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Played an 8-turn session of Living Planet last night, it showed its potential as a super mean game but there was some rules confusion. How exactly are cataclysms applied to the map? We played it as the tiles with dice matching the active one had their cataclysms triggered, and that they only hit those tiles. Are there any other interpretations?
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Jan 11, 2020 18:47
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Zorro KingOfEngland posted:I've played Maskmen with two different groups, and both times we were having such a good time a player ordered the game off Amazon while we were playing it. Thanks to whomever was emphatically recommending that in the thread earlier. Fox in the Forest is very good and I would recommend it. Quick, portable, "lots of thinking in a small box" 2 player games are my thing. (Maskmen is also good.)
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Jan 11, 2020 18:53
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Triskelli posted:Played an 8-turn session of Living Planet last night, it showed its potential as a super mean game but there was some rules confusion. How exactly are cataclysms applied to the map? We played it as the tiles with dice matching the active one had their cataclysms triggered, and that they only hit those tiles. Are there any other interpretations? That is almost correct. It runs like this: 1) Check if any cataclysm matching the value and colour of the active player's die are present on the map. 2) If so, then the active player chooses at least one of those cataclysms to take effect. 3) All selected cataclysms apply their effect to the hex in which they are located. The rulebook is slightly confusing because it says "apply one cataclysm on the whole map", and this can be interpreted as "apply to the whole map".
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Jan 11, 2020 19:22
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I’m fairly new to the hobby but I played Parks last night for the first time and it was probably the most peaceful and relaxing gaming experience I’ve ever had. It was weird. I’m normally very competitive but something about the art and the game design just made me really chill out and enjoy the experience. It was just my wife and I but I’m interested in trying it with 4 or 5 people just because of how complex that makes things with the campfire element.
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Jan 11, 2020 19:29
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sportsgenius86 posted:I’m fairly new to the hobby but I played Parks last night for the first time and it was probably the most peaceful and relaxing gaming experience I’ve ever had. It was weird. I’m normally very competitive but something about the art and the game design just made me really chill out and enjoy the experience. Parks is great for that, but another example of a good chill game is Tokaido
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Jan 11, 2020 19:30
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sportsgenius86 posted:I’m fairly new to the hobby but I played Parks last night for the first time and it was probably the most peaceful and relaxing gaming experience I’ve ever had. It was weird. I’m normally very competitive but something about the art and the game design just made me really chill out and enjoy the experience. Don't you mean PARKS?
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Jan 11, 2020 19:42
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Has anyone played Glen More II, or for that matter Glen More?
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Jan 11, 2020 20:44
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golden bubble posted:Has anyone played Glen More II, or for that matter Glen More? I really don't like the first one, haven't tried the second. I'm 90% sure that this is because of my own personal preference though. The skip ahead then people behind you get extra turns mechanic (also present in heaven & ale) I just can't enjoy. I know others do enjoy it.
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Jan 11, 2020 21:54
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Jedit posted:The rulebook is slightly confusing because it says "apply one cataclysm on the whole map", and this can be interpreted as "apply to the whole map". This was how we originally did it and it quickly became clear that it couldn't be right as we would have gotten completely scoured off the map.
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Jan 11, 2020 21:58
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Frozen Peach posted:Parks is great for that, but another example of a good chill game is Tokaido I would recommend Tokaido as well. Fun little game
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Jan 11, 2020 22:08
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I also didn't like Glen More, though I've only played it once some time ago. I remember feeling like it required you to commit to strategies early, which left you very vulnerable to ending up with no good options later if tiles came up in a bad order. I've since played Lunarchitects which I felt used the same mechanics in a much friendlier and more accessible way; I don't know if it'll be as deep, though.
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Jan 11, 2020 22:10
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PARKS murdered Tokaido for me. Small box, similar brainfeel. Tokaido got interesting with expansions, but it ruined the Zen.
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Jan 11, 2020 22:27
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Ubik_Lives posted:I've only played the first three games of the campaign, but from what I can see, the legacy portion isn't going to change your mind on how you view Clank. Thanks for the write up. I got a copy of regular Clank! Recently, and my wife and I enjoy it as a quick game we can get a play or two in while our kid is asleep. Sounds like we would probably like the Legacy version.
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Jan 11, 2020 23:58
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silvergoose posted:I really don't like the first one, haven't tried the second. You don’t like Patchwork ???
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Jan 12, 2020 00:16
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Kiranamos posted:You don’t like Patchwork ??? Nope!!
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Jan 12, 2020 00:17
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I haven't played Tokaido with expansions, but wouldn't recommend the base game to most enemies.
