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deadwing posted:Timeline Challenge is actually really good as far as trivia games go so I'd consider that a gift success Last trivia game I played was some awful donkey thing with roll to move that I couldn't believe wasn't from the 1980s
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Dec 3, 2017 19:06
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Went out to the seaside to play board games, cook carbonara (let me tell you, cooking for 17 ain't easy) and have fun on the sea shore. Played: Vengeance. Overproduced KS trash. It's a dice mitigation game. it has a drafting element where you try to improve your character/heal up, and a combat game which is meant to be mitigated by your upgrades. I had upgrades that would allow me to combo pretty much anything apart from rolling all my 4 dice on two particular sides. Guess what I rolled again and again. The VP count is <30 VP so missing 3-4 VP because you rolled badly hurts, especially since you can only fight like 5 times during the whole game. 7 Wonders: Duel My first time and I really liked it, mostly because it isn't a true drafting game and facing only one person actually works. Need to try it again to get a full judgment. Dungeon Lords: It's the first time I played my copy in years, and had fun coming in second for this Gloomhaven: Well, I don't really need to say anything about this, although using characters from two different groups doesn't really work that well. Codenames Duet: Still think it's the best codenames although it's really hard/be good at it.
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Dec 3, 2017 19:18
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Tekopo posted:
What?
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Dec 3, 2017 19:47
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We played a casual game where me and my SO brought our characters, and the other two players had their own characters, but the two characters were from different parties (really we shouldn't have used our own characters, but I had gotten used to them, oh well).
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Dec 3, 2017 19:53
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Was there a huge level disparity? Or did you have like 3 scoundrels running around.
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Dec 3, 2017 20:01
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Having two of a same class is a no no but level disparity shouldn't be an issue.
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Dec 3, 2017 20:03
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Yeah. Wondering what the problem was. Could have a lot less items or enhancements or something, but that happens within a party too when you start a new class.
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Dec 3, 2017 20:08
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Mister Sinewave posted:Having two of a same class is a no no but level disparity shouldn't be an issue.
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Dec 3, 2017 20:10
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You can try to temp level down their characters by swapping their level 3 and 4 cards with 1/x cards, but really just should have not played level 3.
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Dec 3, 2017 20:15
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Fat Samurai posted:Which Tash Kalar was the bad one wrt component quality? The ones with Z-Man on the box? Yep. The one that says ZMAN is overpriced and poorly made. If you get suckered into buying one of the bum editions though, CGE offers a pretty cheap component upgrade pack.
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Dec 3, 2017 20:34
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Fat Samurai posted:How is Sushi Go for 2? I’m going to spend 4 days in a cabin and bad weather is a possibility, so I want variety. Packing Jaipur, Carcassone and Hanamikoji already. It's actually not bad with some house rules - specifically grid drafting. You deal out 'packs' of 9 cards in. 3*3 grid. One player takes one row or column then the other player takes a row or column and you ditch the remaining cards. Google and you can find more detailed descriptions. Adds more tactical counterplay to liven up the 2 player experience
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Dec 3, 2017 22:00
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Imperial Assault App trip report: It's pretty good. Full co-op is a much better fit for my group than the original 1v4 setup. Probably the best app-based game Fantasy Flight have put out (the others I've tried being Descent 2e and Mansions of Madness) and the one with the most coherent storyline so far. Might be a little on the easy side, but I'll generally take that over too hard. The heroes are meant to win in Star Wars after all.
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Dec 3, 2017 22:58
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Gort posted:Imperial Assault App trip report: It's pretty good. Full co-op is a much better fit for my group than the original 1v4 setup. Probably the best app-based game Fantasy Flight have put out (the others I've tried being Descent 2e and Mansions of Madness) and the one with the most coherent storyline so far. Have you played gloomhaven? If so, is it worth getting it? Tons of people who play skirmish are flogging off huge imperial assault collections to get into legion so it's a prime time to get a ton of stuff.
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Dec 3, 2017 23:36
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:It's actually not bad with some house rules - specifically grid drafting. You deal out 'packs' of 9 cards in. 3*3 grid. One player takes one row or column then the other player takes a row or column and you ditch the remaining cards. Alternatively, you can just get Cat Lady to play a game built around this draft style. Plus, cats etc
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Dec 4, 2017 00:12
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:Have you played gloomhaven? Mechanically gloomhaven launches imperial assault into the sun. They’re not fit to exist on the same planet. That doesn’t mean IA sucks. It’s just an insult to compare the two.
