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I think RG is definitely the best opening, but I also think in most games there is only really "room" for one player to open trainer. If you open trainer you don't want to have to race someone else for the first radio or for other key techs. This could potentially skew those percentages since likely one person per 3-5 player game is opening trainer. I may be wrong on this, but I never personally like grabbing trainer on turn 1 after seeing someone else do it.
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Jun 4, 2018 13:29
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I backed 18lilliput because it looks kind of intriguing and although it probably doesn’t hit the 18XX notes apart from superficially, the action selection seems interesting to me.
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Jun 4, 2018 13:33
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I'm looking for a game to play with the girl I'm dating. So something that's great with 2 players, potentially also supports more players. I already have Hive, but want something with a bit more meat. Preferably something small with less then a gazillion game pieces. Bonus points if playable in a park. Have looked at 7 Wonders Duel, but I have the impression that it runs out of steam quite fast as you're seeing 50% of the cards every time you play.
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Jun 4, 2018 13:48
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uncle blog posted:I'm looking for a game to play with the girl I'm dating. So something that's great with 2 players, potentially also supports more players. I already have Hive, but want something with a bit more meat. Preferably something small with less then a gazillion game pieces. Bonus points if playable in a park. Patchwork has been my go-to date game since forever, and it's worked really great every time. It does have a reasonably large number of small bits, so that might be a problem, but if you can get even a blanket, you should be fine (unless it's too windy). Alternatively, Jaipur might work. Seriously though, Patchwork is just too good at this particular game-space.
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Jun 4, 2018 13:57
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uncle blog posted:I'm looking for a game to play with the girl I'm dating. So something that's great with 2 players, potentially also supports more players. I already have Hive, but want something with a bit more meat. Preferably something small with less then a gazillion game pieces. Bonus points if playable in a park. Bottom Liner posted:Jaipur Bottom Liner's post covers this very well. I personally love Hanamikoji.
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Jun 4, 2018 14:09
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angel opportunity posted:I think RG is definitely the best opening, but I also think in most games there is only really "room" for one player to open trainer. If you open trainer you don't want to have to race someone else for the first radio or for other key techs. This could potentially skew those percentages since likely one person per 3-5 player game is opening trainer. Interestingly in the 4 player games on BGG Trainer has a lower win % than opening % as well, so its not even worth being a solo trainer opening. (Small sample sizes though). I think unless you know what you are doing insta lock that RG opener and play from there. Bottom liners list is very good.. except he somehow forgot Codenames duet. Drop battleline to make room imho. Hanamikoji covers a lot of the same design... Feel? Cthulhu Dreams fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Jun 4, 2018 |
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Jun 4, 2018 14:15
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Topiary isn't awful at 2, and the pieces should be heavy enough not to be at risk from wind.
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Jun 4, 2018 14:35
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Hive is easy to transport, waterproof, windproof, plays 2, and is awesome.
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Jun 4, 2018 14:55
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angel opportunity posted:I think RG is definitely the best opening, but I also think in most games there is only really "room" for one player to open trainer. If you open trainer you don't want to have to race someone else for the first radio or for other key techs. This could potentially skew those percentages since likely one person per 3-5 player game is opening trainer. RG is such a good first turn opener that when I play a teaching game I say to everyone "in this run you'll start with your CEO and a Recruiting Girl."
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Jun 4, 2018 14:56
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CommonShore posted:RG is such a good first turn opener that when I play a teaching game I say to everyone "in this run you'll start with your CEO and a Recruiting Girl." At that point you may as well cut to the chase and say they start with two recruiting girls, the trainer, two free management trainees and the milestones....and tbh I think that is legit.
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Jun 4, 2018 15:00
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rydiafan posted:Hive is easy to transport, waterproof, windproof, plays 2, and is awesome.
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Jun 4, 2018 15:37
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Flipswitch posted:Is the difference between Hive and Pocket Hive only the size of it?
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Jun 4, 2018 15:40
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Get pocket. It’s smaller and has two expansion tiles. It’s missing pill big iirc but that ones an iffy one anyway
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Jun 4, 2018 15:44
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Chill la Chill posted:Get pocket. It’s smaller and has two expansion tiles. It’s missing pill big iirc but that ones an iffy one anyway
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Jun 4, 2018 15:55
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Japanese Dating Sim posted:Bottom Liner's post covers this very well. I personally love Hanamikoji. At this point I'm considering home-brewing a copy of this game until some reprint comes out. I've heard a lot of good things, but I haven't seen a single copy of it in the wild that wasn't like $100 from a reseller.