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Jan 12, 2020 00:23
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homullus posted:I haven't played Tokaido with expansions, but wouldn't recommend the base game to most enemies. The base game is boring as poo poo because there's literally no reason to ever travel more than the minimum distance. I played it while waiting on my Collectors Edition and gave serious thought to selling it in the shrink when it arrived. But I gave it a chance when it arrived, we played with both expansions and it was a fine relaxing experience. I've introduced it since to several groups of people who mainly only game with their families and two of them have bought it - then also bought Crossroads after one play.
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Jan 12, 2020 10:22
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Anyone have any experience with Street Masters? The reviews seem almost overwhelmingly positive, but I ran in to one that raised two issues that had me a little concerned. One was that the game ended up being pretty easy. Any thoughts on that regard? The other was that the modular style led to the game breaking down at times. So in some scenarios baddies would lurch towards the heroes only to be pulled right back by the environment deck in an endless loop. I never saw any complaints about this save for in one review and was curious how common it actually is. Also if anyone who has played it has also tried Spirit Island, any thoughts about one vs the other for a good 4 player co-op? I know SI is absolutely beloved in general, but suspect SM would be an easier sell for my group.
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Jan 12, 2020 14:53
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I adore Spirit Island. My favorite coop game. I usually play it 2p. My two times trying it 4p (with 2 new players each time) dragged on for ages and did not go too well.
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Jan 12, 2020 15:56
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Llyranor posted:I adore Spirit Island. My favorite coop game. I usually play it 2p. My two times trying it 4p (with 2 new players each time) dragged on for ages and did not go too well. We've played 4p with several different groups and I think the problem is less the number if players and more that new players make less efficient moves, which makes the Invaders harder to root out and extending the game. Playing with the same people the second time was quick and after the third we are at the point to start upping difficulty to keep it interesting. Guiding people's opening moves is helpful, there's a lot of spirits who only start running well when you get the basic cycle of one of their innates running. Lot of new players don't realize how core those are and focus too much on the cards. threelemmings fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Jan 12, 2020 |
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Jan 12, 2020 16:19
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silvergoose posted:So y'know what's not a good game? Wow, I thought it was forgettable, but *no* one has any opinions at all on Newton?? 
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Jan 12, 2020 16:21
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Star Realms looks like a decent deckbuilder. I like having the option for coop as well as pvp modes, and expandability up to 6 players is great too, since that's my usual group size. My issue is I don't know where to begin, since there's so much stuff. TELL ME WHAT TO BUY. Alternately, if there is a similar deckbuilder (expandable, coop), what else is out there?
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Jan 12, 2020 16:38
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Shards of Infinity is much better at the same style of deck building. It’s better balanced and adds some good twists to the dueling deck builder formula. The new expansion also added a coop campaign. You can also get it and both expansions way cheaper than all the Star Realms stuff. The base decks are cheap but all the expansions and starter decks get pricey quick.
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Jan 12, 2020 17:14
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I’m looking for a recommendation for a 2-player legacy, campaign, or generally story-based game. We’ve enjoyed a lot of trashy stuff like Arabian Nights, Betrayal, and Above and Below. Our larger group has played through both seasons of Pandemic, and we loved them. Some of the mini-heavy games out there are either too expensive or expansive (we only get together about 2 months out of the year,) so Gloomhaven is probably a bad recommendation. I’m a bit interested in the LCGs like Marvel Champions or Arkham, but I feel like we’d be setting ourselves up for the expansion cash-sink. I’m thinking something like Mansions of Madness, Journeys in Middle Earth, or Imperial Assault might be up out alley. Anything to watch out for with these? Anything else out there I should be considering?
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Jan 12, 2020 17:51
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Minus1Minus1 posted:I’m looking for a recommendation for a 2-player legacy, campaign, or generally story-based game. We’ve enjoyed a lot of trashy stuff like Arabian Nights, Betrayal, and Above and Below. Our larger group has played through both seasons of Pandemic, and we loved them. I do really like Mansions and Imperial Assault, but we basically stopped playing them when we got Gloomhaven 
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Jan 12, 2020 18:06
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Minus1Minus1 posted:I’m looking for a recommendation for a 2-player legacy, campaign, or generally story-based game. We’ve enjoyed a lot of trashy stuff like Arabian Nights, Betrayal, and Above and Below. Our larger group has played through both seasons of Pandemic, and we loved them. If you genuinely liked Betrayal you should just pick up Arkham Horror. Its the same sort of thing, just bigger and better in every way. The base set has tons of content, more than enough for a bunch of play throughs. The 3rd edition is redesigned and likely more streamlined, but they also cut a bunch of content for expansions. If you can find the second edition for a good price it is my personal favorite: https://www.amazon.com/Arkham-Horror-Board-Game-Standard/dp/B00YMF94EM/
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Jan 12, 2020 18:12
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Minus1Minus1 posted:I’m looking for a recommendation for a 2-player legacy, campaign, or generally story-based game. We’ve enjoyed a lot of trashy stuff like Arabian Nights, Betrayal, and Above and Below. Our larger group has played through both seasons of Pandemic, and we loved them. Mansions is great, and to boot is easy to set up and get playing. That's a plus for groups that get together only infrequently & need to maximize the playtime. The app is a sweet spot in my opinion, in that it does all the necessary state tracking but no "rules enforcement" and as a result is both helpful and obedient.
