Jedit posted:

As it should be, comrade.

Ubik_Lives posted:

I'm in the anti-Socialism camp.

Cthulhu Dreams posted:

I'm happy for a PBEM style game on rr18xx.com if you can do a turn a day or so, that's my preferred style.

Wafflecopper posted:

This poster is not your comrade

Rusty Kettle posted:

I'm going through the 'Pandemic list' with four other dudes. I tried playing Spirit Island with three of them once, and it went over very poorly because it was "too fiddly and complicated". I argue that it was the environment (a local brewery) and their moods at the time more than the game, as well as the fourth player dropping out early.

I think it is great and that they are wimps, but hopefully after 35 variants of Pandemic, they are more equiped for Spirit Island.

Bottom Liner posted:

Only once, but it's a mediocre tableau builder with nice art and theme and some big RNG issues. Would never choose it over RftG. Also messaging you on Discord about the FCM dry erase stuff (what's your username there?)!

Cthulhu Dreams posted:

I've played it three times with two wins. It's not very good: the problem is that the mechanism of being able to play a critter for free if you have the corresponding building is so powerful that the game is fairly luck driven and 'plays itself.'

Do I have building / critter pairs? I guess I am trying to make those buildings then!

Edit: also the games comeback mechanism isn't nearly strong enough, if you're the person who runs out of actions first in season one you are just going to lose.

Edit: it does have like..three ridiculously powerful take that cards in the large deck though!

Ubik_Lives posted:

I’m in the anti-Socialism camp. Socialism can exacerbate an end game issue that crops up from time to time. Flow of History has no forced game length; the game ends when the players drain the deck, but there’s no game enforced loss of cards. Given that you can buy cards that other people have bid on, when it gets to the end of the game, there’s little reason to bid on a card when you don’t have the most money (because someone else will snipe the card, and money isn't worth VPs so being sniped gets you nothing), so people get stuck in a harvest cycle.

This isn’t always an issue; cards that let you bypass the bid to get a card are pretty powerful here, if the players don’t see the end coming there will be investments out for people to buy at the end, and if someone has a lead in cash, they can just make the bid. However, socialism wipes out any cash lead, and so it can cause a pretty draggy end to the game under those conditions.

Socialism would work better earlier in the deck I feel. It’s also a little frustrating, because I feel you could fix the end game by having money worth something at the end, but then Socialism would be even more game changing.

Chill la Chill posted:

Whoever was looking for stuff to play at Spiel, this is in there. After Tokyo metro and I/E, I take a good look at any of Jordan’s offerings.

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/290099/tokyo-capsule-hotel

Aramoro posted:

See a few folks talking about it but is Sidereal Confluence good? Is it good enough to pick up second hand or just hang on till the 2nd edition comes out?

PrinnySquadron posted:

I think it's part of the next set of Tokyo games, it wasn't part of the KS.

Tekopo posted:

I'll be demoing both Rome & Roll and (potentially) Defence of Procyon III at the PSC booth. I recommend the former for something quick and easy.

CommonShore posted:

drat. I guess I need to add game weight to the list of things that I'm so bad at judging that I can't give recommendations to other people at all.

Selecta84 posted:

I'm looking for a more involved roll & write. Is Rome & Roll a good candidate? Might pay you a visit then for a demo game.

Tekopo posted:

It's a mixture of a roll and wreight and a euro. Main mechanism is dice-drafting, so trying to know what your opponents are likely to pick is important. You are all writing on the same map of Rome as well and there are two main interactions: either taking something before someone else does, or, more importantly, where you place buildings on the main map, since adjacency is important, either between your own buildings or your opponent's buildings. It's a more interactive design than the solitaire multiplayer R&W games like Welcome To.., Railway Ink etc.

StashAugustine posted:

Ok so here are my uneducated ramblings on new TTA stuff, with the disclaimer that I'm not very good and am mostly looking to start discussion. Gonna just start with age A:
Ashoka- really strong but you have to play weird so idk how to evaluate
Confucius- Aristotle trading power for reliability and needing civil for mil actions, does need to be played immediately though
Cleopatra- pretty good, gives some reliable income and can do some neat tricks with accelerating wonders
Sun Tzu- haven't picked him yet, looks nice for draws but eh
Boudica- pretty much one of the best if you can lead, and the extra resources for units arent terrible since its a free warrior, but probably not great if you expect to be behind (ie someone picks Alex, Caesar, Sun)
Hippocrates: yellow tokens are really good but he takes a while to pay out and doesn't do anything until age 2, not sure if he's that great
Stonehenge: really strong. Library of Alexandria that pays half as much science over time, but pays it all up front (as early as turn 2) and provides a happy face instead of handsize
Acropolis: doesn't really do much for you immediately, will in a normal game save you like 3 on monarchy and 6 ish on age 3 gov't- so less than LoA and less flexible. Cheap though
Roman Roads: a pain to build, but provides a lot of nice bonuses over time. Kind of wants civil actions or masonry but idk whether you'd pick it blind
Colosseum: pretty solid, military actions are nice especially if you miss an age1 govt and the science discount is ok, plus happy face is useful early on

al-azad posted:

Yuck. Using Objectively the Greatest Area Majority Game of All Time(TM) El Grande as a template, the point differentials should be a fraction of each other e.g. if you have 1st/2nd/3rd then 2nd place is 2/3 of first and 3rd is 1/3 of first. Two second-places or three third places should get the same value as one first place.