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Jun 4, 2018 16:10
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Morpheus posted:At this point I'm considering home-brewing a copy of this game until some reprint comes out. I've heard a lot of good things, but I haven't seen a single copy of it in the wild that wasn't like $100 from a reseller. Bummer, didn't realize it was sold out everywhere. Looks like all the usual online US stores are listing it as a preorder, so I assume a reprint is in the works. Since it came up I will take the opportunity to post an ill-timed description of Hanamikoji once again: Japanese Dating Sim posted:I just want to quickly talk about Hanamikoji because it's a fantastic, tight game with interesting decisions that plays in 10-15 minutes. Highly recommended.
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Jun 4, 2018 17:31
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Is it me or are the bots in the nTTA computer game really goddam tough? Also, what are people's general strategies? It seems very difficult to balance population specifically but having enough rocks and science seems like a constant fight as well. And aggressions almost seem like a total waste of military actions except under very specific circumstances.
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Jun 4, 2018 19:40
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FulsomFrank posted:Is it me or are the bots in the nTTA computer game really goddam tough? They're definitely not pushovers! Aggressions are a result of winning the military race, not part of the race itself, yeah. In terms of advice, just be careful getting techs that cost too much to use: iron takes so many actions and rocks to break even, for example, code of laws is pretty expensive for what it is.
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Jun 4, 2018 19:58
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FulsomFrank posted:Is it me or are the bots in the nTTA computer game really goddam tough? The computer seems very keen on topping you militarily. This means it's usually hard to get much traction going military superiority, but its predictability makes it pretty easy to "stay in range" (relying on your defender's advantage to negate military) while being more efficient on other fronts. I wish the computer had a few "personalities" to shake the game up; as it stands I lost interest replaying the same game again and again - feels like too much of an efficiency grind when you effectively know what the computer will do. I didn't do all the challenges though - geez is there some nutbars ones in there; they seem like they'd take very lucky sequences of events (or a much better player than me). quote:Aggressions are a result of winning the military race, not part of the race itself, yeah. Also, it's super frustrating when you have a military advantage, but you can't find the cards to properly cash it in. jmzero fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Jun 4, 2018 |
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Jun 4, 2018 20:26
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Serendipitous timing - Hanamikoji got picked up by Deep Water Games & Distribution and is accepting pre-orders. You can pick them up at GenCon if you're going, otherwise they ship in August.
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Jun 4, 2018 22:08
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Chill la Chill posted:Get pocket. It’s smaller and has two expansion tiles. It’s missing pill big iirc but that ones an iffy one anyway Hive Carbon also includes expansion tiles and imo it looks nicer than the version with colored bugs.
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Jun 5, 2018 00:20
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Does Argent play well at 2? What's its recommended player count? I might add it onto the Empyreal KS.
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Jun 5, 2018 01:13
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Hello, new to the thread but have been reading through stretches of it lately- appreciate everyone's insights. I have a small group (4-6) that meets pretty infrequently to play some pretty entry-level games we're getting a bit tired of (Catan, Axis & Allies, Secret Hitler), as well as a few others that we've had varying degrees of success clicking with (The Thing, Deception in Hong Kong). I'd like to buy a couple new ones for the group, but want to (as I'm sure we all do) make sure it's worth the time/money investment, and am a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what seem like good choices floating around. I've been skimming the Goon and Heavy Cardboard Guild consolidated ranking BGG lists and see a lot of appealing stuff, but was wondering about a few of the larger titles that seem to be big favorites on the general BGG rankings. I'm much more inclined to trust the recommendations of these smaller groups, but was wondering if someone would be willing to brief me on why a few of these aren't favored here/elsewhere, such as Scythe, Terraforming Mars, Twilight Imperium, and Gaia Project (not on the Goon list at all?). Our group is definitely down to learn something involved, I'm just wary of the scenario others have recently expressed- endlessly learning new games and never replaying them- so would like to find something that's complex but rewarding enough to encourage everyone to come back. I was thinking about grabbing 1-2 short-format very approachable games (maybe Codenames and Sushi Go, or something like Space Alert?) as well as 1-2 more intense strategy types, but this is where I'm freezing up on choosing one to commit to.