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Jan 12, 2020 18:49
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threelemmings posted:We've played 4p with several different groups and I think the problem is less the number if players and more that new players make less efficient moves, which makes the Invaders harder to root out and extending the game. Playing with the same people the second time was quick and after the third we are at the point to start upping difficulty to keep it interesting.
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Jan 12, 2020 18:49
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silvergoose posted:Wow, I thought it was forgettable, but *no* one has any opinions at all on Newton?? It's a standard MWE. It was good for a few plays and then we moved on. Note that my preference is for more interactive heavier games so take my opinion with a grain of salt .
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Jan 12, 2020 19:02
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:Anyone have any experience with Street Masters? The reviews seem almost overwhelmingly positive, but I ran in to one that raised two issues that had me a little concerned. We've only played two games and enjoyed them, but I can see both of these criticisms. A problem with the game is that it doesn't have an easy, convenient difficulty slider like Gloomhaven does; difficulty emerges in a non-obvious way from the combination of stage, boss and heroes. Both games we played so far felt easy, but it was clear after the second one that it could have been much more difficult if we had picked different heroes. Ohthehugemanatee posted:So in some scenarios baddies would lurch towards the heroes only to be pulled right back by the environment deck in an endless loop. I never saw any complaints about this save for in one review and was curious how common it actually is. I'd say this comes up a lot; we viewed it as very much part of the combat puzzle. The players have a lot of room to manipulate the enemy AI and if you don't find it interesting to abuse it like that or don't like the feel of enemies that fumble around like idiots then you probably won't like it. Ohthehugemanatee posted:Also if anyone who has played it has also tried Spirit Island, any thoughts about one vs the other for a good 4 player co-op? I know SI is absolutely beloved in general, but suspect SM would be an easier sell for my group. Pretty much what you'd expect: SI is more elegant and drier with better balance and more options for difficulty tuning. SM has way more stuff and leans much more into its flavor. Minus1Minus1 posted:I’m looking for a recommendation for a 2-player legacy, campaign, or generally story-based game. We’ve enjoyed a lot of trashy stuff like Arabian Nights, Betrayal, and Above and Below. Our larger group has played through both seasons of Pandemic, and we loved them. The smaller Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion sounds like it'll be exactly what you're looking for, but it's not expected until later in the year. If you like trashy adventure stuff you could consider 7th Continent; its second hand prices vary enormously since every KS backer basically got two full copies, I've occasionally seen it very cheaply. But if you don't like the idea of a 30+ hour multi-session game ending suddenly because you ran out of food then you might need to house rule a bit.
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Jan 12, 2020 19:44
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Minus1Minus1 posted:I’m thinking something like Mansions of Madness, Journeys in Middle Earth, or Imperial Assault might be up out alley. I'll cast a vote against Journeys in Middle Earth. I had a post about it a while back if you check my history, but the short version is that it's an FFG app game where they botched the design something fierce. The app holds all the meaningful information and the board is this weird basically vestigial thing, which leads to everyone staring at a computer screen. There are also very few interesting decisions to make. I loved the Descent 2e app though, and from what I understand the Imp Assault app is basically the same thing.
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Jan 12, 2020 20:01
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Reynold posted:Star Realms looks like a decent deckbuilder. I like having the option for coop as well as pvp modes, and expandability up to 6 players is great too, since that's my usual group size. My issue is I don't know where to begin, since there's so much stuff. TELL ME WHAT TO BUY. The mobile game will let you play against a computer without paying anything, so try that first and see if you like it. I think it's actually a better mobile game than a physical game since some of the rules, like "You can look through your draw deck as long as you shuffle it afterwards" are a pain to actually use in real life. Second, Star Realms really works best as 1v1. I haven't tried all the other modes, but what I did try didn't work that great. On the other hand, I don't know of any good expandable coop deckbuilders.
