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Rad Valtar posted:So I’m going to be making a trade soon and I need some opinions on some games I haven’t played. Keep in mind I pretty much exclusively play with 2 and me and my wife lean heavily toward Euro and worker placement games. I have owned and sold Troyes and Istanbul, and still own Elysium, and all three of them fall for me into the category of games that are 'fine' but totally uninspiring and which I rarely if ever find myself wanting to play. All the mechanics feel solid but for some reason I never find these games all that very engaging - none of the decisions I get to make feel especially agonising or tense, or like they introduce anything particularly unique. For context, our preferred 2-player euro/wp games would probably be Orleans, Gaia Project, A Feast for Odin and Dungeon Petz. I went to our country's biggest board game con last weekend and got to play a bunch of stuff: Concordia Venus We tried out the team variant in a 6 player game. I enjoyed this much more than base Concordia (which I like okay but don't love). The need to co-ordinate with your teammate and the setup that means that you each have slightly different cards - and working out how to maximise the use of these - felt like an interesting puzzle. I misunderstood the Venus points, thinking we needed to be sharing a city not just a region so spent a lot of time paying more than I needed to for suboptimal locations, but we still ended up narrowly getting a victory on tie-break. Teotihuacan There were a lot of elements to this that I loved, but enough problems that it's not a game I would ever want to own. This is the best implementation of dice-as-workers that I've played and I really enjoyed the way you need to manage not only their positioning but their level, and the little pyramid tiles are wonderful. The action spaces generally felt interesting and like there were a lot of satisfying combos of positioning+bonuses that you can pull off, but ultimately the amount of detail-tracking/book-keeping/fiddliness/whatever you want to call it killed it for me. The amount of different things that you have to update as a result of a single action meant that by the end of the game I just could not be sure at all that I hadn't made one or more errors during play (if anything I'd be sure that I had), and it felt like an aggravating memory puzzle nearly every turn trying to remember every track/counter/dice/resources that needed to be updated. Five Tribes Having enjoyed this game well enough the first few times I played it, I really don't care for it much now. The fact that the board state can change so dramatically from turn to turn combined with the ability to perfectly calculate the value of each individual move means that you can't plan your turns ahead, but when it is your turn you really need to spend at least a bit of time working out the values of different possible moves, which can really slow the game down too much for something that on the surface of it is a pretty simple game. Massive Darkness I only played this for a short time with a group that were learning the game and so we may well have been doing something wrong, but we managed to spawn a monster that was effectively unkillable in room 2 and then just kinda got stuck. Seems like a game with a few interesting ideas but not really my normal favourite style of game. Wingspan Got to try this out. Got a lucky starting hand with a ton of on-activation bonuses and placements that synergised with the first round bonuses and got what felt like a fairly easy victory. Overall seemed like a decent game, but one where you don't get enough opportunities to see and choose from different cards enough to mitigate the luck of the draw. Treasure Island Lovely components and a fun idea but I've come to realise I just hate hidden movement games or anything in that vein, so I'm not a good judge of this one. Also it was all new players and so we found the treasure very quickly with a not-very-experienced Long John Silver. Aeon's End Legacy Finished the campaign of this with my regular group the other night. Was pretty enjoyable, probably made more so having just come on the back of abandoning the poo poo-show that is Betrayal Legacy, but overall another game that I feel doesn't do enough with the legacy elements. The changes you make seem reasonably interesting, but I can't imagine we'd make substantially different choices on a second play-through and so it would really end up being much the same. Also it felt like it had a difficulty problem - from about the half-way point it was rare that we'd win against a new nemesis on our first play-through - some of them being near-impossible if you got a bad draw, but then the bonus you got for losing and playing again felt strong enough that second play-throughs were often too easy. The game is also really hamstrung by the turn order mechanic which far too often could end up being a bigger determining factor than any decisions that we made as players.
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Jun 8, 2019 05:39
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Quixotic1 posted:Hell yeah! I been wanting/needing some to make a travel version of FCM ever since I saw someone make a portable version of Rising Sun. Can't wait to try this out! lol. It's just the logical extension of everyone tossing the milestone cards and using dry erase milestones. For conventions I'll still take the food meeples and stuff, just getting weary about traveling a lot with the whole box and cards/insert/etc for an expensive game I love.
