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Ceebees posted:Thanks for the analysis and advice, all. It didn't seem overpowered, especially since if someone is using it too much you just take the moose away from them. But, I still think there's some odd player psychology there, where cancelling out negative points is easy, but nothing else on the action board gives VP in the same order of magnitude. I guess I'll just have to play the game a bunch more times to get a feel for it and alternate strategies, oh noooo It looks tempting, I must admit, but it's not as impressive as that big 21 on an emigrated longship makes it look. To get that, you're giving up not only a longship, which is worth 8 points, but also up to 7 silver, each of which is also worth 1 point! So, yes, you've got to get positive points if you have any hope of a good Feast score. I ended that 2P game over 130 - 22 from a knarr, a longship, and 3 whaling boats, no emigrations, 40 points from Cork and the Isle of Skye, 22 points from 2 sheds and a pigsty, 19 from a horse, a pregnant horse, and 5 pigs, 8 points from occupation cards, 24 between leftover silver and my final income, and the ringer 2 from the English Crown. (more local meta - people often take their final income if it'll cover -1s, to help with accounting, and you can always get your final income if you need it to use occupations or fill out the feast) Of course, buying 2 horses isn't an option outside Norwegians - I think I'd have emigrated and built a stone house instead. The key to upping your Feast game is that when you're grabbing tiles you need to have a sense for "just enough" - just enough to fill an income diagonal, just enough to secure a bonus this turn, just enough to end the game with no tiles at all left over. (Or, I mean, recognizing when you have a thing from occupations and going ludicrous on it, like the guy who won our last 4P game who started with Bean Farmer and promptly mined as much as possible, built all five long houses, emigrated like four times with the leftovers, and largely abandoned the homeboard to bean it right the hell up. Though that's something Norwegians makes easier because pigs can go in houses even if they're not worth points in there.)
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Oct 8, 2019 03:36
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Emigration is a good use of ships in the last round if you don't have better options, but not strong enough to drive a strategy in itself because you give up so many turns and workers to get resources, build boats, then pay for the emigration itself. The real key of every good Feast strategy is stacking up bonus income so you create a feedback loop of getting more boards and more bonuses to fill up more boards. That's daunting to new players because it seems like you'll never fill up those spaces but by round 5 you're swimming in tiles and dreading the clean up of the game lol.
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Oct 8, 2019 04:14
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Bottom Liner posted:A lot of Barnes and Nobles have games for 75% off as of today, including Dragon Castle and Paper Tales for $10–$12. You can use the website or call your local ones to check stock of them. Anything left in two weeks will be $2. Anyone have impressions of the Rick and Morty or D&D Dragonfire Deck Building games? I checked online, and those were the only ones I saw on sale that looked at all interesting.
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Oct 8, 2019 04:23
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I believe Dragon fire is just a reskined Shadowrun Crossfire. If so, it's a coop market row deck builder that had a cool idea in having RPG like sessions, but ultimately fell flat. Basically enemies had combos of four colors you needed to play on them to defeat them. Cards do very little other than represent colors, so it turns into a hive mind puzzle of sorts. If you succeed, you get experience for your character than translates into perks that I don't remember. It was too difficult to start and ultimately didn't give interesting decisions. The game distilled down to its more basic elements is Big Book of Madness. If you can grab it for 15, why not. Otherwise, skip it and try BBoM. People here enjoy it, but it was the game that broke coop games for me entirely until Spirit Island brought me back to the genre.
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Oct 8, 2019 06:32
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Well, I got to have a fairly game-packed long weekend, which was a nice change of pace. On Saturday I played some 7 Wonders (which my non-boardgamer sister always seems to win, somehow) as well as The Estates, which I quite enjoyed. I do like how a winning strategy would be to put a high-value ground floor in the centre-row sandpit, then whatever you can in the next space and get a blocker to cancel out the rest of the row - then simply try and prevent others from re-extending the row again, while sabotaging the other two rows, so that they can't get any completed buildings. Definitely needs a few more plays though I think, before the politics surrounding the game come fully into play. And on Sunday I played Battlestar Galactica with a full group of friends. And for the first time, the humans actually won! Annoyingly it was also the only time I was a cylon - and also didn't want to be one. After the sleeper phase there were literally zero attacks on the BSG (my super crises were all about giving existing ships double-actions, rather than adding new ships) and the humans were extremely lucky - almost every crisis card was a non-issue (one even gave them a 'distance to goal' point) and gave them jump points...then every jump was a non-issue and took them a quarter of the way to the destination. Must've been the fastest game we'd ever played.