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Jan 12, 2020 20:23
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Llyranor posted:Yeah, it was because half the players were new. But doing all the bookkeeping, hand-holding 1-2 new player(s) every single turn, while also having to deal with my own spirit in a timely manner was exhausting. One way to deal with quarterbacking I guess! Found the copy of Wind the Film that I bought in japan a few years ago but never got around to trying - it's lovely and it's definitely going in the bag as 20 minute filler. Had a lot of Bohnanza flashbacks though watching one player struggle immensely with 'put cards in the front of your hand, pull cards towards the front, and play from the back'. I particularly like that you can see the colours everyone's probably going to be playing next turn so the one point where i started agonising over whether I had time to finish a set I could immediately check and carry on instead. Also tried out someone's copy of Meeple Circus, I could play this forever.
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Jan 12, 2020 20:55
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Reynold posted:Star Realms looks like a decent deckbuilder. I like having the option for coop as well as pvp modes, and expandability up to 6 players is great too, since that's my usual group size. My issue is I don't know where to begin, since there's so much stuff. TELL ME WHAT TO BUY. Star realms is a great game. When I need a non magic game it’s my general go to, though I only ever play online I kind of want to keep a core set around for teaching people (also the core set is a good play experience all on its own imo). Prioritize Core set, gambits, events and heroes. After that start experimenting with some of the expansion card sets which will have dual faction ships and bases. Gambits are good because they give you and your opponent an advantage to lean in to and an incentive to pursue certain strategies over others. Heroes are good because they facilitate decks that have a more diverse selection of ships while still hitting your ally triggers. Broadens the field of good decisions available and makes the game a little more complex. Events will make a game have a greater potential for top decky scenarios and variability, which some people like and some people don’t. Sometimes it sucks that your opponent gets a chain of events that lets them pull out a win but it goes both ways, and it forces you to rethink how you interact with the traders row, what openings you leave open for your opponent etc.
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Jan 12, 2020 21:37
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Notable games played recently: Obscurio Mysterium with a traitor. The group has to collectively solve 6 Mysterium style riddles. The clue giver only has 2 cards to use, but they have 2 little pointers that they can put on one or both cards to indicate a specific thing to look at. You only need one person guessing right for it to count, but every wrong guess causes the group to lose a life (you start with around 20-30, depending on player count and difficulty). Compounding this, there are Traps drawn each round that will add a twist, like obscuring part of the clue cards or adding additional incorrect cards to the available choices. Guessing rounds are timed, and taking longer adds more traps the next round. There is a night phase, during which the Traitor can indicate to the clue giver some specific cards to throw in as choices (the traitor will know what the clues for the round are already, but not the correct answer). If the group drops down to about 1/4 of their lives, they have to identify the traitor by voting, with incorrect rounds of voting costing 2 more lives. We had way too hard of a time with this, only getting 3 rounds right before the traitor won. I am not a fan of the timed round - I like being able to overanalyze clues in Mysterium, and this doesn't really allow that. Also, you can't easily pass the clues around for a close look, since the pointers are on top of them, so it's hard to get a close look at the details. We played with six counting the clue giver, and that felt like too many for a timed game. I do kind of like the structure to the game, particularly the lives system and the forced voting when you get too low, but I don’t think I would want to play it again with that many people (game goes up to 8 I believe, and we played with 6). Letter jam Great co-op word game. To start, everybody makes a 5 letter word jumble using a set of letter cards and passes it to the right, and your ultimate goal is to unscramble the jumble you were given - but without ever seeing your own cards. (The game leaves out the difficult letters J Q X and Z.) Each round everybody reveals one of their letter cards to the rest of the group, and there is a limited discussion phase about who wants to be the clue giver, in the manner of "I can make a word that is 7 letters long, using 4 other people's letters, and using the 'wild' letter." Someone is selected to give the clue, which they do by placing number tokens in front of the appropriate letters, for the order they are being used in the word. They can reuse letters, and also use one wild letter, but the wild must stay the same if they reuse it. (So basically everybody knows every letter with the exception of their own letter and the wild letter.) Then everybody takes notes, and if they figure out what their letter is they can flip it down and move to the next one on the next round. Once everyone thinks they have figured out all their letters or if you run out of rounds, then everybody tries to rearrange their cards to spell a word, and then you all flip them over to see if you're right. There's some additional stuff with claiming extra letters if you finish way before other people, but that's the general gist. The wild letter is an amazing device because it allows you to basically always have a word option available, but depending on how you use it may end up introducing more ambiguity than intended. Like word games usually should, it rewards having a good vocabulary, but it also forces you to think about how much your word is actually helping people - if two people have the same