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Spirit Island question - we ran Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares and Ocean and Oceans Hungry Grasp. It feels like this combination is bonkers strong, because Bringer's no-kill restriction becomes irrelevant on the coast and it actually becomes a benefit - you get the extra fear that you get instead of killing, then you push the stuff into the ocean and it still drowns. Does that work, or did we miss a rule somewhere? Because it seems like Bringer's strength is massively different in situations where it can still kill via pushing vs. when it can't.
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Oct 28, 2019 04:05
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hito posted:Spirit Island question - we ran Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares and Ocean and Oceans Hungry Grasp. It feels like this combination is bonkers strong, because Bringer's no-kill restriction becomes irrelevant on the coast and it actually becomes a benefit - you get the extra fear that you get instead of killing, then you push the stuff into the ocean and it still drowns. Does that work, or did we miss a rule somewhere? Because it seems like Bringer's strength is massively different in situations where it can still kill via pushing vs. when it can't. That absolutely works, and it's why those two are such a fun combo.
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Oct 28, 2019 04:39
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hito posted:Spirit Island question - we ran Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares and Ocean and Oceans Hungry Grasp. It feels like this combination is bonkers strong, because Bringer's no-kill restriction becomes irrelevant on the coast and it actually becomes a benefit - you get the extra fear that you get instead of killing, then you push the stuff into the ocean and it still drowns. Does that work, or did we miss a rule somewhere? Because it seems like Bringer's strength is massively different in situations where it can still kill via pushing vs. when it can't. You got it right. Ocean is quite strong in general and Bringer is good at accelerating already-strong team compositions and there is a lot of specific synergy between the two on top of all that, so yeah that combo is going to be pretty goddamn strong
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Oct 28, 2019 04:44
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Okay, I'm starting to get it. So it's got good difficulty in that it's granular more than it's balanced - some specific combinations are just way stronger than others, and it's less about "try to win the highest difficulty you can handle with whatever tools you can" and more "listen, some combinations are way stronger than others. We give you the tools to set the dial appropriately for what you're running. Go nuts"? Or can the very best players usually win difficulty 10 with any combination of spirits?
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Oct 28, 2019 05:33
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Note that Bringer can't push cities around. But the 5 fear 'destroying' them generates is quite significant. Slower spirits are generally at a disadvantage in the high difficulties. Things just happen too fast to deal with. And some spirits are very poor matches for certain adversaries. Like Brandenburg-Prussia is a speed game. Playing a late riser like Vital Strength of the Earth will generally hurt more than help.
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Oct 28, 2019 05:48
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hito posted:Okay, I'm starting to get it. So it's got good difficulty in that it's granular more than it's balanced - some specific combinations are just way stronger than others, and it's less about "try to win the highest difficulty you can handle with whatever tools you can" and more "listen, some combinations are way stronger than others. We give you the tools to set the dial appropriately for what you're running. Go nuts"? Or can the very best players usually win difficulty 10 with any combination of spirits? Ehh... sort of. England 6 is a bit harder than the other difficulty 10 adversaries and is basically an unofficial "difficulty 11." But the other difficulty 10 adversaries are basically at the level of "usually win with any combination of spirits" with very good play, although different adversaries have their own strengths and weaknesses and some spirits will struggle vs. specific adversaries. High level England is its own beast and that's where you start to get seriously into dialing the challenge up/down based on your team composition, although to some extent that's less about power and more about counter-picking around England's specific strengths and weaknesses. Jagged Earth will feature an official difficulty 11 adversary that plays very differently from England, which should greatly widen the challenges available.
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Oct 28, 2019 06:14
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Straight White Shark posted:England's specific... weaknesses. ?????