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Oct 8, 2019 07:06
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Major Isoor posted:Must've been the fastest game we'd ever played. And thus the best game of BSG ever played.
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Oct 8, 2019 12:17
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Hello boardgame thread, my regular sixth monthly visit because my fledgling casual gaming group needs a new game. We have enjoyed many games that have been suggested in the past. 3 to 4 players (2 and/or 5 would be a bonus). Not so interested in heavily narrative games, minature/combat heavy games or dungeon crawlers. Lowish-medium weight stuff (Roll for the Galaxy/Terraforming Mars probably the limit of the level of complexity they'd be comfortable with) Nothing too much over 2 hours. We like a bit of theme, so probably nothing too abstract. Scifi, Fantasy, Vikings... probably not so much trading wood in the mediterranean £50 or under (so probably around $60 or under) and available at retail in the UK So far we've played and enjoyed: Pandemic, Lords of Waterdeep, Champions of Midgard (their favourite), Roll for the Galaxy (my favourite, both thread recommendations, thanks), Terraforming Mars (bought in China and the component quality was so bad for an expensive game I assumed it was a bootleg.... but turns out, nope), Small World and some light starters like Barenpark, Coup and Loveletter. A lot of the games I'd love to play are probably too complex and run to long. There's some deduction games on my radar, but it sounds like a lot of them play better with higher player counts. Definitely interested in exploring some other mechanics (Card Drafting? Area Control?). Keep in mind that for the most part we're pretty casual and I'm the only one who actually dips their toes in following news/cons etc so there might be some stuff that doesn't do it for those of you that take their boardgames very seriously, but is fine for us. I'm eyeing up 7 Wonders because it's cheap and well regarded, but have actually never seen it played. Also interested in something that has a little more player direct player interaction than the worker placement/tableau building stuff we seem to gravitate towards. Are any of the Cthulhu themed games where you travel around the world investigating, fighting monsters and trying not to go insane any good? An interest has been expressed in that as a theme. All suggestions appreciated and will be investigated! Gravy Jones fucked around with this message at 12:54 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 12:51
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Gravy Jones posted:Hello boardgame thread, my regular sixth monthly visit because my fledgling casual gaming group needs a new game. We have enjoyed many games that have been suggested in the past.
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Oct 8, 2019 13:01
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Inis is perfect for those requirements imo. At first glance you might think it has too much combat, but it doesn't. Castles of Mad King Ludwig is also solid. If you're willing to surrender theme a little, the Estates is amazing  Via Nebula will have, I think, the perfect degree of interaction, while being super-cute. It can be mean, but only at a few moments per game. Apparently it's also super-cheap right now  .Dungeon Petz might be a bit heavy, otherwise it's a match I think, and it's incredibly good.
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Oct 8, 2019 13:03
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I was thinking about recommending Dungeon Petz but I did have a feeling that it would be a bit too heavy.
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Oct 8, 2019 13:05
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Tekopo posted:I was thinking about recommending Dungeon Petz but I did have a feeling that it would be a bit too heavy. It's got the traditional Chvatil "one layer too many" problem. Gentes might fit the bill. Technically the Med is involved, but the trading is abstracted out completely in favour of the people who live in your civilisation.
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Oct 8, 2019 13:11
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It sounds like you'd really enjoy Keyflower and The Estates. Both fit most of your criteria - flexible player count, worker placement/auction mechanics, under 2 hours, much more directed aggression than typical euro-style games without being overly political. The only issues potentially are theme for Keyflower and availability for The Estates. Keyflower isn't quite as cliche as trading in the Mediterranean, but it certainly comes close, and while it isn't an ugly game it doesn't make up for its beige theme with gorgeous components like some euros do. Still it's one of this thread's favorite games and has been for many years so it's hard to not recommend given how well it fits everything else you mentioned. The Estates' issue is a bit harder to get around. I don't know precisely how its distribution works but a quick glance online implies it isn't widely available right now. I'm in the US though so I'm not entirely sure what things are like across the pond. But when it was available it was definitely within your price range so if there's a print run due out soon or you just get lucky and see it on a shelf then hey, go for it!
