check out discord too so don't jump on me for making this post now..... .... but does anyone want to play some FCM tonight (right away?)
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Aug 5, 2017 22:17
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So two things that happened that fit into what you guys have been saying: 1) One of the players decided that he wanted to force other people to battle. I think he expected us to waste resources in a way, but that's not really how conflicts work in T&E as far as I can tell. Doesn't the winner of an External Conflict usually just end up stronger? 2) An External Conflict happened late game that the attacker relied on the defender not having 2 Blue tiles. Considering that you have a hand of 6 tiles and there's only 4 colors, isn't it fairly conceivable that any player would have 2 of a given color? I think our major problem is that 2 of the players at the table really don't feel comfortable with area control style games. One last question: is there a first turn advantage in T&E? It seems like there could be, but I think it's fairly minor overall.
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Aug 5, 2017 23:45
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I played Cry Havoc today for the first time and I really liked it! Cool asymmetrical area control with deckbuilding elements that has some interesting twists to combat.
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Aug 6, 2017 01:54
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Tai posted:Take a peek at Gloomhaven. 1 hour ish legacy/campaign game. Might be right up your aisle. Goes retail in September. Gloomhaven is amazing but how are you getting set up, playing and finishing a scenario in an hour? We usually take around 3, sometimes 2-2.5 if it's a shorter scenario. An hour seems ludicrously fast.
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Aug 6, 2017 02:50
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malkav11 posted:Gloomhaven is amazing but how are you getting set up, playing and finishing a scenario in an hour? We usually take around 3, sometimes 2-2.5 if it's a shorter scenario. An hour seems ludicrously fast. Yeah, we usually take two hours, and I've got a dedicated gaming area where I never have to put things away really, so there's minimal setup/cleanup.
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Aug 6, 2017 05:17
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Ravendas posted:Yeah, we usually take two hours, and I've got a dedicated gaming area where I never have to put things away really, so there's minimal setup/cleanup. Was gonna say, having no teardown/setup really really helps, especially with legacy games. It's been a few pages, just reminding goons if they want to get in on Iron Clay chips: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3687728&pagenumber=1523&perpage=40#post475021048 Probably only going to post about this once or twice more before I commit in the pledge manager; no point in holding out for stragglers that aren't showing up. Again, the more people we get, the more it's shared across for a cheaper price.
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Aug 6, 2017 06:11
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malkav11 posted:Gloomhaven is amazing but how are you getting set up, playing and finishing a scenario in an hour? We usually take around 3, sometimes 2-2.5 if it's a shorter scenario. An hour seems ludicrously fast. If you prepare for it, Gloomhaven doesn't have much setup time at all. I have all the tokens in two Planos, one for terrain (obstacles, doors, traps, etc), a small one for combat tokens, coins and summons. These I can just pull out and leave on the table for use. I keep monster standees in two wargaming counter trays, which makes it easy to quickly get the standees I need (they lay flat and the cover is transparent). Terrain tiles are in an accordeon folder (alphabetized!), and we don't use the monster AI or modifier decks, we use this on my tablet. I keep all the player stuff in their character's box (items, modifier deck, etc.) to hand out. Our setup doesn't take more than 10-15 minutes, usually.
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Aug 6, 2017 06:51
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Ojetor posted:If you prepare for it, Gloomhaven doesn't have much setup time at all. I have all the tokens in two Planos, one for terrain (obstacles, doors, traps, etc), a small one for combat tokens, coins and summons. These I can just pull out and leave on the table for use. I keep monster standees in two wargaming counter trays, which makes it easy to quickly get the standees I need (they lay flat and the cover is transparent). Terrain tiles are in an accordeon folder (alphabetized!), and we don't use the monster AI or modifier decks, we use this on my tablet. I keep all the player stuff in their character's box (items, modifier deck, etc.) to hand out. Quoting this to find this link in two months
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Aug 6, 2017 06:57
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Question on Eminent Domain: if I take a role but the supply of that role is empty, do I still get a symbol? E.g. If I take Trade and don't boost it can I trade 1 or 0 resources?
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Aug 6, 2017 10:11
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Aston posted:Question on Eminent Domain: if I take a role but the supply of that role is empty, do I still get a symbol? E.g. If I take Trade and don't boost it can I trade 1 or 0 resources? Only if it's on the base board. So for everything but colonise yes.
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Aug 6, 2017 10:43
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kinkouin posted:Was gonna say, having no teardown/setup really really helps, especially with legacy games. You can edit your BackerKit survey. I've done this to add in a friend already.
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Aug 6, 2017 13:48
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Finally finished Mechs Vs Minions last night and that was a pretty fun game! My only complaint is that it was a bit too easy, with the last mission being the only one that got us worried about actually dying. Most of the schematics were good, and none of the heroes felt particularly overpowered though they did have their missions where they were better than others. I probably won't go back and do the post game stuff, but if an expansion came out I think I would pick it up
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Aug 6, 2017 13:59
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