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Dec 4, 2017 00:18
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The local trading group is going crazy with pre-Xmas dumping of collections. A recent post has the expected 50 Zombicide expansions and Dead of Winter promos...but also Kanban, Neanderthal, and Greenland. I'm not interested in any of those, but I can't help but wonder about the seller. I think some boardgamers just buy everything that sounds interesting to them, then proceed through continual cycles of selling for $10-$30 less than they spent, not even playing some games even once.
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Dec 4, 2017 00:21
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CaptainRightful posted:The local trading group is going crazy with pre-Xmas dumping of collections. A recent post has the expected 50 Zombicide expansions and Dead of Winter promos...but also Kanban, Neanderthal, and Greenland. I'm not interested in any of those, but I can't help but wonder about the seller. I think some boardgamers just buy everything that sounds interesting to them, then proceed through continual cycles of selling for $10-$30 less than they spent, not even playing some games even once. Buying used in shrink copies to resell years later, still in shrink, is just a part of the hobby as far as I can tell.
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Dec 4, 2017 00:35
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Let me tell you about wargames....
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Dec 4, 2017 00:39
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AceRimmer posted:Let me tell you about wargames.... I’m reading the wargames thread right now and Cool Corn is a special man.
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Dec 4, 2017 00:46
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Jordan7hm posted:Buying used in shrink copies to resell years later, still in shrink, is just a part of the hobby as far as I can tell. I don't buy anything and keep it in shrink. 
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Dec 4, 2017 00:51
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I've never played Kanban or Lisboa, but I like the Gallerist quite a bit. Unfortunately I've only ever played it solo, and one single time 2-player. It feels like it would be much much better at 3 or 4-player, but no one ever wants to play it. It's also the kind of game you'd likely have to play 2-3 times before it really clicks. The assistants you can leave behind and the "kick-out" actions are not immediately easy to comprehend, and the whole game is basically this really basic concept of "buy art low, sell it high," but it's incredibly difficult to execute. It's really a brain burner when you are trying to plan out and optimize your actions. From looking at Lisboa, it looked even more like all of the above. The theme also was way less accessible, and since I knew no one ever wanted to play The Gallerist, which probably hast the most accessible theme, I knew I'd never ever get Lisboa to the table.
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Dec 4, 2017 01:00
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Megasabin posted:Antike II/Mare Nostrum Empires/Nations: I don’t have a CIV type game in my collection. I’ve also never actually played one. Out of these I would lean towards Antike II, because it’s the one I’ve heard the most positive things about. Mare Nostrum isn't bad, but it's not really a Civ-type. It's more of an area control game. Nations, whatever anyone tells you, is terrible. I can see how it generates good experiences when everyone is on the same level and doing OK, but if you fall behind there is no way back and if the 1st era doesn't go your way you are effectively eliminated by the third turn of eight. Games you haven't considered: Historia is a solid Civ-themed tableau builder. It uses a similar mechanic to Concordia with the playing and recovering of cards, except play is simultaneous and you're aiming to time your recovery plays to either coincide with other people or shaft them. Its main weakness is that Wonders can be a little unbalanced, but so long as everyone is warned about it there'll be enough competition for the limited supply to square it up. I'm also hearing some very good things about Civilization: A New Dawn. It's only just come out, though, so you may want to hold off and see how it survives first love. quote:Concordia/Tzolk’in: I feel like these are the two major mainstream Eurogames I’ve somehow missed out on. I’m not sure how necessary they are given my rather large euro collection, but I've been perpetually interested in trying them, especially Tzolk’in, which I’ve heard nothing but immense praise for over all these years. Tzolk'in is a major brain burner if you aren't naturally gifted in four-dimensional thinking. It's good, but hard to find players for. Concordia is a game everyone should play at least once. There's an online version at boiteajeux.com and I'm sure Magnetic North will be happy to run you through a game. quote:The Gallerist/Kanban/Lisboa: I enjoy worker placement, and I’ve yet to try a Lacerda game. I’m not sure how I would decide between the 3. Lisboa is good and strongly thematic, but it suffers from Chvatil Syndrome - there's maybe one too many things going on. Kanban terrifies people when they look at the board. So it's a good job that The Gallerist is one of the best heavy Euros ever made. quote:Ora et Labora, Caverna, Le Harve: I enjoy Agricola a lot, and haven’t really played other Uwe games. How I should decide between these 3, I have no clue. What I like about Agricola is that it subverts the normal worker placement formula of being a point salad, and instead is about the highly stressful act of creating an engine that lets you barely eek every feeding phase, and only then worrying about snagging a few points. If you own Agricola and enjoy it, you don't need Caverna. They're basically the same game, but Agricola is cutthroat and punishing while Caverna gives a more relaxed sandbox experience. I haven't played Ora, but I have played Le Havre. On that basis I think A Feast For Odin is the game for you.
