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I don't understand the animosity towards SU&SD. At their con they gave a keynote speech on freaking Roads and Boats. They review and praise heavy games constantly. The fact that they enjoy *gasp* socializing over board games shouldn't invalidate their "Splotter and 18xx cred" or whatever.
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Jan 30, 2020 04:10
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They do a good job of explaining why they like/dislike games and wear their preferences on their sleeve when explaining, which is all I want from a reviewer.
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Jan 30, 2020 04:20
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Lord Of Texas posted:I don't understand the animosity towards SU&SD. At their con they gave a keynote speech on freaking Roads and Boats. They review and praise heavy games constantly. The fact that they enjoy *gasp* socializing over board games shouldn't invalidate their "Splotter and 18xx cred" or whatever. This is a pretty bad misrepresentation of the sentiment here. We basically all feel that SUSD has good analysis and  conclusions that don't follow their previous statements. See the long praising review of Arkwright then saying they couldn't recommend it because Quinns has a small apartment. That kind of editorial disconnect just makes no sense and is bad. See also them having a long standing stance on not liking Kickstarter games or overproduced and premium priced products, but doing a big glowing preview of then on kickstarter Blood on the Clocktower and saying something along the lines "if you care about games, you won't mind the $85 price tag" or some nonsense. They're one of the better board game media outlets, but still have a lot of issues with editorial policy and consistency.
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Jan 30, 2020 04:56
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SoftNum posted:I feel like SUSD's editorial voice lost a lot when Paul left. Quinns is huge into any game where he can be the center of attention and Matt pulls the 'board game outsider' card way too often for someone who's been reviewing them for at least 6 years. https://twitter.com/paullicino?lang=en https://www.patreon.com/Paullicino The other patreon is some podcast where one guy refuses to get a new car and so drives an old 1993 plymouth sundance or something.
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Jan 30, 2020 04:57
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Lord Of Texas posted:I don't understand the animosity towards SU&SD. At their con they gave a keynote speech on freaking Roads and Boats. They review and praise heavy games constantly. The fact that they enjoy *gasp* socializing over board games shouldn't invalidate their "Splotter and 18xx cred" or whatever. They have recently started incorporating more limited shelf space criticisms. While a good goal, it’s perplexing when they poopoo games that have proven hundreds of playthrough replayability while praising the next popular hit that you’ll get bored with after a few plays. Now you could say that’s just a side effect from the kinds of games they like, but between the container and root review where they say they got bored right as they were past the learning games... I didn’t hit reply until a bunch of replies came in but what bottom liner said
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Jan 30, 2020 05:11
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Speaking of which, has anyone else gotten their copies of the Underworld expansion? Managed to play two games of it so far, and it's been pretty interesting—Moles feel really powerful, but that's mostly because there haven't been any games (yet) with Lizards on the board, who seem like they'll effectively act as a hard counter. Meanwhile I haven't gotten to try out the Corvids yet, but from what I've seen they seem like they'd be really fun for someone who's good at playing Machiavellian mind-games, and utterly awful for anyone who can't (The latter of which is what happened to the person who tried to play them last game).
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Jan 30, 2020 05:26
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Yeah I think Moles will replace cat as a default for our games and Corvids are up there with the otters for interesting and fun design. Trying to think of the best mixes for 4p which is basically all we play Root at.
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Jan 30, 2020 05:35
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So for anyone who didn't do the KS, when will the Underworld expansion hit retail? And will the new deck of cards be a separate retail item?
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Jan 30, 2020 07:04
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Bottom Liner posted:This is a pretty bad misrepresentation of the sentiment here. We basically all feel that SUSD has good analysis and I think this is a good point. I don't think SU&SD have that much difference from the thread hivemind (though they tend to drift slightly more towards party/ameritrashy/social games). The bigger caveat is that they often have a good train of thought up until the last 5 minutes of the review when they have dumb conclusions like this that leave a sour taste, and a lack of consistency across reviews that means you often genuinely don't know what their final thoughts will be in a bad way.
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Jan 30, 2020 07:27
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So Sidereal Confluence is getting a German version this summer with some tweaks to it. It can be preodered already but the price is 70 €. Seems a bit steep for what is basicly cards and cubes, right? Are there any good videos about the game? I'm interested in getting a trade and negotiations game and this thread is quite fond of this game so help me justify the high price.