letter, do you use one of them twice, or each one time? Can you add "-ed" to the end of a verb, or is somebody going to think it's "-er"? There's a lot of room for deduction and clever plays as well - I was able to guess that I didn't have a vowel based on the weakness of my teams' possible clues, so that the next turn when I got an ambiguous clue I was still able to narrow down to the correct letter. I have heard complaints about playing it with people who can't spell or can't keep track of things well - it is a long game, and there's not really any confirmation feedback on your guesses before the very end, so it's probably not playable for everybody. Luckily I didn't run into those problems, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Pandemic Riding Tides A good version of Pandemic I think, although we found it way too easy on normal mode. The idea is that instead of 4 diseases, you just have one thing - water flooding into the Netherlands. The epidemic cards first cause dikes in their region to fail, and if there are none then water cubes begin to accumulate. In addition, if there are 2 or 3 water cubes, additional ones are added to adjacent regions until those regions are at 1 or 2 - unless there is a dike between those regions. Complicating that is the fact that there are 2 sea locations that always* have water cubes in them, and that amount of cubes goes up throughout the game as the water levels rise. Instead of research stations you can build ports for fast travel, and you can also build pumping stations which automatically clear one cube per turn from anywhere, as long as it's connected by water cubes to their location. You win by building 4 hydraulic structures in specific locations, and they each are real world accurate and have cool unique powers in the game - one of them completely drains one of the seas and makes it into a traversable land region, one of them automatically builds dikes along one coast, etc. The pumping stations help a ton, maybe too much, and the player powers feel like supercharged versions of the base game - I was basically a Researcher who could send any cards ANYWHERE if I was at a port, and somebody else was an Operations Specialist who could build and move anywhere but didn't even have to spend cards to do it. The other knock against the game is the water flowing requiring a little too much upkeep, especially since the board can be a little tricky to determine adjacency on with the weirdly shaped regions. Still, the theme shines through strongly, and it's a unique enough take on Pandemic to make it worth playing whether you're a fan of the series or not. It's more of its own thing than Iberia is, though Iberia felt like it had better balance. Of the more out-there designs, I would put it way ahead of Cthulhu but behind Rome in terms of the overall quality of the challenges and decision making. But the historical stuff feels very well integrated and very cool to interact with, especially the hydraulic structures and especially the one that drains the sea. There is a variant to play with different objectives, including adding population to regions and then protecting them from drowning, so maybe that's where the real difficulty is.
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Jan 12, 2020 23:33
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Dr. Video Games 0069 posted:Pandemic Riding Tides All versions of Pandemic are too easy on normal mode. This one's a Splotter, though. I think I have already played the worst game I will play this year, a Kickstarter offering called Paradise Lost. It's literally just Cluedo played on a Tokaido board, except more than half the spaces do nothing except exchange two of the three currencies and half the remainder are random events. Oh, and unlike Cluedo you don't even get complete information so it's entirely possible - perhaps even probable - that everyone will lose.
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Jan 12, 2020 23:50
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Mayveena posted:It's a standard MWE. It was good for a few plays and then we moved on. Note that my preference is for more interactive heavier games so take my opinion with a grain of salt I think it (Newton) needed a little more time in the oven. Point income from books seems pretty dang strong, being last is a little too much of a handicap in the early game. The idea's nice but nothing in it really grabs me. Played Oracle of Delphi last week for the first time - never got in the group when it was brought before. The first island tile we flipped was green, so that was a little bit of confusion, and pink and red are really a little close under the fluorescent lights. But as a game that's a race rather than X turns for victory points, it was a change of pace and ended up pretty tight. I was one turn off because of a wound draw and I've got some ideas for selecting better rewards next time. Glazius fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Jan 13, 2020 |
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Jan 13, 2020 00:23
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I got Rising Sun for Christmas and I’m looking to play it this coming Saturday. I’ve seen lots of how to play videos for this game, does anyone have a suggestion as to a particularly good video/teacher?
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Jan 13, 2020 02:15
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Thirteen Orphans posted:I got Rising Sun for Christmas and I’m looking to play it this coming Saturday. I’ve seen lots of how to play videos for this game, does anyone have a suggestion as to a particularly good video/teacher? Watch it played is the best?
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Jan 13, 2020 03:23
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Ordered Star Realms: Frontiers. It was cheap enough, I'll see if it scratches the deck builder itch. Also got some plays in of Copenhagen and Quadropolis, both very solid games. I don't really get the opportunity to play 4p games anymore, as most of the time I've got at least 5 people over for game nights, but a man can dream.
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Jan 13, 2020 04:05
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