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Jun 5, 2018 01:26
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MystOpportunity posted:I'd like to buy a couple new ones for the group, but want to (as I'm sure we all do) make sure it's worth the time/money investment, and am a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what seem like good choices floating around. I've been skimming the Goon and Heavy Cardboard Guild consolidated ranking BGG lists and see a lot of appealing stuff, but was wondering about a few of the larger titles that seem to be big favorites on the general BGG rankings. I'm much more inclined to trust the recommendations of these smaller groups, but was wondering if someone would be willing to brief me on why a few of these aren't favored here/elsewhere, such as Scythe, Terraforming Mars, Twilight Imperium, and Gaia Project (not on the Goon list at all?). If you want a very quick game, For Sale is a great little auction game that scales from 3-6 and plays in just 15 minutes. If you want a slightly heavier auction game, Ra, Medici, and Modern Art are all still classics. The issue with Terraforming Mars is the luck-vs-length ratio. The game is largely about a single massive deck you all draw from. These cards matter a lot, since almost all the engine-building in the game comes from getting cards that combo together. But getting cards that combo is largely a matter of luck, unless you are willing to play with the draft variant rules. This makes the game even longer, and Terraforming Mars is far from a short game. It takes about two hours without teaching or drafting. Adding a draft adds another hour to the play time, and teaching adds much more than an hour. This is mostly due to the sheer volume of card text. The basic mechanics can be taught pretty quickly, but each player will have to read and understand a hundred cards in a new game. Lastly, the game does not have much interaction without the draft. The only other competition is the race for various goals and break-points. But the basic actions for reaching those break-points/goals are much less efficient than the cards that help you get there. Thus, that is also limited by the luck of the draw. Overall, Terraforming Mars has about as much luck and interaction as Race for the Galaxy, but Race plays in 10 mins to half an hour. Terraforming Mars plays in two to five hours. Despite all my negatives statements, Terraforming Mars can still be fun if you want a heavy non-combative engine-building game about mega-corporations in space. It's an OK game. But there are enough board games out there that you shouldn't have to settle for merely OK games that have nerdy themes. golden bubble fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jun 5, 2018 |
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Jun 5, 2018 01:42
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If it didn’t cost so much, i imagine high frontier is probably a straight up improvement over terraforming mars for the timeframe involved.
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Jun 5, 2018 02:23
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High Frontier is nothing like Terraforming Mars but it is a better game.
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Jun 5, 2018 02:32
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The definitive Waitress strategy for FCM from BGG. I've never tried anything close to it, so no comment from me.
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Jun 5, 2018 03:33
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SettingSun posted:It was my friend's birthday and he convinced me to play Talisman, a game he really likes. I'd never played it before and only know it by its reputation in this thread.  Excuse me? There is lots of player agency. You get to decide what direction to travel.
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Jun 5, 2018 04:05
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I still enjoy and recommend March of the Ants because there's nothing else like it--but it really needed more playtesting. It suffers from the "single giant deck of cards" flaw and unclear interactions between certain evolutions. I'm only mentioning this because we just ran into a case that we could not figure out even after consulting BGG: 5 players, 1 has the Thief Abdomen (each other player has to feed 1 of your ants) and 1 has the Mimic Abdomen (copy another player's abdomen ability). 1 food feeds 4 ants (+1 per abdomen evolution). In what order do you figure out which ants get fed and by whom?
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Jun 5, 2018 05:32
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MystOpportunity posted:Hello, new to the thread but have been reading through stretches of it lately- appreciate everyone's insights. I have a small group (4-6) that meets pretty infrequently to play some pretty entry-level games we're getting a bit tired of (Catan, Axis & Allies, Secret Hitler), as well as a few others that we've had varying degrees of success clicking with (The Thing, Deception in Hong Kong). The answer is obviously Seriously though, you won't regret Kemet. It's a bit heavier than A&A but extremely re-playable and a good game to boot. If you like fighting each other then it's a good one. Scythe is a decent game and it's reasonably streamlined, so that may be another option. Like most things, if taught well/correctly it's easy to pick up and you usually have a good idea of what to do next. Very little combat involved but you still need to be watching what other people are doing to master it. million dollar mack fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Jun 5, 2018 |
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Jun 5, 2018 06:50
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Japanese Dating Sim posted:Does Argent play well at 2? What's its recommended player count? I might add it onto the Empyreal KS. It's real good, but with one major caveat. Argent is known for being heavy in player interaction for a worker placement game, and 2 player is the maximum expression of that. Playing with only 2 players turns attacking into a zero-sum proposition, which makes going heavy into aggression a significantly better option than it is on 3+ player games. 2P Argent can be downright vicious, which is great if you like that kind of thing but many people want/expect WP to be mostly multiplayer solitaire affairs. Balance-wise it works fine at all player counts, though it can get a bit chaotic and slow with 5 players.