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Jan 30, 2020 12:37
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Is there a decent program to learn/play Shogi on pc or android?
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Jan 30, 2020 12:37
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Selecta84 posted:So Sidereal Confluence is getting a German version this summer with some tweaks to it. It can be preodered already but the price is 70 €. The game went through over a decade of design and playtesting, so no, not basically cards and cubes. The best justification I can give you is that it's a truly unique game. There are a few others like it, but nothing that even approaches a replacement. The new edition should also fix some of the graphic design problems with the first edition, which weren't gamebreaking, just annoying. Lord Of Texas fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 12:52
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Bottom Liner posted:This is a pretty bad misrepresentation of the sentiment here. We basically all feel that SUSD has good analysis and It's been a while since I watched the Arkwright review but I thought their conclusion was more along the lines of "this game is too joyless and mechanical for the playtime." Tablespace concerns may have come into play as well but that is a valid criticism as many people live in small spaces. The "SU&SD mid-review turnaround" is something they acknowledge and just seems to stem from a desire to highlight the positive parts of game design while also applying a critical eye, in a fairly short-form video. quote:That kind of editorial disconnect just makes no sense and is bad. See also them having a long standing stance on not liking Kickstarter games or overproduced and premium priced products, but doing a big glowing preview of then on kickstarter Blood on the Clocktower and saying something along the lines "if you care about games, you won't mind the $85 price tag" or some nonsense. Their anti-kickstarter lean always seemed more about games with too much physical "collector" stuff and not enough game, see the Batman: Gotham City Chronicles review. Blood on the Clocktower is expensive and premium but not in the same way - the overproduction is in the quality of the presentation, not the quantity.
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Jan 30, 2020 13:07
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Lord Of Texas posted:
On a podcast Quinns literally said that if a game is actually good then a proper publisher will put it out and kickstarter isn't necessary. This was undercut not long afterwards by them shilling the kickstarter campaign for the Monikers expansion they'd designed. I get that their intention might be "kickstarter excess is bad and doesn't mask poor design" but it's definitely influencing their editorial to the point where they're suspicious of *anything* that comes from kickstarter, except for a couple of exceptions that make them look inconsistent and hypocritical.
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Jan 30, 2020 13:17
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Selecta84 posted:So Sidereal Confluence is getting a German version this summer with some tweaks to it. It can be preodered already but the price is 70 €. Talking of SU&SD, this video is pretty good. There is criticism of the quality of the components but in a new version that should be fixed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLOjWyr6Qx4 It is extremely good.
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Jan 30, 2020 13:33
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CaptainRightful posted:So for anyone who didn't do the KS, when will the Underworld expansion hit retail? And will the new deck of cards be a separate retail item? Allegedly May, and yes - same with the extra Vagabond tokens.
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Jan 30, 2020 13:57
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The SUSD Root review was something like "We loved it and played it dozens of times, then we started noticing issues. We cannot recommend it." The average person isn't going to play any 2 hour game dozens of times. If it's amazing the first two dozen times, and then starts to stale, I'd say that's a recommendation. Plus, I think that was pre-changes, which should have help fix some of the issues they had.
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Jan 30, 2020 14:24
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And one of the issues was that Quinns had played it far more than some of the people he was playing it with and yeah, that's a thing that can hurt a lot of games and it's not the game's fault. It still bugs me that people thought it was a negative review overall.
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Jan 30, 2020 14:30
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sportsgenius86 posted:I found these: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/190552/marvel-champions-lcg-horizontal-dividers-lee-subsc on BGG and printed them on some thicker stock paper. They've worked great so far. Thanks for this, by the way! This'll save me some effort, so I think I'll have to use them. (DEFINITELY faster than what I did for Dominion!) I also had a test game earlier tonight - I thought I had it in the bag, but then one event card nearly lost me the game. Clearly I can't underestimate minions, since I think it was "gang up", where Rhino and his minion nearly took me to 0HP, from full HP - drat double-tap attacks! It's pretty good though! I think that once I play another round or two, I should be able to smash out games pretty quickly, without being bogged down on the rules. EDIT: Oh also, is there a limit on the number of support cards you can have active at a time, like with allies? Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 14:42
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Doctor Spaceman posted:And one of the issues was that Quinns had played it far more than some of the people he was playing it with and yeah, that's a thing that can hurt a lot of games and it's not the game's fault. I though the review was broadly positive. The issue with one person having played the game a lot more in Root is sort of exacerbated with the fact it's asymmetrical. In a symmetrical game you can kinda see how you're doing relative to everyone else in Root that's tougher to see where you are compared to other players, which is much more obvious after you play a few games.