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Oct 8, 2019 13:11
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Inis is definitely on my list, but a little expensive so I've been keeping an eye out for it discounted somewhere. Eldritch Horror I will definitely check out (I have the Arkham CCG base game and we've played that when there are only two of us) Dungeon Petz I'd always avoided, literally because of the name, but I will investigate further! Couple of others in there I'm not familiar with so will add them on to the list of things to investigate Thanks! Edit: Dungeon Petz is absolutely not what I thought it was. I was confused with another dungeon game with millions of Chibi blister packs you can get. Probably too heavy but I'll watch a video or two anyway as I like the look of it. Gravy Jones fucked around with this message at 13:33 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 13:12
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Going to recommend Ra, Irish Gauge, German Railways, Stephenson’s rocket, el Grande, or Chicago Express, the estates. Heavy interaction, quick, and all lightweight. Most have a train theme, which is quite possibly the best theme. Also not exactly related but this was amusing to me since I tend to say the same thing: 
Chill la Chill fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 13:31
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Gravy Jones posted:Hello boardgame thread, my regular sixth monthly visit because my fledgling casual gaming group needs a new game. We have enjoyed many games that have been suggested in the past. Skull is the best very simple game I've ever played. It's a very simple bluffing game, but there's enough there to make it interesting. Highly recommend.
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Oct 8, 2019 13:34
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For deduction games how about Whitehall Mystery. Only goes up to 4 but is really good or Treasure Island It's a bit of a mixed bag in terms of people liking it but I do. The Quacks of Quedlinburg is fun and lightweight. Dinosaur Island is good but can be expensive I think. But if you like Area control with a bit of theme then I would really recommend Photosynthesis, a fun passive aggressive tree growing game. Aramoro fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 13:36
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Can someone recommend me a few research papers on auction theory so I can destroy all my friends at Modern Art
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Oct 8, 2019 13:39
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Modern art theory: The correct price is P=e Times (n-1)/n Where e is expected sales value and n is number of players. Go lower for good players and risk, higher for bad players selling.
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Oct 8, 2019 13:45
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Few more. Broom Service - Sounds perfect imo. No "fighting" conflict, but plenty of interaction, maybe a tad mean. And it's cute. Metropolys - Same batch as the games Chill just mentioned, except it has the easiest rules.
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Oct 8, 2019 13:48
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TOO MANY GAMES. Have added more to the investigation list, looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of time on youtube over the next few nights. For some reason, despite loving train based computer games (with a hundred hours+ in Railroad Tycoon 2) I've never really looked at Train based board games. So will check a few out. I watched a Treasure Island video played recently and was intrigued. Dinosaur Island already on my list and I really want to play it, but yeah a little pricey and, I think we need a break from cubes and player boards for now. Gravy Jones fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 13:50
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Bottom Liner posted:A lot of Barnes and Nobles have games for 75% off as of today, including Dragon Castle and Paper Tales for $10–$12. You can use the website or call your local ones to check stock of them. Anything left in two weeks will be $2. Couldn’t find paper tales on the site. How is it though? Watched a video and it seems ok.
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Oct 8, 2019 14:01
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Modern art bidding is entirely based on the group, and it can radically affect the game because if you don't follow step you will likely lose. My preferred setup is where the buyer and seller have fairly equitable trades, but most newbies tend to bid up prices to the extent that the seller gets a lion share of the profit and the buyer gets the lion share of the risk, which honestly makes no sense to me, especially consider that the seller can lose a lot of profit if they are forced to buy their own paintings.