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Oct 28, 2019 08:53
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Essen was fun, but I only had a look at the fair for half a day. My schedule basically meant that I only had Thursday afternoon to actually look at the convention, since I went out to see some German friends outside of Essen on Friday/Saturday. My final haul was pretty sparse with only Vinhos (always wanted a Lacerda), Irish Gauge (the board was fine without the glue problems) and EXCEED Season 3. Overall it was actually pretty fun doing demos and attending the booth, although I nearly lost my voice. I'm gonna be playing Sanctum tomorrow and will report back. It seems to be themed pretty well and the combat seems fine, but I dunno, the game seems (from at least the demo) slightly repetitive. Will see how it is in action.
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Oct 28, 2019 11:12
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Sanctum probably is quite repetitive, but my demo guy said it was also meant to play out in 60-75 minutes. It may therefore not outstay its welcome. This wasn't one of the great years for Spiel. If I hadn't been hanging out with you and other friends a lot of the time I don't think I would have enjoyed it so much. So thanks for your time, it's appreciated.
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Oct 28, 2019 11:22
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Hey, sorry if this isn't strictly the right place to ask, but does anyone know where I can get 'Airlines: Europe'? (Can be from anywhere, assuming they ship to Aus) I just can't seem to find it anywhere. It's for my dad's birthday - he's a fan of TTR, so I thought I'd get it for him, as it seems to be similar enough to enjoy without it being simply more of the same.
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Oct 28, 2019 12:53
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Major Isoor posted:Hey, sorry if this isn't strictly the right place to ask, but does anyone know where I can get 'Airlines: Europe'? (Can be from anywhere, assuming they ship to Aus) I just can't seem to find it anywhere. I’ve got a copy that’s collecting dust! I’ll figure something out if you have private messages.
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Oct 28, 2019 12:58
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Major Isoor posted:Hey, sorry if this isn't strictly the right place to ask, but does anyone know where I can get 'Airlines: Europe'? (Can be from anywhere, assuming they ship to Aus) I just can't seem to find it anywhere. https://www.gumnut.io/collections/all/products/airlines-europe Might be able to help: Ive never used them though.
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Oct 28, 2019 12:59
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Played Troyes yesterday after a while not playing it and there was a rules question that we resolved. Come back to the rules forum while musing and I see this:quote:There can be more than the tradesmen than the number of spaces that provide points. If the spaces that provide VPs are full, then you just place it on the picture of the card, and you don't get any VPs. Never knew about this on the dozens of times I’ve played the game since it’s never come up. 
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Oct 28, 2019 13:54
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Krazyface posted:????? A lot of the difficulty rests on the HP boost, so if you have access to a lot of "Destroy X" abilities it makes England considerably easier. I wouldn't go so far as to say that max level England is easier for something like Lightning's Swift Strike than max level Brandenburg-Prussia or France, but it's pretty close, especially when you compare to spirits that just get dunked on by England.
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Oct 28, 2019 15:16
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I’ve played Spirit Island probably 25 times now, the majority of that is 2 player. I must really suck because we’ve never played a scenario or adversary and we usually barely eek out a Terror Level III victory by eliminating all cities.
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Oct 28, 2019 15:29
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Jewmanji posted:I’ve played Spirit Island probably 25 times now, the majority of that is 2 player. I must really suck because we’ve never played a scenario or adversary and we usually barely eek out a Terror Level III victory by eliminating all cities. I'm curious to know more about what spirits and strategies you're using. Adding an adversary doesn't dial up the difficulty that much either. Adding in level 0 Brandenburg-Prussia simply adds another step during stage 2 explores for example. Level 1 just modifies their setup a bit.
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Oct 28, 2019 16:22
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Jewmanji posted:I’ve played Spirit Island probably 25 times now, the majority of that is 2 player. I must really suck because we’ve never played a scenario or adversary and we usually barely eek out a Terror Level III victory by eliminating all cities. Higher difficulty setups aren't quite as scary as they look. You do tend to rack up fear faster from more aggressive invader expansion which helps drive you towards your win conditions faster, and fear cards tend to have a bit of natural rubberbanding built in (many of them do little or nothing if you've already got the board under control but can save the day if you don't.)