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Jan 30, 2020 15:09
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Ravendas posted:The SUSD Root review was something like "We loved it and played it dozens of times, then we started noticing issues. We cannot recommend it." I know board gaming is a chill hobby hut 'this game is good for a few plays' is an incredibly low bar to clear when it comes to recommendations. And they said they spent their first few plays learning the game and when they finally did it didn't seem that fun. I don't like SUSD that much but that was proper criticism, especially if the game needed significant fixes post-release.
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Jan 30, 2020 15:54
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Selecta84 posted:So Sidereal Confluence is getting a German version this summer with some tweaks to it. It can be preodered already but the price is 70 €. I think it's a great game but very difficult to get to the table. It barely works with 5 players, but gets better with more. On the first play, people will approach it like just a cube converter and probably do the minimal trades required to run their current engine and afford a planet or research team. This makes for an unsatisfactory game. You really need everyone trying to boost everyone else's economy and thinking several turns in advance. It's a negotiation sandbox where all trades are binding and it won't really click until everyone is exploring that sandbox.
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Jan 30, 2020 16:53
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CaptainRightful posted:I think it's a great game but very difficult to get to the table. It barely works with 5 players, but gets better with more. On the first play, people will approach it like just a cube converter and probably do the minimal trades required to run their current engine and afford a planet or research team. This makes for an unsatisfactory game. I see. One of the guys who is doing the localisation says that this version would be good at any player count but I don't have that many details about it. He played lots of games at 4 players and it works just fine so I'm optimistic. 4 players is the usual count in my playgroup. I think I will buy it. Looks like something my group might be into. Aramoro posted:Talking of SU&SD, this video is pretty good. There is criticism of the quality of the components but in a new version that should be fixed. Gonna take a look when I'm at home later. Thanks Selecta84 fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 17:01
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Morholt posted:Is there a decent program to learn/play Shogi on pc or android? Yes there is! My favorite boardgame program ever is an old rear end thing called Zillions of Games. Its an abstract strategy game engine that can play any abstract strategy game. This includes standard Shogi as well as hundreds of different Shogi variants. The game engine has built in AI of various levels of play: http://www.zillions-of-games.com/   I have personally found 3300+ various chess variants and other abstract games that will run on this system. They are free to download, and I put them all into a RAR so you don't have to hunt for them: https://www.mediafire.com/file/ql8bjcf82pxvzk9/Zillions_Games.rar/file https://samiam.org/ZoG/ https://www.chessvariants.com/Gindex.html
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Jan 30, 2020 17:04
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Terminally Bored posted:I know board gaming is a chill hobby hut 'this game is good for a few plays' is an incredibly low bar to clear when it comes to recommendations. It's telling when you look at Steam stats of people who have played a game and seeing the achievement stats. https://steamcommunity.com/stats/289070/achievements Civ VI. Win a game at Settler difficulty or higher, just 41% have done that. I'd bet that 50% of players never even finished a game. A lot of people in the board gaming hobby are acquirers of games and play them just a few times before moving on to the next big thing.
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Jan 30, 2020 17:09
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canyoneer posted:A lot of people in the board gaming hobby are acquirers of games and play them just a few times before moving on to the next big thing. Look, I'm not just going to stop buying boardgames for 2 years because Gloomhaven came out. There isn't enough time in the universe to play all these games to their full potential! 
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Jan 30, 2020 17:13
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Normally, I enjoy SVWAG's reviews even if I don't always agree with them, but their review of Marvel Champions was a bit weak. Full disclosure that I like Marvel Champions here. In any case, they said it was basically "you play a card and it does stuff" and it wasn't very interesting with little interaction with other players and effects. Afterward, they compared it to Sentinels of the Multiverse with them vastly preferring Sentinels. I think Marvel Champions is a lot more than what they made it out to be. There's plenty of decision-making involved in which cards to play, which to use as resources, and which to hold onto on top of who/when to attack/defend/thwart. They weren't so keen on the deck construction part, which is fine because I'm not that interested either, and I prefer to just netdeck. Still, the interaction between different heroes and how you tailor their decks to work with other heroes and their decks is a significant part of the game. Finally, I just don't get their love for Sentinels. It's a lot fiddlier than Marvel Champions. I got so tired of tracking +1 damage from/to this, -1 damage from/to this, etc. Some of the decks/heroes in Sentinels are very vanilla and boring. The hero cards are just as bad as far as "you play a card and it does stuff" if that's really their complaint about Marvel Champions. Finally, there is no dual use of cards as resources and no hand size limits so you don't even have to worry about the hand management part.