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Oct 8, 2019 14:05
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Is Architects of the West Kingdom any good? I've only played one of his other games, Shipwrights of the North Sea or whatever, and did not like it at all. I just know that when Architects initially came out it got a lot of buzz from the usual suspects but I'm concerned it's another blandly functional MWE. Speaking of, I played Wingspan for the first time on the weekend and it was... fine? I didn't have a great time but we were playing with at 5p and I think it's a game that maybe works better at 2 or 3. The art is adorable on the cards and the eggs were nice but the cubes felt really cheap and like leftovers from another SM game. It was only one play but the reliance on different food types/currencies as well as dice rolls to get the food types really bugged me and I think exacerbated by the player count. And it definitely seemed like it was worth your time to pump out eggs in the last round and hope you've chained together enough combos to do other thing as well. Ravens seem extraordinarily good too. Unsure if any tableau builders play well beyond 3p, now that I think about it but maybe I'm forgetting one. Also got to play That's My Fish and really enjoyed it. Like a stripped down Knizia puzzle. Oddly I would say that 2p was the wrong player count for it and I think 3 or 4 would be ideal to facilitate rage and hatred. EDIT: also thanks for the Feast for Odin chat, we played two games of it on the weekend as well and I still love that game so much even though I struggle to break 100. My GF went full Noah's ark and had every animal and breeding pairs and everything early but still did not do very well. If she had grabbed a late island or two she could have cracked 130 easy. I wish I just knew what grey pieces were best on which islands because a perfect one is just pure chef_kiss FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 15:37
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FulsomFrank posted:Is Architects of the West Kingdom any good? I've only played one of his other games, Shipwrights of the North Sea or whatever, and did not like it at all. I just know that when Architects initially came out it got a lot of buzz from the usual suspects but I'm concerned it's another blandly functional MWE. Both meetups I attend have had a good time with Architects. The actions are straightforward and simple enough that it moves at a good place even with 5 players and is easy to teach, and the way that your workers make actions better and better is an interesting dynamic. I got to teach Brass Birmingham to a friend last night (on TtS) and we played through a full 2p game. He really enjoyed it, and managed to accumulate a very impressive income (26!) by the end. I did go kind of easy, specializing in Manufactured Goods (I don't have much experience with how to play those) but still ended up just a little ahead of him at the end. He wanted to try it to see if it would be a good fit for his group, and while he thinks it might be a bit too heavy for them, he's ready to play more himself!
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Oct 8, 2019 15:50
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FulsomFrank posted:Unsure if any tableau builders play well beyond 3p, now that I think about it but maybe I'm forgetting one. 7 Wonders, Lewis & Clark (Kinda), Through the Ages, not sure if you'd count it but Kanagawa is good at 4. And obviously the king of Tableau builders, Power Grid.
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Oct 8, 2019 15:56
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That (brass birm comment) brings up something that's been tickling my brain a bit. On the topic of multiple paths to victory, they can sometimes let you handicap yourself in a way that is fun for everyone. Consider A Feast for Odin: trying an island you've never explored before or focusing on houses or something is a great way to play with a new player, because you're learning, trying your best given that constraint, and the game feels relatively competitive. This requires the ways you can vary your play to be competitive, interesting, and not feel like you're just going easy. I think this is one of the biggest strengths of good board games, and it's overlooked.
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Oct 8, 2019 15:59
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silvergoose posted:That (brass birm comment) brings up something that's been tickling my brain a bit. When I teach Patchwork, I choose my pieces using the principles of one of the two easiest AIs in the app, but play the pieces as best I can (unlike the app). It usually ends up being a close-ish game that I lose, which is a good teaching spot.
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Oct 8, 2019 16:57
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Phelddagrif posted:I got to teach Brass Birmingham to a friend last night (on TtS) and we played through a full 2p game. He really enjoyed it, and managed to accumulate a very impressive income (26!) by the end. 26 income isn't impressive, it means you didn't take out enough loans early on. What were your final scores like?
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Oct 8, 2019 17:06
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Gravy Jones posted:TOO MANY GAMES. Don't listen to the train man he will destroy your life.
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Oct 8, 2019 17:29
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Playing Barrage with 3P tonight, any tips for a good experience?
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Oct 8, 2019 17:43
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Jedit posted:26 income isn't impressive, it means you didn't take out enough loans early on. What were your final scores like? Oh, of course, I know it's not competitive by any means. It was just a learning game to show him the ropes, and he got really excited to see that number keep going up and up. I also didn't play very aggressively as I didn't want to scare him off the game. I think final scores were 179-167.