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Oct 28, 2019 16:29
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I've been out of the loop for the last 6 months or so. What are the best games in 2019? Co-op or 1v1.
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Oct 28, 2019 16:38
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Air land and sea for 2p, maybe? I haven't played but it sounds super good, battle line ish with intentional calculated forfeiting of positions. Not heroes of land air and sea. Not.
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Oct 28, 2019 17:11
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Wait for GMT's medieval battle line. You won't be disappointed.
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Oct 28, 2019 17:13
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I really love Battle Line (and am waiting on the GMT edition to ship) but Air Land & Sea is a very worthy competitor and feels like it could have been designed by Knizia himself. It's also shorter since rounds can end so quickly and a game can end in in as little as two rounds. Watergate is another one that has gotten a lot of buzz, and is a thematic tug of war around Nixon vs The Washington Post.
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Oct 28, 2019 17:17
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I was expecting some Pandemic Season 3 news at Essen. Was there any?
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Oct 28, 2019 20:59
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Klemens Franz was an artist on Watergate. He must've done the graphic design because I see no melty wax people.
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Oct 28, 2019 23:38
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KingKapalone posted:I was expecting some Pandemic Season 3 news at Essen. Was there any? There was a big sign up advertising Pandemic Legacy and saying something like "Every story has an ending", but I don't recall the details. I didn't go by the stand either.
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Oct 28, 2019 23:47
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It said “every ending has a beginning” which to me read as a prequel hint
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Oct 29, 2019 00:33
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Or s3 precedes s4 which is the actual end this time honest
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Oct 29, 2019 00:34
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Bottom Liner posted:It said “every ending has a beginning” which to me read as a prequel hint That was it, yes. Like I said, I didn't examine it too closely.
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Oct 29, 2019 00:58
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al-azad posted:Klemens Franz was an artist on Watergate. He must've done the graphic design because I see no melty wax people. Too bad, would've worked for nixon.
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Oct 29, 2019 01:20
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SettingSun posted:I'm curious to know more about what spirits and strategies you're using. Adding an adversary doesn't dial up the difficulty that much either. Adding in level 0 Brandenburg-Prussia simply adds another step during stage 2 explores for example. Level 1 just modifies their setup a bit. I'd say the most common spirit combination is A Rampant Spread of Green and Thunderspeaker. My wife seems to have a very intuitive feel for moving the Dahan around with Thunderspeaker, she's very good at that. We graduated from the low complexity spirits pretty early, and tend to play the medium and high complexity spirits from the base game (haven't yet opened Branch and Claw) We generally do a good job of knowing when to prioritize preventing a build versus preventing a ravage. I think what mostly strikes me when I read other people's takes on this game is how other players seem to have a very good intuition for how to structure the opening turns in terms of card plays and growth options. I don't know if it's that all of these people have been trained on card combos by years of MtG, but I just don't have a mind for that sort of thing (or perhaps I don't take enough time before the first turn to really perform an analysis on the correct card play order). I do my best to take as many turns as a reasonably can before I reclaim all discarded powers, but other than that I don't have very many basic strategies. I've played some of these spirits close to ten times and the rhythm that you establish between growth options and card plays just doesn't really occur to me. The only spirit I intuitively understood from the very first play was Ocean's Hungry Grasp, and I think that's because it's growth options are wonderfully thematic. The concept of a waxing and waning tide is very evocative and made it easy to understand what to do and when. Some of the other spirits have a theme that's a bit thinner and doesn't immediately reveal itself. It feels a bit like jumping jacks, if my hands are the growth option, and my feet are the card plays- sometimes they are synced up, but if I don't pay attention, my arms are sometimes closed when my legs are splayed, or vice versa. I don't want to "cheat" by reading other people's strategies, I want to have the pleasure of discovering these synergies for myself. But I think it's ok if I just confess that I might not be very good at this particular game. And despite not being good at it, I still enjoy playing it a lot 
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Oct 29, 2019 02:34
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Anyone heard about/played Lucidity? It's supposedly a Barnes & Noble exclusive co-op press your luck game with potential side-switching.