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Jan 30, 2020 17:26
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Yeah their love for sentinels is weird and I had no fun at all playing it the few times I tried. Can't comment on marvel though.
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Jan 30, 2020 17:28
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To be fair on both counts, they haven’t given Marvel an actual review, only talked about it in recent plays discussion (and don’t think Mark even tried it?), and they lovingly refer to Sentinels as the dumbest/worst game they still like. I agree that Marvel is a good evolution on the coop lcg system and I hope they do good things with the villain packs and campaign content.
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Jan 30, 2020 17:53
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canyoneer posted:It's telling when you look at Steam stats of people who have played a game and seeing the achievement stats. Sure, but that's not a review of Civ 6 itself. It's a bad civ game because the best strategy in it is to just spam cities all over the place - that's criticism. It's still a bad civ game even if 50% or more of people who played it didn't or couldn't see its flaws. It's a reviewer's whole job to find and describe the flaws even if randos have no idea about them.
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Jan 30, 2020 18:02
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Rutibex posted:Yes there is! My favorite boardgame program ever is an old rear end thing called Zillions of Games.
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Jan 30, 2020 19:59
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Morholt posted:Wow, I think I had this on a shareware cd in the 90's. I'll try it out! Are you aiming to learn the rules, beginning strategy, play against computers, or play against people? First two I'd aim you at HIDETCHI's YouTube channel. Against computers, dunno, try out a few apps? Or play the Yakuza series of videogames, they have a nice complete shogi implementation. Against people I don't know. I only play otb. 81dojo maybe?
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Jan 30, 2020 20:03
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Getting the urge to buy a new stack of games. Did a good job of playing regularly lately and feel like popping some cardboard sheets. I really like Castles of Burgundy for the nice feeling you get as you get as you get cascading effects and points each turn, and for the restraints it put on you. Having the two die actions really helps you to focus on different chunks of the supply or your game board without feeling overwhelmed imho. I don’t have many similar games and was hoping to get some recommendations. I have Dominion which scratches a similar itch but I’m not as into.
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Jan 30, 2020 20:16
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Stan Taylor posted:Getting the urge to buy a new stack of games. Did a good job of playing regularly lately and feel like popping some cardboard sheets. I'm gonna pop some sheets, only got $120 in my pocket... Every time I get the urge to get a new game I need to remind myself that three kickstarters have colluded to gently caress up my already-full shelves and have estimated delivery dates all within a couple weeks of each other, at the end of February.
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Jan 30, 2020 20:19
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Got another play in of Living Planet last week, it's really growing on me. The biggest thing it fixes from Archipelago is that the Explore action is exactly where it should be in terms of economy. Archi was very feast-or-famine in that regard.
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Jan 30, 2020 20:45
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:Got another play in of Living Planet last week, it's really growing on me. The biggest thing it fixes from Archipelago is that the Explore action is exactly where it should be in terms of economy. Archi was very feast-or-famine in that regard. You playing just the base or with any expansions?
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Jan 30, 2020 21:03
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Stan Taylor posted:Getting the urge to buy a new stack of games. Did a good job of playing regularly lately and feel like popping some cardboard sheets. You can always look up Castles of Burgundy and use their handy dandy "Games like this" tool that will show up as your scroll down.
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Jan 30, 2020 21:12
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Their critique of Marvel Champions isn't with basis imho. Because it doesn't have locations and the characters are intentionally fairly stand alone you often have fairly straightforward turns. It definitely has less going on that LOTR or Arkham Horror.
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Jan 30, 2020 21:42
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The End posted:You playing just the base or with any expansions? Still base. We're still very much exploring the decision space available in the base game; if it starts to feel stale we'll bust out the Industria expansion and go from there.
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Jan 30, 2020 21:58
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Morpheus posted:I'm gonna pop some sheets, only got $120 in my pocket...
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Jan 31, 2020 00:42
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