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Oct 8, 2019 18:22
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Gravy Jones posted:3 to 4 players (2 and/or 5 would be a bonus). Concordia fits everything here except maybe the theme*, and it's a Real Good Game™. *It's set in Roman times and you're building up a trade network, but hey, some of the expansion maps don't include the Mediterranean sea! e: I should also probably toss in Galaxy Trucker, since it also fits and it's the one game in my collection no one has ever disliked. Ojetor fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 19:50
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Phelddagrif posted:Oh, of course, I know it's not competitive by any means. It was just a learning game to show him the ropes, and he got really excited to see that number keep going up and up. I also didn't play very aggressively as I didn't want to scare him off the game. I think final scores were 179-167. This makes me a bad friend but I don't like holding back for intro games. I'd rather give them the authentic experience® rather than holding back and making the game look shallower than it is.
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Oct 8, 2019 20:00
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dromer posted:This makes me a bad friend but I don't like holding back for intro games. I'd rather give them the authentic experience® rather than holding back and making the game look shallower than it is. All teaching should be contextualized to the audience.
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Oct 8, 2019 20:46
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sonatinas posted:Couldn’t find paper tales on the site. How is it though? Watched a video and it seems ok. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/toys-games-paper-tales/32481500 quote:
If you can find it in a store, $11 is a steal.
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Oct 8, 2019 21:09
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FulsomFrank posted:Is Architects of the West Kingdom any good? I've only played one of his other games, Shipwrights of the North Sea or whatever, and did not like it at all. I just know that when Architects initially came out it got a lot of buzz from the usual suspects but I'm concerned it's another blandly functional MWE. It's the very definition of a bland MWE. It's just another collect and convert resources with a mild twist worker placement. It's relatively short and inoffensive, but if you're tired of bland mwe's, this will exacerbate the problem. I love the look of games from this mob, but looking at it all clinically, of what I've played from them, they've made one truly great game (Raiders), two really bland ones (Explorers, Architects) and one complete stinker (Shipwrights). I think they've burned through all my goodwill at this point.
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Oct 8, 2019 21:15
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dromer posted:This makes me a bad friend but I don't like holding back for intro games. I'd rather give them the authentic experience® rather than holding back and making the game look shallower than it is. I think it depends. Silvergoose's example was great because Feast lets you honestly try something differently and still give newbies a chance to play the game as they see fit with a taste of high level strategy and blocking and what not. I think if you were playing something with a little more direct conflict or with tons of information that only a pro would know beforehand, whether it's the cards that will arrive, unintuitive strategies or what, there's a difference between silently blowing your opponent out of the water and doing a guided tour. I can't think of the amount of games I've taught people and lost because I had the training wheels on and was helping them make choices or anticipate Bad Things on the horizon. Typically these people wanted to play it again later, which was the biggest bonus. I also think back to some new games I've been "taught" and that once the rules were done it was off to the races because the other person was mostly looking for a punching bag and just wanted to try out things they've learned rather than teach. I've soured accidentally on a few good games because of that poo poo and it drives me nuts. The End posted:It's the very definition of a bland MWE. It's just another collect and convert resources with a mild twist worker placement. It's relatively short and inoffensive, but if you're tired of bland mwe's, this will exacerbate the problem. I love the look of games from this mob, but looking at it all clinically, of what I've played from them, they've made one truly great game (Raiders), two really bland ones (Explorers, Architects) and one complete stinker (Shipwrights). I think they've burned through all my goodwill at this point. Thanks for this. Shipwrights was so bad I wasn't sure I was playing it right. I'll ignore Architects then unless I see some crazy deal. Glad to know that Raiders is worth it though.
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Oct 8, 2019 21:37
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A friend bought Game of Thrones Catan, and I'd never played Catan, so we played it last night, but without the Game of Thrones bits. I can see why people dislike the game. I can also see why it works as a gateway. How many of the issues could be fixed by just making the low-probability numbers have a better payout? Can't Stop figured that out decades ago.
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Oct 8, 2019 22:01
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The problem with Catan over the randomness is its a trading game which actively discourages trading.
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Oct 8, 2019 22:08
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Aramoro posted:The problem with Catan over the randomness is its a trading game which actively discourages trading. And also being able to block people off pretty early in the game. And also also having a trap option in the random development cards that simultaneously encourages really bad moves while also being necessary in most games to get the last point or two.
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Oct 8, 2019 22:15
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