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Jun 8, 2019 05:50
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Rad Valtar posted:So I’m going to be making a trade soon and I need some opinions on some games I haven’t played. Keep in mind I pretty much exclusively play with 2 and me and my wife lean heavily toward Euro and worker placement games. Troyes is strong. I've been half tempted to buy my own copy even though there's a copy in our wider group. Glass Road is not a game I like. It's less crunchy than it is fiddly. Also the game centres on a mechanic where you pick cards to play from a fixed set; if nobody else picks the same card you get to take both its actions, if someone else does then you take one each. Needless to say, this mechanic will be greatly reduced in a two-player game. Nusfjord I found to be meh. Nothing exceptional about it, nothing bad. I haven't played it at 2. Elysium I recall thinking it was OK the time or two I played it but I can't recall anything about it now. It used to regularly be in the owner's bag, but he hasn't brought it to a game night in years and may have sold it. If you own Yokohama then you indeed have no need for Istanbul. I don't own Yokohama and also have no need for Istanbul. Some people like it, but again it's a game that used to regularly turn up on game night and now never does.
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Jun 8, 2019 09:30
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Bottom Liner posted:lol. It's just the logical extension of everyone tossing the milestone cards and using dry erase milestones. For conventions I'll still take the food meeples and stuff, just getting weary about traveling a lot with the whole box and cards/insert/etc for an expensive game I love. One thing I’ve appreciated about the minimalistic AAG 18xx style is how thin the components are. It’s a constant battle between space and deluxe, but 1817 has a poo poo ton of stuff in that tiny box. Honestly, I think many games could be improved by just using mini euros instead of normal card sizes as a start. Of course, this won’t improve the usual marketing big brain strategy of making awfully large boxes for display purposes.
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Jun 8, 2019 17:57
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I don't like mini euros, they are a pain to shuffle. Noting that, I'm not nearly as annoyed if you in fact don't have to shuffle them. I use colored cubes for the food in FCM, makes it much easier to both count and store.
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Jun 8, 2019 18:04
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QLNVCRR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_3pz-Cb007SWY2 Metal Gear Solid Co-op from IDW, designed by Emerson Matsuuchi. Exclusive pre-order on Amazon. Dice has me nervous as hell, how is his design quality usually?
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Jun 8, 2019 23:30
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HidaO-Win posted:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QLNVCRR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_3pz-Cb007SWY2 It’s IDW and the games the designer is known for are....light euro games. But they’re clean, sleek designs.
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Jun 8, 2019 23:38
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HidaO-Win posted:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QLNVCRR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_3pz-Cb007SWY2 He did Reef and the Century trilogy. I know people who will be down to try this on that basis.
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Jun 8, 2019 23:43
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Chill la Chill posted:It’s IDW and the games the designer is known for are....light euro games. But they’re clean, sleek designs. And Spectre Ops. That's probably why they called him for this one. It's expensive as hell but I am cautiously optimistic.
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Jun 8, 2019 23:53
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 Turned out pretty great. Fits in a ziploc bag with the food meeples or can go full travel mode with just using dry erase and premade printed maps. Bottom Liner fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Jun 9, 2019 |
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Jun 9, 2019 00:04
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Being full co-op with AI enemies is weird especially because Spectre Ops was 1 spy versus metal gear bosses.
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Jun 9, 2019 01:02
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Jedit posted:Glass Road is not a game I like. It's less crunchy than it is fiddly. Also the game centres on a mechanic where you pick cards to play from a fixed set; if nobody else picks the same card you get to take both its actions, if someone else does then you take one each. Needless to say, this mechanic will be greatly reduced in a two-player game. I think the way the hand management in Glass Road changes with additional players to actually be very interesting. In a four player game, the task is to fill your hand with cards that you want to use one ability from, since it's fairly likely you'll play all or most of them at half strength. The challenge then is to try to ensure you're using your abilities in the correct order so that the production wheel doesn't oppress you. In a two player game, you're using your hand to try to cut off efficiency from your opponent while trying to get a little bit of additional utility, while the wheel is a little easier to manage. The intersection between the different players, your board, and your point scoring strategy is compelling and, I find, crunchier than a lot of longer, more expansive games. At the same time, though, the actual objectives of the game are very limited, so you're having more fun trying to come up with cool hands to maximize your wheel than engaging with the superficial engine building or getting a four point building versus a three or two point building.