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Dec 4, 2017 01:24
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Friends, I didn't listen and bought Clank! with the expansion because it was quite cheap. We've played a few games 2-player which have all gone...exceedingly well? There is definitely a Tom Vasel "it's just fun" factor, but beyond that, it honestly feels pretty well tuned so far. All of our games have had close scores, even with one person dying or one person getting a bunch of seemingly good cards early on. Market row issues are obviously there, but the board has enough mitigating options that it's never made that huge of a difference (we did remove Brilliance and Swagger per BGG advice). It's also short enough that the lack of significant culling isn't as big a deal as it would be in most deckbuilders, plus culling all the Clank cards kind of defeats the point. Having Provinces available to buy as well is a nice addition that rounds out the victory conditions. It definitely needs more variability, though.
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Dec 4, 2017 01:38
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Kiranamos posted:Friends, I didn't listen and bought Clank! with the expansion because it was quite cheap. We've played a few games 2-player which have all gone...exceedingly well? There is definitely a Tom Vasel "it's just fun" factor, but beyond that, it honestly feels pretty well tuned so far. All of our games have had close scores, even with one person dying or one person getting a bunch of seemingly good cards early on. Market row issues are obviously there, but the board has enough mitigating options that it's never made that huge of a difference (we did remove Brilliance and Swagger per BGG advice). It's also short enough that the lack of significant culling isn't as big a deal as it would be in most deckbuilders, plus culling all the Clank cards kind of defeats the point. Having Provinces available to buy as well is a nice addition that rounds out the victory conditions. It definitely needs more variability, though. My group had a couple games of Clank! that were fine... but we also didn't need to play more after that (and I'll be selling it). I do think we lucked out a bit, too, that our games (both yours and the ones we played) were reasonably close. Looking at the cards, I can certainly imagine someone getting way ahead with some early good buys - there's no card balance, and there's no rules to prevent the market from becoming a trainwreck of monsters you can't kill and/or stuff nobody wants. ...but there's also a lot of good ideas here, they're just under too many problems: lack of variety, unbalanced cards, way too many effective currencies, etc..
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Dec 4, 2017 01:47
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jmzero posted:Looking at the cards, I can certainly imagine someone getting way ahead with some early good buys - there's no card balance, and there's no rules to prevent the market from becoming a trainwreck of monsters you can't kill and/or stuff nobody wants. Our last game had both of those things happen (my opponent getting what I think are some of the best early 4-5 cost buys like the draw 2 and +2 gold/+2 attack), and we still ended up with a tie. When the market became full of monsters, I spent the last few turns not buying anything and just exiting, since I didn't invest in any attack.
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Dec 4, 2017 01:53
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Jedit posted:I haven't played Ora, but I have played Le Havre. On that basis I think A Feast For Odin is the game for you. I think you missed the part where he said "What I like about Agricola is that it subverts the normal worker placement formula of being a point salad, and instead is about the highly stressful act of creating an engine that lets you barely eek every feeding phase, and only then worrying about snagging a few points." I enjoy AFFO quite a bit, but it's extremely non-stressful point salad.
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Dec 4, 2017 01:55
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Jedit posted:Good Breakdown I really appreciate you taking the time to comment like that. I'll let you know with what I end up with after the trades. I'm also gonna keep my eye on Civilization: New Dawn
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Dec 4, 2017 05:12
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CaptainRightful posted:I think you missed the part where he said "What I like about Agricola is that it subverts the normal worker placement formula of being a point salad, and instead is about the highly stressful act of creating an engine that lets you barely eek every feeding phase, and only then worrying about snagging a few points." I don't have anything to add other than completely agreeing with this description of AFfO
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Dec 4, 2017 06:07
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Same, except I love both games.
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Dec 4, 2017 06:11
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I got to finally try Magic Maze, and Barenpark. Magic Maze is a neat idea, I guess. Has a twist on the limited communication angle. To me it felt like the gameplay was based entirely around the limited action & limited communication gimmick and there just wasn't enough there to hold up a game. We played a couple times, kind of effortlessly finishing successfully  Maybe the three of us just work well together, but concentrating on one duder at a time and working together to move them snap-snap-snap in an order that made sense (ie so you avoid blocking routes of other pens and so on) until we were all done with barely half the hourglass used kinda came pretty effortlessly. Either we're all on the same wavelength & good spatial thinkers or we hosed up bigtime. Either way I don't think we "got" it. Barenpark was great fun though. If you like Patchwork, you'll like Barenpark! Some of the same pressures and choices but different enough to be a new challenge. Simple rules, gives you enough rope to hang yourself though!