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Oct 29, 2019 15:25
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Bottom Liner posted:Watergate is another one that has gotten a lot of buzz, and is a thematic tug of war around Nixon vs The Washington Post. Thanks, this look interesting.
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Oct 29, 2019 16:12
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Agent Rush posted:Anyone heard about/played Lucidity? It's supposedly a Barnes & Noble exclusive co-op press your luck game with potential side-switching. Long, confusing, boring and heavily luck driven. One of the worst games I've ever played.
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Oct 29, 2019 17:39
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Tried Kanban today, only 2 players. It was fine but I think it would benefit from the extra pressure from more players. Also I think the car production system is clunky and doesn't really reflect the theme all that well, although strangely it is clunky BECAUSE of theme. Still really solid, but I think I would rate it below Gallerist and Vinhos.
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Oct 29, 2019 18:32
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Has anyone played any/much of the Marvel Champions LCG? I'm very intrigued (and I looooove Arkham Horror, so I already enjoy FFG's co-op stuff and their LCG distribution model) but it seems pretty different from stuff like that and LotR, since there's (apparently?) no campaign play.
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Oct 29, 2019 18:35
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My copy of the Street Masters: Aftershock Kickstarter arrived, and hooooo boy was that a bear to put away. Ten boxes of stuff, packed into one giant box with 3000 cards and over a hundred miniatures. The game itself is pretty fun, though I don't like that the time to play it drastically scales with the number of players. One player is 30m-1h, two is 2h+, and four of us didn't even get the boss down halfway after nearly 4 hours! The variety seems like it's good enough to keep coming back, but it's a weird mishmash of being light on decisions while simultaneously having enough upkeep and time required that my brain still doesn't quite know what I think of it.
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Oct 29, 2019 19:03
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food court bailiff posted:Has anyone played any/much of the Marvel Champions LCG? I'm very intrigued (and I looooove Arkham Horror, so I already enjoy FFG's co-op stuff and their LCG distribution model) but it seems pretty different from stuff like that and LotR, since there's (apparently?) no campaign play. I was pretty unimpressed. Deck building options are way more constricted than in Arkham and it lacks the progressive feel you get from XP. A lot of the tension was in deciding to hit the bad guy to end the scenario or thwart their schemes to stop them from getting stronger. A lot of encounter cards were their own separate schemes with little countdowns to something bad happening. The attacking versus thwarting was a good tension in theory but the choices usually felt obvious. One cool improvement (maybe?) is that heroes add their weakness equivalents to the encounter deck rather than their own deck. All of the weaknesses I saw were pretty much the same - boiling down to exhausting your hero ahead of their turn. The different characters were sorta cool - Iron Man was only as strong as the gear he assembled, Spider-Man could dodge and fight, and Captain Marvel did something with energy.
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Oct 29, 2019 19:06
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Codeacious posted:The game itself is pretty fun, though I don't like that the time to play it drastically scales with the number of players. One player is 30m-1h, two is 2h+, and four of us didn't even get the boss down halfway after nearly 4 hours! Weird. Any idea why it's scaling like that? Does more players mean you end up wasting actions on things that don't progress the scenario, or is there some strange complexity cascade as you add more players?
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Oct 29, 2019 19:50
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NRVNQSR posted:Weird. Any idea why it's scaling like that? Does more players mean you end up wasting actions on things that don't progress the scenario, or is there some strange complexity cascade as you add more players? I think it's due to the nature of the game effects, which often include "affects all <something> within X spaces", meaning as there's more stuff happening on the board (each player draws an enemy card), the actions around that stuff ends up also just affecting more stuff, so you get this superlinear scaling of raw number of effects. It doesn't feel more complex, necessarily, though I think the bookkeeping/memory required for more complex factions with tons of passives could get awful at higher player counts. At the same time though, the 4P game also just really cool for how crazy the board state was, with tons of huge effects happening on the board like a nail bomb wiping out 10 figures at once and a janitor becoming The Hulk and scaring everyone (even allies) away, which created changes in the board state that really made the theme of "crazy street brawl" shine through. The Kickstarter included an optional "turbo mode" that might fix the length, but I suspect it'll also make the game a bit too swingy to really be a solution.