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Jun 9, 2019 03:15
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I finally played Trickerion for the first time! It was a 2p game with my wife, and I was surprised flexible the game is. I was able to strip away a bunch of mechanics to bring the complexity down to a level she would actually enjoy, and the game only took 2.5 hours, including some breaks for food and drinks. I was also surprised how simple the game actually is in play, because that rulebook was one of the toughest I've ever had to get through. Felt a lot like Dungeon Lords, but with actual interaction in the secondary Performance phase. We played with the Duel of the Magicians cards from the expansion, which I vastly preferred to Dungeon Lords' dummy player system for 2p.
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Jun 9, 2019 05:49
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terebikun posted:I finally played Trickerion for the first time! It was a 2p game with my wife, and I was surprised flexible the game is. I was able to strip away a bunch of mechanics to bring the complexity down to a level she would actually enjoy, and the game only took 2.5 hours, including some breaks for food and drinks. I was also surprised how simple the game actually is in play, because that rulebook was one of the toughest I've ever had to get through. Felt a lot like Dungeon Lords, but with actual interaction in the secondary Performance phase. We played with the Duel of the Magicians cards from the expansion, which I vastly preferred to Dungeon Lords' dummy player system for 2p. I’m confused. How do you know the game is simple to play if you removed entire mechanics to simplify it for the other player?
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Jun 9, 2019 14:13
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HidaO-Win posted:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QLNVCRR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_3pz-Cb007SWY2 This will be on the bargain bins soon enough. IDW isn't know for good rulesets. It's known for a good licensing department.
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Jun 9, 2019 15:36
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I will say this: there can be a lot going on when a man is explaining something he thinks is complex game wise to a woman. That post bothered me a lot frankly. HOWEVER I know that people know their partners best and I respect that.
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Jun 9, 2019 16:01
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terebikun posted:I finally played Trickerion for the first time! It was a 2p game with my wife, and I was surprised flexible the game is. I was able to strip away a bunch of mechanics to bring the complexity down to a level she would actually enjoy, and the game only took 2.5 hours, including some breaks for food and drinks. I was also surprised how simple the game actually is in play, because that rulebook was one of the toughest I've ever had to get through. Felt a lot like Dungeon Lords, but with actual interaction in the secondary Performance phase. We played with the Duel of the Magicians cards from the expansion, which I vastly preferred to Dungeon Lords' dummy player system for 2p. Saying you discarded a bunch of the game rules and it still took 2.5 hours does not inspire confidence the actual game isn't a horrible slog.
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Jun 9, 2019 17:34
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Crackbone posted:Saying you discarded a bunch of the game rules and it still took 2.5 hours does not inspire confidence the actual game isn't a horrible slog. I've only played Trickerion once, and the owner only plays with the Dark Alley expansion. Took maybe 2.5-3 hours? I think it would have been shorter without the expansion since I believe it removes the highest level of trick and adds two turns. It's a very good, very interesting game, but it is similar enough to Colosseum that I don't know if I would bother getting it myself. Even with the dice determining certain things being an angle I like, I'd probably rather play La Granja for my dice-including euro.
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Jun 9, 2019 17:42
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Magnetic North posted:I've only played Trickerion once, and the owner only plays with the Dark Alley expansion. Took maybe 2.5-3 hours? I think it would have been shorter without the expansion since I believe it removes the highest level of trick and adds two turns. It's a very good, very interesting game, but it is similar enough to Colosseum that I don't know if I would bother getting it myself. Even with the dice determining certain things being an angle I like, I'd probably rather play La Granja for my dice-including euro. In all honesty the dark alley isn't an expansion. I've no idea why the designer refers to it that way. It would have made more sense to suggest you can instead leave out those modules to play a quick or beginner game.
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Jun 9, 2019 17:57
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Pipeline - Played it for the first time yesterday. I really enjoyed this, actually; more than I expected to. The board looks like a complicated mess, but the gameplay is actually really straightforward. You're taking actions to buy crude oil, build a network of pipes to refine it into higher grades of oil, and then either sell that on open markets or fulfill contracts, all with the goal of making the most money. The most engaging part of the gameplay is the spatial puzzle aspect of the pipes: each pipe tile is a 2x1 rectangle with an arrangement of pipes running across it, with 3 colors of pipe in the game. Your goal is to arrange the tiles you buy in such a way that you build them into long, unbroken pipes of a single color, since that lets you refine oil into high grades more efficiently than using shorter pipes does. Also, once you've made some extra cash, you can spend that on machines that let you spend money to automatically process your oil, rather than spending an action to refine it (actions are very limited in this game); however, the machines cover up part of the tiles, which can break up your network if you're not careful. Also the Kickstarter edition has metal cubes instead of wooden ones. So that's pretty neat.