Tekopo posted:

It's a mixture of a roll and wreight and a euro. Main mechanism is dice-drafting, so trying to know what your opponents are likely to pick is important. You are all writing on the same map of Rome as well and there are two main interactions: either taking something before someone else does, or, more importantly, where you place buildings on the main map, since adjacency is important, either between your own buildings or your opponent's buildings. It's a more interactive design than the solitaire multiplayer R&W games like Welcome To.., Railway Ink etc.

Bottom Liner posted:

Paper Tales is a great pure drafting game for up to 7 and currently on sale for $22. This has been a real hit this year for us and good at all player counts.

https://www.amazon.com/Stronghold-Games-6019SG-Paper-Tales/dp/B07BK7WLBS

Bottom Liner posted:

It's super light on rules and the iconography is easy and clear. You draft units that go into your kingdom and each round you can build/upgrade buildings to add more bonuses and let you focus on a strategy (combat, econ, etc) and have a war with your adjacent opponents that's as simple as comparing your battle strength of 2-3 front units.

It does a couple of clever things though. First, the round structure is marked by #s for each phase and every card has an accompanying number + icon if it does something in that phase, so if you have a unit that gives an extra coin in the income phase its very clear and easy to remember to trigger. It might not sound like much, but in practice this is one of the best card games that does a great job of not letting you forget to do all of your stuff. The small tableau size adds to that too.

Secondly, a great draw is mitigated by the aging system, where every unit gets an aging token at the end of the round and will die at the end of the next round, so unless you use a power to mess with it every card only exists for two rounds. I was worried that it wouldn't have much impact in such a short game but it actually works great and makes the game dynamic as hell and makes sure that someone having a great first round won't just dominate all game.

The economy is also super tight, with many turns being a choice of playing one really strong unit and nothing else, or a handful of cheap ones while you hopefully build up to a bigger turn next round. The wars are also a great implementation of combat, the victor just gets 3 points for each adjacent opponent they beat and the loser gets nothing. Hate drafting is also baked in easily, you get to keep an extra unused card each round so you can hold on to a powerful card for yourself or one your opponent needs on top of normal drafting tactics.

Overall a really solid light game that I'm impressed by. Only played 2p and 3p so far but I'd definitely go up to 5 and think it'd stay under 45 minutes. I will say I'm glad I found it on sale because the MSRP is insane. The entire game fits in a single deck box minus the score tracker and some superfluous tokens and the card quality is only OK, not great. The art is deliciously charming though.

Rusty Kettle posted:

You and me both! The problem is that people who play a lot of board games forget how things that are second nature to us can be difficult for new players. I think all the cards, phases, keeping track of the order that colonists do things, etc all was too much. For most of us, this stuff is business as usual so no problem.

Redundant posted:

I think it's definitely this. If you have played a lot of game you can easily pick up most mechanics in commonly played games and then focus mainly on strategy. This lets you make plans over multiple turns and weigh the value of one thing or another. For newer players they are sometimes still battling with the mechanics which means they aren't really thinking through what their turns mean/do, they're more focused on making sure that the thing they want to do is even possible.

Bottom Liner posted:

Don’t know Greed, but compared to Sushi Go it’s more complex but not convoluted like 7 Wonders can be to some. I’ll just quote my old post about it and why it’s good:

Breadnought posted:

Got my copy of Roads & Boats 20th Anniversary in.

Breadnought posted:

Got my copy of Roads & Boats 20th Anniversary in.

Dr. Video Games 0069 posted:

I played Flow of History last night and while I agree about the abruptness of the ending, the Communism card didn't really give us much trouble - once the poorest player laid a bid on it, the rest of us just invested most or all of our money, then cashed in after Socialism took effect. Scoring seems weird though - you kind of just get points for every card, with some cards being worth slightly more, and then wonders, which often were worth maybe slightly more than any other cards. Maybe there is some more disparity with experience?

GrandpaPants posted:

I think this triggered me about as much as seeing a box of Magic cards dropped down the stairs.

hito posted:

Megasabin posted:

Forbidden City & Silk Road seem to be there to encourage players to pick up Masonry.