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Jun 5, 2018 07:00
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CaptainRightful posted:I still enjoy and recommend March of the Ants because there's nothing else like it--but it really needed more playtesting. It suffers from the "single giant deck of cards" flaw and unclear interactions between certain evolutions. The rulebook has blurbs on a bunch of specific cards. It says this about thief: quote:thief abdomen – This effect increases each other player’s feeding total by one. For the player who played this card, it reduces their feeding total by one for each other player. I'm not sure ordering and "who is feeding who" matters per this, it just changes your total debt (with the usual repurcussions if you're short).
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Jun 5, 2018 07:03
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This is probably a stretch, but are there any board gamers in Melbourne that feel like having a gaming session this coming Saturday, Sunday or Monday and including a weird unknown NZ goon? I'm going to be in the city on those days in between work events, and am looking for things to keep myself occupied as I don't much enjoy travelling alone. All the board gaming events in Melbourne over that time give me the vibe that they'd end up with people playing CaH/Resistance/something else that would make me want to just go back to my hotel room and drink heavily, so figured it was worth checking out if anyone here is keen.
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Jun 5, 2018 07:08
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CaptainRightful posted:I still enjoy and recommend March of the Ants because there's nothing else like it--but it really needed more playtesting. It suffers from the "single giant deck of cards" flaw and unclear interactions between certain evolutions. Feeding is simultaneous, is it not? Just treat other players with Thief Abdomen as if they were immune to it.
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Jun 5, 2018 08:37
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Thanks for the tips regarding 2-player games. I ended up buying Patchwork. Played it a couple of times with the girl. We both really enjoyed it. Very elegant and quick game. Now I want to buy a new game that's great with 2 and maybe more players, something heavier with more theme. Has anybody played the 7 Wonders Duel expansion? Does it improve the game and increase its replayability?
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Jun 5, 2018 09:09
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uncle blog posted:Now I want to buy a new game that's great with 2 and maybe more players, something heavier with more theme. Eldritch Horror. Theme out the wazoo, fine with two playing two Investigators each, a bit heavier than entry level but not too heavy, and full coop so if your SO feels a little overwhelmed you can help her without messing with your own game.
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Jun 5, 2018 09:33
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Played John Company for a second time. First time I felt like the whole retirement thing made no sense compared to making a ton of money last turn, that not running the company into the ground was next to impossible, and that I had no idea what was going on. The second time I felt exactly the same going into the demonopolization stage, except the company was doing great and I felt great being the chairman of such a prospering business. Then the lead player bought a Scottish island, flopped his company, then another player emerged as frontrunner, then the remaining three of us banded together into a consortium to buy up all the ships because he had none, then he could not get enough cash to sustain his business, so that flopped too, then crazy shenanigans galore. I am now in love with the stupid thing. I might say it works better with 4 than with 5? Less downtime that way, I suppose.
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Jun 5, 2018 09:42
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Shenanigans involved the nominal owner of the consortium retaining his position only because he was the only person with enough free cubes left for sailing wide.
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Jun 5, 2018 09:57
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Jedit posted:Eldritch Horror. Theme out the wazoo, fine with two playing two Investigators each, a bit heavier than entry level but not too heavy, and full coop so if your SO feels a little overwhelmed you can help her without messing with your own game. This is probably a good suggestion, but I already have Arkham Horror TCG, which I intend to introduce her to soon, so I feel I have my Arkham bases covered. Is Caverna or Agricola good with 2 players? Or something that might be similar and maybe a tiny bit lighter? Tzolkin good with 2? I want something were we build/construct/draft something.
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Jun 5, 2018 10:16
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uncle blog posted:This is probably a good suggestion, but I already have Arkham Horror TCG, which I intend to introduce her to soon, so I feel I have my Arkham bases covered. Ah, you have coop covered. If you want a two player building things game, try Caylus. Best 2P euro I know - although take that with the necessary pinch, as I almost never play games with two.
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Jun 5, 2018 10:25
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