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Jun 10, 2019 04:51
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Phelddagrif posted:Pipeline - Played it for the first time yesterday. I really enjoyed this, actually; more than I expected to. The board looks like a complicated mess, but the gameplay is actually really straightforward. You're taking actions to buy crude oil, build a network of pipes to refine it into higher grades of oil, and then either sell that on open markets or fulfill contracts, all with the goal of making the most money. Based on another review I've seen I have one question: Did you win?
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Jun 10, 2019 08:15
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ketchup vs catsup posted:I’m confused. How do you know the game is simple to play if you removed entire mechanics to simplify it for the other player? I mean simple in contrast to how complex the rulebook makes it sound. I read the rulebook maybe a dozen times trying to wrap my mind around it, but in play it was far simpler than that level of effort would suggest. And...it is simpler if you remove more complex mechanics. I don't totally understand your question. Crackbone posted:Saying you discarded a bunch of the game rules and it still took 2.5 hours does not inspire confidence the actual game isn't a horrible slog. It's a heavy/medium-heavy worker placement with a niche theme and it was our first time playing, I was expecting something on the order of 4 hours for our first game. 2.5 was a pleasant surprise. Mojo Jojo posted:In all honesty the dark alley isn't an expansion. I've no idea why the designer refers to it that way. It would have made more sense to suggest you can instead leave out those modules to play a quick or beginner game. I did indeed leave out the Dark Alley, since I wanted to keep AP to just whatever tricks we were buying. I think in the future I'll throw it in, but maybe have it blind draw and no prophecies until further games. I also left out the Assignment cards (since my wife loving hated them in DL), but kept in the Magician Powers, although we only remembered they existed after Round 3 or so. Still, the game was remarkably tight the whole time, and I was able to just barely win on the last turn by using my Houdini power to put my baller trick token on a different performance that I then had to myself. Pretty cool.
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Jun 10, 2019 11:35
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terebikun posted:I mean simple in contrast to how complex the rulebook makes it sound. I read the rulebook maybe a dozen times trying to wrap my mind around it, but in play it was far simpler than that level of effort would suggest. And...it is simpler if you remove more complex mechanics. I don't totally understand your question. You cannot say trickerion is simple, because you didn’t play trickerion. You played trickerion-minus-the-complex-parts.
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Jun 10, 2019 14:36
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:Based on another review I've seen I have one question: Did you win? I did, yes. And I know my opinion is colored by that. That said, here's reviews by some of the others I played with: quote:I liked it a lot. The puzzle it presents felt unique relative to most of the games I play, especially euros. Second play will certainly benefit from experience. The rules are really pretty intuitive; we rarely consulted them during the play. Felt a little Lacerda-esque at times given you have only 18 turns to do a lot of stuff, with a sprinkle of Splotter due to the spatial puzzle. Our play was about 2.5 hours I think, and Matt commented 2 hours should be very reasonable 4p with a little experience. This is from the person who came in last: quote:I really enjoyed it. I had some low expectations going in (not sure why) but the puzzle of the game was engaging and frustrating (in a good way). It felt like it moved along pretty well. Sure there were times of AP but there were also turns that took less than a minute. I do fear the area where AP primarily hits (pipe building) is an area that will be very hard to speed up. Just too many shapes and colors in too many areas of the board to be able to process it quickly. But maybe that's just my brain with this type game. (Also think that makes it near impossible to also spend time analyzing everyone else's board to see if there is a tile you should take to block them, etc.) But overall, it didn't really overstay it's welcome and provided some logistical challenges.
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Jun 10, 2019 14:36
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Phelddagrif posted:I did, yes. And I know my opinion is colored by that. That said, here's reviews by some of the others I played with: The reason I ask is that the other comment Wass because it's a game of incremtally compounding advantage without a way to radically change the game like FCM radio it can be obvious you've lost but takes acouple of hours to get there. Id be interested in your thoughts?