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Dec 4, 2017 06:21
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Mister Sinewave posted:I got to finally try Magic Maze, and Barenpark. Were you playing through the tutorial missions? It takes at least 6-7 to get to the full game, assuming you incorporate a couple rules each time instead of doing one per mission which seemed way too simple for certain rules. The rule about swapping your action clockwise everytime you use an hourglass is enough to start messing things up.
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Dec 4, 2017 07:00
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CaptainRightful posted:I think you missed the part where he said "What I like about Agricola is that it subverts the normal worker placement formula of being a point salad, and instead is about the highly stressful act of creating an engine that lets you barely eek every feeding phase, and only then worrying about snagging a few points." Yes, however I think YOU missed where he said he wanted another Rosenberg game all of them are very low stress when compared to Agricola.
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Dec 4, 2017 09:19
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Mister Sinewave posted:Magic Maze is a neat idea, I guess. Has a twist on the limited communication angle. To me it felt like the gameplay was based entirely around the limited action & limited communication gimmick and there just wasn't enough there to hold up a game. We played a couple times, kind of effortlessly finishing successfully If you're claiming to have completed Magic Maze in 90 seconds then yes, you hosed up big time.
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Dec 4, 2017 09:29
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Yeah, "real Magic Maze starts here" at scenario 9 or something and there are a dozen or so challenges in the back of the book when you finish with that. But in MM there is basically zero communication allowed except when the elf explores or you flip the timer. You can't talk, point, or gesture. You can only place the DO SOMETHING pawn in front of someone or stare at them angrily. If you guys are that in sync then you're psychics or something.
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Dec 4, 2017 15:09
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Well based on that I looked at the rules, person running the game had us part way through the tutorial so it looks like we weren't playing the full game yet. Doesn't look like we broke any rules, obeyed all the communication stuff. It would surely have been harder if we levered in the full rules but as it was it was two ridiculously easy games and therefore boring & we moved on. Of course now Magic Maze = boring is cemented in my head.
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Dec 4, 2017 18:32
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Has anyone played Okanagan yet? Tile laying games are some of our favourite types of games and anything to change/mix-up the Carcassonne default is always helpful.
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Dec 4, 2017 18:39
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Anyone here have thoughts on Azul? I watched the SUSD video but their opinions don't mean much to me either way.
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Dec 4, 2017 18:41
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Speaking of tiles, is Cable Car (version with expansion) worth it for like $15? I would be primarily playing it with 4 people which apparently works best.
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Dec 4, 2017 18:42
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FulsomFrank posted:Has anyone played Okanagan yet? Tile laying games are some of our favourite types of games and anything to change/mix-up the Carcassonne default is always helpful. Mechanically it's better than Carcassonne because players are encouraged to work together to complete areas. However, scoring is terrible and random. You can mitigate the randomness to some degree, but only by giving up opportunities and without a guarantee of achieving anything. Two copies came back to my group from Essen; one got played, then the other got sold still in the shrink.
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Dec 4, 2017 19:23
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Afriscipio posted:The creator of Archipelago has a new kickstarter with a space mining theme: Jedit posted:It's also not really similar to Archipelago. Yeah watch the interview with the designer way down on the page. It sounds like the only real similarity is the way the “board” works (expand out from a central location, put down buildings to show control of hexes, harvest limited resources). It doesn’t have the shared victory points or triggered ends (whoever has the biggest colony after 12 turns wins), it doesn’t have the varied market boards (resources are bought/sold at 1-9 credits per unit, going above 10 causes an  Jedit posted:Anyone who has problems with the treatment of race in Archipelago should be reminded that the instant you hire a native worker they become a full citizen indistinguishable from any of your colonists, and indeed can immediately start intermarrying with them. Archipelago is like Cards Against Humanity in that it’s a fantastic racist detector. I play it with various groups and get quips about Black Lives Mattering or having to keep the black meeple down. You can tell the designer is mostly sympathetic, but the game encourages making the same mistakes as the colonizers and I won’t begrudge anyone that’s uncomfortable with a game that hits closer to home than Settlers of Catan. the panacea posted:The problem lies not in the game mechanics but in the setting itself. If half the group at the table has immediate family in the West Indies and can trace their family tree back to revolutionaries, then I don’t think it’s over sensitive to say that [independence is discouraged] Doesn’t make people look forward to playing it. Have you looked at Spirit Island? Each player is a spirit of nature trying to drive an explicit European nation off of their island.
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Dec 4, 2017 19:31
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