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Oct 29, 2019 23:09
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food court bailiff posted:Has anyone played any/much of the Marvel Champions LCG? I'm very intrigued (and I looooove Arkham Horror, so I already enjoy FFG's co-op stuff and their LCG distribution model) but it seems pretty different from stuff like that and LotR, since there's (apparently?) no campaign play. I've played the first scenerio a couple of times. Apparently campaign play will be added in via the expansions. The core box is definitely designed for pick up and play, you pick a hero, then an aspect and a few neutral cards to bring the deck up to 40 and you're GTG. The core gameplay loop is essentially a refined version of the LOTR gameplay loop and I think works a bit better. Because you always draw up to your hand size and your cards are resources you can dig through your deck very fast which gives a bit more pace to the game. I've.pre-ordered it.
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Oct 29, 2019 23:38
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So I borrowed a copy of Sanctum from a friend who went to Essen. The game was evocative, thematic, very VERY pretty and it was awesome to collect weapons and unlock abilities and fight progressively stronger demons until we met the final boss. Here are my character and the one of my SO just before the fight with the big bad evil demon boss:   The game itself was easy to teach and grasp, and we got started relatively quickly once the initial explanation was over. The end was down to the wire, with my SO going down midway through the boss fight and me going down to 1 health before striking down the boss! Exciting stuff! Except... Well, I played one game, on the easiest difficulty, and I already feel like I've seen the majority of what the game has to offer. This isn't an exaggeration. There are two characters that I haven't seen even the abilities of, but I'm pretty sure that they are going to play very similarly to the ones we played just because the gameplay loop of Sanctum is quite set in stone and I don't see how having different abilities is substantially going to change that. Even the fact that there are 4 different difficulty settings doesn't change the game enough, because the only effect that it has is increase the difficulty of the very last part of the game, with everything else before it completely unchanged, which makes the difficulty just a level check at the end of the game rather than something that completely changes the play experience. That's not the only problem, however. To say that player interaction is minimal is to put it lightly. The only interactions with other players are races: races to get to certain spaces first, or get to the end first, or get an achievement first, or get a particular monster first. There's no way to interact with your opponents at all (and they are opponents, the game is in no way a co-op game) apart from reaching or taking something first. It all felt very solitaire and my opponent was just along with the ride. My SO, who isn't really all that deep into gaming, felt that the game was unfavourably simplified in comparison to Gloomhaven, one of the few other games she has played. There's also really no variance in the monsters. All monsters of a particular level are the same: they do the same damage, go down to the same number of hits (although potentially different dice need to be used to kill them), with the only difference being the leveling up rewards and the item that they can give. The lack of monster variety is a huge reason why I don't think there is enough interesting stuff happening in the game. To balance my negativity above, I have to say the graphic design is very nice. Everything is very evocative and the art on the items, especially the high level ones, is really nice. There's a nice sense of progression as your character gets more and more buff with better and better skills. The combat is dice based but there is more than enough dice manipulation to allow you to do interesting combos with the dice. Overall the presentation is excellent and the theming is on point. But even that doesn't really do enough to sell me on the game, and to pay 60 euros on repetitive gameplay with a skill check at the end really doesn't sell me on why I should pay such a high price. Sure, Gloomhaven might twice or even three times as expensive, but you'll probably get 10 times more gameplay out of that when compared to Sanctum. I just can't see myself playing it more than a few more times to see how the other two characters are. I am interested in playing 3 or 4 players but I can't honestly see how the game is going to be that much different.
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Oct 29, 2019 23:44
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