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Jun 10, 2019 15:02
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Phelddagrif posted:I did, yes. And I know my opinion is colored by that. That said, here's reviews by some of the others I played with: I'm excited to try it based on this, thanks. To be honest I forgot all about it but hopefully should have it by the end of the week assuming it ships from BC timely enough.
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Jun 10, 2019 15:41
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:The reason I ask is that the other comment Wass because it's a game of incremtally compounding advantage without a way to radically change the game like FCM radio it can be obvious you've lost but takes acouple of hours to get there. I can see that. What I can say in Pipeline's favor over FCM is that it's short enough that by the time someone develops their engine, the game is almost over, so you're not just sitting there turn after turn while they rack up a ton of points, and they can't build up a huge point lead. Also, the endgame goals (which are random) may help to switch up the game between plays, as they provide a lot of the total score. We played the "recommended" first-game set-up with goals that reward players for things they did anyway: make long pipes and lots of high-grade oil. There are other goals you can use, such as building a specific color of pipe, or diversifying your pipe colors and lengths, that make it so you can come out ahead even without a perfectly efficient engine.
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Jun 10, 2019 15:53
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A friend is going to pick up a copy for me from Origins, I somehow missed the Pipeline KS.
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Jun 10, 2019 16:15
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Anyone have any good ideas on what to do with games that you can’t get to the table, but just aren’t worth trying to sell because of shipping? Baseball Highlights 2045 no one I know can get past their eyes glazing over at the theme. I was thinking donating to a pub with games but doubt it would get play time there either.
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Jun 10, 2019 16:17
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VanguardFelix posted:Anyone have any good ideas on what to do with games that you can’t get to the table, but just aren’t worth trying to sell because of shipping? That's what I do when I either can't sell a game or the price for it is not worth the effort. The game pubs like having 'lots of games' even if no one plays them, it makes it look like the patron has a lot of choices.
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Jun 10, 2019 16:28
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VanguardFelix posted:Anyone have any good ideas on what to do with games that you can’t get to the table, but just aren’t worth trying to sell because of shipping? I'm planning to eventually arrange some sales/trades, but I couldn't be bothered to figure out how in time for GeekWay.
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Jun 10, 2019 17:03
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Has anyone here played revolution? Someone suggested it to me due to my tastes. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9215/revolution-dutch-revolt-1568-1648
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Jun 10, 2019 19:03
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Chill la Chill posted:Has anyone here played revolution? Someone suggested it to me due to my tastes. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9215/revolution-dutch-revolt-1568-1648 No, but seeing Tresham's name on it makes me want to try it real bad all of a sudden. Also, Drive-Thru reviews man really loves his miniatures games, holy smokes. He put Warhammer: Age of Sigmar as his number one game on a recent countdown. What are people's thoughts on this one?
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Jun 10, 2019 19:05
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FulsomFrank posted:No, but seeing Tresham's name on it makes me want to try it real bad all of a sudden.
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Jun 10, 2019 19:13
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FulsomFrank posted:No, but seeing Tresham's name on it makes me want to try it real bad all of a sudden. his top ten games of all time: quote:1. Board Game: Stone Age Big 'ol OOF That said, people that I respect the opinion of have all universally like Warhammer Underworlds. It's a combo of card dueling and skirmish minis with affordable faction sets and quick playing matches. If I were going to get into anything, that'd be my choice.
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Jun 10, 2019 19:18
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That's actually 50->49, not that it makes it more defensible
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Jun 10, 2019 19:21
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Oh, is that a case of BGG being terrible? I was referencing this list https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/257086/drive-thru-review-top-50-games-all-time?titlesonly=1
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Jun 10, 2019 19:23
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Bottom Liner posted:Oh, is that a case of BGG being terrible? I was referencing this list He did them backwards just to be confusing. so it's: 1. age of sigmar 2. caylus 3. rangers of shadow deep 4. frostgrave 5. forbidden stars 6. san juan 7. clash of cultures 8. shadows of brimstone 9. cuba libre 10. warmanner quest 11. brass birm 12. GWT etc. etc. etc.
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Jun 10, 2019 19:32
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I don't even own any of his top 10 games which is why I don't bother with his reviews. He's a good reviewer but our interests do not dovetail.
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Jun 10, 2019 20:15
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 anyone who lists age of sigmar in the top 10 of anything
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Jun 10, 2019 20:36
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